Congolese street kid seeks home. Foreign journalist wants to help. The devil is in the detail.
It’s Spring 2002 and Frank Kean is training journalists in troubled Congo. When he learns that religious zealots are torturing and murdering so-called child witches, his reporter’s instincts kick in. Why so little news coverage of these ‘exorcisms’? He is determined to break the silence.
In a remote village, Pastor Precious arrives to battle Satan. Twelve-year-old Dudu faces a torrent of accusations and is forced to flee, far from home. He swears he is not a witch, but evidence suggests otherwise.
When Frank meets Dudu in Kinshasa, he sees a chance to help the wary street kid, even if it means crossing the line and making promises he may be unable to keep.
But can they trust each other in a crisis? Altruism and scepticism clash in the shadow of a bloody and relentless civil war.
A tale of travel, love and loss; fear and superstition; NGOs and USAID; family life and professional ambition. Ormsby’s first novel highlights the devastating effects, on families, of Africa’s Great War, 1998-2003. The story continues in ‘Child Witch London’, published March 2014
Targeted Age Group:: Adults & late teens
What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
Write, write, write. Your voice will come. Your readers are out there somewhere, and eager to listen.
Author Bio:
Mike Ormsby was born in Ormskirk, and grew up on Merseyside, England. He is the author of a short story collection, Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania (2008), and Spinner the Winner (2012), an illustrated book about a brave little wind turbine, for children. His screenplays include Hey, Mr DJ! (2005, filmed in Kigali and screened top-of-bill at Rwanda’s first Hillywood Film Festival), Enfants dits Sorciers (2002, filmed in Kinshasa), and In Her Own Image (2000, optioned in Los Angeles and that was that). Mike is a former BBC journalist/World Service trainer. Home is in the beautiful mountains of Transylvania, where he has lived for 500 years. Child Witch is his first novel and was a ‘#1 best seller’ on Amazon UK, African Lit, in December 2013.
I got the idea while working as a journalist trainer in Kinshasa, during the war. I visited a ‘halfway house’ for street children, and met a boy named Kilanda who had suffered serious burns in an ‘exorcism’. As YOU read this, some 25,000 street kids are living rough in Congo, many having been ejected from home after being accused of ‘witchcraft’, usually by misguided relatives or self-styled ‘pastors’, who charge money for ‘exorcisms’. The kids are remarkably resilient, three generations of them, and deserve better. They also deserve, in my opinion, more of the worlds attention, and some of its resources. I hope my novel, written in a tragicomic tone, will open people’s eyes to what goes on, and perhaps, in some small way, help to bring change. Congo is Africa’s engine, and it is broken. Mine is one of many untold stories.
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Link To Buy Child Witch Kinshasa On Amazon
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