Sorcery is a fact of life in many African societies; the supernatural is taken for granted. In SORCERERS AND ORANGE PEEL, author Ian Mathie describes how this other dimension plays a role - somethings amusing, sometimes frightening, always intriguing - in everyday life in West Africa. When Ian came across an elderly couple, sick and abandoned in inhospitable countryside, he ignored the warning signs of witchcraft and frightening encounters with an apparition to coax them back to health. Thus began a remarkable association with one small and remote village whose subsistence living Ian was able to help boost with the unlikely intervention of a Paris parfumier, a Poro devil, assorted helpers - and a native soap industry. Along the way, he was initiated by a village sorcerer and adopted by a family whose water supply he cleaned up. During his years in Africa as a water resources specialist, Ian Mathie experienced much that challenges Western beliefs and perceptions. SORCERERS AND ORANGE PEEL - the fifth book in the African Memoir Series - is an eventful journey through the haze where science meets superstition."
To some it may seem fanciful, even impossible," Ian writes, "but having lived through it, I assure you it is all true."