Rough Guide to West Africa (Rough Guide. West Africa)

Rating:
Summary: PRESS COMMENT and INTRODUCTION
Review: A MARVELLOUS GUIDE, PACKED WITH HARD-NOSED ADVICE AND INFORMATION, STREETS AHEAD OF ANY OTHER TRAVEL GUIDE. West Africa Magazine

THE BEST GUIDEBOOK Financial Times

THE BEST GUIDEBOOK ON THE AREA Daily Telegraph

PERHAPS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE OF THE NEW ROUGH GUIDE RELEASES IS THE MASSIVE ROUGH GUIDE TO WEST AFRICA Chicago Tribune

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO WEST AFRICA PROVIDES THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION [ON CAPE VERDE] Sunday Times

INTRODUCTION

The physical and cultural diversity of West Africa would be hard to exaggerate. This is perhaps the world's most complex region - seventeen countries, from the tiny Cape Verde Islands to giant Nigeria - with a total area and population comparable to that of the continental United States. And behind this mosaic of modern territories lies a different, more organic pattern - the West Africa of old nations built over centuries: the Yoruba city states and Hausa emirates of Nigeria; the Mossi kingdoms of Burkina Faso and Ghana; the Asante empire; the Wolof states of Senegal; the Muslim theocracy of Fouta Djalon in Guinea; the Bamiléké chiefdoms of Cameroon; the Mali empire, and many more. From this older perspective, the countries of today are imposters, fixed in place by the colonial powers of Britain, France, Germany and Portugal. Although the national borders are established and nationalism is a part of each country's social fabric, the richness and variety of West Africa only comes into focus with some understanding of its ancient past. One of the aims of this book is to bring that to the fore.

Some of the biggest pleasures of West Africa, however, are the small things. You'll encounter a degree of good humour, vitality and openness which can make the hard insularity of Western cultures seem absurd. Entering a shop or starting a conversation with a stranger without proper greetings and hand-shaking becomes inconceivable. If you stumble in the street, passers-by will tell you "sorry" or some similar expression of condolence for which no adequate translation exists in English. You're never ignored; you say hello a hundred times a day. This intimacy - a sense of barriers coming down - sharpens the most everyday events and eases the more mundane hardships. Travel, without a doubt, is rarely easy. Going by bus, shared taxi or pick-up van, you'll be crushed for hours, subjected to mysterious delays and endless halts at police roadblocks, jolted over potholes, and left in strange towns in the middle of the night. The sheer physicality never lets up. Comfort becomes something you seek, find, leave behind, and then long for again. Cold water, dry skin and clean clothes take on the status of unattainable luxuries.

But the material hardships provide a background against which experiences stand out with clarity. Africa's sensuousness is undeniable: the brilliance of red earth and emerald vegetation in the forest areas; the intricate smells of cooking, wood smoke and damp soil; towering cloud-scaped skies over the savannah at the start of the rains; villages of sun-baked mud houses, smoothed and moulded together like pottery; the singing rhythm of voices speaking tonal languages; the cool half-hour before dawn on the banks of the Niger when the soft clunk of cowbells rises on a haze of dust from the watering herds...

The physical picture

Physically, West Africa is predominantly flat or gently undulating. Although most countries have their "highlands", these are generally rugged hills rather than mountain ranges. The most mountainous parts of the region are Guinea's Fouta Djalon and the highlands of Cameroon and eastern Nigeria (where Mount Cameroon peaks at a respectable 4000 metres and gets a little frost). The big river of West Africa is the Niger, which flows in a huge arc from the border of Sierra Leone, northeast through Guinea, into Mali and to the very fringes of the Sahara (where sand dunes rise on the bank behind snorting hippos) before turning south through Nigeria and into the Atlantic. The Niger is highly seasonal and river traffic depends on the annual rains.

As for the scenic environment, expectations of tropical forest are usually disappointed, at least to begin with. While the natural vegetation across the whole southern coastal belt is rainforest - with a gap in the Ghana-Togo area where grasslands come nearly to the coast - by far the commonest scene in the densely populated parts is of a desolate, bush-stripped landscape where dust and bare earth figure heavily. True rainforest, however, is still present in parts of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, in southeast Nigeria and Cameroon. Guinea also features beautiful savannah lands, as does Burkina Faso. Along the coast, creeks and mangroves make many parts inaccessible. The best beaches are in Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, with Ghana, Senegal, The Gambia and Cameroon creditable runners-up. The currents tend to be strong, though, making many shorelines unsuitable for swimming - take care.

Where to go

If you have the time, by far the most satisfying way of visiting West Africa is overland, traversing the yawning expanse of the Sahara, arriving in the dry northern reaches of the Sahel - these days most likely in Mauritania - to the ravishing shock of an alien culture, and then adapting to a new landscape, a new climate and new ways of behaving.

Choosing where to go is no easy task: the region offers so much and Africa repeatedly confounds all expectations and assumptions. In the main section of the guide, the individual country introductions give an idea of what to look forward to. However, at the risk of reinforcing stereotypes, it's possible to make a few generalizations about the feel of the countries. Of the eleven Francophone, ex-French colonies, the three nations most dominated by French culture and language are Cameroon, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire; these can also be the more expensive countries to travel in, and their relatively Westernized cities are inclined to be hustly. Senegal is an obvious choice as a base from which to launch travels: facilities are much better than in many parts of the region and the verdant Basse Casamance district has a remarkable network of village-based accommodation (but see the boxed warning, p.xiv). Côte d'Ivoire provides a melange of the traditional and modern, African and French. Cameroon - which is English-speaking in the west - blends magnificent scenery and national parks with an extraordinary richness of culture, running the whole African gamut from "Pygmy" hunting camps to Arabic-speaking trading towns and taking in the colourful kingdoms of the western highlands.

Vast, land-locked Mali is blessed with the great inland delta of the Niger River and, again, striking cultural contrasts - the old Islamic cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Djenné (on, or near the river), and the traditionally non-Muslim Dogon country along the rocky cliff of the Bandiagara escarpment. Other Francophone countries include the narrow strips of Togo and Benin, the latter being especially easy-going and fairly undeveloped as far as tourism is concerned; the laid-back, former revolutionary republic of Burkina Faso; and the remote and dramatic expanses of Mauritania and Niger. Perhaps the most impressive of the pays francophones, however, is the republic of Guinea, with only a thin overlay of European culture and an extraordinary vitality released by the end of dictatorship..................

Rating:
Summary: Not the best investment
Review: At the moment, there are two main contenders on the market with comparable books on West Africa: Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. Neither is perfect.

Rough Guide may feel a bit more professionally-made, and has been made on a bigger budget too, but it suffers from terminally boring writing style.

I said this before and I`ll say it again: if people who write guidance for your tax returns were to write guidebooks they would probably come up with similarly uninspired language.

The book does not offer the same level of self-righteous (and often annoying) rhetoric about evils of capitalism as Lonely Planet. I find this aspect commendable: some of us want the travel guide to give us facts and not explanations for whom to vote and what to think.

However, on balance, I have to admit that Lonely Planet is better resarched and more accurate, and also less bulky. If you have plenty of luggage allowance and money's no object, buy both, otherwise, stick with Lonely Planet.

Rating:
Summary: Decent But Not Great
Review: The Rough Guide series is nice, if sometimes odd, for understanding what to do and what not to do in particular countries or regions. Usually, its best to get both Rough Guide and Lonely Plaent and compared the information between the two, just to avoid any unfortunate occurances. But thats just me. Anyway, this book basically covers travel in West Africa: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal, the Gambia, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon. Theres basic travel information, as well as notes for getting into and out of each country, and things you can do while your there. Maps, religious information, notes on social mores, currency info, food and so forth are all covered throughout the book. There are also some useful phrases in French (the most widely spoken language in West Africa), as well as some phrases in Hassaniya Arabic, Mandinka, Bamana, Twi, Susu, Hausa, Yoruba and other indigenous languages.
Fans of Afro-Pop should check out the back of this book, which is full of cultural references. There are lists of significant books, movies, musicians and songs. Sure, it is a bit dated, but some old favorites are included on the list who are well worth checking out. In fact, I should restate that, given the mercurial nature of African society, it is pretty likely that many things in this book have changed since it was published. Before doing anything in this book, you might want to look it up online or something first.

Rating:
Summary: Necessary but not sufficient
Review: This Rough Guide offers thorough, helpful information for travelling around West Africa, including events, hotels, restaraunts, cutoms, traditions, safety precautions, language reference, etc. I especially liked the fact that each time CFA's or other currency were mentioned, their dollar equivalents were also calculated. The Lonely Planet Guide does not do this. Also, this Rough Guide is organized better and easier to read than the Lonely Planet. The problem with the Rough Guide, though, is that while it gives all the necessary information to get around, it does not offer any subjective advice that the naive West Africa traveller would want to know. For example, The Lonely Planet guide gives the same information as this book about a campsite in Niamey, but adds that it is ugly, with few trees, and many people have been robbed there. That is something I want to know. I certainly found all the necessary information in this guide, but it is still insufficient in many ways.

Rating:
Summary: Necessary but not sufficient
Review: This Rough Guide offers thorough, helpful information for travelling around West Africa, including events, hotels, restaraunts, cutoms, traditions, safety precautions, language reference, etc. I especially liked the fact that each time CFA's or other currency were mentioned, their dollar equivalents were also calculated. The Lonely Planet Guide does not do this. Also, this Rough Guide is organized better and easier to read than the Lonely Planet. The problem with the Rough Guide, though, is that while it gives all the necessary information to get around, it does not offer any subjective advice that the naive West Africa traveller would want to know. For example, The Lonely Planet guide gives the same information as this book about a campsite in Niamey, but adds that it is ugly, with few trees, and many people have been robbed there. That is something I want to know. I certainly found all the necessary information in this guide, but it is still insufficient in many ways.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not so relevant
Review: Yes, this is an interesting guide. If you are either an adventurer and/or an armchair traveller, by all means try it out ! Yet, this is not the kind of book it clams to be, namely a travel guide. Few people would find it relevant to their travel plans while in Africa. If you want advice from Lonely Planet, who published this book, then get their other book "Lonely Planet West Africa", much more thorough and relevant for most travellers.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not so relevant
Review: Yes, this is an interesting guide. If you are either an adventurer and/or an armchair traveller, by all means try it out ! Yet, this is not the kind of book it clams to be, namely a travel guide. Few people would find it relevant to their travel plans while in Africa. If you want advice from Lonely Planet, who published this book, then get their other book "Lonely Planet West Africa", much more thorough and relevant for most travellers.