Venture to the Interior

Dyp respekt og en underliggende rasisme i en magisk og merkelig bok med en magnetisk tiltrekningskraft og framføringsevne. En bok som må leses som et tidsvitne fra et 50-tall som enda ikke har klart å distansere seg fra kolonitiden. Kryptisk, som min egen anmeldelse.

This is one of van der Post's earliest books, and to me it felt like he was scared of leaving something out.
It is the story of his travelling to Nyasaland (now Malawi) to investigate two tracts of land - One was a huge, rugged mountain mass in he extreme south of the Protectorate; the other a large plateau abruptly and precipitously set from eight to nine thousand feet above the lakes and planes of the extreme north of the territory.However, in reading the first hundred pages of this book, you would more think this is a collection of every internal thought the man had between accepting the task, and setting foot on the mountain. First we are told he will not burden us with a family history, then sets about to provide 17 pages of his family history, pausing in the middle to confirm he is sharing only the bare essentials necessary to understand his attachment to Africa. Then he describes not only his series of flights from London to Blantyre, but describes each conversation or interaction, and shares snippets of memories and past experiences of the places they stop in transit or even fly over. The vast majority of this is inane and lacked relevance to me, and I was pretty close to marking this off a a DNF. For a journey of 72 hours, LvdP was almost bang on a page an hour.

However, after around 100 pages, after his arrival in Nyasaland the story starts to take some form. He makes his introductions to all the administrators and the like; makes his plans for the first of his investigative journeys, and finally sets off.

Mlanje or the Mulanje Massif as it is now known, is worth a google to see what LvdP was in for. Accompanied by Quillan and Vance, forestry officers familiar with the area, but who have never circumambulated the mountain. They are also accompanied, of course by 20 bearers and some personal assistants. The journey itself is interesting enough, but unfortunately LvdP begins this section of the book by preempting an unfortunate accident at the end. He shares with the reader some sort of premonition, then for every major decision made on the journey he makes some form of statement to disclaim himself from it - this may be fair enough to point out but he hardly endears him to the reader, who knows full well the author can frame the story any way he feels leaves him in the best light.
The balance of this section of the book deals with the aftermath of the tragic accident.

The second tract of land is referred to in the book as Nyika, or the Nyika Plateau (now a National Park). After organising his trip from the south to the north, LvdP again plans his expedition, this time accompanied by Michael Dowler, the Government Veterinary Officer. Michael's assistants and 40 bearers form the balance of the party. This journey takes something a little less than a month, and covers a large area of the plateau. Much of the expedition narrative is broken up by a POW story (unclear what relevance, other than LvdP woke up in a depressed mood, and didn't know why, and later realised it was an anniversary of a relevant date of his internment under the Japanese in Indonesia); a chapter long discourse about the psychology of African drumming; and a dream LvdP has. Strangely in the last chapter, the story just peters out:

With this dream, my journey in Africa really ends. It is true I spent another three weeks on that lovely plateau, but there is nothing new to say of it.