The Scent of Eucalyptus

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

If the combined topic of trees, missionaries, children, and Africa seems
a bit off-putting, then the title of this splendid book does it a
disservice, even though it is appropriate. For like the eucalyptus tree,
which was imported into Ethiopia from Australia, Coleman, the son of
Canadian missionaries, became a naturalized transplant in the same
country.

It was triggered by his return to Africa from Canada in 1992, after the
fall of the Mengistu Haile Mariam’s dictatorship, and before his
parents had to leave the country for the last time. During the visit,
Coleman had a chance to reflect on a boyhood that helped shaped the man
he was to become. Most chapters take what may appear to be a minor fact
of his life—for example, the clothes he wore, his concept of time, his
sexual awakening, his respect for adults, his interest in sports—to
explore what he learned not only about himself but about the country he
was growing up in. Each chapter could almost stand by itself, and a few
already have. The last chapter, entitled “The Babies in the Colonial
Washtub,” was published in the New Quarterly and won a National
Magazine Silver Award.

Interspersed throughout are references to the broader sociopolitical
events of the day—the violent mayhem that marked the end of the
Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime and the brutal repression of the
Marxist regime that followed, all intermingled with ongoing famines and
medical catastrophes. Those who stereotype missionaries as callous
importers of white culture will be particularly challenged by this book.


Compete with an area map, black-and-white photos, and a bibliography,
the book lacks only a glossary. In a number of chapters, African words
are introduced, defined, and then repeated later, and while the context
sometimes makes a particular meaning clear, at other times it does not.
Even so, the book is gracefully and imaginatively written.