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A book about journeying through West Africa in 2007/08, Bamako Boom Boom is a fasincating insight into a part of world which we hear very little about. It paints a picture quite apart from the ‘traditional’ images of Africa – of disease and starvation, which fill our TV screens all too often. This is a journey to find the real Africa – the landscape, the people, the culture – and the quest to do so leads Misha Somerville to some interesting places – from a Brothel in Morocco, a cargo boat to Timbuktu and a hospital in Mali suffering from Malaria.
“From the war ravaged plains of Western Sahara, to the booming streets of Bamako, Misha Somerville’s account of travelling through West Africa rarely stops to take a breath. It is one of the classic routes, from the heart of the First World to the heart of the Third, and a good place from which to observe the workings of our world. His journey starts after a night out in a Barcelona night club, and finds him, several months later, standing in Timbuktu amidst the vast beauty of the Sahara, before leaving him in a hospital bed in Mali with malaria. He would, in fact, never have started writing an account of what happened, had it not been for an prolonged battle with a debilating illness, which he contracted after his return, leaving him unable to do much else but move a pen over some paper…
But for Somerville it is all just an excuse to get the mind whirring – the unusual, fascinating and often comical situations he finds himself in, make for interesting and insightful writing. He is not afraid of getting his hands dirty, nor telling it as he sees it, often touching on big and delicate subjects. What emerges is a voice that is fresh, sincere, and a reminder of the fact that Africa’s drum beats as loud as ever, and it’s issues are as real as ever.”
>> See some of pictures from Bamako Boom Boom
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