Mozambique: travel books to read before you go

Oct 1, 2010 2:16:58 AM

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This excerpt from Lonely Planet’s Mozambique guide provides a selection of travel literature to get you in the mood for your trip.

Kalashnikovs and Zombie Cucumbers: Travels in Mozambique (1995) by Nick Middleton – part travelogue and part historical overview – is a highly entertaining read, covering everything from colonial times and the war, to aid and development.

With Both Hands Waving: A Journey Through Mozambique (2003) by Justin Fox is another insightful and often humorous look at Mozambique in the early 1990s.

Lisa St Aubin de Terán’s Mozambique Mysteries (2007) is as much about the author as it is about Mozambique, but it offers insight into a little-visited corner of the country.

Empires of the Monsoon (1998) by Richard Seymour Hall is a scholarly yet easy-to-read book, which covers a broad historical and geographical sweep, including Mozambique, and gives an excellent overview of the influences shaping coastal cultures.

A Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique (1993) by William Finnegan examines the roots of Mozambique’s civil war through a series of vivid close-ups on various areas of the country, and is essential reading for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the country’s post-colonial era.

Peter Stark’s At the Mercy of the River (2005) is an adventurous read before visiting the Niassa Reserve.

Although not travel literature as such, any of the novels of Mia Couto, Mozambique’s foremost author, make an excellent introduction to the country. Two to start with are The Last Flight of the Flamingo (2004) and Sleepwalking Land (2006).