The Last Caravan is a powerful and dramatic account of how the great African drought of the early 1970s transformed the nomadic Tuareg, the famous blue-veiled men of the Beau Geste legend. Thurston Clarke recounts their story in his words and theirs, allowing them to come to life as they describe their sufferings and wanderings in search of food and comfort. Their story is a powerful one of ecological disaster, of the courage and nobility of an ancient people facing extinction, and of the struggle to preserve their families and way of life.