All About Africa
Overland from Cork to Cape Town

Africa - A Factfile of the Continent of Africa - Niamh O Riordan.

Amazing Africa

People are mystified by our trip. What has possessed us? Why are we going to Africa? Dodgy, dingy, dangerous Africa. What about Malaria? What about the conflict in Sudan? What about bandits and thieves? When we ask Irish students about Africa, their thoughts turn instantly to war, famine, disease and poverty. Africa has a bad rep. But for me, what seems most striking about Africa is its diversity. In this, the penultimate pre-departure Imokilly installation, I would like to talk about Amazing Africa.

Heroes

"And then a hero comes along, with the strength to carry on and you cast your fears aside and you know can survive," sings Mariah Carey. Nelson Mandela inspired the world and there are others too whose stories are an inspiration. In Africa, where economies are shrinking, where people are dying and where tribes are warring, these heroes remind us that there is always hope.

Sorious Samura is an award winning filmmaker from Sierra Leone who has risked his life to tell the story of suffering fellow Africans. His bravery is an inspiration. Dr. Aida Seif el Dawla has done courageous work to break the silence surrounding torture and to fight for basic human rights in Egypt. Waris Dinae survived female circumcision and escaped an arranged marriage in Somalia at the age of thirteen to become a world famous human rights champion and supermodel. The story of Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan Hutu who sheltered over a thousand Tutsis during the genocide in 1994 is told in Terry George's harrowing film, Hotel Rwanda.

Then there are the artists, musicians, writers and philosophers of Africa who will leave to future generations a rich and vibrant cultural inheritance. Yinka Shonibare of Nigeria is a Turner Prize finalist. Other famous artists include Wangechi Mutu from Kenya, Marlene Dumas and William Kentridge of South Africa, George Lilanga di Nyama of Tanzania and Julie Mehretu from Ethiopia. This week, I have reviewed Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart while authors such as Wahome Mutahi, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Flora Nwapa are well regarded at home and abroad. In terms of music, South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo have found an audience here at home while Nigeria's King Sunny Ade is ever-popular throughout Africa.

Hope

The average Westerner is fifty times better off than the average African and per capita income in Africa is ten percent lower than it was in 1980. It is also estimated that ten thousand children die every day in Africa from malnutrition and lack of adequate health care. Still, even in Africa there is hope for a brighter future.

The Millennium Development Goals have admittedly met with limited success in Africa but they do represent a step in the right direction and could pave the way toward more egalitarian relations between North and South. Botswana shines like a beacon of hope across Africa. It is a truly successful democracy. Uganda is performing well economically. Its economy grows by about eight percent annually. We have all heard about successful development projects that go to show that aid can work. In a continent devastated by the HIV/Aids epidemic, anti-retroviral drugs are at last getting through and in some countries HIV/Aids rates are at last diminishing.

High Jinx

Why Africa? Why Not? Next week, Malachy and I are heading off at last, to 'darkest' Africa. Of course we are nervous. It is a risky proposition. But without a doubt, it will be the trip of a lifetime. We will see and do a lot over the next eight months or so and it won't all be visiting hospitals, projects and orphanages. At the risk of turning green with envy, read on and see some of what Africa has in store…

All going well, we will travel over seven thousand kilometres through over a dozen countries. We will encounter Tuaregs, Berbers, Masai Warriors, Bedouin and many more. We will visit the Kingdom in the Sky (Lesotho). We will visit the pyramids of Egypt and gaze upon the ancient Sphinx. We will travel on the Nile, the world's longest river. We will visit Ethiopia, home of the ancient Aksumite Civilisation. We will travel to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda to see the world famous Silver-backed Gorillas. We'd like to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and visit the Victoria Falls and take a kayak safari perhaps. We might even catch the great Wildebeest migration in the plains of the Serengeti. I can't wait.

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