On the doorstep of African peace campaigner Joshua Hakizimana, a professor at a university in Madison, Wisconsin, a young white woman is discovered dead. The ruling class is reluctant to prosecute the brave campaigner, so they send Ishmael, an African American investigator, to Kenya to investigate if Hakizimana is being set up by long-standing Rwandan rivals.[5]
Ishmael expects to be welcomed like a long-lost son when he arrives in what he believes to be his homeland, but the complete reverse happens. The local Africans nickname him "Mzungu," a racial slur for "white man," because they believe he is a spoilt affluent man who has been accustomed to a luxurious American lifestyle. The difficult teachings that Ishmael must learn continue. He soon finds out that rape—even of children—is frequently ignored and that law and order in the densely populated Nairobi is, at best, patchy. Shaken by this deliberate blindness, Ishmael finds himself at odds with many in the community, including his new friend, the pot-smoking Detective David Odhiambo, after he rescues a young rape victim.[6]
However, not everything in Nairobi's settlement colonies is filthy and violent. Ishmael falls in love with Madeline, a former RPA member who was frequently sexually assaulted by "genocidaires" until she was saved by Hakizimana, the very activist Ishmael is attempting to clear of murder. Clever and courageous, Madeline tells the rape victim Ishmael has rescued, "Sister, there are no second chances in this cruel country on cruel continent."
