Four Thorns of Kilimanjaro
Stories from Africa
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Traveling five continents and gaining broader experience, I would find Africa occupying a special place in my memory and my heart. Since 1976 I have worked intermittently in East and West Africa, which allowed me to learn about native peoples’ cultures, more than when just traveling. It became a bottomless reserve of stimulation for my writing. Also, as foster parents we brought to Minnesota lovely Onuaku, a young Igbo girl, who much enhanced my understanding and affection for her people.
In these stories, mostly about Americans in Africa, it will become clear I have avoided carefully such fashions as the correctness of "multicultural sensitivity" and have presented the characters and their adventures as I saw them in reality, without the avoidance of truth. My sympathy for good people and antipathy for the customs of reverence of a "big man" as well as the habits of exploitation of women should be obvious. All the stories were based on true events; not one was invented. In some cases the characters’ behavior was often a composite of the demeanor and conduct of several people I knew. Their names were changed.
After immersion into the Black Continent, those who return home are often afflicted by a never-ending desire to go back again. So writing each story has been a joyous African homecoming for me. One can begin the read with the conclusion of the story "Mal d’Afrique": "Then I walk to the river’s shore and under the northern lights, wait for the call of the snowy owl. My heart starts to ache a little, my mind fills with memories of Africa. I dream of the Igbo girl singing her whole song with eyes turned down. I long to go to Africa again. Africa. I know my malady is incurable, its origin poorly understood. The French call it Mal d’Afrique.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Author Jarda Cervenka discovers that reality is often stranger than fiction while living and traveling in East and West Africa. In this collection of stories set in Africa, he describes how those who do not belong, suffer—and then want to return to the Dark Continent again.
His tales recall a calm village man whose best time in life was the Biafra war, two young Americans who hitchhike to Lake Baringo in Kenya, and a Peace Corps volunteer who disappears in the deadly Niger River delta. He also tells of a young businessman from Baltimore who is in love with an Igbo girl—and who encounters a prostitute in an unusual circumstance while on a business trip in Lagos. In another tale, a Californian professor with malformed feet travels to a deep jungle to learn how to construct orthopedic shoes, which change his life. Finally, three adventurers, kidnapped by ruthless robbers, get help from a French secret agent and a dose of luck.
Life in Africa can be grim and disturbing, but there’s also humor, humanity, and lots of adventure in the Four Thorns of Kilimanjaro.
About the Author
Jarda Cervenka is the author of five collections of stories, a novel, a book for young adults, and a collection of poems with collages. He received the Richard Sullivan Prize, the Minnesota Voices Prize, the Franz Kafka Award from European Circle Franz Kafka, and the Blue Jacket Award (Japan). Born and raised in Prague, Czechoslovakia, he worked for thirty-five years in the University of Minnesota as a professor of medical genetics. He is now retired and lives with his wife, Sasha, in Minnesota and Florida Keys.