This week Go Readlooks at The Jive Talker or, How to Get a British Passportby Samson Kambalu and the Lonely Planet guide to Madagascar & Comoros
The Jive Talker or, How to Get a British Passport
Samson Kambalu
Jonathan Cape, £16.99 in UK
What an odd jumble of a book this is. Samson Kambalu is a conceptual artist who was born in Malawi in 1975. He moved to the UK in 2000 via The Netherlands. His work centres on a religious philosophy that involves sun worship and plastering pages of the Bible on to footballs to create "holy balls" that are then used to "exercise and exorcise".
This is a memoir of his peripatetic childhood, shifting about the scorched expanses of Malawi, "the land of fire", in the wake of his doctor father, the jive talker of the title, who is given to ranting bouts of philosophy, soaring ambition and alcohol.
Kambalu has no doubts about his genius as a child, and never refrains from passing on his pre-teenage musings on Nietzsche, but from a cultural perspective there are some cutting observations of life in one of the poorest parts of Africa, in a country with almost no natural resources and, until 1994, a life president in Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda. As Kambalu's family moves between the poles of riches and poverty, Aids begins to devastate those around them. The book has a poignancy and an authenticity that are impossible to ignore.
Madagascar & Comoros
Lonely Planet, £15.99 in UK
A more established and appealing option for an African adventure is Madagascar. Beautiful beaches make for ideal lazy days, the interior offers breathtaking hikes, and its animals, which have evolved free from the pressures of the larger African land mass, make for a stunning ecotourism destination. A section on the island's environment and excellent itineraries make this a worthy travelling companion.