Martina D.’s Reviews > The Lies of the Ajungo > Status Update

“He realized that she was more scared than he was. Adults were always scared. They hid it in a million ways—caution or confidence, disinterest or anger, a firm hand or warm embrace or sage advice—but the fear was always there if you knew how to see it.”

“There is no Ajungo,” she said gently. “There has never been. Only our own obas. Only us.”

Disgusting

“Have you ever seen Ajungo? Have you ever heard the drums of Ajungo soldiers in the distance? Have you ever smelled Ajungo fires on the wind? Of course you understand.”

The betrayal of your own people

“Only by learning can you free us.”

“Is this what the Ajungo hate so much?” she asked, wiping drip from her nose and sniffling. “All we want is to be happy. To enjoy those we love. Is this what they work with so much passion to take from us? Can their greed not be satisfied?”

🥹

“The power came from translating understanding into belief, from standing so firmly in one’s knowledge of the world that the knowledge itself became an armor—and a weapon.”

Indeed

“You have water, but need Eyes,” he said to the Blind Man. Then he looked at Asilah. “You have Eyes, but need iron. And I…” He looked down at the sand, ashamed of how young and foolish he’d been. “… I have iron, but need water.”
“And yet all of us,” the Blind Man said, “are from the same place.”
“The City of Lies,” Asilah said.”

Epic!!!!

The ajungo’s got to every city and fucked everything up like white colonizers!!!

“Maybe. But he couldn’t ignore the fact that no child who went looking for water had ever returned.”

AHHHHHHHHH