[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]

Strange Horizons, October 21, 2024

“Faith is a Butterfly Resting on a Rotting Eye (or The Art of Faith)” by Gabrielle Emem Harry

Reviewed by Geoff Houghton

“Faith is a Butterfly Resting on a Rotting Eye (or The Art of Faith)” by Gabrielle Emem Harry is set on an alternate African continent as it might have been without the influence of European or Arabic missionaries and traders. The protagonist is the younger son of a fisherman, raised in a simple and peaceful river village. The priests of the local river deity demand a sacrifice that he cannot accept and he leaves the village in disgust to find a better place. His journey is spectacularly unsuccessful in that aim. His uniformly bad experiences with several other endemic local religions turn him against all of Africa’s animistic gods and their demanding priests, only to discover that it is not that simple to be an objector. The need for any theistic belief is so strong in his fellow Africans that even the plainest statements of his opposition to their dogmas risk the creation of their own religion.

The author is a Nigerian citizen, which permits her a level of criticism of her fellow Africans that might be considered racist from an American or European. She uses that freedom in this morality tale that delivers the same stinging criticism of the requirement for religious belief as Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian,” but more seriously, and certainly without the laughs.

Geoff Houghton lives in a leafy village in rural England. He is a retired Healthcare Professional with a love of SF and a jackdaw-like appetite for gibbets of medical, scientific and historical knowledge.