A review by literaryinfatuation
The Prophet of Zongo Street: Stories by Mohammed Naseehu Ali

5.0

One of the excuses for works of fiction failing to represent women accurately or portray strong female characters is that either in that period of history women were sidelined or that in such culture women have traditional gender roles which keep them backstage. I am never really convinced by those are arguments. A story is all about how you tell it, how you spin it; and there has always been powerful, encouraging women around shaping their communities. This is something that really surprised me from “The Prophet of Zongo Street” by Mohammed Naseehu Ali. It’s a collection of short stories centering around a fictitious street in a city in Ghana, where most inhabitants are Hausa, Muslim, struggling to get by and with minimal education. Syncretism between Islam and traditional beliefs is common. Women bear the burden of the household and raising numerous children. And yet, every story defies stereotypes in its depiction of women. Every story has a strong women at the front. And they are quite diverse, from stories about the creation of the world, a Ghanaian painter trying to make it in NYC, a nightmare-like depiction of the Day of Judgement, a man who has to prove to court he is not impotent, and a man who was the joke of town until his wife changed his life around. It is probably the best collection of short stories I’ve read in a really long time and I can’t recommended it enough.