Sophie Neville
After gaining a degree in Anthropology, Sophie went into television production directing her first documentary for Channel 4 when driving from London to Johannesburg. Having produced an INSET series for BBC Education, she set up wildlife films in Botswana and a BLUE PETER exploration of South Africa. She was filming in Kenya when she met Makorongo, a veteran of WWII working as a safari guide. He had a panic attack when a group of Japanese tourists walked behind his chair and explained himself by telling Sophie about his miraculous extraction from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
Sophie's family moved from the Malay States to Tanganyika in 1919, with a resolve to grow pyrethrum and 'save the world from malaria'. She emigrated to southern Africa where she spent twelve years working as a wildlife artist between film contracts, travelling though twenty-one African countries. After founding an HIV/AIDs project, she became a trustee of The Waterberg Trust and is currently raising money to provide African schoolgirls with eco-sanitary pads. She married an Englishman and now lives on the south coast of the UK.
MAKORONGO grows up on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, watching eagles with his friend HANS-WERNER. Life is idyllic until Makorongo’s thumb gets caught in a sisal shredder and WWI takes Hans to Germany.
In 1942, Makorongo joins the Allied Forces to prove himself a warrior and earn enough money to marry MERU, the daughter of ASHA, his chief. She promises to wait, but while driving an ambulance through the jungles of Burma, Makorongo is captured by the Japanese who force him to quarry stone near Tokyo. He meets up with TOKI, a fellow Tanganyikan, and three Kenyans, JABU, BRIGHT and KENYAN. They soon hear of the danger of American bombs from CHUCK, a Californian pilot shot down over the Pacific, who suspects that tunnels the Japanese are making prisoners dig will become their communal grave.
Back in Africa, Meru is being stalked by MGANGA, a witchdoctor who assumes he can purchase her as a fourth wi
Inspired by an eagle, and desperate to return to Meru, Makorongo determines to improve the camp by creating a stone garden. Chuck is horrified, but while Jabu is able to track the Japanese on Bright's freshly raked paths, Kenyan positions rocks to use as weapons. Makorongo grows apprehensive when German officer on a diplomatic mission arrives to see their impressive creation but is amazed to see it's Hans-Werner. On learning that his boyhood friend had driven for the Red Cross, Hans insists on his repatriation, but Makorongo refuses to leave without his African friends. Jabu then takes the risk of producing a jar of Marmite, proving that Japanese guards had been pillaging Red Cross parcels.
When Hans-Werner’s Jünker takes off, all five East Africans are on board. They look down to see Makorongo had used rocks to spell out the letters POW to alert Operation Meetinghouse pilots bombing Tokyo and save Chuck and the camp from destruction. After landing five times to refuel, they arrive in Silesia near Hans' family home. The Africans are amazed to see snow but Hans points out it has been visible on the summit of Kilimanjaro all their lives. Whilst he is posted to Moscow, Makorongo returns home able to present Asha with Meru’s bride-price. She is surprised to meet his skinny friends. Makorongo never told Hans that three of his fellow captives were from Kenya, knowing he would never have aided 'enemy agents'.
