Heart of Africa

The most recent offering by traveller Sihle Khumalo. 150 years separate Khumalo from that other explorer of Africa: the Englishman John Hanning Speke. Speke set out to “discover” the source of the Nile, and Khumalo to figure out what the hell Speke and men like him were after.

Khumalo’s 2008 journey to Central Africa was not without its challenges. First he had to outperform his famous earlier trip and book Dark Continent, My Black Arse. Then he elected to travel, as before, by public transport only. Which in practice often meant more transit and less transport.

Giving himself a mere four weeks, and propelled by a frank fascination with the Victorian explorers, Khumalo set out on a six-pronged quest aiming, inter alia, to ferry across Lake Tanganyika, stand on the equator in Uganda, bungee jump at the source of the Nile, or see if any mountain gorillas were forthcoming (none were).

But it was his emotive visit to the Memorial Centre at Kigali, epicentre of the Rwandan genocide, that brought home elemental questions: What is at the heart of Africa? What makes me an African? Where lies my centre?

Heart of Africa is the unputdownable account of a journey that seldom went as planned. Khumalo’s unfailing eye for the good, the bad and the amusing in Africa, his refreshing candour and his sheer cheek, make this book every bit as delightful as its forerunner.

Heart of Africa tells a story of a man who explored Central Africa but ended up finding his source of gravity.

"I can’t imagine a better guide into the heart of Africa than Sihle Khumalo – a no-nonsense traveller, an astute observer, a lover of people and a man with a fine sense of humour. Where to next, Sihle?"
— Max du Preez

ISBN-13: 9781415200810
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Dark Continent, My Black Arse

"A very likeable and engaging book."
– Paul Theroux

In 2005 Sihle Khumalo decided to give up a lucrative job and a comfortable lifestyle in Durban in order to celebrate his 30th birthday by crossing the continent from south to north. With gusto and in inimitable style, he describes a journey fraught with discomfort, mishap, ecstasy, disillusionment, discovery and astonishing human encounters. A journey that would be acceptable madness in a white man is regarded by the author’s fellow Africans as an extraordinary and inexplicable expenditure of time and money. Newly conscious of language barriers and regional difference in a continent still unexplored by the majority of Africans, the author presents a strikingly original and highly enjoyable account of a unique adventure.

ISBN-13: 9781415200360
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