<human>: Can you provide a brief overview of the text?

I can't say that I feared for my life, but a moment of pure terror was the time I was pulled from a local bus at a checkpoint between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire by armed guerrillas in fatigues.  They sent my bus off without me, stranding me in the middle of this forest road with three grouchy men, AK-47s slung from their shoulders.  

I had 60 cedis, a vegan protein bar, a copy of the A Passage to India and my passport on me.  Not exactly bartering material.  The most imposing of the guerrillas explained in broken English why my passport was illegitimate, that my visa was photocopied, not printed, and that unless I could provide them with 100 cedis, I would not be allowed to leave.  Ever.

I was terrified, sitting in a rickety folding chair, framed by the waxy green forest, on the side the some obscure road in the middle of nowhere Africa, with three disgruntled guerrillas arguing in french over what the hell to do with me. If I was suddenly to go missing or die, no one would know where to look. 

It must've been thirty minutes when I finally stopped hyperventilating. In my nerve wracked state, I managed to convince the guerrillas to take my 60 cedis and this valuable copy of A Passage to India, complete with my highlighting and notes.  Another tro-tro eventually came and picked me up, and I made my way home, not before convincing these three guerrillas that the art of reading classic literature far outweighed the art of war.
<bot>: Talked my way out of a tricky situation; bribed African guerrillas with a book. EM Forester may have saved my life