Jua Kali's Voyage on the Jade Sea, and: The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu (review)

Africa's rivers, streams, gulfs, and lakes have always been of great interest. They are so not only because they are defining topographic features, but also because they figure so prominently in the social, economic, and political lives of so many people. Earlier accounts of Africa's waterways, such as S. and E. B. Worthington's Inland Waters of Africa (London: Macmillan and Co., 1933), and C. Auvray, P. Durbreuil, and R. Lefèvre's Monographie du Niger (Paris: Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer, 1958–1960), focused on the scientific aspects of rivers and lakes. Yet, urged on by the quest for personal adventure, travelers challenged themselves by attempting to sail these bodies of water in a variety of crafts. This tradition, set in a contemporary period, is reflected in the two volumes under review here.

Ian Parker is a former game warden in Kenya and a wildlife research and management consultant. Born in Kenya, he and his wife, Christine, set up East Africa's first wildlife consultancy firm in 1964 and have advised on wildlife management in fourteen African countries. Possessed of a thorough familiarity with Kenya and its waterways, but lacking sailing experience, they set out to circumnavigate Kenya's Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolf)—a considerable challenge given its length of 155 miles, its location in a remote and desiccated environment, and the gale-force winds and short-frequency waves that unpredictably arise out of a clear sky. The Parkers chose to undertake this challenge in a nineteen-foot boat, the Jua Kali, equipped with an outboard motor and a mini-sail mast.

While the fifteen chapters of this book chronicle the Parkers' adventures (and frequent misadventures), they are also textured with rich historical details about the lake, its peoples, its economy, and accounts of past efforts to sail these dangerous waters. While the Parkers succeeded in circumnavigating only the northern two-thirds of the lake—in itself, a major accomplishment—the author comes through as clearly an informed traveler, keenly conscious of the multidimensional history of this part of the world. As a result, Jua Kali's Voyage on the Jade Sea is a unique and detailed resource on the sailing history of Lake Turkana that will have great appeal for both scholars and travelers alike.

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Kira Salak's The Cruelest Journey carries readers to the interior of West Africa. Sponsored by the National Geographic Society, she traveled by kayak on the Niger River in Mali some six hundred miles from Ségou to Timbuktu, retracing part of the voyage of the early nineteenth-century Scottish traveler Mungo Park. Although Salak has built a reputation as a solo traveler, on this trip she was accompanied by a photographer and his support staff who sailed nearby in a substantial boat. According to the author, they kept well out of sight most of the time so as to permit her to undergo her experiences alone.

One comes away from reading The Cruelest Journey with the sense that the author was intent not only on retracing Park's aquatic route, but also in replicating some of his unpleasant encounters with riverine populations. Most of the fifteen chapters in this book detail not so much the physical challenges posed by the river, but rather a litany of obnoxious experiences with what can only be characterized as rapacious villagers and nomads. The obvious question here is to what degree, if any, these experiences of the author reflect a pretravel mindset to replicate the Park voyage in all its dimensions. Having traveled this stretch of the Niger myself, I cannot say that I ever encountered the repetitive demands for handouts described by the author. However, that was three decades ago, and I was a man...