Vroom-vroom in the bush

摘要

With only one paved overland road, South Sudan is not an obvious place for car lovers. Yet locals harbour intense feelings of devotion for certain Japanese vehicles. "One day my son will drive a v8," says a man making a living by renting out sockets to recharge mobile phones on a street corner in the capital, Juba, his voice swelling with hope. The v8 is the upper range of the Toyota Land Cruiser, named for its engine blocks with twin, angled rows of four cylinders. Purring gently even on bush tracks, it is the most popular car in the world's youngest country, which turns two on July 9th. No newly minted minister is taken seriously, it seems, without one. Drivers populate street corners at all hours of the day, lovingly washing v8 bumpers with buckets of soap, as they sing odes to their metallic companions.