Aftermath

We had a lockdown drill on Tuesday. They always make me sad. Sadder still is what happened in Nigeria four years ago.

The world was shocked when, on the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of  Chibok, Nigeria. They made news for a long time, then, as these things do, their story seemed to just drift away.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani brings their story back to us in her novel,  Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree.  it gives us some insight into the aftermath of the abduction, to what the gorls had to go through.

Publisher’s Summary: Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Includes an afterword by award-winning journalist Viviana Mazza.

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach.

But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told.

Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.

I picked up an ARC in New Orleans, hoping it would be a book I could use in my class. I think it is just a little too mature for 6th graders. I hope some of my students read it when they get to high school.