Customer Reviews

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have lived in Africa for over 20 years, and recently completed a similar overland journey (Morocco to Cape Town). I am busy writing my own book, so was a little disappointed when the pre-eminent travel writer of our times released his own account. In any event, as a prelude to my own literary ambitions, I decided to read every book on the topic that I could find - and this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. (For those interested,' Running with the Moon' by Johnny Bealby, and `Africa Solo' by Kevin Kertscher were runners up).

Theroux travels with Africans in conditions which are unspeakable for those of us accustomed to jet travel, high speed trains and air-conditioned vehicles. He meets with many of Africa's literary icons, numerous dignitaries, and contacts from time spent in Africa 40 years previously. He is also not afraid to use his renown to gain access and audience where the rest of us would have no chance. Combine these factors with his considerable literary skill, and the result is an unrivalled publication.

His descriptions (notably the sunset on the East African plains) are breathtaking without being long-winded. He is able to contrast this with descriptions of squalor, hardship, the disintegrated infrastructure of the towns, and the transport used to travel between them . The various colleagues and friends he visits along the way, including the vice-president of Uganda, represent Africa's intellectual and political elite. Mostly, these people are enlightened, pro-active and deeply aware of the problems facing their countries. It is encouraging to read their discourse, as it is so easy to dismiss Africa as the stereotype of disenfranchised paupers governed by despotic tyrants.

His time spent in Africa during the 1960's was a time of liberation. Nationalist movements were gaining momentum, and Africans were giddy at the prospect of independence from their colonial overlords. Theroux is almost certainly unique in that he witnessed the Africa of then, and the Africa of now (but nothing of the in between) and is able to communicate his observations to a large, receptive audience. This perspective adds another level to the book which sets it apart.

Much is said about charities, missionaries and NGO's, both by Theroux, and the various others who have reviewed this book. I agree entirely with Theroux's observations. I found that the personnel working with these agencies seemed disdainful towards those of us who were really enjoying Africa, and often arrogant towards those they were professing to help. Their efforts nurture some of the most contemptible qualities of the African condition, turning them into subjugated beggars rather than empowering their independence. The deployment of aid does not improve lives, but merely provides the necessary resources required for reproduction - more aid recipients, all now living at the previous, lowest common denominator. Much of the aid is taken by the local chiefs, and is traded in the markets (lest we forget, America fought a battle in Somalia over this very issue, see the movie `Black Hawk Down'). It may seem anathema to our sensibilities that Theroux is so scathing of these worthy men and women who have given up so much to go and help the dispossessed, but if the aid is counter-productive, even if only by Theroux's estimation, then he has the right (obligation?) to communicate it to us.

Theroux is particularly scathing of one missionary whose efforts involve reforming the `sinful' ways of African prostitutes. In the USA prostitution may be a crime, but in Africa, he points out, it is the only channel of independence and financial freedom for women. It should be considered criminal that we are going there and preaching some dogma based on our value system, which is intended to deprive them of their livelihood. And this goes to the root of the issue, Theroux says. We are trying to solve their problems from our perspective, while driving around in a fancy white Landcruiser, the value of which is the entire life's earnings of a whole African family. African problems need African solutions run by Africans (with help from outside if necessary). They need dignity, empowerment and education - not grain, medicine and preaching. I think Theroux does a great job of communicating this - even if it does ruffle some philanthropic feathers in the process.

Why didn't I give the book five stars? Well, I feel that Theroux didn't give sufficient credence to the majority of proud Africans who lead the free and happy existence to which we all aspire. As a white traveler in Africa one is continuously exposed to the `Give me money' syndrome. But this represents only a minute percentage of the population - those who await foreign travelers at bus stations, hotels and markets. These hustlers are a by-product of most societies - there were 8 million in Los Angeles by my last estimation. It took me at least two months of cultural immersion before I was able to transcend this exposure, and meet real Africans who were interested in my travels and reasons for being in Africa - people who I had to seek out. Indeed, most Africans are contented, hard-working individuals unaffected by the tribulations of modern western society, let alone of their own autocratic governments whose influence over their own population is token compared to what we are used to in the west. African society thrived for millennia before the ancestors of western society even left the continent. It is cultural arrogance to assume that we need to impose our new-found values on them. Sure there are pockets of famine, abusive dictators and colonial fall-out - but for the vast majority of the continent's population, life goes on unabated. It is mostly their exposure to our society (fancy white landcruisers, satellite TV etc.) that might give them cause to kowtow. It is Theroux' failure to acknowledge this, or at least comment upon it, that I feel is the only shortcoming of an otherwise outstanding account.

Forty years after being a Peace Corps worker in Malawi and a teacher in Uganda, Paul Theroux returns to Africa and finds things changed--for the worse. Now approaching his sixtieth birthday and wanting to escape from cell phones, answering machines, the daily newspaper, and being "put on hold," he is determined to travel from Cairo to Cape Town. He believes that the continent "contain[s] many untold tales and some hope and comedy and sweetness, too," and that there is "more to Africa than misery and terror."

Traveling alone by cattle truck, "chicken bus," bush train, matatu, rental car, ferry, and even dugout canoe, he tries to blend in as much as possible, buying clothing at secondhand stalls in public markets, carrying only one small bag, and avoiding the tourist destinations. He is an observant and insightful writer, and his descriptions of his travails are so vivid the reader can experience them vicariously. His interviews with residents are perceptive and very revealing of the political and social climate of these places, and his character sketches of Sister Alexandra from Ethiopia (a nun who "has loved") and of two charming Ethiopian traders, a father and son, who take Theroux to the Kenyan border, are delightful.

For most of the countries of Africa, however, he has no kind words. Kenya is "one of the most corrupt...countries in Africa," everything in Kampala, Uganda, has changed for the worse, and in Tanzania "there was only decline--simple linear decrepitude, and in some villages collapse." At the U.S. embassy in Malawi, he finds an "overpaid, officious, disingenuous, blame-shifting...embassy hack" and, in pique, he wonders, "Had she, like me, been abused, terrified, stranded, harassed, cheated, bitten, flooded, insulted, exhausted, robbed, browbeaten, poisoned?"

Theroux has become curmudgeonly over time, and it is difficult to "travel with" a man who sees himself as a hero for making the trip at all, but who also refuses to give a half-eaten apple to a hungry child when she begs for it. He is very critical in his comments about other writers. He admires Rimbaud, who lived in Ethiopia in the 1880's, he visits Naguib Mahfouz in Egypt, and he spends his sixtieth birthday with Nadine Gordimer, an old friend. But Hemingway ("bent on proving his manhood"), Isak Dinesen ("a sentimental memoirist"), Kuki Gallman (a "mythomaniac of the present day"), and V.S. Naipaul ("an outsider who feels weak") are abruptly dismissed. When he ultimately refers to his own "safari-as-struggle," it is hard not compare his temporary and entirely voluntary struggles to those of the African people he meets along the way. "Being in Africa was like being on a dark star," he says. His book reflects this darkness.

This is a marvelously engrossing book, perfect for those, like me, who want to see the world without actually enduring the necessary discomforts. Theroux has lived in Africa, speaks some of its languages, and knows his way around. He writes of what an ordinary tourist would never see.

I'm prompted to write this review by one of the reviews already posted here, which accuses Theroux of negativity and a dislike of people. I had the opposite impression. He does indeed see much to be disturbed by in Africa--any compassionate person would be disturbed by it. Civil society has broken down in many of the countries he visits. Poverty, disease, crime, and corruption beset the cities, and Theroux shows clearly how aid workers who come to help, and the missionaries who want to foist their beliefs on the Africans, often make things worse. He is opinionated and sometimes testy, which makes his account interesting, never a dry recital of facts. He talks with people wherever he goes, and most important of all, he listens to them. As a result, he learns what few outsiders ever do, and gives us a view of Africa--a place he loves--that is a fascinating, deeply unsettling revelation.

Dark Star Safari captures many of Africa's problems, but none of its magic. While I have only lived and traveled in East Africa, his dubious descriptions of this region leave me doubting the worth of his accounts of the other regions in this book. For instance, his description of Zanzibar, one of the most sublime and fascinating places to visit in the world, can be summed up as "it smells like cloves and they have ugly apartment buildings". Well, obviously, it is a third world country after all - but what about Zanzibar's rich history, unique architecture, stunning beaches, friendly people, and cultural melting pot? Does this crotchety man even enjoy traveling?

I've always wondered at the popularity of Theroux as a travel writer, because of this negativity and the sense that he doesn't much enjoy what he does. But I never knew his work to contain such inaccuracies until I read the East Africa section of Dark Star Safari. For example, in a single paragraph he completely bungled the geography/geology of the entire region when he tried to explain the region's volcanism. First, he claims that Oldoinyo Lengai is in Rwanda, while it actually lies in Tanzania, and though he is correct in stating that it is still an active volcano, it does not regularly displace villages like he claims since major eruptions only happen once or twice a century and besides, there are no "villages" within a six-hour drive, but rather the temporary bomas of the nomadic Maasai. Then, while he accurately stated that Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano, he also claimed that Uganda's Mountains of the Moon (aka Rwenzoris) are "dormant" - except that they are a non-volcanic range!

While these inaccuracies could be overlooked or chalked up to Mr. Theroux and the publishing house's fact-checkers not knowing their geology, more troubling is Theroux's seeming lack of understanding of Tanzanian culture. While being constantly called "mzungu" ("white person" or "foreigner" in Swahili, and by the way Theroux spells it wrong) can be an annoyance, it is not at all a word of disrespect, let alone racial profiling as Theroux has the audacity to refer to it. And while he is annoyed at being called "wewe, mzee" (you, old man), the word "mzee" is generally reserved for those who command respect. While Theroux's bellyaching over being called old may have been a weak attempt at self-effacing humor, it was out of place and showed a shocking lack of understanding for someone who supposedly lived on the continent as a peace corps worker. The warmth and friendliness of East Africa's people is completely ignored, and it seems the only dialogues included in Theroux's work are conversations with locals who are as down on the place as he is. In reality the majority of East Africans are extremely proud of their home.

I get the impression Theroux thinks awfully highly of himself as a traveler, but his slamming of young backpackers and rich safari-goers as not encountering or understanding the real Africa like he does comes across as laughable considering he really misses the boat a number of times himself. At least some of us lowly backpackers take the time to appreciate the people, culture and wonderful things to be experienced there.

With his 60th birthday approaching, Paul Theroux decided to give up the comforts of his home in Hawaii and take a trip overland from Cairo to Capetown. He travels through some of the most forbidding locales in some of the world's poorest countries; and he travels alone, without a cell phone or internet connection, and without a plan.

Along the way he makes many literary references, mostly to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which he reads over and over again. There are also some entertaining encounters with Nobel laureates, Naguib Mafouz at the beginning of his journey and Nadine Gordimer at the end.

Theroux describes the poverty and depravation of what he sees, which he claims is worse now than it was 40 years ago when he was a Peace Corps volunteer. Over the past 40 years, Africa has undergone urbanization just like the rest of the world. Today about 75% of Africa's population live in urban areas, many in squatter settlements on the outskirts of cities. Theroux writes: "Even at their best, African cities seemed to me miserable impoverished anthills, attracting the poor and desparate from the bush and turning them into theives and devisers of cruel scams."

As people leave the villages, the civil society of the tribal life disappears altogether. And since there are no jobs in the city, scamming and theivery become the only means of survival. The only thing standing in their way are the local police, who Theroux claims are no more than "licensed theives" themselves.

Theroux has some very uncharitable opinions about much of what he sees in Africa, many other writers have described these conditions as well. However, he unleashes most of his vitriol at the foreign aid workers. He refers to them as "in general oafish self-dramatizing pigs, and often complete bastards."

It is not off the mark to criticize the foreign aid bureaucracy as it exits today in Africa. It is true that aid corrupts both donors and recipients. Aid programs have turned African problems into permanent conditions. If the streets were lined with beggars before, the beggars now expect such aid with a sense of entitlement. I think, however, that Theroux goes overboard in attributing most of Africa's problems to foreign aid, especially when he writes that the sharpest lesson foreign aid workers could teach is to turn their backs and go home.

Abandoning Africa as Theroux suggests is not the answer. A more hopeful, but controversial, approach is outlined in Jeffrey Sach's "The End of Poverty." Africa will need more aid in the future, not less. Africa needs economic development so that they can reach "the first rung of the economic ladder." This means going beyond the subsistence level of the village, which Theroux romanticizes, and producing goods for export which will allow them to participate in the current wave of globalization. Only when they reach this level of development should anyone speak realistically about reducing foreign aid.

The way aid is currently administered it constitutes a large portion of revenue for many African governments. And when governments get their revenues from abroad, and do not draw their revenues from the commerce and industry of their citizens, they usually take little interest in their citizens. The result is always corrupt a government and an impoverish citizenry. Many of the Arab countries in the Middle East that derive most of their revenue from oil are facing similar problems.

Although it is true that aid has not accomplished much in Africa in the last 40 years, it would be a tragedy to withdraw it at this point. Aid must be administered in a way that would enable Africans to participate in the global economy rather than being its victims. This is no small task, outsiders have thus far been unable to change things no matter how good their intentions. Even with aid, Theroux is correct when he says that only Africans are capable of making a difference in Africa.

It is hard to imagine a more engaging and perceptive book about traveling through Africa than Dark Star Safari. Paul Theroux is a renowned and prolific travel writer and this book shows he hasn't lost his touch. In this journey, he covers the distance from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. He travels by bus, train, car and boat through cities, villages, wilderness and desert. Many of his travels are of the roughest kind, such as hazardous rides in broken down jitneys and excursions into high crime areas. Even when not dangerous, travel through Africa is never convenient. Delays, breakdowns and bureaucratic red tape are the norm.

Theroux starts the book with the sentence, "All news out of Africa is bad," and this serves as a warning that this is not going to be a sugarcoated tourist jaunt. In fact, the book is downright depressing in many ways. Theroux had spent time in Africa thirty years ago and he finds that things have mostly changed for the worse. Poverty, violence, political corruption and disease are rampant throughout the continent. What is especially frustrating about the situation is that relief organizations have been focusing their efforts on Africa for decades with no measurable success. As Theroux tells it, these attempts at charity may in fact be one cause for the decline. In many cases, money and supplies are seized by corrupt governments. They also have instilled in many Africans a lack of motivation, as they have come to rely on foreigners to solve their problems. Theroux also describes the relief workers he meets as arrogant, aloof and not very helpful.

Despite the grim realities of Africa, Theroux's journey is not all depressing. He meets many old acquaintances and finds that no matter how bad things appear, there is still hope for the future. Theroux also finds that in many places, people manage to get by despite living under what might be called primitive conditions. The implication is that it may not be such a good idea to impose alien notions of civilization on people who are doing fine on their own. Africa, of course, has been subjected to centuries of colonialism by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and other Europeans. Making the transition to independence was not easy for these nations and many are still struggling to find their identity in the modern world.

For people not familiar with the continent, Africa often sounds like one large and distant place. Theroux's journey reveals the many varieties of people, climate and culture that exist in African countries. Vivid descriptions of Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa are given. Theroux's style is enjoyable to read as well as educational. On his trip, he meets people from all walks of life, from the poorest to the most powerful and recounts their (as well as his own) observations and opinions about their homelands. All in all, a compelling account of a fascinating trip.

Paul Theroux is an accomplished, savvy writer in any genre he chooses. When he is describing his experiences, his moods, his reactions to what he sees, he is enthralling and perhaps incomparable. Unfortunately, Theroux spends most of this book pounding away on the same few themes, leaving the reader with an empty sense of being excluded from a deeper understanding of the Africa he is purporting to describe.

So, here is what you need to know, according to Mr. Theroux: First of all, he is a more intrepid traveler than you are. For most of us, this doesn't take much, of course, but Theroux wishes you to know (over and over and over again) that you will never see the real Africa, because you don't have the will, the courage, the foolhardiness, or the stamina to travel as he does. Second, the Africa that currently exists is a pale simulacrum of the Africa he once knew, which means, of course, that even if you could travel like he does, you still wouldn't know the real Africa. He may well be right, of course; we don't have his experience to guide us and most of us have never set foot in Africa. But the repetition becomes merely tedious, and the perspective gloomy.

The end result of all this boasting and whining is to make Theroux seem somewhat of a bore. When he is at his best, he is entrancing, and his insights truly are those of a man who has an intimate understanding of people, and of African people in particular (at least in the lower right hand corner of Africa that he knows). His gift for chatting up just about anyone in any number of languages is unique and enables us to be privy to an understanding that is not informed only by his internal musings and assumptions. But at his worst, he leaves us on the outside looking in at a distinctly skewed picture. One would think that a travel writer's primary responsibility is to take us with him, to give us the opportunity to peer into strange and wonderful worlds we might never experience, but like to think we could. Theroux mostly achieves the opposite and, as such, does a disservice to both Africa and to his readers.

This is one of the most important books of the early 21st Century. It gives a unromantic, realistic view of Africa, Africans, and African aid that is not often related in the mainstream media. Alot of the views that Theroux states in this book are what alot of people are beginning to think and is at times very politically incorrect. This is all from a 1960's Peace Corps idealist. A very important book.

This is Theroux's account of a journey from the very north of Africa to the very south...but not in tourist style! Buses, rickety trucks, taxis, some trains. Travel guides give "the view from 30,000 feet." Theroux gives what the military call "ground truth." He sees the reality, meets many people. His account is enriched by two things in particular: He had lived and worked in some of the African countries, decades before, spoke some of the languages, so he could form a realistic view of whether things were better or (almost always) much worse: and he is a canny and skilful writer, who knows exactly how to balance description, dialog, and commentary, and packs plenty of punch into a few crisp words. For instance: "My first impression of Addis Ababa: handsome people in rags, possessed of both haughtiness and destitution, a race of aristocrats who had pawned the family silver."

He is generally scathing about the efforts of international aid agencies, whose personnel rush about in white Land-Rovers and end up leaving some useless practice, or object or building that will disintegrate, or need expensive maintenance, or be unsuited to the location, as with the two-story condos built in Harar by a German aid agency. The people, a tall race, did not use them but stayed in their mud huts. Why? "They are too tall. There is no space. They cannot bring their donkeys and goats inside." "Why would they want to do that?" "To protect them from the hyenas." The well-meaning aid people had missed a point or two.

He does, however, pay tribute to certain selfless individuals who work hard directly with the people, teaching or healing. Overall, his opinion is that survival is better assured with the simplest, oldest technology and crops, and living in small traditional villages. Nearly all the cities are basically disasters, and many of the government bureaucracies are incompetent or corrupt, even if sometimes those at the top are trying to make things better.

Now and again we get a really tantalizing throwaway: "Yes, the Bachiga of southwest Uganda and their curious marriage rite, which included the groom's brothers and the bride in the urine ceremony. I could not hear the name of the tribe without thinking of the piddle-widdle of this messy rite." To which the only possible response is, "Do tell!" But he doesn't.

A fascinating tale - a guaranteed page-turner. Incidentally, I noted the really unfavorable review by Carl Owen. It seems to have some reasonable points, but as with some other negative reviews, I felt it wasn't just having issues with the book's content. There seemed to be something about Theroux's personal style that seemed to irritate them. Now I was once annoyed with a Theroux book - I forget the title - when he thoroughly dissed my hometown of Aberdeen in Scotland! But that didn't prevent me appreciating and enjoying his thought-provoking remarks - and the humor!

Theroux is not everyone's cup of tea. He is opinionated--curmudgeonly is a word very frequently used to describe him--and will often shock readers who expect the usual "cultural relativist" pap with his unflinching willingness to hold the residents of other lands he is writing about accountable for their own inability or unwillingness to assume some sense of responsibility. I have read many of Theroux's books--I have been reading Theroux since he first wrote an article in Esquire in the 1960s about getting kicked out of the Peace Corps--and this is one of his best. He has written many books in the travel narrative genre, and this one is about Africa. I also feel well qualified to comment on the book, since I, like Theroux, was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa in the 1960s and, also like Theroux, have many vivid memories of those times.

Theroux set out to take an overland journey from Cairo to Capetown, and to write about it. In doing so he manages, in slightly less than 500 pages, to encapsulate the sad story of the last 40+ years of African history. In many ways, this is a sad, even tragic book. Theroux remembers when Africa was full of hope. Newly freed from the ravages and exploitation of colonialism, Africa was full of optimism. Determined to free themselves from dependence on the west, most newly independent countries opted for socialism and were very cozy with the Soviet Union and Maoist China. This, according to Theroux, was what led to their downfall. Central planning led to one party dictatorships throughout the continent, and in turn to incompetence and corruption, and in some cases, tyranny and mass murder. Theroux's journey documents many of the aftereffects of these events.

Most of the people Theroux meets on his journey are ordinary people who have no idea who he is. However, Theroux is not remiss to use his stature as a world famous writer to gain access to literary gatherings, to public officials, some of whom are old friends from his Peace Corps days, and on one occasion to the U.S. embassy. Good for him; the book is better as a result. It was difficult not to seethe with rage at the pompous African official who mocks the Indian merchants who were kicked out of the country for going through their stores with a calculator tallying the value of each item in the store. Theroux explains that this is simply taking inventory, a basic tool necessary to the efficient running of a business. The official scoffs at this, saying that Africans just aren't cut out for that sort of thing, something Theroux bluntly characterizes as "bullshit." As a result of this type of thinking, the merchant shops which used to appear in nearly every village in Africa, and which were intended to be run by Africans after the Indians were forced to leave, now lie vacant.

This is a theme that Theroux pursues relentlessly: the unwillingness of Africans to learn the skills and to put in the effort needed to remedy their dire situation. He places the blame for this not only on the governments, but also on aid organizations, NGOs, and missionaries, all of whom engage in handouts, resulting in the Africans' failure to help themselves. Theroux seems personally stressed by this as well. At one point he snaps at a man who asks him for money just after Theroux has been very ill, asking the man why he should give him money. Aren't you a man, he says, can't you take care of himself? He also paints a harrowing picture of the takeover of white-owned farms by government sanctioned squatters in Zimbabwe, with the expected result that the farms become much less productive than they were before, with the squatters expecting the farmers to do everything from giving them seeds to helping them plant to threshing the grain.

I don't wish to give the impression that Theroux's portrayal of present day Africa is totally negative. He meets many individuals, black and white, of whom he paints a positive picture. There are an African father and son who help him travel by canoe across a national boundary. There is even a nun for whom Theroux seems to have a very high regard. And he esteems Nadine Gordimer. But most of his portraits are scathing.

In spite of my praise and high regard for the book, I did not give it 5 stars because I think Theroux fails to mention anything at all about indigenous African society, by which I mean society at the tribal level. I think Theroux knows very well that African societies function very well at this level. The blunt truth is that the mess that Africa finds itself in today is the direct result of colonialism, and that the western forms of government that Africans seem unable to get to function well are artificial forms imposed on their indigenous cultures. This does not excuse present day Africans from their responsibility to learn to cope with the situation as it is, but Theroux lets the west off the hook far too easily. He also fails to mention that there is a kind of rough justice involved in the African squatters taking over the white-owned farms, because in most cases the ancestors of the present day farmers themselves stole the land from Africans. But the positives of this book far outweigh the negatives. Highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary Africa.