A diary of the journey that the author started in October 1930 to Ethiopia, as a correspondent of The Times newspaper for the coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie, and then continued through various African countries to end five months later in Cape Town.

The adventures of this modern explorer are full of humorous misadventures and a clever observation of diverse customs and psychologies. Waugh is careful to keep his comments always positive, without hateful comparisons. It is an interesting story, both for its literary form and for its observations of that time, almost a century ago.