Travel Writing Blog #7 - Chapters 11 & 12

As we work our way through the second half of the book, Griffin and Krystyne decide to fly CF-WMJ to South Africa, making another out-trip out of their journey to inspect newly erected AMREF buildings in S.A. Here, Griffin provides ample historical details on the locations they stop at along the coasts of Tanzania and Mozambique. He often refers to a book entitled "Africa" by one John Reader, and excerpts from that text provide context and details for the reader, perhaps in a more effective way than Griffin felt he could do it himself.

He also introduces two new characters, who serve as a counter-point to his new African lifestyle. The two Norwegian girls, Katrina and Elizabeth, who are daughters of a friend of a friend, still live that old "Toronto" lifestyle that the Griffins have abandoned. After making it through this much of the book, the reader has almost adopted that African lifestyle for themselves, and feels the same exasperation and annoyance at the girls sexy, provocative, "fashionable" behaviour. This is an incredibly effective tool as a writer, because it shows the reader just how much their mentality has changed after reading this far into the book.

We also meet a number of white South Africans, including some seventh-generation Scottish ones, who give us a view into a side of Africa entirely ignored by the rest of the world: that of the white African, descended from Europeans, but having no ties there, and living amongst the vicious in-fighting and racism of the blacks. Bill Brown is genuinely scared for the future of his family farm, and his relatives, as their future in Africa is uncertain.