Mystery and Mayhem in Kenya

 Following is a review of An Open Heart by Harry Kraus, David Cook, Colorado Springs, CO., 2013.

This novel combines elements of medicine, religion, mysticism, witchcraft, political intrigue, corruption and marital tension into a fast paced readable novel.  The story is set alternately in Richmond Virginia and Kijabe Kenya.  The plot revolves around Jace Rawlings, an American surgeon, raised as a missionary kid in Kenya, who returns to Kijabe to start an open heart surgery practice. Hence the title, which also refers to Jace’s need to come to terms with his past and to open his heart to new revelations. He is burdened with a load of guilt with regard to his dead sister and to events in Virginia for which he seeks expiation in Kenya.

However, Jace inexplicably comes under attack from evil forces and the plot of the novel unwinds the whys and wherefores for such pressures.  The tale backtracks to his estranged marriage in Richmond and his wife Heather’s questioning Jace’s love and truthfulness. He also poses to himself some of the same questions.

The Kenya setting is impeccable. While several of the Kenyan characters are overblown to suit the plot, others, especially the minor players are perfectly realistic. Those who know Kenya will nod in appreciation of the accuracy of the nuances such folks bring to the story.  

Authors are admonished to “write what you know,” and Harry Kraus has done just that. He is a surgeon who works in Kenya.  Obviously the plot is fabricated, but the details are fairly realistic.  The only discordant note I spotted was that while the corrupt politician and his on-call witch doctor are Luos, the witch doctor operated out of Kisii, which is not in Luoland. Perhaps Kisii is a hot bed of evil practioners, but it is not where I would expect a Luo witchdoctor to reside

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In sum, An Open Heart pulls the reader along into the story. It is a fun read

Newfoundland Revisited

Following is a review of Sweetland by Michael Crummey, Liveright Publishing Company, NY, 2014.

In preparation for a trip to Newfoundland several years ago I read a wonderful novel entitled Galore by Michael Crummey.  That story encapsulated a sense of the island and the people who lived there with their peculiarities and foibles.  It was an extremely well told tale.  So I was pleased to find a newer book by the same author set again in Newfoundland.  Like Galore, Sweetland deserves plaudits. 

 The plot of the novel is fairly simple. A village on an outlying island is fading away and the government decides to relocate all the residents to the mainland (which, of course, is also an island, although much, much larger).  The hitch is that all of the 100 or so residents must accept the government’s offer.  Several, including the story’s protagonist, Moses Sweetland, stubbornly refuse, but they are ultimately pressured into acceptance by their neighbors.  However, following the death of his great nephew Jesse, Sweetland changes his mind, fakes his own death and stays behind to eke out a solitary existence. 

The beauty of the story is in the characters, dimples and warts included, mostly recalled through the memories of Moses Sweetland.  The islanders were a peculiar bunch, as is Sweetland himself.  The tapestry jerks forward and backward with various anecdotes and pieces of history fleshing out the tale in a sporadic fashion.  Ultimately, of course, Sweetland has to come to terms with himself, his own past, his relationships and his ghosts. Along the way the reader is pulled into a better understanding not just of the hard scrabble life on an out island, but of the complex web of human ties that bind and blind relationships.  

Lost in northern Kenya

This is a review of a novel, The Names of Things by John Colman Wood, AshlandCreekPress.com, 2012.

     This novel, set for the most part in northern Kenya among the Gabra people, is essentially a meditation on mourning.  The plot is fairly simple. The protagonist, an anthropologist, goes to Kenya to live with and study the Dasse (apparently the Gabra’s name for themselves).  HIs wife, an artist, goes along reluctantly.  While he studies (and reflects upon the culture he is immersed in), she paints and contracts AIDS, perhaps from tainted blood, perhaps from sex.  Back in the states she dies and he is lost. So he returns to Kenya to mourn, to find closure, and perhaps a way forward. 

 

     All of this occurs against the back drop of the dry desert landscape of northern Kenya where nomadic life is tough and where the modern world has made little entry.  Our anthropologist (who is never named) continues to chronicle the cultural life of the Dasse, especially their death customs, as he tries to make sense of his own loss.   He slowly transforms from observer to participant, but yet can never cross the cultural divide.  Pitted against inhospitable terrain and loneliness, his final quest is an individual one. 

     Needless to say this is kind of an odd novel.  There are lots of ruminations about life and death, and the nature of relationships, all of it offset by the stark reality of nomadic life and the understandings, misunderstandings and just plain confusion that an outsider brings to people he encounters.  Yet the presumably accurate descriptions of what that life is and how people cope make the tale compelling. 

     I am perhaps the rare reviewer who has actually traveled through the region so aptly depicted in the novel.  Although I had little contact with the inhabitants, the geography and physical descriptions are accurate.  Readers curious about Kenya, about nomadic life and non-western cultures will find this an interesting story.  I did.

How is Africa changing?

This is a review of The Rift - A New Africa Breaks Free by Alex Perry, Little Brown and Company, NY, 2015.

The premise of this book is that Africa has changed. Duh! Is that enough to write a book about?  Apparently so.  Author Perry makes a good case, at least for those whose heads have been stuck in the sand for the last twenty years that the Africa they knew has indeed changed.   The title indicates that Africa has broken free of past constraints and is now master of its own fate.  The author observes that nations like Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are no longer bound by colonial ties, and western visions of economies, but are forging their own ways with their own independent minded leaders.  Some leaders like Kagame and Museveni are politically astute and running their own show, others like Mugabe are lost in the past and rely on thuggish brutality to stay in power.  Perry underlines his views on Zimbabwe with an anecdote wherein he was imprisoned for several days by the regime’s minions. That’s his technique, he reports personal encounters with activists, observers, perpetrators and victims, then extrapolates his points from there.  It is an effective journalistic approach to writing.  

 Economically, Perry makes the point that the colonial paradigm of western exploitation of African resources no longer governs.  Others, like China, are involved, but the biggest current obstacles to economic progress are Africans themselves.  The portraits painted of South Africa and Nigeria where corruption is rife are insightful, especially the observation that South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, is intrinsically corrupt because as a freedom fighter organization it was anti- state and anti-law.  Ergo, its officials have inculcated an ethos to consider public assets fruit of the struggle.  Sadly, Nigerians cannot claim such a distinction, but Perry argues that British colonial favoring of the resource poor north contributed to the northern predilection to loot the oil rich south. 

Perry devotes quite a bit of space to conflict, especially violence with connections to global terrorism.  He (correctly) states that in three cases -  Somalia (Al Shabab),  Nigeria (Boko Harum)  and Mali (Al Qaeda in the Maghreb - AQIM) the roots of the terrorist organizations lie in indigenous nationalist movements.  Furthermore these movements expanded and grew in strength because the west, particularly the United States, saw fit to consider, treat and attack these movements as part of a global Al Qaeda network.  Perry argues that in part because of such pressures the groups did, in fact, align themselves with global networks.  Whatever the background, violence continues to be exacerbated by western, and western proxy intervention, i.e. Ethiopia and Uganda in Somalia, UN forces in Mali.  Perry has harsh words for U.S. renditions and interrogations of suspected Al Shabab operatives in East African prisons.  On the other hand he luridly describes videos of awful violence perpetrated by Boko Harum operatives in Nigeria, but offers little confidence that the inept Nigerian military can cope with the problem.

Beyond the negativism of much of the book, the author does find some reasons for optimism.  African politics are increasingly bereft of external string pulling.  Economic bright spots revolve around capitalizing on Africa’s enormous agriculture potential.  Reforming land tenure policies to permit individual ownership is key to investment that will lead to surplus production.  This is happening in Ethiopia. There and elsewhere in East Africa, modern cell phone communications make market prices available.  Unconstrained communications promote widespread freedoms of all sorts - information, political, economic and security.  Kenya’s mpesa electronic money system is setting a global precedent for a new type of financial system.  Innovative local leaders in urban areas, like the mayor of Lagos, are forging ahead with infrastructure and social projects that may make Africa’s sprawling cities more livable.   Finally, Perry has found throughout the continent people of integrity who are determined to battle for justice, equity and progress.  He puts faith in them. 

There is a lot I disagreed with in this book, more along the intensity of the presentation rather than the issues themselves.  I was dismayed by the vivid, almost voyeuristic descriptions, especially the opening account of watching a child die in Mogadishu.  However, agree or disagree, Perry makes his case. Africa has changed and is no longer subject to the same strictures as before.  Students of Africa or those who just want a perspective on the continent should read this book.  

The Raid on Entebbe

Herewith a review of Operation Thunderbolt - Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History, by Saul David, Little, Brown and Company, NY, 2015.

39 years after the fact, there is now a comprehensive blow-by-blow account of the Israeli military operation that freed hostages taken on a hijacked Air France flight by Palestinian terrorists in 1976.  You would think this would be a bit of a turgid read, but it is not. In fact, it gets fairly gripping.  The tale is divided into its concomitant parts - the situation of the hostages on the plane and later inside the Entebbe terminal, including their interactions with the terrorists; the political maneuvering within the Israeli leadership as they seek a solution, including efforts to placate Idi Amin; and not the least the planning, training and carrying out of the military operation itself.   

Author David delivers almost an hour by hour description.  Indeed to generate all of this he must have done an astonishing amount of research, not only of documents but also with interviews of people involved.  What comes across is credible, full of the nuances of change as matters evolved. The Israeli military men who conducted the attack, of course, are portrayed as the heroes they were, especially Yoni Netanyahu, who died on the scene.  The home leadership was haunted by the possible consequences of other alternatives, indecision or failure, yet made the decision to proceed. The hostages - passengers and crew - are well depicted as were their activities while captive and the stress they endured.  Even the terrorists themselves, especially the two Germans, are more than caricatures. Finally, Amin himself is honestly painted, mostly verbatim in his own words.

Readers know that the operation successfully freed the captives, but not without casualties: five Israelis, all of the terrorists and dozens of Ugandan soldiers were killed, and more were wounded.  Operation Thunderbolt drew a line in the sand to emphasize that nations of the world would not cave into terrorist demands.  Indeed that policy has mostly been honored every since.  The event also proved the value of small specialized highly competent strike teams which many nations of the world, including the United States subsequently developed for such contingencies.