Beneath the Tamarind Tree by Isha Sesay

Bring Back Our Girls.  

International journalist Isha Sesay examines the mass abduction of two hundred and seventy-six girls from their Nigerian school in 2014. She explores the events of that day when the militant Islamic group, Boko Haram, kidnapped the students, an ordeal that lasted over two years for some and sadly, continues for over one hundred girls today. Specifically, she follows the journey of four girls stolen away from their loved ones into a precarious nomadic life. In this mainly Christian group of girls they are continuously pressured to convert to Islam, then coerced to marry the insurgents. Those who do not convert endure beatings and starvation.  

All the while the Nigerian government almost seems to ignore the family members’ pleas to step in and find them. Their story was thrust into a political abyss where the #Bring Back Our Girls movement became a threat to an ineffective government. 

While the world was shocked to first hear of this horrific event, it was not the only audacious abduction of a large group of girls.  As Boko Haram gains more power, the kidnappings and killings of innocent people continues today.  Isha Sesay sheds light on an ongoing threat that should not be ignored. In her words she states:

“The horrors that these girls have endured do not belong in a Nigerian vacuum. The place for every single one of them is right at the heart of the conversation about the global threats America is facing, and the development of a more holistic counterterrorism response that might just make all of us a little safer.” 

Isha Sesay, Beneath the Tamarind Tree(New York: Dey St.—An Imprint of William Morrow, 2019), 20.

“Terrorism in the twenty-first century has no borders.” 

Isha Sesay, Beneath the Tamarind Tree(New York: Dey St.—An Imprint of William Morrow, 2019), 20.

Annette