The White Man’s Grave

The White Man’s Grave

Today, not even the most adamant critic of living in Sub-saharan Africa, would suggest that it was a particularily unhealthy area in which to live. This shows how very far medicine has advanced in the last 100 years, because for well in to the 20th century, Africa,...
Mishkids and Civil Servants

Mishkids and Civil Servants

Here in England we are all geared up for the Olympic Games, starting this week. I hope Kenya’s athletes are on top form and win many medals. I have just been reading a fascinating book – Mishkid: A Kenyan Childhood, by David Webster (available on Amazon). David was...
Remembering Birds

Remembering Birds

Birds are an integral part of the African scenery. When I think back over the many years I lived in Africa I recall many aural images. In my head I hear the piercing call of the African fish eagle, the raucous squawk of the Hadada ibis and the booming sound of the...

Platform Parties

The Good Old Days of Platform Parties From the end of WWII until the Kenyan Emergency was declared there were around 40,000 expats in Kenya at any one time, mostly from the UK and mostly on contracts that included ‘passages.’ Some of these expats working for the...

Rogue Rhino

I had a memorable encounter with a rhino when I was five or six years old. My parents had been transferred from Katangulu to Nassa, where they continued to minister among the Sukuma people. I had become more fluent in Kisukuma than English because I played daily with...