67 – Sierra Leone – Aminatta Forna – Ancestor Stones – January 2019 – (Score 6.3)

There are many characters in this book, and several generations. There is a family tree near the front, but it is so ornate that I suggest you make up your own

Abie, in the United Kingdom, is contacted by one of her cousins in Sierra Leone, to be told she has inherited land, if she wishes to take it. She flies out to see it. I think there may be something awry with the timescale of events in this story.

The story moves to Asana, some eighty years before. The season is changing so that their crop is moving from rice to Bulgur (I add that to my morning cereal, among other things). She is telling her family the story of how her father led them to found a new home in the jungle. They are descendants of invaders from the north, and are an aristocracy. My reading of history tells me that all aristocracies descend from better armed invaders from elsewhere.

We see the arrival of a “Moon-shadow Man”, possibly an Arab, possibly a European, catching songbirds to take them away in cages for his own profit.

Back in time Mariama’s story tells us the first effects of the arrival of Arabs from the north and Europeans from the south – loss of the native religion and acceptance of that of the others. A Muslim preacher comes to the town and leads the people to throw all their native religious items onto a pile which is then lit, to burn all night with more being added. It reminds me of the “Bonfire of the Vanities” set by Savonarola in mediaeval Florence.

When we meet Serah she is talking about people playing Warri, a board and pebble game played in a number of forms throughout Africa. In poorer regions depressions are scooped from the earth to make a playing area.

We move on to find European gold prospectors arriving, and buying the placer gold gathered by the people for a fraction of its value, thoroughly cheating the locals in the process.

Eventually the Europeans leave, to allow the local peoples to make their own way, with difficulty, in the world.

Time passes and there is a civil war between the people in the north and those in the south. Eventually there is a new young President who has forced out the old corrupt regime. This reminds me of “The Parachute Drop” by Norbert Zongo of Burkina Faso. Like “The Parachute Drop” the new President is eventually driven out by yet another takeover.

I don’t want to go into any more detail. It is sufficient to say that I loved this book, and gave it a score of 9/10.

As a bit more background we find that Mariama has painted her room with depictions of Kurumasaba, the giant who carries the earth on his head as he turns to create day and night, Kassila the sea god, Kumbu the rain god, Yaro Anayaroti goddess of wealth, and Aranson the hunter. The people had forgotten the names of their other gods since the incomers came.