Book Reviews

This is the story of an amazingly courageous woman who traveled from Europe to Zimbabwe on her own, and what a story it is!This book reall...
Alice
Dot Bekker…my favourite person. I feel like I know but I don’t. I’ve read your book describing your amazing journey about going home to Zimbabwe...
Adele
What an amazing read,what a brave woman!!!I just cant put the book down, shes such a good writer ❤️ (Facebook)
Thoko
This book was an answered prayer, a daily entertainment and a true inspiration. I feel like I know Dot personally after reading this book....
Michelle
I found “Going Home to Africa” a gripping, authentic, informative and humorous book! Gripping…in the countless unpredictable travel/r...
Gerald
From the first chapter I was hooked and followed Dot's adventures down the coast of West Africa with awe. I bought the book because I too am con...
Jordan
Dot took me on the journey of a lifetime. I witnessed the challenges, frustrations, joys and overwhelming beauty of Africa from the comfort of m...
Wendy
I had the pleasure of meeting Dot when she was living in Solsona and have followed her adventures on Going Home to Africa on IG. I have been so ...
Ruth
This is a brilliant story of a lovely lady driving solo from Northern Africa through many countries to go home to Zimbabwe. This touches my hear...
Dallas
Going home to Africa is an honest, humble and uplifting account of an incredible adventure and Dot’s fighting spirit and firm belief in the univ...
Fiona
Absolutely Compelling I could not put this book down and I am not an avid reader, getting bored quickly. I loved every moment of her jou...
Antoinette
FANTASTIC BOOK! I LOVED every page of this book and didn't want it to end. I have read many travelogues and this was by far my favourite...
Kevin
My first impression was just: Wow! Hats off! What an impressive book... I can already now say that it is, along with Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitze...
Susanne
Dot is one of the most amazing "road" friends we made while overlanding through Africa, and whatever we were doing she brought a tremendous sense o...
Laurie
I absolutely love travelling so this story really spoke to me. Having followed Dot in real time on her epic journey, I’m now absolutely loving the ...
Catherine
I think the fact that you share ALL of your experiences, good and bad, and do NOT leave out the huge challenges and obstacles you had to face on a ...
Susanne
I’ve just been spending the whole evening with your book. I feel so fascinated by your story and I love the way you’re describing both breathtaking...
Alexandra
Absolutely loved it. Very inspiring and Dot I would love to meet you one day when I visit Zimbabwe again. Thank you for sharing this amazing story....
Justyna
I have just finished reading Going Home to Africa and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more as the journey went on... Her experiences become more ...
Nicola

Going Home to Africa

One Woman's quest to return home, driving from Europe to Zimbabwe.

Going Home to Africa - The Book

GHTA COVER

I'm often asked why I wrote the book and to be honest it was in response to the many requests I had from my followers to share more of my story and travels. Little did I know at the time that it would take me longer to write about it than it would to actually do it. From starting to write in November 2019 to publishing in April 2020 it was indeed a mammoth task.

I had to write the story, and after setting out the structure I simply threw it all down into my computer. The initial story was well over 200000 words, it seems I had a lot of story to tell and even then there were things I later realised I had forgotten to include. From there I personally read and edited the story twice. This was essential as I found that there were obviously days when I was tired or distracted and what I wrote was mere nonsense. There were two proof-readers and my fabulous editor who also read it several times. Frankly by the end of it all I was thoroughly sick of it.

Nonetheless, I chose to self-publish because I didn't think anyone would be interested in my tome and it seems that only the really famous authors make any money with publishers, all the smaller authors I had spoken to were earning pennies on the book with their publishers taking a huge chunk and on top of all of that they were still expected to do their own marketing. That decided me on self-publishing, I am reasonably technologically enabled and know something about marketing, but it seems not nearly enough about book marketing and I set out to become an author.

I chose Amazon print-on-demand, although their terms and reputation were not great they offered worldwide access to followers. I also decided to print books in Zimbabwe as most people here don't have access to Amazon and shipping costs would be extreme. I'm delighted to say that the book launch went well. I even did a Zimbabwe book tour and when crazy COVID calms down I am looking forward to doing one in South Africa.

To my delight, especially as a first time author, the reviews have been amazing and you can see some of these here on the website (a compilation from Facebook, Amazon and Goodreads). 

I'm now working on Book 2 which will be entirely different, it will be called Being Home in Africa and it will talk about returning to a country that I was absent from for 38 years and what it is like to return.  Watch out for that one in 2022.

To find out more about the book find it on your local Amazon or here on www.goinghometoafrica.com.

Copyright

© Dot Bekker

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Thursday, 07 November 2024

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About Dot

Dot is Zimbabwean born and raised and after having lived in Europe for 20 years she decided to return home but uniquely she decided to drive  through Africa to get there.

She achieved her dream by driving 20,000kms through 18 West African countries over 8.5 months on her own for most of the journey.  Her book of the same title will soon be launched,and you can find out more about Dot or subscribe to the Blog for more.

 

Kusasa Scholarship Fund

Alongside my journey I've decided to raise funds for scholarships for girl's education in Zimbabwe, find out more about that here, to contribute to the Scholarship Fund please do so here.