Beyond the safari

Award winning columnist cum author Stephanie Nolan has an interesting article at the Globe and Mail about travel in Africa, and among other things, the impact of civil strife on the Kenyan tourist industry. Beyond Kenya, however, she notes that “there's a wealth of other vacation options on this vast continent. You can take both wildly opulent and budget safaris in South Africa. You can trek in the ancient cliff villages of Mali. Or sail a dhow in Zanzibar. There is much more to Africa than Kenya, despite what Papa Hemingway may have led you to believe.”

No freaking kidding. Nolan does a great job at painting the popular tourist haunts on the Cape to Cairo trail through South Africa, Zambia, and into Tanzania, and deserves credit for highlighting the legendary music of Mali. But in highlighting the most frequented places on the Continent she misses an opportunity to spread the wealth around, and draw attention to equally tourist-dollar starved locations ever so slightly off the beaten path. Now I’ll admit that any mention of travel to Africa is usually met with blank stares and offers of life insurance but having travelled through 17 countries on the Continent, and having crossed 17 borders by land, I’d like to offer an alternative to Nolan’s list.

But before I get to the list, a few important points that may help convince would-be travellers believe that I’m not alone in pushing these far-off destinations. In December 2007, Delta Airlines officially opened three new routes from the U.S. to the Continent, with flights linking New York and Atlanta to Accra, Dakar and Lagos. Even more exotic was British Midland’s decision in February to take over operations of a London to Freetown, Sierra Leone route.

And so I’ll start with this last destination, a former outpost of mine, Sierra Leone. Now I’m not going to paint a particularly rosy picture of this place. Any country that has witnessed a decade + of civil strife is going to bear the marks and stresses of conflict. Power is intermittent on a good day, the traffic is atrocious, and while crime is not a major issue, being out after dark without a plan is a bit beyond adventuresome. But as I learnt while I lived and travelled throughout the country in 2005/2006, it offers some worthy spots for tourists willing to forego the safari-routes of East and Southern Africa.

With hundreds of kilometres of unspoilt coastline, the country hosts several beaches that easily compete with popular outposts in the Caribbean, all minus the all-inclusive four-star resorts. Instead you’ll stare up at the stars from a cozy thatch roof hut while enjoying the fruits of the sea prepared by friendly local hosts, all too eager to earn a few US dollars in an economy where unemployment exceeds 50%. Once the sun rises, boat trips through the mangroves of coastal islands uncover hundreds of species of birds, monkeys and other wildlife, which while not as exotic as the beasts of the Serengeti, offer a much more serene interaction with nature (i.e. you don’t have to line up to take a picture of the lioness).

Once off the coast the potential for tourism is slightly less evident. Freetown, while charming in its own right with its Krio wood-framed houses, ubiquitous street vendors and never-ending supply of English speaking hosts, offers the usual assortment of nightclubs, restaurants and one-room museums geared towards the hundred of NGO workers in town. But a few hours up the road (and to be honest, I’m talking about a couple of hours to travel a few dozen kilometres) the provincial towns of Bo, Makeni and Kono each offer travellers cheap accommodation, great local food and an opportunity to see the slightly slower pace of life up-country. And while far from glamorous it affords outsiders a glimpse of a country in the mid-stages of a massive renovation effort. One which will require much more than a coat of paint but rather a wholesale reconstruction of the country’s foundation. And just so you know I’m putting my money where my mouth is, I’m taking my lovely girlfriend over in May.




Like Sierra Leone, Mozambique is still dealing with the impacts of conflict that raged for nearly two decades. Maputo, the capital, is still frequently plunged into darkness by power cuts and outside of its expensive four-star hotels, offers little accommodation for budget travellers. But with a little searching it reveals itself to be a paradise in waiting where cold one-litre beers are the perfect companion to spicy piri-piri shrimp. I’ll never forget the day a local friend of mine took me for dinner and after ordering the second cheapest option on the chalkboard menu ($4), being inundated with a literal boatload of the country’s precious sea-borne export.

I spent weeks along the South coast of the country, lazing on beautiful beaches with throngs of South African surfers. I liked the place so much I came back a second time, this time travelling through the much more remote fringes of the country’s far north, bordering Tanzania. Here tourists were close to non-existent – in my month or so in the country’s north I came across two French tourists and one American missionary - but the sights were even more astounding. The beaches were still as beautiful as in the South but completing it were several historical cities, complete with ruins of days long past. La Ilha de Mocambique, which served as the country’s capital until 1898, is as picturesque as they come and easily reached by bus traffic from the busy centre of Pemba.



Less easily accessed, but far more exciting, is Ibo Island. This now 200 year old ghost-town once hosted Vasco de Gama. Today it hosts (a luxury resort and) several smaller guesthouses which serve as great outposts to tour the small island’s ruins which include the remnants of Portuguese army fortifications and a crumbling Indian temple. Ibo has a quiet eeriness to it which is aided by the adventure of getting there. Things change rapidly, and hidden tourist gems get popular even faster, so my experience in getting to Ibo may not be applicable today but the story is great nonetheless. For three days in a row I woke at 3am in order to make my way to the main thoroughfare in Pemba to attempt to find the lone pick-up truck that would head towards the coast where I was told I could find a local fisherman who would take me across to Ibo. And for three days I waited without luck. On the fourth day I thought about staying in bed but dragged myself into town and was rewarded with a seat on the back of decrepit Toyota Hilux with, I’m not kidding, about fifteen others. We literally held onto eachother in order to keep from falling off as the truck bounced along dirt roads towards the coast. After several hours we arrived only to find that we had missed the tides and would have to wait for several hours until the waters were high enough to bring us across. And so for hours I chatted with my fellow group of travellers, only one of whom spoke English, but all of whom were eager to know why I was so far from home.

And while nearly everyone who travels anywhere will tell you that wherever they spent their last vacation had the nicest people on earth, sometimes the people don’t matter. Case in point: Namibia. If you want to see nature at its finest then this is the place. Never have I been so awestruck then amidst the towering sand dunes of the Namib desert. There’s really not much more to say – the ethereal silence amongst the sharp edged dunes, perhaps a result of too much sun and too little water, is as close to nirvana as I’ll ever get. Throw in one of the world’s best national parks, Etosha, and Windhoek’s roaring nightlife and you’ll see why I’m planning a return.



And so while Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa are all well-deserved spots for a vacation, so too are Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Namibia. I’ve a list of a dozen other countries with similar tourist possibilities – from touring the rubber plantations in Liberia, to lounging on the shores of beautiful Lake Kivu in Rwanda - it’s all a question of preference. Namibia, for example, is quite well set up for individual travellers with decent local transportation, hostels, campsites and great roads for do-it-yourselfers. Sierra Leone and Mozambique are evidently more challenging and require a great deal of patience, keen negotiation skills and a willingness to forego some of the usual comforts.

But just as not long ago travelling to China, India or the South Pacific was considered out of the ordinary, here’s hoping that someday our tourist dollars might soon stretch to help bring light to the 52 countries so often thought to be part of a dark continent.

Perspective

I’ve just returned from Sierra Leone, a country that went to hell and back. 11 years of civil war, brutal, at times demonic. Walking the streets of Freetown or Makeni you see the scars. Burnt out buildings, rusted tanks and, in particular, -amputees - it leaves a lasting impression.

When I first arrived in Freetown I was somewhat immune to the pain and suffering I saw around me. Having spent time in Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC I came here thinking that it couldn’t possibly be any different, any worse.

Heck, soaring above the swampy Atlantic on the approach to Freetown you’d be forgiven for thinking you had found paradise. Everything looks so pristine from onboard my brightly painted, though visibly decrepit, Russian military helicopter. Beautiful green mountains weave their way through the city, meeting miles of sandy white beaches along the crystal clear waters of the Atlantic. The beach is busy, local boys playing football outside one of the many bars and restaurants that have opened to cater to the since-departed population of UN soldiers and aid workers that at one time numbered nearly 20,000.

But ten years of brutal civil war have left an indelible imprint on the country’s infrastructure and its people. Freetown, the capital, was left relatively untouched until “Operation No Living Thing” entered the city in January 1999. I could get into the details but, truthfully, much of it is too harsh to recount. Put it this way, a lot of people died.

The rebel attack left bullet riddled facades and the blackened outer shells of charred government offices in its wake, not to mention the traumatic memories of atrocities that are now hidden deep in the minds of thousands of Freetown’s residents.

Upwards of seventy-five thousand rebel soldiers once roamed the hills and valleys of Sierra Leone, the bulk of them, young men, often children, were often drugged and forced to commit the most heinous of atrocities. Rehabilitation is inevitably slow.

It took me ages to get used to Freetown. African capitals are chaotic. Freetown, however, takes it one step further. It’s chaotic yet at the same time frightening. For at every corner groups of young men congregate, jobless, without education, and without much hope of anything more fruitful coming their way.

They ply the streets all hours of the day, selling anything they can get their hands on. No need to go far to shop as with a little patience the shop will come to you. The smell of fried cassava, plantains, chicken and fish permeate what is otherwise a mix of dust, rotting garbage and petrol fumes. Children weave between parked cars and the ubiquitous piles of steel and garbage, selling candies, fruit and bags of cold water to passerby’s. The governments’ policy of universal education has allowed most children to attend school but many more are too poor to afford the required uniforms, books and supplies. Most of the children who do attend school do so in shifts, spending their mornings in class and their afternoons on the dusty streets of Freetown trying to make enough money to fund their educations and more often their survival. Young men and women are largely in a similar situation. With few private sector jobs and few chances to attend post-secondary education, they take to the streets hoping to make a few dollars by joining a thriving informal economy. Life in Freetown is not easy. A large proportion survive on less than a dollar a day, enough to eat but nowhere near enough to escape from the cycle of poverty that grips this beautiful West African nation.

And so amidst the dirt and dust that was my home, I, a 25 year old just a few years out of university tried to make a difference. How exactly? Some days I wonder myself. I can’t build bridges, cannot cure the ill, nor feed the poor. My role within a small NGO and the UN seemed unlikely to save the world, let alone save lives. It’s hard to value your role when death and disease are commonplace and the life expectancy is 34.7 years. To put it all in perspective I would often give one of the neighborhood boys who lived near me the equivalent of $0.75 for doing a small job, perhaps laundry, shining my shoes – I just doubled his daily salary.

Months later I still struggle to see what the biggest contribution I can make really is. On one hand I don’t want to be just another rich white man in Africa, satisfying my own desire to help while being seen as a savior by those in need. But at the same time I can’t escape the fact that the modest monthly stipend I received while in Freetown, let alone my salary today, is worth three annual salaries. A rookie police offer takes home less than $30 a month, staff at one of the luxury hotels maybe $40 or $50, a teacher - just $25.

And so months after the peacekeepers left, months after people started talking about change, and months after the optimism and patience that come with peace started to fade, I left, leaving many friends behind.

Now, a few months later, I’m back in the relatively quiet confines of a friends condo in Toronto. Back at work, with my friends, in a city that offers me what ever I could ever imagine. Yet the experience of living in Freetown is still fresh, almost too fresh, as today, equipped with a perspective on life that few will ever have, I struggle to find peace. As every morning I buy a coffee for the equivalent of feeding a family of four in relative luxury over there. I have a gym membership that would pay for their rent for the year. I have, the vast majority there don’t. It’s pretty simple.

And so it comes every couple of weeks or so. It might be while I’m walking down the street, or perhaps while I’m grabbing my morning coffee. It stalks me. The guilt of having left, of having been able to escape, of having. Or, as I put it not so politely to my friends, the guilt of perspective and the fact that “perspective’s a bitch.”

No matter the signs of progress I saw while I was there, and there were some, I’d even like to think I helped create a few, I can’t help but think that so much more should be already be in place. Money is theoretically pouring in. DFID, CIDA, USAID…. they’re all there. They’re all pouring money into projects. And yet people are still dying from diseases they shouldn’t die from, from water they shouldn’t be forced to drink, from problems they shouldn’t have to face. And yes, I know, measures of wealth and income are all relative. The basic necessities of life, however, are not.

But so goes the reality of life. Some have, some don’t.

I, for one, got lucky, very lucky. And while I may not know the meaning of life, my travels have given me perspective. I’ve seen young men in Rwanda with scars that have left them looking more alien than human, met women so often raped that they’ve lost the ability to care. And so tonight, as I sit in the confines of what is once again home, I can’t help but think of my friends in Sierra Leone, in Rwanda, and in Burundi. And while I know that one man can only do so much, I’m determined to go back and to try to help them build something better. Some might say it’s just another case of a rich westerner wanting to satisfy his own somewhat selfish desire to help. Perhaps, but in the end, does it really matter?

My last night in Sierra Leone was spent outside Mohamed’s roadside shop, engulfed by shadows and watching cars stream by in the darkness. I sat there knowing I was leaving, leaving them behind. Knowing that I could do nothing more than hope against all hope that things would get better, that perhaps I had done something to make things better, and that perhaps they would find a way to build a better future. For without hope, we are but shadows of what we could be.

Patience is a virtue.

In the tinderbox that is Freetown, most sit idly by as the clock ticks. Life in this land of abject poverty is simply a matter of survival. Enough money for food, for a taxi, maybe for a bread and butter breakfast. Three years after peace was declared they still have nothing. Young men who were once rebels, sit idly waiting for something that may never come, work, school, anything to get them off the streets. But as everyday passes the threat that someone will drop the match rises, the paper house swaying gently in an Atlantic breeze…. Nothing to lose….

Karoake.

How I’ve ended up in this Karoake bar with a handful of soldiers is beyond me. Nonetheless I’m now watching them take their turns belting out god-awful renditions of Hits from the 80’s. But this isn’t about sounding good. This is about, albeit momentarily, forgetting whats going on outside. Forgetting that beyond the walls of this fortress lies a country in shambles and neck-deep in poverty. So thousands of miles away from home, here they are, a proverbial united nations of peacekeepers – Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Guatamalans, Nepalis, Nigerians and a few Brits.

Dusty Streets and Sweet Smells

I’ve been in Freetown for three weeks now and while the city is still an utterly chaotic place, I’ve really taken to it. Men and women ply the streets all hours of the day, selling anything they get their hands on. The smell of fried cassava, plaintains, chicken and fish permeates what is otherwise a mix of dust, rotting garbage and petrol fumes. Children weave between parked cars and the ubiquitous piles of steel and garbage, selling candies, fruit and bags of cold water to passerbyes. The governments policy of universal education has allowed most children to attend school but many more are too poor to afford the required uniforms, books and supplies. Most of the children who do attend school do so in shifts, spending their mornings in class and their afternoons on the dusty streets of Freetown trying to make enough money to purchase their next meal. Young men and women are largely in a similar situation. With few private sector jobs and few chances to attend post-secondary education, they take to the streets hoping to make a few dollars by selling second hand clothing, towels, etc. Life in Freetown is not easy. A large proportion survive on less than a dollar a day, enough to eat but nowhere near enough to escape from the cycle of poverty that grips this beautiful West African nation.