The perspective of a Western aid worker in Africa is explored in Phil Clarke‘s novel Falling Night. While the setting of the African nation of Kugombwala is fictional, Clarke drew on his own experiences and those of friends to tell the story of a war torn people oppressed by a number of actors, including their own government. While not an easy read, I found it thought-provoking.
Alan Swales is no hero and no saint. Bored by a successful, yet dull life in Britain with his girlfriend, Mandy, he decides to become an aid worker in Africa to experience adventure and acquire anecdotes to impress his mates.
Plunged into a civil war waged by vicious warlords and their child soldiers, Alan has to make unexpected choices about the direction of his life as well as his relationship with Mandy. As the situation deteriorates, he hears rumours of a hidden genocide, which leads him on a dangerous quest for evidence in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles.
Philip Clarke spent most of the 1990s in Africa, both as a humanitarian aid worker and as a tropical forest researcher, about which he has written newspaper articles, scientific papers, and a textbook on the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa. He then worked for nearly a decade as an executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), before founding the war crimes investigation agency, Bloodhound.
The scientific textbook Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa was co-edited with Neil D. Burgess and published by IUCN in 2000 under the byline G. Philip Clarke.
The novel Falling Night was published by Ambassador International in 2023 under the byline Phil Clarke.
My Impressions:
Main character Alan Swales has no idea what he is in for as he lands in Kugombwala. It’s hard to conjure a more unprepared person to go to an area of the world where the people are struggling for survival in the face of famine, disease, and war. Alan is not a very likable character as he sets out to save the world with the aim to arrive back in England a hero. But as he experiences the reality of life for these people he grows into not only a caring person, but one who will sacrifice for others. The novel spends a good bit of time exploring the plight of the people in the face of do-gooder NGOs, politicized UN agencies, corrupt governments, and ancient tribal feuds/vendettas. Clarke does not hold back on the atrocities and deprivations that occurred. And while the book is set in the 1990s, I think it is very relevant for today’s Western reader. Alan’s spiritual growth is prompted by a message given to him in the Nairobi airport on his second stint in Africa, although the firm atheist has the beginnings of doubts and questions long before that. I liked how the author used the life and convictions of other believers to persuade Alan that there was more than just acknowledging that God does exist. Falling Night is not an easy read by any means. It describes unspeakable atrocities, although not in a gratuitous way. But it will definitely make you think about personal perspectives and the wisdom of Western thought in the face of real life in a very different culture. And it portrays living for Christ in very concrete ways in the face of danger and persecution.
Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(I purchased the ebook from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
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