I am still in Mozambique, although I shall be getting on a plane to Johannesburg in a few hours, and then another to London right after that. My trip has been a very brief one. I came to Johannesburg for a friend’s wedding, and (partly drivern my great love of things Portuguese) then spent a few days in Mozabique after that. It has been well worth it. (However, upon meeting some members of the South African branch of the Jennings family, I did have to turn down an invitation to visit them at their private game lodge as I had already booked the trip to Mozambique. That was a shame).
I have had a fascinating and enjoyable time, although I have only been able to look at a small area in the south of the country: Maputo, the Ilha da Inhaca, and Catembe. I now know that some day I really must see the Ilha da Mozambique.
Of course, what I would really like to do now is take another couple of weeks, and work my way up the entire length of Mozambique to Malawi and Tanzania. But of course, I do not have time, and in fact in theory I am going to work in London tomorrow. (Who am I kidding? What I would really like to do is take three months, and work my way all the way to Cairo).
So I don’t think it will be long before I visit Africa again. I have lots more to write, but that can wait until I am back in London.
Wasn’t ’30 Days To Cairo’ once the motto of the South African Defence Force?
Nice pictures, Michael. More please!
My mother-in-law was born in the Sudan as was her brother, who now lives in Zimbabwe. On a recent visit to England, he joined us for a day, by the end of which, I was quite envious of him living there. He has a house maid who travels many miles each day to clean for him. It is from her small income that she and many in her family manage to survive. Perhaps it is this that keeps him there in spite of all the problems, for without his support her life and those of her family would become intolerable. Or maybe it is the hold that Africa has over him that has greater force than the rationale for leaving. I once read a book by Laurens Van Der Post which, apart from being beautifully written, gives a marvellous insight into a mind which has been captured by Africa.
Even if you don’t get that, you, sir, are a lucky man and I’ll only forgive you if you keep posting the stories and the pictures.
Yes, I second that, more photos, please.
I have no desire whatsoever to go on a tropical odessy through Africa, but Michael will do it for us, anyway!
However much Africa gets into the soul, economic incentives mean that I don’t live there anymore. Personal safety disincentives make my return to the land of my birth doubly unlikely. South Africa is continuing the process of “Zimbabwefication” with no indication that they will wake up and reverse the trend. Crime is so bad that it is a rare person living there who does not have personal experience of violent crime (my house had been burgled 4 times in 10 years, family and friends mugged, hijacked and some even murdered, mostly gratuitously).
Of course my african heritage and upbringing rebels at the overregulation and statist mentality of Europe but all of africa is now experiencing a combination of the worst of anarchy together with the worst of regulation and the corruption that both breed. Racism is of course as healthy as ever in Africa, if not worse and it reinforces the notion that there is no worse oppressor than the previously oppressed.
I work off the Coast of Africa, I would rather not do the tourist thing, at least not in the places I have had to pass through to get to work.
Some of it is beautiful, and I am sure Michael Jennings would love to take photgraphs in Luanda, the colonial buildings, where they are not crumbling from neglect, in juxtaposition to gleaming new office blocks and equally ‘gleamless’ shanties is a sight to behold.
My time in Africa is limited to a few nights here and there, coming and going to work. Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Abidjan, Accra (on the way to Abidjan, we couldn’t land in the Ivory Coast due to the civil unrest and had to fly a charter plane from Ghana) Luanda and Capetown. I would take my family to Capetown, the rest I would not, and only take them to Capetown to visit the Waterfront and use it as a Springboard inland.
I expect my taste of Africa has been tarnished due to the fact I work here. I would love to come away with the feeling of wanting to come back and explore, but I only come away with the fact that I need to come back to pay the mortgage.
Later
Gengee