Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

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Theroux has previously played with the identity of a novel's protagonist (in My Secret History), but this time his work is considerably more personal and entertaining, if less profound. In no other book will one find such entertaining and penetrating comments about the ironies, as well as the historic failure, of foreign aid. It is a journey of discovery and of rediscovery – of the unknown and the unexpected – charting places unknown and those known as a young teacher 40 years before. Travelling across bush and desert, down rivers and across lakes, and through country after country, he visits some of the most beautiful and dangerous landscapes on earth.

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Early on Theroux mentions reading Conrad's Heart of Darness -- "which I was to read twelve more times before I reached Cape Town" -- but it's not a guiding text for most of the book.On the other hand, he shows great sympathy for the white South African and (formerly) Rhodesian farmers, who many of us would tend to view as being reactionary forces.

Charities and aid programs seemed to turn African problems into permanent conditions that were bigger and messier. I read portions of the book in comfortable hotels or cars in Tanzania, often whizzing by the abject poverty. I can admit that the book has some insightful or well written passages, but in general I think it's another white person thinking he's got Africa down. And the present Ethiopian government, which has conducted a lengthy trial - in absentia - of the former dictator, on charges that include responsibility for the death of the emperor, has never claimed that he killed him with his own hands. It is a journey of discovery and of rediscovery -- of the unknown and the unexpected, but also of people and places he knew as a young and optimistic teacher forty years before.Hoping for a fatwa (Theroux was always competitive), he describes the posture of a praying Muslim as like a dog hugging a soccer ball. Until that happens, it is quite clear that tourists to Africa will see nature, big game reserves, eco-parks and so on but they will not see (nor is it likely that they would wish to see) the "real" Africa. In Zambia,everyone seems to be infected with AIDs,as girls as young as ten are forced into prostitution. and people (that is, Blacks) respond, not surprisingly, in a positive way to this bold assertion of his own rights to individuality.

In Tanzania, still in those culpably white cars, they "travel in pairs, in the manner of cultists and Mormon evangelists".

Mostly, however, this book is an intelligent, funny, and frankly sentimental account by a young-at-heart idealist who is trying to make sense of the painful disparity between what Africa is and what he once hoped it might become. The vicious cycle goes like this: Country despots skim off significant portions of aid for themselves, little of it, if any, ever reaching the intended, who remain poor, jobless and hungry, thus drawing the need for still more aid. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. The guide says “papyrus” or “hieroglyphic” or “Tutankhamen” or “one of the Ptolemys,” and you say “Yup.