Travels in the White Man's Grave - Softcover

MacIntosh, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349113203 ISBN 13: 9780349113203

Publisher: Abacus, 2000

Synopsis

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 there were still large parts where its forests were primeval. These forests inhabited the minds of most Westerners as places of foreboding. To Donald MacIntosh - a 23-year-old Gaelic-speaking Scottish forester - however, it was a dream come true when he found himself posted to the humidity of the fabled lands. During the next 30 years he was to wander through some of the most remote areas of West Africa, stretching along the shores of the Gulf of Guinea from Liberia to Gabon, where he operated as a surveyor, tree prospector and forest botanist. There he listened to the tales of ancient Africa from the lips of hunters, fishermen, chiefs and witch doctors from a vast variety of tribes in myriad encampments, drinking palm wine with them, attending their village dances and ceremonies under the tropic moon, or often simply lying on his own in the village clearing, listening to the tattoo of distant drums sounding through the columnar mahoganies. MacIntosh had many adventures with the creatures of the forest, from leopards to homicidal buffalo, and from vipers to spitting cobras. Each tale is recounted in this volume in an odyssey which he describes as "fun and adventure all the way". Despite its reputation, MacIntosh was rarely ill in the "White Man's Grave" and he encountered a host of characters along the way - "Old Man Africa", "Magic Sperm", "Famous Sixpence" and "Pisspot" among them. His story is of an Africa which no longer exists, providing a glimpse into the region's vanished past.

About this title

About the Author:

Donald MacIntosh has lived a life far more interesting than most of us, travelling to far-flung places in his career as a forester, but it is as a storyteller that he makes his mark. Donald was born in 1927 on the Isle of Mull and moved to Galloway with his family in 1932, aged two. He is the eldest son of a Perthshire woodcutter and until the age of five, Donald only spoke Gaelic.

From Booklist:

In 1954, MacIntosh, a Scottish forester, traveled to Nigeria to catalog and survey the vast number of tree species in the area. He ended up staying in Africa for three decades, and his work took him to many different countries. His book is a collection of tales from his time in the land he refers to as the "White Man's Grave." MacIntosh tells of his encounters with the often-dangerous denizens of the forests, which included masses of ants, deadly snakes, and even a leopard. MacIntosh had a close call with a snake when he stepped on it and had to leap away from its snapping jaws. And when a carpenter was killed by a cobra, the residents of his village believed his spirit was responsible for the illness that descended upon them shortly after his death. MacIntosh also met interesting people, including a boy who had an eyebrow-raising name and a reserved man who was part of a deadly cult. Skilled at storytelling, MacIntosh makes everything in his memoir--even the descriptions of trees--fascinating. Kristine Huntley
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About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0349113203
• ISBN 13: 9780349113203
• Binding: Paperback