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The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest Paperback – December 18, 2003
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Mohamed Forna was a man of unimpeachable integrity and enchanting charisma. As Sierra Leone faced its future as a fledgling democracy, he was a new star in the political firmament, a man who had been one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war. He stole the heart of Aminatta’s mother to the dismay of her Presbyterian parents and returned with her to Sierra Leone. But as Aminatta Forna shows with compelling clarity, the old Africa was torn apart by new ways of western parliamentary democracy, which gave birth only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto undreamed-of magnitude. It was not long before Mohamed Forna languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and worse to follow.
Aminatta’s search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the nation’s destiny began among the country’s elite and took her into the heart of rebel territory. Determined to break the silence surrounding her father’s fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated the highest reaches of government and forced the nation’s politicians and judiciary to confront their guilt. The Devil that Danced on the Water is a book of pain and anger and sorrow, written with tremendous dignity and beautiful precision: a remarkable, and important, story of Africa.
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGrove Press
- Publication dateDecember 18, 2003
- Dimensions6 x 1 x 8.75 inches
- ISBN-100802140483
- ISBN-13978-0802140487
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“An absorbing account of Aminatta Forna’s family and life: the joy and difficulties her parents faced in their early days, the ambitions and triumphs of later years, and the disappointment and tragedy that befell the family in the turbulence that almost overwhelmed the nation… Eloquent without recrimination, and truthful without rancour.” — Abdulrazak Gurnah, Novel Laureate
“There were times while reading this beautiful book when I had to ask myself whether I was holding my breath from the beauty of the language, or from the events unfolding on the page. Moving and provocative, The Devil that Danced on Water is at once an impassioned eulogy for a father, and a daughter's brave and relentless examination of what led to his death. Formidably talented and fiercely intelligent, Aminatta Forna reminds us, in a way that few others can, that reckoning with the past can render a form of justice, no matter the distance and years.” — Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize
''Forna has written a profound, moving elegy not only to her heroic father, but also to the dashed dreams of Africa's independence. Sharp-eyed, but always compassionate, she plaits national tragedy with the delightful details of a seventies childhood, comic cultural confusions with the anguish of parental break-up, diplomatic glamour with clinical descriptions of the horrors of civil war. This is also a thrilling journalistic investigation that digs through layers to expose government corruption, collusion and moral disintegration. A classic of trauma and resilience that through its clarity, depth and intellectual integrity, expands our understanding of humanity.'' — Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret and River Spirit"We could place [Forna's] memoir of Sierra Leone alongside Nega Mezlekia's Notes from the Hyena's Belly, about Ethiopia, or Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart, about South Africa. All these remarks would be accurate enough, but they would fail to capture what The Devil That Danced on the Water most certainly is: a masterpiece that makes sense of senselessness." — Lorraine Adams, The Washington Post
“Forna has written a book that is impossible to forget, or to confuse with any other memoir of tyrannical times...This is an obsessive, driven, refreshing book about Africa, despotism and exile. It is also a beautifully drawn portrait of childhood, and the ruses, stratagems, and sheer bloody-mindedness that Aminatta used to keep her young self safe, and sane in a world ruled by murder, marriage and constant movement." — Christopher Hope, The Washington Post
“Harrowing...Forna writes with a compelling mix of distance and anguish, intent on explaining her father’s death and reclaiming his memory. Lush descriptions of her idyllic childhood provide eerie counterpoint to the chilling depictions of the hell Sierra Leone had become upon her return in recent years...Reminiscent of Isabelle Allende’sHouse of the Spirits, Forna’s work is a powerfully and elegantly written mix of complex history, riveting memoir and damning expose. — Publisher's Weekly (Starred)
“An African memoir unlike any before it.” — The Economist"The Devil that Danced on the Water is an impressive contribution to the literature of post-colonial Africa, the mysterious continent that continues to resist all attempts to remake it in a Western image.” — Jason Cowley, The Times, Book of the Week
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Product details
- Publisher : Grove Press; First Trade Paper edition (December 18, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0802140483
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802140487
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 8.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,430,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,911 in Political Leader Biographies
- #15,330 in Women's Biographies
- #41,341 in Memoirs (Books)
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Through the story of her own life, as the daughter of an influential and key political figure in newly independent Sierra Leone, we are led through the details of how Sierra Leone made its gradual descent from one of the most promising countries in West Africa, the place that used to be called "the Athens of Africa", to what is today considered euphemistically a "collapsed state". While one has heard of Foday Sankoh and the RUF, and one has an idea that diamonds are involved, Aminatta Forna takes us back to the very beginning of the process of decay. From the imprisonment of the victors in the 1967 elections, to the eventual rise to power of the rightful victor of that election, Siaka Stephens, and his consolidation of Sierra Leone into a one-party state completely under his own control.
The book is divided into two parts. In part one, we read about Aminatta's first ten years, as she moved between Scotland, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the political situation in Sierra Leone, and the state of her parents' marriage. Consumed by politics, and not fully accepted by Forna's very traditional Sierra Leonean family, Mohamed Forna and his Scottish wife Maureen quickly grew apart. By the time Aminatta was eight, she had lived in six different homes, in three different countries. Part one ends when Mohamed Forna is taken away by state security, imprisoned, and his children never see him again.
Part two begins some 25 years later, in the year 2000, when Aminatta has started to research the death of her father. As a child she was told he died of stomach ulcers, which she always knew was not the truth. She returns from England to war-torn Sierra Leone where she seeks out everyone involved in her father's arrest, trial, and execution. She interviews scores of people, reads the complete trial transcript, and uses her own memories of the day he was taken away to try to piece together what really happened. What she finds is a blatant perversion of justice. Bribed and tortured witnesses, manufactured evidence, a jury of government stooges, and a judge obviously in the pockets of the state, together find her father guilty of treason and condemn him to death.
The narrator, Aminatta Forna herself, who writes in the first person, is not completely trustworthy, however. Particularly in the beginning of the book, she makes so many polemical statements about the nature of states' corruption, in the midst of which she states as fact a contested interpretation of history-who really killed Patrice Lumumba-that one is thenceforth wary of her claims.
Coming to the book with very little knowledge of Sierra Leonean history, and again recognizing her bias towards her father's goodness, his achievements, after a while, become somewhat incredulous. We are repeatedly told how brilliant Mohamed Forna was. At medical school in Scotland he was top of his class. The clinic he opened in a rural Sierra Leonean town was the model of Sierra Leonean healthcare. He won his parliamentary seat by the largest margin ever, he had the most support of all the politicians, as finance minister his budget was the most sensible that Sierra Leone had ever seen, and Sierra Leone enjoyed a fiscal surplus for the first time while he was minister. Sometimes it seems a bit too good to be true. Then she lets us know that he does have a weakness. Mohamed Forna's only shortcoming, according to his daughter's account, was with women. He carried on an extra-marital affair openly in front of his children, as he betrayed their stepmother who had spent the previous four years of her own life looking after his own children in England, while he was in prison. Yet the incidental treatment that Aminatta Forna gives this aspect of her father's life leaves the reader not fully understanding why Forna has included this in her account, as she does not use it to help us to understand her father and his choices.
However, I must confess that I couldn't put the book down once I had started reading it. Even amongst my quibbles about style and some of the content, I was compelled to keep turning the pages until I had finished, in a virtual non-stop two day reading marathon. Indeed these drawbacks that I cite, by the end of the book, are either forgotten or forgiven, as the account is so detailed and well researched, and too, moving.
The point is that once democracy, and democratic institutions and processes get corrupted, it tends to be a slippery slope, with a very unpleasant end, that exacts its tolls not only on countries, but on the lives and relationships of individuals. Aminatta Forna's book is a pithy and personal account of exactly how this happens.
My favorite quote from the book, "He was not in charge of his destiny" describes so many struggling in poverty and oppression. This country's story demands more documentation and Ms. Forna has added to that documentation.
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Well written.
If you like to read a book without lazy cliche's and an original account of near history, her people and the vast oceans of how cultures are seen through her eyes with no judgement what so ever, just the pure acceptance of a child growing amidst this confusion, it's a must read. Not depressing at all (although the actual circumstances are very sad) Forna manages to keep that at bay and you read with humour and a smile. You're left feeling wistful in a good way about this book. Struggles, barbaric incidences, the stark transitions between cultures and how this family were thrown around by politics, fearing for their lives and yet so incredibly innocent. Brilliant!!!!