num_pages: 240
description: International human rights activist Lisa Shannon spent many afternoons at the kitchen table having tea with her friend Francisca Thelin who often spoke of her childhood in Congo. Thelin would conjure vivid images of lush flower gardens fish the size of small children and of children running barefoot through her familys coffee plantation gorging on fruit from the robust and plentiful mango trees. She urged Shannon to visit her family in Dungu to get a taste of real Congo peaceful Congo; a place so different than the conflict-ravaged places Shannon knew from her activism work.But then the nightly phone calls from Congo began: static-filled hasty reports from Franciscas mother Mama Koko of gunmenJoseph Konys Lords Resistance Army who had infested Dungu and began launching attacks. Night after night for a year Mama Koko delivered the devastating news of Fransiscas cousins nieces nephews friends and neighbors who had been killed abducted burned alive on Christmas Day. In an unlikely journey Shannon and Thelin decided to travel from Portland Oregon to Dungu to witness first-hand the devastation unfolding at Joseph Konys hands. Masquerading as Franciscas American sister-in-law Shannon tucked herself into Mama Kokos raw cement living room and listened to the stories of Mama Koko and her husband Papa Alexanderas well as those from dozens of other friends and neighbors (Mama Kokos War Tribunal)who lined up outside the house and waited for hours eager to offer their testimony. In Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen Shannon weaves together the familys tragic stories of LRA encounters with tales from the familys history: we hear of Mama Kokos early life as a gap-toothed beauty plotting to escape her inevitable fate of wife and motherhood; Papa Alexanders empire of wives he married because they cooked and cleaned and made good coffee; and Franciscas childhood at the family castle and coffee plantation. These lively stories transport Shannon from the chaos of the violence around her and bring to life Fransiscas kitchen-table stories of the peaceful Congo.Yet as the LRA camp out on the edge of town grew tensions inside the house reach a fever pitch and Shannon and Thelins friendship was fiercely tested. Shannon was forced to confront her limitations as an activist and reconcile her vision of what it means to affect meaningful change in the lives of others.Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen is at once an illuminating piece of storytelling and an exploration of what it means to truly make a difference. It is an exquisite testimony to the beauty of human connection and the strength of the human spirit in times of unimaginable tragedy.
language: English
title: Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen: An Ordinary Family's Extraordinary Tale of Love, Loss, and Survival in Congo
publisher: PublicAffairs