I'm back --- briefly!

 Stanley – Thursday

Jeff twisted my arm last week to ensure the Thursday slot didn't go empty while the MIE writers were interviewing candidates to take my place on every other Thursday. I agreed as long as it could be a reprise of an earlier blog.

One of the fascinating aspects of being an African and writing about Africa is the everyday blending of African and Western beliefs. It appears in all our Detective Kubu books. In the latest book, A Deadly Covenant, we incorporate a belief that is widely held in sub-Saharan Africa. Here is the original blog.

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I’m finding it very difficult to know what day of the week it is. I have been in formal lock down for a week and informal closer to three weeks. Every day is like every other day. There is something mesmerizing about it.

The silver lining – other than avoiding the virus – is that I have time to write. Not that it comes easily with all this time on my hands. No! Time slips by as I sit by myself, mind disengaged. However, I occasionally shake myself out of my lethargy and try to get words on paper.

The current book Michael and I are working on is set in the northwest of Botswana on the banks of the Kavango River just before it spreads out into the magnificent Delta. It never ceases to astonish me to see the verdant paradise that is the Okavango Delta embedded in the Kalahari Desert. You can drive along a road and on one side there will be water and reeds and trees and birds, while on the other side there is nothing but sand and a few scrub plants struggling for survival. The divide is that abrupt.

Since water is crucial to people’s existence in this area, we dug around to see what local beliefs existed concerning water. Are there water gods? Are there ceremonies to ensure water abundance?

Out of this emerged Mami Wata, the water spirit.

I’d never heard of Mami Wata, yet she is widely acknowledged in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Mami Wata is usually female, frequently taking the form of a mermaid, often with a serpent wrapped around her with its head between her breasts. She is often depicted as having a mirror, which symbolically is meant to represent this side and the other side, or the real world and the spiritual world.

Headdress from Sierra Leone 

Not surprisingly, she takes on different names in different places. However, the name Mami Wata or minor variants appear everywhere.

Intrigued, I started reading about her.

As with many beliefs from areas with few written records, there is little consistency. She takes on different forms in different places, and her powers differ from one place to another. She is respected and feared, and has a balance between a dark, divine, mysterious, and angelic existence.

Mami Wata appears in the oral histories of early African societies. The Dogon’s creation myth tells the stories of Mami Wata and traces her existence to more than 4000 years ago. Mesopotamian myths also tell of the great water goddess in their story of creation. There she was known as Mami Aruru - the creator of life.

African cultures believe the etymology of her name is Coptic. In the Ethiopian Coptic language, the word “mama” was used as a description of truth and wisdom and the term “uat-ur” meant ocean water. Another definition of the name traces to the early Sudanese society where the word wata referred to a woman. The name is often linked to a single entity but represents the strongest and most significant of all water spirits that exist.

However Western scholars have a different perspective, probably due to the obvious incongruities. First, the name: it is thought that it is pidgin English for Mama Water. Second, the mermaid shape also smacked of Western influence since many old sailing boats had a mermaid prow.

As far as I can see, all African cultures regard her as the guardian of water, and some cultures don’t fish or swim on certain days to give her a chance to rest.

I wonder if this is a place of worship or just exterior decoration.

She is regarded as providing spiritual and material healing to her worshippers.

For women, she is a giver of fertility and protector of women and children.

However, she has a nasty side too. With a number of variations in story, she seduces men then demands that they remain faithful to her. If they comply, she promises them great wealth and success. If they don’t, death or failure.

Man being seduced.

Worship of Mami Wata is so widespread in West. Africa that a church has emerged to worship her. Wikipedia has the following to say about the Mati Wata priesthood:

In the coastal region from Benin, Ghana and Togo Mami Wata is most prominent deity. An entire hierarchy of the Mami Wata priesthood exist in this region to officiate ceremonies, maintain the shrines, conduct healing rituals, and initiate new priests and priestesses into the service of various Mami Wata deities. 

On February, 15, 2020 at 9:00 AM in the city of Cotonou, Benin, Hounnon Behumbeza, a high priest of Vodou and Mami Wata. was officially appointed the Supreme Chief of Mami Wata. As an indication of how revered Mami Wata is in the region, Hounnon Behumbeza's coronation as Supreme Chief of Mami Wata was broadcast live on various television news programs, and featured in local newspapers. The coronation was attended by hundreds of priests from around the region, and the highest dignitaries of Vodou and the Mami Wata tradition. Also in attendance were Benin Republic's minister of culture and several local government officials.

Hounnon Behumbeza, Supreme Chief of Mami Wata

Priestesses

It has been fascinating reading about Mami Wata. I had no idea beforehand that she even existed, let alone that she had such a widespread following.

Where we are in the book, Kubu is heading off to the banks of the Kavango River to meet Mami Wata. As pantsers, we can't wait to see what happens.

You can listen to renowned South African trumpeter, Hugh Masakela play his Mami Wata song here.

And you can watch a bizarre short video about Mami Wata here.

And you can visit her Facebook page here.

Serious research

Stanley - Thursday

The writers I know take their research seriously. Just take a look at the writers on this blog. Annamaria goes to South America and East Africa to ensure she gets her facts right. Jeff heads to Greece, Sujata to Japan or India. Susan went and lived in Japan - that's taking research really seriously! Craig pops up at conferences all over the world, and Kwei is often seen being driven all over West Africa. Caro traipses through the rain all over Scotland. Ovidia takes her research on Singapore so seriously that she insisted on being born there. As for Zoë, we never know where she is.

Michael and I also take our research seriously, which is not surprising since we both had careers as professors. For us, it is important to dig into all aspects of the story we are going to tell: the backstory, the front story, the characters, and the location. Actually, I should have written that list differently. Location should have come first and not last, because it was while we were on location on the Savuti plains of the Great Chobe Game Reserve in Botswana that we had the idea to write a mystery set in Botswana in the first place.

I'm sure you're bored of hearing how that came about, but I'll repeat it anyway. One day, we watched a pack of hyenas hunt and kill a wildebeest (click here to learn about the wildebeest by its other name). Even though they are known as scavengers, hyenas when hungry, are very successful hunters. After a few hours, three or four if I remember correctly, the wildebeest had disappeared, because hyenas eat both the flesh and the bones.

Cleaning up after dinner

'Aha!' we exclaimed. 'If we ever need to get rid of a body.... No body, no crime.'

And that was how it all started. Fifteen years later, with typical academic alacrity, we started to write A Carrion Death, which needless to say opens with an academic and a game ranger stumbling across a hyena that was savouring a human body.

So location, or place as some call it, plays a big role in all of our books. And we've been delighted by the number of times reviewers have commented on the fact that place is itself a character in our stories.

We have visited all the places we've written about in Botswana, as well as other places in neighbouring countries - just to get the feel of the places. And the feel is often the most important, not necessarily the look or topography.

So I would like to share some glimpses into the extent to which and the seriousness with which  Michael and I take our research into place.

Most of our adventures have started in a small plane in Johannesburg, which I then flew to Botswana or Zimbabwe. There have been some adventures related to the flying that I'll relate some other time - contaminated fuel lines, maps being sucked out of the plane over the Kalahari through a door that popped open, and so on.  Nothing too serious. 

I have a very basic philosophy of being a pilot, namely that I want parity - that is, the number of landings should equal the number of take-offs. I'm pleased to report that have always achieved that goal.

As you can imagine, flying in Botswana is very different from flying in South Africa. For example, facilities are less sophisticated. Most airports, actually air strips, we landed at were dirt strips cut out of the bush. That often posed problems not normally experienced in, say, the United States. I would always fly low over the strip to shoo away any elephants or other animals that may have wandered on to it. And when we landed and were ready to head off on our adventure, we would cover the tyres and tail of the plane with thorn bush branches to keep the hyenas from chewing on them.

Protecting the plane from hyenas

Our usual method of operating once we reached our destination was to be met either by friends who lived in Botswana or by an outfitter we'd hired.

Airport pick-up

Bush beer break

These photos were taken in the area where we saw the hyenas devour the wildebeest. Several of our books and short stories have taken place in similar places.

Haze over the Savuti plain

Walking

Dead elephant - disgusting smell

Desert oasis

Others found the oasis

King of the plains

...but who does all the work?

Our latest book, A Deadly Covenant, is set on the banks of the Kavango River in northwest Botswana, just before the river fans out into the Okavango Delta. It's the only place I've been where I suffered bird overload: too many species to really take in, in such numbers that it was difficult to believe. Here are some photos from that area.

African fish eagle on the lookout for food

White-fronted bee eater

Egrets

Fish eagles in tree

Lilac-breasted roller

Maraboe stork

Waiting for dinner

Saddlebill stork. I call it the 3M stork because of the Post-it note on the beak.

White-faced owl

Perhaps a scops owl. Michael?

A couple of times we strayed from Botswana, usually on purpose, but once accidentally, and ended up in Zimbabwe. We had a couple of research trips canoeing down the Zambezi, always on the lookout for hippos and crocs. The strategy for hippos was to bang the side of the canoe. The hippos would surface to see what was going on. Once we saw where they were, we were very careful not to get between them and deeper water. They can be VERY dangerous. Here are some pictures of those research trips.

Wandering down the Zambezi towards Mozambique

Getting together for a chat. Or couldn't they steer?

The men worked while the lady read a book.

It turned out that we had more trouble with the elephants in and around the Zambezi than we did with the hippos and crocs. We saw this one ahead of us.

No problem at this point.

But it had difficulty climbing the bank. Then it charged along the bank, trumpeting, angry

I think it had as big a fright as we did. Fortunately we paddled away and were safe. 

On another occasion, we had stopped on an island, probably a couple of hundred metres long and a hundred metres wide. We were just setting up our lunch table, when a young male elephant appeared from under a tree. It was curious. It wandered over towards us, took a good look, then wandered off around another tree. It appeared from behind that tree, stared again, then went back. Again it re-appeared, took a long look at us and, without warning, trumpeted and charged. The only option for us seemed to be to run and jump off the high bank into the Zambezi. As we turned, our game guide, jumped out in front of the charging elephant, shouted and waved his hands. The elephant skidded to a halt, literally, because we saw the skid marks afterwards.

The elephant looked quizzically at the game ranger, turned, and sauntered off.

When we asked the ranger how he knew the elephant was going to stop, he replied that he didn't. However, he continued, young male elephants like to strut their stuff and usually back off when confronted like that. The word 'usually' has stuck in my mind to this day.

We began our Zambezi trips at Mana Pools at the very north of Botswana. There was a small rustic camp there which was a fine place to prepare for the trip. As you can see below, we weren't the only guests in camp.

Are you in line for the loo?

One day we were delayed in leaving the camp because a temporary denture I had put next to my bed was no longer there when I woke up. We searched and searched but found nothing. I was certain that it was next to my bed when I went to sleep, so I began to suspect my travelling companions of playing a prank on me. It turned out they weren't and we eventually found the denture on top of a cupboard in the room I was staying. A mouse of some sort had been attracted to it during the night and dragged it to the top of the cupboard to inspect it in private. When it realised it wouldn't fit, it abandoned it and wandered off.

To prove this wasn't all fun, here's Michael doing his research.

This was the way to get clean - and cool. We always had to have a lookout for crocs.

I hope this blog clears up any misunderstandings readers may have had about research. It is difficult, time-consuming, and often dangerous. However, someone has to do it.

Launch of A Deadly Covenant

 Michael & Stanley - Thursday

Finally, we’ve reached September 1. Today, A Deadly Covenant is out in the world!

There’s quite a story behind this one. Stan had the idea of a Bushman skeleton being unearthed (by accident) and Kubu investigating, and more skeletons turning up, not necessarily Bushman skeletons. It seemed an intriguing premise.

Drotsky's cabins near Shakawe
where Kubu and Ian stay during the investigation

In terms of location, we’d been keen for a long time to set something in northwest Botswana. Shakawe is the town where the Kavango River from Angola flows from Namibia into Botswana. We experienced “bird overload” there once—so many water birds crowding the drying pools to get the trapped fish that we didn’t know where to look first. 

After that the river makes its way deeper into the Kalahari and then floods the Okavango Delta, creating one of the most amazing wildlife areas of the world. But the Okavango needs those annual floods. What would happen, we wondered, if it was an irrigation project that unearthed the first skeleton, perhaps a pipeline trench to take water from the river? A host of political and corruption issues presented themselves.

That was about what we knew when we started writing the book. We’ve always been “pantsers”— writing by the seats of our pants and wondering (sometimes with fear, occasionally with terror) where it was all going to go.

So Kubu, still a new detective in the Botswana CID, but with the success of solving the diamond heist case of Facets of Death under his belt, was sent out to Shakawe to help the pathologist, Ian Macgregor, get to the bottom of the mysterious skeleton. They get more than they bargained for. Eventually Ian finds nine skeletons, all of Bushmen, some of women and children, and all have been murdered—shot or bludgeoned to death. A Bushman massacre. And no one they ask in Shakawe is willing to admit to any knowledge of what happened.

At that point Selelo, a Bushman, appears from nowhere at the site of the massacre, dances to his ancestors in the sky, and then collapses. The next day he disappears. Next, an elderly man is murdered at his home. The local police think it’s a robbery gone wrong and blame the mysterious Bushman, but Kubu thinks otherwise. So does a strange woman who believes that a powerful river spirit, Mami Wata, is angry about the water project designed to “steal” her water.

Mami Wata

As his time away from Gaborone drags on, Kubu is missing Joy and agonizing over where their relationship is going. We love this quote from Lavender Magazine about A Deadly Covenant that encapsulates how the young Kubu feels:

“Kubu, despite personal insecurities concerning love and social skills, sets his keen mind to work, absorbs, solves – gains confidence in handling police procedure, single-malt whiskey, and love.”

Kubu’s boss, Assistant Superintendent Jacob Mabaku is sent to join Kubu and Ian amid rumors of corruption around the water project and the build-up of international anger over the Bushman killings.  Then another death occurs…

At that point we knew more or less what was happening and had a pile of cut scenes to show where the dead ends had occurred. But the conclusion itself seemed out of our grasp. What would happen to Selelo? How was the village chief, Kgosi Rantao, involved if he was involved? Who was lying and who (if anyone) was telling the truth? And how were Kubu, Ian, and Mabaku going to make head or tail of all this?

Well, eventually they did. We breathed a sigh of relief.

We hope you enjoy A Deadly Covenant and that, if you can, you’ll come to one of the events to hear more about the book and about Bushman culture.

Here's the September schedule:

Wednesday, 7. 4:30 – 5:30 pm 

Totally Criminal Cocktail Hour at Valley Bookstore

The Zephyr Theatre, 601 N Main St, Stillwater, MN 55082

Call 651.430.3385 for reservations.

If you're attending Bouchercon, don't miss Stan's dream panel with Alexander McCall Smith, Jo Nesbo, and Caro Ramsay!

Friday, 9, 1:45 – 2:30 pm

BOUCHERCON Panel:

The Mystery of Multiple Points of View and Multiple Timelines (Writers use dual perspectives/multiple narrators and alternating timelines to tell their stories.)

Marty Ambrose; Mary R. Davidsaver; B.A. Shapiro; Julie Carrick Dalton; Stanley Trollip (Moderator)

Saturday, 10, 11:30 -12:15 pm 

BOUCHERCON Panel:

Under the Sun or Below Zero (You’ve heard of “setting as a character.” Well … what about the weather?  These authors’ works represent a dichotomy of climates where rising temps or bone-chilling cold are just as effective as any villain.)

Alexander McCall Smith; Stan Trollip (Michael Stanley); Catriona McPherson; Jo Nesbø ; Matthew Goldman (Moderator); Caro Ramsay

If you're attending the International Agatha Christie Festival, join us for Agatha in Africa.

Thursday, 15, 12:30 – 1:00 pm (UK time) 

Virtual event at the International Agatha Christie Festival

Agatha in Africa

Michael, Stanley and Zimbabwe author Bryony Rheam discuss Agatha Christie’s trip to South Africa and Southern Rhodesia and its connection with her mystery thriller The Man in the Brown Suit.

 

Saturday 17, 1:00 pm 

Nokomis Library event

5100 S 34th Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55417 Phone: 612-543-6800

 

Wednesday 21, 6:00 pm 

Thomas St. Angelo Public Library of Cumberland event

1305 2nd Ave, Cumberland, WI 54829. Phone: 715-822-2767

 

Thursday 22, 6:30 pm 

Spooner Library event

421 High St, Spooner, WI 54801 Phone. 715-635-2792

 

Saturday 24, 1200

The Bookstore at Fitger’s

600 East Superior Street, Duluth MN 55802

Tuesday, 27, 6:00 pm (In person and virtual)

Official launch of A Deadly Covenant at Once Upon A Crime

604 W. 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN 5540 Phone: 612.870.3785 

Email: onceuponacrimebooks@gmail.com

With Mary Ann Grossman

The Okavango delta

Michael - Thursday

The Okavango delta is a UNESCO world heritage site, and has been declared one of the seven natural wonders of Africa. I’m not sure who came up with the list, but the Okavango certainly deserves a place on it as far as I’m concerned. Each year heavy rains on the Bie Plateau of Angola flood down the Okavango River into the Kalahari. The water spreads out over between 2,000 and 6,000 square miles and then goes … nowhere. The Kalahari is hot; a lot of the water evaporates. Some leaches slowly through the sand and clear water settles over the area attracting a plethora of wildlife from the richer vegetation to the north and from within the area itself. It’s a paradise for water birds. Many years ago, Stan and I spent a day on a boat on the river where it flows into the delta suffering from bird overload. We didn’t know where to look first. Rows of herons and egrets literally lined up along the river, took a fish, and made way for others. Every tree was crowded with fish eagles. That was a special experience in a special situation and I’ve never seen it that way again, but the area always offers magnificent bird sightings.

Channels run through the area. At the height of the flood, all will be covered except the small islands

The area has a scattering of islands that are never flooded. Most are originally formed by termite hills and then built with deposits from the water, including a lot of salt. The local palms are able to survive that, but not much else. However, around the delta is plenty of land with good vegetation and wonderful wildlife. We chose Bushman Plains camp on the north eastern side.

Our tent overlooked the plain with a waterhole

The tents have comfortable beds, toilets and showers. I understand the meaning of 'glamping' now.

We were celebrating Pat’s 70^th birthday with the trip to Botswana last month and this was to be the highlight. We weren't disappointed.

A couple of ostriches welcomed us at the airstrip

He was pretty relaxed but getting peckish in the evening

Not happy about the disturbance

A good place to relax

Huge treat. Wild dog pups at the den

Something completely different

One of the wonderful things about the delta is being able to canoe out on the water in mokoros - traditionally carved-out tree trunks. 

And watch the sun set...