African Travels 1967-2010, by John McWilliam (Sierra Leone 1967-69) and Joanna McWilliam

African Travels 1967-2010, by John McWilliam and Joanna McWilliam

Description

The McWilliams have written a treasure trove of stories about their experiences living and working in Africa. On motor bikes, crowded lorries, and river ferries, they carry the reader across highways, dirt roads, and rivers into cities, towns and villages from Sierra Leone to Nigeria to Kenya. The Africans with whom they live and work welcome them, providing insights into cross-cultural and historical facts that few outsiders are able to know. This book provides that knowledge through captivating descriptions, unique adventures, and humor.

• Publisher : ‎ Moore Media, Inc. (2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 266 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8985278934
• Also available on Amazon.com

About the authors

John McWilliam served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1967 – 1969. After graduate school studying demography and development sociology, he returned to the continent, to Tanzania, where he worked on a Food and Agricultural Organization project in Musoma, on the shores of Lake Victoria. He later moved on to Nigeria, where he undertook population research at a new demographic center at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. In 1975, he joined the United Nations in New York and worked for the Secretariat and the United Nations Population Fund for twelve years, doing research and evaluations of UN funded programs. He returned to Nigeria in 1979 for the UN to assist the Government of Nigeria develop its first population plan, funded by the UN. For the remainder of his career he worked for various contractors of USAID to undertake missions to develop population programs in countries in Africa and Asia and later to implement population and health programs in the field. In the 1990s, he was the Administrator of the Nigerian Family Planning Project and Chief of Party of the Uttar Pradesh, India, family planning program, both large programs with the goal of supporting reproductive health and population reduction. In the 2000s, he returned to Africa for his most rewarding job, working in Kenya and other East African countries in the implementation of HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment. He retired to Cape Cod in 2010.

Joanna McWilliam, while not serving in the Peace Corps, had a full career pursuing social justice and promoting African causes. She answered Martin Luther King, Jr. call and joined others in registering voter in the South in 1965, in anticipation of the Voter Registration Act being passed. With the spirit of a volunteer, on her own, she headed to Nigeria to teach history in secondary school. Her graduate work at UCLA, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Boston University was in Africa studies. For many years she worked at the African American Institute in New York, placing African professionals in short term training course in the United States. Her most rewarding job was as a volunteer in Kenya, where she was President of the Kenya Museum Society, organizing cultural and education events, and leading the refurbishment of the Louis Leakey auditorium into an arts center. Joanna has also pursued a passion for African sculpture and her collection of art from the continent is finding homes in US museums.