Redemption Road is one of the African Novels in the WAEC 2026-2030 Syllabus written by a Liberian author Elma Shaw.
The novel starts with media res; a narrative technique, where the narrative starts abruptly from the middle. The author then makes use of flashbacks, dreams and letter-writing to relate the past events to the readers.
It starts with the remembrance of the death of Catherine May Tyler Lewis, who died almost ten years ago. The members of the family including Bendu’s parents, friends and well-wishers are there to pay their last respects.
Bendu’s mind drifts away from the happenings around here and remembers the scenes that led to the death of Granny May.
She remembers how they left Sumoville in haste in the company of other villagers and ran for their lives.
She and her grandma had earlier gone to visit Rebecca Johnson, cousin to Granny May in Sumoville. When they are leaving, cousin Orlando escorts them but they are all captured along the way by some unknown soldiers.
Bendu and Granny May are dropped at Charlue Town, while cousin Orlando is taken away and nothing is heard about him.
They stay in Charlue Town for two weeks before another attack scatters them. Bendu puts old Granny May in a wheelbarrow and pushes her along.
She doesn’t listen to the voices telling her to leave the woman and run. Granny May also tells Bendu to leave her and run but she says she will never leave her.
The woman along the way becomes weaker and dies in the wheelbarrow. Still, Bendu refuses to leave her until the rebel forces led by Commander Cobra meet her there and capture her.
She is taken to Duluma camp where she is trained to fight and given to a rebel soldier named Samson as a wife.
Bendu is woken back to reality from her thoughts by a sympathizer who touches her on the shoulder. The remaining scenarios are revealed through flashbacks, dreams and letter writing.
Samson abuses her sexually severally and it results in a pregnancy in which Bendu abandoned the child in the camp and ran away. Bendu is exposed to weird experiences including the killing of human beings unnecessarily.
Bendu meets Ma Musu, a 54-year-old woman, and her two daughters at the camp. The woman tells Bendu about Commander Cobra’s behavior.
Bendu decides to escape from Duluma one day. It’s a few days after she gave birth to the pregnancy that resulted from the sexual assault from Samson.
She escapes successfully from Duluma, but she’s identified in one of the adjoining villages as a Duluma spy. The villagers nearly lynch her but she is saved by an old man she once met in Charlue Town.
The villagers then decide to escort her back to the camp. After a few kilometers, the villagers disappear one by one until it remains only her. This is how Bendu walks into freedom.
These experiences of Bendu as a survivor of the civil war give birth to an NGO, Peace in Practice (Peace Education Center). The body counseled the traumatized survivors of Liberia’s civil war.
Bendu goes out one day and meets Commander Cobra, the warlord who held her in captivity and traumatized her. Bendu decides to bring him to justice to heal her wounds and come to the aid of the voiceless who were also traumatized.
It’s a case of biting more than one can chew as the hunter becomes the hunted. Commander Cobra (Moses Varney) hunts for Bendu, kidnaps her, and inflicts injuries on her. Cobra is shielded by the power that be in Monrovia.
His dead body is later discovered and Bendu is arrested for his murder but eventually released after a thorough investigation by the police.
There is further explanation of the Plot Summary here.