The most revealing part of any country, and especially an African country, is its border. Anyone can land at the airport in the capital and be fooled by modernity, but it takes a certain nerve to ride a bus or a train to the frontier, always the haunt of the rabble, the dispossessed, people struggling to leave, trying to get in in, the bane of officialdom. The customs and immigration officials at border crossings are not noted for their graceful manners, yet they are more representative of life in the place than any number of meet-and-greeters in the capital's international airport.
- Paul Theroux, "Introduction: Study for Figures in a Landscape," in Figures in a Landscape, p.xii
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