African Memoir Series

Sent to the tropical jungle of central Africa to teach villagers how to get clean drinking water, Ian Mathie lived for some time in a village deep in the forest. The village elders and witch doctor, together with the local political agent, persuaded him to foster Abélé, an orphan from the community who had been ostracized because her parents were considered sorcerers. In tribal societies such as the one where Ian was living, girls marry young and men are expected to pay a dowry, or bride price, for their wives. So when an undesirable suitor asked for Abélé as his wife, Ian faced a major dilemma. That this man was also a powerful and feared member of the ruling elite compounded the problem. How Ian eventually managed to solve this complex problem by negotiating his way through the minefield of local customs, taboos and traditions – with fierce intrigue and even cannibalistic violence – makes Bride Price a compelling tale from the recent past.

An uninvited 'ferret' from Whitehall, dark deeds in the 'heart of darkness', escape from bloody terror and black magic - a true story that shocks the sensibilities and staggers the imagination... West Africa is the setting for Man in a Mud Hut, an intriguing story of witchcraft, wizardry, water resources and Whitehall bureaucracy. It is the gripping true account of a clash of cultures and what can happen when preconceived western ideas collide with the raw reality that is rural Africa. Man in a Mud Hut tells the story of Desmond Parkis, who was sent from London to find out why a taxpayer-funded aid project in Nigeria was going wrong. Pitched head-first into a culture alien to anything he had experienced before, Desmond uncovered much more than expected; a snake pit of corruption, extortion, murder and evil that threatened to devour him with primal forces beyond comprehension. Tasked with Desmond's safety, the author diverted attention from his own rural development work to extract his reluctant house-guest from danger and immerse him in the rich culture of African village life while he recovered. His engagement with the villagers, including a team of masons, an argumentative butcher, an ingenious blacksmith and a witch-doctor who looked into his soul and ministered to his afflictions, gave Desmond a very different view of Africa and new respect for its people by the time he finally left. Rural development work in the 1970s forms the backdrop to Ian Mathie's gripping narrative. Man in a Mud Hut opens a window on a changing world where age-old customs and practices coexist with new methods and technology, where Land Rovers share roads with donkey carts, where the sound of Beethoven symphonies echoes across the parched bush landscape and appeasement of the spirits is an everyday necessity. Man in a Mud Hut is as engaging as it is eye-opening, a juxtaposition of the bizarre and the unusual with the essential humanity of people whatever their colour, language or background.

West Africa in the 1970s: volatile years immediately following independence brought the author in contact with a number of Presidents, five Kings, two Emperors, dozens of village and tribal chiefs and a succession of extraordinary people. Circumstances contrived to place him at dinner with four heads of state whose rule had immense impact, positive and negative, on their countries and on West Africa: Mobutu of Zaire, Traoré of Mali, Senghor of Senegal and Eyadema of Togo. The insights into these events, together with other extraordinary experiences that could only happen in Africa, are related in this anthology of ten tales. Besides showing an aspect of some of Africa's leaders that is seen by few people, this book will take you on an exotic train ride a thousand miles across West Africa, introduce you to Godfrey, who loved elephants and accidentally trained a herd to be ridden as they worked in his game park, and portray a Togolese sorcerer with an extraordinary ability to travel at speed and appear in the most unexpected places. You will participate in a jailbreak Ian found himself organising in the jungle and journey with a camel train through the hellish sands of the Sahara to the dreaded salt mines of Taoudénni. In between Ian has supper with four different Presidents, some of whom you may have heard of. This fascinating collection of memoirs will show you aspects of Africa seldom seen by outsiders and tell you of surprising events which may stretch your belief but are nonetheless all true and will give you a flavour of the rich diversity of life that hides in the Dark Continent.

Drought is a natural disaster; starvation is a man-made tragedy. Preventing the first can go a long way to alleviating the second, but not without the political will, as Ian Mathie makes clear in this gripping memoir of the 1974 humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia. Dust of the Danakil is a true story of an ill-conceived project in the violent, drought-stricken Danakil region of Ethiopia. The author, sent by UK government pen-pushers to harness seasonal flood water and turn the notoriously aggressive Afar herdsmen into farmers, discovered a hostile environment - in more ways than one - that almost cost him his life. While the world’s TV screens and aid efforts were focused on one area of Ethiopia, in the Danakil – a backwater to which nobody wants to go - little thought was given to the plight of the Afar people until it was almost too late. Eventually a project was started aimed at persuading the Afar to adopt seasonal agriculture, rather than simply following their diminishing herds round the disappearing grazing grounds. The idea was to catch seasonal floodwater coming down from the mountains and use it to irrigate fields. Unfortunately, little thought had been given to the project and nobody was certain there would be any flood water. Even so, a team was sent to survey, design and build an irrigated farm, using Afar labour and paying them with food for their work. Working with the Afar, people with a reputation for savage hostility to strangers, proved to have some interesting features and more than a few frustrations. Add to that the complications of a government that didn’t really want to be involved, a project manager who wanted the scheme to fail, tribal and clan rivalries and the complications of drought, disease and raiders from Somali coming to steal livestock, and it became a challenging, exciting and dangerous project to work on. Intrigue, ingenuity, coercion and corruption make Dust of the Danakil an unforgettable story of hope and despair which provokes an indictment of the relief and aid industries.

Sorcery is a fact of life in many African societies; the supernatural is taken for granted. When Ian Mathie came across an elderly couple, sick and abandoned in an inhospitable part of West Africa, he ignored the warning signs of witchcraft and frightening encounters with an apparition to coax them back to health. Thus began a remarkable association with one small and remote village whose subsistence living Ian was able to help boost with the unlikely intervention of a Paris parfumier, a Voodoo devil, assorted helpers – and a native soap industry. Along the way, he was initiated by a village sorcerer and adopted by a family whose water supply he cleaned up. Ian Mathie experienced much, during his years in Africa as a water resources specialist, that challenges Western perceptions. 'Sorcerers and Orange Peel' – the fifth book in the African Heritage series – is an eventful journey through the haze where science meets superstition. “To some it may seem fanciful, even impossible,” Ian writes, “but having lived through it, I assure you it is all true.”