Mystery and Mayhem in South Sudan

The Serpent of the Nile, available in paperback or ebook on Amazon.

 As reader of this blog might know I spent many years in East and Central Africa as a US diplomat, including a short tour in Juba.  This is my fourth novel all of which are set in Africa. A short summary of the book follows: 

Paul, a former Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Kenya, is a Nairobi based free-lance journalist. He covered conflict in Somalia, Darfur, and the Congo, but with visions of a Pulitzer Prize he seeks to write a story of corruption and arms smuggling in South Sudan. Visiting that war-torn nation Paul finds that civil strife is real, and that violence has been endemic in the region for years. He gets schooled in the tortured history of the region and caught up in the senselessness of it. Villains abound. Yet there are those who seek to make their world a better place – outlier politicians, elders, reformers, feminists, entrepreneurs, and even a soldier.  Paul finds that a mysterious force for good based on an ancient legend is enthralling the people of Equatoria Province and threatening their Juba based political masters. Investigating this Paul links up with United Nations peacekeepers to visit the far-flung districts of South Sudan.  However, his very America/Kenyan presence causes him to become suspect in the eyes of the secret police, which leads to misfortune, threats to him and embassy personnel.  

Set against the grim reality and history of South Sudan, this novel accurately portrays the despair, hope and aspiration of the nation’s beleaguered people.  

 

Grogan's Epic Walk

 

A review of Crossing the Heart of Africa – An Odyssey of Love and Adventure by Julian Smith, Harper Collins, NY, 2010

 

Readers, if any, of this blog will recognize that I enjoy books about travel in Africa. This is an interesting one. Author Smith’s gimmick is that he retraces the epic 1898 journey of Ewart Grogan, who walked from Cape to Cairo in order to secure the hand of the woman he loved. Smith too parallels Grogan’s quest, not only the route up the spine of Africa but with reflections on his relationship with the woman he is soon to marry.  I was not smitten with Smith’s romantic musings, but I did enjoy the alternating segments of what Grogan endured (and wrote about) and what Smith encountered. Obviously much had changed, especially in terms of transportation – Grogan walked while Smith used public conveyances – bikes, buses, boats, planes, which were much, much faster.  Smith’s journey is fleshed out by sporadic conversations with Africans that shed light on topics of the day whereas Grogan’s encounters with locals were often threatening, dangerous, and ultimately resolved through violence.

After Grogan succeeded in his quest (Smith stopped short), he did marry his beloved Gertrude (Smith married his love too). The Grogans moved to Kenya where the two became notable personages in the settler community. Grogan was a thorn in the government’s side, but a successful entrepreneur both in business and agriculture.  Among his efforts were vast sisal plantations in the area around Taveta on the Kenyan/Tanzanian border.  There he built an imposing house, dubbed Grogan’s castle, on a barren hilltop.  I was stationed in Mombasa from 1981-84 and visited the abandoned and dilapidating “castle” on several occasions.  It was indeed testimony to a vanished era and a monument to a remarkable man.