商品簡介
West Africa, 1969 and 1970. The author goes to tiny Togo on the Bight of Benin to join an old friend who has been living in the capital, Lom? Together, they enjoy the life of that laid-back, neighborly city, populous with the various ethnicities of the region, which crowd the picturesque African market, the Rex cinema and the endless beach. The pair soon travel much further afield: into the countryside and villages of northern Togo, to a sprawling royal palace in Benin, on a steam-powered train through Nigeria and then into the desert cultures of the Sahel, where they visit the adobe splendors of Islamic cities like Kano and Djenn? and witness the intense traditional spirituality of the Dogon people. There are no game parks in this book; the two travelers are in search of the humanity, not the wildlife, of West Africa. They travel simply by local means, they eat with their hands at roadside stalls and family tables, their friends are variously farmers and students and cabinet ministers. They engage, participate and observe without judgment. In their sympathetic, free-wheeling company, the reader takes tea with veiled Tuareg warriors, reclines among the roots of a gigantic tree to get a shave, watches fetish women in trance try to throw themselves into the sea, or just waits out a rainy-season downpour in a dismal hotel. Marvelous places are vividly described, and throughout this book, the author evinces respect and affection for the people he encounters. Many of the places visited are unsafe for travel now. Nigeria is fighting an insurgency. The Sahel, tormented by climate change, is a battleground of ethnic militias, Islamic extremists and Western forces. Violence and displacement imperil the confident, dignified traditional people the author describes. This book is a valuable witness to their deeply human cultures, and to a way of travel, too: these travelers move through a variety of unfamiliar situations, but they find common ground everywhere by traveling simply, along with the people, by putting their own habits and expectations on hold, and by being unafraid of intimacy. It is thoroughly illustrated with photographs and beautiful examples of Togan arts and crafts.
