The Longest Walk

by Giuseppe Maniscalco

The story of a man's war-time hike from Ethiopia to South Africa.

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Giuseppe Maniscalco’s life was a cinematic saga of survival, beginning in 1910 in Palermo and ending as a legend in South Africa. Orphaned by his father’s early death and separated from his seven siblings, Giuseppe’s odyssey truly began in the wilds of Morocco, where he was raised on his uncle’s horse farm and later adopted by the adventurous Mazzara family. His childhood was a prelude to a life defined by the horizon; by the time he was sent to Eritrea for military service in the late 1930s, he had already mastered French, Arabic, and the rugged instincts of a frontiersman. It would be thirty-three years before he saw Italy again.
Following the British liberation of Eritrea, Giuseppe refused the safety of internment, choosing instead the perils of a continent at war. After witnessing his friend’s murder by bandits during a livestock trade, he buried his companion and began an impossible trek toward Sudan. Armed only with a hunting knife and a bush hat, he walked thousands of miles through the Congo and Zambia, surviving malaria, hostile native chiefs, and even a charging rhinoceros, which he outmaneuvered with a bullfighter’s grace. When he finally crossed the Limpopo River into South Africa in 1946, he was a specter—a man of skin and bone whose shoes had disintegrated, yet whose spirit remained unbreakable. Though the Italian consulate initially disowned him, his truth was eventually championed by an empathetic immigration officer. Giuseppe rebuilt his life in Pretoria, becoming a carpenter at ISCOR and finding new love after his first wife, believing him dead for years, moved on. His legacy was immortalized in his 1968 book Miles and Miles and Miles (later titled The Long Walk), a testament to the only man to cross Africa’s heart on foot, driven by a royalist’s pride and an wanderer’s soul.

Reviews

[Angelique Pacheco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guiseppe Maniscalco was married to my Grandmother. At the end of the book he mentions her. It's one thing to read a book, but it's another to be related to the character. I loved this book. It has nailbiting action and 'hold your breath' moments! If you can find a copy, Read IT!!!

[Max Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was published in the 70s and is a true story account of a man's trek from Ethiopia to South Africa, avoiding military action, criminals and african wildlife along the way. This paints a pretty positive view of central Africa, with him walking into villages and the chiefs all being very impressed with him, giving him provisions and sending him on his way. Whether that's embellishment by a white hero author or testament to the friendliness of tribal people, it's hard to tell but it didn't read as particularly condescending. I think the most interesting parts of this for me were reading about all the grueling physical discomfort the adventurer had to endure, I'm a big fan of survival-stuff, rather than the interactions with people. It's interesting and including mine there are only two reviews for this one up on Goodreads. I don't read a lot of real-life stuff, and I thought this was going to be in the same vein as the Alvarez exploration journal I read last year, but this one was a bit more rosy cheeked!