Deeper Than African Soil: An Honest Recollection of Growing Up as a Missionary "Third Culture Kid"

by Faith Eidse

Deeper than African Soil captures the romantic, pores-open wonder of a child raised among worlds. It unveils the adventure and suffering of revolution, disease, boarding school trauma, wrenching farewells and losses deeper than most people endure in a lifetime. It explores the nature of memory itself, why we repress it and how to call it forth, all five senses open. Daughter of Canadian Mennonites, Faith Eidse was separated from family at the scariest moments of her life. Amid postcolonial tensions in Congo, Canada and the U.S., Faith and her sisters—Hope, Charity and Grace—lived vivid lives, bridging cultures from their home (Dutch Mennonite) to their host villages in southern Manitoba, the American Midwest and southwestern Congo. Yet home was always changing—sometimes drastically. Faith never truly belonged to the places they lived. In the United States, Faith was an immigrant. In her parents’ passport country, Canada, she was a visitor. In Congo, she claimed friendship, longing and memories. She related to all cultures yet owned none, formed identity from bits of home (first culture) and host (second or third) cultures to create a unique third culture. “Third culture kids” each have their own enriched, complicated story but share a diaspora of the heart and longing for home.

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 27, 2023

Reviews

[Tess Ailshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see this book has won all kinds of awards, and earned a PhD for its author, but I found it lacking in cohesiveness. As many memoirs, it presents a collection of activities, memories, recollections, etc., but there is no thread that follows through. The reader is left with a sense of the author's traumas, but no closure -- were those traumas addressed successfully? Are they still affecting her life strongly? What role does religion and missionary work play in her life now? I felt these are questions I was led to, but never got answered.

I imagine the sense of freedom of village life in Africa is like that of rural children in America -- dusty fields, swimming holes, school friends with boarding situations, church sessions -- but with an underlying acknowledgement that there may be less opportunity for self-development or independence in the villages. Still, I wanted and expected some "this is what I learned" or "here's how I was affected in the long run" that never appeared.

[David Klassen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in DR Congo at the same time as Faith and her sisters so know many of the same people she mentions in the book even though I am a few years younger. I was able to identify with many of the experiences and relational issues she describes. She hints at some challenging questions throughout the book questioning the missionary enterprise that I would agree with. At the same time she also embraces many of her childhood experiences.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the missionary kid experience but even more the experience of the "global nomad" or the "third culture kid".

[Miriam Ilgenfritz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Faith's book was like visiting home again. I grew up in a slightly different area, but those smells, the foods I will never eat again, the freedom I had as a kid to run to the river or the waterhole or just through the jungle, there are days I still miss that and Faith's book opened the box of memories I had deliberately locked up. It was so good to open the box this week.
Whether you are a "child of the Congo from the 60's " or not, Faith's writing will draw you in and you will see her world as she did.

[Ashley & Sabrina Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

She masterfully wove facts and anecdotes into the plot, creating a narrative that felt both raw and deeply authentic. I was completely captivated by her story, feeling as though I was living her experiences alongside her. Her perspective on life was refreshingly unique and profoundly thought-provoking.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could quibble about a few minor details, but on the whole this is a readable, honest, and often poignant memoir. If anyone wants to know what real missionary and MK life in early 1960s-early 1970s Congo/Zaire was like, this book is more accurate than the famous but fictional Poisonwood Bible.

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book

The author shared the good, bad and ugly. I feel she presented an honest and, sometimes, unsettling look into her life. I’m glad I read it.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I loved reading the details and honesty of her life.
I highly recommend it. 💕