Good camera for overland Africa trip

For Africa, you are going to want a lot of zoom, so for your budget, have a look at the "Superzoom" cameras. This comparison is a little dated, but you can easily figure out the newer replacement models for each of them:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q110superzoomgroup

Of course, quality won't be anything near a dSLR with a 300mm lens, but that would involve a $1400 budget minimum!

Why superzoom? If you look at safari pictures, see how all the good ones are really up-close and tight to the animals. You won't ever be able to capture that with a 10x zoom, and instead you will only be able to capture a lot of wide, sweeping landscape photos with "small" animals lost among the scene!

you will only be able to capture a lot of wide, sweeping landscape photos with "small" animals lost among the scene!

While I agree that a superzoom is probably the way to go with the budget of the OP, you do get surprisingly close to the animals on a safari. This elephant and this jaguar were shot with an old 10x zoom camera.

Next time I go for a safari, I'll definitely bring a dSLR, though.

Edited to correct 4x -> 10x

have a look here DCW

On first glance something like the Olympus SZ-14, Panasonic TZ25 or TZ30.
I think Pentax, Nikon Sony and Canon all have something like those cameras for the $300 price.

You'll want the 18x zoom or higher i reckon. You'll always be happier with zoomed in photos with ok quality over high quality images that are not zoomed in enough.