Alan Whelan’s first novel, African Brew Ha-Ha, was published on 31 May 2012.
African Brew Ha Ha: A Motorcycle Quest from Lancashire to Cape Town
Tea-drinking is a ritual that binds people together. Alan Whelan was on a unique quest: to find the people at the hidden heart of Africa… and sit down for a nice cup of tea with them. On the 14,000-mile solo journey through Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and all the way to Cape Town across deserts and the toughest roads imaginable, he met sporting legends and ministers, peacekeepers and outlaws, and countless people who shared their last morsel of food with him.
Armed with little more than blind optimism, he experienced a jaw-dropping ride. Uplifting, insightful and funny, this is the story of one man’s determination through the most physically and emotionally challenging five months of his life.
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The Black Stars of Ghana – A Motorcycle Adventure in West Africa
Travelling against the backdrop of Ghana’s Black Stars’ thrilling performance in the 2010 World Cup, Alan Whelan sets off on a motorcycle adventure into the heart of West Africa. Curious to discover the current state of Ghana after two generations of independent rule within his lifetime, he rides optimistically on a continent that has had its fair share of trauma. He aims to prove the lie to the warning in 1951 by a British politician that to allow African colonies their independence would be ‘like giving a child a latch-key, a bank account and a shotgun.’ He meets witches, fetish priestesses, custodians of the slave trade, and the only white chief of Ashanti who confirm that if Ghana is an indication of progress the future of the continent is bright. The fuel for the trip becomes the electric atmosphere in every town and village he visits as the Black Stars progress through the World Cup taking place in South Africa. He becomes convinced that their success is partially down to the mysterious black powder he is given by a fetish priest. ‘It is from the bush,’ says the priest. ‘This powder will keep you safe. It is powerful!’ But will it see the Black Stars to the final and will it see him to the end of the journey?
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Empire Road – Lake Victoria by Motorcycle
On his third solo African motorcycle journey, Alan Whelan turns to one of the defining features of the continent: Lake Victoria. Using the lake as a hub, Empire Road reveals the beauty and the tragedy, the inspiration and the ingenuity of a region that still resonates from the days of empire. After acquiring a boda-boda motorcycle taxi in Nairobi, he undertakes a thrilling ride around Africa’s greatest lake, travelling through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, on roads and tracks that once brought the great Victorian explorers to the interior. Alan continues his uncanny knack of meeting the most fascinating people who will live long in the memory, from Kenya’s superstar long-distance runners to survivors of the Rwandan genocide. He even finds time for an impromptu audience with Barack Obama’s elusive Kenyan grandmother.
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FRAN A Song for Banyana
Fran Hilton-Smith is an award-winning coach and sports personality, and a crusader for women’s rights. But that’s not half the story of this remarkable South African’s life. In a frank, poignant and often hilarious account of her time playing and leading women’s football, A Song for Banyana goes behind the scenes when she was at the centre of Banyana Banyana’s rise from dusty pitches in the townships to the biggest football stadia in the world. Her memoir reveals her obsession with bikes during her tomboy childhood in Driehoek, and later how she broke down gender barriers in sport. As a guitarist and drummer in numerous groups she immersed herself in African jazz, and even played for her hero Nelson Mandela with her band ‘Basadi Women of Jazz’.
Fran was the first woman on the Confederation of African Football technical committee, and was part of the FIFA Technical Study Group for countless World Cup tournaments. A FIFA, CAF and COSAFA instructor, Fran continues to mentor the next generation of administrators and coaches, and was part of FIFA’s Female Leadership Development programme of their Task Force for Women’s Football. She has received many honours, including Shoprite Checkers Woman of the Year, the National Sports award, and the Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement award. Fran lives in Germiston with her family.
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Mandela Park
Anna Schippers, descendant of Southern Africa’s rural San people, receives a mysterious letter which prompts her first ever visit to Hout Bay, Cape Town in search of her missing sister who fled there three years earlier with a dream to run a hair salon.
When Anna is told that her sister in fact worked as a township bar girl under the sinister influence of Xhosa tsotsi Zuko, she suspects he might be responsible for her disappearance.
During a steaming hot summer in the pulsating township of Mandela Park, Zuko and Anna, opposites in many ways, discover they have one terrible secret in common.
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