This book was written to answer the many people who have asked the author, “What was it like to grow up in Africa?” Scattered throughout the text, there are stories—some scary, some sad, and some happy—about “home” from different perspectives, long before the Congo became independent in 1960.

Sarah McKee Burnside was born in 1930 at Bibanga, a mission station in what was then the Belgian Congo. She was the youngest of four siblings. George T. McKee and his wife, Elsie Maxfield McKee, had gone to the Congo in 1911 and stayed until 1941. Sarah grew up in the Congo first being taught by her mother using the Calvert System, then attending boarding school when she was eight-years-old. For Sarah it was the most natural way to grow up, being surrounded by Congolese natives. When she was eleven-and-a-half, the McKees headed for Arkansas and the United States. She never returned to the Congo. World War II was in progress in 1941. Her parents’ health was not robust enough to return after the war. She graduated from Agnes Scott College with degrees in English and French. She married a medical student who became a pediatrician. They have a daughter and two sons. Later, when those children were grown, she earned a master’s degree in drama from the University of Arkansas. They live in Fayetteville, Arkansas.