Do you think that Africa is a dark place? Do you think that it is all only about poverty, lack of education, famine, diseases and bloody fights? Do you think that the people coming from there are savages, who live in primitive tribes and have weird customs? Do you think of people who travel there for any reason as crazy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I’d recommend to read on, and think it through again; maybe you’ll change your mind by the end. For the rest, simply just read on. 🙂
About one year ago, my attitude towards travelling solo to Africa started to change. I suppose many of us think that Africa is an insecure place, since there are health issues, famine, political instabilities, terrorist groups – just to mention a few issues. At least these are the things we usually hear on TV or read on the Internet. We do not really know which country is which, where they are located exactly, how big the countries are, but we like to vision it as one big entity where all these terrible things happen. So the average person just concludes that it is not a land for white people, not for someone who is from the “civilised” Europe, from a developed country. We often refer to Africa as “third world” or more recently as “developing countries”, so naturally, why wouldn’t feel someone from a developed country or the “first world” more superior?
I have to admit that I felt the same as probably most people until a year ago; I was convinced that I would not travel to Africa ever alone. At the same time, I had the desire to see the wild animals in their natural habitats at least once in my life, and I always found it interesting when I saw a program about the culture of the different tribes in Africa. It seems just so different and feels so far from ours, that you just want to go there and check out if it is real, if it really exists. So I had always had this in the back of my mind. Moreover, I definitely hate if someone judges countries, places, people, culture, basically anything based on one-sided information, instead of learning more about it, experience it, understand it more thoroughly, and only when they have enough information, from various sources, then declare an opinion. So I kind of hated my attitude towards Africa and travelling there, because it felt so unintelligent…so not me.
Probably everybody knows the feeling when a tiny little thought just starts to bug your mind, and then you see a picture, a post, or an article about it, and the thought is just getting bigger and bigger, and you just return to it more and more often. That is how I felt about Africa: I saw some pictures from my friends travelling either to North or to South Africa, then I found out that one of my friends is going to move there, to Nigeria, then I saw more and more flight deals to various countries there. So here we go, I just couldn’t get rid of the question: what makes me so terrified about travelling there? Why shouldn’t I give it a try, at least read some stories from fellow travellers, see their experiences first? Why shouldn’t I get more familiar with this huge continent and its countries?
I got myself more and more into this thought, and finally, I decided to give myself an unusual trip as a birthday present. My birthday is in February, and I always wanted to experience how it feels to escape from the long, cold and dark winter days, and to wake up in summer instead. So did the search start for the perfect destination. Somewhere, where it’s summer that time, where it’s hot and I can fill my D-vitamin stocks up. I also wanted a place which is not too mainstream (like Morocco and Canary islands, where I think every second person posted photos from, and every second ads promoted cheap flights flying there), or a place which wouldn’t be such an obvious choice like the South African Republic. It doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in these countries, I just wanted something different from what everybody does.
I was already convinced that I want to try Africa, first, as a new continent to explore, and moreover, because of the above mentioned prejudices and stereotypes. I wanted to defeat my fear, my preconceptions, and also wanted to be a living proof that we all think it wrong, and we should be more open to the “cradle of humanity”, and more critical towards media. I’m aware that there are safety issues in many regions, and obviously I wouldn’t want to push my luck, and go to a place where there is instability, or where it would be too risky to roam around alone especially as a white woman. So having Google is my good friend, I browsed the safest countries in Africa. Then narrowed it down to the ones which have a coast, as I really wanted to enjoy some time on the beach, preferably along the Indian Ocean, which I had not seen before. Another criteria was to pick a country where I could experience the “real” Africa, such as the life of different tribes and wild animals. Last but not least, it had to be at a reasonable price to get there.
I think I don’t have to tell more: finally, I booked my flight to Tanzania, and it turned out to be one of my best decisions ever. Though I have to admit that I didn’t really dare to tell anyone at first, as I was quite afraid from people’s reactions, and that they would just raise more insecurity in me instead of reassurance or sharing excitement. As February approached, I was more excited than worried. As expected, I often got horrified faces as a reaction, or just simply the “really? are you completely out of your mind?”-kinda look. The main concerns I heard were: I’d get kidnapped, robbed, raped and other terrible things. But I know that all of this was coming from the little and one-sided information that reaches most people about Africa. I tried to explain my point of view, that Africa is not a single country, and actually Tanzania is one of the most secure ones there. I also pointed out that I had had very similar thoughts a few months before; however, we cannot just judge based on prejudices, instead, we need to learn more, need to be open-minded, and we also need to try it out first, then form an opinion.
I don’t think I really convinced anyone that time. At that stage, I didn’t even know it myself what it will be like. However, I do hope that since then, I’ve been convincing more and more people about how valuable experience one can get in Africa: how amazing and varied landscapes we can see, how friendly, hospitable and smiley people we can meet, and how much we could learn from them. Of course, it’s not an easy ride to get there, to organise everything for yourself, and to do everything all alone just by relying on your instincts and the universal goodness of people.
I chose to organise everything by myself – as I always do -, not through an agency. I figured out that I’d want to go on a safari and also want to enjoy the white-sand beaches in Zanzibar, but I also wanted to keep it spontaneous as much as possible instead of over-planning. But I’ll talk about the details of the organisation steps and the actual safari and Zanzibar-experience in different posts, just to allow enough time and place to share all my experiences and learnings about both parts.
So let’s just return to the idea of travelling to Tanzania. I mentioned how I gradually changed my attitudes before travelling, as I gathered more and more knowledge about the places. This transformation process culminated while I was there, and I think it changed me a lot after I returned home. In return for being brave, taking the risk of solo travelling to an unknown world despite all the critics and concerns I had got prior to it, I gained so much: friends, both locals and other tourists, I got to see 4 out of the “big 5”, and much-much more animals during the safari, I swam and did snorkelling in the Indian ocean, I learnt some words in Swahili, learnt about the fascinating history of Zanzibar, I met Maasai people and learnt about their tribal culture, and not only Maasai but also others from different parts of this huge country, who happily shared their stories, their life goals, their beliefs and traditions with me – just to mention some things.
I have to tell, my experience was nowhere near to the prejudices we had had at home. I felt secure and comfortable among the people, I always met someone who was genuinely interested in how I am, and was happy to listen to stories about me, my life, my culture, etc. I’ve never got so many smiles and warm welcomes as in the streets of Zanzibar, and I’ve never felt so much a foreigner in a land as in the land of the wild animals in the Serengeti or in the Ngorongoro National Parks, where finally not we, humans are on the top of the pyramid and the ones who rule, but it’s the territory of animals, and we have to behave according to their rules.
Since this journey, I hope that I can make a change in people’s way of thinking, if nothing else but with planting some seeds of thoughts in their minds, which can then grow bigger and bigger, and hopefully will bug their mind, and will motivate them to learn, learn, and learn. I’m not intending to convince everyone to travel to Africa, but at least to make them feel a little curiosity and thirst for more knowledge about this barely known continent, and little by little to get rid of their prejudices. And this is not only about travelling to Africa, but in general, about getting to know the world by our own experience, rather than by politicians, fake news or one-sided information.
Stay tuned, as much more stories will follow from my African adventure! 🙂