Customer Reviews

Looking for Lovedu: A Woman's Journey Through Africa

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In 1995 Ann Jones and her traveling partner, Kevin Muggleton, set off on an expedition through the African continent. Driving from Tangier to Cape Town, Jones is in search of the mystical Rain Queen of Lovedu, a matriarchal tribe in southern Africa. Jones is equally interested in whether the Lovedu tribe continues to exist and how their feminist values of cooperation, compromise, tolerance, mutual helpfulness and forgiveness coincide with the paternalistic and masculine doctrines she has witnessed throughout Africa.

Along the way Jones is confronted with horrific and dangerous traffic conditions, especially at the beginning of their journey. After conquering the Sahara Desert they drive through land that often didn't have suitable roads, if there were any! They also had to cross rivers without bridges and were forced to make their own rafts. Not only was the physical terrain a challenge but they also had to deal with constant bureaucracy while obtaining visas and paying bribes. Jones had no idea of what would occur at the next bend of the road.

With all that said, LOOKING FOR LOVEDU is an excellent travel narrative that allows the reader to vividly imagine what it must be like to go on an African expedition of their own. Jones does a superb job of intertwining the history of Africa along with her own travel experiences. The effects of colonialism, globalization, tourism, and environmentalism are all explored in an attempt to understand how Africa is sustaining in the current social world. LOOKING FOR LOVEDU is a good book to read if you're interested in both travel and feminism. You may just be enlightened as I was when I finished reading it.

From the beginning, when American writer Ann Jones was preparing for her trans-continental trip across Africa with her young male English traveling partner, Muggleton, she found that she was doing the majority of the work, the organization, the fine details, and the gathering of equipment and supplies. Then for half the journey across Africa, she sarcastically joked and complained about Muggleton's travel philosophy and maniacal driving style. He irrationallly drove across miles of desert, rejecting the safety of joining a caravan, bumped and ground over roadless terrain, slogged through mud and nearly fell off rickety bridges. He refused to let Ann do the driving... she was too slow and careful. He got into yelling matches with gun-toting border officials, and raced wildly away from a car he had hit, whose passengers hollered and threatened. Ann wanted to stop and talk with people and see the sights and learn more about the cultures and lifestyles, but it all whizzed by as Muggleton was determined to make this a trip of challenging the awful driving conditions. For the half of the trip in which Muggleton is her companion, the book focuses on this sour relationship, and bits of history and politics about each country they pass through. I really appreciated learning things about these African countries that I had never been aware of. My finger trailed along the included map of the journey, and helped me learn where these countries are located.

Muggleton and Ann parted company halfway through the trip, and although Ann's tongue-in-cheek complaints about him were quite funny at times, I wondered what Muggleton thought about the book when he read it. But, I felt relief along with Ann, that at last she could take time to really see the land she was driving through. In Nairobi, an Englishwoman and a Kenyan woman joined her for the remainder of the trip to find the queen of Lovedu, a legendary female ruler in a land of male domination. During this part of the journey, we learn more details about the lands and people, but Ann also reflects on the role of African women, their lack of power and freedom. There's an ironic comparison to Ann's own lack of freedom in determining the course of the journey when she was with her male partner. He had made all the decisions and ignored her wishes, though she was a supposedly equal partner of Western values.

There are all kinds of travelogues, and Ann's is as unique and entertaining as any of them. There are interesting tidbits throughout the book about the people and the sights. In spite of her complaints about Muggleton and the incredible hardship of that part of the journey, which convinced me NEVER to attempt such a thing, the harrowing difficulties they had were also entertaining. One of my favorite parts is when Ann describes the campground the three women had on the shores of a lake, when looking at it from a distance, the women notice that everything is blue... the three round tents, the bathing suits, the pajamas, the car. Traveling companion Caro says, "It looks like the car gave birth."

In spite of the succint comments about the lands they drove through, I learned a lot about Africa, and have a better idea about its people, politics, history, and land. The book was well worth reading.

I absolutely loved this book! It was wonderfully written and I enjoyed seeing the journey through the eyes of a woman, especially how she compares what she wants to do and how he does it. The story is a great guide into the many African cultures and the male-dominated aspects that set Lovedu apart from the rest! I highly recommend it!

Ann Jones' book brought me to a new height in my vicarious travel adventures--by the time she and Muggleton had arrived in Zaire, I'd acquired all the relevant country maps, since my world atlas so longer sufficed! I simply needed to see the "roads" they were digging themselves out of, see where the little villages, that they described, were located. Some African geography is embedded in my brain in a new way now.

Although I was skeptical at first about the Lovedu search, in the end the book is a huge expression of love and respect, I felt, for the continent as a whole but mostly for all the individuals she met on the way. Her relationship with Celia, for instance, was one destined to cause frustration until assumptions, habits, and just plain cultural differences were described and owned. Ms. Jones certainly models a way to travel that many of us would do well to emulate, even if we're not in our very own Land Rover on our way to the kingdom of Lovedu.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Ms. Jones journey through Africa is a good story in itself, but what I found the most interesting and valuable is the way she gives perspective to each of the countries she visits; she describes what she sees out her window and in encounters she has with the people, as well as gives a brief summary of the history of each country in a way that is very educational, helpful, and not dry. I have given this book away so many times I keep rebuying it, and now I have my book club reading it. My husband also read it, and I should say a disclaimer that he found the travel narrative to be a bit boring, but he is used to reading high adventure travel stories. This is much more from a women's perspective, and isn't quite as much about the adventure as the journey and the continent. I read it while in Africa which made it all the more endearing to me!

I am reading this book now and loving it! The relationship between Jones and Muggleton (that slowly falls apart) is one of the most interesting parts of the book. Muggleton is typical of a certain type of Englishman and I am cringing for her as I read some of the paragraphs. Highly recommend this book if you are interested in travel, Africa, adventures, etc.

I loved this book. I read a lot of travel books and essays, Ann Jones does an outstanding job of providing a lot of history about a country while she tells of her adventures. I have never been able to keep the different countries of Africa and their origins straight. She makes each of the countries that she passed through distinct and memorable. Along the way she gives a vivid description of the legacy that colonization left in the countries.

I found this book an extraordinary read. It gives great insight into contemporary Africa, and is written with style, integrity, and humor. I wish Ann Jones had a library of books.

The book had an exciting segment through DRC, where Muggleton and Jones struggle through the Routes de Zaires. I felt that this was the one redeeming feature of what otherwise felt like a feminist rant through Africa. Each time a woman was working and a man sitting in the shade, it was written as if a grave injustice against women throughout the world.
The purpose of the book seemed to stick with this theme, her feminism vs Muggleton who could do no right. Once Muggleton left, the book weakened into a dull drive down to find the rain queen. Jone's character withered into a shallow traveller trying to sensationalize women's rights by relying on her own pre-biased judgements.