Overview

An extraordinary, passionate and personal journey into Africa’s past. ‘The most enthralling account out of Africa for years.’ Daily Mail. ‘“Livingstone’s Tribe” is excellent…Taylor is an intelligent and stimulating companion.’ Financial Times ‘At the book’s heart is a riveting examination of Livingstone’s tribe…the whites of post-independence Africa.’ Independent on Sunday ‘Taylor’s expedition into the interior of the continent’s colonial past has got everything that such a book should have.’ Guardian ‘Stephen Taylor, a third-generation émigré of British descent, finds a melancholy collection of white misfits and failures…as well as a heroic, dwindling clutch of missionaries still holding the line. The catalogue of theft, corruption, murder and superstition that Taylor chronicles makes appalling, fascinating reading. Yet Taylor is no Colonel Blimp, rather an anti-apartheid liberal who fled the old South Africa and welcomed independence for Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.’ Daily Mail ‘Sights and travel experiences are vividly described and people both from Livingstone’s and from the other tribes are handled particularly well.’ Sunday Times

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9780006550693

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Born a colonial in South Africa, Taylor grew up in the 1950s accustomed to having black servants. When the apartheid state began to manifest its ugliness, Taylor left for England and began to write for newspapers including The Times and The Observer. This book charts his course as he returns to the African continent to uncover the traces of his past; to find his own 'tribe'. As a reporter, Taylor has an eye for detail, a good ear for the emotional nuance of human witness. He also brings a wider perspective, both from his international experience and his family background. He interviews blacks and whites, rich and poor, on his trail through countries including Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe; he concentrates especially on the situation of whites who have chosen to stay, post-independence, in the south of Africa. Lucid and wide-ranging, it is a book about that most basic of human themes: belonging. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Stephen Taylor was born in South Africa in 1948 and grew up near Johannesburg. At the age of twenty-two he made his home in Britain and travelled for four years in the Middle East and South Asia. From 1980-1987 he was foreign correspondent for The Times and the Observer based in Africa, South-East Asia and Australia. Both his previous books have had African subjects, including Shaka’s Children: a History of the Zulu People. He works for The Times and is married with two children.

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