This book tells the story of George Monbiot's journeys among some of the tribal peoples of East Africa, showing how they are confronting the forces which threaten to deprive both them and us of the life that civilization has tried to suppress. In northern Kenya he saw how bandits, equipped by the corrupt governments of both Kenya itself and some of its neighbours, have been massacring the nomads, driving the survivors into famine zones where first the cattle then the humans die. Further south he watched the open savannahs on which the nomads rely being divided up and reduced by ploughing. But he also saw that the nomads of East Africa are finding ways to survive. All nomads are opportunists, and the adaptability, the cultural flexibility that opportunism demands means that they are possibly better equipped than any other of the world's traditional peoples to withstand dramatic change.