I am quickly settling down here in Savannah and on this island that seems separated from the larger world. Almost all the boxes have disappeared and I have found myself enjoying walks by the marsh, bicycling and will be heading out to kayak in a bit. More to come later. Here is a review of one of the books I recently finished reading...
Paul Theroux, The Last
Train to Zona Verde (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt, 2013), 353 pages,
1 map.
It has
been a quarter of a century since I first read Theroux’s
The Great Railway
Bazaar. At that time, the book was close
to twenty years old. Since then, I read
all his train adventures (
The Old
Patagonian Express, Riding the Iron Rooster, Dark Star Safari and
Ghost Train to the Easter Star) and
have reviewed several of them in various blogs. I was excited to see that he had a new
travel/train book out and was continuing his African journey that he started in
Dark Star Safari which took him from Cario to Cape Town. In this trip, he planned to make his way
overland from Cape Town to Timbuktu, but after wandering in Angola, he calls it
quits and heads home.
When he
wrote The Great Railroad Bazaar (he
traveled in the early 70s), he traveled on what was left of the French-built
Vietnamese railroad at a time the war was ongoing. He was much younger then and I don’t remember
him discussing in detail the possibility of death even though it was a
dangerous journey. He is now 70 years
old and it is obvious from the beginning that he is pondering his impending
death. This book seems to ooze death and
three of the people he meets on his journey die before he finishes writing the
book. When making this journey, it had
been ten years since Theroux’s African overland trip through a continent he
first encountered as a Peace Corp volunteer in the early 1960s. It becomes apparent early on to the reader
that this is Theroux’s swan-song, at least for adventure travel.
The
journey starts in Cape Town. After
spending time visiting and seeing what has happened to South Africa since his
last visit, Theroux heads northwest by train and bus, into Nambia. He finds Southern Namibia pleasant, but life was
tougher in the northern part of the country (especially after crossing a fenced
line that is designed to keep hoof and mouth diseases out of cattle in the southern
part of the African Continent. The
northern and more western parts of Namibia were more desolate. He crosses over into Botswana and experiences
a safari camp that boosted being the only place in Africa where one can ride
elephants. Elephants are not ridden or
used as beast of burden in Africa as they are in Asia (although this left me
wondering about Hannibal and his invasion of Rome on elephants, but that was a
few thousand years ago). This marketing
scheme (riding elephants) is generally the type that turned off Theroux in his
previous books, but since he knows the founder of the program (they are trying
to rescue elephants), he visits and although critical does seem to have a good
time.
The
closer he traveled to Angola, the more dangerous and daring travel becomes. He is led across the border, through crowds
of people. Angola does not provide
tourist visas, so Theroux has lined up a couple of teaching and lecturing gigs
arranged that allowed him to obtain a visa.
Probably the most exciting part of the book is the journey from the
border to Lubango, where he is in a car that breaks down in the remote
countryside. This allows Theroux to
interact with locals (including a woman selling burnt and fly covered chicken)
and see village life. He also sees the
poverty and the impact years of war had on the country. He visits the old slave port of Benguela
and travels up the coast to Luanda, the crowded capital of the country.
Despite
the depressing report on the situation in Angola, I appreciate Theroux’s
insight. He provides details into the
dark history of the former Portuguese colony.
Like other European country, Portugal used Angola as a dumping ground
for criminals, the only difference is that Portugal sent harden criminals where
Britain and other countries mostly exiled petty criminals (some of whom main
offense was to be poor). These harden
criminals quickly adapted to the slave trade, a major economic activity for
Angola in the 19th Century.
Others became brutal managers of farming operations. After the colony’s independence, a long war
ensued that involved not only those living in Angola, but armies from South
Africa and Cuba. Although the war had
been over for ten years when Theroux made his visit, it is still evident. Furthermore, since then, the country
resources are making a few people incredibly rich (in the capital, there is a
private school that cost $47,000 a year for tuition and small apartments for
the rich elite rent for $7000 a month while most people are unemployed and
living in near starving conditions).
Theroux repeatedly asks himself what he’s doing there, a
question that becomes more frequent as he travels in Angola. In addition to the problems of the journey,
Theroux has his identity stolen in Namibia (which he learns about in Angola as has
racked up forty-some thousand dollars of charges on his credit card). With everything hard and upon learning the situation
is even worse in the Congo and the horrors of the Boka Haram (meaning “Death to
Western Education”) in Nigeria, Theroux calls off his journey and heads home. It should be noted that Theroux’s journey in
Africa was several years before the recent horrors of the Boka Haram (an
extreme Islamic group) kidnapping Christian girls in Nigeria.
Theroux, in Dark Star
Safari, was critical of much of the aid work in Africa. Then, he noted that how when he came to the
continent in 1960, it was able to feed itself, but by the 21st
Century, the continent was dependent on imports. Although he saw some improvements in South
Africa at the beginning of this journey, he comes away from this trip bitter
and disappointed. His experience of
Angola is best described as a nightmare.
A country with vast mineral resources (oil and diamonds), most people
live in a near starvation state. There
is little public transportation, the infrastructure is almost non-existence,
and animals are absent from the countryside, which is littered with burned out
trucks and tanks from the thirty year war.
Corruption is everywhere. Theroux is disillusion.
One of the things that seemed to be different in this book
from his other books is that Theroux spent less time with people who were
struggling in life, especially in northern Namibia and Angola. Certainly some
of the drivers that he hired were struggling, but there seems to be more
encounter with those who are in Africa on official business or who have
connections outside of the continent. Even his fellow travelers in broken-down
vehicles only receive fleeting comments (such as his complaining about
screaming kids), leaving me to wonder their stories. In his other books, he shunned tourist and western
officials while interviewing prostitutes and others on the margin of
society. He does, as he has done in many
of his books, make contact (or attempts to connect) to authors in the region
who do help provide insight into the struggles of the people. And he
still has disdain for tourists (at one point calling a safari operation in
Namibia “Trophy Hunting for Dummies”) and for religion (he was especially critical
of Brazilian evangelists in Angola and their “prosperity gospel.”) However, he
seem to appreciate those who come and make a long term commitment to working
for the betterment of the people in the continent.
Another common complaint from Theroux in this book is how he
hates cities (here, I have to agree with him).
He notes the similarity of cities—especially within the slums—around the
world. Africa is quickly becoming an
urban continent as people leave the countryside for the city, where there are
few jobs. Theroux does seem to be more
comfortable in the countryside.
One of the interesting groups that Theroux explores in
Angola are the Chinese. Enterprising Chinese (the first Chinese to come, like
the Portuguese, were convicts), have started restaurants and industry (making
cinder blocks and roofing tin). Many of
the construction projects including rebuilding railroads (upon which Theroux didn’t
travel) are being done by the Chinese, who are creating their own community within
the continent. The role China will play in Africa is
important, and Theroux exploration here is enlightening. He
also provides some of the backstory to the funny but not political correct 1984
movie, “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” (156)
Two final complaints (Theroux’s complaining must be
catching): I was disappointed that
Theroux didn’t travel in trains (or write more of the experience in the few
times he did). I also wish he (or his
editors) would hire a decent mapmaker. I
had to spend time putting the book down and picking up a large atlas to follow
his journey. In my opinion, all his
books have poorly drawn maps.
One final insight:
Zona verde means “The bush.” (322)
Despite the complaints, I am still glad to have read this
book and appreciate the new insights I have for the continent. I have long had a love/hate relationship with
Theroux and his travels. In a way, this
book seems more personal as Theroux is often reflecting on his own
thoughts. However, these “reflections”
become repetitious and are mainly centered on his age or his loss of identity
and his credit card being compromised. Nothing seems to be resolved and as a
traveler, I would have been interested in how he dealt with the credit card
problem. Theroux crankiness is at a new
level in this book, but if you can get around that, there is something to be
learned from his travels.
