Jambo, Mama: Memories of Africa

FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Author

Melinda Atwood danced professionally, won awards for her choreography, and directed and produced musical theater before she began writing. A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Ms. Atwood has served on the boards of the Self Family Arts Center, the Juggernaut Theater Company, and the Elizabeth Foundation. Mother of a grown son, she is married and living in New York City where she works in the Off-Broadway theater. Melinda Atwood has traveled the world, but her six-year African sojourn inspired her to write Jambo,Mama.

SYNOPSIS

What is it about Africa that holds such mysterious power over its visitors? Even Melinda Atwood, a sophisticated New Yorker with a practiced ironic view, came under its spell on a 1985 safari. Falling in love at first sight with Kenya's beauty, this woman whose idea of "roughing it" was a trip on the QE2, found herself inexplicably drawn to both the country and its challenges.

When three arduous years as caretaker for her dying mother ended, Atwood found herself adrift. She was a single mother whose only child was now away at school, leaving her all the more saddened and alone. An acrimonious lawsuit filed against her by family members became the last straw. Atwood decided to run away from home, returning once again to Africa. Planning to spend only one year, she remained for six.

Told with refreshing honesty and incisive wit, Atwood's African memoir describes her continual adjustment to Kenyan daily life as well as her harrowing adventures in remote and often dangerous areas. During her six-year stay, she also builds a house, buys a native carpet business, and endures a tempestuous love affair.

You will laugh at her tales of finding her way and cry just as readily at her sensitive portraits of the native people she took to her heart. Many colonial rules about the relationships between the races get broken along the way.

When Atwood says her last "taonnana" to Africa it is bittersweet; you, too, will be sorry she is leaving and that her wonderful story is over.

FROM THE CRITICS

Internet Book Watch

Overwhelmed by the circumstances surrounding her mother's passing, Melinda Atwood needed to find a new inner center. Uncertain of where to search, but driven to as distant a place as possible, she chose Kenya, where she planned to spend one year hiding out and, hopefully, healing. She ended up staying there for six years, living by her wits, struggling with loneliness, isolation, financial adversity, a disastrous love affair, and single parenthood -- all the while recreating her life. In the process, she discovered within herself a core of strength and resourcefulness she hadn't known was there. Highly recommended reading for those who appreciate engaging biographies of interesting people caught up in usual circumstances and fascinating life events, Jambo, Mama: Memories Of Africa is her candid account of her journey, and an inspiration story of determination, hope, and courage told with honesty and humor.

Kirkus Reviews

A beguilingly frank and unpretentious memoir of living in Kenya that portrays both the glamorous (safaris) and the pedestrian (power outages) sides of life in Africa.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"I have read faithfully every chapter as it has been put online. It's biting ￯﾿ﾽsense of humor keeps me howling."  — Steven Smith

"We'll be in Nairobi, our next posting, for three years. Your writing is making our move there easier. We love the details." (Bruce Nelson, U.S. Department of State)  — Bruce Nelson

"Anyone who has lived in Kenya will shout with recognition at Melinda Atwood's evocative memoir. Her account is so vivid you can smell Kenya, it's people, it's wildlife, and it's frustrations. Her story will make you want to drop everything and go to Africa." (Linda Donelson, author of Out of Isak Dinesen) — Linda Donelson

"Thank you for letting me live my dreams through you."  — Donna Schlitz