USA Africa Dialogue Series - Returning to Kolahun

' The ease with which they told of the horrors of the war astounded
me. 'A rebel commander caught your mother,' the town chief of
Massabolahun told me, 'and believe me, Sherif, for I was there when it
happened. He fired a whole round at her and not a single bullet
touched her. Yours is a unique family. It was not a bullet that killed
your mother, but illness.' I did not believe him. In this anecdote,
rendered so beautifully, lay the stark truth. My mother was killed by
a rebel. In a tradition where truth takes on many forms, I had been
spared the pain of the hard truth by another, less painful truth. In
subsequent days, I learned to live with that truth.'

from PlaceNames, by Liberian writer, Vamba Sherif, in AW10, the latest
edition of African Writing (www.african-writing.com)

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