The movie's ''A Good Man in Africa'' (1981) source book was the first ever published novel written by author and screenwriter William Boyd.
The film's source novel ''A Good Man in Africa'' (1981) by William Boyd won both the Somerset Maugham Award and the Whitbread Book Award.
Director Bruce Beresford lived in Africa in his earlier years. As a young filmmaker, Beresford made several short films in Africa.
Of the production, the picture's director Bruce Beresford said in an interview with the 'Vulture' website: ''God, that was horrible. That was the worst film experience I ever had. It was cast wrong, the crew was all strange. We were filming in the wrong place. We filmed in South Africa, it was set in West Africa. Which is like shooting in Alaska when it's set in New Orleans. And I realized that although the novel that it's based on is terribly funny, it was very anecdotal. It had no narrative. I think on about the second day I realized it was never going to work, because the scenes don't link. I thought, 'I'm sunk! I'm never gonna get out'."