The Ukimwi Road

Dervla Murphy

"Dervla Murphy ... pedall[ed] or push[ed] her bicycle over some of the roughest roads in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the beauty of the contrasting landscapes along her 3000 mile route from Kenya through Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia to Zimbabwe more than compensated for the hazardous and unexpected ... Inevitably she was caught up in the harrowing problems of the peoples amongst whom she travelled ... Hours of illuminating conversation ended most days and often AIDS (in Swahili 'ukimwi') was discussed by both men and women ... What also emerged ... was the extent to which barriers to progress in Africa were being underpinned by corruption and incompetence, both White and Black. In consequence she sensed a new wind of change"--Jacket.