Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for for The Zanzibar Chest:
1. Is Aidan Hartley Kenyan or British? What does he consider himself?
2. Describe the era into which Hartley was born—the changes in Africa as it moved from colonialism to post-colonialism? How does Hartley see the impact of European colonialism on Africa as its nations attempt to become stable, productive sovereign states?
3. What do you make of Hartley's father? What does Hartley make of him?
4. The Zanzibar Chest is in many ways a quest story. Why does Hartley want to connect with the past generations of his family? What does he hope for? Does he ever "find" what he's looking for?
5. As a follow-up to Question 3: Hartley says, "What I was looking for was a war that I could call my own—a complete experience that would define me as the son of my father and involve me as an insider." What does he mean?
6. How did the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States affect Africa? What happened to the continent once the cold war "cooled off"?
7. What does being a journalist mean to Hartley? What did he hope to accomplish as a journalist—in Somalia and elsewhere?
8. Describe the conditions in Somalia when Hartley arrived: the "Dionysian orgy of destruction." Hartley says it was a privilege to have witnessed "a people who tumbled into the abyss with such style." What does he mean?
9. To what does Hartley attribute the Somalian U.S. military disaster? Does his depiction of events square with accounts you might have read, or seen, before, say, in Black Hawk Down?
10. Hartley is open and frank about his drug and alcohol abuse. Were you sympathetic, or not, to his reasons?
11. Why is Hartley drawn to violence? How does it affect his relationships to both men and women?
12. Talk about the horrors of Rwanda. How did it affect Hartley? How does his account of the bloodshed and tragedy compare with other accounts you might have read of or seen?
13. Hartley writes about Rwanda, "Like everything else in Africa, the truth lies somewhere in between." Can you explain what he means?
14. How does Hartley portray some of his fellow correspondents?
15. How does Peter Davey's story compare to Hartley's own story? What does Hartley see in Davey's story that resonates with his own life?
16. How did Davey's death represent the loss of innocence of Hartley's father?
17. Talk about the ways in which Hartley criticizes both the United States and the United Nations? How does he feel they have failed Africa? Are his criticisms fair?
18. What did you find most disturbing, or chilling, as you read this book? What was most difficult to read about?
19. What solutions exist for Africa to participate fully in the 21st century? What does Africa need to do...and what is required of the international community?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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