In the Shadow of War
In the Shadows of War (1983) by Ben Okri is a fictional short story by Nigerian author Ben Okri, was first published in the London magazine West Africa in 1983. Five years later, Okri included a revised version in his collection Stars of the New Curfew, which has been out of print since 2004. This anthology marked a point in Okri’s career during which he began to incorporate more magical and fantastical elements into his otherwise realist writing. Okri was a young child living in Nigeria during the time of the country’s civil war--an experience that influenced the subjects of his work and is paralleled in this story of a young boy witnessing the horrors of the war. As many of Okri’s other works do, this story blurs the edges of reality, making it difficult to distinguish what is imagined or real. Okri has received numerous prestigious awards throughout his career including a fellowship to the Royal Society of Literature (1997) and the Order of the British Empire (2001).
Quotes
edit- a strange woman with a black veil over her head”
- Page 3
- a spy who helps [their] enemies
- Page 4
- into the shapes of swollen dead animals,” and he notices “the terrible smell in the air”
- Page 7
- disfigured with a deep corrugation” and she has “a livid gash along the side of her face
- Page 8
- begins to howl dementedly
- Page 8
- A violent beating of wings
- Page 8
- from the forest
- Page 9
- smiles apologetically at the soldiers”
- Page 9
- he is witness to the devastation and effects the civil war has on his village
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- The veiled woman intrigues him and he does not overtly judge her or fear her the way other children in the village do
- Page 4-5
- He does not tell them his real name and lies about having seen the veiled woman
- Page 5
- His father had brought the old Grundig cheaply from a family that had to escape the city when the war broke out. He had covered the radio with a white cloth and made it look like a household fetish.”
- Page 3
- At that hour, for the past seven days, a strange woman with a black veil over her head had been going past the house. She went up the village paths, crossed the Express road, and disappeared into the forest.”
- Pages 3-4
- Omovo’s father wiped the sweat off his face with his palm and said, with some bitterness: ‘As if an eclipse will stop this war.’ ‘What is an eclipse?’ Omovo asked. ‘That’s when the world goes dark and strange things happen.’”
- Page 4