Terrorists of the Aberdare by Ng’ang’a Mbugua: book review

Terrorists of the Aberdare (2009) is a novella set in the Aberdare Range of Kenya, Africa – a mountain range 160 kilometres north of Nairobi – on September 11, 2005.

Sonko Wakadosi is 30 years old and dead, killed by a herd of elephants as they raided his cabbage farm. He is standing outside the locked gates of heaven, waiting to enter. He meets others waiting to enter heaven: a man killed by a hyena, and a girl attacked by a crocodile. The struggle to survive is not one of man against man, but of man against beast. These beasts are the terrorists of the Aberdare.

Sonko, in death, in this tragi-comedy, reflects on the love of his life, while the narrator is attending Sonko’s funeral reflecting on the one thing that Sonko wanted in life – love. ‘’But he never got it.’’

Sonko loved Penina, the tomboy who loved life, but not him. ‘’He was too poor to afford her.’’ The narrator is tempted to blame Penina for the loss of his friend, rather than the elephant. Some blame the government for promoting tourism in the region and encouraging people to protect the elephants, while others want to kill the rampaging beasts that destroy people and their precious cabbages.

There is a tale or two in this short story, one of love and loss, and one of do unto others as you have them do unto you.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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