Under African Sun

I read this book after reading several on South Africa, apartheid, Nelson Mandela, and the like. Through fiction and non-fiction I had gained knowledge of terms, concepts, cultural nuances, etc. Through this first hand account of life in the bush, I got a peek into a world that I may never see, but now feel I know and would like to flee the rat race to embrace for a while. Marianne Alverson lets us in to a personal, intimate encounter with a culture, a village, a people, real people who display quirks, experience, wisdom beyond our "civilized" grasp, human feelings, and social demands. Her surprises are our surprises, good and painful. I couldn't put this down, and almost feel as she did when she had to leave this soul-changing experience. I highly recommend this book to any member of the human race. It will offer you a perspective you may never have thought possible. Thank you, Marianne.

This book is a refreshing view of an anthropologist's field work in Botswana, as told by renowned anthropologist Hoyt Alverson's wife, who was transplanted, along with her husband and her sons, to what she thought would be a different world. Her insights into life, particularly women's life, in their village and in general remind the reader that people, even in southern Africa, are afterall people.