Down Second Avenue

Modern African Stories is an anthology of postcolonial African short stories, edited by Ghanaian writer and poet Ellis Ayitey Komey and South African writer, poet, and critic Es'kia Mphahlele. The anthology was published in London by Faber and Faber, in 1964. The collection contains short stories from West Africa (though as one scholar noted the short story was not yet an accepted form in West Africa) and South Africa, and one from Kenya. Books Abroad listed it as one of their "Outstanding 1964 Books". The introduction, by Komey and Mphahlele, assesses the position of African writers in the postcolonial period; according to William R. Ferris, Komey (in this introduction) argues convincingly that African literature (with the exception of Swahili) is written in response to white writing but that at the same time it can incorporate "traditional lore" successfully, not superficially, as Michael Crowder maintained.