The Bite of the Mango

Mariatu is frustrated with staying at camp looking after Abdul. Eventually, she insists on going begging with her cousins. The adults protest but an older lady named Mabinty says that she will go along to look after Abdul while Mariatu is begging. Mariatu is delighted.

One day, while Mabinty is busy talking to a friend, Mariatu keeps Abdul with her while she begs and receives a surprisingly large donation. Mabinty explains that the donor “took pity on you” and suggests that Mariatu will “get more money than anybody” (102) if she carries Abdul while begging, something she quickly discovers is true.

Several months later, a camp official reports that journalists wish to speak to Mariatu. When the official reveals that “[m]aybe someone will read about her and send her money” (103), or may even take her to live in the West, Mariatu reluctantly agrees to speak to the journalists. Over the next few weeks, she gives several interviews, discussing her life, her baby, and her experiences of the war.

When Abdul falls ill and desperately needs a blood transfusion, Mariatu blames herself because she “should have loved him more” (107). She manages to secure money for the operation from an Italian missionary and Abdul has the transfusion but it is too late and “[t]hree days later, Abdul’s almost-weightless body fell completely still” (108).

For a long time, Mariatu is inconsolable. One night, she dreams of Salieu again and he admits that “[w]hat [he] did to [Mariatu] was selfish” (110). Abdul appears on his lap, healthy and smiling, and Salieu tells her, “[d]on’t blame yourself again for Abdul’s death” (110). Although she still hates Salieu and misses Abdul, after the dream, Mariatu feels “a lightness [she] hadn’t experienced in a while” (110).

Another girl called Mariatu encourages Mariatu to join the camp’s theater troupe. When Mariatu says she cannot act, her new friend suggests singing. When Mariatu says she cannot sing, the other Mariatu suggests dancing. To this, Mariatu has no argument, acknowledging that “[e]very village girl in Sierra Leone learns to dance as soon as she can walk” (113).

The troupe work on a play about the war in which the rebels’ child soldiers are seen as scared victims who “wished they could return to their own villages and their old lives” (119). The play ends with “the boy rebels and the victims walking out onstage, arm in arm, and singing about peace” (119). Afterwards, they dance and Mariatu feels “really alive for the first time in ages” (120).

When the troupe leader, Victor, announces that the troupe will soon perform in front of government officials, Mariatu is terrified but feels compelled to perform in order to “help raise awareness of my country’s problems” (121).