A Certain Curve of Horn

The Los Angeles Times

One of a writer's hardest tasks is introducing his readers to a distant country few of them have ever seen and to a culture they have scarcely heard of. It is an assignment more often attempted than successfully completed. John Frederick Walker, a freelance writer, succeeds in bringing the southwestern African country of Angola to wretched life in A Certain Curve of Horn. — Anthony Day

Library Journal

Walker, a freelance journalist with a passion for Africa, provides a highly readable account of the endangered giant sable antelope. It was first described by Europeans in 1909 and has ever since been hunted for trophy, investigated by biologists, and cherished by Angolans as a symbol of their country and its survival. As with all things ecological, the story of the antelope is deeply entwined with people and politics. Walker creates a detailed portrait all the way from the early colonization of Angola by the Portuguese in the mid-1400s to the building of railroads in the early 1900s, independence of sorts in 1975, the horrific, 25-year-long civil war, and the current struggles of a long-impoverished people. He does an excellent job of weaving the biology and natural history of the antelope with the social and political history of Angola. This is not a simple story for the casual armchair naturalist, but readers interested in the giant sable, Angola, or how politics and conservation mix will find this worthwhile. Recommended for larger public libraries, environmental collections, and Africa/Angola collections.-Nancy Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH