The Bite of the Mango
SynopsisPlot
As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown.
Story
About this book
Mariatu Kamara grew up in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, where rumors of rebel attacks felt like a distant worry. At twelve, while walking to a neighboring village, she was intercepted by armed rebel soldiers, many of them no older than children. They tortured her and cut off both her hands. Written with Susan McClelland, this memoir recounts how she survived the aftermath and made her way through the countryside.
With no parents or surviving adult guardian, Kamara reached a refugee camp and turned to begging on the streets of Freetown, the capital, to stay alive. The title refers to the mango she ate soon after the attack, her first food since the violence. Holding the fruit without hands marked both her will to live and the scale of what she had lost.
The book won a Next Generation Indie Book Award in 2009. It is set against the Sierra Leone civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2002 and involved widespread attacks on civilians, including deliberate mutilation. Kamara later became a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
