Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape TownHoughton Mifflin, 2003 - 472 pages In the travel-writing tradition that made Paul Theroux's reputation, Dark Star Safari is a rich and insightful book whose itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Going by train, dugout canoe, "chicken bus," and cattle truck, Theroux passes through some of the most beautiful -- and often life-threatening -- landscapes on earth. This is travel as discovery and also, in part, a sentimental journey. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students, revisits his African friends. He finds astonishing, devastating changes wherever he goes. "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it," he writes, "hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can't tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Not that Africa is one place. It is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I got stranded, but I was never bored. In fact, my trip was a delight and a revelation." Seeing firsthand what is happening across Africa, Theroux is as obsessively curious and wittily observant as always, and his readers will find themselves on an epic and enlightening journey. Dark Star Safari is one of his bravest and best books. |
Contents
Lighting Out | 1 |
The Mother of the World | 6 |
Up and Down the Nile | 29 |
Copyright | |
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Addis African animals Arabic asked border boys bush Cairo called Cape Town clothes dark desert Dire Dawa Egypt Egyptian elephants empty Ethiopian face farm ferry friends hand Harar head hills huts hyenas Indian Isiolo Johannesburg Kampala Karonga Karsten Kenya Khartoum killed knew Lake Lake Victoria land laughed leave Lilongwe lived looked lovely Mahfouz maize Mala Malawi Maputo Marsabit miles Mozambique muzungu Mwanza Nadine Nairobi night Nile Nubian passengers political prison railway rain Ramadan river road safari seemed shifta shops smiled soldiers someone South Africa station stay stopped story street Sudan Sudanese Swahili Tadelle talk Tanzania taxi temple things thought told took tourists train trees trip truck Uganda village visa walked walls woman women Zambezi Zimbabwe