Dark Star Safari was published by Hamish Hamilton in 2002. Theroux traveled overland from Cairo to Cape Town — through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa — returning to the continent where he spent his twenties as a Peace Corps teacher.
The book is his angriest work. The Africa of 2001 was, in many of the countries he visited, worse off than the Africa of 1963: more corrupt, more violent, more dependent on foreign aid that enriched elites and infantilized populations. Theroux’s argument — controversial and deliberately provocative — was that international development aid had created a permanent dependency culture and that the armies of NGO workers in their Land Cruisers were part of the problem, not the solution.
Kenya (where he taught at a school that had since collapsed), Uganda (Amin’s legacy), Malawi (where he taught at a university now barely functioning) — each return confirmed a narrative of decline. The book was criticized for selectivity and pessimism, but Theroux defended his position: he had lived in these countries, he had returned, and he was reporting what he saw.
Collecting Dark Star Safari
First edition (Hamish Hamilton, London, 2002): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $15–$30
- US first edition (Houghton Mifflin): $10–$25