Introduction:

Through many long  evenings alone in semi-rural Africa  in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was never bored.  

There was lesson planning, of course, and  piles of  exercise books to check. After that, there was the entertainment of novels, music cassettes and a short-wave radio. When electricity or batteries failed, I would sometimes step outside amid the chirpings of insects and look up at the firmament unpolluted by artificial light.  It was humbling to be reminded that through the ages, humanity has commonly spent nights absorbed in the wonderment of the stars…

Whether under a  swaying light bulb or by smoky candlelight, there was always time to reminisce.  Particularly keen memories often became journal entries. 

The following pieces (some of dark humour) are based on such journal notes.  The notes have been edited  for coherence but remain faithful to the ‘history’ as recorded: 

‘Love and Death in The Loyalist Graveyard’ is based on a memorable encounter in Saint John, N.B., when I was about seventeen… ‘Hot Flashes of Eternal Return’, also written in Nigeria, is a recollection of an unforgettable incident from pre-adolescence. 

‘Magic Theatre on Regent St.’ is a memoir of a strange night in Fredericton, N.B. in my final year of high school… Also, from my Tanzania notebook is ‘Stray Cat on Montreal Main’, which describes an unusual encounter in early January 1980. ‘Embracing the Many-Coloured Beast’ describes impressions of the hours before initial departure for Zimbabwe, in January 1982… 

Also from my Zimbabwe notebook is the lengthiest piece in this set: ‘Mombasa’.  This in a narrative of poignancies experienced on a trip to Tanzania and Kenya in April 1984.

–FWT (lefthook51)

January 2020

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