Dark Continent, My Black Arse

Dark Continent, My Black Arse by Khumalo, Sihle. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781415200360.

Dark Continent, My Black Arse is Sihle Khumalos personal and often hilarious account of his perception of Mama Africa, based on his journey from Cape to Cairo by public transport – bus, boksie, matola. Celebrating life with gusto and in inimitable style, he describes a journey fraught with discomfort, mishap, ecstasy, disillusionment, discovery and astonishing human encounters; a journey that would be acceptable madness in a white man but is regarded by the author’s fellow Africans as an extraordinary and inexplicable expenditure of time and money. As Sihles famous counterpart Paul Theroux, author of Dark Star Safari, comments, Dark Continent, My Black Arse is uniquely an African travel story: the story of an African traveling on his own money and motivation, from one end of Africa to the other. An inspiring story, it carries the following warning: Reading this book might cause you to resign from your boring job, leave your nagging / ungrateful / insecure partner, stop merely existing and start living the life you have always longed and yearned for.