when the sun started setting and she knew it would soon be time to go home and bath the baby, she decided to beg. To beg to get the money to pay back Madame Kokui. But sadly the drivers she begged from weren’t very generous and she didn’t have enough to pay back Madame Kokui, so that night she slept in the doorway of a shop called Farah among all the packages.
The next day she went begging again, but it wasn’t until the day after that that she finally got enough money to pay back Madame Kokui and by then it was too late. She couldn’t go back to the house now on account of how she’d already spent two nights sleeping rough. If she went back, Madame Kokui would kill her, kill her stone dead. So Sarah kept on begging and after a while she got used to the circumstances, and figured out she was better off begging than she had been with Madame Kokui. She found somewhere to wash, and another place where she could hide her savings and she went on sleeping in the doorway of Farah among the packages and the boxes.
She had been spotted there by a man, and one day he came and found her in the doorway of Farah. He introduced himself, he was kind and sympathetic. (‘Sympathetic’ means he pretended like he cared about Sarah’s problems.) He offered Sarah sweets and other stuff so Sarah trusted him and followed him to a covered market far away from the houses. That’s where he told her that he was going to make love to her gently and not hurt her. Sarah was scared and she started running and screaming, but the man was a lot faster and alot stronger and he caught up with Sarah and knocked her down and forced her on to the ground and raped her. He was so vicious that he left Sarah for dead.
Sarah was taken to hospital and when she woke up the nurse asked her who her parents were. She told the nurse about her father, but not about Madame Kokui. The hospital people tried to find her father but they didn’t find him. He was travelling; he was always travelling. They sent Sarah to the nuns at the orphanage in the suburbs west of Monrovia and that’s where she was living when the tribal wars got started. Five of the nuns in the orphanage were massacred; the others got the fuck out on the double, no questions asked. Sarah and four of her friends had been prostitutes before they joined the child-soldiers, so as not to starve to death.
That’s Sarah, who we left to the army ants and the vultures. (According to the
Glossary
, army ants are black ants that are really, really voracious.) They were going to make a delicious feast of her.
Gnamokodé!
All the villages along the way were deserted, one hundred percent deserted. That’s the way it goes in tribal wars: everyone abandons the villages where humans live and go and live in the forests where the wild beasts live. Wild beasts have a better life than people.
Faforo!
As we came in to one of the deserted villages, we spotted two guys who took off, made a run for it like they were robbers. We chased after them, because that’s what you’re supposed to do in tribal wars. When you see someone and they run away, that means they’re trying to hurt you so youhave to catch them first. The two guys had vanished into the forest. We fired lots and lots of bullets. It made an awful ruckus; it sounded like the Samorian wars all over again. (Samory was a Malinké chief who resisted the French invasions and whose
sofas
—soldiers—did lots of shooting.)
Walahé!
One of the child-soldiers was a captain who was unique and everyone called him ‘Captain Kik the Cunning’. Captain Kik the Cunning was weird. While we were just standing there by the roadside, Kik the Cunning ran right into the forest and headed left to try and cut off the fugitives’ path back to the village. It was cunning. But then, suddenly, we heard an explosion, and then Kik was screaming. We all rushed to him. Kik had stepped on a mine. It was a terrible sight. Kik was screaming like a suckling calf, like a stuck pig.
The next day she went begging again, but it wasn’t until the day after that that she finally got enough money to pay back Madame Kokui and by then it was too late. She couldn’t go back to the house now on account of how she’d already spent two nights sleeping rough. If she went back, Madame Kokui would kill her, kill her stone dead. So Sarah kept on begging and after a while she got used to the circumstances, and figured out she was better off begging than she had been with Madame Kokui. She found somewhere to wash, and another place where she could hide her savings and she went on sleeping in the doorway of Farah among the packages and the boxes.
She had been spotted there by a man, and one day he came and found her in the doorway of Farah. He introduced himself, he was kind and sympathetic. (‘Sympathetic’ means he pretended like he cared about Sarah’s problems.) He offered Sarah sweets and other stuff so Sarah trusted him and followed him to a covered market far away from the houses. That’s where he told her that he was going to make love to her gently and not hurt her. Sarah was scared and she started running and screaming, but the man was a lot faster and alot stronger and he caught up with Sarah and knocked her down and forced her on to the ground and raped her. He was so vicious that he left Sarah for dead.
Sarah was taken to hospital and when she woke up the nurse asked her who her parents were. She told the nurse about her father, but not about Madame Kokui. The hospital people tried to find her father but they didn’t find him. He was travelling; he was always travelling. They sent Sarah to the nuns at the orphanage in the suburbs west of Monrovia and that’s where she was living when the tribal wars got started. Five of the nuns in the orphanage were massacred; the others got the fuck out on the double, no questions asked. Sarah and four of her friends had been prostitutes before they joined the child-soldiers, so as not to starve to death.
That’s Sarah, who we left to the army ants and the vultures. (According to the
Glossary
, army ants are black ants that are really, really voracious.) They were going to make a delicious feast of her.
Gnamokodé!
All the villages along the way were deserted, one hundred percent deserted. That’s the way it goes in tribal wars: everyone abandons the villages where humans live and go and live in the forests where the wild beasts live. Wild beasts have a better life than people.
Faforo!
As we came in to one of the deserted villages, we spotted two guys who took off, made a run for it like they were robbers. We chased after them, because that’s what you’re supposed to do in tribal wars. When you see someone and they run away, that means they’re trying to hurt you so youhave to catch them first. The two guys had vanished into the forest. We fired lots and lots of bullets. It made an awful ruckus; it sounded like the Samorian wars all over again. (Samory was a Malinké chief who resisted the French invasions and whose
sofas
—soldiers—did lots of shooting.)
Walahé!
One of the child-soldiers was a captain who was unique and everyone called him ‘Captain Kik the Cunning’. Captain Kik the Cunning was weird. While we were just standing there by the roadside, Kik the Cunning ran right into the forest and headed left to try and cut off the fugitives’ path back to the village. It was cunning. But then, suddenly, we heard an explosion, and then Kik was screaming. We all rushed to him. Kik had stepped on a mine. It was a terrible sight. Kik was screaming like a suckling calf, like a stuck pig.
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