Praise & Reviews
Others who have enjoyed these moving, funny and inspiring memoirs of a life in Africa – amongst whom noted writers, journalists, actors and travel specialists – have shared their praise, below…
Thirty-five years after “I Dreamed of Africa” by Kuki Gallmann, another extraordinary, moving and even more unforgettable story of real life emerges from the savannahs of Kenya. Antonella Bonomi’s is a personal, almost intimate diary, written primarily for herself and her family, a collection of true adventures, including those of the soul and the heart, that unite the Africa of yesterday to that of today. “Canto d’Africa” is not a reportage of the continent’s miseries, nor is it the artificial exotic dream of an easily impressionable tourist in search of escapism. It is a one-off, impossible to duplicate, true journey of a woman who life (and the ambitious project of a husband who is pioneer of nature conservation) takes from a bourgeois and urban life to the uncontaminated wilderness of Africa among the maasai warriors. Here, at the foot of Kilimanjaro, little by little she discovers a vocation, for herself and for her family, that goes beyond the postcard image of her company’s luxury safaris and becomes a brave human adventure that, before the last page is reached, each of us would have dreamed to experience.
Riccardo Orizio
Journalist and Writer
Africa's is an infinite song sung by millions of voices, human and animal, that has always sought its harmony and often, extraordinarily, manages to find it. Antonella Bonomi, unlike Karen Blixen who was the first to transcribe the score, does not ask herself if Africa "knows its song", because she herself has become part of those melodies. Narrating what is a "choice of love", with a captivating style between autobiography and novel, pages recovered from a diary saved from the fires and from the surprises of life in Kenya alternate with frescoes of wild Nature, respect and deep gratitude for a Land that "can give a lot, but can take away just as much, suddenly and without a reason". "Canto d'Africa" does not celebrate the entrepreneur who with her husband Luca Belpietro created and manages Campi Ya Kanzi, one of the most magical, sustainable and renowned realities for safaris in the savannah, but celebrates the deep gratitude to the African continent and its life lessons. The journey of a passionate and courageous woman, of a proud and present wife and mother, a life story that, also thanks to the wonderful setting in which it is set and the author's ability to narrate it, enriches us and does us good. Singing about that Africa that teaches "every day a little to live, and a little to die".
Freddie Del Curatolo
Journalist and Writer