Customer Reviews

Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (A Touchstone book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a vivid account of the interactions between a very unusual young Englishman, Adrian Boshier, and a culture basically unchanged since it was first described over a century ago by Livingston and Selous. It is a true story of Boshier's struggle with himself and survival in a dangerous land, and of the search, seemingly directed at times by supernatural events, that lead, before his death at age thirty-nine, to discoveries that have helped both rewrite Stone Age history and give us a poetic insight into the dignity of the Stone Age mind. It is the story of an adventure of the human spirit... of a man, magic and culture of the real Africa. I cannot remember when I have so enjoyed or felt bound to the fate of an individual more than in this beautifully written story.

Adrian Boshier set out into the semi-wilds of rural southern Africa as a teenager, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora and fauna and a determination to escape from social contingency by foraging. As an escape attempt, his expedition failed - what he had learned from books proved inadequate in the field and he quickly began to starve. The generosity of Swazi strangers, who laid out food in remote places once they realized that he would not approach them for help, kept him alive. Eventually, he got to know his neighbors, and became a sort of cultural liason between archaeologists and the descendents of local ancients whose artifacts were riddles to the scientific community. Lyall Watson's slightly imaginative biography of this prodigal spirit is rich in anthropological detail and illustrated with simple but evocative sketches of some of the artifacts that Adrian's interviews with rural healers and magicians have helped to explain.

The Lightning Bird has remained my very favorite book of all times. It captures how very different indeed the African mind and perspective is from our Western one. Beautifully written, this book is a must on African afishionados book shelf.

It deals with anthropology, etymology, history, mysticism, and Life. An unbelievably good book; when I finished it, I ordered two more copies and sent them to my father and older brother so they, too, could experience the magic of this man's adventures into the wilds of nature and of the human experience.