Fishing in the Sky: The Education of Namory Keita

In 1983, Lawder (The Wild Bird and Other Poems) volunteered for the Peace Corps at the age of 66 and was assigned to teach English in Bamako, the capital of Mali. This arresting memoir of the new life he experienced in West Africa more than makes up for the occasional passages of stilted prose. Lawder's involvement in the lives of the often impoverished people he met was heartfelt, and the Malians reciprocated by accepting him into their society. On a ""name day"" he was inducted into the Keita clan, one of whose leading ancestors was Namory of the subtitle. During his first three-year tenure, Lawder formed close ties with an extended Muslim family he met through a woman who cooked for him. He provides vivid portraits of the students he taught in debate and African American literature classes and describes his love affair with a young Malian woman that almost resulted in marriage. After two years in the U.S. Lawder returned to Bamako permanently, where, at the age of 78, he now lives with his adopted family of six African children, two of whom he rescued from the traditional custom of female genital excision. Photos. (Nov.)