Chui and Sadaka

A novel of adventure and intrigue set in East Africa during World War One. From the Forward: "I want this story told because someone needs to set the record straight about my mother and my aunt. Almost everything that has been written about them is at best inaccurate, at worst a pack of self-serving lies. Even Powell will agree to that... A case in point is the article that appeared in the British Tanganyika Notes and Records in the 1950s that maintains that my mother was a cold-blooded killer and little more than a common highway bandit. There can be no question that my mother killed-both animals (she was a highly skilled big game hunter before the Great War) and humans. Some of the things she carried out do not make pleasant reading, but it was war and things like that happen in wartime. She was never a common bandit! Probably what I am most concerned about in terms of this book is Powell's proclivity to sensationalize. I see no reason to expose the sordid side of my aunt's early life. But Powell was stone-deaf to my entreaties. He actually wears hearing aids and will turn them off when he doesn't want to hear something. "Sex and violence sell books," he kept repeating. I am genuinely sorry, Malaika, if this story offends. I've done my best to influence Powell. But ready or not, the story needs to be told. If we don't know where we have come from, we can't have a clue where we are going. The story of Chui and Sadaka begins with a question and a gunshot. -Abraham Wesselhus Nutley, New Jersey, 2011