KWEE: Liberian Literary Magazine AUGUST 1, 2015 ISSUE | Page 17

Liberian Literary Magazine

Book Review

July 15, 2015 ISSUE # 0715
. his family are
where he went with
nostalgic in tone, reminding us of
the Liberia before the war. It’s a
story of man’s dependence on the
soil, on its yields, and of the pride
that swells the farmer’s chest as
he gazes at golden stems of rice
ready for harvest, the product of
his labor. Momoh grows up within
this secure environment, in a
world
that
embraces
both
tradition and modernity.
In his village Gordorlahun, deep
in the forest of northern Liberia,
he hears echoes of a distant city
called Monrovia, where his uncle
lives. He captures this peaceful
world in prose that borders on the
sentimental,
but
that
is
appropriate in context. But
Momoh is eager to leave this world
behind. Soon he trades his village
Gordorlahun
for
Monrovia to live with
his uncle. Here the
war meets him.
The havoc that war
wreaks
is
so
horrifying
that
Momoh flees, first to Sierra Leone,
and then to Guinea, where he’s
confronted with the corruption
within the ranks of the various
NGOs that were set up to help
refugees. The passages here make
for uncomfortable reading. But
there’s a spark of hope. Momoh is
awarded a scholarship by a Jewish
lady, Mary Anne Schwalbe, on the
strength of an essay he wrote to
pursue his studies in America. In a
country such as Liberia where at a
certain point during the war a
Muslim name and affiliation were
reason enough to be gunned down,
a Jewish woman who did not share
his faith, but who believed in
common humanity and the ties
that bind us, saw beyond his name
and the color of his skin, and
stretched out her hands to help
him.
The chapters could have been
better arranged, the narrative

Harrowing December:
Recounting a Journey of
Sorrows & Triumphs

The Liberian civil war has given
us narratives ranging from fiction
to memoirs. These works are
attempts to capture the various
experiences
and
atrocities
committed during the war, to
inform us or remind us never to
forget. One of the recent offerings
is the memoir written by Momoh
Dudu
entitled
Harrowing
December: Recounting a Journey
of Sorrows & Triumphs. The title
alludes to Charles Taylor’s
crossing of the Liberian border
from the Ivory Coast in December
1989, and the onset of what would
turn out to be the bloodiest war in
the country’s history.
Harrowing December tells the
story of Momoh’s early years in
Liberia before and during the war,
and his flight first to Sierra Leone,
Guinea, and then the United
States. Passages about the farm

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more lineal. The writer should
have dwelled on life in war-torn
Liberia, on his communication or
lack of it with the wife and child
that he left behind, for that would
have given us more insight into his
struggles in America, as he tried to
wade his way in the stormy waters
of exile. Nevertheless, Harrowing
December is a well written
memoir that reminds us that in the
end ethnicity is an illusion, that
we have it in us as humans to
reach out across those lines that
tradition and various narratives
have imposed upon us, and to
break them when necessary. It’s a
lesson for Liberia.
Harrowing December:
Recounting a Journey of Sorrows
& Triumphs,
By: Momoh Sekou Dudu. Denver:
Outskirts Press, 2014. 222 pages.
Reviewed by: Vamba Sherif

Vamba Sherif

http://othnieldf.wix.com/mybooks