"The African Witch"

Radio Record, 3 July 1936, Page 24

"The African Witch"

Fine Reading About An Unusual Place (COMMERCIAL travellers and insurance canvassers know, that "you gotta go places if. you wanta get results." Mr. Joyce Carey, the.author of "The African Witch,’ has been places, and he has capitalised his powers of observation and penetration: in this new novel in a way which heartily de- . Serves results. The book is remarkabie for its subject. To combine a study of life in an out-of-the-way portion of Nigeria with the personal stories of a handful of most unusual characters--that. is, unusual to New Zealand stay-at-homes-is to provide readers with something that they may enjoy on only rare occasions. For this reason,.the reader cannot fail to be impressed by the revelations of conditions as they exist in Nigeria. The devilish power of the ju-ju, the simplicity and savagery which survive among the blacks, the pros and cons of Kuropean education for natives, the practical working of the Christian missions, revealing some of their less favourable effects, and the amusing diplomacy necessarily practised by the Resident all help to build up a publication which even apart from this informative angle is worth reading for the fact that it is a splendidly written novel. . But both the blacks and the whites of the book provide some fun, and the frank descriptions of certain incidents and of such little devils as the boy Musa are given in a way that convinces the reader of the sincerity of the work. To gloss politely over such portions would have spoiled the general effect, "The African Witch." Mr. Joyce Carey. Victor Gollancz. Our copy from the publishers,