Albert Russo

Do you hear that sound the clicking in your entrails like the distant rumble of war? Picture the battles being waged inside your body the blood cells colliding in the midst of a snow storm Is it Napoleon’s troops falling like pegs at the gates of Moscow or the last German battalions being decimated in the deadliest of a Russian winter? The echo grows louder until it fills every inch of your bones You try to move a leg a gesture repeated a million times by rote but suddenly your limbs refuse to obey history has a way of taking its revenge some call it karma

This is the story of Sandro Romano-Livi, a young Italian Jew, leaving his Mediterranean island by boat, for the Belgian Congo (DR Congo), in 1926, as a stowaway. Of his adventurous life in Central Africa, during the first fifteen years, of David-Kanza (aka Daviko), the mulatto son he adopts, a secret he will disclose to his white Anglican fiancée, Gloria Simpson, born and raised in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Of their two daughters, Astrid and Dalia. Of his family's difficult situation and of their hopes. Of the loss of his parents and baby sister, who were sent to a nazi concentration camp. Of his many travels in the African bush and of his ultimate success as a businessman. Of the family’s departure to northern Italy, where they will settle, just before Central Africa’s tragic events, whilst Sandro and Daviko will remain in Africa for a longer period. Of their love of the black continent and their incurable nostalgia. Of Astrid’s later humanitarian activities in Botswana and Malawi.

ZULU ZAPY is co-published by Cyberwit.net in India and by Poetry Printery in South Africa.

Midwest Book Review: Reviewer’s Choice