2,238 words
Since Paul Theroux never stayed for long in one place while writing his African travelogues, the act of traveling itself takes up much ink in Dark Star Safari (2002) and The Last Train to Zona Verde (2013). Thus, the train becomes the leitmotif which connects both works. Theroux treats it as a symbol of the swollen, arthritic nexus between the West and modern Africa—magnificent in design, ambitious in scope, and but now timeworn, barely relevant, and poorly maintained by the indigenous population. In Dark Star, Theroux visits the grand and still-functioning railway station in Maputo, Mozambique, which was designed by the Portuguese in 1910. From here he decides to take the Limpopo Line simply because he likes the name:
The Limpopo Line, running northeast out of the capital...
