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"Originally published in German as Die Heolle von innen: In den Feangen von Boko Haram, by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, in 2017"--Copyright page.
About the author
Andrea Claudia Hoffmann is a political editor and Middle East expert for the news magazine
Focus and has been traveling the region for more than fifteen years. She recently co-authored
The Girl Who Beat ISIS: Farida's Story (Vintage, 2016), and
Raif Badawi, the Voice of Freedom (Other Press, 2016). Hoffmann's reportages about Iran have been awarded numerous prizes.
Patience Ibrahim lives with her daughter Gift in Maiduguri, in northern Nigeria.
Summary
The inspirational story of a pregnant young Nigerian woman and the horrors she endured to save her unborn child when she was kidnapped by Boko Haram.
When she was nineteen, Patience Ibrahim's first husband was murdered by Boko Haram. She fled to the safety of her village and remarried several months later. Having prayed for a child for years, Patience is overjoyed when she discovers she is pregnant. But her joy is short-lived: Boko Haram soldiers are at her door. Brutally abducted and forced to convert to Islam, she lives in constant terror of what her kidnappers have in store for her. She finds herself alone in the world and fears her life is over.
For two months, Patience hides her pregnancy while facing the brutalities meted out by Boko Haram. By the sheer force of her determination to protect her baby, she and her child are able to survive. Now, she has entrusted journalist Andrea C. Hoffmann with her story, a powerful first-person account of Boko Haram's atrocities in Nigeria and Cameroon.
One of the first testimonies on the terrorist group's war crimes in Western Africa, A Gift from Darkness poignantly shows the human toll of a crisis that demands attention.
Additional text
"...offers a cleareyed view of the sociology underlying this sexual slavery...Ibrahim's bold firsthand account is powerful testimony to resilience and survival in the face of a kind of warfare that is becoming ever more common, its terror visited mostly on women." —KIRKUS REVIEWS
"The German journalist Andrea C Hoffman skilfully tells Patience’s story of survival and escape. . ." —THE TIMES
“This is a captivating, harrowing book. Patience Ibrahim's story will rattle, enrage, and inspire you. Told with suspense, emotion, and sensitivity, A Gift from Darkness shines a sorely needed light on the gruesome world of Boko Haram. But this is more than an eyewitness account of monstrous cruelty—it is a tale of one woman’s remarkable courage and a stirring reflection on the power of faith and love.” —Adam Fifield, author of A Mighty Purpose: How Jim Grant Sold the World on Saving Its Children
"A truly terrifying journey. This is the riveting story of the compelling, human, and horrific experience of Patience Ibhahim." —Ramaa Mosley, producer of Girl Rising
