The Trouble With Africa, by Vic Guhrs
The Trouble With Africa, by Vic Guhrs
Softcover: ISBN 978-0-14-302526-9
Penguin 2010
Condition: Very Good +
German-born artist Vic Guhrs came to Africa at the age of twenty-two to fulfil his boyhood dream of a life in wild places among wild animals. He lived for twenty-five years in an isolated bush camp in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia and knows that, despite its paradoxes and its mysteries, he can never leave Africa. The trouble with Africa, he says, is that once it is in your blood, like malaria, it is almost impossible to get rid of. And the trouble with Africa is also the trouble with those of us who settle here: as long as we insist on judging it from a Western perspective, we will be the outsiders - we will be forever baffled by it. The complexities of African attitudes that seem to confound us are perhaps not so complex after all; it is their very simplicity that we fail to understand. On the road to our civilised enlightenment have we lost the ability to see life in its most fundamental essence?
This title refers to the frustrations and vexations we experience when we try to judge Africa from our Western perspective. It also alludes to the notion that although we may be confused and impatient with it, we are in Africa's spell. Once Africa is in our blood, it is hard to let go. The author uses paintings accompanied by anecdotes and stories of his experiences in the bush and the people he met there to portray the magic of Africa, while simultaneously exploring the mystical connection between wild animals and man. The author also makes mention of one of Africa's great conservationists, Norman Carr, as well as the splendour and beauty of Zambia, both of which he feels have not received the attention they deserve. Some of the stories are light-hearted, even humorous, others are sombre, but all are intended to reflect Africa's inscrutable face the trouble with Africa.
