My latest tale from Africa, Freida's Secret, is now available on amazon as both an e-book ($2.99) and a paperback ($13.99). I enjoyed writing this one. It starts with a recitation of the famous, but ill fated, expedition to relieve Emin Pasha and morphs into a story about his daughter Freida and subsequently the efforts of a former Peace Corps Volunteer to discover the secret.
The search for Freida’s secret begins in 19th century Africa, leads onward to Germany before and during the world wars and ends in Idi Amin’s Uganda. African explorer Henry M. Stanley’s 1887 expedition to relieve beleaguered Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria Province of Sudan foundered in the depths of the equatorial rainforest prior to arriving on the shore of Lake Albert where Pasha, and his daughter Freida, who were threaten by Islamic jihadists resided. After much dithering, they reluctantly decamped from Equatoria joining Stanley on a march to the coast. That is history, but what happened to young Freida as she carried a secret forward in life? A mixed-race child she was shunted off to Germany where she confronted the strictures of culture and Nazism. Her secret preserved until uncovered by an American research student in the 1970s. He in turn set out for Africa to find the truth.
Author Gribbin weaves an intriguing tale that combines
history and fiction. It is buttressed throughout by realistic descriptions of
places – the horrors of the jungle, first sighting of the Mountains of the
Moon, the slave port of Bagamoyo, steamship travel through the Suez, Hamburg during
the Nazi era, Peace Corps travels in Tanzania, Idi Amin’s Uganda - and people –
boisterous Stanley, enigmatic Emin Pasha, self-confident Freida and intrepid
Gerson. In sum, it is a heartwarming tale that leads us to ask – what other
secrets lie undiscovered?
