Once upon a time . .

My Home in the African "bush" - 1967

Joan, Alan and Graham at Victoria Falls - August,1975

I immigrated to Africa as a 12 year old boy. It wasn't a decision I made consciously but the journey from Gadsden, Alabama to Uitenhage, South Africa would have a profound influence on my life ever after.  I was destined to live in South Africa (12 years) and then Rhodesia for another 13 years before returning to the US and settling in Littleton, Colorado with my wife, Joan, and three children Alan, Graham and Carol in 1980.  

The children grew and in 1984 Joan, who was born in Rhodesia, passed away when Alan was 13, Graham was 12 and Carol was 10.  The following year, I took the three kids to Zimbabwe for four weeks.  We stayed with their grandfather Hank Blowers, visited many old friends and had a memorable week-long camping trip on the shores of Lake Kariba. The trip had a major influence on the 14, 13 and 11 year olds.  Apart from the experience of the wilderness and wildlife, the kids were  able to cement memories of their earlier years (they were all born in Rhodesia -  now Zimbabwe) and see people and cultures that few Americans get to see firsthand.


Several years later, Jan and I were married and we brought together her two children, Kevin and Kristin and my three.  This Brady Bunch amalgam allowed us to experience five High School graduations over a five year period.  


Later we organized our first tour group and went on a 17-day tour of Zimbabwe.  That was the beginning of quite a few trips to the southern end of Africa.  In 2000 we attended a course in Denver and acquired credentials as Certified International Tour Managers (CITM) with the intention of leading small tour groups.
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Now it is January 2011 and Jan and I have begun to fulfill a long-held desire to go back to southern Africa with some of our children and grandchildren. This is a blog about that trip, begun a year and a half early.  We wanted to wait until our grandchildren were old enough to appreciate the wonders of the dark continent and Avery will be 11 when we go back in July 2012. 

On New Years day 2011, Kevin, Michelle and nine year Avery came over for lunch and we began to discuss Africa 2012.  I sent an email to our daughter Carol, to Alan and Lauren and their three daughters Keely (9), Sydney (8) and Abby (4), and to Graham and Candace and their two boys, Cameron (10) and Chase (6).  The word was out.  The time is now.  Start taking notes and making plans.  Above all, begin saving money.  

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This blog is a diary of sorts; but not just a diary.  I will add stories from long ago and write about some of my experiences living and traveling in Africa.  Jan and I have kept travel journals and self-published books of each of our six trips to southern Africa (some of which we will throw in here to add some flavor) and I had the good fortune to be able to visit several remote, but remarkable, National Parks in Tanzania in 2005 and published a book of photos and notes from that journey as well -  which I will share.

The final part of this lengthy introduction is about books.  We operate a small home-based business which we call BookCrafters.  Through our experience (since 2007) of designing and publishing books using BookSmart software from the online publisher Blurb.com, we began to help others create and publish their own customize books.  It has been a rewarding endeavor and we have been kept very busy, helping interesting customers and making friends across this wonderful country.  This blog and the travel journal that it will eventually give rise to will be published as a book.  

I wrote the following blog about Africa in 2007.  Seems like it might make a decent introduction.

A blog about Africa  17 February, 2007

One can only go so long without thinking about Africa. I think, therefore I blog. Ask many people what their "once in a lifetime, dream vacation" would be, and the reply is often, "a trip to Africa." What they don't really foresee, of course, is that once you visit, the urge to return is planted firmly in your mind. Before you leave that vast continent, you almost invariably begin to plan the next trip. 






When it is discovered that I lived in Africa for 25 years, from the age of 12 until my 37th year, I find I have to answer certain questions over and over. A few examples:
1. "Some friends from our church run a mission near Lake Victoria. Do you happen to know them?" When I ask in what country the mission is located, there is often confusion. Africa is a very big place you see, with over 50 countries, five time zones, seven or more climatic regions, 900 million people and, evidently, as many as 14 million proverbs. Then I have to explain that Nairobi is a mere 1,800 miles from where I use to live in Harare and no, the despotic regime of Idi Amin did not threaten me or my wife and children.
2. "Is the political situation in Africa stable now?" or "has the rioting in South Africa subsided?" It's difficult to answer these questions.
3. Someone once asked me, "Where IS South Africa?" I calmly explained that it is at the southern tip of Africa. This seemed to make a lot of sense to my inquisitor. Perhaps he was just testing me.
4. "What is your biggest fear when you go to Africa?" The answer to that one is easy, "That we'll eat too much."
5. "If you could go to one place in Africa, where would it be?"

Aside from familiarizing ourselves with basic geography, it is a good idea to read about Africa. Watching Animal Planet or National Geographic documentaries about wildlife, is entertaining and interesting, but it seldom reveals much about the people, cultures and political circumstances of the continent. One of the most insightful articles I have ever read (and I have read a lot) about Africa was published in January 2006, in Granta 92: "The View from Africa." It was authored by Binyavanya Wainaina, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Wainaina is the founding editor of a literary magazine called Kwani? and was recently nominated by the World Economic Forum as a "Young Global Leader." 




His brilliant essay is titled "How to Write About Africa," - 'some tips: sunsets and starvation are good.'  It is included in a compendium of new African literature, along with the writings of 14 other writers, from disparate backgrounds. Wainaina's observations are cruel, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek, funny and truthful. A few excerpts will give you an idea:
"Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Peace Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress."
"In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people, who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular." 




"Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between Africans (unless a death is involved), references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation." 



"Remember, any work you submit in which people look filthy and miserable will be referred to as the 'real Africa', and you want that on your dust jacket. Do not feel queasy about this; you are trying to help them to get aid from the West. The biggest taboo in writing about Africa is to describe or show dead or suffering white people." 

"Animals, on the other hand, must be treated as well rounded, complex characters. They speak (or grunt while tossing their manes proudly) and have names, ambitions and desires. They also have family values: see how lions teach their children? Elephants are caring, and are good feminists or dignified patriarchs. So are gorillas. Never say anything negative about an elephant or a gorilla. Elephants may attack people's property, destroy their crops, and even kill them. Always take the side of the elephant." 


"Readers will be put off if you don't mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red." 

"Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care." 


This author has his finger firmly on the pulse of western literary attitudes. If you are interested in reading the entire text of Mr. Wainaina's article, do a Google search for Binyavanga Wainaina or go to www.granta.com/extracts/2615.

Jan and I have planned a tour to Namibia and Botswana for next year (2008) and when we do that, the questions begin again. The fears and doubts are revealed. We always go to see the wildlife and the scenery, old friends and, yes, the sunsets! It is hard to describe the thrill of sitting in an open vehicle within a few feet of an elephant, or a cape buffalo or a pride of lions. There's that question,"Isn't it dangerous to be so close to those big cats?"

My formative years in Africa and our travels over the last decade have always been immeasurably enriched by the friendly people we meet along the way. We have seen local people being treated rudely by tourists, Americans among them, who are ignorant, arrogant and paternalistic and who seem convinced that every African is in need of charity. - an attitude so skillfully described in "How to Write about Africa."

We, as visitors, have always been afforded the greatest courtesy and respect by the people of Africa. It is the warmth and sincerity of Africans that, more than anything, draw us back, whether in a hotel in Johannesburg, a National Park in Tanzania, a beach front café or a rural village.
The late Simon Combes, that brilliant painter who was raised in, educated and who lived in Kenya, and who was tragically killed by a Cape Buffalo two years ago, talked about his experiences as a Game Guide with 'first time visitors to Africa' who came under an "unsettling effect of African hypnosis." They become "hooked", he said, and are drawn to return.
And, oh, our favorite destination in Africa? - the Okavango Delta of Botswana.