battles against Africa's unforgiving environment, but the winds of change were to bring a greater challenge and one that would ultimately end Read's dreams. Waters of the Sanjan This is Read's sole fiction novel, again situated in the Serengeti at the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In a series of adventures the protagonist Dangoya develops his reputation and leadership of his age-group and has to deal with envy, drought, superstition and colonialists. Dangoya proves to be an enlightened leader, respecting his tribe's traditions and his elders but at the same time challenging incompetence and mere superstition. – In a concentrated form the book encloses Maasai tradition such as male and female circumcision, cattle raids, blood drinking, alcohol drinking, meat feasts, sexual habits like polygamy, initiation ceremonies, etc. In his foreword Ole Ntekerei Memusi writes: “Waters of the Sanjan is an accurate and admirable historic record of my people". (p. xi) Relevance Read's works, covering a period of seven decades, not only describe a unique life starting from the adoption of the young boy by the magnificent Maasai tribe whose influence never ceased through his adolescence and manhood; it is also an ethnographic document of a native African group, who rely on oral tradition and whose knowledge and history is, by the accuracy and the empathy which characterise Read's novels, preserved from amnesia. References Sources David Read, Barefoot over the Serengeti, privately published by David Read, Nairobi 1979, 2nd ed. 1980 by Travel Book Club. Reprint 1984, and David Read and Pamela Brown, Waters of the Sanjan. A Historical Novel of the Masai, privately published by David Read 1982, revised edition. 1989, David Read, Beating about the Bush. Tales from Tanganyika, privately published by David Read 2000, David Read, Another Load of Bull'', privately published by David Read, External links Homepage of David Read Forum with extracts from David Read's Beating about the Bush and from other authors, mentioning David Read 1922 births 2015 deaths English-language writers from Tanzania Tanzanian non-fiction writers Kenya Regiment officers King's African Rifles officers Tanzanian novelists 20th-century novelists Kenyan emigrants Immigrants to Tanganyika