To Read

[close] WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY of the NAACP Image Awards nominated novel "Congo (Spirit of Darkness, #1)" written by the Ngwala brothers.

On the smooth, cool rock Layila watches as her elders beat the dust from their bright clothes, singing sweet songs of gods and demons; dreamlike stories of fire and water, forest and sky. She has never seen the evil spirits from her mother's songs, those that dwell in the deepest jungle, but Layila knows she must always keep watch for them, for they bring certain death and destruction to all. So when Layila sees the strange pale beings, with their unnatural gait, their sharp, unfamiliar smells, approaching her people at the waterside, she knows she must run. Vanishing herself into the enfolding gloom of the jungle she watches as Kimbindi, spirit of darkness—Belgian incomers—shackle and ravage her mother, her sisters, her friends, before leading them away from the safety of the forest path and into unknown territories. The preadolescent is lost in this tangled expanse of untamed and merciless wilderness in the company of her friends. Both watch as the land of Congo is ravaged by cold-hearted aggressors, who infect it with a darkness that spreads down the rivers and paths, like poison in the blood vessels, through the very heart of Africa. [close]