Travels through the Third World

Brian M. Schwartz

Published by Sidgwick & Jackson, hardcover with dustjacket

This riveting book tells the story of one man's adventures and experiences in exotic places whose very names fire the imagination, like Timbuktu, the Congo rain forests and the swamps of the Nile. Brian Schwartz spent six years following the back roads, trails, and rivers of Africa and Asia, mostly hitchhiking and on foot.

He hunted with pygmies in the jungle of Zaïre, camped with Nomads in the southem Sahara, and hitchhiked through Tibet and China. He was incarcerated in Idi Amin's terrifying State Research Bureau and lived with New Guinea tribesmen who thought he was a god. His book gives a fascinating eye-witness account of life in tribes and societies rarely, if ever, visited by outsiders.

Brian Schwartz writes beautifully of the parts of the world that are still untouched by modern technology, where myth and magic, custom and tradition abound. He shows how fragile and yet enduring are the essential ties of family, tribe, and community when co-operation and sharing are more prevalent than competition and alienation.

Although many Third World societies are troubled by famine and poverty, disease and ignorance, the real truth is not wholly conveyed by what we read in the press or see on television. What makes these societies function, even given highly adverse circumstances, is a binding force of essential humanity. Above all, Travels Through the Third World contains profound lessons for materially richer societies.