The Granta Book of the African Short Story

My new husband carried the suitcase out of the taxi and led the way

into the brownstone, up a flight of brooding stairs, down an airless

hallway with frayed carpeting, and stopped at a door. The number

2B, unevenly fashioned from yellowish metal, was plastered on it.

‘Were here, he said. He had used the word ‘house when he told me

about our home. I had imagined a smooth driveway snaking between

cucumber-coloured lawns, a door leading into a hallway, walls with

sedate paintings. A house like those of the white newlyweds in the

American films that NTA showed on Saturday nights.

He turned on the light in the living room, where a beige couch sat

alone in the middle, slanted, as though dropped there by accident.

The room was hot; old, musty smells hung heavy in the air.

‘Ill show you around, he said.

The smaller bedroom had a bare mattress lodged in one corner.

The bigger bedroom had a bed and chest of drawers, and a phone on

the carpeted floor. Still, both rooms lacked a sense of space, as though

the walls had become uncomfortable with each other, with so little

between them.

‘Now that youre here, well get more furniture. I didnt need that

much when I was alone, he said.

‘OK, I said. I felt light-headed. The ten-hour flight from Lagos to

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2 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

New York and the interminable wait while the American customs

officer raked through my suitcase had left me woozy, stuffed my

head full of cotton wool. The officer had examined my foodstuffs as if

they were spiders, her gloved fingers poking at the waterproof bags

of ground egusi and dried onugbu leaves and uziza seeds, until she

seized my uziza seeds. She feared I would grow them on American

soil. It didnt matter that the seeds had been sun-dried for weeks and

were as hard as a bicycle helmet.

2. Mansoura Ez Eldin (1976-) Egypt, "Faeries of the Nile"

3. Olufemi Terry (1973-) Sierra Leone, "Stickfighting Days"

4. Brian Chikwava (1972-) Zimbabwe, "Dancing with the Jazz Goblin and his Band"

5. Henrietta Rose-Innes (1971-) South Africa, "Promenade"

6. Uwem Akpan (1971-) Nigeria, "An Ex-Mas Feast"

7. Binyavanga Wainaina, (1971-) Kenya, "Ships in High Transit"

8. Patrice Nganang (1970-) Cameroun, "The Moustached Man"

9. Maaza Mengeste(1970-) Ethiopia, "The Good Soldier"

10. Fatou Diome (1968-) Senegal, "La Preference Nationale"

11. Leila Lalami (1968-) Morocco, "Homecoming"

12. Jean-Luc Raharimanana (1967-) Madagascar,"Excuses et dires liminaires de Za"

13. EC Osondu, Nigeria(?) "Bumsters"

14. Doreen Baingana (1966-) Uganda, "Passion"

15. Alain Mabanckou (1966-) Congo, "Nous Gagnerons La Coupe du Monde 2010"

16. Aminatta Forna (1964-) Sierra Leone, "Haywards Heath"

17. Leila Aboulela (1964-) Sudan, "Missing Out"

18. Yvonne Vera (1964-2005) Zimbabwe, "Why Don't you Carve Other Animals?"

19. Milly Jafta (?) Namibia, "Homecoming"

20. Rachida El Charni (?) Tunisia, "Street of the House of Wonders"

21. George Makana Clarke(?) Zimbabwe, "The Centre of the World"

22. Ivan Vladislavik (1957) South Africa, "Propaganda by Monuments"

23. Ala Al-Aswany (1957-)Egypt, "Mmme Zitta"

24. Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa (1957-) Mozambique, "Morte Inespereda"

25. Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987) Zimbabwe, "Oxford, Black Oxford"

26. Zoe Wicomb (1948-) South Africa, "You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town"

27. Abdulrazak Gurnah (1948-) Zanzibar, "Cages"

28. Manuel Rui (1941-) Angola, "Last Bordello"

29. Camara Laye (1928-1980) Guinea, "The Eyes of the Statue"

30. Alex La Guma (1925-1985) South Africa, "Slipper Satin"