Welcome to the sixth and last leg of our World Tour, where we return to the cradle of mankind and make a roundtour with 10 gems from our catalog.

Let’s start our journey in Algeria, where we meet Tartarin of Tarascon who is in search of nothing less than lions. Read the funny novel by Alphonse Daudet about the French show-off – also available in French.

Travelling further along the coast and back in time, we make a brief stop in Egypt at the reign of one of its most famous queens. William Shakespeare gives his view on the well known story of Antony and Cleopatra.

Moving upstream on the Nile into the Sudan, we have a look at the Mahdist War of the late 19th century. We see it through the eyes of Winston Churchill who took part in the battle for Khartoum and wrote The River War.

A river in Uganda is the scene for a war of a different kind: In The Man Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. John Henry Patterson details the long hunt for two lions that killed more than 108 men who were building a railway bridge across the Tsavo.

Lions and other animals feature prominently in Zanzibar Tales. The ancient tales of animals, some with a feel of 1001 Nights, were told to George W. Bateman by the natives of Tanzania.

Zanzibar is only the starting point in the book by R. M. Ballantyne. His novel Black Ivory tells about the slave trade in East Africa, which was well alive at a time when it was long forbidden on the West coast.

Moving further south, we get to the Zulu Kingdom. H. Rider Haggard tells Black Heart and White Heart, a story of love and betrayal during the time of Cetawayo, the last King of the independent Zulu nation.

These days, Zululand is a part of South Africa, just as the Karoo region, where Olive Schreiner spent part of her life. Her life and ideas form the basis of her best known novel The Story of an African Farm, which expresses some interestingly modern ideas.

Not quite so modern ideas, although they are by now means extinct, are expressed in the short poem The Congo. Although decidedly racist in its contents, it is interesting to note that its author Vachel Lindsay viewed himself as a supporter of African-American culture.

Finally, we get to travel from Sierra Leone to the peak of Cameroon with Mary H. Kingsley. Her book Travels in West Africa is an account of the adventures she had and insights she gained on her voyage of 1893.

Enjoy – and send a postcard!