Heart of Africa

150 years separate two explorers of Africa: the EnglishmanJohn Hanning Speke and South African Sihle Khumalo. Spekeset out to “discover” the source of the Nile, and Khumalo tofi gure out what the hell Speke and men like him were after.Khumalo’s 2008 journey to Central Africa was not withoutits challenges. First he had to outperform his famousearlier trip and book Dark Continent My Black Arse. Then heelected to travel, as before, by public transport only. Whichin practice often meant more transit and less transport.Giving himself a mere four weeks, and propelled by afrank fascination with the Victorian explorers, Khumalo setout on a six-pronged quest aiming, inter alia, to ferry acrossLake Tanganyika, stand on the equator in Uganda, bungeejump at the source of the Nile, or see if any mountain gorillaswere forthcoming (none were).But it was his emotive visit to the Memorial Centre atKigali, epicentre of the Rwandan genocide, that broughthome elemental questions: What is at the heart of Africa?What makes me an African? Where lies my centre?Heart of Africa is the unputdownable account of a journeythat seldom went as planned. Khumalo’s unfailing eye forthe good, the bad and the amusing in Africa, his refreshingcandour and his sheer cheek, make this book every bit asdelightful as its forerunner.