dark star safari by Paul Theroux is the story of the author’s overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town with all the adventures, people and places he encounters across the continent.

Paul Theroux traveled across Africa from north to south in the first half of 2001. Starting in Cairo, he traveled up the Nile in Egypt, through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. . He traveled primarily by public transportation, including trains, boats, taxis, buses, cattle trucks, rented Land Rovers, canoes, and hitchhiking. As a young man in his 20s, Theroux had come to Africa to teach in rural Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer, so this trip 40 years later was partly a sentimental journey, but also to see how much has changed since then.

The book begins in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, and heads south to the land of the Nubians, Sudan. Theroux travels to Kenya and then heads west to Uganda. He catches up with friends in Kampala, where he had lived several years before. He takes a ferry across Lake Victoria to Mwanza in Tanzania and then the train to Dar es Salaam. Another train takes him to Mbeya in southern Tanzania before entering Malawi, where he visits the school where he taught as a young man. This is probably the most demoralizing point of the entire trip, as he assesses the impact of foreign aid during the 40 years since he’s been there. After the development treaty (or lack thereof), he travels across the Zambezi River to Mozambique. The next country is Zimbabwe, where he experiences the effects of the Mugabe regime on white farmers. He finally reaches South Africa and the luxury of the Blue Train between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Theroux’s summary after this trip reveals a disappointment in the “help” foreigners have given the continent, but also the joy he experienced in meeting people while travelling:

“Africa is materially more decrepit than when I first met her, hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can’t tell the politicians from the wizards. Not that Africa is a place. It is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I was stranded, but I never got bored. Indeed, my trip was a delight and an eye opener.”

dark star safari is an interesting account of Theroux’s travels, especially as he travels through Africa by means most dare not. It is very negative about the work of foreign development organizations, which is not entirely unfair, I agree. Yet throughout the book, Theroux’s style remains witty and entertaining.

Paul Theroux’s account of his journey overland from Cairo to Cape Town in dark star safari follow his other stories of epic journeys overland as Riding the iron rooster in China and two books on the Silk Road. She can enjoy contrasting Theroux’s wit and insight with Sihle Khumalo’s. dark continent my black ass. Khumalo has also traveled across Africa from Cape Town to Cairo by public transport, but he has a quite different perspective being a native of the continent, focusing more on the journeys than the impact of foreign intervention.