Status Updates From Far Journeys

interesting reading about how France basically exported the trashiest and most dysfunctional sides of their culture to the West African colonies, whenever Chatwin meets French expatriates in Mali, Mauretania, Niger they are inevitably complete weirdoes.... he also meets quite a few Chinese businesspeople who are much more normal than the Frenchies, looks like the PRC has been investing in Africa since the 1980's

As expected tons of picturesque descriptions in the text of West African landscapes that look weird to Westerners, local architectural styles and craftsmanship traditions in general... people in Mauretania and Mali seem to be as attached to their goats and sheep as Kazakhs, Turkmens and other Central Asians do to their horses if Chatwin is a reliable source.

currently reading and quite enjoying Chatwin's novel "On the Black Hill", interesting to see his travel diaries and photographs - he had quite the talent for photographing real life places in a way that made them look like abstract paintings