Dark Continent, My Black Arse

Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down! The story of the writer's experiences traveling from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt by road, rail, and river was engrossing to the end. Once the writer crossed into Zambia from Namibia, I decided to follow his journey with a map of Africa next to me. Tracing his journey on the map and recognising his routes, identifying the names of towns, cities, lakes, and rivers greatly enhanced reading pleasure. He devotes a chapter to each country he passes through: Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt; beginning each chapter with a brief political history of each country through colonialism to independence and the roles of their respective leaders in the political journey. We see everything through the writer's eyes and personality. I loved his adventurous curious and adventurous spirit; his humour in which he is often the object of his own laughter; his unsparing yet often appreciative if sympathetic observations of similarities and differences between countries and finally, his optimism for Africa. After the well-known journeys of exploration by historical figures such as Livingstone, Stanley, Speke and others of colonial times, and other non-Africans who came after them in modern times, it is refreshing to follow the journey of an African traveler from South Africa. His account presents an authentic, unforgettable perspective. Experiencing its sights, smells, tensions, suspenseful uncertainties, frustrations, and triumphs, through beautiful scenery, heat, cold, hunger, desert storms, and vibrant evolving cities, you will enjoy and love traveling through Africa through this well-written book. In its genre it is an African classic.

Shile gives the reader a roller-coaster ride in this well-written travelogue through Africa. I enjoyed his candid, perceptive remarks, infusing it with a language and a narrative style that is both entertaining and educative. Highly recommended for the "armchair" traveller. Well done Shile!

I loved the places,humor, resolution. It isbecause of the book that I plan to quad bike in Namibia one day, visitZanzibar for the slave market history, Egypt for the rich history andprobably bungee jump in Zim or Zambia.

The writer captures the feeling of how to travel in Africa. It is a fascinating, inspiring and hilarious account of his travels through the southern and eastern countries of Africa! An absolute must if you want to attempt the same journey!

Satisfied

The Cape to Cairo trip is the subject of many, probably too many, travelogues by too many overly earnest white people. Sometimes they put some insane twist on it, like walking the distance, or hitching. Truth be told, I love this kind of books, heck, I wrote a fair chunk of one, but I have observed that they are always almost written by non-Africans, and if it is by an African its usually a white Africa. That's why this account of a Cape to Cairo Trek bu Sihle Khumalo, a Zulu from Durban was so intriguing. What its like for a black African, an honest to God indigenous African, to travel across these borders and cultures, is a story that is, at best, badly undertold. The book itself is not terribly well-written, and our narrator is not particularly likeable. Basically. he's a 30-year-old businessman who quits his job and leaves his fiance and their 18-month-old- child in South Africa while he spends a few months going from the Cape to Cairo bu public transit. Over the course of his adventures, he boasts of his fidelity to his fiancee which he seems to maintain primarily by failing in his advance towards a variety of tourists and locals. Heck, in the acknowledgements, he even takes time out to say "Thanks for nothing" to a Dutch backpacker who declined his offer to share a room for the night. What is most interesting is that throughout the narrative, the author provides a level of honesty, sometimes rather ugly, that one doesn't seem to get among white authors writing about their African travels. Despite, or perhaps even a bit because of his sexism and South African chauvinism, he manages to put together an African travelogue, that while not necessarily better than others, stands out.

"Dark Continent My Black Arse" by Sihle Khumalo is an engrossing, entertaining, funny and wonderfully politically-incorrect account of the author's trip, entirely overland and by public transport, from Cape to Cairo. While not quite up there with Paul Theroux or Bill Bryson's travel writing, the book is nevertheless very good indeed and worth the price of admission.A single complaint (the skeptic in me couldn't let this go...): Khumalo on a number of occasions endorses nonsense, most notably, saying that rhino horn is `the best medicine for sexual vigour'. Six words: magical thinking + placebo effect + lamentable superstition.

It 's a pity, it could have been a good book, and it has some interesting bits about travelling in Africa. However the narrator does his absolute best to look shallow, silly and ignorant, and his comments on women are beyond the pale. A lost opportunity. Try instead "Traversa" by Fran Sandham; it's not flawless, and it's perhaps more about the narrator than about Africa, but he writes much better and is (at least to my eyes) a much more interesting person.

Having lived in Africa all my life I could relate to so much and Khumalo's approach was refreshingly unbiased. Whether you know Africa or not this is an amusing and insightful book

Love love loved the story! As an African thinking of doing a similar trip I really needed to find an experience shared by a fellow African and not one from an ancient explorer or foreign tourist taking a gap-year/sabbatical (cz our impressions of our continent would be different from one of a non-African).This is it!

Shile Khumalo's very personal impressions and his poems are very important because they complement views of Africa written by Paul Theroux and that "lovesick Aussie" who, being white, can only describe the continent from the outside looking in. I fervently wish more people of colour would write aboout their Africa.

Dieses Reisebuch ist völlig überflüssig. Die Idee klang gut, aber die Ausführung... Zu einem guten Reisebuch gehört mehr als eine Reise, es gehört auch jemand dazu, der die richtige offene Wahrnehmung und eine Sprache für Erlebtes, Gehörtes und Gedachtes hat.Dem Autor dieses Buches fehlt dies alles, und nur seine Selbstverliebtheit bleibt ihm, und die hat ihm wahrscheinlich auch eingegeben, dass er ein Reisebuch schreiben sollte. Schade um Zeit und Geld und überhaupt...