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CHEQUE MATE by Kevin Baldeosingh

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Plot Summary   The story adopts a chess analogy to address fraud, impunity, corruption, forgery, greed and materialism, ethics and morality, betrayal and classicism among other thematic concerns. Sukiya Chansing is the protagonist in the story. She faces antagonism from her boss, Randall A. Credo, who deliberately tries to fix her and give her away to the police for fraud charges. The conflict unfolds when Sukiya goes to the bank and is reminded by a teller that she needs a US dollar account for the 5 million dollar cheque she receives from Randall. She goes to the bank knowing that her illegitimate business could be discovered. So, she avoids the branch where she has a savings account for fear that the staff may be familiar with her business. She also avoids bank managers because they can easily notice the disparity between her salary and savings. She knows that if she were dealing with a bank manager, he would easily realize that an employee with a fifty-thousand-a-month sal...
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A Man of Awesome Power

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Plot  A Man of Awesome Power is about a man, Tayyib al-Mahid, who believes that his mission in this world has ended. He, however, experiences a mixture of minor aches, pains and contentment. He praises his God for the contentment he has given him. The fact that he feels he has accomplished his mission on earth and is enjoying a more than adequate pension implies that he is a retiree. In fact, the narrator specifies that he owns an apartment he was given as a reward for a long service abroad. Among his accomplishments is his daughters' marriage, which gave him the feeling that he had nothing else to do but spend his evenings with his wife entertaining themselves: watching television, reading newspapers, and listening to Quranic preachings on the radio.  One night while he was sleeping, he saw an apparition of a man of radiant appearance, bathed in light and wrapped in a snow-white robe. The apparition told him that God wanted him to have the power to tell things: "From this mom...
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The Story of Basawa Misiko

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 After the Bukusu Resistance in 1895, those arrested were taken to Elureko, later known as Mumias, and assigned luggage to carry all the way to Kaboto (around the Kenya-Uganda border in Endebess sub-county). Kaboto is a Bukusu pronunciation of a supposedly Kalenjin name Kapoto.  According to the late John Wanyonyi Manguliechi, Babukusu were made to carry chikhuli , chinindi and bufu (flour) as punishment for their rebellious behaviour.  On the first day, they trekked from Elureko and by the time the sun was setting, they were in Kabula in Chief Namachanja's region. They stopped here and rested till the next morning. They heard hyenas laugh, tietie ( cristocolas cristicola )  spoke to them, the sparrow also spoke in the dark of the night, kamacharia also spoke. Their night was filled with different sounds from the jungle.  They resumed their journey the next morning. When evening came, they had trekked all the way to Nalondo and were at the Lukoba of Muse (the...
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Life, Career and Death of Nyongesa wa Muganda Kwasaba Kwalia

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 Early Life Eliud Nyongesa wa Muganda was born to Muganda wa Kwasaba in 1946 in Karima, Naitiri Scheme. He belonged to the Abamakangala clan of the Kabarasi sub-tribe. His mother was from the Basenya clan of the Banyala sub-tribe of the Luhya people of Western Province. He was circumcised in 1962 and belonged to the Bamaina age set. His father, Mukanda wa Kwasaba, was both a vocalist and a guitarist while his grandmother, Sitawa Kwasaba from the Abangachi Clan, was a renowned singer of circumcision songs. Legend had it that she would be hired for weeks to sing in the neighbouring Kabras and would come back with loads of gifts as an appreciation for her prowess as a singer. According to Nyongesa's widow, Anne Nyongesa, he inherited his talent from both his grandmother and father.  Nyongesa's siblings included Rajabu Mafunga, Kilon'gi, Namalwa and Nasimiyu and Iswa, Wangwe, Naliaka, Alfayo and Shadrack from the wife his father married after Nyongesa's mother died. He w...
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How Much Land Does Man Need?

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 The Title The title of the story is in the form of a question that jogs our minds even before we start reading the story. We, ourselves, wonder whether there is a standard amount of land that each person needs before he/she is satisfied.  In the story, Pahom already owns 123 acres of land but still desires to have more. This desire to have more land is what makes him to readily travel to a distant land to have more land.  Plot Summary Pahom is a farmer who is already in possession of 123 acres of land in which he has built a house where five members of his family live. However, he still has an insatiable appetite for more land because he believes the 123 acres are not enough. So, when he meets a dealer who informs him about the land of the Bashkirs, where land as much as 13,000 acres can be acquired for as little an amount as 1,000 roubles, he readily travels to this place, the long distance notwithstanding.  Pahoms gets to the land of the Bashkirs after seven days....
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Missing Out

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 Plot The story talks about a Sudanese man, Majdy, who is a PhD student in London. At the beginning of the story, he has failed the qualifying exam for the PhD.  He talks to his mother on the phone, and she would have none of his nonsense. She has had to make several trips to the Central Post Office in Khartoum just to encourage him to continue with his quest to secure a PhD.  She's a very staunch believer in his prowess in academics. She remembers how he's always done well in his high school days. In fact, he had  shaken the president's hand for doing excellently in his secondary school exam. So, she cannot fathom how he could become a dunderhead all of a sudden.  His mother embarks on a campaign to get him a wife. She believes this may help his son change his attitude and pass the exam. To her, loneliness is the cause of his resigned attitude. So, she organizes a marriage between him and Samra.  Majdy embarks on a serious redoing of his studies and, in Ju...
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The Folded Leaf

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 Plot A group of nine people:Bunmi, her brother Bola, Sam, Papa, Mrs. Kekere, Tunde, Mr. and Mrs. Ejiofoh and the driver, is travelling to Lagos for healing. Their fellow churchgoers have contributed money to help them go to Lagos to receive healing from Pastor Adejola Fayemi, a man known for being in possession of a helicopter, a Gulfstream jet and homes in Florida, Switzerland and the Caribbean. He always wears dark glasses. Along the way, there are many things to see, but, unfortunately, the narrator, Bunmi, cannot see them since she has always been blind. She has always seen the world through Bola. Bola has to describe everything around them in terms of colour, size, age and general appearance in order to help Bunmi draw the pictures of these items and people in her mind. They see many vehicles and people. Among the people they see is a boy who has no limbs but struggles to move in the middle of the many vehicles around him: "he's pushing hard with his hands and his single...
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