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Desert Divers
This book follows the author on a personal journey into the Sahara and examination into the racist assumptions of those writers who have gone before him. Taking as a metaphor the divers who cleaned out desert wells, Lindqvist drags to the surface the story of colonial slaughter and sexual exploitation which contaminate his boyhood idols.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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258 people want to read
About the author
Sven Lindqvist
58 books160 followersDr. Sven Lindqvist was a Swedish author of mostly non-fiction.
He held a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children. He was married to the economist Agneta Stark since 1986. He lived in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.
He held a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children. He was married to the economist Agneta Stark since 1986. He lived in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
March 4, 2025
This is a brilliant and coruscating dissection of how we in Europe/West have romanticised the material and sexual exploitation at the heart of colonialism. Not just writers like Pierre Loti but Gide, Maupassant, and many, many others, as well. They saw but did not see what was there to see and that writers like Isabelle Eberhardt who saw and wrote the truth were ignored, forgotten and not taken seriously. Today we are as blind when we smugly suggest that a new colonialism might help Africans, as if more of what has caused their problems will help solve them! The arrogance and obscenity of it is staggering and is only matched by the casual way that we in the west, having plundered and impoverished vast tracts of Africa and left it with mountains of debt and human casualties, after using them to fight, and pay for, our proxy wars, become annoyed with the struggles of African people to cope with our poisoned legacy.
This a short, brilliant travel book and memoir which says so much, so beautifully, in a short space relating the author's own realization of the falsity of so many of his own idols. A really great book which needs to read.
This a short, brilliant travel book and memoir which says so much, so beautifully, in a short space relating the author's own realization of the falsity of so many of his own idols. A really great book which needs to read.
June 6, 2009
If you don't have the time or the energy to make it through Edward Said's Orientalism, just read this much more compact and artful work and you'll get the picture. Lindqvist manages to blend(with his usual skill) the history of French colonialism in North Africa, his own travels and dreams there, and the literary figures who were haunted by the landscape, some we still remember like Saint Exupery and Gide and others who are more obscure. By the end you can see all too clearly what Orientalism does to obscure the brutal realities of conquest, which Lindqvist dredges up much like the desert divers who inspire the title.
February 13, 2020
4.5 stars. Lacerating l'accuse of Occidental (colonial) romanticisation of the desert. How Gide saw the results of massacres of Algerian villages but wrote nothing about them in "The Immoralist" & "Fruits Of The Earth". How novelist Fromentin initially reported on the massacres, but then changed the narrative; writing how the Arabs were hostile and surly and unwelcoming to the French in his novels. Well wouldn't you be if the French had murdered your kinfolk and chucked them down the village wells, thus poisoning the water and later realising this once they decided to settle it for themselves, sending the locals down into these deep, deep wells to clear out the putrescent remains?
He finishes with an environmental concern about the difference between waters drawn from self-replenishing wells, and that water claimed by blasting boreholes where the water, like the oil, has slowly accumulated over eons and is non-renewable.
Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7F5s...
He finishes with an environmental concern about the difference between waters drawn from self-replenishing wells, and that water claimed by blasting boreholes where the water, like the oil, has slowly accumulated over eons and is non-renewable.
Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7F5s...
December 18, 2017
Sven Lindqvist's sparse words are like heavy bombing on the page. Desert Divers is evocative travel diary and intellectual polemic: here his travels in the Sahara lead him to confront the realities of French empire there, engaging in criticism with colonial writers who earlier influenced him. He interrogates the absences in their writing, their failure to record the deaths let alone the details. He writes: "This is where Fromentin stood 130 years ago. The landscape we see is the same. The same sun, the same desert. But not the same people. His Arabs were closed, menacing, hostile. Those I have met are open, lively, hospitable people."
His own "desert romanticism" is an impression of a lived-in landscape under political and ecological pressure. His words are sober, but they pack punch and tell arresting stories. Sometimes the language is full of colour: "I love the mountains with their long red roots of sand. I love the new-moon dunes, shaped like sickles with sharp, wind-polished edges."
The book takes its name from the dangerous but vital traditional practice of cleaning wells by specialist well-divers. What he's referring to in his title, however, are the Europeans who entered the desert and left with romantic, false portraits of what they found there. "The history of imperialism," Lindqvist writes, "is a well full of corpses." Later he asks: "Who is even today prepared to dive into this dark well and clean it out?"
His own "desert romanticism" is an impression of a lived-in landscape under political and ecological pressure. His words are sober, but they pack punch and tell arresting stories. Sometimes the language is full of colour: "I love the mountains with their long red roots of sand. I love the new-moon dunes, shaped like sickles with sharp, wind-polished edges."
The book takes its name from the dangerous but vital traditional practice of cleaning wells by specialist well-divers. What he's referring to in his title, however, are the Europeans who entered the desert and left with romantic, false portraits of what they found there. "The history of imperialism," Lindqvist writes, "is a well full of corpses." Later he asks: "Who is even today prepared to dive into this dark well and clean it out?"
May 11, 2018
Personal essay travel writing has almost always been as awful as what the memoir vertical is today. Before what we knew it as the post-millennium's voluntourism (that is, non-religious missionary ventures that ultimately seemed like an opportunity to capture a social media profile photo of a 20-something bottle feeding a baby leopard, and a platform for their obsolete epiphanies on 'we are the world' globalism in order to come to unconscious terms with post-colonial occupation and its residuals) — we had American, French, Spanish and many other non-African western nationals sojourning to humanity's cradle in the Sahara with the aim of literary celebrity and the idea of "finding yourself by getting away from it all." Most lost themselves by arriving to more of it all.
Sven Lindqvist deals heavy damage, directly or indirectly, in antiseptic prose to literary luminaries like like Paul Bowles, Saul Bellow, Pierre Loti, Isabelle Eberhardt, Andre Gide, and de Saint-Exupery. But he is tender about killing his darlings, some more than others. In fact he does good work to cue the marketable romanticism of their ventures. But more importantly his eye opts to train itself on native history, colonial atrocity, and the excavation of cultural capital of the foreign, white writers. I'm still unsettled on the irony of coming to these terms at the hands of a Swedish writer.
Spotty but insightful read.
Sven Lindqvist deals heavy damage, directly or indirectly, in antiseptic prose to literary luminaries like like Paul Bowles, Saul Bellow, Pierre Loti, Isabelle Eberhardt, Andre Gide, and de Saint-Exupery. But he is tender about killing his darlings, some more than others. In fact he does good work to cue the marketable romanticism of their ventures. But more importantly his eye opts to train itself on native history, colonial atrocity, and the excavation of cultural capital of the foreign, white writers. I'm still unsettled on the irony of coming to these terms at the hands of a Swedish writer.
Spotty but insightful read.
August 28, 2022
Ce livre est écrit de façon décousue et on ne sait pas si c’est un récit de l’auteur, rapporté par l’auteur ou bien décrivant les écrits d’autres auteurs…
On se perd entre le sud du Maroc et le Sahara Algérien, entre le 19è siècle avec la sauvage colonisation de l’Algérie par la France et le vingtième siècle…On se perd entre André Gide, Isabelle Eberhardt, Saint Exupéry, Pierre Loti et on a l’impression que ce bouquin cite exclusivement les auteurs homo qui ont vécu en Algérie colonisée pour échapper à ce qu’on dira-t-on en Europe et pour je cite :
« Dans les colonies, on pouvait, tout en continuant d’incarner le summum de la civilisation, échapper à beaucoup de ses désagréments – la banalité bourgeoise, la tristesse conjugale, le contrôle répressif de ses pulsions – et s’adonner au massacre de masse, à l’agression des enfants, aux orgies sexuelles et autres formes de libération de ses pulsions, qui chez soi ne pouvaient avoir lieu qu’en rêve. »
On se perd entre le sud du Maroc et le Sahara Algérien, entre le 19è siècle avec la sauvage colonisation de l’Algérie par la France et le vingtième siècle…On se perd entre André Gide, Isabelle Eberhardt, Saint Exupéry, Pierre Loti et on a l’impression que ce bouquin cite exclusivement les auteurs homo qui ont vécu en Algérie colonisée pour échapper à ce qu’on dira-t-on en Europe et pour je cite :
« Dans les colonies, on pouvait, tout en continuant d’incarner le summum de la civilisation, échapper à beaucoup de ses désagréments – la banalité bourgeoise, la tristesse conjugale, le contrôle répressif de ses pulsions – et s’adonner au massacre de masse, à l’agression des enfants, aux orgies sexuelles et autres formes de libération de ses pulsions, qui chez soi ne pouvaient avoir lieu qu’en rêve. »
May 10, 2025
Mildly interesting. I was hoping for some cultural insight into the Maghreb and unfortunately it was just felt disjointed and a bit centered in his own world.
October 31, 2025
L'autore viaggia nel Sahara marocchino e algerino ripercorrendo i tragitti di alcuni scrittori e viaggiatori occidentali dell'inizio del Novecento. Il tratto più interessante del libro è lo sforzo di SL di affrancarsi dall'ottica imperialista, colonizzatrice e pseudo-romantica che accomuna tanti dei suoi predecessori nei loro resoconti sahariani. SL non è nemmeno interessato a rendere un reportage, ma piuttosto a farci comprendere i suoi sentimenti di precarietà e smarrimento in rapporto ai luoghi che visita; ne esce un libro abbastanza strano, povero di descrizioni e di avvenimenti, e si ha l'impressione - non sgradevole comunque - che l'autore l'abbia scritto soprattutto per sé, per rivivere quel che provava e venirne a capo.
Il risultato però, a differenza di tanti memoir o pseudo tali che ho letto ultimamente, non è affatto ombelicale; SL si tiene efficacemente in bilico tra il racconto della sua interiorità e l'adesione a quello che vede, sperimenta o legge.
Il risultato però, a differenza di tanti memoir o pseudo tali che ho letto ultimamente, non è affatto ombelicale; SL si tiene efficacemente in bilico tra il racconto della sua interiorità e l'adesione a quello che vede, sperimenta o legge.
October 29, 2015
Ci sono capitoli bellissimi in questo libro... seguiti da elucubrazioni prive di logica narrativa e di un qualunque senso.
Racconto di un viaggio sulle orme di personaggi illustri (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Eugène Fromentin, Pierre Loti, André Gide e Isabelle Eberhardt) mescola dati storici a informazioni attuali, narrazione a sogno, presente a passato.
Ogni lettore può scegliere quale delle vite narrate (seppur brevemente, seppur solo in rapporto con il deserto) è quella più affine. A me è rimasta nel cuore l'inquieta Isabelle Eberhardt, la cui morte da sola meriterebbe un libro, e la cui vita, troppo breve, meriterebbe di essere conosciuta da molta più gente.
Quando le parti sono riuscite è una meraviglia, il resto non lo è altrettanto.
Racconto di un viaggio sulle orme di personaggi illustri (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Eugène Fromentin, Pierre Loti, André Gide e Isabelle Eberhardt) mescola dati storici a informazioni attuali, narrazione a sogno, presente a passato.
Ogni lettore può scegliere quale delle vite narrate (seppur brevemente, seppur solo in rapporto con il deserto) è quella più affine. A me è rimasta nel cuore l'inquieta Isabelle Eberhardt, la cui morte da sola meriterebbe un libro, e la cui vita, troppo breve, meriterebbe di essere conosciuta da molta più gente.
Quando le parti sono riuscite è una meraviglia, il resto non lo è altrettanto.
August 24, 2023
I was already enamoured with Lindqvist's writing in "Exterminate all the brutes" when I came across this little gem in a second-hand bookstore in Krakow.
Lindqvist returns to Africa, this time concentrating his travels on the saharan regions: southern Morocco, western Algeria, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara itself. As well as his own travels, he relates the experiences of others, such as Saint-Exupery and Andre Gide.
His writing is an attack on romanticism, which Lidqvist blames for many of the atrocities carried out by westerners against the locals. He makes a good point, and references obliquely some of the work he did in "Exterminate all the brutes."
Despite being only a hundred and forty small pages long, there's nothing minor about Lindqvist's writing. He expresses himself cleanly and powerfully, combining fiction writing with research, excerpts from other books, and the testimony of people who lived in the time of the Saharan well-divers.
Lindqvist returns to Africa, this time concentrating his travels on the saharan regions: southern Morocco, western Algeria, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara itself. As well as his own travels, he relates the experiences of others, such as Saint-Exupery and Andre Gide.
His writing is an attack on romanticism, which Lidqvist blames for many of the atrocities carried out by westerners against the locals. He makes a good point, and references obliquely some of the work he did in "Exterminate all the brutes."
Despite being only a hundred and forty small pages long, there's nothing minor about Lindqvist's writing. He expresses himself cleanly and powerfully, combining fiction writing with research, excerpts from other books, and the testimony of people who lived in the time of the Saharan well-divers.
July 7, 2020
Omalla lukulistalla on ollut vuosia Sven Lindqvistin kirja Tappakaa ne saatanat, joka on yksi merkittävistä länsimaista rasismia ja kolonialismia tarkastelevista kirjoista. Sitä odotellessa tartuin Lindqvistin Aavikkovaeltajat-kirjaan, joka on esseemuotoinen matkakertomus Saharan autiomaasta.
Lindqvist tarkastelee ulkopuolisen silmin Saharan kansoja ja ihmisiä. Kirjoittaa luonteenlaaduista ja tavoista miten ihminen tällaisessa ympäristössä voi elää ja miten kolonialismi on muokannut historiaa. Hyvin kirjoitettuun tekstiin uppoaa nopeasti mukaan. Vaikka tyylilajillisesti essee onkin ehkä lähimpänä niin ei tämä ihan tyypillinen essee-kirja ole. Osa teksteistä on vain muutaman lauseen mittaisia välähdyksiä ja huomioita.
Lindqvist tarkastelee ulkopuolisen silmin Saharan kansoja ja ihmisiä. Kirjoittaa luonteenlaaduista ja tavoista miten ihminen tällaisessa ympäristössä voi elää ja miten kolonialismi on muokannut historiaa. Hyvin kirjoitettuun tekstiin uppoaa nopeasti mukaan. Vaikka tyylilajillisesti essee onkin ehkä lähimpänä niin ei tämä ihan tyypillinen essee-kirja ole. Osa teksteistä on vain muutaman lauseen mittaisia välähdyksiä ja huomioita.
January 21, 2020
Sven Lindqvist skriver så glasklart att det är en njutning att läsa. Det här är en essäsamling, som utgår från hans barndoms beundran för ökenflygaren Saint-Exupéry. Och fortsätter med en resa i norra Sahara. Texten refererar både till hans privata liv, hans resa, och litteratur av författare som vistats i Nordafrika, mycket rör André Gide och Isabelle Eberhardt. Men ju längre man läser desto djupare gräver han i den rasistiska och imperialistiska verkligheten - den som dolt sig bakom orientalismens romantik - det här blir som ett förord till hans nästa stora verk, 'Utrota varenda jävel' som han fullbordade två år senare.
October 15, 2024
The author has a remarkable talent for opening my eyes to parts of the world and moments in history I had never considered.
The depth of research is impressive, weaving together a wide and complex range of histories and traditions into a cohesive narrative that bursts at the seams with beautiful prose. The transitions between past and present are handled skillfully, making us feel like companions on the journey as the author uncovers the history of the Sahara and the failures of past orientalising europeans who tried to 'conquer' her.
One detail I found particularly amusing was the author’s complaint about sand ruining his then-state-of-the-art disk drives.
The depth of research is impressive, weaving together a wide and complex range of histories and traditions into a cohesive narrative that bursts at the seams with beautiful prose. The transitions between past and present are handled skillfully, making us feel like companions on the journey as the author uncovers the history of the Sahara and the failures of past orientalising europeans who tried to 'conquer' her.
One detail I found particularly amusing was the author’s complaint about sand ruining his then-state-of-the-art disk drives.
July 24, 2021
"The reality of the colonies functioned like a dream. No one had asked the French officers to conquer Laghouat or Zaatcha. Far less has anyone asked the soldiers to massacre the population. No one forced them to do it. It was enough that no one stopped them. They were simply given an opportunity they were unable to resist. They took it...
In the spiritual life of Europe, the colonies had an important function - as a safety vent, an escape".
In the spiritual life of Europe, the colonies had an important function - as a safety vent, an escape".
January 30, 2022
I read exterminate all the brutes first and found it to be much more interesting. I would have liked Lindqvist to go a bit deeper into the topics, especially the way European writers avoided talking about the real horrors going on at the time. Still a great read.
May 8, 2025
Anti-imperialistiska reseskildringar gillar vi! Den kortare prosa-stilen blir dock lite för stubbig tycker jag. Men Lindqvist behandlar alltjämt språket som en kirurg. Det är precist, direkt och vackert.
May 26, 2017
I have a hope that Lindqvist might become my great mid-30s discovery - the dreamlike flow of a great poet, the concision and fury of a great journalist.
March 21, 2018
My first impressions are mixed. The book at first seems to be a radical travelogue, then becomes literary critique, to finally morph into a rather painful autobiography.
June 26, 2019
Va letto anche solo per la parte riguardo ai truffatori dei pozzi.
Un inno di amore per il deserto, ahimè in qualche passaggio un po' troppo compiaciuto.
Un inno di amore per il deserto, ahimè in qualche passaggio un po' troppo compiaciuto.
June 29, 2022
Sjuk han e, brunnsdykaren
August 2, 2023
Stark fyra. Förtrollande rese- och livsskildring. Känns som jag kommer lösa om.
December 12, 2021
This publication is a strange mix of travelogue and intellectual treatise on colonial history. It is at its weakest when Lindqvist blends it with fragments of his own autobiography or dream imagery.
However, when it talks about colonialism, it packs a punch. “Desert Divers” is a short, intriguing book which should be a seminal read on romanticizing the Other.
The prose is lean, incisive, and full of poignant remarks. “The history of imperialism is a well full of corpses. [… Who dares] to dive into this well and clean it out?”
On a different note - Lindqvist decided to focus on French visitors to the former French colonies in North Africa. I knew only one of those people mentioned in the book, and would have liked to hear the writer’s take on other westerners who sought inspiration in the Sahara (names such as Gertrud Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Laszlo Almasy, Paul Bowles, August Macke come to mind).
Nevertheless, for all its terseness, the publication is insightful and very consistent.
However, when it talks about colonialism, it packs a punch. “Desert Divers” is a short, intriguing book which should be a seminal read on romanticizing the Other.
The prose is lean, incisive, and full of poignant remarks. “The history of imperialism is a well full of corpses. [… Who dares] to dive into this well and clean it out?”
On a different note - Lindqvist decided to focus on French visitors to the former French colonies in North Africa. I knew only one of those people mentioned in the book, and would have liked to hear the writer’s take on other westerners who sought inspiration in the Sahara (names such as Gertrud Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Laszlo Almasy, Paul Bowles, August Macke come to mind).
Nevertheless, for all its terseness, the publication is insightful and very consistent.
March 8, 2016
On the one hand - Lindqvist is a newly separated white man travelling through Northern Africa to write and make intelligent references to European colonialists who happened to write or paint. Boring. On the other hand - there are some solid postcolonial critical thoughts in there. And as an introduction to some of our most problematic colonial authors (Gide, Loti, Eberhardt par example) it's an outstanding read.
June 3, 2013
Few authors can combine literary criticism, history, travel, and their own inner demons into a cohesive narrative and make it all work. Lindqvist can. It's a shame more of his books haven't been translated to English, but this one, like the others that have made it into the Queen's language, is very good.
August 1, 2009
Excellent meditation on the Sahara desert and colonialism. Poetic.
January 17, 2011
Awesome. read this. excellent!
January 23, 2011
Fascinating. Lindqvist explores the personalities of those (mainly) Europeans who fell in love with the desert. A great read.
September 18, 2015
En kontemplativ skildring av Saharas ödemark och imperialismens förhatliga inflytande på densamma. Finfin.
April 19, 2016
Strange dreamlike but entertaining. Similar to benchpress a description of various writers who thought about a topic combined with personal reminiscence
April 5, 2017
В "Пустинни гмуркачи" Свен Линдквист дава израз на ангажираното си мнение срещу колониализма. И в Африка (Франция, Испания), и в Европа (нацистка Германия). Разказва за собствени пътешествия с малки градски наети коли в Сахара (Мароко, Алжир), но прави паралели и със сънища, и с историята на Сахара, и с други европейски личности, свързани с нея през последните век-два, предимно с алтернативни на империализма и колониализма позиции: Ел-Аиун, Западна Сахара: Антоан дьо Сент-Екзюпери, аристократ, летец, писател; Смара, Западна Схара: Мишел Вийошанж, романичен пътешественик;
- Лагуат, Алжир: Южен Фроментен, романтичен художник; Аин Сефра, Алжир: Пиер Лоти, мореплавател, писател, академик и Изабел Ебенхард журналистка, писателка, неконформистка, приела исляма в мъжки дрехи за повече свобода, загинала в изключително рядко за местността наводнения. Припомня как героят на Андре Жид в "Неморалния" е страдал от туберкулоза в пустинните райони на Алжир, докато е търсел себе си. И в прав текст налага посланието, че пустинята в епохата на настъпление на империализма е било мястото за асоциалните и бунтарските души от конформистки расистка Европа.
- Лагуат, Алжир: Южен Фроментен, романтичен художник; Аин Сефра, Алжир: Пиер Лоти, мореплавател, писател, академик и Изабел Ебенхард журналистка, писателка, неконформистка, приела исляма в мъжки дрехи за повече свобода, загинала в изключително рядко за местността наводнения. Припомня как героят на Андре Жид в "Неморалния" е страдал от туберкулоза в пустинните райони на Алжир, докато е търсел себе си. И в прав текст налага посланието, че пустинята в епохата на настъпление на империализма е било мястото за асоциалните и бунтарските души от конформистки расистка Европа.
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