‘Zanzibar was to be a profound influence on my early life, it became home to me, this was the world I knew and the place I would always be naturally drawn back to. Zanzibar was one of those special places, with even the name evoking ideas of an enchanted land. I was fortunate to live there at a time when it was a peaceful autonomous island, spared from the revolution that later tore it apart.’ Starting from his early days spent in this exotic island when it was an independent Sultanate, Roger Webber goes on to describe his travels throughout Africa, covering a period of 66 years and nearly every country in that vast continent. It includes the great journey from Cairo to Cape, travelling up the Nile, and later on passage down the other great river of Africa, the Congo. In Return to Zanzibar, Roger begins with his memories of an island explored in detail, recounting every aspect of its geography and history and examining how this small country had so much influence over such a large part of the continent. Following Zanzibar's amalgamation with Tanganyika to form Tanzania, in which many of the ways of the original country disappeared, Roger returned as a doctor to be faced with epidemics that were ravaging East Africa at that time. From this base he explored surrounding countries and much of the rest of the continent. Return to Zanzibar is a personal story of Africa in all its many facets.

本書の白眉は、失われた楽園としてのザンジバルが、一人の男の生涯とアフリカ全土の命運を繋ぐ壮大な起点となっている点にあります。ウェバーの筆致は、革命前の平和な「魔法の地」への郷愁を、単なる感傷を超えた文学的深みへと昇華させています。島が大陸へ与えた影響を紐解く鋭い眼差しは、激動の時代に消えゆく世界の美しさを鮮烈に刻み込んでいます。 医師としての観察眼と故郷への情熱が交錯する遍歴は、変わりゆくアフリカの真実を看取る行為そのものです。大河を巡り、疫病と闘う旅路は、読者に「失われた魂の帰る場所」を厳かに問いかけます。これほどまでに重厚で生命の輝きに満ちた魂の記録は、あなたの冒険心を激しく揺さぶり、忘れがたい読後感をもたらすでしょう。