Bleeding the stone

This was a very interesting story although I did have a difficult time understanding how this particular novel played in to our studies in African Literature. While I did see the connection it seemed to me that there is a lot more alarming events taking place in Africa that we could learn about.

I am not saying that there is not important events taking place in this novel, however. As an avid outdoorsman I was quite disturbed by the character of Cain. Nature is a precious resource that must be protected and people like Cain are disrespectful and merciless morons.

Africa is truly one of the worlds most beautiful places and the creatures that live there are unique and beautiful like the waddan and the gazelle. I found the character of Asouf to be very admirable in the way he respected the animal and the desert. I have always wanted to move away to a desolate area of the world and live off of the land so I was able to relate to Asouf and his father and the way in which they took care of their family.

I was also happy to see that Asouf was finally able to stand up to Cain and not take him to the Waddan. At the beginning Asouf did seem quite spineless and not able to stand up for himself but he was able to develop his will and make his opinion heard.

The one thing I did notice that seemed to be a recurring theme in many of this stories about the continent of Africa is the movement of foreigners into the area and the manipulation of resources and people in the area.