Land of My Fathers, (279 pages) is Liberian author, Vamba Sherif’s first publication. It was originally published in Dutch (Het Land van de vaders) by Uitgeverij De Gues in 1999 and later republished in English by HopeRoad Publishing Ltd. in London, in 2016. Other published works by Vamba Sherif include The Kingdom of Sheba, The Witness, Black Napoleon and Bound to Secrecy
Land of My Fathers’ is a fictional account of Liberia’s history. The novel, divided into five Books is narrated by characters who play a formative, cultural and social role in the evolution of this West African nation over a two-hundred-year period. The narrators, and main cast of characters share ancestry and a role in the nation’s triumphs and tragedies.
Edward Richards, a freed slave, sets out on a mission to save the souls of the indigenous Liberians, including Halay, the son of indigenous warriors. Halay must live up to the legend of being the savior of his people who are doomed by a predicted war, the time and place of which is unknown.
Most of the first three books are set in the Liberian interior and focus on Edward Richards and Halay and is narrated by them. Chapters 1 and 2 of Book I feature Edward Richards, son of a slave master and a slave, before his arrival in Liberia. They vividly portray the day to day hardships and dehumanization of slaves. They also reveal Edwards’ dreams of freedom in the land from which his African forefathers came. “There is a country called Liberia, where people who were once slaves here in America live in freedom. Some natives of that country speak the language. It’s called Vai. They say an Indian taught them to write their language down, but what we know for certain is that one of their people had a dream in which he was taught the language. It will be our language… the one we will speak when we return to Africa (p.13).” In his idealistic dream of Liberia, Edward Richards sees a future in which “a house [that] will overlook a river…we will speak African languages to our children. We will learn to appreciate the natives (p.24).”
Arriving in Liberia, Edward Richard soon learns about the infringement of the French and British on a fledgling country as well as the predicament of returned Congos, “Africans who didn’t know their country of origin…and brought to Liberia (p.43). He discovers that there are local leaders bent on trading their fellow captured natives. Edward Richards sees himself as an ambassador of Christianity, whose mission is, not that of trade and nation building but, to save the souls of natives in the hinterland. He fights a life and death battle with malaria but survives and sets off on his mission to save native Liberians from animism, their masked devils and what to him are mysterious rituals.
Halay is a man of the traditional world, a warrior, respected leader and savior of his people, the chosen one. He belongs to “a tradition that could be traced back to a group of people, who determined to forge a new beginning for themselves, had crossed crocodile-infested rivers and had fought strange beings and lost companions in the process and, exhausted and unable to press on any longer, had decided to settle in the embrace of these forest (p.86).”
Edward embeds himself in the indigenous world in order to fulfill his Christian mission and begins to obsessively chronicle their history and tradition. His life intersects with that of Halay and they become dear friends despite coming from different worlds. Halay, believing Edward has become one of them, abducts him and Edward finds himself being initiated into its secret society. Soon after, Halay, the leader of his people and anointed redeemer, haunted by the news of war, sacrifices his life to save his people from the war of all wars.
Books four and five jump forward one hundred years and is narrated by Halay’s descendant and namesake. The predicted war arrives despite the sacrifice Halay made to avert it. His descendants, who had fled across the Liberian border to save themselves, return home when the war threatens to invade their place of refuge in Guinea. Settling back into the shell of their city, they reunite with some of Edward’s descendants who had remained and survived despite encountered terror and loss. Edward Richards descendants have kept his manuscripts, a symbol of family pride. Halay’s male descendant, who bears his name, is a young artist in mid-teens. He has inherited the responsibility of being his people’s savior and perhaps that of the nation, too. Some war victims blamed their loss on the failure of his ancestor’s sacrifice. But for others, the power of the legend of his ancestor remains strong. Young Halay, during a breakthrough moment, draws a painting of his ancestor-- a fearless and fearful masked being that becomes a reenergizing symbol of strength and hope. “I have given life to death, a voice to the past, and present, and a face to the unknown (p.269).”
© Althea Romeo-Mark, May 2018.
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