Skip to main content

Mohammed Naseehu Ali.

By way of the Underrated Writers of 2006 project at Syntax of Things, I have discovered a wonderful writer which I would like to expose you to.

Mohammed Naseehu Ali, a Ghana-born writer living in Brooklyn, writes stories that are full of wit and allegorical complexities, yet are simple to read. The language he employs makes his prose a delight to read and the characters he deploys are a strange oxymoronic combination of unreal and normalcy.

Zongo Street, a fictional small African community where his stories usually take place, are described in detail and are steeped in African culture and religion, evoking the smells, the sounds and even the dust, resulting in deeply immersive stories that are rich with atmosphere and humanness.

For a taste of what he's capable of, I suggest reading his short stories, "Mallam Sile" in the New Yorker, and "The Manhood Test", in Gathering of the Tribes.

"Mallam Sile" is a story about a tea stall owner who suffers from dwarfism, poor eyesight, deformations in his feet, and the ability to only speak a smattering of the local dialect in Zongo Street. Though he is liked by the community, he is constantly bullied by the neighbourhood ruffians. He is also lonely and hopes to find a woman to marry one day... but who will marry an ugly dwarf like him?

"The Manhood Test" is a humourous story about a man who is facing a divorce by his wife who complains that he cannot fulfill her desires. To prove his manhood, he is forced to sleep with his wife in front of a court-approved invigilator.

Mohammed Naseehu Ali also has a collection of his stories out called, The Prophet of Zongo Street. For more on Mohammed Naseehu Ali, check out the interview on AfroToronto.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Corey21/12/06 9:05 pm

    I took a look at the list. I recommend Trevor Cole and Kenneth J. Harvey.

    And myself, of course.

    I don't think ECW is available in Malaysia. Might be able to order online.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun21/12/06 10:31 pm

    The local bookstores here have been quite resourceful in the past so I'll wait and see. There's still a chance that Shelf Monkey will make it to Malaysian... er... shelves :p I'll save ordering online as a last resort. Mailing costs to Malaysia can be very cost prohibitive!

    btw, thanks for the suggestions! I shall definitely check them out.

    Thanks for dropping my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous24/12/06 2:28 pm

    Thanks so much for this post. His work sounds great and I love short story collections.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ted Mahsun26/12/06 10:11 am

    I'm sure you'll like his book, Winnie!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown12/5/16 4:40 pm

    Please Whats is the theme of the manhoodtest?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover...
5 comments
Read more

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
5 comments
Read more

An Ipoh Ghost Story.

When I was growing up in Ipoh in the 90s, the only good bookshops around were Mubaruk's, which specialised in textbooks (and still does), and Novelhut, the second-hand bookstore that used to be in Yik Foong (and maybe still is there, but I haven't checked in years since I prefer going to their Ipoh Parade outlet when I'm in town). There was also a pretty good bookstore in the Parkson Grand in Ipoh Parade which could have been a Berita outlet, but I don't remember. This was in the days before they expanded Ipoh Parade into what it is today. (And temporarily causing the Convent school next door to consider moving.) I recall this because I was thinking of when exactly I started reading "serious" fiction, trying to pinpoint the years when I moved from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi books into non-genre fiction. I still can't remember, but it brought back memories of a book I bought from a short-lived bookshop in Old Town. Mum had brought me there, because she must...
6 comments
Read more