Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa by Josh Swiller
I have years of experience in the African bush. Seen and experienced my share of shocking revelations, and harrowing experiences. This book is well written, easy to read, captivating, and riveting. The encounter in the prologue alone makes one have to read the book to find out what happened. All we know he was not actually killed, as he wrote a book after.....I oscillated between shaking my head at what seemed like immature stupidity, yet impressed at the depth of insight gained from the experiences and encounters. But in the end left asking myself, "Would you want to conduct yourself like that if you had a do-over?"
However, from Josh's encounters we will learn how secular western values clash deeply with much of East African culture. Conflicting values about sex, marriage, life, death, suffering, male/female relations, women's issues - are all broached.
Going to Africa? I would hand every person this book, simply to wake naive travelers up to the possible consequences their daily actions, lived through modern secular values, can have in Africa.
Shocking, Engaging, Informative. It will make you reflect, and you will not be able to put it down.
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