The Bitter Side of Sweet

Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the cacao pods he’s collected for the day, worrying that he and his little brother Seydou won’t have time to collect the quota necessary to escape a beating. He keeps a watchful eye on Seydou to make sure he’s safe, forcing him to take a break when they are out of sight of Moussa, the boss. The boys hear a car coming towards the camp, which is unusual, because they are in the middle of nowhere in Ivory Coast, Africa. Amadou thinks it must be more boys, like them, who thought they would get paid to work at the farm and return home after a season. They didn’t know at first that they wouldn’t be paid or free to go home.

Moussa calls all the boys together; he doesn’t trust them to work in the fields alone while he goes to camp to meet the car that arrived. Amadou knows this means they will lose daylight and precious work time, making it harder to meet the quota. To the boys’ surprise, the car has brought a girl to the camp. Amadou sees her thrashing and struggling as she leaves the Jeep with bound arms, noting she’s “more like a wild animal than any girl I’ve ever met” (9).