Supper with the President
Published on 1. October 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
252 pages
978-1-906852-10-8 (ISBN)
Description
West Africa in the 1970s was a volatile mélange of old and new; of aspiration, corruption, power and influence. In its midst, Ian Mathie laboured in his role as a water engineer to help improve the lives of ordinary people. His work brought him in touch with presidents, kings, emperors, chiefs and a succession of extraordinary characters. Circumstances contrived to place him at dinners with four heads of state whose rule had immense impact, positive and negative, on their countries and on West and Central Africa: Mobutu of Zaire, Traoré of Mali, Senghor of Senegal and Eyadema of Togo. In Supper with the President, he recalls those events and the insights they gave him, interweaving those experiences with true stories of other extraordinary brushes with sorcery, slavery, wildlife conservation, desert travel and a jail-break that could only happen in Africa.
Reviews / Votes
Deliciously written, at times laugh-our-loud funny. - Wendy Reiss, author and editor Scores of fascinating adventures, projects, characters and extraordinary meetings in colonial Africa... amazing accounts of life in the forests. - Banbury Guardian Ian Mathie knows exactly how to stitch up a good story... simply the best of the relatively unknown writers. - The BookbagMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leamington Spa
United Kingdom
Illustrations
19 maps, photos
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
371 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-906852-10-8 (9781906852108)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ian Mathie spent his childhood and early school years in Africa. After a short service commission in the RAF, he returned to the continent as a rural development officer working for the British government and a number of other agencies. His work in water resources and related projects during the 1970s brought him into close contact with the African people, their cultures and varied tribal customs, many of which are now all but lost. These experiences, recorded in his notebooks, were the inspiration for a series of African memoirs, of which Supper with the President is the third volume. Ian continued to visit Africa until health considerations curtailed his travelling. He now lives in south Warwickshire with his wife and dog.
Content
Ch. 1 - Moussa's mud pile Ch. 2 - Mint tea and a one-eyed goat Ch. 3 - The poetic president Ch. 4 - The sorcerer's spells Ch. 5 - A lakeside liaison Ch. 6 - Godfrey's elephants Ch. 7 - An ordinary despot Ch. 8 - Jailbreak Ch. 9 - Caravan to Taoudeni Glossary Acknowledgements