Looking for Lovedu : Days and Nights in Africa

Rating:
Summary: Simplified Africa for the Politically Correct
Review: Ann Jones is a terrific writer. I enjoyed this book, and anyone who goes the length of Africa to satisfy a curiosity inspired by a museum label is definitely enjoying life.

Unfortunately "Lovedu" has the dubious distinction of being one of the most sexist books that I can remember ever reading. I thought that gender stereotypes went out of fashion in the 1970s, but I guess it's all a matter now of who takes offense.

For much of the book Jones takes a sharply superior tone, as she criticizes anything Western, anything white, anyone male. It is immediately established that African culture is more advanced than ours (by virtue of being older). Of course this opinion might carry more weight had she not chosen to overland in a British-made Land Rover with a GPS system rather than, say, a camel or other traditional form of advanced African transportation.

In keeping with the theme, she finds fault even in economies that have run well, by African standards (such as the Ivory Coast and Kenya), because they are the most Capitalist. At the same time she overlooks the abject poverty and political repression enforced on the people in countries that followed an anti-Western economic course (such as Tanzania and Guinea). In fact she even goes so far as to say that Marxism would have succeeded in Tanzania had it not been for a lack of natural resources - something that no one in Tanzania has believed for 15 years. Even Nyerere admitted that his system didn't work.

Ann Jones knows very well that agricultural and general ecomonic productivity increased in Tanzania after the socialist model was thrown out - yes, even with the same natural resources. This is reminiscent of the way leftist intellectuals refused to acknowledge the Gulag for so many decades. Even if her readers don't know the truth about Tanzania, surely they've heard of Hong Kong, a city about the size of a postage stamp that owed its success to capital freedom.

Jones is under no obligation to explain why Marxism should have had any better results in Africa than in other parts of the world, characterized as it is by economic disaster and a unilateral absence of democratic freedom. Neither does she test her politically correct theories of Africa's ills by visiting countries that were never under colonial rule (such as Ethiopia or Liberia) or those that have had hardly a moment's peace since Independence (such as Angola and the Sudan). Her carefully gerrymandered route across the continent reflects a staunch commitment to the bourgeois viewpoints that may induce nods at a Manhattan wine and cheese party but have done absolutely nothing for the lives of average people living in squalor.

Overall, Jones is remarkably unconcerned about the political and economic conditions of present-day Africa. Indeed, blaming the current conditions of democratic repression and grinding poverty on dead white Europeans becomes more of a stretch with each passing year. The only African leader that Jones can bring herself to criticize is Mobutu (safely dead by the time the book was finished). Certainly it must have been a surreal experience, standing quietly in the land of Bokassa and Idi Amin, yet having harsh words only for a Belgian tyrant born three decades before the American Civil War.

For those seeking a well-written, one-sided, politically correct and overly romantic adventure in Africa, then this is the book. You will not gain an understanding of the issues that plague the continent, but you may enjoy the wonderful descriptions of the author's observations both of nature and the people that she encounters - even if wondering what else she may have encountered but chose to omit.

Rating:
Summary: Looking for Love (Due)
Review: Ann Jones' Looking for Lovedu is sometimes so funny that I laughed out loud, and the adventures are so compelling and so beautifully told that it's hard to put the book down. Imagine being in Mauritania, or Zaire, with such an observant traveler. The colors, the sounds, the villages, the people, the heat are vivid, and knowledgably described. This is a beautiful book. I'm looking forward to the next travel book she writes.

Rating:
Summary: TOURING AFRICA THE HARD WAY
Review: From the first page of Ann Jones'LOOKING FOR LOVEDU, I knew I was in for a literary treat. As the book unfolded, with writing that can only be described as beauteous, direct, and as well painted as any author I have read in the past twenty years, I was never disappointed. It starts as a sheer adventure story as Ann and her co-traveler, Muggleton, a rugged,macho Englishman half her age, plot their Odyssey from one tip of Africa to the other in a second-hand Land Rover. The early part of the story demonstrates Ms Jones'ingenuity in attracting sponsors and dealing with the practical preparations. But it also interjects a "mission" to the effort: seeking out the Queen of the Lovedu tribe, a remote cluster of persons who live on old territory now within the borders of South Africa. The tribe, largely ingnored in athropological circles, is one of the few (or only) matriarchal groups in Africa, with an heriditary female leader and tribal values that are more compromising, cooperative, and conciliatory than the confrontational societies that surround them. This is the setting, but we have only just begun. The day to day adventures, as the Land Rover plods from Morocco, through the Sahara, sub-Sahara and Central Africa, and ultimately to South Africa, are vividly described. We move on with incredible driving feats by Muggleton and his uncanny car repair skills, complemented by Ms. Jones'ability to cope with everything else, including the endless, archaic paperwork required by bribe-seeking border officials. Danger, discomfort, and beauty lurk around them as we are also introduced to new themes. Male/female roles, practically derived and otherwise, are touched on with subtle, and sometimes comical, insight. We are also exposed to digestible, non-technical, doses of African history: pre-Colonial,Colonial, post-Colonial. No sugar coating here. The author tacks into some of the leaders of post-Colonial Africa as heartily as the 19th and 20th century European exploiters, reserving her admiration for the bulk of Africans who have been buffeted in the process. Together with the harrowing adventure scenes, the reader is treated to a consistently amusing rendition of people observations, including Ms. Jones'own reflections on self and purpose. The beauty of Africa hovers like a helicopter above its challenging problems. We do meet the Queen of Lovedu, but each reader must decide what it means. Ms Jones deals with it factually, but I sense she leaves it as a parable.

Rating:
Summary: A Different Point of View
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the woman's point of view in this book. As Jones points out, when we read about Africans, it is too often about African men - the female experience is left out. Here, we have the pleasure of viewing the continent through the eyes of a well-informed middle-aged woman traveler. Jones describes not only the natural, historical and political background of the countries through which she travels, but also the lives and works of the women she sees and interacts with along the way. A well-written and witty page-turner.

Rating:
Summary: Mired in the mud for 200 pages
Review: The author agreed to traverse Africa with a man she didn't know very well. Turned out they had differnt priorities - he was into
making the best time, and she was more interested in seeing the people and land. The result is that, for about 180 pages out of 268 we get to read her complaining about the man. I understand that sometimes you get into a situation that is so bad that you lose all perspective, but I would hope that the author had reflected a little more before writing the book. She identifies
male/female power struggles as the problem, but does little to figure out, even in retrospect, how it happened and how she could avoid this trap in the future. I know that she had to interact with people to buy food, for instance, but she focuses so stongly on the relationship that she rarely writes about people. The last 60 pages or so are interesting.

Rating:
Summary: a Woman's road trip through Africa
Review: What an inspiration for this middle aged female dreamer. The author's arduous journey through Africa included her adventures and struggles with the realities of travelling through places where roads are more a walking path than a car path. The first part of the trip with her male companion who sees travel as more a competition than a journey was more of a conventional road trip spiced with history. The second part with her woman companions, allows us to see the people more than the car..Ms Jones however, is not always at the center of this journey. We are always firmly grounded in Africa,its cultural and political history, before and during the colonial period and after independence. Each country is carefully delineated; its own unique history summed up. The reader finishes this book with a broader understanding of the continent which we tend to see in the news only as a place ravaged by war and AIDS.