With Both Hands Waving: A Journey Through Mozambique by Justin Fox

by Justin Fox

"Mozambique has been terra incognita for most of the world for upwards of thirty years as revolution, followed by civil war, slowly shut the country down. At the turn of the century, a team of journalists from the South African travel magazine Getaway ventured across the border and headed into the isolated north with a brief to bring the country back to life for half a million readers." "This is the story of that trip, seen through the eyes of travel writer Justin Fox. Interweaving historical and contemporary Mozambique, it recounts a journey up the tropical coast of south east Africa and across the interior of a forgotten land. It encompasses architecture and devil worship, nature and war, snorkelling and cooking and is populated with a weird and wonderful assembly of aid workers, opportunists, backpackers, bandits, prostitutes and 'some of Africa's bravest, most forgiving people'." It is also the story of a young white man in Africa tracing his history and seeking his place on the continent. It's a funny, scary, deeply personal adventure and a must read for anyone with a passion for Africa or the outer reaches of travel.

Genres: Africa

Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Fox is a novelist, travel writer and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is the former editor of Getaway travel magazine. He was a Rhodes Scholar and received a doctorate in English literature from Oxford University after which he was a research fellow at the University of Cape Town, where he taught part time for 20 years. His articles and photographs have appeared internationally in a number of publications and on a wide range of topics, while his short stories and poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. He has written scripts and directed award-winning documentaries and is a two-time Mondi journalism award winner (1999 and 2004). Recent books include The Marginal Safari (Umuzi), The Impossible Five (Tafelberg), Beat Routes (Karavan), Place (Umuzi) and, most recently, a World War II series of novels, starting with The Cape Raider (Penguin and Sapere) and The Wolf Hunt (Sapere). Justin was longlisted for the 2011 Alan Paton Award for non-fiction, the 2012 Olive Schreiner Prize for Literature, and his debut novel, Whoever Fears the Sea (Umuzi 2014), was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize for African literature.

Reviews

[Shani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justin Fox says of the journey: "It had taught me to see differently ... plunged me into depression, and made me soar. It had done everything a journey should do. It was tough and great " [ p. 206]

[Alison Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to find out about modern Mozambique, read this account by travel journo, Justin Fox. You will also learn quite a bit about the country's colonial history, and find out about this exotic East African coast of the Indian Ocean. I enjoyed the book, and remembered my own childhood holidays in Beira in the 1950s, but those idyllic days and towns now long gone, after a long and terrible civil war. If you have a 4x4 and plenty of malaria tablets, you can go to Mozambique on holiday. Bon voyage!

[Babak Fakhamzadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fox is a photographer, not a writer and that fact is easy to spot. Although the latter part of the book is more entertaining and better written than the first half, the book is mostly interesting for being a travelogue which is set in relatively unchartered territory: Mozambique.
Fox spends too much time on the mundane. Only in the last part of the book, where he starts relating his experiences on the road with his personal view on life does the book start to get interesting.

[Nicolene Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Both Hands Waving.... A great read, if you love Mozambique you will love this book.

[Dylan Groves · Rating 1 out of 5]

not a good book.