Amie, An African Adventure
By Lucinda E Clarke
Working full time I don’t get to read a lot, so the fact
that I managed to read it within a week says a lot about this book. It follows
the story of Amie a young naïve English woman that follows her husband when he
gets posted to Africa. Amie initially has her doubts about going and the author
hints that at some point things are going to go very wrong, but convinced by
her husband and her family Amie accepts her new life and sets out for Africa
with her husband. There an experienced expat woman takes Amie under her wing
and shows her the dos and don’ts of living as a white woman in Africa. As Amie
initially struggles with the completely different mentality of the citizens of
Togodo, she comes to enjoy her new live. So much so she longs to go back to
Togodo and its capital Apatu during their annual visit back to England. And
here is my slight quibble with the book, Togodo is a fictional country. It is
obvious the author has a wealth of knowledge about living in Africa. I’m sure
many of the things Amie experiences have happened or been told to the author.
She certainly weaves all these impressions into a good story. But every time
Apatu or Togodo were mentioned I was left disoriented wondering which country
and which regime this was based on and where I was geographically as the story
felt very real (somewhere in East Africa near the equator was all we were told)
especially . However if you do like a riveting adventure story and to get a
general insight into how western white workers live and work in Africa, I can
certainly recommend this book.
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