The best travel books and politics of South Africa

For: Javier Brandoli

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Warning: this is a post to travel between sites Book.

Last week I returned to the University Villanueva, a center who taught drafting practices just before I left South Africa correspondent. My friend Ernesto Villar, the best boss I ever had in this job, invited me to give a talk on the figure of freelance correspondent and former students of career (thanks, had a great). One of the students asked: "What are the sources of a correspondent?”. Then I let the journalist theoretical newcomer in the newspapers, TV, radio and departure taxi drivers to understand what unintelligible. Then, I spoke of the many books I read just before to Africa. That is this post, of literature as a way to travel several times. In the words of Javier Reverte, the literary journey is done three times: when read before going, when made and when writing.

In the words of Javier Reverte, the literary journey is done three times: when read before going, when made and when writing

Now, flight to Johannesburg tomorrow again, here are the books I recommend to understand something this continent. There will be other, Insurance, of high quality and I'll read in the coming years, so I understand this list as personal and situational.

The African Trilogy Javier Reverte: "The dream of Africa"; "Wanderer in Africa" ​​and "Africa's Missing Roads". I clarify that I started reading before I met Reverte and writing in this journal, there is no toll of friendship in these words. His books have much to do with my fascination upon this continent. Three works seem to me essential to understand the history of this place and its connections with this. I like its slight narrative Reverte, lack of pageantry and passion for travel. Enjoys traveling and writing and I amuse myself by reading. Now that is about to release a new book African, VaP. which we advance in the title, "Hills and lakes of burning fire" and advance also launch, I am re-reading desenado. Above, and that is staff, the type is a person cojonuda.

A rainbow at night: Dominique Lapierre makes an excellent joint work in which fact and some fiction to tell the story of South Africa. It is full, very elaborate and does not alter the fictional reality of the data. Thanks to this book, I met a character in the category of Helen Lieberman, Mother Teresa of South Africa.

History of South Africa: an academic book that has a perfect history from its primitive origins to the arrival of democracy. Then, and in South Africa, I knew the author, South Africa R.W. Johnson, was a very controversial journalist and historian who accuse him of racism both blacks and whites for his treatment of apartheid, what made me think that his work should be balanced. It is the country's best historical text that I read.

Long Walk to Freedom. It is the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. For those who fascinates me as the character is an essential work. Is the book written, in part, in his years of imprisonment on Robben Island, and has humorous touches (many) While explaining the captivating character of the character. Addition, seamlessly narrates the different stages of its struggle against apartheid and his thought process to move from armed struggle to a conciliatory position that made possible the miracle of life in peace in South Africa to drop the terrible apartheid.

After Mandela. The book I bought in South Africa and I think that has not yet emerged in Castilian. It's a situation analysis of South Africa after the arrival of democracy written by Alec Russell, he was a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in the country. Is devastating, brutal and even scandalous cases of corruption that has, analysis of the power struggle within the ANC and the disintegration of the extreme white right. Great journalism perfect to understand the current situation of the country.

Ebony. Of Kapuscinsky could select several titles, Ebony but probably is the work that best explains the Polish master plural Africa. Course is a basic work for understanding the process of independence of African countries. The complex and varied African socio-political reality is incomprehensible without knowing how it came about his separation from the colonies and the tolls paid to the liberators and now owners. Makes a journey across the continent with chronic which is sublimated journalism and perhaps impossible.

Dining with Mugabe. The president of Zimbabwe and the country itself are my weakness with Mandela in the journalistic. The character I find fascinating and the book explains through dozens of interviews in their environment and a final meeting with Mugabe, of the author, Heidi Holland (begins the book with a dinner at which hides the then rebel and ends with an interview with the president and) the process of change that was great liberator of the black cause. The subtitle says it all: "The Untold Story of a liberator who became a tyrant".

«Asante África», «A la sombra del Baobab», «La Ruta del Okavango», «El África de Mandela» y «Botsuana: Memorias del África profunda». Together these five books, authored by order, Témoris Grecko, Xavier Moret, Michael F. Martin, Juanjo Olasagarre and Alfonso Rincon, and I read before I go, be because they share a very personal journey. To me the two that I liked were the first two. The rest, There are some as the Okavango Road diary I find superficial and the original is passed Botswana, to narrate through a donkey, and I got bored a lot (I feel the criticism).

«Nuestro invierno africano» y «Mi viaje por África». Editorial share, Wind Issues, and have more than one author illustrates. The first is Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, and recounts his trip to South Africa early in the century from all over the East African coast. The surprising thing for me was knowing that the legendary writer was a convinced spiritualist and book your trip and is a series of descriptions of places he goes and encounters with the afterlife. The second book contains the signature of Winston Churchill. The reporter then goes to the train known as the moon, linking Kenya to Uganda (since become an obsession to do so even if part of the section has been closed), Africa in the early twentieth century. Surprised some of his claims that without the historical context could be considered racially unfit years after the man who rid the world of Nazism.

Mountains of the Moon. The browser Richard Burton as a diary explains his expedition in search of the source of the Nile. The text offers two visions for the history: on one hand the concept of the browser on Africans and their "wildlife" and, especially, paragraphs which vehemently denies, almost ridicules, a Jonh Speke, to assert that he had discovered the sources of the Nile. Years later, and after a brawl in the National Geographic in London where he was given reason to Burton, would be another browser, Stanley, which certify that Speke was right.

The last diary of Dr. Livingstone. I read this book when I started with my best 2010 to reach the tomb of the Scottish explorer in Chitambo (Zambia). This book is too dense, detailed, no literary quality and costs go through the pages. Addition, has the disadvantage that the change of names of localities almost impossible to track them your current route on a map. It is a work intended for scholars of nineteenth-century African exploration. The first person tells himself David Livingstone.

The innocent anthropologist, Nigel Barley. A work that talks about his experience with the tribe of Cameroon dowayo. The author goes to live with them, in one of their huts, and sarcastically tells the anthropological reality of a people who accept with difficulty the standards and their own reality full of difficult times.

The Heart of Darkness. The masterpiece Joseph Conrad made the Congo River has become a myth of the continent. The great history that led to the movies with Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" has made many dream about traveling the waters of one of the most enigmatic and dangerous rivers on the planet.

What remains for me to read?
Much. Classical texts, new work of journalism that tell a more current Africa ... For Now, I carry in my suitcase to read two books tomorrow there: "Disgrace", the J. M. Coetzee (is novel, but I think it explains well the reality of Cape Town) and "A million stones, our partner Miquel Silvestre.

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Comments (9)

  • Goyo

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    Unfortunately it is great. Yaiza is reading Queens of Africa, Cristina Morato. He says he is enjoying a big

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  • Goyo

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    We thank the selection. ¿Por que no incluyes «Todo se desmorona», Chinua Achebe? Hopefully in the list, in years, this book is for Brandoli because Africa. Bon Voyage Brave!!

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  • mayte

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    Great information. There is a terrific book about a Scottish traveler back in Niger 1700. I found it in a secondhand bookshop and antiquarian books in Oxford, is a relic, especially if you can read in English: Travels in Africa, the writer : Mungo Park. Is well known in Nigeria.

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  • ricardo

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    As it says Mayte, Mungo Park's book is superb and is translated into Spanish (and. Turner, I remember). I recommend it

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  • mayte

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    Ricardo, I'm glad you liked it also, thought it was odd that the only enjoyed. I can ask where you found it in Spanish? Blackwells in Oxford there is a copy antiquíiisima with illustrations and all. Another book I recommend is Wildflower by Mark Seal, though it has nothing to do with the Mungo Park, is the biography of Joan Root and her life in Kenya until his assassination in 2006.

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  • ricardo Coarasa

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    Mayte rectify, «Viaje a las regiones interiore de Africa», the story of Mungo Park, is published in editions of the Wind. I buy it in Altair. Si te interesa la exploracion del Niger te recomiendo sin duda alguna «El Dios indómito», of Sanche de Gramont, is outstanding and documentadisimo.

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  • Martin

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    Javier just read a tourist in Africa by Evelyn Waugh and I liked it for simple ,for his fine irony about british and their current : I will spend three weeks blissful to Africa and I will not let it spoil the papers to me

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  • Javier Brandoli

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    Hi Martin, I am now with Livingstone's tribe, I'm liking much similar criteria. I have a friend who is now in Europe and yesterday's email says: «esto es deprimente, no vuelvo». Enjoy Africa!

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