Why Africa?
This is our fifth trip to Africa in 4 years. Each has been a
discovery.
2011 for 5 weeks in Egypt—silently mourning the tiny boy that
was Pharaoh Tut, putt-putting across the empty immense of Lake Nasser over the drowned
lands of Nubia, discovering the black African roots of Egypt in Nubia and sinking
into the beauty of the desert in the Great Sand Sea of western Egypt.
2012 for 7 weeks in Namibia
(all wrenched geology, immense sand dunes, and a night with the most ancient
branch of our human family, the click-speaking San people of the Kalahari),
Botswana (the world’s only inland river delta, canoeing through archipelagos of
hippos and lotuses), Zambia and Zimbabwe (immense marches of elephants and
towers of giraffes..and the Zambezi River exploding over Victoria Falls, The
Smoke that Thunders), Kenya and Tanzania ( the endless plain of the Serengeti,
elegant jumping Ma’asai of physical perfection and Oldupai Gorge, called a
cradle of humanity, once a fertile savannah, but now a forge of heat and rock )
2012-2013 for 9 weeks to return to Egypt, via Jordan and
Turkey, and best of all, two weeks 4x4 trek across Sudan (the ancient Nubia...and
discovering the ‘Martian’ ruins of the pyramids at Meroe, and perhaps the roots
of Egypt, being at the spot where the White Nile from Uganda meets the Blue
Nile from Ethiopia, our guides surprising us with a party on December 31st).
2013-2014 for 7 weeks in Uganda (glorious landscapes, the
source of the White Nile, trekking twice to the wild mountain gorillas and
being rewarded by a gentle touch on my knee) and Cameroon (a 90 year old polygamous
king with a modern world view and a sense of humor, the Koma people, gracious
and clothed in leaf skirts, 13 hour overnight train rides..to endless Michael Jackson
videos, perfect beaches with more perfect barracuda steaks and shrimp that
belie the name).
But, again, why Africa?
Is it the names... really, can you
beat Zambezi, Serengeti, Zimbabwe, Sahara, Ngorongoro, Ruwenzori, Bwindi
Impenetrable Forest, and Kalahari?
Is it the eye candy: exquisite women,
graceful as giraffes, men, especially in Cameroon, their equal in beauty with perfect
physiques, toned in the gym of life?
Is it the color: crafts with a truthfulness
of substance and design, cloth rippling with impertinent design and color, skin
from mocha to the deepest, richest mahogany, almost purplish in its purity? Is
it the diversity of culture, language, form, landscape?
Is it the people, warm,
welcoming, generous, surprising? Is it the landscape, the ‘endless plain’ of
the Serengeti, the Sahara staggering in its immensity, variety, and ruthlessness
under an endless sky, the Nile, sliver of life through the desert?
Or, is it animal life, rich and varied beyond anywhere else
on our planet, immense gatherings and wanderings of elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest,
lion, buffalo, hippo, many doomed by the encroachment of human need and greed,
but for now communities of life in which humans are a part…and a guest, one
animal among many…the way we were for hundreds of thousands of years.
Perhaps the last comes closest to answering the question:
Why Africa?
One late afternoon, bumping back to camp across the Serengeti,
Kilimanjaro immense over us, its glaciers throwing the sunlight back in great bursts
over a world of edenic perfection, something extraordinary happened.
My body and mind seemed to ooze out into the astonishing
rightness of the landscape, like droplets of mercury seeping out to seek a
whole somewhere outside me. I talk about it now as my DNA reaching out to grab
the landscape, returning to its roots. It
felt very much like a going home. Could it be? Our ancestors walked out of
Africa twice. Surely somewhere deep inside us there must be some memory of
that. Perhaps that is where the notion of the Garden of Eden really has its
origin...in our DNA...a memory of a time when humans and animals were part of
the same world and that world was beautiful? I have no idea. I do know that Africa
hold on me is solid, real, beloved.
And so I go back. Seduced. Willingly.
We leave November 4th for 9 weeks in Ethiopia and Chad.
The idea
for the trip was birthed last winter in a cramped 4x4 bumping over rocks in the
north of Cameroon. Our driver (the charismatic Evans) reminded us we were near
to both Nigeria and Chad. Luis our buddy from Sudan, aka He Who Has Been
Everywhere, erupted in a seizure of visa-lust. CHAD! And, so it was sealed. It
would be Chad in winter 2014-2015. None
of us had ever been, no one goes there, it is totally non-touristic, the landscape
is phenomenal, we all love the desert, there are nomads and camels.
Ruth, our other Sudan buddy, delectable and unflappable,
signed on from the front seat. As it
turns out Luis will not join us in Chad. Ruth will; it will be our third year
in a row to spend New Year’s together in Africa. Then Dennis and I will go to Ethiopia
on our own.
Originally Ethiopia was just a ‘pass-through’ on our way to
Chad. Most of the trip would have been in West Africa, to Mali (how could I
resists going to Timbuktu), Burkina Faso (ditto Ouagadougou, my very favorite
city name) or Benin (home of voodoo). Ebola put an end to the three week trip that would have included
3 days sailing on a traditional boat up (or is it down) the Niger River to
Timbuktu.
Ethiopia has always been on the bucket list, just below West
Africa. Fares to Chad are much cheaper
via Ethiopia on the excellent Ethiopian Airlines. And we can use frequent flyer
miles to get from Florida to Milan, a major airport for Ethiopian. And on the
way we get a few jet-lagged days in a small town on the eastern shore of Lago
Maggiore. Done.
Stay tuned.
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