Al Venter regards himself an African - a 'white' African, but as much a
part of the fascinating and often troubled continent on which he was
born as his Zulu and Swahili speaking contemporaries. There is no
country in Africa that he has not visited. During his half-century
career as a foreign correspondent, working for media outlets on four
continents, he has given his version of unfolding events from many of
them, for, inter alia, Britain's Jane's Information Group, the Daily
Express and Daily Mail of London, United Press International, Geneva's
Interavia, the BBC, SABC, NBC (radio), as well as scores of magazines.
His love for Africa stems in part from his childhood. At the age of 14 -
while on vacation in what was then still Northern Rhodesia - he
hitched-hiked back to boarding school in Johannesburg in a race with his
schoolmates who travelled by train. And he won. Seven years later, after
completing three-years in the navy, he explored East Africa and ended up
in Mombasa in Kenya and cadged a lift on a freighter to Canada. Then,
after qualifying professionally in London, he travelled overland through
West Africa all the way to London. Along the way he met many notables -
including Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah and the man who hosted Graham Greene at
his derelict hotel in Liberia - then all but an American colony, where
the 'greenback' was the official currency - as well as the great Dr
Albert Schweitzer. The author spent a week at his jungle clinic at
Lambarane in Gabon.Venter includes many of these adventures in this new
book. He also delves into some of his military adventures and has
invited several of his old colleagues to add some of their thoughts to
this bundle of travel, adventure and excitement to create a remarkable
insight to a continent that that, though briefly 'tamed' by Europe, was
never really subjugated. In that anomaly too, there lies many a stirring
yarn.
