Matthew Stephen

Baturi Matthew Stephen

Baturi is the story of a British VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) teacher, Matthew Ferguson. He is posted to a poorly equipped training college, attached to the small town of Hadejia, deep in the Sahel of northern Nigeria. As a white British male, he earns immediate celebrity status within the community, virtue of his skin colour. When walking through the town, he is frequently met with cries of 'Baturi', in the local language of Hausa this translates as 'white man'. It's the eighties, there are no telephones or internet connections, and Matthew's only communication with the rest of the world is via letters and the local grape vine. Visitors to his house are mostly unannounced; one such unannounced visitor is Chantel. She is an attractive Canadian volunteer, working as a nurse, and based in a town some 50 miles away. Her first visit to his house is brief, and clinical, but after she leaves, her striking image won't leave his thoughts. In a quest to develop his relationship with Chantel, Matthew leaps at an opportunity to accompany her on a holiday excursion. Expecting to join a gathering of fellow volunteers, they travel to a small town on Nigeria's eastern border. By the time he returns to Hadejia, he is alone, and wanted by the police. He has acquired a potent secret, which he discovers has embroiled him in a plot to over throw the Nigerian government. Although he survives to tell the tale, his thrilling and often terrifying adventure, is driven more by his friendships than his plans.