Hostages

Finnish Journalist and film-maker Taina Tervonen, author of the award-winning book, The Bone Whisperers, returns to her childhood home of Senegal in search of the story behind a group of culturally sensitive artifacts that had been captured in battle by the French army in the late 19th century, and which have been recently repatriated. Among these objects, including a necklace of unknown origin, a drum and sacred carvings, there was also a sword and scabbard that belonged to a great African leader Oumar Tall, and which was in the hands of his young son, Abdoulaye, who was capturedand, along with his sister, "adopted" by a French officer and sent to France. The story that Tervonen reveals is a tragic case of inhumanity and brutality that is sure to appeal to readers of history, the African diaspora, and such human rights activist/ writers as Adam Hochschild and Anne Applebaum