Mariatu Kamara

Wow. I read this for the BookRiot 2020 Read Harder challenge 'read a YA non-fiction book' and I'm really glad I did.

The Bite of the Mango is the story of Mariatu Kamara, a young girl who lived an ordinary village life in Sierra Leone before she was ambushed by rebels at age 12. She saw people be burned alive and shot, before boys not much older than her chopped off her hands. Mariatu managed to make it to safety and was transported to Freetown where she received medical care, reunited with her family, and was placed in a cramped amputee camp with hundreds of others in the same position as her. While there it was discovered that she was pregnant and she gave birth to a boy who died from malnutrition before his first birthday. Eventually, she was brought to Canada where she learned English, attended high school and began to share her story with the rest of the world.

The language of The Bite of the Mango is very simple, childlike, but also clear and insightful. Though the language is simple, it serves as a constant reminder that Mariatu is only a child experiencing the worst things a human can go through. She doesn't shy away from the despair and depression she suffered or the times she wanted to die, but the overall feeling of the book is positive, a message of hope. Though all the bad things that happen to Mariatu are spoken of in a matter-of-fact, unflinching manner, there is a focus on the people in Mariatu's life as a way of showing that acts of kindness and love do exist, even in the worst of circumstances.

One of the most astounding things is that later, in Canada, Mariatu mentions giggling with friends at school and I felt such overwhelming happiness that a girl who had been through so much could still have such normal experiences. I believe that Mariatu may have attended my old high school not long after I graduated, which added a personal note for me as well.

The Bite of the Mango is such a heartbreaking and inspiring story, told by a clearly wonderful and compassionate woman, I feel lucky to have read it.… (more)

When one reads a truly shocking narrative (the Sierra Leonean author here was caught up in civil war; aged twelve, the drug-fueled rebels cut off both her hands with a machete. And she didn't know at the time that she was pregnant by an unwanted oldeer suitor...), one feels mean-spirited not to give them a *5 for just getting it together and managing to share their story.

But despite Mariatu's incredible will to survive (she ultimately started a new life in Canada), this barely keeps the reader reading. I feel less of a cad when I think she had a ghost writer helping.) The characters, even the narrator, just feel flat and unrelatable. There is much dwelling on events and less on feelings and emotions. I'm currently engaged in a global reading challenge and have read a few of these memoirs from different troubled parts of the world and have noticed that, lacking the wherewithal to portray emotion in any depth, the protagonists rely on simplistic ideas. They're not beset by complex, life shattering doubts, fears and depression (I'm sure they are, but how to describe it?) but they forever 'scowl' or 'shout', and tend to come across as stroppy and unreasonable. The reader, unfairly, starts to lose patience.
May be an informative read for the YA market. Subject matter should make this a compelling read, but sadly it is not.… (more)

Mariatu is living peacefully with her family in a small village in Sierra Leone. She is attacked by a group of rebel soldiers, who brutalize her and cut off both her hands. She wanders around the countryside for awhile, and somehow, through her own grit and will to live, she survives. She enters life in a refugee camp, but to actually survive there she takes to begging in the streets of Freetown. This story was truly remarkable in showing Mariatu's struggle to survive, and her will to live that kept her moving forward even in the most dire of situations. Eventually Mariatu makes her way to Canada, where she begins the process of healing from her traumatic experiences. I think her story is compelling and that most teens would gravitate towards. The actual biography is written by a journalist, so the book lacks some narrative depth, and is pretty straightfoward story telling. I think it would be a good purchase for libraries looking to expand their world-literature selection.… (more)