AMINATTA

FORNA
 THE
ALL ABOUT
MEMORY OF
FORNA
LOVE

BASIC TEXT AND

ELEMENTS CONTEXT
"AFRICA"
"Africa scares the west, but there's
as much reason to be scared in
Croatia as in Sierra Leone"
-AMINATTA FORNA
ALL ABOUT
AMINATTA
FORNA
Aminatta Forna was born in
Scotland, raised in Sierra
Leone and Great Britain,
and spent periods of her
childhood in Iran, Thailand,
and Zambia.
Aminatta is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature and a
member of the Folio Academy. She
has acted as judge for the Samuel
Johnson Prize, the Bailey Prize for
Women’s Fiction, the Sunday
Times EFG Short Story Award, the
Caine Prize and the International
Man Booker Prize.
Aminatta Forna is the award-
winning author of the four
novels Happiness, The Hired
Man, The Memory of Love and
Ancestor Stones, and the
critically acclaimed memoir
The Devil that Danced on the
Water.
Aminatta’s second novel, The
Memory of Love, a story about
friendship, war, and obsessive
love, was published in 2010 and
won the 2011 Commonwealth
Writers' Prize (Overall Winner, Best
Book). In 2010, she was also
shortlisted for the BBC National
Short Story Award.
THE MEMORY
OF LOVE
TEXT AND
CONTEXT
WRITERS’S CONTEXT
The writing of Aminatta Forna
is sincere, real, and
expressive. She induces grief
and passion into the story
before inserting the wounds
with sweetness, affection, and
hope. Forna is really
interested in how war affects
thousands of civilians.
READER’S CONTEXT
TEXT'S CONTEXT
This is a 2010 novel about the
experiences of three men in Sierra
Leone. It was originally published on
April 5, 2010. Her work has been
translated in over 30 languages she
have received over 30 prizes and
awards
The novel was selected as one of the
Best Books of the Year by the Sunday
Telegraph, Financial Times newspapers
and was a NewYork Times Editor’s
Choice book.
SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT
The novel was set in post-
colonial Sierra Leone of Africa a
few years after the civil war. It
shows how it affects the
present life of those people who
were ill because of the war. Also
it shows how Africa was a scary
country because of the trauma
it gives to the people after the
war.
 BASIC
ELEMENTS
 CHARACTERS
Elias Cole- Mid-grade history professor
Adrian Lockheart- Elias Psychiatrist
Kai Mansaray- orthopedic surgeon
Saffia Kamara- wife of Julian
Julian- Elias colleague
Ade- Julian's Friend
Kekura- Julian's Friend
Agnes- Hospital Patient
Tejani- friend and fellow medical
student of Kai
Nenebah (Mamakay)- daughter of Elias
SETTINGS
The setting for this story is a
hospital in Freetown, Sierra
Leone, soon after the
government has declared an
end to an 11 years civil war.
CONFLICT
During this time there is a civil war,
all the patients of Dr. Adrian are all
mentally illed due to a past
traumatic experience of civil war in
Sierra Leone. At the dawn of peace
after ten years of civil war, and
grapples with how survivors of
widespread wartime atrocities cope
with their collective trauma. Sierra
Leone’s civil war between
government forces and rebel
insurgents began in 1991.
THEME
It is a story of four lives colliding; a
story about friendship, about
understanding, absolution and the
indelible effects of the past; about
journeys and dreams and loss,
and about the very nature of love.
Friendship is one of the central
themes – how easily we find and
create connections and how it
takes just a moment, a
misunderstanding, a cruel
coincidence, to tear them apart.
ACTIVITY
F - EXPOSITION
O - RISING ACTION
R - CLIMAX
N - FALLING ACTION
A - RESOLUTION
 ABM 12-GORRES
ACOSTA, IRISH
BARTOLOME, CHARLYNE
DANCEL, MARIFE
DIEGO, CHERRIE
RESPICIO, MA. SHAMILLE
MANUEL, JEAN
ANSWER KEY: