The Devil That Danced on the Water

Posted on 18 February 2017 by Aminatta Forna

Praised as a shining example of what autobiography can be harrowing, illuminating and thoughtful USA Today , Aminatta Forna s intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an idyllic childhood which became the stuff of nightmare As a child she witnessed the upheavals of post colonial Africa, danger, flight, the bitterness or exile in Britain and the terrible consequences of her dissident father s stand against tyranny.Mohamed Forna was a man of unimpeachable integrity and enchanting charisma As Sierra Leone faced its future as a fledgling democracy, he was a new star in the political firmament, a man who had been one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war He stole the heart of Aminatta s mother to the dismay of her Presbyterian parents and returned with her to Sierra Leone But as Aminatta Forna shows with compelling clarity, the old Africa was torn apart by new ways of western parliamentary democracy, which gave birth only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto undreamed of magnitude It was not long before Mohamed Forna languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and worse to follow.Aminatta s search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the nation s destiny began among the country s elite and took her into the heart of rebel territory Determined to break the silence surrounding her father s fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated the highest reaches of government and forced the nation s politicians and judiciary to confront their guilt The Devil that Danced on the Water is a book of pain and anger and sorrow, written with tremendous dignity and beautiful precision a remarkable, and important, story of Africa. Download The Devil That Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna – kino-fada.fr I take my hat off to the author, her research abilities and her stylist writing A sad memoir about her early life before the arrest of her father, Mohamed Forna, one time Minister of Finance in Sierra Leonne who made the mistake of being too popular and too good in his job The author then had to wait 30 years to be able to obtain the records of his trial and execution from US, UN, and many other sources.Sierra Leone is a failed state and the author s upbringing in the 1970s was just at the sta I take my hat off to the author, her research abilities and her stylist writing A sad memoir about her early life before the arrest of her father, Mohamed Forna, one time Minister of Finance in Sierra Leonne who made the mistake of being too popular and too good in his job The author then had to wait 30 years to be able to obtain the records of his trial and execution from US, UN, and many other sources.Sierra Leone is a failed state and the author s upbringing in the ...Solid 3.5 The Devil That Danced On The Water A Daughter s Quest, is about Aminatta Forna s father Dr Mohammed Forna, a politician in Sierra Leone during the civil war This is a hard book to review mainly because it is one part memoir and another part biography The writer is very close to the issue presented and it is clear that she really did her due diligence I knew very little about Sierra Leone s prickly history, so I appreciated that historical content I got a great look into the count Solid 3.5 The Devil That Danced On The Water A Daughter s Quest, is about Aminatta Forna s father D...I didn t actually know anything about this book when I picked it up, but I recognised Aminatta Forna s name from another book I ve been meaning to read In hindsight, I feel I should ve recognised her name far sooner through a different story All I know is that this book tells the story of her memoir of what and why, exactly, I had no clue I prefer not to read the synopsis of a book upon buying it and, most of the time, I pick up the right ones Upon reading the preface acknowledgement, I real I didn t actually know anything about this book when I picked it up, but I recognised Aminatta Forna s name from another book I ve been meaning to read In hindsight, I feel I should ve recognised her name far sooner through a different story All I know is that this book tells the story of her memoir of what and why, exactly, I had no clue I prefer not to read the synopsis of a book upon buying it and, most of the time, I pick up the right on...This is a pretty good book about recent Sierra Leonean history The author s father played an important role in S L government at the time of its transfer from British colonialism to self rule, and according to Forna, everything he did was correct and upstanding, whereas all the others were corrupt, self serving and basically, evil I do not know enough detail about political historians views of the 70s, 80s and 90s to know if this is correct or not I do know that multiple attrocities were com This is a pretty good book about recent Sierra Leonean history The author s father played an important role in S L government at the time of its transfer from British colonialism to self rule, and according to Forna, everything he did was correct and upstanding, whereas all the others were corrupt, self serving and basically, evil I do not know enough detail about political historians views of the 70s, 80s and 90s to know if this is correct or not I do know that multiple attrocities were committed by several different self declared leaders and opposition members What is certain is that life was unbelievably di...I picked up this book with absolutely no knowledge of its contents Having read one of Forna s works of fiction previously, I was expecting a novel In my blissful ignorance, I think I encountered one of the best written works I have read with elements of the auto biographical and investigative journalism genres at their best This is her real life story, of her British educated Sierra Leonean father and his incredible passion for a country with so much potential, yet destroyed by greed corrupti I picked up this book with absolutely no knowledge of its contents Having read one of Forna s works of fiction previously, I was expecting a novel In my blissful ignorance, I think I encountered one of the best written works I have read with elements of the auto biographical and investigativ...Aminatta Forna s father was a doctor, then activist and politician in Sierra Leone, rising to be Minister of Finance for a while before resigning in public protest at corruption in the government But she was born in Scotland to a Scottish mother while her father was studying medicine there.Unfortunately politics in Sierra Leone was a dangerous business We learn at the very start of the book that, when she was ten, her father was arrested and she never saw him again, but exactly what happened t Aminatta Forna s father was a doctor, then activist and politician in Sierra Leone, rising to be Minister of Finance for a while before resigning in public protest at corruption in the government But she was born in Scotland to a Scottish mother while her father was studying medicine there.Unfortunately politics in Sierra Leone was a dangerous business We learn at the very start of the book that, when she was ten, her father was arrested and she never saw him again, but exactly what happened to him emerges over the course of the book, so even though it is in fact a matter of historical record, I suppose the polite thing to do is to issue a MILD SPOILER ALERT before I go on to talk about it.So, as I was saying, her father along with fourteen other men was arrested and charged on trumped up charges of treason, inevitabl...This book has been compared to Wild Swans for the childhood memories and to The House of the Spirits for the dissident political stuff Quite apart from my personal interest in the subject I was a Peace Corps teacher in Freetown a few years before the events in this book , I found it a sensitive memoir in which the writer is superb at rendering childhood memories of her parents two cultures as well as an amazing personal journey during which she uses her investigative journalistism skills This book has been compared to Wild Swans for the childhood memories and to The House of the Spirits for the dissident political stuff Quite apart from my personal interest in the subject I was a Peace Corps teacher in Freetown a few years before the events in this book , I found it a sensitive memoir in which the writer is superb at rendering childhood memories of her parents two cultures as well as an amazing personal journey during which she uses her investigative journalistism skills to uncover the truth she had never really knew before about her father.Aminatta Forna was born in Scot...forna s bio and chronicle of her investigation into her father s disappearance murder by the ruling regime just before RUP exploded and started cutting off hands, selling blood diamonds, giving drugs to their child soldiers etc in sierra leone aminatta is daughter of mohamad forna scottish trained md, and past finance minister to sierra leone and scottish mom mom bailed about when aminatta was 8 or so, never to really enter back into her childrens or husband s lives so this book rea...The book is a memoir of her father Dr Mohammed Forna, a Sierra Leone politician, who was executed by the government of Shaka Stevens of Sierra Leone The book begins when she is 10 years old on the day her father was taken away never to be seen again by his family Ms Forna then returns to her beginnings in Scotland and then on to life in the Forna family in Sierra Leone running parallel with the violent politics of post colonial Africa coups, counter coups, deception, bribery, lies, torture a The book is a memoir of her father Dr Mohammed Forna, a Sierra Leone politician, ...This story is at once a political thriller, a historical text, and a biography Aminatta Forna manages to skillfully weave her father s personal journey with her own, giving the reader an experience that is as painful as it is poignant This Sierra Leonean journalist makes the harrowing journey from the daugher of a prominent physician and politic...

English
18 February 2017

Aminatta Forna