Baby Lion and Other Short Stories by Kole Obasa
Kole Obasa is a self published writer who I actually went to University with. One of the short stories, ‘St Botolph’s Stones’, was in one of our workshop classes, so I am not going to focus on this one in this particular review as I have explored and dissected it before.
Baby Lion is the longest story in the collection and is the one I will be focusing on. Obasa brings his stories to life by bringing in his own experiences and cultural background. His knowledge on African culture makes Baby Lion in particular colourful, authentic and above all, readable. The style of the writing actually reminded me of Colleen Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ as there is an absence of speech marks. For some people, this makes the story difficult to follow and confuses the narrative, but Obasa makes it work well. If it was a long novel, then I’m not so sure it would but in this context, it’s perfect. The use of local dialect in speech is fantastic as it fits with the stilted conversations Fabrice and Shauna have and their internal monologues. It creates good character development.
The story is predominately based in the Congo, and I get the feeling that although women are seen as inferior, they are the ones who are shown to be laughing and joking together, whereas Fabrice and his father struggle to converse and be honest with each other about their issues with one another. It is a continuous cycle of both men not doing what is best for them or their family, but putting their country first and, ironically, becoming a slave to the cause rather than living the life they want and what is best for them.
Fabrice is shown to be stubborn and unhappy – and due to this, he misses out on the one thing that would make him happy and see him live the life he yearns for.
Obasa’s book is rich in culture and history. There are many things to take away from this insightful writing and it is something different to what you may normally pick up to read.
Follow Kole Obasa on Twitter @ThisKoleObasa and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/DodoVibes1