Gorilla Dawn

Another amazing social and environmental piece from Gill Lewis, set deep in the African jungle, we are caught in the midst of war, murder, gorilla trading and environmental destruction in the name of progress. Powerful and thought-provoking from the start, I read it straight through to the end, unable to put it down. Imara is the Spirit guide for the Black Mamba and his band of rebel soldiers, she believes that she has the devil inside her and that he talks to her, directing her actions. Everyone else believes that to look into her eyes is to see their own death. The rebel soldiers bring death and destruction in their wake, stealing children, food and supplies as they travel to find coltan, a dull, grey stone, crucial to the production of computers and mobile phones all over the world. Bobo is the son of a ranger whose duty it is to protect the gorillas in the mountains. When the mzungus (whites) come to trade with the rebels, they bring guns and ask for a gorilla baby to be found for them. Killing the Silverback and stealing the gorilla from its mother, the rebels carry the baby away from all it has ever known, in much the same way as they take boys from their villages and train them to be soldiers. Imara is expected to keep the gorilla alive and, with the help of Saka, Frog and Bobo, she discovers that friendship and love are not weaknesses. We learn that although the country seems steeped in corruption, smuggling and murder, good finds a way through in the guise of the rangers, the Halfway House, the United Nations. We each have a choice; with each dawn we need to ask ourselves, what is our part in this? How are we to use this day to make the next one a better world?

Suggested Reading Age 9+