Listening to Butterflies

By Julian D. Nihill

This is the story of the beauty and tragedy of what was known as British East Africa. It is the journey a white colonial child whose roots are torn from him by the collapse of the British Empire and who starts a new life in America, only to find that although "you can take the boy out of Africa, you can?t take Africa out of the boy." Forty years later, the ascent of Kilimanjaro with the author?s son and then a second love affair, a human love affair, rescue "the boy" and return him to Africa. In his 60s now, living in Mexico, he meets a Mexican literature professor, a self-proclaimed flor de asfalto, or flower of the pavement. In a relationship reminiscent of that of Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton, the author shares his roots with her, and in doing so discover new meaning, a new identity, unfettered by tribe or race or geographic boundaries.Like most colonials the author?s roots were deep and his heart entwined in Africa. His grandfather was Chief Justice, his father was manager of the East African Standard, voice of colonial power, his uncle one of the first game wardens. Mau Mau, the revolution in Zanzibar, the bloodshed in Congo and Mozambique took their toll. But when the guns were put away, the island without time that is Lamu, the lost tribe of Israel that is the Rendille, the majesty of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the hum of cicadas at nightfall on the savannah, enchanted him. Woven through the love stories and the harsh reality of an Empire in collapse, is a constant theme -- that of Man?s relationship with Nature. Forty years after leaving for America, Paul Auster and Thoreau, Julian Barnes and the flor de asfalto, Outward Bound and a deeply moving expedition across the Ennedi portion of Northern Sahara all brought him back to his roots, and in doing so transformed the boy whose colonial identity had been shattered into a Man at one with Nature. At this level, Listening to Butterflies is a plea for a different view of Man?s relationship with the world, and the power of the plea comes not from statistics and scientific evidence, but from moving the hearts of its readers to feel the beauty of the natural world, to listen to butterflies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0692407227
• ISBN13: 9780692407226
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: Malaika Books
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"