My Mercedes is Not for Sale From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara

by VAN BERGEIJK, JEROEN

• ISBN13: 9780767928694
• ISBN10: 0767928695
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Crown

Summary

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" Janis Joplin A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. "Look, there's my car," I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot. "Where?" a fellow desert traveler asks. "There, that Mercedes," I say. He looks at me, questioning. "You want to drive that through the Sahara?" Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa. My Mercedes Is Not for Saleis a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditrymostly by the border guardsand a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived. My Mercedes Is Not for Salecaptures more than the adventureit vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man's burden really a used car?

Author Biography

JEROEN VAN BERGEIJK is a journalist based in Amsterdam and has written for The New York Times, Wired, and many other publications in Europe and the United States.

Table of Contents

A Mercedes in Ouagadougou	p. 1
The Purchase	p. 3
"Okay, That Won't Work"	p. 7
My Father's Mercedes	p. 15
"One Hundred Percent Quality Guarantee"	p. 19
Trickster in the Rif	p. 27
"Strong Like Bull"	p. 37
An Authentic Experience	p. 41
The Great Void	p. 57
Tupac in the Desert	p. 67
"I Want Nothing But Mercedes From Now on"	p. 81
Thirst	p. 85
Heart of Darkness	p. 103
"All Africans Are Cheats"	p. 119
"It was Worn Out"	p. 135
Now I Help Myself	p. 139
Fleeing, Searching	p. 153
The Industrial Underbelly of Ghana	p. 167
"I Loved Looking at That Car"	p. 173
Depressing Banality	p. 177
Johnnie Walker for the Secretary of Transportation	p. 185
Cars, Money, Brothers	p. 197
Acknowledgments	p. 207
Bibliography	p. 209
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.