Angry wind

by Jeffrey Tayler

'Tayler penetrates one of the most isolated, forbidding regions on earth -- the Sahel. This lower expanse of the Sahara marks the southern limit of Islam"s reach on the continent. It boasts such mythologized places as Mopti and Timbuktu, as well as Africa"s poorest countries, Chad and Niger. In parts of the Sahel, hardline Sharia law rules and slaves are still traded. Racked by lethal harmattan winds, chronic civil wars, and grim Islamic fundamentalism, it is not the ideal place for a traveler with a U.S. passport. Tayler?nds genuine danger in many guises, from drunken soldiers to a thieving teenage mob. But he also encounters patience and generosity of the sort only Africans can achieve. Traveling overland by the same rickety means as the natives themselves -- tottering, overfull buses, bush taxis with holes in their?oors, disgruntled camels -- he uses his?uency in French and Arabic (the region"s lingua francas) to illuminate its roiling, enigmatic cultures and connect with its inhabi