Chris McIvor

In The Old Chief's Country by Chris McIvor

In The Old Chief's Country: My life in Zimbabwe and other places

RRP: £8.99

After Sudan, Zimbabwe. In the second volume of his African memoirs Chris McIvor, now Deputy Regional Director for Save the Children UK in Southern Africa, remembers his first stint in Zimbabwe, the many great characters he met, the poverty, the enormous job of repair required to European - African relations and, through it all, the hope.

Buy this book from Amazon
Buy this book from Waterstones

Description

“We pushed on well beyond the hour mark, neither of us wanting to remind the other of our agreement to return to the vehicle if we found nothing within that time. Surely beyond the next bend we would stumble across something. Instead we stumbled across several large mounds of what looked like undigested grass and leaves smoldering in the middle of the track. This prompted Dave to announce that it was time to retrace our steps. ‘What are these?’ I asked, wondering about his abrupt reaction. ‘These are elephant turds,’ he said, ‘and judging by their appearance and smell I’d say their owners are not too far away.’”

Chris McIvor OBE has worked for nearly thirty years in emergency response and development in countries as diverse as Sudan, Morocco, Algeria, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He is currently Advocacy and Programme Development Director for the charity Save the Children in Mozambique. He has published many articles about development issues in poorer countries, was a frequent correspondent for the Irish Times between 1983 and 1986, and was Zimbabwe correspondent for New Africa and Africa Now magazines between 1986 and 1993. He is the author of several books on the environment, land reform in Zimbabwe, disabled peoples’ rights, unaccompanied child migration as well as community involvement in development programmes. Chris McIvor has published short stories in a variety of journals across the world.

CATEGORY: African memoir