The Healers

Author: Ayi Kwei Armah Price: $ 19.00 (new) $ 12.57 (used) Medium: Paperback (317 pages) Publisher: Per Ankh Pub 2000-01

Editorial Description

This historical novel is set in Ghana. By the author of "Fragments" and "Two Thousand Seasons".

Reader Reviews

Another Masterpiece From Armah
Ayi Kweh Armah is one of the most important writers for people of African descent anywhere they may be on the planet. When I first read his novel,"Two Thousand Seasons", I was awestruck. I immediately went out and bought another ten copies to give to family and friends as gifts. I consider it the best book ever written."The Healers" is no less powerful in it's message, although it is an easier read.This novel speaks to the continuing disunity of Africa as nothing else I've ever read. And in it Armah also gives us the cure. It is a must read. Armah writes with such power and beauty that it defies description.Although "Two Thousand Seasons" is my favorite book, "The Healers" has solidified Ayi Kwei Armah as my favorite author.If you happen to find any of this brilliant writers' work, snap it up quick.

Important message
Reading Armah's "two thousand seasons" was what prompted me to read any and all of his other books. "The Healers" is, I would say, a companion piece to "two thousand seasons" that should be read immediately afterwards.

Both books tell a story, a fictionalized parable of how we ended up in the prison we find ourselves in today. Both stories are set in a past time, but the actions of the characters, and the results of those actions, are relevant to what is happening even to this very day in the African continent and, indeed, even here in my adopted home of America.

The traitors among us open the gates to allow our enemies to enter the village, while our leaders betray us for fool's gold.

Armah does not pretend that the Path of our Escape will be an easy one, nor that it will involve a quick journey. We face powerful enemies who are well-armed and imminently skilled in the art of dividing and conquering their prey.

But, even so, in both books, we are taught, by way of illustration, two lessons:

1) Our enemies could not have conquerered us, in the first place, if we had worked together, as one unified people, to defend our village from the barbarians who sought to destroy us.

2) Even now, unity is the Path out of our prison.

These are not new lessons. We have heard them many times before from many sources. But, Armah, by way of his parables, opens our eyes so that we can see, and our ears so that we can hear.