Travels in the White Man's Grave

By Donald Macintosh

Book Overview

At the beginning of the 1950s, the interior of West and Central Africa was still known to most of the outside world as the 'White Man's Grave' and consisted of vast expanses of mysterious and threatening primeval forest. When Donald MacIntosh, 23-year-old Gaelic-speaking Scottish forester, was offered a position in Nigeria in 1954, it was a dream come true and he found himself posted to the hot, cloying humidity of those fabled lands. During the next 30 years he was to wander through some of the most remote areas of West Africa where he operated as a forest botanist. There he listened to the tales of ancient Africa from the lips of hunters, fishermen, chiefs and witch doctors from a vast diversity of tribes in myriad encampments. He drank palm wine with them and attended their village dances and ceremonies under the tropic moon. He had many adventures with the creatures of the forest, from the magnificent leopard to the instantly fatal spitting cobra. The sinister arcanum of primitive Africa is never too far away from the surface in this book, encountering a host of characters along the way - with exotic names like 'Magic T. Sperm' and 'Famous Sixpence' - whose stories are all told here.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0349114358
• ISBN13: 9780349114354
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Abacus (UK)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Fanciful, Delightfully Written Tale of Africa

MacIntosh has emerged from the continent of Africa with a chest full of treasures and has penned them into a brilliant book. He begins the stories with what led him to Africa...the forests. Through the telling of information about trees and lumber, MacIntosh runs through some entertaining stories about his time in Africa. These stories run the gamut of events that include harrowing escapes and run ins with wild animals and extraordinary encounters with natives whom he befriends. In some of the stories, he is the main character and in others he has heard it secondhand. Both ways are captivating. On the whole, the book is warm and delightful with many humorous touches. MacIntosh lifts the veil of the mysterious jungles of Africa for readers. I look forward to learning of more of MacIntosh's travels in the white man's grave. The narrator of the audio version is a first rate actor and reads the book splendidly. Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays