I write because I have something to say that no-one else has said or written about. “Buffalo Gals” discusses topics that as far as I am aware have not been previously aired in public, and others that are rarely seen today.

• Survival strategies among urban Africans. 

       - Elite bar women, who live in a highly competitive but mutually supportive subculture;
        - Domestic servants who are underpaid, often abused and are tempted to disappear with employer money;
         - Well prepared and humorous con-men, and also public servants who may supplement their meagre incomes by extorting money from the public.
          - General life in the slums, as seen by an outsider

• The exceptionally varied romantic and sexual responses of women. And the varied responses of men as well, particularly Jack who is conflicted by powerful  impulses and ethics. Thanks to Jack’s sudden installation on the Mating Mound, Jack has several girlfriends during the book – though not as many as his son Gabriel. However, “getting the girl” is only the beginning of Jack’s troubles. 
• The internal operations of organisations, specifically “motherhood” institutions like the United Nations and Australia’s science agency CSIRO. These have unusual personnel and management structures, and can be idiosyncratic and secretive. In both cases, while operational staff (and many support staff) are very dedicated to their mission, management can be poorly focused and there is a fair amount of self-seeking.
• The isolationism in Australia’s international affairs apparatus
• Ethnic rivalries based on very minor cultural differences. Jack is impressed with the great basic similarity of people around the world, despite their inevitable focus everywhere on the minutiae of cultural identity. The tribalism between Kenyans is at least as strongly contested as the more familiar racial conflicts. 

There are other concerns in the book that are not common in literature 

• Middle-aged coming of age. During the course of the book, Jack finally becomes an adult - and a global citizen.
• Male romance. About 80% of literature readership is female, and only 17% of writers today are men, compared with 55% in 1988. Novels providing an insight into diverse male attitudes to the opposite sex have become scarce.  While Jack is kind-hearted and well-meaning, his acute inability to live without a woman in his life leads him into all kinds of trouble and possibly danger.
• Africa. While Africa was once a last  frontier and a common setting for adventure novels, that is rarely the case now colonialism is at an end. Jack sees a place of great beauty and complexity, but Africa has become stereotyped as ugly, full of disease, crime, starvation and violence. Jack’s preference for the company of Africans over expatriates like himself is not common in real life and in literature.
• IT: the beginning. The beginnings of the era are poorly covered in literature. The arrival of email, Windows computing, websites and GIS forms a major backdrop to the book.