Heart of Africa

About the book

150 years separate two explorers of Africa: the Englishman John Hanning Speke and South African Sihle Khumalo. Speke set out to “discover” the source of the Nile, and Khumalo to figure out what the hell Speke and men like him were after.

Khumalo’s 2008 journey to Central Africa was not without its challenges. First he had to outperform his famous earlier trip and book Dark Continent My Black Arse. Then he elected to travel, as before, by public transport only. Which in practice often meant more transit and less transport.

Giving himself a mere four weeks, and propelled by a frank fascination with the Victorian explorers, Khumalo set out on a six-pronged quest aiming, inter alia, to ferry across Lake Tanganyika, stand on the equator in Uganda, bungee...