The Ringtone and the Drum: Travels in the World's Poorest Countries

‘Fuses the traditions of great travel writing with a deep and sophisticated knowledge of the fast-changing politics and cultures of West Africa. The result is a truly engaging and informative book that provides a rare tour of one of the world’s poorest and least understood regions.’ Doug Saunders, Canada Globe and Mail, and author of Arrival City

‘A well-crafted travel memoir that appreciates the complexity of countries that have received little mainstream traveller attention.’ Royal African Society

‘The Ringtone and the Drum is high-energy food for wanderlust. Teeming with interesting facts, it turns Weston’s perspicacious eye on some of the least visited countries on earth. The result is an accessible, unique and enchanting account. But beware: it will tempt even the least daring to pack their bags for West Africa!’ David Bloom, Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard University

‘Excellent.’ Richard Trillo, author of Rough Guide to West Africa

‘A powerful and uplifting read. This book is like the best kind of journalism from The Economist: sound explanations of brutal economics, heartfelt empathy for the sufferers, and a clear understanding of history, and the political conditions that are making everything worse. I’ve read too much bland and depressingly shallow long-form journalism by the First World about the Third World. I’d like to see Zero Books take on travel more vigorously, to combine their politics with development issues as successfully as Weston has done with The Ringtone and the Drum.’ Vulpes Libris

‘I don’t think Mark Weston’s The Ringtone and the Drum got the attention it deserved on its publication in Britain in October 2012. But then that’s partly my fault: short of reading time, and far from short of pieces from Africa, I glanced at it when a review copy came in to Telegraph Travel, and then put it on a shelf. It stayed there until I was having a clear-out last Christmas, dipped into it, and carried on reading.’ Michael Kerr, Daily Telegraph

‘Gripping…The book I would suggest is not merely a travel book, but a book of political travel. The places Weston visits, namely Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso, are three of the world’s poorest countries, all in West Africa, but are constantly changing in incredibly fascinating ways. Weston deals with extremely difficult issues such as being white and middle class in a third world country, but also gives us insight into forgotten or relatively untapped worlds.’ Carl Packman, Left Foot Forward

‘This is no ordinary travel writing. How little is known – and genuinely cared? – in the developed world about these three countries makes Weston’s work a very valuable enterprise. This is a book about individual lives and journeys – including for Weston himself, whose whole being feels the strains of the experience, and who returns home a month early whilst vowing to return. This is also a story of resistance.’ Melanie Torrent, Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs

‘A fascinating and very readable book.’ Alex Cobham, Centre for Global Development

‘A wise and compelling book, which offers a real picture of what daily life is like in West Africa. Weston is a brave and resourceful traveller, who has entered the heart of some of the most fascinating and least visited parts of the world.’ Toby Green, author of Meeting the Invisible Man: Secrets and Magic in West Africa

‘The Ringtone and the Drum reminds us of our affluence and privilege as well as taking us on a fascinating journey through West African history and geography.’ Julia Manning, Daily Mail

‘Weston’s tour of Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and Burkina Faso sounds like the most depressing read of the year; and it would be, if not for Weston’s fine writing, his well-paced travel narrative, and his many profiles of doughty penniless Africans, in small towns and large, who haven’t succumbed to despair.’ William Claverlee, Perceptive Travel

‘The Ringtone and the Drum is a description of the people of West Africa, their daily struggles, hardships and hopes. The book tells the story of the poor in these countries, hawkers, coffee-sellers, market-stall owners trying to survive by working in the largest employment sector in the region, the informal economy. The lives of the people Weston meets are told with sensitivity and compassion. He shows that the poor of the region are like us, deserving of the same interrogation and expressing the same hopes…The Ringtone and the Drum helps us to understand West Africa, with a deeply humane rage against poverty in a region – and world – of abundant wealth.’ Leo Zeilig, Socialist Review

‘Full of rich detail and interesting historical anecdotes (as well as a surprising amount of political economy shout-outs) about a part of the world that most readers will never see, but its real value lies in Weston’s success at communicating exactly what he set out to discover: “a better idea of how the world’s poorest people make it through the day.” Worth a read.’ Kate Cronin-Furman, Wronging Rights

Mark Weston is a writer and policy adviser specialising in international development. He has lived in South Africa, Ghana and India, and has worked with some of the world’s leading academics and development agencies. He has advised the UK government on the security threat posed by West Africa, and the Nigerian government on ways to harness the potential of the country’s youth. He co-wrote Solving the Riddle of Globalisation and Development (Routledge 2008), and his collaborations with Harvard University, the London School of Economics and the University of California on the links between poverty, gender, education and health have featured in the world’s top academic journals. He is a contributor to Global Dashboard, the foreign affairs blog.When he is not roaming the wilds of Africa, Mark divides his time between Spain and England. His Twitter username is @markweston19.