Mysteries from Africa By Michael Stanley

Michael Stanley is actually two people—Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip—and we write the Detective Kubu mysteries set in Botswana in southern Africa. We are both South Africans and grew up there, although we’ve spent time in several countries. Stanley now splits his time between Cape Town and Minneapolis where he built his career. Michael lives in Knysna on the Cape south coast.

 

We’ve been friends for many years. Stanley is a pilot. One of the things we used to do together was to fly into different areas of southern Africa and spend time exploring their magnificent wildlife regions. On one occasion we watched a pack of hyenas hunt and kill a wildebeest, and then completely consume it over the next few hours. Nothing was left except the horns and hooves. No doubt after a few glasses of wine, we joked about how this would be the way to get rid of a body for the perfect murder: put it out for hyenas. If there was no body to find, the police would have no case to make. That kicked off the idea for our first Detective Kubu novel A Carrion Death. It turned out not to be the perfect murder because the body was discovered before the hyenas had completed their work. Nevertheless, the murderer had gone to great lengths to ensure that even if the body was found, it would be really hard to identify the victim. Kubu had to determine why it had been so important for the murderer to ensure that the body vanished, and who the victim actually was.

 

A Carrion Death could only be set in Africa because of the hyenas, but there is much more to African mysteries than hyenas. Not only does Africa look different, but it has a wide variety of different cultures that clash in a variety of ways leading to intriguing backstories and premises for mysteries. We originally chose Botswana as our setting rather than South Africa because the wildlife areas in South Africa are tightly controlled while in Botswana the boundaries are blurred. Elephants wander through towns; hyenas will find dead meat wherever it is. However, it’s the modern-day issues and the tensions that they generate that have built our mystery series. In A Carrion Death, it turned out to be blood diamonds. Our other novels have focused on topics such as the plight of the Bushman peoples of southern Africa, the aftermath of the civil war in the country that is now Zimbabwe, murder for human body parts for black magic, the new colonization of Africa by China, and biopiracy.

 

In the latest Detective Kubu mystery, A Deadly Covenant, we return to the Bushman theme. This is a prequel where Kubu is a new detective in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department, and he is sent to Shakawe near the Okavango with the police pathologist to handle the formalities when a long-dead Bushman skeleton is discovered. They initially assume that the man died of natural causes but discover eight more skeletons buried nearby, apparently the result of a massacre. Over many years, the Bushmen were squeezed out of the areas they once roamed by both black and white settlers. Was this the result of such a culture clash in the distant past? Or was it more recent, and if so what was the motive and who was behind the killings?

 

Many other writers have exploited the special offerings that Africa has in terms of diversity and backstories, leading to powerful mystery novels. Here are three examples:

 The Missing American by Kwei Quartey. Here the backstory is the so-called “sakawa boys” in Ghana who use the internet to troll for victims who can be scammed into parting with their money. A twist is that they rely on “fetish priests” (witch doctors) to provide them with the luck they believe they need. The book introduced private investigator Emma Djan and won a Shamus award.

 

Lightseekers by Femi Kayode. Loosely based on an actual case, the novel explores the dynamics of mob violence and how it can be manipulated. A superb debut set in a university town in Nigeria.

 

Madagascar by Stephen Holgat. Madagascar has a mix of peoples who originated from places as diverse as mainland Africa and Indonesia. What unites them is a belief that the ghosts of their ancestors live on the island with them. Holgate, who worked in Madagascar in the US Foreign Service, builds this into the tapestry of this page-turner.

 

We hope you’ll take the opportunity to explore some of the intriguing mystery writing coming out of Africa—call it African Noir if you like. You won’t be disappointed.