Life is Sweet at Kumansenu

                                                                          Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leone (1924 – 1944)
Summary in English

 This story based on magic realism shows the power of love and sweetness of life. It captures the gratitude of the children toward their parents. Mother's love to her son/daughter is immense and the reverse is also true. Similarly, this story is gothic one, with the horrible, but loving one, ghost story, reappearance of the man after his death.
This story is set in the African village, Kumansenu. It is a beautiful village surrounded by the sea on the side and the tropical forest. The central character of the story is Bola. Bola is a widow, who lives with her granddaughter named Asi. She gives the birth of six sons, but unfortunately all of them die. When the last son dies, the village magician named Musa advises Bola to break the bones of dead child and mangle it so that he could not come to torment her. However, her heart does not allow her to do so because of her love. Therefore, she makes a black mark on the buttock of her sixth son.
The 6th son has taken rebirth as 7th son. His name is Meji. He is now 30 years old having a black mark on his left buttock. He has a daughter named Asi with whom Bola lives since Meji works in the city 19 miles away. One day, Meji appears on Friday inside the house though the front door is closed. Bola is happy to see him. But she is surprised to see him because he is in white shirt and gray trouser as well as different skin color than he was earlier. Both of them talk long time, and Bola wants to organize a feast for the villagers. But Meji denies that this time he would enjoy only with mother and daughter. On Saturday Bola goes to market and Meji takes his daughter to visit towards mountainside. He also gives her lots of things to eat and play. On the way back, Asi falls asleep. In the evening, they all go to visit the grave of Meji's father, then, they return back to their house.
On Saturday night, it rains heavily. Bola hears knocking at midnight. She goes to Meji's room but he was outside. She requests him to come in, but he does not. Meji says that he could not leave without saying her good bye. After that he says, "Life is Sweet Mother dear, goodbye, and thank you", with those words he gets disappeared.
Bola thinks to all Mr. Addai on Sunday but he himself comes and tells her that Meji died on Friday. But Bola and Asi insist that Meji has come there on Friday, so he could not have died on Friday. Villagers think that Bola is out of mind because of the shock. Finally, the magician Musa reminds Bola that she didn't follow his advice as soon as the sixth son died. Hence, he came to mock her. But Bola does not believe on it rather she feels proud of coming her son and proud of herself to be with him at that moment.