Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone By Betsy Small (Sierra Leone, 1984-1987) University of Michigan Press: Law, Meaning and Violence series. Reviewer Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971-1973) Betsy Small’s Before Before offers a deeply personal and historically rich account of Sierra Leone, blending memoir and ethnography with emotional resonance. She draws from her Peace Corps service in mid-1980 and a return visit in 2013 with her daughter. This memoir is more than a recollection—it’s a meditation on cultural exchange, colonial legacies, and the fragile threads of memory that bind us across time and geography. Like […]
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