Mangoes in the Rain: No one can take away your Imaginations

Author : Chinaemelum Menakaya

Publisher : Amazon

Genre : Non Fiction

Pages : 108

In 2002, fifteen-year-old Chinaemelum leaves America, to go to Nigeria for summer break. Months later, she fights for her life against malaria. Summer is over and her father refuses to give her back her passport to return to America with her mother. She is kept in Nigeria against her will, he puts her in a all girls boarding school, where she struggles to adapt to life, in a 3rd world country. Two and a half years later, she and her siblings escape out of their fathers house to the American Embassy in Lagos for hopes of leaving Nigeria. She is adamant about expressing her trauma of abandonment, abuse, and her survival mechanism then and now. Out of this tragedy, she’s able to overcome and be of a success today.
She voices the portrayals of her childhood and teen years growing up Nigerian American in America to Nigerian parents.
Raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, by a Christian Pastor and wife, life is portrayed in public as a God fearing couple, but behind close doors chinaemelum witness her father often beating her mother. He eventually begins to abuse Chinaemelum, by calling her a hoar and a prostitute at age 13. Chinaemelum had high hopes when she heard she was going to Nigeria for the summer. She had no idea the gravity of the horrific adventure about to take place.
Chinaemelum has been writing for more than 12 years. She is the author of her first book called “Mangoes in the Rain”.

I don’t know where to start from. I’m devastated, shook and disgusted after reading the author’s life story.

” Unhealthy people cause pain in your life regardless of who they are, you have the power to decide who you surround yourself with.”

The book follows the journey of Chinaemelum-the author and how she dealt with the tortures her life gave her. Beginning from her childhood she was being treated badly by her parents. Her father was strict and used to beat her for every thing he didn’t like about her. Her father was a two faced man- he was a kind person for the society but for his own family he was a devil in disguise. But China used to feel secure in America because of 911 but when her father took his family to Nigeria, their lives changed for the worst. China & her siblings were trapped in Nigeria but after a few years they were able to escape the cruelty of their father. And now she’s an author and have come out strong after all the abuse she had faced. I’m so proud of her.

” Children are to be loved, supported and told to dream big. Anyone who is in pain from past and/or current abuse- understand that you are loved. We all all in this together.”

The story is a short read but you definitely need some time to digest the heart wrenching journey of China. I’m really so proud of her for coming out and speaking for herself and educating people about the abuse. I related her on her first flight experiences and felt how uncomfortable she was feeling all this while. The title was so apt since the author found solace in eating mangoes while staying in Nigeria. I was triggered at some of the chapters, they made me cringe to all the abuse. Overall It’s a must read because I believe it took China a lot of courage to come out and speak of this on a public platform.