Cassie Lavorata

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Sierra Leone Literature

Cassie Lavorata Teaching World Literature Dr. Kaywell LAE 4469.901

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Novels Classic Maddy, Yulisa Amadu (1973). No Past, No Present, No Future. New Hampshire: Heinemann. (210 Pages). ISBN: 0 435 905228.

This is a novel about three friends from Bauya, a fictional country. Joe Bengoh, Santige, and Ade were the “Three Brothers,” who met at a Mission. These adolescent boys from a variety of backgrounds come together to experience lots of changes as they grow up. From dealing with racism, sexuality, marriage, and much more, their friendship is put to a real test. Their journey to Europe to get a degree is a real adventure, filled with great emotion. Maddy develops these characters and fictional country as a representation of Sierra Leone. Will this strong bond created by these boys at a young age survive these drastic changes? Read to find out their fate!

Country’s Infusion/ Young Adult protagonist/ Contemporary/ Non fiction Beah, Ishmael (2007). A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Sarah Critchon Books. (229 Pages). ISBN: 978 0 374 53126 3.

This is the story of a long journey made by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael was a young adolescent who simply enjoyed learning rap songs from America and hip hop dancing with his friends. This love for American culture doesn’t last for long due to the Civil War. During the Civil War in Sierra Leone, Ishmael struggles when losing his family, friends, and hope. Running through the country, barefoot in the hot sun, Ishmael experiences a variety of people. Eventually Ishmael gets captured by soldiers on the hunt to find his family.

Ishmael deals with addiction, death, and fear on a regular basis. This young adolescent loses almost everything through the war. Ishmael Beah ends up in New York, but how does he finally get there?

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Contemporary Harris, Paul (2009). The Secret Keeper. New York: Penguin Group. (318 pages). ISBN: 9780525951025.

This is a story about Danny Kellerman, a journalist from England. Back in 2000, Danny was sent by his company to Sierra Leone to get a story on the Civil War occurring there. This dangerous trip led him to meet the love of his life, Maria. Four years go by and Danny is back in England, with a new girlfriend, Rachel. One day, he gets a letter from Maria saying she’s in trouble, just to find out the next day she is already dead. Danny puts his life on hold for Maria and goes back to Sierra Leone to crack this case. This novel is a mystery novel within the well known Civil War that took place in this small African Country. Find out what is really happening in Sierra Leone with Danny Kellerman and the help of his friends from Sierra Leone he met during his first visit.

Non Fiction/Young Adolescent Protagonist/ Contemporary Kamara, Mariatu and McClelland, Susan (2008). The Bite of the Mango. New York: Annick Press. (212 pages). ISBN: 9781554511587.

This novel is told by Mariatu Kamara, a girl who was highly effected by the Civil War in Sierra Leone. At twelve years old, Mariatu opens up about the RUF taking over her village. This story tells you about her losses and different hardships throughout the war.

Many obstacles stand in Mariatu’s way, but in the end she earns her happy ending. Where?

Read to find out about the tough journey Mariatu faced. Photographed below is the author.

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Short Stories Contemporary James, Tania (2012). Aerogrammes and Other Short Stories, What to do with Henry. New York: Borzoi Books. (17 pages). ISBN: 9780307957474.

This short story is about a woman named Pearl. Pearl travels to Sierra Leone to take in a young girl named Nena. Not only does she adopt Nena into her life, but she adopts a chimpanzee named Henry. Eventually Henry gets taken away from his family and placed into a zoo in Florida. This is the story about how true family never dies.

Infusion (American into Sierra Leone) Fountain, Ben (2006). “The Lion’s Mouth.” Brief Encounters with Che Guerva. New York: HarperCollins Books. 147-183. ISBN: 9780060885588.

This short story features a couple Jill and Starkey. Starkey is a man who works in Sierra Leone dealing with the countries blood diamonds. Illegally selling these diamonds, he gets his girlfriend, Jill, to become involved in this mission. Jill being a co-op has an easy time getting these diamonds out of the country to a Russian man who pays her a great deal of money. Jill realizes the danger she is put in when the RUF stop them and she has to see all these people suffering. Insisting on rescuing everyone, Jill finds herself in a sticky situation that isn’t easy to fix.

Classic Nicol, Abioseh (1965). “The Truly Married Woman.” African Short Stories. Ed. Charles Larson. New York: The Macmillan Company. 19-31. Print.

This short story is about a man, Ajayi, from Sierra Leone, who obtains a mistress Ayo. He never feels the need to marry her because she does everything for him, including preparing his tea at five every morning. One day, he has white men coming to his home for work purposes. He sends a message for Ayo to have the house completely ready with food and drinks. Ayo does an amazing job, which finally makes Ajayi want to marry her one day. The two end up getting married with their children at the wedding. The next day though, something has changed. Ajayi realizes his tea is no longer prepared for him and he doesn’t have breakfast waiting. That is when he realizes that Ayo is done catering to him because she is a wife and deserves to be treated better.

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Folk Story Foston, Mike (1985). The Animal Story Book. Sierra Leone: People’s Educational Association of Sierra Leone. 31 pages.

The Monkey and The Cats This story is about two cats and a monkey. The two cats were arguing about splitting the food in half, because each cat wanted to have the bigger half. The monkey over heard their talking and came down to split the food for them. He kept eating the food though making each pile smaller. From that day on, the cats never argued about splitting the food again.

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Films Movie: Blood Diamond. Dir. Edward Zwick. Perf. Leonardo Dicaprio. Warner Brothers, 2006.

DVD. Blood Diamond is a movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio, which takes place in Sierra Leone.

Solomon (Djimon Housou) is an ordinary man in Sierra Leone who is captured by the RUF. His son, unfortunately, gets trained to fight in the RUF. Later we meet Danny Archer (Leonardo Dicaprio) who is a man that is guilty of smuggling jewels out of Sierra Leone.

He gets caught early on in the film, witnessing Solomon get accused of stealing the biggest diamond people have seen. Archer is in need in that diamond, so he helps Solomon find his family. The two have a rough start, but end up helping each other out for all the right reasons. The country is at war and this film is a great way to show you what really happened during the civil war.

Documentary: Empire in Africa. Dir. Phillipe Diaz. Perf. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Action Against Hunger, 2006.

This documentary is about the struggles that Sierra Leone began to face when the Civil War came to their country. This diamond country dealt with many issues of being extremely poor and rich at the same time. This documentary is filled with a variety of interviews from different people such as, politicians, military people, and average citizens affected by the RUF. This documentary was very vulgar with seeing the violence this country dealt with. In total, around 70,000 people lost their lives to this violence.

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Poetry Classic Take’ Um So by Gladys Casey-Hayford (1948) Na den take’ um so Bobo ken better Na den take’ um so Titi kin wise, Den take’ um so mamy, en take’ um so dady.

Kin eat den fat foll bone, en win dem prize.

If God gie you abulay, or bammbo’ ouse or pan, Or den stone an cement mansion, whey some get.

If God gie you life of leisure, en concur all you planOr E’ turn and gie you worry, you no fretTake’ um so.

If God full some’ ouse wid pickin, en e’ no gree full you, youn.

Or E’ gie you; don E take de pickin back; Or E’ show you road way tranga, en E’ put you for climb hill.

En guide some odor person pan braod track- take’ um so.

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Novel Classic/ Fiction Conton, William (1960). The African. London: Heinemann Educational Books. 213 pages.

This novel is about a character named Kisimi Kamara, born and raised in Sierra Leone. This is a journey about Kamara, who is chosen to be a servant to a school teacher who is American. Kamara eventually attends the University of Durham at New Castle, where he speaks English but hears many other languages being spoke. This story deals with the themes of love, adventure, and discrimination all in one. Kamara was very successful by becoming an educator to Africans but eventually creating his own political party. Read this novel to see what happens to Kamara in the end!

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Short Stories Classic (Story from Ghana) Duodu, Cameron (1967). “The Tax Dodger.” African Short Stories. Ed. Charles Larson. New York: The Macmillan Company. 107-127. Print.

This is the story about a boy who had just left Middle School and was on trial. As he sits in the court room, he remembers the other trials he would sit and watch to get a good laugh out of. Well, he was on trial with some other friends because he refused to pay his land toll, which he didn’t think he had to so he refused. Him and his friends shot toy guns at the man and were destructive. As the boy listened to his trial, he thought about how his father would be very upset if he became a farmer, because he went to school to become a Clerk.

He was the only one, the narrator, who fought the poll tax after all he didn’t vote nor own land. That is where the story ends up.

Non-Fiction (Story from Nigeria) Achebe, Chinua (2000). “My Home Under Imperial Fire.” Home and Exile. New York: Anchor books. ISBN: 978038721332.

This story is about Chinua Achebe’s life growing up. The readers are able to learn about his family life, but especially his childhood. Chinua is very personal and fills you in on his father. The most prominent part of the story though is you learn who his influence was and why he writes they way he does. He really looked up to Joyce Cary. This short story gives you an inside to a Nigerian background, which was a country closely intertwined with Sierra Leone.

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Poetry Nonfiction Cheney-Coker, Syl. "World Poetry Database: Poems by Syl Cheney-Coker." World Poetry Database: Poems by Syl Cheney-Coker. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.

Blood Money Along the route of this river, with a little luck, we shall chance upon our brothers' fortune, hidden with that cold smile reserved for discreet bankers unmindful of the hydra growing fiery mornings from our discontent Wealth was always fashionable, telluric, not honor pristine and profound.

In blasphemous glee, they raise to God's lips those cups filled with ethnic offerings that saps the blood of all human good.

Having no other country to call my own except for this one full of pine needles on which we nail our children's lives, I have put off examining this skull, savage harvest, the swollen earth, until that day when, all God's children, we shall plant a eureka supported by a blood knot.

And remorse not being theirs to feel, I offer an inventory of abuse by these men, with this wretched earth on my palms, so as to remind them of our stilted growth the length of a cutlass, or if you prefer the size of our burnt-out brotherhood.

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Poetry Contemporary Jones, Mark T. "The Sierra Leone Web." Sierra Leone Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.

“Initialdom” Where once people sang now initials stalk Acronyms and their attendants decide our fate Good, bad, near unfathomable These our servants now roam free, breeding unchecked.

RUF, SLA, AK47, no music in such sounds Do you put your faith in ECOMOG or UNAMSIL ?

Is the NCRRR or the UNHCR the real route to salvation ?

Far better that you stop and put your faith in GOD. Infusion (Lives in San Diego) Momoh, Amara. "The Sierra Leone Web." Sierra Leone Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.

“I Cannot” I cannot find Simplicity in the dust Nor in the ashes I walk through On a hazy day like this When the clouds above Refuse to rise.

Still I walk, groping Through the remains.

Pieces of histories Scattered like useless cinders. the world I live in Enclosing on, Swallowing me Or so I think

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Poetry Classic Achebe, Chinua (1968). Collected Poems. New York: Anchor Books. 96 pages. “Mango Seedling�

Through glass windowpane Up a modern office block I saw, two floors below, on wide-jutting concrete canopy a mango seedling newly sprouted Purple, two-leafed, standing on its burst Black yolk. It waved brightly to sun and wind Between rains-daily regaling itself On seed yams, prodigally.

For how long?

How long the happy waving From precipice of rainswept sarcophagus?

How long the feast on remnant flour At pot bottom?

Perhaps like the widow Of infinite faith it stood in wait For the holy man of the forest, shaggy-haired Powered for eternal replenishment.

Or else it hoped for Old Tortoise's miraculous feast On one ever recurring dot of cocoyam Set in a large bowl of green vegetablesThis day beyond fable, beyond faith?

Then I saw it Poised in courageous impartiality Between the primordial quarrel of Earth And Sky striving bravely to sink roots Into objectivity, midair in stone.

I thought the rain, prime mover To this enterprise, someday would rise in power And deliver its ward in delirious waterfall Toward earth below. But every rainy day Little playful floods assembled on the slab, Danced, parted round its feet, United again, and passed.

It went from purple to sickly green Before it died.

Today I see it stillDry, wire-thin in sun and dust of the dry monthsHeadstone on tiny debris of passionate courage.

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Blood Diamonds Reflection Blood Diamonds was a great movie to see how Sierra Leone was during the time of it’s Civil War. Leonardo Dicaprio played a diamond smuggler, which was a huge reason the country was poor. This realistic film gave you a chance to understand the severity of the Civil War and how it really ruined lives of the people living in these small villages.

The first aspect which is important to discuss was that the movie was very violent.

Having a sensitive stomach, it was hard to watch what the RUF would do to innocent people. For example, the RUF was known for saying, “Long or short sleeves.” That simple phrase hurt a lot of people because what it meant was, do you want us to cut your arms to look like you have long or short sleeves. No matter what, the RUF was violent and didn’t care about anyone in their way. They would cut off the arms of children, women, and men. They certainly did not discriminate against who they would kill or harm forever. I hated watching that part of the movie because it made me feel terrible. I hated watching people suffering and it only made me think of how many people they did this to during this long Civil War within the country. It is unfortunate watching this film and wondering why no one stepped in to help this country out.

The next aspect that was hard to watch was that the RUF separated families easily.

They would take young boys and train them to kill. In the movie, Solomon gets taken and his son does too eventually. Solomon’s son is trained to kill and at the end he doesn’t even recognize his father because of how brainwashed the RUF made him. It was sad to see him try to kill his own father. From other research and novels read, I saw that the RUF would drug these young boys to the point that they didn’t even know who they were. That

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made me uneasy during the movie, watching these small boys doing drugs and not even knowing what they were doing.

Diamond smugglers were a big part of Sierra Leone and still are. Sierra Leone may be a poor country, but with all the diamonds in their waters and such, they are rich.

Except, the wrong people are getting these diamonds making the country very poor.

Danny Archer was a typical white man who would come into the country and sneak diamonds out. In this movie, he was taking the diamonds out by putting them in goats, which looked like animal cruelty. I didn’t understand why people would do this to the country, especially when they were dealing with a Civil War. It was very selfish of people and they should have let the country have the money to rebuild themselves to a stronger country in Africa.

The movie takes place in Sierra Leone of course, and the picture was amazing. It gave me a feel of what the country looked like and made all the images I read in the novels come to life. I really enjoyed seeing everything for myself, even though it was very sad to see how different they live compared to us. The camps where they would help people who had lost their homes because of the RUF were to accurate to what I had read in multiple novels. I liked seeing everything for myself, it was a great way to end this project. I hope everyone who teaches World Literature will consider Sierra Leone because everyone deserves to hear their story.