By Paul Theroux
Gauging the situation, he talks to Africans, reduction staff, missionaries, and travelers. What effects is an insightful meditation at the heritage, politics, and wonder of Africa and its humans, and "a vibrant portrayal of the key sweetness, the hidden energy, and the long-patient desire that lies simply underneath the skin" (Rocky Mountain News). In a brand new postscript, Theroux recounts the dramatic occasions of a go back to Africa to go to Zimbabwe.
Read or Download Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown PDF
Best africa books
Shorelines: A Journey Along the South African Coast
Award profitable commute writers Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit pack their trusty bakkie and force the total size of South Africa's seashores, from Alexander Bay within the west to Kosi Bay within the east, assembly the unusual and the fantastic, the felony and the loopy parts of beach South Africa en path.
Coppernica, a rustic which bears a terrifying fictional resemblance to the Belgian Congo, is engaged within the fight for independence, the blood of violence, the clinging greed and moribund assumptions of white imperialism. Caute, additionally a political historian (Communism and the French Intellectuals, 1914-1960) has a dramatic snatch of background; he's capable of make this e-book converse via person realities in the scope of its setting--Africa, Europe and the U.
Kenya: A History Since Independence
Considering independence in 1963, Kenya has survived approximately 5 many years as a functioning geographical region, with common elections, its borders intact, and with out experiencing struggle or army rule. notwithstanding, Kenya's independence has continuously been circumscribed by way of its failure to go beyond its colonial earlier: its governments have didn't in attaining enough dwelling stipulations for many of its electorate and its politics were fraught with controversy - illustrated such a lot lately by way of the post-election protests and violence in 2007.
Extra info for Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
Example text
Yes. We say Israel is America’s fifty-first state,” a woman said. “What do you think, Mr. ” “Yes! ” said the man sitting next to Mahfouz. “And it is rather a small window,” I said. ” “The window is too small to see every country clearly. For example, Egypt is much larger and poorer and more harmless than it appears. But Israel insists that we see every country through its own window. ” While all this was translated for Mahfouz and the others, I felt that I was being drawn into a fruitless political debate.
A man with a Slavic accent claimed that he had met me many years ago. He became very friendly, though he could not remember where or when we had met—Uganda perhaps, he said, in the sixties. At his matiest he confided to me: “Colonialism just slowed down a process that was inevitable. ” This was a crudely coded way of saying Africans were reverting to savagery. Yet in another respect what he was saying was true. After a spell of being familiar and promising, Africa had slipped into a stereotype of itself: starving people in a blighted land governed by tyrants, rumors of unspeakable atrocities, despair and darkness.
Mr. Qurashi said, “Next week, inshallah. ” 3 Up and Down the Nile THE Philae, a river cruiser, lay aslant of the bank, captive in her mooring lines in the winter sunshine at Aswan on the Nile—yes, Heart of Darkness opens something like this. I really did suspect that I might be headed to a dark place, and as with all long trips I fantasized that I might die there. Last night’s rain had freshened the air and turned the riverbank to gleaming paste. Fellaheen with fishing poles stood in mud to their knees, and other muddy men were calling out, “Felucca ride!