‘Incidents at the Shrine’ is a book by Ben Okri, consisting eight short stories, which are unconnected to each other. It was Ben’s first collection of published stories, which was published in 1986. Upon its reception it became clear that Okri was developing a distinctive and a more thoughtful sense of African reality at a formal level. These stories are firmly entrenched in the present, and unlike “Tim Winton” whose middle-aged, mediocre male protagonists spend a lot of time reflecting on past mistakes. Okri’s characters live on the cusp of poverty, without secure income sources and sometime losing homes. He explains nations, civilizations, ideas, half-discoveries, historical events and some rituals that seem to be the happenings of the other
