An Africa, Overlanding, Conservation Book List
I offer you an Africa Reading List. Most overland and 4×4 blogs seem to have gear reviews with high minded opinions on this tent or those tires and whatever is the latest must have thing. I have something much less exciting, a reading list and book reviews! Though we occasionally get rad in our 4×4 on some rugged trail, Van Zyl’s Pass or whatever, usually the cruiser is a well loved tool that allows us to go to interesting places and see unique things. And books are another well loved tool for the same thing. Understanding a place more by reading about it, or learning where to go in the first place from a book, or pages giving up a secret on how to do something is something I find highly satisfying.
No time for books? Check out my recommended podcasts here, lots of very interesting and fun stories. Some articles are here.
Instead, a list of books and references that might be useful, either for general interest or planning a trip. And reading about Africa is a lot cheaper than going there, so if you’re contemplating a trip into the bundu, maybe start with a book.
Below is a non-comprehensive list of books on various Africa subjects that I’ve read or used as reference. A few of them are on my “to read” list, so I cannot comment on their quality. Over time I plan to add short one or two paragraph reviews to help people find what strikes them.
Not sure where to start? For a great story try the Power of One. For a history, to figure out how the heck Africa got to where it is today check out Africa: The biography of a continent (or The Fate of Africa if you just want the history from the end of colonialism). Or Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. Want to learn about conservation? Check out An Arid Eden, Life is Like a Kudu Horn, White Man’s Game or The Cry of the Kalahari. Want some Africa adventure? The Cry of the Kalahari will fit the bill again, as well as Trek, Dark Star Safari or Crossing the Congo. Need something lighter, The Last Resort or Don’t Look Behind You are hilarious. Just need to figure out how to overland Africa without killing yourself, then the Overlander’s Handbook is the book for you. For some interesting perspective on race and religion Out of America and Infidel are gripping.
For general guide books we have found Bradt Guides to be the best for Africa and our type of travel. Not ultra shoestring, not too high end.
There are so many good book, but peruse the list or look at those above and there is something for everyone.
A note on book buying: I recommend you save your money for your next trip and borrow whatever books you find here from the library, or if you prefer epub/kindle, from Overdrive. If you would rather purchase than borrow, please support your local bookstore and buy from them. If you prefer an e-reader, you can still support your local bookstore if you use a kobo instead of a kindle, see if your local bookstore participates here. If all else fails, please use the amazon link in the reading list below. I am now [no longer] an Amazon affiliate, so if you purchase a book from Amazon through the link on this site Amazon gives me a small commission (books run at 4.5% at the moment, in case you’re wondering) at no cost to yourself.
| Title | Author | Description | Category | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A House In the Sky | Amanda Lindhout | A first hand account of kidnapping in Somalia. Intense | Memoir |   |
| A Strangers Pose | Emmanuel Iduma | Wandering and beautiful, but also aimless at times. | Poetry |   |
| Africa: A Biography of the Continent | John Reader | A detailed and highly readable history of Africa, some pages are so good you have to stop to absorb the impact. | History |   |
| African Adventurer’s Guide Botswana | Botswana field guide, perhaps with some notes that are not in other books on remote tracks | Guide |   |
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| Afrikaner Odyssey | Martin Meredith | Another Meredith tome, with his usual detail and style. | History |   |
| An Arid Eden | Garth Owen-Smith | A self taught man’s mpressive first hand account of conservation in the Kaokoveld, during the end of colonial and aparthied rule. Disheartening stories witnessing deep racism, hypocrisy, and also wisdom and hope. | Conservation, Memoir |   |
| An Imperfect Offering | James Orbinski | Orbinski was a doctor for MSF during the turbulent 90s. His account of Rwanda and other hot spots makes me feel like I should be doing more with my life! | Memoir | |
| Blood River | Tim Butcher | Journalist Tim Butcher crossed the DRC from East to West by motorbike, canoe, ferry and any other means. | Travel |   |
| Born A Crime | Trevor Noah | Memoir |   |
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| Bradt Namibia | Chris McIntyre | Great guide to Namibia | Guide |   |
| Bradt Zambia | Chris McIntyre | Best guidebook I think I’ve ever read. Along with the regular advice on hotels and restaurants in every guide, McIntyre has humorous advice what to do when a buffalo charges (rely on their poor eyesight) or what a Lion does when you’ve missed it’s warning grunt and got too close. Subtly geared towards self drive tourists more than other guidebooks. | Guide |   |
| City ofThorns | Ben Rawlence | Stories from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. I went to Dadaab in 2009, and at the time I thought that someone really needs to record some of the many stories of the people here. And Ben Rawlence has done just that. | Journalism |   |
| Crossing the Gongo | Martin, Baker and Hatch-Barnwell | An adventure across the DRC, though one could hardly put together a more capable team, a British ex-army officer with combat experience, a french speaking doctor with tropical medicine experience and a photojournalist. Amazing photographs. | Travel |   |
| Damaraland | Johan Snyman | A guide to roads of Damaraland. Short but useful section in the beginning with geology, plant identification and animals. | Guide | |
| Dark Star Safari | Paul Theroux | Cairo to Cape Town overland, but train, bus, walking. Theroux is his typical self, viewing the world with an inquisitive and critical eye, at times cynical but always insightful. | Travel |   |
| Dead Aid | Dambisa Moyo | A book on aid written by an African, and thus should be paid special attention. Her basic thesis is aid given to Africa has damaged, not helped. | Aid, Economics |   |
| Diamonds Gold and War | Martin Meredith | The history South Africa driven by the discovery of diamonds and gold. | History |   |
| Don't Look Behind You | Peter Allison | A collection of hilarious stories of a safari guide working in South Africa and Botswana | Humor |   |
| Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight | Alexandra Fuller | A memoir of growing up in South Rhodesia in the bloody years before independence. | Memoir |   |
| Emergency Sex and other desperate measures | Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson | An indulgent but funny behind the scenes account of dramas that unfold working for the UN in hotspots around the world | Memoir |   |
| Facing the Congo | Jeffrey Taylor | A story of Taylor’s ill-advised travels in the Congo, mostly by ferry and barge up the Congo river. | Travel |   |
| Guide to Little Known Waterfalls of Zambia | Quentin Allen, Ilse Mwanza and Heather Chalcraft with Timmy Kamwi Mutukwa and Paul Golson | A guide to off the beaten track waterfalls in Zambia. Hard to find. | Guide |   |
| Haynes Toyota Land Cruiser 2007-2016 Repair Manual | Haynes | Repair manual. Doesn’t have the 1HZ engine, but all other parts of the 70 series land cruiser are the same. | Technical manual |   |
| Heart of Darfur | Lisa French Blaker | A story of working in Darfur for MSF. | Memoir |   |
| How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone | Rosie Garthwaite | At first I thought this book was tongue and cheek, but in fact it is a practical guide to accomplish what its title says. Readable, and some parts give one food for thought. I imagine the target audience are journalists and aid workers. | Guide |   |
| Infidel | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | An incredible autobiographical account of escaping Somalia to become a member of parliament in Holland, with unique insight on Somalia, Islam and the West. | Memoir |   |
| Kaokoland | Johan Snyman | A guide to roads of Kaokoland. Short but useful section in the beginning with geology, plant identification and animals. Hard to find. | Guide | |
| Life in Crisis, the ethical journey of Doctors Without Borders | Redfield | A thick wade into the ethics of Doctors Without Borders (MSF). | Journalism, Academic |   |
| Life is Like a Kudu Horn | Margaret Jacobsohn | Jacobsohn is partner to Garth Owen-Smith, who also wrote an account of conservation in Kaokoland. Jacobsohn focuses more on recent activities than Owen-Smith’s book, both are great reads. | Conservation, Memoir |   |
| Mugabe | Martin Meredith | T history of Mugabe’s rise to power and ruling of Zimbabwe. | History |   |
| Namibia - Facination of Geology | Nicole Grunert | Field guide to geology for Namibia. Fairly technical, and missing a section on some of the most fascinating geology in Namibia, the Ugab. | Guide |   |
| Nature Crime, how we’re getting conservation wrong | Rosaleen Duffy | Conservation |   |
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| North Eastern Namibia | Johan Snyman | A guide to roads of NE Namibia. Short but useful section in the beginning with geology, plant identification and animals. Hard to find. | Guide | |
| Once We Were Hunters | Paul Weinberg | |||
| Out of America | Keith Richburg | As a black American that was the E. Africa bureau chief for a major newspaper in the 90s, he has a unique perspective. At times negative or shocking, but his experience as a black American in Africa was very different than white Americans, exposing Africa’s deep seated racism and white privilege , but not in the way I expected. Recent edition has an introduction by Richburg with commentary about Obama’s presidency. | Memoir |   |
| Overlander’s Handbook, 2nd Ed. | Chris Scott | Excellent holistic guide on overlanding the world. | Guide |   |
| Public Health Engineering in Emergency Situations | MSF | Technical manual on public health in remote settings | Technical manual | |
| Refugee Health | MSF | Broad guide to refugee health, from minimum required quantities of water to basic vector control. | Technical manual |   |
| Sahara Handbook, 2nd Ed. | Chris Scott | Guides to Saharan travel are few, and Scott is an authority. This edition the most recent, 2005, and now many of the places in the book are no longer safe to travel. Still full of useful information that is difficult to find elsewhere, and it provokes daydreams of travel that hopefully we can return to someday. | Guide |   |
| Secrets of the Savanna | Mark & Delia Owens | Conservation, Memoir |   |
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| Strength in What Remains | Tracy Kidder | Kidder follows a young Burundian’s journey from a country amidst genocide to America. Kidder is an excellent story teller. | Journalism |   |
| The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream | Christina Lamb | Shiwa Ngandu is a bizarre curiosity in Zambia, an estate that is part English countryside, part Africa. The book is the story of the odd fellow who’s vision made this interesting place that you can still visit. |   |
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| The Challenge for Africa | Wangari Maathai |   |
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| The Cry of the Kalahari | Mark & Delia Owens | The Owens’ account of living for seven years in the Central Kalahari. It is an accomplishment that no one would ever attempt now, but young idealistic students with no knowledge of Africa didn’t know they shouldn’t, so they went and did something amazing. Hard to believe they survived, their stories of living amongst lions and wildlife are amazing. | Conservation, Memoir |   |
| The Eye of the Elephant | Owens and Owens | After the Kalahari the Owens’ undertook study in Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park, but found themselves in a bitter battle against poaching. This book tells the gritty difficulties of conservation and community work in Zambia in the 90s. | Conservation, Memoir |   |
| The Fate of Africa | Martin Meredith | A history of independence of Africa, more or less the last 50 years. At times it reads like a thriller novel, the history of African countries breaking free from colonialism is filled with wild characters and improbabilities. | History |   |
| The Last King of Scotland | Giles Foden | Novel of a doctor working in Uganda during the rule of Idi Amin. Great book, also a movie. | Novel |   |
| The Last Resort | Douglas Rogers | Hilarious memoir of a white Zimbabwean’s return from the UK to his parents, who are scraping by one way or another, in Zimbabwe. A stark contrast to, “Don’t Lets’s Got to the Dogs Tonight”, the other white Zimbabwean memoir. | Memoir |   |
| The Lost World of the Kalahari | Laurens van der Post |   |
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| The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation Without Illusion | Jonathan S. Adams, Thomas O. McShane | With the benefit of hindsight the authors’ take a critical look at conservation work in Africa. | Conservation |   |
| The Old Drift | Namwali Serpell | Beautifully written but at times bizarre, and complex web of relationships and characters all tied to the drift above Victoria Falls. | Novel |   |
| The Pirates of Somalia | Jay Bahadur | Bahadur traveled in Somalia and Somaliland and interviewed modern pirates to get the deep story on piracy in the Indian Ocean. | Journalism |   |
| The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals | Richard D. Estes | Mammal behavior guide. | Guide |   |
| The Shackled Continent | Robert Guest | Excellent look at economics and development in Africa. Great stories woven throughout. | Journalism |   |
| The Trouble With Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working | Robert Caldwell | Caldwell worked for the World Bank, and has insight and access that others didn’t. Though not the focus of the story, he was also the first openly gay World Bank officer, providing another unique perspective. | Current events, memoir |   |
| The Zanzibar Chest | Adrian Hartley | A stringers tales of war reporting in Africa and untangling his colonial family’s past. | Memoir |   |
| Trans Africa Motoring | Colin McElduff | A dated guide on overlanding, c. 1975, with amusing advice, such as, “The day’s journey should being at day-break and continue to 10:00 hrs, when a stop of one or two hours is made for ‘brunch’.” | Guide |   |
| Trek | Paul Stewart | The story of an ill-advised attempt to drive from Kenya to the UK in a 8hp Morris Minor in the 50s, which resulted in adventure and disaster. |   |
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| Vehicle Dependent Expedition Guide, 4th Ed. | Tom Sheppard | A technical guide to vehicle expeditions. Less approachable than the Overlander’s Handbook, but containing some very good information. | Reference, Guide | https://www.exploringoverland.com/shop/vdeg4 |
| Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | ACF | The authoritative book on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in public health settings in developing countries and emergency contexts. This is the Wat-san bible for relief organizations, with detailed information on water treatment, distribution, construction of refugee camps and more. Hard to find. PDF available for free. | Reference, Technical Manual | https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/sites/default/files/publications/Water_sanitation_and_hygiene_for_populations_at_risk_12.2005.pdf |
| We Will Be Free | Graeme Bell | A travel account of a South African family long term overlanding. | Travel |   |
| Whatever You Do Don’t Run | Peter Allison | Humor |   |
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| White Man’s Game | Stephanie Hanes | Another look at the complexities of conservation work, with a lot of time spent on Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. | Conservation |   |
| Wild Flowers, water plants and grasses of the Okavango Delta and Kalahari | Veronica Roodt | Just like the title says, guide to plants in Botswana. This is Vol 2. | Guide |   |
| Zanzibar | Giles Foden | Mystery novel set in Zanzibar. Not as acclaimed as Foden’s famous “The Last King of Scotland”, but entertaining and best read on the beach in Zanzibar | Novel |   |
| Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela | Autobiography |   |
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| Where Soldiers Fear to Tread | John Burnett | Personal account of dangerous work in Kisamayo, Somalia, running small boats for relief work after devastating floods. |   |
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| The Last Train to Zone Verde | Paul Theroux | Theroux visits Angola |   |