General

DARK STAR SAFARI: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
Author: Paul Theroux

In the travel-writing tradition that made 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, he passes through some of the most beautiful — and often life-threatening — landscapes on earth.

THE ZANZIBAR CHEST: A Story of Life, Love and Death in Foreign Lands
Author: Aidan Hartley

After the end of the Cold War, there seemed to be new hope for Africa but again and again—in Ethiopia, in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Congo, the terror and genocide prevailed. In Somalia, three of Hartley’s close friends were torn to pieces by an angry mob. Then, after walking overland from Uganda with the rebel army, he witnessed the atrocities in Rwanda, appearing at the sites and interviewing survivors days after the massacres.

Finally, burnt out from a decade of horror, he retreated to his family’s house in Kenya where he discovered the Zanzibar chest his father left him. Intricately hand-carved and smelling of camphor, the chest contained the diaries of his father’s best friend. Tucking the papers under his arm, Hartley embarked on a journey to southern Arabia in an effort not only to unlock the secrets of Davey’s life, but of his own. He travelled to the remote mountains and deserts of southern Arabia where his father served as a British officer. As he travelled he pieced together the disparate elements of Davey’s story, a man who fell in love with an Arabian princess and converted to Islam, but ultimately had to pay an exacting price.

The Zanzibar Chest is a narrative of men and women meddling with, embracing, and ultimately being transformed by other cultures—a fascinating examination of colonialism.

THE SHADOW OF THE SUN, Ryszard Kapuscinski

In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda, Kapuscinski crisscrossed vast distances pursuing the swift, and often violent, events that followed liberation.

What emerges is a depiction of Africa -- not as a group of nations or geographic locations -- but as a vibrant and frequently joyous montage of peoples, cultures, and encounters. Kapuscinski's observations, analysis and humanity paint a remarkable portrait of the continent and its people. His unorthodox approach and profound respect for the people he meets challenge conventional understandings of the modern problems faced by Africa at the dawn of the 21st century.