Dr Livingstone, I presume? By Balfour Ankomah. "Africa is a beautiful continent, full of potential and attractive people who deserve more...Yet it is not clear that the continent can generate its own salvation. It may be necessary to devise some form of neo-imperialism in which Britain, the US and other beneficent nations would recruit local leaders and give them guidance...while removing them from office in the event of backsliding" - Bruce Anderson in the Independent, 2 June 2003. There is nothing so harrowing as to see a Western writer consumed by nostalgia parodying himsel [View Full Entry]

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"At least 18 supporters of the main opposition party in Tanzania's semi autonomous island of Zanzibar were wounded on Sunday after police opened fire on a crowd. "I heard the gunshots" said Salma Mohamed, a Zanzibar based reporter covering the political campaign there ahead of 30th October elections" IRIN [url=http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49441&SelectRegion=East_Africa,%20East_Africa,%20Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=TANZANIA] irinnews "Welcome to paradise", said the hotel porter of the Africa House Hotel, Stone Town, Zanzibar. The Africa House, in [View Full Entry]

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Lake Malawi takes up 20 percent of the total area of Malawi, at the southern tip of Africa's Great Rift Valley. The shoreline of the Lake is one of the most beautiful in the world. The trip I took on the Ilala ferry, along the lake shore to the island of Likoma, was a highlight of my time in Malawi. The Ilala carried me to isolated villages in its own sedate fashion. It's not a tourist service. It's an essential life line for the small villages that line the lake. The timetable published by Malawi Lake Services is a work of [View Full Entry]

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When you think of Mozambique, what comes to mind? Never ending dazzling white beaches, gorgeous turquoise blue lagoons, coral reefs, magical old towns and prawns the size of your fist. It doesn't? Why not? Probably, because the only knowledge you have of Mozambique comes from pictures on TV disaster relief appeals. Not only is Mozambique beautiful and the people welcoming, but it also has the added bonus that most of the world´s tourists haven´t made it here yet. A tropical paradise. But... there is trouble in paradise. The food security crisis that I mentioned in Swazila [View Full Entry]

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"Sex can wait," scream the posters in Mbabane (the capital of the kingdom). "Aids can kill you and your dreams." 40% of the adult population in Swaziland is HIV positive. You read that right. It's not a typo. A staggering 40% of Swazi adults are HIV positive, the highest rate of infection in the world. It's a pandemic that threatens the country's future. Life expectancy at birth has fallen to 32 years. The king has just ended a 5 year ban on sex for young women one year early. The ban known as Umcwasho was supposed to be a "traditional" way [View Full Entry]

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It's been 3 weeks since my last blog, so this is going to be yet another lengthy article. In that time I've traveled from Cape Town to Durban along the coast, visiting places on the Garden Route and Sunshine coast. The Garden route, Sunshine coast and Wild coast are all marketing names for the stretch of coast between Cape Town and Durban. The first part of the coast is known as the Garden Route. which is very scenic coastline of indigenous forest, lagoons, dunes and beaches. Other highlights of my trip have to include the Cango Caves in Oudtshorn and the [View Full Entry]

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Namibia is awesome! It's a big country - four times the size of the UK, but with a population of less than 2 million. It's a place of arid deserts, jagged mountains and haunting beauty. It's also a place that cries out to be photographed. So, despite ruthless deletions of photos from my digital camera, I've still uploaded 88 photos for this blog. Distances between settlements in Namibia are huge. Public transport to many of the places that you would want to visit is non-existent. Also, many of the roads are not tarred. That means, it is necessary to either rent [View Full Entry]

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As I'm typing this up, I'm just hearing news of the bomb blasts in London. As you may know, I'm a Brit. It looks as if a lot of people could have been killed. My sympathies are obviously with all those who have suffered. There's not a lot you can say in the face of horror. At the end of the last blog I rather played down how ill I was feeling. In fact, I was shitting liquid and felt like death warmed up. As I result, I lost a few days feeling unwell, which means that I haven't visited as [View Full Entry]

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Maybe, I'm being unfair. Cyclone season is late August till November. But it's rained. A lot! Madagascar is like no place on earth. Separated by a few hundred km's from the African mainland, it's unique. Evolution has taken its own course on this giant island - a high percentage of the islands flora and fauna is only found here. Added to which, the people and culture are unique. The nearest language related to Malagasy is spoken on Borneo, which gives some clue to the origin of the first inhabitants of this island. But, Borneo is a hell of a long way [View Full Entry]

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Botswana at independence was one of the poorest countries in the world. It's now one of the richest countries in Africa. It's democratic and politically stable. It's fortunes were transformed by the discovery of diamonds near Orapa in 1967. Botswana's biggest problem is AIDS - 36 percent of young adults are infected. It's a vast country with a tiny population and large pristine wildernesses. The most spectacular of the wildernesses is the Okavando Delta. The waters of the Okavando river spread out, to be swallowed eventually by the sands of the Kalahari desert. The delta is a vast [View Full Entry]

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