Short stories
Land Without Thunder
Grace Ogot · 1968
Synopsis
This collection of short stories draws largely on the old Luo country, before colonisation, and on the tales the author had from her grandmother. Tekayo, a renowned hunter and herdsman, has killed all the animals of the forest of ghosts and eaten the liver of a lion, a leopard and a hyena, animals forbidden to his clan; one day, he gives up hunting without losing his taste for those livers. Other texts leave the past: in a hospital, the colleagues of Dr Sserwadda, who has just been admitted, fret over him.
Context
Published in 1968, after a first novel, the collection is among the most widely read books by the author, who was, with Charity Waciuma, one of the first two Kenyan women published in English. Her stories, often set on the shores of Lake Victoria, give a large place to Luo folklore and set the old ways of thinking against the new; they offer a glimpse of Luo culture before colonisation. The author also wrote in Luo, and the interest of her husband, the historian Bethwell Ogot, in oral traditions nourished her work.
Who it is for
For those who like stories in which ancient beliefs and modern life meet in East Africa.
Prizes and reception
A popular work by a pioneer of Kenyan letters, it carried the Luo tradition to English-speaking readers.
Sources for this page 2
The pages consulted to check this page.