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Frederic Hunter
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A Year at the Edge of the Jungle: A Congo Memoir: 1963 - 1964 Kindle Edition

by Frederic Hunter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
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As a very junior US Information Service Officer, Fred Hunter is sent alone into tiny Coquilhatville in the remotest region of the strife-torn Congo. He has no diplomatic protections, no communications links. His job: set up an American Cultural Center. Very lonely at first, he establishes the center just as rebels threaten the country with collapse. When the rebellion turns anti-American, it gets very dangerous in Coq.
A YEAR AT THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE tells the story of Fred’s time there. It also examines the predicament of the young Belgian couple whose friendship rescues him from loneliness and hardship. They stand to lose everything they’ve tried to build.
As the danger grows, USIS makes Coq a two-man post. The senior officer sent in detests the place. Fearful of the danger, he orders a premature evacuation, tainting American standing in Coq. Fred lobbies to return. The embassy sends him back, again alone.
A YEAR AT THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE makes compelling reading about a young man serving as “the American presence” in a remote and hazardous part of the developing world.
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  1. Print length
    247 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    August 12, 2015
  4. File size
    2126 KB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frederic Hunter served as a foreign service officer in the United States Information Service in Brussels, Belgium, and, shortly after its independence, at three posts in the Republic of the Congo: Bukavu, Coquilhatville and Léopoldville. He later became the Africa Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, based in Nairobi. While a graduate student at UCLA in African Studies, before journalism, he wrote The Hemingway Play. It was given a staged-reading at the O Neill Playwrights Conference, was presented at Harvard s Loeb Drama Center and was produced by PBS. That led to opportunities to write screenplays for 20th Century-Fox, ABC, CBS, PBS and others. A Year at the Edge of the Jungle is his sixth book; all are available on Amazon. He blogs at TravelsinAfrica.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B013VKERCW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cune Press (August 12, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 12, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2126 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 247 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

About the author

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Frederic Hunter

Frederic Hunter

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The American government wanted to establish a stripped-down diplomatic post in the Equateur, the remotest part of the strife-torn Congo. No diplomatic protections. Not even diplomatic communication links. Officers assigned to staff it refuse to go. They would’t serve in that “hellhole.”

Enter Fred Hunter (me), a young US Information Service officer just arrived from training in Belgium. Why not send him? Let’s see if he’ll survive.

So I went alone into the Equateur, a typewriter my only friend. (I was already a writer.) I established an American Cultural Center there, but a rebellion was brewing in that part of the country. It chased me out of my post.

Wanting to understand what I’d experienced in the Congo, I took a master’s degree in African Studies at UCLA, became the Africa Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor and covered all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Later I became a screenwriter. A PBS project about Abraham Lincoln’s first three months in office, aired as Lincoln and the War Within, led to my writing ABE AND MOLLY: The Lincoln Courtship, an historical romance written as close to historical fact as possible.

Fascination with Africa had always stimulated my imagination. It resulted in two novels, THE GIRL RAN AWAY and JOSS The Ambassador’s Wife, and two volumes of stories, CONGO TALES and AFRICA, AFRICA! My memoir of establishing the Congo cultural center and running for my life, A YEAR AT THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE will be published in summer 2015.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
7 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dan W.
4.0 out of 5 stars Afirca from a Western writer who knows and loves it
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
A Year at the Edge of the Jungle starts out a little slow. But once you get into it, the story takes off. The details of "darkest Africa" ring true because Fred Hunter lived the experience. If you want to better understand Africa and immerse yourself in a culture far removed from America, this book is well worth your time!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2015
Verified Purchase
I found this to be one of the 2 best books I have read this year. It is interesting, fast paced and well-written. It is an intimate look into an important part of the 1960s.
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robert j. baker
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great love story in the jungle setting.
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SusanMats
4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, engaging personal account of the evolving and revolutionary Congo in the early '60's
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2015
Written in the years right after Congo's freedom from Belgian rule, A Year at the Edge of the Jungle gives you a close-up view of the political, social and personal experiences of Fred Hunter, a newcomer to both Africa and the USIS. I found his experiences to be exciting and frankly stated, with all the hopes and emotions of the young man he was at the time. Thank goodness for copies of his letters to friends and family, which kept him (and his account) honest, without the filter of time affecting his memories or his place in history. My knowledge of Africa at that time (the early 60's) was limited, and it was a pleasure having Mr. Hunter as my guide. His descriptions of the people and place of Coquilhatville brought it all alive, while also presenting a nuanced view of the politics and conflicts inherent in a place literally 'on the edge'. Though officially a memoir, it read more like a thriller with encounters with rebels and narrow (and not so narrow) escapes. Filled with unique characters and situations in a backwater of the Congo, this book seems to represent in a microcosm, the emerging African continent. I recommend it!
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Mr. LeCocq
5.0 out of 5 stars One of those great finds
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2016
Frederic Hunter is one of those great finds, the author of a wonderful historical fiction novel about Abraham Lincoln, Abe and Molly. He joins the ranks of my favorite writers, James Salter and W.T. Tyler.

Hunter’s new book, A Year at the End of the River, is a compelling memoir of Hunter’s experience in Africa as a young United States Information Service (USIS) Officer, on his own for the most part during the Congolese Civil War in 1963-64. Drawing on his personal letters and notes from 1963-64, Hunter has recreated what it was really like to live in the African bush, in the small provincial town of Coq on the Congo River. He vividly brings it all to life through his letters: the conditions in the countryside, the challenges of trying to open a cultural center in Africa, and the dangers involved in an insurgency, a danger facing not only himself, but also the European settlers and the Africans.

His tale provides insight into the bureaucratic workings of the American foreign policy bureaucracy. We see daily life as it is changing for the local citizens of Coq, what was happening on the ground and what it was like to be a foreigner caught up in a civil war, forced to evacuate, leaving friends behind. Hunter’s descriptions are lyrical but detailed, giving the reader a feel for the river, the thunderstorms, the perpetual rains and flashes of lightning in the gray night, the sound of rain on the tin roofs, slapping down on concrete, the roads and villages he encounters on his travels in the province.

Hunter’s narrative shows his personal quest for identity, his idealism, and his attempts to stick to his values and remain a positive example for the Congolese. He fights to maintain a presence despite the personal danger, not to abandon his post, but to make a difference, and protect what the U.S. has created. At times, he runs up against U.S. policy and the Embassy in Leopoldville, and he has conflicts with his own supervisor at post, who fears the danger of remaining in Coq, but also fears a loss of his reputation. We see the dilemma as government soldiers roam the streets unsure of which side to support, and as armed youth appear on the street, and rebel armies approach the region, killing missionaries along the way.

It is a tale of people’s lives against the backdrop of great events, of C130s sent out by the Embassy to evacuate American personnel, and of a wonderful Belgian family, which tries to stay to protect their lifetime investment amid the spreading panic and the disintegration of the economy and society.
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