The smell of Africa

It is not a romantic smell. It is not the smell of free people, living as they would choose. Rather, it is the smell of people who labour, strain, and toil for every drop of sustenance their body receives from the earth. It is the smell of of people who have been marginalised and disempowered and forgotten. It is the smell of of people without a voice in a world where only the loud are fed. It is the smell of people who are alive only because they are cunning, ingenious, and endlessly resourceful. In theory they are "peasants".  In practice they are brilliantly versed in the skill of surviving.

A passage from Scribbling the Cat. Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller. 

Absolutely brilliant.