French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa

by Peter Biddlecombe

Book Overview

More than 65per cent of the African continent is Francophone. This book describes in detail the experiences of the very English Peter Biddlecombe as he traipses round Senegal, Cameroon, the Congo and other countries in Africa, trying to make sense of the exotic and often dangerous things around him.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316076872
• ISBN13: 9780316076876
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 434 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Roller coaster ride through Africa

"French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa" is a collection of business-travel experiences and observations in ten countries in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zaire). Biddlecombe careens from business-class hotel and international conference center to rural village and farm, and describes his encounters with everything from white magic in Benin, locusts in Mali, to lost luggage in Congo. He shares his encounters with Africans of all sorts: government minister, customs officer, doctor-entrepreneur, gold smuggler, chicken farmer, soap manufacturer, and cassette pirater. He shares his thoughts, knowledge, and conversations covering African leaders, economic development, the CFA franc, colonization and independence, health and nutrition, literature, music, and architecture. All with a great deal of wit and humor. This is no introductory text, but anyone with some basic knowledge of Africa will find this book informative and enjoyable.

well, it isn't THAT funny

This is not a lighthearted book. In fact, it is a bit grim in parts. However, it is really interesting and I do recommend this book to anyone who likes travel stories that aren't sugar-coated. I didn't know much about French Africa before reading this book, so I learned a lot and found his experiences in the different French African countries was intriguing and unusual. A good travel book, about an area where most of us will never go.

Great book about a little known part of the world

Francophone Africa is one of the areas of the world that no one writes much about. Biddlecombe, however, has succeeded in conveying the feelings and conditions of this area very accuratley. This is not just a dry travel book however. Biddlecombe sprinkles his narratives with many hilarious anecdotes to further the reader's understading of why the people in this region act the way they do. Great book.

Frighteningly accurate, and absolutely hilarious...

I read "French Lessons in Africa" while doing field research in Ghana, and the descriptions he offers of his adventures in francophone West Africa could not have resonated more strongly with my own experiences. He manages to capture everything from the enormous contrast between urban centers and remote villages, to the heart-stopping terror inspired by almost any form of transportation; and he does so with tremendous charm and wit. I have yet to read anything else that so accurately conveys what a visit to West Africa can be like.

Biddlecombe's best book

Biddlecombe's first book is also his best. His wit and commentary are sharp and he keeps his complaints funny (unlike his later books, where I often felt he was whining). The material is a little dated, but it's still very entertaining and definitely worth reading!