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The short story: Longhorn:'When the sun goes down and other stories from Africa and Beyond '. 'Desperation leads to moral degradation'. Support this statement with illustrations...

      

The short story: Longhorn:'When the sun goes down and other stories from Africa and Beyond '.

'Desperation leads to moral degradation'. Support this statement with illustrations from Sefi Atta's short story, 'Twilight
Trek'

  

Answers

Martin
When the sun goes down

Immoral ways are never rewarded.
It is true that desperation leads to moral degradation as outlined in Sefi Atta's story Twilight Trek, some of the moral degradation shown are, dishonest, prostitution, blackmail and hypocrisy.

Dishonest

The narrator in his desperation to go to Spain duped his boss, and as result the boss was angry with him and even threatened to send a gang to slit his throat. Due to the fear the narrator developed a strong desire to leave to Spain immediately. The narrator is told to be prepared for thieves, the Moroccan security forces, and to look out for conmen that will take his money. P.16.
Dishonesty is seen in the story when nasty Tuareg makes the narrator and the others pay him more dollars. The wheezy
woman pleads with Tuareg but he showed her no mercy. The Tuareg only calms down when he is given extra $100 which was not the agreement in the beginning.
After the end of the journey no gratitude is shown to the Tuareg. He is not appreciated at all and instead referred to as cheat. 'He has driven us hundreds of miles and none of us is thankful to him, the cheat' p.115.

Illegal emigrates use wrong routes to set to Spain as they know that if they use the right routes they would be arrested as they were illegal. P.10.
The narrator did not have enough money to enable him get fare and therefore resorts to selling Marijuana which is drug that is not allowed.
The narrator is warned to be alert as the presence of con men was not inevitable. He was also to be cautious about security forces, also told to be prepared for thieves p.116. Narrator sleeps in his sneakers just in case they get stolen.
Black mail
Blackmail is another moral degradation obvious in the short story. The narrator and others have crossed the border using fake passports p.115. This is not a habit that would be encouraged in any country. Obazeee tries to sneak overload in Ceuta as he was trying to avoid the security forces. Obazeee is aware that his stay in Tangier in a guest house near Pete Socce was not legitimate.

Prostituting

The narrator's mother in a bid to survive involves herself in prostitution and even introduces the same to the narrator. The narrator says that when he was young his mother would snare lipstick all over his face oiled his hair and braided it into cornrows like a girl p.109.
The narrator's mother introduces him to a Lebanese and would convince him that the Lebanese man will only touch him. The narrator's mother was involved with many men sexually, the narrator says that some were rich, married, handsome, fat, and white, like his father p.10.This show promotion of moral degradation in a bid to survive.
marto answered the question on April 5, 2019 at 07:08

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