IN BRIEF
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Danakil Diary: Journeys Through Abyssinia 1930-34 by Wilfred Thesiger, HarperCollins pounds 18. In 1930 Thesiger was invited to attend the coronation of Haile Selassie; after the ceremony he spent a month hunting, following the river Awash into hostile territory patrolled by ferocious tribesmen. "Don't go further down the Awash than Bilen," Sir Sidney Barton warned the 20-year-old. "It would rather spoil the effect of the coronation if you got yourself cut up by the Danakil." A Frenchman had been murdered there three years previously; all that remained of the body - one leg - had been taken to Addis Ababa and formally decorated by the Emperor.
Fascinated by the area, the people, the game (Thesiger's lust for hunting makes strange reading now) and the mystery of the Awash's unknown destination, Thesiger organised another expedition after leaving Oxford. This fascinating narrative is culled from his diaries, supplemented by letters to his mother: "I am very careful about boiling all water and sleep under a net and take quinine."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments