The Kingdom of Sebah English Excerpt Interview with Vamba Sherif BOOKS Books by Vamba Sherif have been published in Dutch, German, and Polish. The English language translation of Bound to Secrecy is now available with a release date of May 2010 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon or from the publisher, Aflame Books. Bound to Secrecy (2007) ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILABLE MAY 2010 William Mawolo, a stranger from Monrovia, arrives in the border town of Wologizi on a secret mission to investigate the disappearance of the local paramount chief. His mission is complicated by the suspicion with which the local population treat him, and his infatuation with Makemeh, the mysterious daughter of the chief. Her apparent indifference to her father’s disappearance serves only to draw him dangerously closer to Makemeh. In the tradition of supernatural detective fiction, William’s task takes second place to his role in the community, and the more he discovers, the closer he brings himself to his own demise. He asserts his authority over the townspeople, as envoy of the President, but this only serves to bolster his ego and antagonize the locals even further. While built around the structure of the traditional detective form, Bound to Secrecy is as much about the use and abuse of power in dysfunctional states as it is about the quest for truth. As Liberia still recovers from a brutal civil war, this work offers a surprising view of the insidious grip of absolute power and its corruptible nature, and the forces, and ordinary people, trapped within its web. The Kingdom of Sebah (2003) The story of a woman, Sebah, who settles with her husband and two children in the Netherlands. Mansakeh, the son and the narrator of the story, describes the difficulties the family faces in trying to integrate into the Dutch society. But there is another problem in the family much more difficult to deal with than the attempt to integrate: a secret that follows them from Africa, and which threatens to break them apart. The Land of the Fathers (1999) A historical novel set in nineteenth century Liberia, the novel describes the founding of Liberia, and the interaction of the emigrants, the so-called Americo-Liberians, with the tribes that were already living on that western coast of Africa. The novel is a story of friendship. One of the two main characters, Edward Richard, a man born into slavery, leaves America in search of his beloved Charlotte. In Liberia, he’s confronted with a country that’s trying to stand on its feet. Edward, a preacher by profession, believes that the future of Liberia lies in working together with the tribes. He goes into the hinterland, preaching the word of God. There, in the far north, he meets a man who becomes his friend: Halay, or Halayngi, as the Gbandis pronounce it. The story of Halayngi is very popular in northern Liberia. Halay, or Halayngi, was a man who sacrificed himself, like Jesus did, to save that part of the world from all wars. With his death, the people believed, all wars would be averted. But the irony of history is that a century later a war would ravage the land, sweeping up in its destructive path the descendants of Edward and Halay. View Author's Biography