Sign-In
Cart
Friendship: A True Story of Adventure, Goodwill, and Endurance
Paperback
Biographies GeneralReligion General
Publisher Price: $20.00
ISBN13: 9781942899884
Publisher: Francis Mandewah
Published: Mar 30 2016
Pages: 220
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Friendship: A True Story of Adventure, Goodwill, and Endurance shares the remarkable life journey of an African boy from the region made famous by the movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was nominated for five Academy Awards. That movie brought attention to a rebel war in West Africa in which blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, were used to finance warlords and their activities.
Two decades before the rebel war Thomas Johnson, a pilot from Minnesota, was employed to fly boxes of gems and alluvial diamonds in Sierra Leone from Yengema to Freetown, where a British Airways jet would fly the gemstones to London. This pilot met and befriended young Francis Mandewah, an impoverished Sierra Leonean boy, and gave him generous support that opened a new life of opportunity, which would eventually take Francis to America. Along the way Francis had many harrowing experiences, including crossing the Sahara Desert, which almost cost him his life. His challenges continued in Italy, Greece, and finally in America. In the end, Francis became aware that his real voice that has emerged through all his trials and tribulations is one of deep faith, and gratitude for God's miracles and wonders in his life.
Book Excerpts On my way home I walked in a haze. I was in shock over the miracle that had just happened in my life. That night as I settled down to sleep on my mat on the floor of my cousin's house, I lay in the dark and prayed, 'Dear God, I can't take any more heartbreak. Please let this be real. What did I do to deserve such a blessing? I promise to do well in school and make You proud. Please don't let me die in my sleep tonight.' Dreams are peculiar things. They come to us both when sleeping and awake. They mix imagination and memory to project vivid images in our minds of what could be. Sometimes these images are delightful, remarkable. Other times they are horrific and unsettling. I have had a reoccurring dream since I was a child. In the dream, my family and I sit down to a grand feast. At the end of the room is a small stage. I walk across the room smiling as my family applauds. I step on stage and into a small steel cage, not much larger than I am, and the door locks behind me. A blindfold appears on my face. I begin to panic, but I hear the sound of my mother's voice, which calms me. Instinctively I feel my way along the bars to the lock. I slip a pin out of my pocket and open the door. My mother and sisters rush to me and shower me with hugs and kisses. In the dream I have passed a test and my reward is a journey. Where are you going, my son? I can hear my mother say. I become nervous about not having an answer for my mother. I go around the room frantically trying to find someone who will tell me my future. No one answers, and then the door to the room opens, flooding the room with white light. I instinctively walk towards the light then through the door. I always awaken with the urge to know where I am going. I suppose this dream has been the script for my life, because even as I sit, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, I always feel a tinge of uncertainty, as if I'm eternally looking for a flight itinerary. I have lived a life filled with the adventure of being ushered onto stage and the turmoil of being blindfolded and locked in a cage. Through my travels, my willingness to walk to and through the door, I discovered within myself a will to not just survive, but to thrive, no matter the circumstance.
READ THE BOOK BEFORE THE MOVIE COMES OUT - Friendship: A True Story of Adventure, Goodwill, & Endurance - has been adapted to a Character Study screenplay titled DIAMOND OF HOPE. www.francismandewah.com The script is in development to be produced into a wide scope drama-driven epic motion picture spanning three continents; Africa, Italy, and the USA.
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Toby Byron (ED.)
Pete Welding (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Erdoes, Richard
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
Through Mom's Eyes: Simple Wisdom from Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans
Jones, Sheinelle
Hardcover