ANYONE who starts reading THE MAÃT a MYSTERY may well mistake it for a romantic novel featuring a sadist. The real intent of the author is only ascertained quite belatedly. Subtly, he weaves a careful yarn of the hopes and aspirations of all Africans or organizations whose vision is to work towards a self-determinate Africa.

In other words, that Africa must unite, the total liberation of Africa and the African people on the continent and in the diaspora must be the product of conscious effort for this accomplishment.

The sensational story begins in Europe in a scintillating odyssey which the author himself describes as a "journey of discovery through the human mindscape, plumbing the depths of individual and collective depravity, degradation and self-destruction and scaling the heights of supreme enlightenment."

He is less abstract and mystical when he sees it also as "a pilgrimage through time and space, spanning three continents."

Anyhow, the action begins from Europe where a great German-American sports commentator having a good time with his girlfriend starts thinking and wondering what it would be like to be a woman. Not only a woman but a Black woman.

They had both consumed a large quantity of champagne and the effect was becoming sensual. Hans Ludmeyer, a sadist of the most degenerate kind, systematically and literally runs Carol through a grinding mill, sexually abusing her in the most sadistic and obscene manner, burning her breasts and nipples with a flame and puncturing her private part with a pecker.

Carol eventually manages to kill the sadist. But what was she going to do with a naked corpse in a London hotel room in the middle of the night?

When the action moves to North America, spot-lighting the mysteries Aiysha, Fundisi the Teacher, and Shango, the scenario becomes different. And the typical African woman is visualised.

"There he saw a slightly above average height ... full bodied, dark, smooth-skinned African woman with dancers' calves, sprinters' thighs, perfectly rounded, solid hips and correspondingly ample bottom. She had full but very slightly sagging breasts and large athletic swimmers' type shoulders. Her neck was longer than would be expected for a woman of her build but it tended to give a sense of gracefulness akin to the giraffe.

"She had large, thick, succulent, dark lips ..... large, long, rounded nose and huge dark-brown, almost black eyes on a clear white background. Her only visible fault, if it was at all a fault, were two very small ears which stuck outwards from the side of her head like awkwardly placed satellite dishes."

That is how Aiysha looks like and she is to feature in the romantic episodes initiated by Shango as the search of the blackman's true identity continues from continent to continent, finally bringing into focus the continent of the blackman - AFRICA.

It is in Africa that the reader experiences the marvellous, ancient wisdom of Nenen Haiti. It involves Gertrude (the rude girl) and George on another romantic trip which the author describes as a sexpense thriller of real people dealing with life's ordinary issues in extraordinary ways.

He writes, "Experience the joys and dramas of human transformation as members of a proud, peaceful, loving people, once Gods, attempt to rewrite their destiny, dragging themselves out of a pit of sub-human subsistence and stepping boldly onto the path of right living towards eternal life."

The ultimate is the revelation of the Missing Link, the mystery of the Maãt, which probably represents the ancient beliefs, convictions and mysteries of the African.

"We have a lot of work to do. Brothers and Sisters, to rebuild the nation. Ahumka was intended to be an example to the rest of the world of how humanity can recreate paradise here on Earth. That dream is still alive - in us - and it is for us to go and make that dream a reality.

"As our Great Maker, Nenen Haiti always says: 'The only limitations we have are the ones we impose on ourselves.'"

Indeed, Africa Must Unite!

A very interesting and intriguing novel one can obtain from 25 Hayter Road, Brixton, London SW2 5AR. But there is a health warning to it. Apart from the fact that it is not suitable for children, it can have a dramatic effect on the adult as to how he (or she) sees the work and his place in it.