Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse

Sihle Khumalo is at it again. Famous for using public transport only to travel across Africa and to tell all, the best-selling author of books like Dark Continent My Black Arse and Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu this time stays within the borders of his own country. The familiarity of his own car is a luxury, but what he finds on his travels range from the puzzling to the downright bizarre. Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse is not a straightforward travelogue littered with cliched descriptions of picturesque landscapes and azure skies. It launches itself from off the beaten track and stays there for most of the time. Journeying from the northern-most part of South Africa right to the southern-most tip, the author, where he can, avoids the famous tourist destinations. Nosing his car through the country?s back roads, into small towns and hamlets, townships and villages some of which do not even feature on many of the country?s maps, he takes the reader by the hand. He revels in places with unusual names and alerts the unwary reader to the many misspellings. Part of the book is journalistic investigation: government proclaims a certain spot to be a museum or national heritage site ? but on the ground there?s no evidence that any work has ever been done at restoring the site. ?Are we going to blame this on apartheid again?? the writer asks. While sometimes confrontational, the book has a warmth that is unmistakable as the author interacts with fellow South Africans: security guards, religious visionaries, drunks, political activists and many other colourful personalities who come alive in this gripping account.