Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali is a work of narrative nonfiction written by Kris Holloway and published in 2006. Told through Holloway’s perspective, the book recounts the incredible life and death of a young Malian woman named Monique Dembele and her unlikely friendship with Holloway, who came to Mali as a young American woman serving in the Peace Corps in 1989.

The book follows Monique, a midwife who strives to educate women, provide medical advancements, and improve mortality rates in her small village of Nampossela in Mali, Africa. Holloway shares Monique’s story alongside her own narrative of joining the Peace Corps and becoming Monique’s assistant, bearing witness to many tales of bravery and tragedy.

Holloway begins by recounting the first birth she ever witnessed, thoroughly describing the dilapidated condition of the birthing house, including the destroyed corner of the tin roof that prevents women from giving birth there during the rainy season.

Sanitary necessities considered common in Western medicine—running water, electricity, or hospitals—are lacking in Nampossela, and an incredulous Holloway reflects on these differences during and after the childbirth.