African Reading List

One great thing about travelling is that there seems to be more time to read books. It is also a great opportunity to pick up and read books written about or set in the countries we are visiting or read books by authors from the countries we are visiting. For the book worms out there here are some of the books we have read and our thoughts on them..............

The Sheltering Desert by Henno Martins

Two German geologists in Namibia decide to sit out WWII and evade becoming POWs by heading out into the desert with their faithful dog Otto. They revert to caveman like status, hunting the wild life to get enough food to survive. They evade capture and all other human contact for over 2 years. While in Namibia we visited the area in the Namibian desert that became their hunting grounds and actually stumbled upon one of their cave shelters which was a rather neat experience. This is a fascinating story and amazing to see how ingenious they were in order to survive.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall-Smith

This light hearted series of books is set in Botswana and perfectly captures the spirit and lifestyle of the Setswana people of Botswana. A must read and we are looking forward to the TV series!

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

This is the classic East African colonial story. The book is much more suttle than the film. Having now visited East Africa and Kenya, the descriptions of the people and the scenery really come alive.

No Picnic on Mount Kenya by ??

Two Italian WWII POWs devise and execute an escape plan to climb mount Kenya. They make use and scrounge what ever they can in their prison for the camping and climbing equipment to climb the mountain. The only map & guide they have of the mountain is on the back of a corned beef can! Quite an amazing story and we are looking forward to re reading this book that we read many years ago.

Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall

This is Jane Goodall' autobiography describing her research into Chimpanzees. Her research in the 1960s was quite revolutionary and controvertial as it showed that humans were closely related to primates.

Abyssinian Cronicles by Moses Issingawa

A fictional story about a boy and his family living through the tumultuous years of Ugandan's post independance years including the Idi Amin years. It is saidthat the story closely resembles the authors life.

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michela Wrong

Having visited DRC we wanted to learn more about the country. This book is an excellent summary of the despotic rule of Mobutu Sesse Seko who ruled the country for three decades. It helps to explain why there were 1 million Zaire denomination notes that we aquired!