FRANCIS SELORMEY
An interesting work, focusing on Africa many decades ago... with modernisation taking root. But still many aspects and beliefs of the past still hold sway. A young girl Tona has died under rather strange circumstances. Her funeral is a rather eerie one. Why are things proceeding in bizarre fashion here? What makes the girl's death mysterious and suspicious? The author 's narrative grips us, as we read: "I heard the (funeral) procession approaching but the sounds that accompanied it frightened me ... the coffin reached us. The four men appeared to be in a trance. Their eyes stared without blinking, their movements were jerky... although the movements of the coffin were so irregular the men acted in perfect accord with it... "The child will not go to the cemetery" my father said.. "She did not die a natural death. She wishes to be avenged..." "I began to understand. The wish-bird had flown over the town. Tona had died. Her body had refuse...