Away Awhile Journal Entry 59

Journal Entry 59

November 14th, 2005

"Me and Africa"

Egypt's just a transit point for me, and now I'm leaving Africa for good. So I suppose that after, well, going on eight months on the continent, I could write some impressions of it, as I did for Asia. Most of this stuff applies to black Africa, sub-Sahara.

There are some things I never realized about Africa before I came here...

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NOT THE SAME

We tend to lump all of Africa into one word: Africa. I'm the same. Was, anyway. For me, this word meant black people, jungle, danger, animals. There's so much more! And so many varied parts--the people, geography, everything, must be split up into a few distinct regions. And I'll just describe each region and the impressions I'm left with in a few simple words.

These are generalizations:

* West Africa: Sand and heat. Desert, tea ceremonies, street food, smelly cities, quite undeveloped, friendliest people, most untouched, French influence. Gritty rice with sauce, drinks in plastic bags, horrible roads.

* East Africa: Dust. Swahili, MMBA (miles and miles of bloody Africa) -- endless savanna, oogali (corn porridge), tourists on safari, English colonial flavour, whitewash, mosques.

* Southern Africa: The Black New World. Modern cities, poor shanty towns, paved roads, most expensive region on the continent. A land of stark contrasts.

* Morocco: Morocco gets its own category, but I think it would slide nicely into a slot called 'Northern Africa,' extending across to Egypt (certainly different, but more in common than with sub-Saharan Africa). Tajine, Arab, full of history, incredible food, tea, dates, mosques, more sand. The further east, the more of a melting pot it becomes.

* Ethiopia: This is little-realized I think, but Ethiopia is its own world. It has little interaction, in fact little in common, with ANYWHERE else in Africa. Strange. Orthodox Christianity, white and gray robes, and wood and iron staffs, beautiful mountains and valleys. Injera, coffee, generally the continent's best food (aside from Morocco).

* And then there's central Africa, which I skipped. CAR, Congo, Angola, etc. I still see it as dark humid jungle, danger, the unknown. A black hole, filled with haunting images painted by Joseph Conrad.

I feel like I've left a piece behind, yet to be explored, perhaps, some day. But I do this everywhere. How boring it'd be to see everything and leave nothing for the future!

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THE SCOOP, AS BRIAN SEES IT

I dislike that charity is seen as a right, not a privilege, in Africa.

That said, as I've travelled more, I think I've softened a bit when it comes to haggling over prices. I'm certainly not one to get ripped off, but I have a distaste now for getting that last cent knocked off.

I've said this before, but it's so good, so true, that I'll say it again...
Q: How many people can you fit on an African bus?
A: Two more!

Speaking of buses...
A busload of 60 people probably has 20-25 HIV-positives on board. How scary is that?

Two classes of objects exist in Africa:
1) Breaking
2) Broken
Even things yet under construction fall into one of these two. Anyone who's been north of South will agree.

Africans have good posture, and I think it's because of balancing stuff on their heads all day--it requires good spinal form.

African plastic bags are not objects: they are fleeting phenomena, apparently designed with a self-destruct timer and a very short fuse. They are generally useful for about an hour, then they join their brethren, swirling through the air, cluttering drains and alleys, filled with holes.

And about holes...I still maintain that the most likely cause of danger and death when travelling in Africa is to fall into one. Holes are everywhere.

You can generally piss anywhere you want in the West and in Ethiopia, to a lesser extent in the East, not a good idea in the South.

What's the rarest sight in Africa? A woman between the age of 15 and 40 without a baby tied to her back with a cloth. Aside from parts of southern Africa, it is absolutely startling, if you pause to consider, the number of children in this place. Out of control.

Africans can be truly vile towards each other. Discrimation against foreigners? Not really. Towards each other? Definitely. I've never been places before where there's so much animosity towards neighbors. Kenyans hate Ethiopians who hate Somalis. Everyone hates Nigerians. Within individual countries it can be even worse. A nightmare. And it won't fix itself. There's no common brotherhood. (But I suppose our world is no different. Look at the Balkans. Quebec. Texas.)

I could head off about 90% of all people who approach me with a pre-canned response, stating:
* America. No, not New York. No, not California. Minnesota. It's very far.
* BRI-AN, not Bra-heem.
* Yes, I like Africa. Yes, African girls are beautiful. No, I don't need one.
* No, I cannot help you get a visa. My address won't help.

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ME AND TRAVEL

West Africa beat me up, but my impression of the continent wouldn't have been complete without those three months, and they were extremely valuable in their own way. You can't get the full picture without getting everywhere (which I don't claim to have done), and this was the most important piece for me.

In my final weeks in Africa, a friend wrote me: 'Why are you still in Africa?' A good question. Not always sure. But in the end, I think I spent the perfect amount of time there. My list of 'things to do' was probably not typical...

I actually have callouses on my ass from travelling in this continent. I don't know of anyone who actually wanted to hear that, but it's true.

I'm not so goal-oriented. I didn't care to do the complete 'Cape-to-Coast' route that seems to be everyone's dream. I never saw a lion or cheetah, nor did I really care to. I didn't climb Kilimanjaro, I didn't even bother getting close enough to see it. I spent over a week on Zanzibar without going to the beach. I never did a safari. But, I wasn't in Africa to see the sights.

What was important to me? Movement. Observation. I've actually been criticised by travellers for the way I've seen the continent, zipping from here to there. (Travellers can be snobs, me included.) But for me, seeing Africa was sitting on a bus, observing. Walking through markets, observing. Eating and staying with people I met, observing. Shopping for dental floss, observing. Getting lost, trying to hitch rides, always observing. Always moving. Combined with an open mind, this allowed me to get just as far, or further, off the beaten track than many people who spend much more time here. I notice how huts change, how fruits in season change, how the dress and jewellry changes. This is the stuff I care about.

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EDITORIAL FINALE

I met an Israeli girl who told me that her soul was definitely African -- felt she could spend ages here, loves the music, the people, everything, so much. Well, my soul? It's not African (thus a mere eight months on the continent). I like the place, but as a visitor. No, not there. Hard to say at this point...I suspect Asian or Alpen roots. Somewhere a bit more peaceful.

There's a hopelessness here, unparalleled anywhere I've travelled. Aside from extreme northern and southern Africa (and even there, though in other ways), this continent is generally a mess. Propped up on foreign aid, led by shitty leaders, exploited by the West, and full of its own internal cancers. It has pockets of hope scattered about, but I believe that Africa will not, cannot, develop in the way we see 'development'. International do-good-ers of the world, plug your ears: It is not right for this place. A happy Africa is one that over the next century learns to balance itself without outside help. Exceptions aside: Very tribal, very agricultural, very independent. Alas, I think it's destined for much worse... You can disagree with me. But spend the better part of a year here travelling around before you do.

Africa frustrates me. Thinking about it, I get happy and angry all at once. My spirit is a bit too fiery to put up with life here on a long-term basis. I'd worry that I'd be eternally unhappy, or it'd just break me. Read 'North of South' by Shiva Naipaul. Best book on Africa I've read, presenting a broad range of perspectives, often brutal.

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EXIT, STAGE LEFT

What a fantastic idea it was to go back up the coast after hitting southern Africa! Though not originally planned, leaving the New World and winding my way back up, then getting spat out the northeast side, onto the Arabian peninsula... A well-executed plan (or general lack thereof)!

Extremes abound...Wandered Morocco's night markets with thousands of people, spent solitary nights in desolate hotels with only a notebook and a guitar. A free safari in a yet-to-be-created game park, and $300+ for a single day with the gorillas in the Congo. Eleven days without speaking to a white person in Guinea, almost that many without speaking to a local black person in Namibia. Desert in Mauritania, waterfalls in Zambia. Cold beer in Zimbabwe, hot millet grog in Burkina Faso. Nearly melted in The Gambia, froze in South Africa. Met people who took me into their homes and fed and sheltered me, others who've pilfered my belongings. Spent $8 for a two-day bus journey, and then $700 for a two-and-a-half hour flight.

Seen former colonies of France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, England, and one occupied by Italy. Gone through yellow, pink, brown, and green flip-flops. I've crossed deserts and lakes, dealt with dodgy officials, seen mountain gorillas, been caught in a sandstorm with a poorly-wrapped turban, been to Timbuktu (and back). Slept in/on beds and roofs and parking lots and taxis and trains and bus stations and huts and a remote Chadian border post and an open-top ore wagon. Rhinos in Zululand, manta rays in Mozambique. Seen fancy mosques in Senegal and their rough mud counterparts in Mali, stone-hewn churches in Ethiopia, animist ritual dancing in Ghana and Benin, ancient pyramids in Egypt. Cashews in Guinea-Bissau, dates in Morocco, mangos in Guinea, bananas in Malawi, prickly pears in Tigray, grapefruit in South Africa, soursop in Tanzania.

Reflecting, I'm a bit surprised at how much I did pack in. Despite my occasional bitching, I had an amazing time!

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To the surprise of many, I've survived. And despite taking no precautions, no bugs have crawled out of my skin.

I continue to get things figured out. I'm close. There, sometimes. It won't be long.

'...his head no longer sheltered ideas of how things could be and should be on the planet, as opposed to how they were. There was only one way for the Earth to be, he thought: the way it was. Everything was necessary. He saw an old white woman fishing through a garbage can. That was necessary. He saw a bathtub toy, a little rubber duck, lying on its side on the grating over a storm sewer. It had to be there.' (Vonnegut)

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