| Title | : | In the Land of Magic Soldiers: A Story of White and Black in West Africa |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 031242292X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780312422929 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2003 |
A chilling, beautifully written narrative of African war
Sierra Leone is the world's most war-ravaged country. There, in a West African landscape of spectacular beauty, rampaging soldiers--many not yet in their teens--have made a custom of hacking off the hands of their victims, then letting them live as the ultimate emblem of terror. The country is so anarchic and so desperate that, forty years after independence, its people long to be recolonized. And the West wants to save it.
Daniel Bergner's In the Land of Magic Soldiers follows both a set of white would-be saviors--a family of American missionaries, a mercenary helicopter gunship pilot, and the army of Great Britain--and also a set of Sierra Leoneans, among them a father who rescues his daughter from rape, loses his hands as punishment, then begins to rebuild his life; a child soldier and sometime cannibal; and a highly Westernized medical student who claims immunity to bullets and a cure for H.I.V.
A story of black and white, of the First World and the world left infinitely behind, of those who would nation-build and those who live in a land of fire and jungle, In the Land of Magic Soldiers is an unforgettable work of literary reportage by "a terrific reporter with a novelist's eye" (Peter Applebome, The New York Times Book Review ).
In the Land of Magic Soldiers: A Story of White and Black in West Africa Reviews
-
I spent the better part of 1983 in Sierra Leone. This book chronicles the spread of the civil war and the effects on individuals throughout the country. Powerful.
-
This book was easy to fall into, but hard to digest in some parts. The people that Bergner chose to write about have phenomenal stories and it feels like he dives really deeply into who they are and the roles they play in the Sierra Leone that he explores. There is a lot of violence in their histories--an unusual violence. This type of violence that is just unfathomable and surely unhuman. It is sickening and shocking, but, and this seems to be one of his points, these people just keep going despite all that has happened to them and the people around them.
Bergner's own perspective and the opinions of those that he meets, are honest, brutally honest. He brings to the forefront a very modern discussion of race and prejudice in a post-colonial land. -
I went after this book when I finished Bergner's book The Other Side of Desire. This one is a look into Sierra Leone through the perspectives of a white missionary family, a former child soldier, a Rhodesian mercenary, and an aspiring physician. Granted, I will read anything about Africa, but I found this book especially brave in that Bergner was willing to ask uncomfortable questions about his own race and how that influenced his writing and perceptions, the legacies of colonialism, and foreign aid. Very thought provoking and discomfiting.
-
The author takes a long look at the civil war ravaging Sierra Leone and the toll it took on the people who lived through it. Their stories tell the horrors of war and the struggle that still continues to this day. A very thought provoking read to be sure.
-
Not exactly "Shadow of the Sun" or "We Wish to Inform You That ..." but well worth a read.
-
He just wrote an article for the NYT Mag about American activist for Africa John Prendergast. More of my fascination with the DARK CONTINENT.
