Prelude to African Safari

There was this Roman sage who was well known for predicting the things very accurately, to the point. Once he was asked the same question by four tourists. ‘How much Rome would they see?’ He countered the first one, ‘How many days was his stay in Rome?’ ‘May be year or so’; he replied. To which sage said ‘you would hardly see any Rome.’ Second one said,’ He might stay for six months or so, to which sage replied, ‘you might cover half of the Rome’. Third one’s stay was going to be one week. The answer he received was, ‘May be three quarters.’ The last one by this time was totally in the tethers. He mumbled, ‘I might be here for just 2 to 3 days.’ Sage’s face brightened, he said, ‘You are my guy; you will see entire Rome, whatever there is to see!’

Within a short span of 14 days it is difficult to cover even a part of any nation and here I am going to boast that I saw the entire continent of Africa and I know it. Outrageous!

It was for the first time I was going to take conducted tour for a foreign vacation as the information that poured in blared from the rooftop that ‘Africa’ is neither for your self- planned tour as I have always been doing in the past, nor going ‘SOLO’ ,just forget it! On various grounds. Africa is not a tourist friendly continent. It’s still really a dark continent. There is hardly good transportation for lack of good infrastructure. Except few countries which were British Colonies, English is spoken rarely. And even in those countries only city dwellers have access to English, in the interiors everything is GOK! Urbanization is still eons away; most of the Africans still lead a tribal life.

On personal front I was not sure of myself. After undergoing Rod placement surgery for Intra-trochateric fracture of Right femur, though outwardly my recovery was complete I was not sure about taking long walking spells. Plus I was still finding it difficult to stand longer than even for 10-20 minutes.

Taking into consideration all the factors we booked for a tour by Kersari Travels that was to leave in second week of May. It was to cover 3 countries, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Quite a task. Because 1. Distances, 2. Infrastructure and 3. Local culture.  Everything was/is vastly different and apart. After completing the tour I must say it was not only reasonably priced but was executed with clockwork precision.

I normally do not do any homework prior to the actual tour as it takes away the surprise ‘Wow’ factor. But after coming aback I always check the things which do/did not fall in the place. Like who decided the borders of countries in Africa? Simpler answers thrown in were 1. On tribal basis 2. Linguistically. It not only was none but was more intriguing. In and around 19^th century in Africa there was hardly any concept of nation. Except Liberia which was formed with the help of US of A, Egypt and Ethiopia the entire continent of Africa was in disarray. Egypt was a country from the times immortal while Ethiopia too is equally ancient hardly occupied by any other country, in its case Italy which was merely for five years.

After second industrial revolution 7 white Supreme Masters from Europe, Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Dutch with Belgium and Spain started spreading their tentacles under one guise or the other, not only in Africa but in Asia and South East Asia too. We the India too were their prey! And thus they grabbed the lands left right and centre. And then the concept of boundaries crept in. In 1884 by Berlin convention it was decided that whatever arbitrary boundaries existed between the colonies should be normalized as international borders. This, all the 7 whites decided amongst themselves without bothering about local African people, languages, topography, and culture whatever. Surprisingly when African Union came into existence to avoid the border disputes they too accepted the boundaries delineated by whites. So even now the boundaries are absolutely arbitrary!

When you say Africa, second image that pops up in the mind is of a ‘Tall, hefty, black and monstrous ‘African’ person. Negro? Don’t say that again. It’s a term coined to denigrate the African pride and it intones hidden tinge of slavery; though the simple meaning of it in Spanish is ‘Black’ as in color. The Americans especially Hollywood is mainly responsible for maligning the term, and the persona that comes with it.

Was it a deterrent? I won’t lie, to certain extent, yes. For a different colored person to take a lazy evening stroll after dinner at 6 P.M., it’s still not a done thing in Africa even in big cities!  But to the contrary Africans too raise the families and are quite amicable was the other side of the coin.

We Indians are considered Brown but do all of us really fit the bill? We have so many shades. Right from fair absolutely white coming from North Western India to pitch dark paddy workers from down south. There is a point that is always raised by African Blacks, even though Indians are colored when it comes to taking the sides we always try to be, though Whites don’t give a damn about it, with whites. Consider the reactions of parents of an American Indian Boy marrying a white girl and other one marrying a black girl?  It’s obvious! So why should we look down upon Black Africans?

With so many views, prejudices and lots of anxiety about everything under the Sun we reached T2 on the stipulated date and time to start our ‘African Safari’!