One Year in Africa (2nd Edition)

"I felt wrapped in a dense heat, laden with moisture and many indefinable odors. Decaying vegetation from strange and exotic trees and plants mixed their fragrances; these were the smells of Africa." (p. 1)

In 1964, Hans van den Houten stepped off a plane in Léopoldville, Congo, on his first international assignment with Royal Dutch Shell. One Year in Africa is his first-hand account of the year that followed, across Congo, Burundi and Rwanda.

It is a memoir of work and everyday life abroad: business challenges, politics, parties, dancing and music, sport, love affairs, weekends on the Congo River, and moments of real risk, from crocodiles to burglars. Burundi's drummers get a place in the story too. He closes the year with a candid reflection that the experiences were "some bad, but mostly good."

For readers of expatriate memoir, travel writing and 1960s African history who want the view from the ground, told in a simple, immediate voice.