Published by Empire in 2006, Le Mal d’Afrique presents Africa through the deliberately broad frame announced by its subtitle, A Journey into Old and New Africa. Guillaume Bonn is the named contributor to this 149-page volume, which is catalogued under photojournalism, pictorial works, and history. Those categories locate the book between visual record and historical inquiry rather than within a narrowly defined travel narrative.

Its central proposition lies in the conjunction of “old” and “new.” Instead of treating the continent as a fixed subject, the title establishes a field of comparison: inherited histories alongside contemporary conditions, continuity alongside change. The charged French title adds a note of unease to the more descriptive subtitle, preventing “journey” from reading as a neutral itinerary. Together, these elements suggest that looking at Africa also entails confronting the language, memories, and historical assumptions through which it has been represented.

For collectors, the book deserves attention as a mid-2000s publication that brings photojournalistic and historical modes into a sustained book-length framework. Its significance rests not on claims of comprehensiveness, but on the tension built into its conception: one Africa described through competing temporal ideas, and a journey shaped as much by history as by geography. The 149-page extent allows that premise to operate beyond a single image or isolated report. As an object of study, Le Mal d’Afrique offers a focused example of how a photobook can use its title, subject classification, and extended visual form to position contemporary observation in dialogue with the past.