1 comments about On the Edge of the Primeval Forest - Experiences and Observations of a Doctor in Equatorial Africa.

1. Although a great admirer of Dr. Albert Schweitzer for some years, it is only now that the opportunity has presented itself to finally read and relish the doctor's own account of his beginnings and reasons for working in equatorial Africa.
   
   Schweitzer's reason(s) for giving up his position as professor in the University of Strasbourg, his prolific literary work, his ground-breaking work on Bach, (he was the world authority at the time) and his music... the doctor writes,
   
   "I had read about the physical miseries of the natives in the virgin forests; I had heard about them from missionaries, and the more I thought about it the stranger it seemed to me that we Europeans trouble ourselves so little about the great humanitarian task which offers itself to us in far-off lands." (P. 9)
   
   Dr. Schweitzer has a lot to say concerning the extensive damages wrought on the native African as a result of colonialism. We take their natural resources as if they were our own; we have given them our diseases; we have given them alcoholism and we push the Word of the Lord down their throats and some how justify this pillage & plunder as "civilizing the savages". Schweitzer, first and foremost, realized that the colonized natives are experiencing great suffering in terms of the many diseases that plague the continent, and felt that he, a white man, needed to take responsibility; therefore he chose to become a medical doctor at the age of thirty. Once attaining his qualifications, he set out with his wife to West Africa amongst the many protests from his contemporaries.
   
   This book was first published in 1922, but Schweitzer set sail for Africa in July 1913, to go on and establish his famous hospital in Lambarene, West Africa. The hardships in establishing a hospital in such primitive conditions to then begin treating the natives straight away with little or adequate medical supplies is almost unthinkable, but he forged on, building the hospital, treating horrific disease and dealing with the culture of the West African. He writes about the belief system of the native's (fetishist) and the affect of their conversion to Christianity.
   
   There is a chapter the doctor devotes entirely to the most prevalent tropical diseases he comes across most weeks and months. These descriptions are graphic, truly conveying the horror and utter suffering the patient experiences if left untreated.
   
   In Dr. Schweitzer's conclusion, he writes about something he calls "The Fellowship of those who bear the Mark of Pain." In distilled terms, anyone who has experienced great pain and has been treated to a successful outcome should realize the extent of pain and suffering of the native African. This empathy should awake the white man, and force them to help with the aid of modern medicine, the pain and suffering of the native African.
   
   Any medical student or doctor thinking about working in primitive conditions in any developing country, should certainly read this book. I believe it is inspiring in every sense of the word.

2 comments about Footprint Tunisia Handbook.

1. Footprint Tunisia is without question the best travel book I've ever used. It's information was accurate to the letter in every case. Background history of the country and it's ancient colonizers was exhaustive compared to the standards of most guide books. Perhaps most impressive is the pertinence of the information to every type of traveller, budget to luxe. The clever and pointed opinions were always on target. The writer did not hesitate to give sly negative reviews where applicable. "Lonely Planet" and "Let's Go" both offer good information but have target readers and leave out the needs of many of us as well as frequently providing only rudimentary information. With Footprint you can throw out all the other guidebooks or just avoid buying them entirely, that's how exhaustive I found the Tunisia entries to be. I've used many guide books, Eyewitness, Access (awesome in the original versions, especially for walking tours and architectural sites,food and shops)and Fodor's but these all pale in comparison to Footprint. Where have they been hiding? I've yet to see them on the shelves of those big bookstores in my neighborhood. Bravo to Amazon for carrying them all.



2. You can't imagine how much detail and information there is in this book. It must have taken this gentleman several lifetimes to actually visit all of the places about which he so accurately describes. This is far better than the Lonely Planet book on Tunisia in my opinion, especially for people who hope to travel to this progressive nation that is very "American friendly" and quite a bargain in most ways.

No comments about Cape Town & Peninsula Adventure Map.

1 comments about Namaqualand Garden of the Gods (Travel Writing).

1. Namaqualand is one of my favorite places on earth when it blooms. This book shows Namaqualand at it's best. It gives a little taste of what this area looks like when in flower. The pictures are stunning and spectacular. If you love the flowers of South Africa this book is a must. I hope to see this area in person some day. Until then I can look at this book and dream. Another good book on this area is "Namaqualand: A Succulent Desert" by Richard Cowling and Shirley Pierce, with Photograpy by Colin Paterson-Jones. Both volumes are wonderful.

2 comments about Sensual Africa.

1. I enjoyed the beautiful photographs of Africa and its people in this book.



2. 
   My god, I can't believe anyone would pay $75 for this book! It's not really bad, it's just that there are so many better photo books on Africa (recommendation at end). I paid about $12 for it used, and actually took a moment to decide whether to keep it. (I kept it.)
   
   Although each section of the book (covering Tanzania, the Cape Verde Islands and the Himba people of Namibia) has a one-page general description of the people, there is no text about the pictures. All we have to explain what we are seeing are scanty captions of two or three words, sometimes just a single word. The "black & white" (or brown & white, sort of sepia) pictures are on flat, off-white paper. Frankly they seemed too dark. If I were looking at them in Photoshop, I'd lighten them and then tweak the contrast.
   
   The book opens with an "Interview with Peter Beard." We aren't told who he is (another photographer of the continent), but he treats us to, well, essentially a rant against the outside economic and political forces that are playing havoc on Africa. Some rants are true, and I don't think anyone would disagree with the basic premise of this one, but its angry tone doesn't mesh well with pictures said to portray "sensual Africa."
   
   At first I was even more turned off by this interview, when I logically assumed (but incorrectly) that it was the photographer of the book in hand who was being interviewed. The interviewee (Beard) talks about regretting "even being in the medium of photography because it's true that I'm only interested in the subject matter. I'm not interested in photography. I'm not interested in illustrating or being a messenger-boy...." I later realized, to my relief, that the interviewee was not the photographer of this book. (The page doesn't make this clear, but we are given the names and should already know who's who, I suppose, if we bought the book and read past the title page.)
   
   Overall, I didn't connect much with this book, not even as a person who has spent some time with African tribal people. To me, it seems little thought was given to conveying a sort of unified sense or impression--a message, or even just a story. Why does the woman oddly hold a small fish between her lips in the photo titled "Girl with fish in her mouth"? Why does the "Young woman" posing nude hold her hand over her privates as though she shed a garment for the picture but was self-conscious? This shot would be perfect for an American book of artsy nudes and require no explanation, but where she lives, nudity is probably not uncommon, so you'd like to have a little narrative. And why does the "fisherman with wooden cross" have a large fish head attached to it? There must be hundreds of stories, but none are shared with us.
   
   Recommendation: If you are a devoted collector of books of this genre, or if you want a work specific to the people depicted, then include this one--it does have some nice pictures--but buy it at a used price. If you're not an avid collector, consider making another selection. For example, the black & white photos in "Bernatzik - Africa" (third in the Imago Mundi series) are truly stunning and far, far more interesting (taken in the Sudan and Portuguese Guinea). In addition to being better, the Bernatzik book has more than twice the number of pages, yet can be purchased new for less than half the price; plus it contains essays by 4 different writers, a bibliography and better, more descriptive captions.

5 comments about French Lessons in Africa: Travels With My Briefcase in French Africa.

1. I read "French Lessons in Africa" while doing field research in Ghana, and the descriptions he offers of his adventures in francophone West Africa could not have resonated more strongly with my own experiences. He manages to capture everything from the enormous contrast between urban centers and remote villages, to the heart-stopping terror inspired by almost any form of transportation; and he does so with tremendous charm and wit. I have yet to read anything else that so accurately conveys what a visit to West Africa can be like.



2. I enjoyed "French lessons" because I was familiar with anglophone Africa through extensive travels there some years back. It certainly struck a familiar chord. The best book I've read on Africa is "The Africans" (forgot author's name). This is up there but it is a bit inconsistent. The version I read had typos and strange cuts. It was often hard to tell who was talking with the dialogue and the reader needs a reasonable knowledge of French to get a lot of the jokes. I loved the descriptions of the meetings with ministers etc but I never worked out what our hero did for a living or what he was actually doing in these countries. As one reviewer said it's a bit dated but I'd read a new version if it came out.



3. "French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa" is a collection of business-travel experiences and observations in ten countries in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zaire). Biddlecombe careens from business-class hotel and international conference center to rural village and farm, and describes his encounters with everything from white magic in Benin, locusts in Mali, to lost luggage in Congo. He shares his encounters with Africans of all sorts: government minister, customs officer, doctor-entrepreneur, gold smuggler, chicken farmer, soap manufacturer, and cassette pirater. He shares his thoughts, knowledge, and conversations covering African leaders, economic development, the CFA franc, colonization and independence, health and nutrition, literature, music, and architecture. All with a great deal of wit and humor. This is no introductory text, but anyone with some basic knowledge of Africa will find this book informative and enjoyable.



4. Francophone Africa is one of the areas of the world that no one writes much about. Biddlecombe, however, has succeeded in conveying the feelings and conditions of this area very accuratley. This is not just a dry travel book however. Biddlecombe sprinkles his narratives with many hilarious anecdotes to further the reader's understading of why the people in this region act the way they do. Great book.



5. This is not a lighthearted book. In fact, it is a bit grim in parts. However, it is really interesting and I do recommend this book to anyone who likes travel stories that aren't sugar-coated. I didn't know much about French Africa before reading this book, so I learned a lot and found his experiences in the different French African countries was intriguing and unusual. A good travel book, about an area where most of us will never go.

5 comments about The Rough Guide to South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. Rough Guides has an odd point of view on South Africa. Crime is a relavent issue there. Don't trust this sugar coated point of view.



2. Accurate and well-researched book. The recommendations are generally spot on. Nicely written, it's like travelling around with a friend who really knows the place. As someone who lives in South Africa, it's reassuring to know that there are books that are able to talk frankly about the crime situation without getting into a froth of paranoia.



3. A well researched book giving all the tips and hints that one needs to know about South Africa. The book doesn't waste your time by making recommendations and then slating them (as other guide books tend to do).



4. I lived in SA for about 5 months. We had both the LP and the Rough Guide and although it was nice to have both, I would recommend the Rough Guide if you were just going to choose one book. I found the Rough Guide to be a little more accurate in the prices listed and the organization to be far superior to the LP. The LP was helpful with more general information, but the Rough Guide provided more information on the little, out of the way places. If you plan on using hostels, it is imperative to pick up a Coast to Coast after arriving. It is a compelation of hostels, organized by area, that is put out by the hostels of SA. It also includes hostels in Swaziland, Lesotho, and Mozambique. Most hostels involved with the book have free copies that you can take.



5. Detailed guidebook, good recommendations on local guides to use (we tried their recommendation of the township tour in Cape Town), places to stay and things to do. I am planning to use them again for my subsequent trips to other regions.

1 comments about Every Day is for the Thief.

1. Teju Cole guides you into the heart of Lagos with the eyes of one whose detachment seems to be only a shield protecting him from the strong emotions that his native soil stirs up. Returning home after a long absence abroad, Cole - we are never sure if he is real or fiction or both - observes with equanimity the corruption as well as the everyday humour,inventiveness and kindness of his fellow Nigerians. But one senses a deeper rage, the sort a child can feel towards beloved parents who are a disappointment in so many ways. It is precisely because of the passion flowing beneath Teju Cole's beautifully cool prose that we are immediately convinced he is a true writer, one to watch. This book is a gem. Don't miss it.

1 comments about Roald Amundsen's "The North-West Passage": Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Gjoa", 1903-1907: Volume 2.

1. Not the fascinating read of Roland Huntfords book about the South Pole but still very interesting. Really comes alive when he writes about the Native folks they lived with. Do wish the picture reproduction was better.

No comments about Nigeria (Countries of the World).