I went on the boat train up to Liverpool, and I was met there by somebody from the Dempster Line, who said to me, ‘You do realise you’re travelling with a lot of black gentlemen?’ I said, ‘Well, I suppose I’ll have to get used to that, because I’m going out to study them’. So I was allowed to get on, and I got on this boat – it was rather depressing, right down in the hold – and we were allowed up on deck for what, half an hour or an hour every day. But I had very interesting company down there because the Africans I was with, one was going to be a lawyer, one was a doctor – I can't remember the others very much, but they’re the people who were in my cabin, so I probably had a lot more intelligent conversation down there than I did up in second or first class with Europeans. (pp 34–35)

The former student's name was Kofi Busia, who wrote a book on the Ashanti, and eventually became Prime Minister after Nkrumah, and he was Head of the Sociology Department in Lagos, and he looked after me… I suppose, through having been a prisoner-of-war, and also I felt my age was against me, I wanted to get things done as quickly as I could, so time was very important to me, so I didn't spend long in Accra at that time, in the capital. I got my permits or whatever I had to do, got my kit together, and my food, made my arrangements very quickly – always did.