89 pages • 2-hour read
The Bite of the Mango
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Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Yabom, David, and Mariama stop trying to convince Mariatu to use her prosthetic hands and she shows them that she can perform tasks such as dressing, cooking, and feeding herself “using just my arms and teeth” (157). Mariatu recognizes that “the adults viewed [her] experience as a failure” (157) but she believes that she gained a lot from her time in London, not least the confidence “to listen to [her]inner voice and speak up for what [she] needed and wanted” (157). During her trip, she also becomes interested in fashion and makeup for the first time. As she leaves to fly back to Sierra Leone, Mariama gifts her some makeup to take with her.
When she arrives in Sierra Leone, Mariatu wishes to visit her family at the amputee camp but Yabom is reluctant. Mariatu insists and, when Yabom’s husband says that Mariatu is “old enough to decide” (161), she concedes and says, “[a]gainst my better judgement, I will trust you” (161).
Mariatu’s family are delighted to see her and she is happy to be able to buy food for them. She and Mohamed joke together, although her observation about him looking like a movie star falls flat because she has forgotten that he has “never seen a television program or a movie” (162).
Mariatu is aware of how her clothing and her experiences set her apart from other people in the camp and she is careful not to talk too much about her time in England because she does not “want to make others feel worse about their situation (163). She thinks back to walking around London in “tall black boots” and feeling “stylish, like I belonged in the city” (164).
Mariatu is sad to learn that Comfort, not Yabom, will be accompanying her to Canada. After several months of organizing, they are due to leave and Mariatu decides to visit Marie, Alie, and Adamsay in their new village. She intends to stay for a night of singing and dancing but receives a message from Comfort that she must return to Freetown to finish her paperwork. After an emotional goodbye, she leaves.
Chapter 17 Summary
After nineteen hours of travel, Mariatu and Comfort arrive to Toronto, Canada. Mariatu is happy to see that the place is more colorful than London and that the air is warm and humid, like in Sierra Leone.
After being escorted past a crowd of journalists and photographers, Mariatu meets Bill at the airport, along with his wife, Shelley, and their son, Richard. Although she is afraid that she will not be “what this Canadian family expects” (170), she spends several happy days in their home.
One day, Bill takes her to a party hosted by a Sierra Leonean couple, Kadi and Abou Nabe, and their extended family. This gives Mariatu the opportunity to eat Sierra Leonean food again and play with Sierra Leonean children around her own age, making the experience “one of the best times of my life” (171).
Later that night, Bill wakes her up unexpectedly and telling her, “I’m taking you to see Kadi and Abou again” (172). He drops her at their home and drives off, leaving Mariatu with “an eerie feeling […] that I might never see him again” (172).
Chapter 18 Summary
That evening, Bill has not returned. When Kadi reaches him on the phone, Bill explains that Comfort has threatened to take her back to Sierra Leone, so Bill has left her with Kadi and Abou, in order to keep her in Canada.
Mariatu is delighted to share a room with the girls she had met at the party and pleased when Kadi suggests that she needs “some family and some Sierra Leonean cooking to help you get used to this strange country” (174). She ends up staying for several weeks before learning that Comfort has returned to Sierra Leone.
After Comfort leaves, Mariatu continues to stay with Kadi, and the girls, who Mariatu refers to collectively as “the nieces” (175), encourage her to start school with them in September. Mariatu, who has never attended a school, is reluctant, “afraid that I’d make a fool of myself” (177). However, one day, the nieces wake her and tell her “We’re going to braid your hair, and then we’re going to the library” (179). On the way, they explain what a library is and tell her, “on Monday we all want you to go to school!” (179).
Kadi clarifies that she has enrolled Mariatu on an English language course that will prepare her for starting at high school with the others. Mariatu tries to protest but Kadi tells her that, “It’s time to get moving, girl!” (180). One of the nieces adds that, “If Kadi says you have to do something […] you’d better do it, or else she will send you back to Sierra Leone” (180). In the library, Kadi selects several children’s books and encourages Mariatu to start reading and Mariatu realizes that she really does “need to get going!” (181).
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Many of the changes and tensions from earlier in the book continue in these chapters. Mariatu continues to assert her independence by refusing the prosthetics and finding her own ways to perform essential tasks. She also recognizes that, during the trip to London, she has developed the confidence to insist on making her own choices like an independent adult.
This is mirrored in the responses of the adults around her, with both Yabom and her husband acknowledging that she is no longer a child and should be trusted to make her own decisions. These are some of the first moves towards adulthood that can be seen as self-directed, positive growth, rather than a negative loss of childhood innocence forced on her by others.
Mariatu’s progression into adulthood is also symbolically marked by her growing interest in fashion and makeup. However, this also marks another increasing shift in her sense of identity and belonging. Her interest in, and possession of, Western fashion items, marks her as different from the residents of the camp, and her self-identification has already started to shift away from Sierra Leone and towards the West. In fact, even though she did not enjoy or identify with London, she is already thinking longingly of a place where her clothing made her feel “stylish,” and like she “belonged in the city” (164).
Mariatu also finds a growing division of experience between her and her family, too, shown most starkly by her casually joking about movie stars and forgetting that this “Westernized” cultural reference means nothing to Mohamed.
This divide is symbolically signaled when instead of staying to engage in traditional Sierra Leonean dancing and singing with her family, she instead has to return to Freetown so that she does not miss her chance to travel to her new home of Canada.
As soon as she arrives in Canada, the bright colors and the warm, humid air make Mariatu feel immediately at home, confirming her belief that Canada is where she belongs. Staying with Kadi and the nieces helps with this considerably, providing her with a home-away-from-home and allowing her to feel connected to both Sierra Leone and Canada.
The only time Mariatu starts to feel homesick for Sierra Leone is when the nieces encourage her to start school, which frightens her and makes her long to return to a place where being an unschooled war amputee is not such a rare, alienating thing. However, when Kadi tells her that she is starting an English language course (and one of the nieces jokingly suggests that her choice is between obeying or being sent back to Sierra Leone), she realizes that it will help her integrate into her new home, once again increasing her sense of belonging in Canada.
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