Bror Macdonell - Mzee Ali

Bror rme MacDonell

Mzee Ali has been a labour of love. Gavin MacDonell first approached me with his late fathers manuscript in early 2005 and gave me the background to this remarkable account of a grand old man of Africa. In the late 1940s, Bror Urme MacDonell was employed in the British colonial service by the Department of Locust Control, covering southern Tanganyika and the northeastern corner of Northern Rhodesia. It was here in the bush, sitting around the campfire at night and listening to the stories of his lead scout, that he had the presence of mind to take notes.

The notebooks emerged some fifteen years later in 1963 while Bror was living in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. He began writing Mzee Ali in longhand and, a decade later, dictated the account to Stella Townsend, who faithfully typed the manuscript, with her comments that the text was too factual and lacked colour. She was right, but at the time Brors primary aim was to get the facts down. Here, the publishers, on behalf of the authors family, would like to express their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Stella.

When Gavin gave me Stellas typed-up manuscript I read it in one sitting, through the night till dawn. It absorbed me totally and I knew we had something that was wonderfully unique. I passed the manuscript on to my wife and partner, Kerrin, and she too read it in a single sitting, with her comments (like Stellas) that the manuscript needed a significant rewrite in order to bring the story alive. And thats what she did, solidly for three monthsshe transcribed the text electronically and at the same time rewrote the story of Mzee Ali, making it her own and drawing on her personal experiences of Tanzania and its wonderful people. She faced some daunting challenges, not least of which was trying to untangle the confusing timelines of Mzee Alis youth in the closing decades of the 19th century. (The Western calendar differs from the Islamic calendar, neither of which a century ago held meaning to an Africans interpretation of time and past.) Place names and spellings have also changed in a century and tracing the routes of the slavers and of the German askaris of World War I was no easy task. However, Kerrins greatest challenge was to get inside the mind of Mzee Ali, and, as biased as I might be, I believe she has produced something very special.

Inevitably, the story has been drawn with an element of licence. However, the facts, as related by the Mzee to the author, have been faithfully reproduced. But memory dims with time and some facts as have been recorded may be historically inaccurate. This is unimportantwhat matters is that a miniscule speck of Africas vast, untapped history, the story of one man to be precise, has been written down. On a continent where the past and its traditions are passed down through song and story-telling, Mzee Ali stands out as a written tribute to a long-forgotten era that captures the richness, the beauty, the cruelty and the very soul of Africa.

Our hope is that Mzee Ali will transport you back to a time and place of long agoon a safari or by a campfireand that you will come away with the same feelings of warmth and respect that we have experienced.

Chris Cocks

Johannesburg, February 2006

From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from locusts, murrain, and drought; from battle and murder, and from dying suddenly and unprepared, Good Lord, deliver us.

The Litany

Slave-trade route circa 1890

Askari route 19151918