Kamakwie: Finding Peace, Love, and Injustice in Sierra Leone Paperback – November 18, 2011

As the author's brother I eagerly anticipated the release of this book. I had the privilege of previewing a number of chapters, pre-publication, but not the final product until it arrived on my doorstep. As I proudly began to read I expected to be effusive with praise for my sister. What I didn't expect was to be impacted by her experiences as much as I was.This book opened me to a world I previously had no real ability to comprehend. Kathleen's writing style took me there with her. The beautiful photos allowed me to experience her words. I came away with a deeper understanding of the incredible resolve of people, the human ability to love and forgive, and a new basis for assigning value to things, both tangible and intangible.I started the book the moment I got it, and finished it a few hours later, but I haven't stopped thinking about what I read and how it made me feel since.I strongly recommend you experience this journey and share it with your children. Too many of us are disconnected from world's outside of our own. Reading this will definitely put things in perspective.

This book is excellent! The pictures and story of Kathleen Martin's visit to Kamakwie really make you think-about how lucky we are to have grown up in the USA in so many ways but also how the human spirit can thrive even in horrible circumstances. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

I am a Benedictine monk, professed for over forty years, who has just read KAMAKWIE as Lenten spiritual fare. It is probably the most profoundly moving book I have ever read--and perhaps am likely to read--during the Lenten season.--This little work about life--and I use that word deliberately and decidedly--in a small town in Sierra Leone is a rare achievement. To have read KAMAKWIE is to have lived in Kamakwie, even if but briefly...and to have lived in Kamakwie, even if but briefly, is to have known both almost unimaginable human degradation and misery and, in the face of such, the likewise almost unimaginable ability of the human heart to forgive and forget, to fill itself to overflowing with gratitude and joy, to hope. If the slimness of a volume ever belied the force of its contents, that of KAMAKWIE does so in spades.--In her account of her stay in Sierra Leone, the author found just the right balance between the objective and the subjective,between the situations and, especially, the people she encountered there and her personal responses to them. There is no doubt about, variously, the keen grief, the fierce anger, and the sheer delight that she experienced, but she has deftly written of these unintrusively, in a way that only intensifies the reader's focus on the people whom she came to know and love.--And then there are the glorious photographs...many of them reminiscent of Edward Steichen's in THE FAMILY OF MAN. The coordination of the photographs and the text, that is, the physical format of the book, purposely and purposefully mirrors its conceptual format to a degree not often found in publications these days. Clearly the project that was the production of this book had an overarching design, meticulously thought out and meticulously executed--so much so that for its unity and cohesiveness, its integrity as a published work, I would not hesitate to elevate the book to the status of a minor work of art (and minor only because of the modesty of its aim, scope, and size).--The book is divided into relatively brief sections that allow a reader, at will and with ease, to leave off reading and then resume it without loss of train of thought. But, if other readers are anything like me, this is probably needless information. Once I picked the book up, I literally could not put it down until I had finished it.--The pathos is overwhelming, most of all in the author's consideration of the moral dilemmas in which mothers were put during the civil strife that engulfed the country, dilemmas that make the choice in SOPHIE's CHOICE seem like child's play. But so is the celebration of new life where one might least expect to find it. "Compelling" is too pale a word to describe the book. Read it and, at once, let your heart break and your spirit soar.

Kamakwie was a very difficult book to read. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Kathleen Martin to write. "When I went to Sierra Leone...I knew I would see things that would make me sad. And I knew...that I would also find happiness growing like determined wildflowers--seemingly oblivious to the troubles all around. But there was so much I did not know. I did not know the vast darkness of war. I did not know how vicious fate could be. I did not expect at times to feel as if I were imprisoned in a dream where, no matter how I shouted or waved my arms, I could not be heard or seen."This book is clearly Martin's attempt to be heard and seen by the world outside of Sierra Leone, as she tells the story of the people of a country that has so long been held in the vise-like grip of poverty and war. It is not told so much for herself as for the people she met and connected with there, like Abu, a young boy enamored equally of learning and soccer. Like Sallay, who sees atrocities in the war that she has to share, and then later is able to laugh with her sons, showing the triumph of the human spirit over the ugliness of needless death and destruction. Martin writes of her, "I can see, as she speaks, that story digging into her body, clawing into her skin, twisting through her veins on its way out."I suspect that the story of the people of Kamakwie, and, indeed, of Sierra Leone, did the same for Martin. She accepted the challenge and created an extraordinary book. Kamakwie is a double-edged sword, eloquent both in language and in the spirit captured in the stunning photographs throughout the book.Just as telling the story of her stay in Sierra Leone--spending time in hospitals and schools, getting to know mothers and babies, grandfathers and teachers--was a challenge for Martin to write, it is also a challenge for us, the readers. There are sections of the book that are very hard to read, hard to get our minds and hearts around. This was true for me, and I have lived in a third-world country for years, experienced war and seen first hand the effects of malnutrition and lack of medical care. Kamakwie is a glimpse into a world most will never experience. The book asks all of us to open our hearts and minds and to somehow, in some way, make a difference.by Khadijah Lacinafor Story Circle Book Reviewsreviewing books by, for, and about women

I have read this book while it was still iin draft form and it is a very moving account of life in Sierra Leone. Kathleen has captured the essence of the struggle as well as the love and joy of the Sierra Leonean people. I highly recommend the book!

Such a joy to read about where I used to live even for a short time.