Children of the Shadows
written by Orlando Marville
Children of the Shadows is a novel set in Songhay in West Africa and Fonseca in the Caribbean. Robert Pinhero is from Fonseca and he teaches English at Songhay College. The novel is about his interaction with his students and his fellow teachers. Songhay is awash with intrigue and corruption and rumours of yet another coup, while Robert experiences sweetness and love.
Orlando Marville is from Barbados where he is a member of the Senate and a part-time lecturer at the University. He has spent most of his life either as a teacher or diplomat for his country in North and South America, Europe and Africa. In the process of his nomadic life, he acquired a handful of languages and an interest in the history of the people among whom he lived. He also occasionally worked as a photo-journalist or columnist and has always been writing poetry and short stories. Children of the Shadows is his first full length novel.
Children of the Shadows is a novel set in Songhay in West Africa and Fonseca in the Caribbean. Robert Pinhero is from Fonseca and he teaches English at Songhay College. The novel is about his interaction with his students and his fellow teachers. Songhay is awash with intrigue and corruption and rumours of yet another coup, while Robert experiences sweetness and love. At one end of the scale are the child soldiers, children of the shadows, and at the other the wise old Zaks who teaches African History and who redefines children of the shadows as those who still follow in the shadow of former colonial masters. The action takes place in the context of several power struggles in Song-hay, with all its physical beauty, tradition, its rhythm and allure, but with the attendant violence and corruption, leading to the coup. Robert and his wife Musu manage to escape in the middle of the turmoil to a Fonseca where they fare much better, but the corruption lingers.
