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Book Review: Harvest of Hate: Stories and Essays; by John Carter.

Author: Roland Bankole Marke
Website; www.rolandmarke.com
Publisher: Publisher America MD, USA
ISBN: 1- 41337-7592-6
Publication date:  2006

An émigré found writing helps ease his roiling stomach.

It’s an old story. An immigrant comes to America to fulfill a lifelong dream, to live in the
land of milk and

honey.  Then there’s the homesickness. And the dream, the promised land, is not only
bathed in the sunshine of opportunity, but the shadows of reality as well.

    In 1990, a Sierra Leonean left the
    shores of Freetown for the promise
    of America. But soon Roland Marke
    - a teacher with a knack for creative
    writing - was worrying about the
    folks back home in West Africa,
    struggling with his thick accent to
    get a job, wondering why his dream
    was beginning to feel nightmarish.

    He began to experience severe
    stomach pain. He was treated with
    strong prescription drugs, but the
    pain always returned. But, almost by
    accident, he began to make himself
    feel better. His medicine was the
    written word. When he moved to
    Jacksonville in 1996, he began to
    write poems.

    “I just wanted to share my
    emotions,” said Marke, who lives in
    East Arlington.
    Then he began to write fiction,
    based largely on his experiences
    growing up in a war-torn country.
    Every time he wrote, the pain went
    away. When he took long breaks
    from writing, the pain returned.

“I suppose it’s like meditating,” he said. “I guess I’m meant to write. It seems to heal me
somehow.”

He discusses how writing improves his health in a chapter in his latest book, Harvest of
Hate - Stories and Essays: Fuel for the Soul. The chapter was also posted by a few
news-and-views online magazines under the title “The Travail of an Immigrant Writer.”

Here’s an excerpt:
“Eventually, I developed my own pain management technique and therapy. A soothing
voice within once spoke to me. For a while, I only exercised disdain to its call. It was
compelling, peaceful and truly transforming.

Eventually, I obeyed it and began to write poetry and inspirational stories. This
experience was a rare therapeutic journey that relieved my pain.” Now Marke tells
others about his secret therapy.
He suggests to friends and readers that they try expressing themselves in writing as
well. Everyone, he says, has a song inside, which he says is “the voice of the soul.”
“Can a bird exist without a song?” he asks in Harvest of Hate.

“It’s just not good for people to keep strong emotions bottled up inside,” he said.
“Expressing these smoldering emotions lightens the load. And you might be surprised
how interesting and powerful what you have to say really is.”

Harvest of Hate (Publish America) is a collection of stories and essays delivering a
bare-knuckled look at greed, conflicts, the child soldiers of Africa, girl victims of an
enduring slave trade, the global effects of terrorism on humanity and even the cultural
ugliness exposed by Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast.

Marke grew up speaking Krio, a sort of African Creole passed down through the
generations. He says he listened to the BBC everyday to learn “proper” English.

Marke is also the author of two collections of poetry: Teardrops Keep Falling,
published in
2003 by Minuteman Press, and Silver Rain and Blizzard, which was published last year
by Publish America.

Marke, who was a school teacher for 10 years in Africa, has also published numerous
articles and stories nationally and internationally over the past decade.
He came to the United States in 1990 with $20 in his pocket and says much of his
writing is “therapy” to help soothe his soul, scarred by growing up on a continent of
perpetually warring nations.

“Somehow when you let your buried emotions surface, sort them out and share them
with others in the form of a poem or story, it’s very healing,” he said. “It’s amazing that
the peace I now enjoy can be shared with others.” He’s working on a memoir. “I’ve
written a lot of it in my head,” he said. “Now I just have to put it on paper.”  Just the
thought, he said, makes him feel good.
John Carter, Jacksonville, FL, USA.
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