Reddit reviews Africa Alone: Odyssey of an American Traveller

Well, they weren't all 5 year-olds, but in his book Africa Alone* a guy who is driving his Toyota Land Cruiser from the Sahara to the tip of South Africa describes a situation where he was cornered by a group of children who were begging and began throwing rocks at him - it was a long time ago when I read it but as I remember he feared for his life.

A couple of other notes about the book:

• He describes taking some photos in a train station somewhere and then being interrogated for some hours accused of being a spy since photographing train stations was illegal - when I read this I marvelled at how backward, primitive and oppressive it was to 1) consider a stupid train station a "military installation" and 2) to harrass people for just taking pictures of something anyone could walk into and see. 20 years later and we don't have to go to the middle of nowhere in Africa for the same.
  
  
• He said he never saw "aid" flour/grain being given away (even though each 25/50lb bag was marked with "UN... blah, blah not for sale"), it was always being sold by men to village women and whenever he approached and asked for a price he was waved off.
  
  
• There is one point when crossing a river in his vehicle and he and it are about to go under and he paints a vivid picture of how the people stood on the river banks watching his imminent death without compassion or empathy. (justy so)
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Africa-Alone-Odyssey-American-Traveller/dp/0962251518/ref=sr_1_2/103-4983480-5543055?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187063404&sr=1-2