And Still Peace Did Not Come

“Reopening old wounds will be painful, but in the end, the scar will be smaller.”

When I pick this book, it was meant to fulfill the ‘Political Memoir’ category on this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. But, after I read this book, I realize that this book isn’t only a political memoir  of a country, but also an autobiography of a woman.  This is a woman journey to help rebuild and bring peace to her country. This book tells stories about Liberia journey through their Civil War, or like they called it in this book, their own version of ‘World War I’ and ‘World War II’. War that last from 1989 to 2003, between the government, rebels, and warlords. Wars that make the lives of so many Liberian children turn into nightmares and terror, as they forced them to be child soldiers. It’s also a story of a woman named Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna, who largely escaped the worst effect of the war, but ended up as a journalist trying to bring peace to her country by talking about what really happened in these wars.

Unlike other war memoirs I’ve read, ‘And Still Peace Did Not Come’ gives us multi-dimensional perspective in wars. Agnes gives us layered perspectives between  victims and perpetrators, civilians and soldiers, guilt and innocence. It shows us the complexity of a war, which I think make this book as one of the most important book for us to read in this time.

Every chapter begin with a story or a statement from people whom Agnes has interviewed. You will find lot of stories about young girls being raped. Stories about young boys being forced to do drugs so they will feel nothing when they’re forced to kill and raped people, sometimes even their own family. A story about a mother who got separated from one of her four daughters and forced to watch as a rebel killed her other daughters and her husband. And after years of being separated, she finally reunited with her now only daughter again. Only to learn that her daughter has been married to and in love with the very same man who killed her husband and other daughters. Story about a boy who forced to become a child soldier so he can save his grandmother life. Sadly, his grandmother won’t even take him back after the war is over, because he has killed people from his own village. It is devastating.

Like Agnes said herself in this book, “Somebody’s life is another people’s education.” There are a lot of powerful messages that we can learn from this book. Honestly, reading this makes me think a lot about the problem that we have to face nowadays. If we give it a thought, this books provided so many useful insight on how to solve some of our recent social and humanity problems. By reading it, you will learn that you can not solve something if you only want to hear one side of a story. You have to be willing to cross the border, reach out, and try to understand the other side as well. Reconciliation is an important part for a country like Liberia to move on and grow. If not, then it could begin an endless cycle of vengeance and death. But still, like we will see in this book, a road to peace won’t be a smooth one, it’s a bumpy road.

I have to admit that this is not an easy book to read. The stories are harrowing and heart-breaking. There are a lot of points in this book that has forced me to stop reading, or I might breakdown and cry for days. There’s even one time when I had to ask my brother to bought me 2 pints of ice cream and a chocolate bar in 24 hour convenience store because I was that sad and devastated. I can’t say much about the writing in this book, as English is not my first language. I peeked on Goodreads and some people said that the writing is poor. But I have to say that I quite enjoy the writing, because it feels like I was listening to a story-teller. And since that’s basically the purpose of this book, I don’t think that it’s a big problem. Nevertheless, like Gloria Steinem said, this book is a gift. I really think that everyone should read it.

• Title                     : And Still Peace Did Not Come (A Memoir of Reconciliation)
• Author                 : Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna and Emily Holland
• Language            : English
• Page count          :  320 pages (Hardcover)
• Trigger Warning  : Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Violence, Actual Description of War.