The Bite of the Mango

Two years after moving to the camp and four months after first hearing from Bill, another social worker, Yabom, offers Mariatu an opportunity to fly to England to have prosthetic hands fitted, courtesy of a benefactor named David. Mariatu is not enthusiastic, having already become attached to the idea of moving to Canada. However, she knows that “moving away would be the best thing for me and for the family financially” (132), so she fakes excitement and agrees.

Mariatu does not have a passport or birth certificate so Yabom takes her to apply for them. At a government office, she gives Mariatu a lesson in the history of her country, explaining Sierra Leone’s colonial past, and the corruption of its politicians once it became independent in the 1960s.

Yabom also explains how Foday Sankoh started the Revolutionary United Front to challenge this corruption but turned out to be “worse than any of the politicians he accused of thievery” (137), preying on poor boys with “broken spirits” (137) and turning them into child soldiers.

When Mariatu and Yabom fill in her application forms, Mariatu also has to sign them with a toe print, which an official explains is common practice “[s]ince so many people have lost their hands in the war” (139).

As Mariatu says goodbye to her family, Marie tells her that she is the family’s “hope for the future” and tells her, “Don’t look back […] Always look forward” (141). 

Mariatu and Yabom are staying in a flat in London, along with the owner, a Sierra Leonean woman named Mariama. Mariatu does not enjoy London, disliking the endless rain and the lack of vibrant colors, complaining that “[g]ray is hard to appreciate” (144).

Mariatu has her own bedroom in the flat, a new experience that she finds unsettling because she is “used to sleeping with someone on both sides of me” and feeling “safe listening to their breathing” (145). She starts to have nightmares about the rebels chasing her. When Yabom comes to comfort her one night, they end up talking through until morning with Yabom listening “as few people have ever listened to [her] before” (146-147).

Mariatu finds the prosthetic hands difficult and demeaning, noting that “[t]his wasn’t how I wanted to feed myself. In fact, I had become quite proficient without the device […] I didn’t need those fake fingers” (149).

One day, Yabom and Mariama ask her who Bill is. Mariatu feels uncomfortable but dismisses their concern by saying, “it’s not like he wants me to move to Canada” (153). However, they reveal that he actually does. Mariatu is excited because, although “all [she] knew about the strange place called Canada was that salt fell from the sky,” she also “knew somehow that Canada was where [she] belonged” (153).

The adults say that she cannot leave England because her new hands are not yet ready and there is a risk that she will get stuck in Sierra Leone and never leave again. However, Mariatu admits that she does not need the hands and knows that she should be Canada. She tells Yabom, that “I tried to speak up in the past, but I always gave in to what older people wanted. This time, I want you to trust me” (156). For the first time, an adult accepts this and Yabom says “I will trust you. After all, this is your life” (156).