In college my final major was history, being that, I took some classes on African history.  The main reason for this was the professor.  When he was discussing parts of Africa it was not from a text book, but rather from personal experience.  When we discussed the history of Timbuctoo, he had been there and had a slideshow.  It was the same on the other topics he discussed and I found it extremely interesting.

One story he told was how he hitched hiked across the Sahara desert after completing some research.  He had enough money to fly out of Morocco back to England but not enough to pay for the transport across the Sahara to get there. So he hitched rides on fig trucks in the 100+ degree heat.  He said what amazed him most about this was when they would hit an oasis the drivers would stop and build a fire to heat up water for tea.  He said he likes tea like any Englishman, but not that much.