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Literature Review: The Cruelest Journey by Kira Salak
“No place is safe. Safety, itself, is an illusion.” Kira Salak
The women’s memoirs I’ve read since repatriating to the US have repeatedly disappointed me. Rather than travelogues about other cultures and a writer’s (small) place in it, today’s publishers churn out self-obsessive memoirs aimed at women as if we were interested solely in finding boyfriends and making babies with men of foreign accents. Women writing about living in Japan, Yemen, mainland China, and Hong Kong, for instance, focus on infertility or stealing husbands, treading nowhere near anthropological observations of the other cultures. Then there’s Kira Salak. She raises travel writing to the level of explorer writing.
“Since then I’ve sought out countries that are dangerous in order to reveal situations no one else is covering, like slavery in Timbuktu and genocide in eastern Congo. These tragedies are very emotionally difficult to witness, but if by shedding light on them I can improve even one person’s life, I feel it’s worth the risk,” she wrote in National Geographic .
The Cruelest Journey tells her journey kayaking solo six hundred miles down West Africa’s Niger River in an inflatable kayak toward the Saharan city of Timbuktu.
She begins her trip with a single backpack in a torrential downpour from the Malian town of Old Ségou. She reveals how Timbuktu fell from its zenith during the Songhai Empire’s reign from 1463-1591, when its academic and artistic riches were tantamount Florence’s during Europe’s age of Enlightenment until it was sacked by the Moors in the late 16th century, and how it’s come to be the rubble heap and tourist trap it is today.
Salak equips herself for the journey with the writings of 18th-century Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who twice labored over this course but perished along the way. Determined to follow in (most of) his footsteps, she shows us a place that time has all but abandoned. She witnesses polio and leprosy, voodoo priests and shamans, and abundant slavery, despite its being outlawed there. She kayaks through a pod of hippos like tiptoeing through a field of landmines.
She learns to discern the differences between tribes such as the Tuareg, the Fulani and the Bambarra, the Bozo and Somono. Most nights she stops at villages, learning to deduce which tribe lives there by characteristics visible from the river, if she can’t already discern that by how the village inhabitants react to her from the shore. Do they wave and exchange greetings, yell and threaten her, or watch her like a zoo animal” All the while she searches for commonalities, for ways of communicating and better understanding by speaking to them in Bambarra.
Thoughts on Male Travelers
One particularly enjoyable part of Salak’s book is her ability to alternately make fun of and admire male travelers. (Though admittedly her adoration of Park sometimes reads like Oriana Fallaci’s hero worship of Alekos Panagulis in A Man .)
“He doesn’t hide his distress, and his trademark equanimity fails him, revealing glimpses of a traumatizing ordeal. Many male adventurers of his time chose to hide such candor, opting instead for bravado or tedious ethnographical digressions,” he says of Park’s narrative of his capture by Moors. When the women among his captors repeatedly inspected his physique, they became particularly hands-on to find out if circumcision also applies to Christians. Park supposedly had some say in the matter, allowing only beautiful women the chance to inspect his white skin and naughty bits.
Gender Differences in Travel
“My gender will always make me appear more vulnerable. But to not travel anywhere out of fear, or to remain immobilized in a state of hypervigilance when I do, feels akin to psychological bondage. I do not want to give away that kind of power.”
She doesn’t decry this reality. She does in a way that can be described as literary anthropology. “The Somono fishermen, casting out their nets, puzzle over me as I float by. ‘a va, madame”‘ they yell.”
Each fisherman carries a young son perched in the back of his pointed canoe to do the paddling. The boys stare at me, transfixed; they have never seen such a thing. A white woman. Alone. In a red, inflatable boat. Using a two-sided paddle.
“I’m an even greater novelty because Malian women don’t paddle here, not ever. It is a man’s job. So there is no good explanation for me, and the people want to understand.”
Considering the death-defying adventure she’s chosen the reader wants to understand too. What would compel a person to take such a trip” She addresses this and the very fundamental things that, as I learned when living abroad, mark the difference between tourism and travel.
Why Embark on These Trips”
Concerning “what we look for when we embark on these kinds of trips,” she writes: “There is the pat answer that you tell the people you don’t know: that you’re interested in seeing a place, learning about its people. But then the trip begins and the hardship comes, and hardship is more honest: It tells us that we don’t have enough patience yet, nor humility, nor gratitude. And we thought that we did. Hardship brings us closer to truth, and thus is more difficult to bear, but from it alone comes compassion.”
Salak’s poetic prose, like the parallel narratives of her journey and Park’s, meanders throughout the book like the bends and curves of the Niger itself. “The late afternoon sun settles complacently over the hills to the west. Paddling becomes a sort of meditation now, a gentle trespassing over a river that slumbers. The Niger gives me its beauty almost in apology for the violence of the earlier storms, treating me to smooth silver waters that ripple in the sunlight. The current – if there is one – barely moves. Park described the same grandeur of the Niger during his second journey, in an uncharacteristically sentimental passage that provided a welcome respite from accounts of dying soldiers and baggage stolen by natives.”
Heading Into Deeper Water
Her deft handling of dynamics, coupled with the occasional sweetener of levity make The Cruelest Journey an energetic read. This Restless Books publication and Salak’s other books such as Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea , traverse the depths of the human condition, weaves between fear and bliss, and blurs borders of time and place.
As Jessa Crispin points out in an essay in the Boston Review: “That the market has not sustained the work of other, more rugged, less self-obsessive women travel writers may have more to do with our expectations as readers than with any faults of their writing. We still look to men to tell us about what they do and to women to tell us how they feel.”
Meanwhile, for readers who like their water deeper, there’s the work of Kira Salak.
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The Cruelest Journey
Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
THE CRUELEST JOURNEY: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu
Kira salak, . . national geographic, $26 (256pp) isbn 978-0-7922-9790-1.
Reviewed on: 10/18/2004
Genre: Nonfiction
Hardcover - 320 pages - 978-0-7922-7457-5
Open Ebook - 978-1-63206-067-9
Paperback - 288 pages - 978-0-553-81629-7
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The Cruelest Journey
Six hundred miles to timbuktu.
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Publisher Description
Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone 600 miles on the Niger River of Mali to Timbuktu, retracing the fatal journey of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert, and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, Kira Salak traveled solo through one of the most desolate and dangerous regions in Africa, where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797. Dependent on locals for food and shelter each night, Salak stayed in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her--so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped with her life from men chasing after her in canoes. Finally, weak with dysentery but triumphant, she arrived in the fabled city of Timbuktu and fulfilled her ultimate goal: buying the freedom of two Bella slave women. The Cruelest Journey is both an unputdownable story and a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life. Praise for The Cruelest Journey "A deeply personal travel memoir, Salak is not merely a traveller, she is an explorer, and her voyage is an expedition of self-discovery. She sets off in ominously stormy weather 206 years to the day after Park did, and shares in cutting detail the encounters of the Niger 'like a mercurial god, meting out punishment and benediction on a whim.' Salak seduces us with an honest audacious story of the splendour and austerity of a journey through a far-off land." – Kirkus Reviews UK "Salak's second travel memoir takes her down the Niger River to Timbuktu, following the trail of Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who more than 200 years before he attempted the same journey. Salak decides to take the journey alone on a kayak, hoping to recapture Park's sense of wonder and determination. Salak's trip is deeply personal, and she shares her fears, her triumphs, and her thoughts along the way with the reader, making it an accessible, involving journey for her audience." –Booklist About the Author Kira Salak won the PEN Award for journalism for her reporting on the war in Congo, and she has appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing . A National Geographic Emerging Explorer and contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine, she was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea and the first person to kayak solo 600 miles to Timbuktu. She is the author of three books—the critically acclaimed work of fiction, The White Mary , and two works of nonfiction: Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea (a New York Times Notable Travel Book) and The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu . She has a Ph.D. in English, her fiction appearing in Best New American Voices and other anthologies. Her nonfiction has been published in National Geographic , National Geographic Adventure , Washington Post , New York Times Magazine , Travel & Leisure , The Week , Best Women's Travel Writing , The Guardian , and elsewhere. Salak has appeared on TV programs like CBS Evening News, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBC's The Hour. She lives with her husband and daughter in Germany.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY OCT 18, 2004
As she begins her harrowing solo kayaking journey 600 miles down the Niger River, Salak writes, "Though we may think we chose our journeys, they chose us." This sensitive notion is representative of most of Salak's account of her quest to follow the same route that doomed Scottish explorer Mungo Park paddled 206 years ago, hoping to reach Timbuktu. The book juxtaposes Salak's physical strength with delicate prose. Just as readers might expect from someone who prepared her parents for the chance that she might not return, Salak seems ready for, or at least accepting of, all obstacles, whether a ripped muscle in her arm or kayak thieves. Though tough as nails, she's easy with her feelings, especially her constant fear of not knowing if the villagers near where she camps will be like the friendly Fulani herders, who embrace her as a wayward traveler, or like the Bozos, "young toughs" who mock and threaten her. Few things have changed on the Niger since Park's time, and Salak is open-minded as she accepts the traditions of the villagers' lifestyle and appalled by their practices of mutilation and slavery. After reaching Timbuktu, Salak tries to free two women from slavery; this final act spotlights her best qualities: courage and compassion. Photos, map.
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The Cruelest Journey – Review
“ The Niger is more than a river; it is a kind of faith .” – The Cruelest Journey
Not only needing the adventurous and courageous spirit of a traveler, Salak also required the physical fitness and stamina to complete the goal at hand – a 600 mile paddle down the Niger River to Timbuktu.
Kira Salak is very observational on her travels and as she feels all the feelings of joy and frustration on her journey she shared it all with us. From the exhilaration of starting the journey into the unknown, to the hardship, frustration, physical pain, and despair, to the final sprint, the exultation of completing the challenge set for herself and the strength she felt. She did express some flashes of western impatience but always tried to bring herself back to center and calm.
“I start to see with glaring clarity, how little I actually do need, and how strongly the West tries to convince me otherwise.” – The Cruelest Journey
I would disagree with her disbursement of cash when it seemed to be for no apparent reason. She gets angry when people ask for money yet she is (secretly) exacerbating the problem. For more information on this topic read on in these links:
Uncornered Market – Should travelers give to kids who beg
G Adventures Responsible Travel Child Welfare Code of Conduct
National Geographic Sustainable Travel Tips
“ No place is safe. Safety, itself, is an illusion.” – The Cruelest Journey
It was interesting to learn about the Tuareg and how she describes them as the leisure class of Mali who do no domestic work and maintain slaves for that purpose. With this extra time, they’ve enhanced their Music Culture .
“ I see that Timbuktu is better off left to name and fancy. It is a place that’s not meant to be found.” – The Cruelest Journey
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- What did you think about the different tribal villages along the river and the unknown reception she’d receive from each village?
- Do you think the slave girls “started a business” or do you think they got sucked back into a dehumanizing situation?
FURTHER READING:
More Books on Mali
VIDEO: Salak’s four steps to prepare for adventure
The Vision Seeker’s article in NY Times Magazine
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Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone 600 miles on the Niger River of Mali to Timbuktu, retracing the fatal journey of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert, and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, Kira Salak traveled solo through one of the most desolate and dangerous regions in Africa, where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797. Dependent on locals for food and shelter each night, Salak stayed in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her—so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped with her life from men chasing after her in canoes. Finally, weak with dysentery but triumphant, she arrived in the fabled city of Timbuktu and fulfilled her ultimate goal: buying the freedom of two Bella slave women. This unputdownable story is also a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life.
"A deeply personal travel memoir, Salak is not merely a traveller, she is an explorer, and her voyage is an expedition of self-discovery. She sets off in ominously stormy weather 206 years to the day after Park did, and shares in cutting detail the encounters of the Niger 'like a mercurial god, meting out punishment and benediction on a whim.' Salak seduces us with an honest audacious story of the splendour and austerity of a journey through a far-off land." —Kirkus Reviews UK "Salak's second travel memoir takes her down the Niger River to Timbuktu, following the trail of Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who more than 200 years before he attempted the same journey. Salak decides to take the journey alone on a kayak, hoping to recapture Park's sense of wonder and determination. Salak's trip is deeply personal, and she shares her fears, her triumphs, and her thoughts along the way with the reader, making it an accessible, involving journey for her audience." —Booklist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kira Salak won the PEN Award for journalism for her reporting on the war in Congo, and she has appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. A National Geographic Emerging Explorer and contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine, she was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea and the first person to kayak solo 600 miles to Timbuktu. She is the author of three books—the critically acclaimed work of fiction, The White Mary (published by Henry Holt), and two works of nonfiction: Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea (a New York Times Notable Travel Book) and The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu. She has a Ph.D. in English, her fiction appearing in Best New American Voices and other anthologies. Her nonfiction has been published in National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, Washington Post, New York Times Magazine, Travel & Leisure, The Week, Best Women's Travel Writing, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Salak has appeared on TV programs like CBS Evening News, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBC's The Hour. She lives with her husband and daughter in Germany. Learn more at her website, www.kirasalak.com.
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Journey’s Popular Tune Becomes ‘Biggest Song of All Time’
“Just a small town girl, Livin’ in a lonely world…” If you’ve left the house in the last several decades, chances are you know all of the lyrics to this song even if you’re not a Journey fan. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” has been featured at sporting events, on the radio, in movies and television shows, and plays just about anywhere you go. This catchy tune has now been crowned the “Biggest Song of All Time” by Forbes .
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The Recording Industry Association of America added that the song is now an 18-times-platinum-certified single and has likely been heard at least once by just about everyone in the world. How’s that for a hit? Journey singer Steve Perry always believed in the song but admitted that it didn’t get great radio play when it first came out. He said , “When we were doing the song in 1981, I knew something was happening, but honestly, when I saw it in the film ‘Monster’ with Patty Jenkins , I started think, ‘Oh my goodness there’s really something.’ The lyric is a strong lyric about not giving up, but it’s also about being young, it’s also about hanging out, not giving up and looking for that emotion hiding somewhere in the dark that we’re all looking for. It’s about having hope and not quitting when things get tough, because I’m telling you things get tough for everybody.”
Current Journey singer Arnel Pineda said that the song’s message has always been his motto. Pineda shared, “Even before I discovered ‘Don’t Stop Believin”, it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I’ve gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life.”
If you want to hear the tune live, Journey is teaming up with Def Leppard for an incredible tour in 2024. For certain shows, they will be joined by The Steve Miller Band, Heart, or Cheap Trick. Get tickets on their website. For now, remisince and rock out to “Don’t Stop Believin'” below:
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A travel writer reviews the memoir of Kira Salak, who kayaked solo down the Niger River in West Africa. She explores the challenges, dangers, and rewards of this adventure, as well as the gender differences in travel.
The Cruelest Journey is both an unputdownable story and a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life. About the Author. Kira Salak won the PEN Award for journalism for her reporting on the war in Congo, and she has appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. A ...
"Cruelest Journey" matches Park's final expedition with Salak's intention to test herself against the river, to open herself up to the world along its banks. Physical exhaustion and isolation, cultural shock and sickness--- Salak teaches herself to face all those things. This isn't a book about Timbuktu, and the arrival there is an anticlimax.
THE CRUELEST JOURNEY. 600 MILES TO TIMBUKTU. Read Excerpts from "The Cruelest Journey" REVIEWS "A deeply personal travel memoir, Salak is not merely a traveller, she is an explorer, and her voyage is an expedition of self-discovery. She sets off in ominously stormy weather 206 years to the day after Park did, and shares in cutting detail the ...
Kira Salak kayaked solo 600 miles on the Niger River of Mali to Timbuktu, retracing the fatal journey of Mungo Park. Read her personal and thrilling account of the challenges, dangers, and rewards of this expedition in this eBook.
Kira Salak kayaked alone the six hundred miles on the Niger River to Timbuktu, following the trail of Scottish explorer Mungo Park. She faced dangers, challenges, and cultural encounters in this epic adventure and self-discovery.
Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu. Hardcover - November 1, 2004. At the age of thirty-two, Kira Salak is already an adventurer with a long history of seeking impossible challenges. Here she documents her most ambitious journey yet: six hundred unforgiving miles on the Niger River through Mali, from Old Segou to Timbuktu - a feat ...
Unputdownable and breathtakingly suspenseful, The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu is a beautifully rendered meditation on courage and self-mastery by an audacious and inspiring young traveler and wordsmith. See More. Find similar titles by genre. Biography & Autobiography. Adventurers & Explorers. Travel.
Unputdownable and breathtakingly suspenseful, The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu is a beautifully rendered meditation on courage and self-mastery by an audacious and inspiring young traveler and wordsmith.
The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu. "At the age of thirty-two, Kira Salak is already an adventurer with a long history of seeking impossible challenges. Here she documents her most ambitious journey yet: six hundred unforgiving miles on the Niger River through Mali, from Old Segou to Timbuktu - a feat inspired by the legendary Scottish ...
Buy The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu: 600 Miles to Timbuktu 01 by Salak, Kira (ISBN: 9780792274575) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
THE CRUELEST JOURNEY: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu. Kira Salak, . . National Geographic, $26 (256pp) ISBN 978--7922-9790-1. As she begins her harrowing solo kayaking journey 600 miles down the ...
The Cruelest Journey is both an unputdownable story and a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life. Praise for The Cruelest Journey "A deeply personal travel memoir, Salak is not merely a traveller, she is an explorer, and her voyage is an expedition of self-discovery.
Kindle. $14.99 Read with our free app. Hardcover. $6.12 23 Used from $2.53. A young adventurer with a history of seeking impossible challenges, Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone the six hundred miles on the Niger River to Timbuktu—"the golden city of the Middle Ages" and fabled "doorway to the end of the ...
The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu is written by Kira Salak and published by Restless Books. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for The Cruelest Journey are 9781632060679, 1632060671. Save up to 80% versus print by going digital with VitalSource.
The Cruelest Journey is both an unputdownable story and a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life. About the Author Kira Salak won the PEN Award for journalism for her reporting on the war in Congo, and she has appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing .
"The Niger is more than a river; it is a kind of faith." - The Cruelest Journey. Not only needing the adventurous and courageous spirit of a traveler, Salak also required the physical fitness and stamina to complete the goal at hand - a 600 mile paddle down the Niger River to Timbuktu.
She is the author of three books—the critically acclaimed work of fiction, The White Mary (published by Henry Holt), and two works of nonfiction: Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea (a New York Times Notable Travel Book) and The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu.
THE CRUELEST JOURNEY: SIX HUNDRED MILES TO TIMBUKTU . Read Excerpts from The Cruelest Journey. Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone 600 miles on the Niger River of Mali to Timbuktu, retracing the fatal journey of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of ...
Excerpt from Chapter 1. In the beginning, my journeys feel at best ludicrous, at worst insane. This one is no exception. The idea is to paddle nearly 600 miles on the Niger River in a kayak, alone, from the Malian town of Old Ségou to Timbuktu. And now, at the very hour when I have decided to leave, a thunderstorm bursts open the skies ...
The cruelest journey by Kira Salak. Publication date 2005 Topics Salak, Kira, -- 1971- -- Travel -- Niger River., Canoes and canoeing -- Niger River., Niger River -- Description and travel., Africa, West -- Description and travel. Publisher National Geographic Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks
White Mary, Four Corners. Notable awards. PEN Literary Award, 2004. Kira Salak (born September 4, 1971) is an American writer, adventurer, and journalist known for her travels in Mali and Papua New Guinea. She has written two books of nonfiction and a book of fiction based on her travels and is a contributing editor at National Geographic magazine.
Classifications Dewey Decimal Class 916.6204/3 Library of Congress DT356 .S35 2005, DT360
The anthem was first released in October 1981 as a part of Journey's seventh studio album. It quickly became a hit, due to its epic opening music and lyrics anyone could sing along to.