Mr. Bigstuff and the Goddess of Charm Book

Whenever the media behemoth turns its attention to Africa, it seems only to bring us news of trouble. Racial tension in Zimbabwe, famine in Ethiopia, religious riots in Nigeria--the list goes on and the patience of the "international community" wears thin. Yet these African conflicts are only a mirror to the clash between the traditional and the modern which also convulses the continent.In this sharp book of reportage, Fiona Sax Ledger gives a wry portrait of these struggles. For 20 years she has travelled throughout urban Africa for the World Service, and in a series of vignettes she conveys the joy, infuriation and sense of powerlessness which travelling here can produce. In so doing, she washes away African stereotypes--these are not "mysterious" people with a "vibrant traditional culture", but ordinary people leading ordinary lives, and trying to make sense of their place in the modern world.Although it lacks a clear narrative thread, Mr Bigstuff and the Goddess of Charm is a laudably honest book. Taking us from Liberia to Djibouti via most of the bits in between, Sax Ledger does not try to create mystique, nor present herself as anything other than a beer-drinking hack trying and often failing to understand local problems. The ingredients of Africa's modern face are mostly here, and, by concentrating on details, Sax Ledger has managed to pin down something of the complex essence of urban Africa. --Toby GreenRead More