Biography
It is 1951, and Ugo Fornari, a young Italian doctor, abandons his practice in Abruzzo, setting off with his family to the heart of Africa. With no job lined up, he travels from post-war Europe to pre-independence Tanganyika, where Italians are unwelcome.
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It is 1951, and Ugo Fornari, a young Italian doctor, abandons his practice in Abruzzo, setting off with his family to the heart of Africa. With no job lined up, he travels from post-war Europe to pre-independence Tanganyika, where Italians are unwelcome. He arrives on an island in Lake Victoria, where there is neither running water nor electricity, and he is the only doctor for 70,000 people. Many years later, he describes this adventure as a ‘leap into the light’.
What challenges does Dr. Fornari face, and how does his wife Maria cope, with few resources and no knowledge of English or local languages? What is it like for his daughter, Paola, delivered on Ukerewe Island by her father’s hands, to grow up with her brother and sister in Musoma, Kigoma, and Mwanza, where their mother home-schools them? How does it feel to be sent off at the age of seven to boarding school in Nairobi, a journey of several days by steamer and train?
Join Paola Fornari Hanna, as she recounts the joys and disappointments of her childhood in a corner of the British Empire at its twilight, and at the dawn of African independence.
Chug along with Paola on steam trains through the cold Rift Valley to her convent school; feel her distress as illness detains her at the end of term; watch her tease the nuns with her classmates; celebrate as she leaves for Edinburgh University; share her exhilaration as she stands at Africa’s highest point, Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak, almost 6,000 metres above sea level.
This bygone world springs to life through Dr. Fornari’s black and white photos, Maria’s letters home to Italy, and Paola’s recollections. ‘Her writing is vivid and extremely readable. She has an eye for the unusual and the moving detail’ — Alexander McCall Smith.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
Dearest Paola, What a delightful book is "Leap Into the Light". I couldn't put it down, and went through it in two days! It was a journey down memory lane and brought to mind many memories, especially the ones connected with the Loreto nuns. A must read on East African life at its most magical era. Thank you. Wanda La Magna (Nairobi 1949 to 1966)
I loved the humour and realism of the situations and the descriptions of places. One could imagine being there with Paula and recognising everything. A fascinating read and highly readable.
It's a wonderful book - evocations of place and time, equally vivid and framed in such stately prose.
Paola has put together her life, starting with her father beginning his career in the wilds of the mountainous Italian Abruzzo region where there were only donkey tracks, and no mod cons whatsoever, which he later writes was a good preparation for his next job, with a young family in tow, on an island in the middle of Lake Victoria in colonial Tanganyika. Paola has gathered together her parents' superb letters, and blended relevant passages into her own memories. Beautifully written and put together.
A lovely, interesting, informative and entertaining book about growing up in colonial and post-colonial Africa, and the life of a doctor in rural Tanzania. From the book's beginning in rural, impoverished Italy shortly after WW2, the reader is drawn into the life of this family by a series of well-written stories, bolstered by a mixture of old letters and photographs. A really enjoyable read, that is beautifully evocative of that particular time and place.
