Mogama's Ebola-Infected Liberia

Disturbing dreams about guns and killings arise in REFUGEE WAS MY NAME by Mogama, his story of late 20th century civil war in Liberia. He escaped the war and became a refugee, then earned a graduate degree in the U.S., got married, and began a new life. He could not envision the deadly Ebola outbreak this year in his native land.

Mogama once told a roommate in refugee camp about a significant dream for which he foresaw "...a woman who, due to her maturity, becomes the actual leader of Liberia." Almost 20 years later, in 2011, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Liberian peace activist and Liberia's first woman president, part of the prediction in Mogama's book. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first woman elected president of any country in Africa.  Mogama also predicted in his book that peace would come only "in the distance."

Liberia made its slow climb out of the pit of civil war and up to a new presidential election from the news until...Ebola. Today, Ebola quarantines continue in Liberia, and in Liberia's capital of Monrovia, West Point neighborhood, thieves broke into a clinic treating Ebola patients. They stole linens and equipment, infecting the halls and rooms with such fear that some Ebola or supected-Ebola patients fled. It is thought that they, in turn, might pass the the disease to anyone close to them. Ebola is believed to spread by direct contact.

On Mission Liberia updates, Mogama has reported that Dr. Oluwole Olusola, whom many call Dr. Wole, "is a medical doctor, surgeon and psychiatrist who has worked in the medical field for decades...currently lives in Maryland, where he works as the Medical Director at Brentwood Meadows Hospital. 

"Presently Dr. Wole is writing a book on natural health and healing, because he is determined to bring God's natural health and cures to people." 

Natural Ebola treatment ideas follow in this report by Mogama. 
 

Refugee Was My Name by Mogama. Published by Opine Publishing.

Refugee Dreams: Liberian Author in America, Mogama

Twitter @opinaripeople

Disturbing dreams about guns and killings briefly appear in forthcoming book REFUGEE WAS MY NAME by Mogama (Moses Garswa Matally). He based his book on his journal of civil war in Liberia and life in Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. The dreams reflected the nightmarish events the author went through because of civil war in his homeland, Liberia, starting in 1990. 

     Mogama told a roommate in the refugee camp about one significant dream, and the roommate asked him what he thought it meant. Mogama reflected on the three main warring factions that were tearing up their homeland, Liberia. He then told the meaning that he foresaw, about people in the dream and future leaders in Liberia: 

“The driver represents a ruler of Liberia, but someone other than the three. He despises the three fighters, but he too is unfit to lead the nation. He is just as impatient and power-hungry as the factions he will try to keep under control. He will be highly influenced by a woman, or perhaps will be replaced by a woman, who, due to her maturity, becomes the actual leader of Liberia. The warning in the dream is this: Outbreaks of fighting will continue for some time in Liberia. Peace will eventually come, but it is still in the distance.”

     Should a Christian writer include such a dream in a book, as Mogama did in his new book, Refugee Was My Name? Is it accepted by most readers? I think that what most writers include in personal stories are potent memories, and readers understand and even sympathize with this fact. It is like seeing a movie and being touched by it for different reasons. For Mogama, a real world outcome years later closely resembled his nightmare dream as a refugee...with a hopeful ending. Many writers have life-affecting experiences of suffering that include dreams that retell, warn, inform, or give insight to the dreamer.

     What reminded me of this dream vignette from Mogama's book is that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Liberian peace activist and Liberia's first woman president. I have found this news to be especially interesting because Mogama's dream interpretation in his book included that a women would lead Liberia out of its civil war pains.
     Recently, Liberia's slow climb out of the pit of civil war has been in the news more.     People that help through churches or organizations care about the future of this country they may never visit. Refugees of that war care deeply and rejoice to see awake hopes and dreams being given a chance to be fulfilled.

Follow above Links to Guardian UK and ABC news blogs.

Excerpt from Refugee Was My Name by permission of publisher, Opine Publishing, the sponsor of this blog.

Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers

Related articles

• Liberia: Polls open in 2nd postwar election - USA Today (news.google.com)
• Observers: Liberia presidential election peaceful (ctv.ca)
• The Power of The Powerless (nfaa.wordpress.com)
• Liberia Police: Ruling Party Office Burns Down (abcnews.go.com)

I Changed My Mind: Editing Personal Narrative Books

by Jean Purcell
editor@opinebooks.com.
Jean's new blog, Your Personal Book, for personal narrative writers.
Follow Jean on Twitter @opinaripeople

Fuzzy image of my book's clear cover. 

Someone asked me to help their friend's important personal story become a book. My first thought was to say, "No." However, I took it on. 
    My instinct to say "no" was due to my experience writing a personal experience story. These are true events that have deeply affected a person's life, perspectives, often with transformational effects.
    Over a period of 14 years, including five years "off," I finished my personal narrative book, with editing, book analysis, and publishing help from others. I have written all my life and have enjoyed it. I love to organize thoughts and to plan, so that helped, eventually.
   Philip Ralli of Highland Books UK contracted with me for the first publication, and I was thrilled. Philip gave the story the breakthrough introduction the book and author needed. The editor did a great job, too, and said that the manuscript was in good shape. (I credit both the book critique person and editor that helped me before Philip ever saw the book, for giving the shaping-up that helped me enormously in the process.)
     The personal narrative book I recently edited began as a  project for hire. Later, Opine decided to publish it. It is that good. We publish only books we like enormously, and those are the ones that come also at just the right time for us and the authors.
    Personal narrative books must have these basics:
(1) a compelling story interpreted profoundly, as it deserves
(2) a skilled writer/author
(3) a highly cooperative author when editing gets down and dirty;
(4) editing that guards the writer's voice
(5) awareness by author and editor that the emotional roller coaster that some true stories have will not destroy the writer who gives the work its due time, without rushing it or avoiding it.

   Refugee Was My Name is the recently published personal narrative published by Opine Publishing. The author is Mogama (Moses Garswa Matally), an amazing Liberian teacher and pastor now living in Kentucky USA. His book's development had all of the basic elements needed for its success and the author's future sharing of his story, to benefit many readers far beyond the refugee experience, as well as those who have gone through it in Liberia and other places.

Copyright (c)2011 Jean Purcell,Opinari Writers,Opine Publishing
Opine Publishing-Books that Last fills a select niche for Christian books with enjoyable, thought-provoking, and memorable reading. Opine Publishing's niche is books for today and for many tomorrows.

The Value of a Name - Mogama

A good name is more desirable than great riches; 

to be esteemed is better 

than silver or gold

(Proverbs 22:1 NIV).

Cover by Adazing.com

by MOGAMA

From his book

"If you're ever put at gunpoint, and the gunman says, 'Your name or  your money,' give the robber your money and keep your name, especially if it's a meaningful, good name.

"That's how much people should cherish their names. Slave masters must have known the value of personal names to identify and esteem a people. That's why one of the first things a slave master did was to replace the name of his slave. That new name helped to purge the slave's memory of personal value, and that began to reduce the slave to little more than the master's property.

"If loss of name devalues a person, then there is little difference between a slave with a foreign name and a refugee with a fake name."

From Refugee Was My Name, revolution violence, Pub. 2012, Opine Publishing. 

(c) 2011 Mogama