I just finished two fine books about Africa. The first, "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith is fiction. The second, "Mystery of the Nile" by Richard Bangs and Pasquale Scaturro is nonfiction. Both paint vivid and distinctive pictures of Africa but very different pictures.

"The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is not a new book but the first in a series of mysteries about Precious Ramotswe, the lady of the title. Precious’ father has died of lung disease, acquired in the diamond mines of South Africa. On his deathbed he tells Precious to use her inheritance (cattle) to start a business (maybe a butchery). Precious, ever a woman with her own ideas, tells him through her tears that she is going to open a detective agency. It will be the No.1 detective agency in all Botswana. She feels she is called to help her people solve the mysteries of their lives. Using Agatha Christie as her model, Mma. Ramotswe, as everyone addresses her, opens her detective agency. She paints a sign, buys a building, purchases some yellow curtains-two desks-two chairs-a typewriter, hires a secretary and waits for clients. She is the only lady private detective in Botswana.

This is not your ordinary murder and mayhem mystery. The character’s are memorable and drive the story. Just as memorable as the characters is the setting, Botswana. The author lived in Botswana and his love of the country is evident in his descriptions of it. "If you went there, out into the Kalahari, you might hear lions by night. For the lions were there still…She had been there as a young woman…and she had felt the utter loneliness of a place without people. This was Botswana distilled; the essence of her country." It is a country where time is of little concern, and the sights and sounds of Africa may be enjoyed over a cup of tea. The writing is beautiful. The setting and characters are memorable. I highly recommend "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" and its sequels.

"Mystery of the Nile: The Epic Story of the First Descent of the World’s Deadliest River" tells the harrowing account of the first navigation of the Nile by raft from its source in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean. If your attitude is like mine was, that this will just be a simple retelling of a ride down the rapids like the Colorado River prepare yourself for a surprise. It also surprised me that the first navigation by boat down the Nile was completed as recently as on April 28, 2004. This was not a trip for the faint-hearted. The two adventurers, who completed the journey of 3,000 miles and 114 days, were Pasquale Scatureo and Gordon Brown. Both men were not new to exploration or to risking their lives; however, the trip down the Nile may have been the "mother of all adventures". They and their companions overcame the world’s most dangerous rapids, man-eating crocodiles and gun-toting guerillas along with malaria, sandstorms, and extremes in temperature. (The insects alone would have sent me home.) Not your basic raft trip down the Grand Canyon, on this journey two brave and perhaps foolhardy men risked their lives to be the first to accomplish one of the last great adventures on Earth.

Anyone interested in reading more about Africa should consider the further adventures of Precious Ramotswe in Alexander McCall Smith’s sequels as well as the following non-fiction classics:

Alan Moorehead’s "The Blue Nile" and "The White Nile" both published in the 1960s.

English novelist William Golding’s "An Egyptian Journal" published in 1985. Golding wrote the classic novel "Lord of the Flies".

Finally, Isak Dinesen’s unforgettable memoir of her life in Africa, "Out of Africa" is a must. It was also made into the Oscar Award winning film, starring Merle Streep and Robert Redford.

:: Go to Library Home ::