Jeffrey Tayler

I am always reading about the journeys of foreigners deliberately visiting war zones because, as they say, they've "always wanted to visit the area". Never mind that the country in question is under rebel attack or that the natives hate "you people". With the help of drivers, translators, and fixers, these fearless authors describe how they reluctantly hand over bribes along with precious passports, visas, and other important documents as if they trained a lifetime for such a vulnerable event. I am always reading from the perspective of the cavalier authors who have to wait for permissions to be granted, roadblocks and barriers to be cleared, bribes to be bestowed upon the greedy; all to be allowed safe passage. These people who somehow just know things will work out in their favor. I am never on the other side where the viewpoint is of the bandit, the enemy, or the political bigwig with all the power and hatred to let a traveler pass. However, I thoroughly Tayler's description of getting past these same people. Some of the episodes are funny. As an aside, I loved the white-out people. Dab, dab, dab.
Tayler has a keen eye for society, no matter how archaic. The tradition of slavery: the Bellas being captive but not. Female circumcision as a tradition of misconception that cannot be logically argued away. The varying cultures make everyone suspicious of one another. I was relived when Tayler recognized he couldn't change these cultures, but he argued against them just the same.
Confessional: an army of people helped Tayler cross five countries. I was pleased when he recognized all the people who had helped him as kind and generous.… (mais)

A Lot Left Out of Some Tough Travels

"Angry Wind" is a brief travelogue of Jeffrey Tayler's trip to Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. While there are tourist sites in some of the countries, such as markets and mosques, Tayler spends much of his energy struggling with the lack of infrastructure. Roads, hotels, public transportation, and government services are few and far between. In a convenience for the "plot" of the book - Tayler's hardships - he neglected to discuss his stays with ambassadors and government officials that are very briefly mentioned in the acknowledgements section.

Chad, where Tayler's trip begins receives the most attention. Tayler spends a great deal of time describing the dirt tracks which serve as the highway between cities. The conflict between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria also receives some attention. Tayler flies through Niger and Mali, neither of which got as many details. Most of the book and most of the interactions with people come from the local guides that he hires.

Tayler comments on the tension between West Africa and West Europe during the build-up to the Iraq War. As was true at the time, the build-up was so transparent that West Africans commented on Bush's aggressiveness, often making it a point to say that they thought Bush was wrong but that they knew Tayler had nothing to do with the war. In addition, Tayler makes some general comments about the civil and military service in the four countries he traveled to, although most of the specific comments are made about Chad and Nigeria. To fill space in the conclusion, he makes a wonderful commentary on how Western aide and trade do little to develop the countries other than by providing a means for corruption and trade dependence. Rather than being an afterthought, I wish that commentary had been discussed more as he was witnessing it.

The book reads very quickly, even though Tayler's choices in vocabulary are sometimes a little showy. Although he doesn't give a timeline, I think this trip must have been just three or four weeks.

I am very jealous of Jeffrey Tayler and travel writers like him. To spend life traveling, even in the difficult situations presented in this book, must be a dream.… (mais)

In 2010 I found myself, for three days, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was travelling down the West African coast with Oasis Overland, and we had been diverted through Brazzaville and Kinshasa as a result of a terrorist attack during the African Cup of Nations that year. Three days - and that was a struggle for me. The air in the capital felt heavy with subdued anger and violence. I was never at ease, and beyond that I was also ill, probably with dengue fever or malaria, there was no way to tell for sure since there were no doctors we could visit. Though I was glad to escape the country as quickly as we did, I look back now with regret tinged golden with nostalgia - I wish I had seen more, been conscious of more, and recorded more in my notebook.

A little over a decade prior to my visit, Jeffrey Tayler was in the DRC, or Zaire as it was then known. Like me, Mr Tayler was just into his thirties and was going through something of a crisis. He left Russia, the country he had almost settled in, as I had left Poland; he wanted to challenge himself, to see what his life was and what it meant, and for that challenge, like I would later do, he turned to Africa.

'Facing the Congo' is the story of Mr Tayler's experience in Zaire. He travelled by barge up the Congo from Kinshasa to Kisangani, from where he wished to navigate back to the capital aboard a pirogue. The journey was fraught with peril, and ends much like Geoffrey Moorhouse's classic 'The Fearful Void,' with the adventurer realising that the challenge is an insurmountable one.… (mais)