After four decades of reporting from the continent, Jonathan Dimbleby returns to Africa on a 7,000-mile journey to discover how it is changing. He starts his African journey in the capital of Mali, Bamako, the fastest-growing African city. Following the course of the Niger river, Dimbleby finds not a continent of beggars but of industrious people, some of whom go to extraordinary lengths to make a living, free-diving 20 feet to excavate building sand. Traveling north-east, he sees how tradition is preserved in an area where a sophisticated urban society has thrived for 1,600 years. Jonathan gets his hands dirty as the apprentice of a 74-year-old mud mason in Djenne, a town built entirely of mud. On the second leg of his illuminating journey across Africa, Jonathan Dimbleby travels 2000 miles through East Africa’s Rift Valley. Starting in Ethiopia, where he was the first journalist to report the 1973 famine, Dimbleby discovers the great strides being made to safeguard the country from future catastrophes. On the final leg of his 7,000 mile odyssey, Jonathan Dimbleby travels from Congo to Durban in search of the stories revealing contemporary Africa. In the edgy sprawl of Kinshasa he rides pillion with unlikely rock and roll icons Staff Benda Bilili and discovers a unique Mozart performing symphony orchestra. At a party celebrating the Year of the Tiger, he learns how China’s billion dollar deals have rebooted African economies, once dependent on Western aid and investment.
