AFRICA NOTWITHSTANDING By Kenneth Bradley
The four stories of which this volume consists have all appeared in one periodical or another, but they are certainly worth collecting under a single cover. They have been prefaced by a short, but well considered, study of the problems which arise from the contact of white and black : and as three of the stories are based on actual situations with which his work as a District Officer in Rhodesia made the author fnmiliar, they point the moral of his preface very aptly. There is some indomitable quality in Africa which always strikes back, and strikes back when least expected. And that is what Mr. Bradley finds on re-reading his own stories : "the playing of Africa's unexpected card is, I find, the theme of all the four stories collected in this book." Tamen usque rccurret ! It is a pity that Tomo, which sets out the problem of the native habituated to white ways confronted once more with his natural environment, should be the least successful of the stories. It gives a pathetic and, up to -a point, a true picture of a most difficult situation ; but in our view the picture is incomplete (inevitably so, perhaps), and a few false noten introduce a discordant element. For the rest, Africa Not- withstanding (Lovat Dickson 8s. 6d.) must appeal by its sincerity. They are nnusuai stories, very well done, both exciting and dramatic, combining the realistic and the imaginative in a blend which carries eoniriction.
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