The Bite of the Mango

Salieu is a family friend who rapes Mariatu when she is twelve years old, leaving her so ashamed and confused that she does not feel able to tell anyone. When the rebels attack, Salieu is shot and killed in front of Mariatu. A month after the attack, Mariatu, recovering from her mutilation in hospital, discovers that she is pregnant with Salieu’s child. This leads Mariatu to attempt suicide and, later, leaves her severely depressed.

After his death, Salieu twice appears to Mariatu in dreams. The first time, he accepts little responsibility for his actions and chastises her for trying to kill herself and her baby. Mariatu is able to respond with great anger and vehemence, something she does not generally express in her waking life. The second time she dreams of him is after their son, Abdul, has died. In this dream, Salieu accepts more responsibility for his actions and admits that he was selfish. When Abdul appears on his lap, he tells Mariatu that “Everything will be fine now […] Don’t blame yourself again for Abdul’s death” (110). Although she still “hated him for what he had done to me” (110) and does not take comfort from his words, Mariatu does wake feeling a little lighter after seeing this dream-version of Salieu. 

Yabom is a Sierra Leonean social worker who arranges Mariatu’s trip to England. She accompanies Mariatu on this journey and stays with her in the flat in London. She is responsible for a number of firsts in Mariatu’s life. She is the first person to give Mariatu any kind of lesson about the history of her own country, explaining Sierra Leone’s colonial past, its government corruption, and how the Revolutionary United Front formed to challenge this but ended up being worse that those they were opposing. This is the most Mariatu has learned about her country and the war that cost her her hands.

Later, in England, Yabom is also the first person to hear Mariatu’s whole life story. When Mariatu starts having nightmares about the rebels, Yabom suggests that she might be having the dreams “because you feel far away and safe from the rebels now. Maybe emotional things are coming up for you, memories you need to talk about” (146). Yabom encourages Mariatu to speak to her about these things and then listens “as few people have ever listened to [Mariatu] before” (147), even sharing details about her own life and providing advice and support.

Finally, Yabom is the first person to trust Mariatu to make her own choices about her life. For most of her life, Mariatu has followed the orders of her elders, even when this has led to disaster and pain. However, when she develops the confidence to tell Yabom that she does not want prosthetic hands and wants to leave England and go to Canada, Yabom tells her, “I will trust you. After all, this is your life” (156). By the end of their time together in England, Mariatu has “come to love Yabom like a mother” (164).

Comfort’s role in Mariatu’s life is more ambiguous than Yabom’s. Also a social worker, Comfort organizes Mariatu’s journey to Canada. Before this, she impresses Mariatu with her “framed certificates and diplomas” (125) and serves as an early example of how education can improve lives. While never as kindly or maternal as Yabom, Comfort is nevertheless supportive and changes Mariatu’s life for the better at several points. However, things take a more sinister turn when it is revealed that the reason Mariatu has to leave Bill’s house and move in with Kadi and Abou is because Comfort was threatening to take her back to Sierra Leone. A later email from Bill explains that Comfort had wanted to stay in Canada herself and had tried to use Mariatu as a bargaining chip to achieve this. Perhaps because she understands why someone might be desperate to leave Sierra Leone, Mariatu appears to forgive this behavior, concluding that like Bill and the others, Comfort “did a good thing” (190) for her by getting her to Canada.