Imagine: Africa!

Africa: a continent of mystery, magic, wonder - and stories. It is here our ancestors huddled around the glowing embers of a late-night fire for the first time, and it is here the very first stories were told. Some of these stories are true, of course, but others simply reflect the impressive creativity of the people who live here.Imagine: Africa challenges the reader to pull up a chair next to an imaginary fireside, sit down, and allow the stories to transport him or her to remote villages, strange people and weird situations. Here you'll find an elephant with a sense of humor, the reason cheetahs have tear streaks down their cheeks, and several dubious characters with an array of scores to settle. An old soldier discovers why he was wounded in the war and an investment banker with a taste for his clients' wives has to face reality. Chinese tourists find a new aphrodisiac, while a woman must decide what to do with her father's murderer.This book wants the reader to rediscover the immense power of imagination. The stories are poignant, humorous, sad, and sometimes even cruel. In every story reality takes a few twists and turns to surprise and entertain.A word of warning: While some of these stories are fictitious, some of them aren't. Next time you travel in Africa, you may well meet some of the characters on these pages. Whatever you do, don't ask them to tell you what happened after each story - it is so much more entertaining to use your own imagination.

Dr Amos van der Merwe retired from medical practice to pursue a career in writing. He had a regular column in Runners World, and Leisure Wheels published his articles on his yearly camping safaris to Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Tanzania. He wrote Facing Surgery with Christ (Tate Publishers) to encourage patients with life-threatening disease. That was followed up with the biographical Eugène Terre’Blanche, My Storie, in Afrikaans, which has been translated into English as My Side of the Story (Griffel Media). Two further novels should appear in print during 2012. Amos lives in a nature conservation area next to the Indian Ocean near the Southern tip of Africa, with two owls and a mongoose as neighbours. In his spare time, he writes plays and directs a drama group for youths on parole.