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Rating: 
Summary: Roller coaster Ride through Francophone Africa
Review: "French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa" is a collection of business-travel experiences and observations in ten countries in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zaire). Biddlecombe careens from business-class hotel and international conference center to rural village and farm, and describes his encounters with everything from white magic in Benin, locusts in Mali, to lost luggage in Congo. He shares his encounters with Africans of all sorts: government minister, customs officer, doctor-entrepreneur, gold smuggler, chicken farmer, soap manufacturer, and cassette pirater. He shares his thoughts, knowledge, and conversations covering African leaders, economic development, the CFA franc, colonization and independence, health and nutrition, literature, music, and architecture. All with a great deal of wit and humor. This is no introductory text, but anyone with some basic knowledge of Africa will find this book informative and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Roller coaster Ride through Francophone Africa
Review: "French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa" is a collection of business-travel experiences and observations in ten countries in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zaire). Biddlecombe careens from business-class hotel and international conference center to rural village and farm, and describes his encounters with everything from white magic in Benin, locusts in Mali, to lost luggage in Congo. He shares his encounters with Africans of all sorts: government minister, customs officer, doctor-entrepreneur, gold smuggler, chicken farmer, soap manufacturer, and cassette pirater. He shares his thoughts, knowledge, and conversations covering African leaders, economic development, the CFA franc, colonization and independence, health and nutrition, literature, music, and architecture. All with a great deal of wit and humor. This is no introductory text, but anyone with some basic knowledge of Africa will find this book informative and enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book about a little known part of the world
Review: Francophone Africa is one of the areas of the world that no one writes much about. Biddlecombe, however, has succeeded in conveying the feelings and conditions of this area very accuratley. This is not just a dry travel book however. Biddlecombe sprinkles his narratives with many hilarious anecdotes to further the reader's understading of why the people in this region act the way they do. Great book.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read but a lot of editing errors.
Review: I enjoyed "French lessons" because I was familiar with anglophone Africa through extensive travels there some years back. It certainly struck a familiar chord. The best book I've read on Africa is "The Africans" (forgot author's name). This is up there but it is a bit inconsistent. The version I read had typos and strange cuts. It was often hard to tell who was talking with the dialogue and the reader needs a reasonable knowledge of French to get a lot of the jokes. I loved the descriptions of the meetings with ministers etc but I never worked out what our hero did for a living or what he was actually doing in these countries. As one reviewer said it's a bit dated but I'd read a new version if it came out.
Rating:
Summary: well, it isn't THAT funny
Review: This is not a lighthearted book. In fact, it is a bit grim in parts. However, it is really interesting and I do recommend this book to anyone who likes travel stories that aren't sugar-coated. I didn't know much about French Africa before reading this book, so I learned a lot and found his experiences in the different French African countries was intriguing and unusual. A good travel book, about an area where most of us will never go.
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