In the 21^st century, some African states hold a tenuous grip on their sovereignty. Some are engaged in an ongoing struggle to maintain political power, competing violently with forces from within and sharing power with an array of international agencies. "Fifth World Fury" examines this phenomenon and its devastating impact on ordinary citizens in Sierra Leone by analyzing Aminatta Forna's novel, The Memory of Love. By focusing on Forna's literary treatment of the built spaces of Freetown, it becomes clear that the politics and the city deteriorated in tandem. Forna traces the lives of two generations of urban professionals from the late 1960s to the traumatic period immediately following the civil war. The broken city they now inhabit signals that Sierra Leone's experiment in self-government is still struggling to overcome the powerful legacy of colonialism.