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Signing off from West Africa

Friday, May 18th, 2007

This is our last day in West Africa after three months here and five months travelling overall since the Asian Games. So, while waiting for our 3am flight, some thoughts…

The first two months in Arabia and Morocco were really enjoyable. Yemen was just as I’d hoped it would be – tribal, mysterious, beautiful and different. The architecture of places like Thula, Shibam and the old city of Sana’a was very special, and the whole place has an atmosphere all of its own (the dancing and shooting festival being the epitomy of this).

The touts aside, Morocco was an amazing place as well. It’s one of the most geographically diverse countries I’ve ever seen, one in which you can go from the edge of the Sahara to the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in barely more than a day. The High Atlas was perhaps the single biggest highlight of the whole trip for me; wonderful mountain scenery, and we were so lucky to have clear skies and beautiful light every day despite it being winter. Plus the medinas of Fes, Marrakesh, Meknes and Rabat were all wonderful places, Todra Gorge was spectacular – the list goes on and on.

And then we went to West Africa and it wasn’t as much fun anymore. I’m really glad we got the chance to come here and experience life in the poorest region of the world, but I’m not clamouring to return to West Africa anytime soon (perhaps the Sahara in Niger aside).

Perhaps these words will offer some perspective. This is from the Bradt guide to Benin, written by someone who otherwise seems to like Africa a lot:

‘There’s nothing that’s good or comfortable about Africa. There is nothing at all nice, nothing gentle, nothing friendly, nothing pleasant and nothing easy. In every possible way, Africa is the worst place in the world. Whatever way you look at it, Africa is Hell. Don’t think of it as anything but your worst nightmare.’

So be it. There were some things that were really enjoyable about West Africa – namely elephant spotting in Burkina Faso and Ghana, the mask festival in Burkina Faso, traditional markets in Mali and Burkina Faso (suddenly realising that Burkina was my favourite country in West Africa by a reasonable margin), the scenery and architecture of Dogon Country in Mali and getting to know two locals quite well (Sorif in Dakar and Steven in Accra) and a couple of travellers in particular (Ted and Lockie).

But everything was hard in West Africa, from transport to the heat to the electricity problems to the lack of development (especially in Mali) that made it hard to find goods anywhere. The harmattan haze was so frustrating but I was pretty lucky in the end that I was able to get the photos I wanted from the most interesting places.

So, a couple of lists to finish:

Things I will miss about West Africa:

– The colourful clothing worn in every country.

– Watching rural scenes, especially women carrying huge buckets on their heads and village life, where everyone gathers by the lone water pump (if they’re lucky enough to have one).

– Street stalls, where you can buy a plate of hot food for US$0.40.

Things I won’t miss about West Africa:

– Any form of transport, especially motorbike taxis with packs on (though it strikes me that I still have to take one or two more of these later today) and anything in Mali.

– Waking up in the middle of the night in your already stuffy and hot room to the sound of the fan slowing down to a stop.

– The ‘Yovo, yovo, bonsior, ca va bien, merci’ song that every kid in Benin feels the need to sing at you everytime they see you (Yovo is the name for white people in Benin), and generally being called a yovo/tubob/obroni/blanc (or whatever the word for white person is in whichever country you happen to be in) dozens of times every day.

Tomorrow we’ll be back in Rome for the start of five months or so in Europe doing various things (getting married etc). Needless to say, after three months in sub-Saharan Africa, we can’t wait…

Slow boat up the Niger

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

One more Mali ‘catch-up’ post before getting to Burkina Faso and more recent events…

After leaving Dogon Country, we took a public motor boat up the Niger River to Timbuktu. Because it’s the dry season, the river levels are low and the boats get stuck pretty regularly on the sand, so what was supposed to take three days actually took seven. This wasn’t too bad, as we could lie down on strategically placed sacks of grain and had enough space to ourselves. It was certainly more comfortable than a bus, which I guess is the main thing when you’re on African transport.

The main highlight of the boat trip was that we saw quite a few hippos, some at pretty close range. I didn’t really get any good photos but it was still nice to do some animal spotting. There will be more chances for (hopefully) closer hippo spotting in Burkina Faso, so maybe I’ll get better shots then.

Other than this the main thing we got out of it wasn’t so much a ‘highlight’ but an insight into the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. Some villages had cattle and some grass, but others were desperately poor – people living in straw shacks in the sand, with no apparent agriculture or means to generate food or income. I’m really not sure how they are surviving. It’s this kind of rural poverty that makes Africa stand out from the rest of the world. What I usually associate with poverty – city slums – have been largely absent here compared with some other places I’ve been to like, to name a few, Jakarta, Calcutta, San Salvador and Casablanca (where the tin-shack slums even have satellite dishes on them!). But it’s this poverty in the countryside that makes Mali the fourth poorest country on earth according to the UN Human Development Index (the three countries below it are also in West Africa) – no schools, no healthcare, no water except from the filthy river (which they both defacate in and drink from), nothing. It was certainly a pretty humble experience, and not one that will be forgotten easily.

After six days we made it to Timbuktu, which has a great name but is pretty much a dump. I was hoping it would be more or less like Djenne but it was dustier, hotter and devoid of interesting architecture save for three mud-brick mosques, which were nice and all but not worth the journey if you’ve already seen mud-brick mosques elsewhere in the country.

During our time in Timbuktu and for the few days afterwards, it was hotter than anything we’ve experienced so far on this trip. The harmattan haze, which is caused by winds blowing south from the Sahara at this time of year, was also pretty awful. In general, it seemed like the smartest thing to do was to get out of the Sahel (the semidesert region south of the Sahara) and head further south to some greenery and coast. So we made the tough choice to skip Niger. We had really wanted to visit the Nigerien Sahara, which is supposed to be perhaps the most beautiful Saharan landscape in any of the 10 countries that this desert straddles, but with the heat and the harmattan it didn’t seem worth paying up to US$150 a day for 10-12 days of haze and poor visibility. So, instead we headed south for Burkina Faso, and hopefully we’ll even see some rain in Ghana in a couple of weeks.

Dogon Country

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Dogon Country has probably been the highlight of West Africa so far. We met a bunch of cool travellers in Djenne and were lucky enough to bump into most of them again in Bandiagarra for our three-night trek into ... [Continue reading this entry]

Djenne – a mosque and a market

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Well, it's been so long since I wrote an entry that I hardly know where to start. Internet access is both expensive and elusive in Mali so I haven't had a chance to update the blog.

After leaving Bamako ... [Continue reading this entry]

The worst bus ride ever

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

Oh, absolutely. Worse than the 12-hour 'shlerk' bus from Risanni to Marrakesh in 2001; worse than the numerous 15-hour cramp buses in south Sumatra in 2003; worse than the 17-hour mountain ride up the Karakoram Highway in 2004; and ... [Continue reading this entry]