Into the Heart of Africa
Edition: 5th Printing
Publisher: Morris Publishing
Published: March 30, 2000
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 227
ISBN-13: 9780970193001
Subjects: africa; safari
Genres: adventure; nonfiction
First sentence: LAST SENTENCE:
"To repeat an old proverb, 'Once you have drunk the waters of Africa, you will forever thirst to return.'" ~ Jerry Smith
Description: Into the Heart of Africa is a fascinating account of an incredible motorcycle journey across Africa.  Jerry Smith shares with the reader such events as Christmas in Cameroon and a meal of zebra liver and steak in the Republic of Central Africa, where Russian military presence was very real.

Jerry encounters it all in Africa-from spear toting warriors that could have slipped silently from the bush 100 years ago, to tanks and solders with modern weapons. Bandits and smugglers, colorful Arabs and near naked Pygmies…it is all in, “The Heart of Africa.”

An interesting mix of people appears in the book. These include an English speaking Norwegegian Baptist Missionary, austere territorial chiefs in flowing robes to modern well drillers from Texas and of course the Africans who live in many villages along the way.

Jerry’s good humor and adventurous sprit are evident in his crisp writing and descriptions, even when jabbed with a bayonet, mooned by a baboon and faced with an aggressive native ready to catapult a spear through him. 

In the opening chapter, the reader will be riding with Jerry as he races for his life to escape from thieves. For the rest of the story...read the book.  The trek crosses a variety of land including narrow valleys, the endless Sahara, rocky trails where nothing leaves a track, to the dense jungle trails.

In addition to being an adventure story, the book will leave you with a better understanding of Africa and its people.  Jerry describes the villages and inhabitants he and his team encounter along the way. War and hardship of living In Africa is noted. However, he exhibits an understanding and sympathy for these people. His wonder and enjoyment visiting a Pygmy village was evident. He also writes of the freedom and excitement of riding alone on age old trails near Lake Victoria in the northern Serengeti.

Jerry is something of a modern-day Indiana Jones.  Yet he has the ability to take the reader along on this exciting motorcycle trip.

 - A Des Moines, IA reader
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**  In 1975, Jerry Smith from Hedrick, Iowa took three photos of the elusive Okapi during an incredible motorcycle journey diagonally across Africa from Malaga to Mombasa which miraculously included trekking across the Sahara Desert and through the Congo Jungle.  In chapter 32 of this book entitled “Into the Heart of Africa” he describes the Okapi in detail. The Okapi Jerry Smith describes had shiny black and white horizontal stripes on their rears and legs only and stood approximately five and on-half foot at the shoulder.  He further describes this animal as a member of the giraffe family and states that he saw them located at about 2 degrees North and 27 degrees East in a valley in Zaire and told of more Okapi in the Virunda Mountains.  Mr. Smith has one of his pictures of this magnificent animal on page 171 of his book and another on his website ([http://www.TheHeartOfAfrica.com]).   **
Notes: TABLE OF CONTENTS - Titles of each Chapter


* Ghetto of Thieves 
* Smuggler 
* Cold in the High Plateaus 
* The Arab - Friend or Foe 
* The Valley of the Atom Bombs 
* Duct Tape 
* A Geometric Solution 
* Lost in the Southern Sahara 
* One Thousand Miles through the Sahel 
* Harbor from the Storm 
* A Thank-You to America 
* A Day for a Parade 
* A Russian Military Circus 
* On Foot in the Congo Jungle 
* The Chicken Two-Step 
* Volcanic Toilet Bowl 
* Firsthand Account of Tribal Massacre 
* We Seanmen of the Ubangi 
* The Trial - Facing Jungle Justice 
* The Night of the Screaming Jungle 
* Corruption in Zaire 
* Facing the Sharp End of a Spear 
* Negotiating the Bamboo Jungle 
* El Toro and the Viking 
* The Money Changer 
* Curtains of Many Colors 
* Human Scalp 
* Confrontation at the City Well 
* The Strangest of Birds 
* The Ant War 
* Nia Nia 
* Okapi, Giraffe from the Past 
* Illegal Ivory and the Poacher 
* Rodeo in the Zairean Jungle 
* Transversing the Mountains of Eastern Zaire 
* Goma, an Ol’ Frontier Town 
* Rwanda, Ozarks of Africa 
* Bayonets and Chambered Rounds 
* Into the Land of the Masai 
* Never Run from a Mad Elephant 
* Scrimmage above the Coral Reef 
* My Last Hurrah 
* African Trekkers