Michael Holman
Les Fous D’Afrique
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
By Richard Dowden
Portobello Books 592pp £25 order from our bookshop
Beware – Africa can be addictive, warns Richard Dowden. What’s more, he adds, it can drive you into the ranks of what the French call les fous d’Afrique – those who are driven mad by the continent.
He should know. Bitten by the bug in 1971 as a young man in Uganda, on his first visit to the continent, he has been reporting Africa since 1983. He lost his heart to a Ugandan girl on that trip, and clearly is still in love with Africa – with all the passion and commitment, the tenderness and the jealousy, the hurt and enthusiasm that such a love involves.
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