A collection of stories that depict Westerners encountering Africa -- its people, its mysteries, its beauty and bafflements. Often those encounters change the Westerners, leading some to wisdom, others to heartache. The stories take the reader from the heart of the Congo to modern Madagascar, from a village in Nairobi to the mountain-top palace of the Mwami of Kabare, from a train in South Africa to a dinner party in Ouagadougou. Journalists, diplomats, and teachers experience the problems and fascinations of life in Africa.

This memoir is gentle, insightful, and spirited by turns. It offers glimpses of a lost fragment of Africa that has since been overcome by circumstance and conflict. Kivu still lives, but it lives now in memory.Amidst the chaos that followed independence from Belgium in 1960, Kivu was spared . . . and survived. It was a "little paradise" as strife and disorder drew ever nearer.Frederic Hunter sketches local characters, both whimsical and profound, probes the inanities of US Foreign Policy, and paints the darkness gathering beyond Kivu, forces that would inevitably overwhelm this quaint, quirky realm of hope and humanity.As a young Foreign Service officer, Frederic Hunter was assigned to the Congo in 1963, three years after independence. He expected to encounter heat, jungle, hardship, violence. Instead he found the Kivu, a kind of paradise, nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, the people were splendid and got along. He lived in Bukavu, a town that occupied five peninsulas jutting into Lake Kivu. Furthermore, an African king lived atop the nearby green and often fog-bound mountains.This memoir lets you accompany these Kivu adventures. We get to know Hunter’s Number One Congolese colleague, a womanizing rogue. We meet local politicians who all attend a luncheon and discuss strategies for victory in the coming election—seemingly oblivious to the point that they were competing against one another for the post. There are expats: an American academic intoxicated by Africa, a missionary woman who has lost track of time. Hunter’s truck sank in a mud pit at night and he was soon surrounded by a herd of the most dangerous animals in Africa: hippos. Hunter risks more, however, when a local Kivu woman catches his eye and then steals his heart.

Frederic Hunter takes us to Belgian Congo, portraying colonial administration of millions of Congolese and the uprising instigated by a healer who has broken no laws, yet directly challenges the authority of the ruling Belgian government. Governor-general Count Lippens must deal with this challenge and appease the ruling class in the Congo.

When international correspondent Tom Craig travels to Malawi to report on a mysterious string of murders terrorizing the tiny country, he discovers another mystery that must be solved, this one very close to his heart.  He decides to revisit Joss, a woman with whom he had a passionate affair some years back and who is married to the newly arrived American ambassador to Malawi.  Although they last parted vowing never to meet again, he is secretly hoping to see her.  But he discovers that the woman at the ambassador’s side is an imposter.  He also learns he’s had a daughter by Joss who is in mortal danger.  As he struggles to find out what happened to Joss and save his daughter, Tom is also solving the mystery of the string of murders with possible political links, reportedly being committed by a leopard-man.  His view of life evolves as he confronts African myth very much alive in Malawi, threats to his own life, and deep desire for justice and family.

A collection of stories that depict Westerners encountering Africa -- its people, its mysteries, its beauty and bafflements. Often those encounters change the Westerners, leading some to wisdom, others to heartache. The stories take the reader from the heart of the Congo to modern Madagascar, from a village in Nairobi to the mountain-top palace of the Mwami of Kabare, from a train in South Africa to a dinner party in Ouagadougou. Journalists, diplomats, and teachers experience the problems and fascinations of life in Africa.

This memoir is gentle, insightful, and spirited by turns. It offers glimpses of a lost fragment of Africa that has since been overcome by circumstance and conflict. Kivu still lives, but it lives now in memory.Amidst the chaos that followed independence from Belgium in 1960, Kivu was spared . . . and survived. It was a "little paradise" as strife and disorder drew ever nearer.Frederic Hunter sketches local characters, both whimsical and profound, probes the inanities of US Foreign Policy, and paints the darkness gathering beyond Kivu, forces that would inevitably overwhelm this quaint, quirky realm of hope and humanity.As a young Foreign Service officer, Frederic Hunter was assigned to the Congo in 1963, three years after independence. He expected to encounter heat, jungle, hardship, violence. Instead he found the Kivu, a kind of paradise, nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, the people were splendid and got along. He lived in Bukavu, a town that occupied five peninsulas jutting into Lake Kivu. Furthermore, an African king lived atop the nearby green and often fog-bound mountains.This memoir lets you accompany these Kivu adventures. We get to know Hunter’s Number One Congolese colleague, a womanizing rogue. We meet local politicians who all attend a luncheon and discuss strategies for victory in the coming election—seemingly oblivious to the point that they were competing against one another for the post. There are expats: an American academic intoxicated by Africa, a missionary woman who has lost track of time. Hunter’s truck sank in a mud pit at night and he was soon surrounded by a herd of the most dangerous animals in Africa: hippos. Hunter risks more, however, when a local Kivu woman catches his eye and then steals his heart.

Frederic Hunter takes us to Belgian Congo, portraying colonial administration of millions of Congolese and the uprising instigated by a healer who has broken no laws, yet directly challenges the authority of the ruling Belgian government. Governor-general Count Lippens must deal with this challenge and appease the ruling class in the Congo.

When international correspondent Tom Craig travels to Malawi to report on a mysterious string of murders terrorizing the tiny country, he discovers another mystery that must be solved, this one very close to his heart.  He decides to revisit Joss, a woman with whom he had a passionate affair some years back and who is married to the newly arrived American ambassador to Malawi.  Although they last parted vowing never to meet again, he is secretly hoping to see her.  But he discovers that the woman at the ambassador’s side is an imposter.  He also learns he’s had a daughter by Joss who is in mortal danger.  As he struggles to find out what happened to Joss and save his daughter, Tom is also solving the mystery of the string of murders with possible political links, reportedly being committed by a leopard-man.  His view of life evolves as he confronts African myth very much alive in Malawi, threats to his own life, and deep desire for justice and family.