ReturnoftheDeji.com

The Defender

I love soccer.

This short story marks the first installment of a much larger collection entitled The Linesman that I will be releasing periodically in anticipation of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The stories closely intertwine and you’ll have to read all of them to learn the truth.

I hope you enjoy it.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

–Deji Olukotun

Photo by Deji. Feel free to use it.

Home Affairs

This story follows a father and son as they attempt to navigate the labyrinth of the immigration system in South Africa. It is based on my experiences working and living in Cape Town. One of the themes is the stereotypes of Nigerians in South Africa — the same such stereotypes that appear in the film District 9.

The story was published in World Literature Today.

You can order the magazine here.

Or, you can link straight to the story free here for educational purposes.

Daylight Savings Bank Collapses

This is a satire that is based on Daylight Savings Time – a concept that I’ve always found confusing and surprising. It’s surprising because it seems to happen when I’m not ready. Suddenly an hour has been gained or lost, just because the government said so!

Hope you enjoy it.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE STORY.

–Deji Olukotun

Four Lions.
PDF.. On website.

A short story about a journalist attempting to penetrate the notorious Cape Town minibus taxi gangs. This story was published in the South African magazine The Space (2007)

The Rise and Fall of the Silence Corporation

One of my passions is intellectual property – the assertion of ownership over creativity and innovation. This fiction piece is a satire about the copyrighting of musical rests by an eccentric American composer.

The story was published in OneShotZine (2008).

Read the story on my website here.

Indian Hunting on the Putumayo

Indian Hunting on the Putumayo originates from my background research for the novel, when I encountered the horrific human rights violations committed on the Putumayo river in the early 1900s. The Putumayo, it turned out, was not always a joyful multicolored tableau of dancing parrots, as the world music label suggests. This Peruvian river coursed through the site of a 20th century genocide.

Tens of thousands of indigenous Huitoto Indians were slaughtered at the hands of the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company in its quest for black gold. Managed at the city of Iquitos by Julio Arana, many of the company’s key investors were English. The atrocities were eventually brought to light by the Irishmen Roger Casement, who had unearthed the genocide of the Congolese during the Belgian hunt for rubber in the Congo. None of the English shareholders were brought to justice. Worse, Julio Arana lived until his 90s and continued exploiting the Huitotos after Casement’s report.

This story emerged from utter rage. It made me furious that Arana – and his family, who defended and celebrated him until his death – escaped retribution. The story of Arana epitomizes the notion of actions without consequences, and impunity disgusts me. My hope is that this story, drawn from a much lighter and even humorous work, will help keep the memory of these horrors alive, and make them, somehow, feel real.

Click here for the full story.

This story is reprinted here from the The London Magazine, in which it appeared in September of 2006.

In the Light of the Kerosene

In the Light of the Kerosene

This short story was adapted from my novel Everyone Comes from Belterra. It follows the rubber tapper Rogerio as he investigates a mysterious capoeira fight in the Amazon rainforest.

The story was published on the Brazilian cultural website brazzil.com (May 2009).

Click here to read the story on my website.

Click here to read the story at Brazzil.com.