I called for the dust and sand below to join me in the air. I awakened the hurricanes and danced. Dared the captors to challenge me. Dare them to confront what they could not see, deemed invisible. Yes, I am here. I am all around you.

She Would be King is about the founding of Liberia. Written with beautiful magic realism, Moore accomplishes an excellent and breath-taking debut which I profoundly enjoyed. The story is told from the perspective of three different characters and their journeys to Monrovia. Gbessa, the exiled Vai witch, begins the story with a curse. Her supernatural abilities are discovered since she is a child, left on her own to survive in the wilderness. The novel follows her bizarre coming-of-age story where she finally accepts her magic and realizes her destiny.

On her journey, Gbessa meets the other two characters; June Dey and Norman Aragon. June Dey is born in a slave plantation in the United States to an invisible mother. He soon discovers he can feel no pain and that bullets repel his body. With his gift, he is able to escape the plantation and reach Monrovia. The other character, Norman, is the son of a native Jamaican and a British father whose wish is to take them both to London to examine them. He escapes Jamaica and his father, by becoming invisible. The three characters meet in Monrovia, where they fight together against French illegal slave traders, mingle among Africans that recently left the US to establish a new town, the American Colonization Society, and witness the beginning of a nation.

Throughout the novel, there is a voice that permeates the narrative in different moments and especially when the three characters are in danger. Moore incorporates this voice to encourage Gbessa, Norman and June to continue their mission, despite the hardships they face. For me, this is what makes the novel so special, three well-developed, strong and magical characters that follow the same guiding voice, telling the story about a young nation.

About Wayétu Moore

Moore was born in Monrovia, Liberia in 1985. At the age of 5, she moved to NYC, escaping her country’s civil war, afterwards her family moved to Texas, where she grew up. She started studying theater but quickly switched as she realized she liked to write. Apart from writing she has a non profit, One Moore Book, that distributes books to underrepresented readers. She Would be King is her first novel. Her second novel, Dragons, Giant, Women, is a memoir about her escape.

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Liberian initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

Gem-Liberia

Gem-Liberia is goal is to protect and empower women and girls in Liberia. Founded in 2005, the organization funds girls’ education, provides training and skills to create a sustainable agricultural value chain among women farmers, and provides support for job security for women. It started helping only girls, about in  2016 it expanded its scope to address other vulnerable groups like children, women and single mothers.