Livingstone’s Tribe: A Journey From Zanzibar to the Cape

by Stephen Taylor

An extraordinary, passionate and personal journey into Africa’s past. ‘The most enthralling account out of Africa for years.’ Daily Mail. ‘“Livingstone’s Tribe” is excellent…Taylor is an intelligent and stimulating companion.’ Financial Times ‘At the book’s heart is a riveting examination of Livingstone’s tribe…the whites of post-independence Africa.’ Independent on Sunday ‘Taylor’s expedition into the interior of the continent’s colonial past has got everything that such a book should have.’ Guardian ‘Stephen Taylor, a third-generation émigré of British descent, finds a melancholy collection of white misfits and failures…as well as a heroic, dwindling clutch of missionaries still holding the line. The catalogue of theft, corruption, murder and superstition that Taylor chronicles makes appalling, fascinating reading. Yet Taylor is no Colonel Blimp, rather an anti-apartheid liberal who fled the old South Africa and welcomed independence for Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.’ Daily Mail ‘Sights and travel experiences are vividly described and people both from Livingstone’s and from the other tribes are handled particularly well.’ Sunday Times

Genres: Africa, Travel, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Jeannette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading this book. Started it several times, got from Zanzibar thru Tanzania and into Uganda then started skipping about, hoping the author might start to relay any joy from his plod through East then Southern Africa. The book was just too boring to read fluently, too many people to meet, too many encounters without insights, too many words between the lines, too much political goings on.... So, I didnt really enjoy the book but read it, skimmed it, because I lived in East Africa for nearly 30 years and was hoping for a new perspective. I didnt gain it and feel disappointed.

[Marsha]

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[Simon Gisore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing... realistic, powerful and thought provoking. At the end of the book, the question that lingers is this, "Which way Africa?"

[Nathen Fitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very wordy, but interesting and well researched.

[Jeremy Hopkins]

On my shelf