Credit: Nanjala Nyabola
Today, with close to 60 countries under my belt, most of which I’ve traveled to on an absurdly tight budget, it makes me a little sad that when I’m traveling in Africa I’m often still the only African I encounter on my travels. Travel is the steepest and most meaningful learning experience a person can ask for, and it’s important to get more Africans crossing borders and expanding their imaginations, so that our ideas about this idea of Africa are informed more by primary experience than secondary knowledge, usually filtered through Europe.
We say ‘Africans don’t like to travel.’ But actually, African communities are probably the most itinerant communities in the world.
The point is, if you have time and you want to go somewhere on this vast continent, there are probably people heading that way. Another way of phrasing this piece advice is this – get over yourself. If other people can sit on the back of a truck full of goats and chickens for 3 hours, or on a bus for 26 hours, why can’t you? Approach it that way, and the world is your oyster.
It’s so much easier than you think and so much more rewarding than you can hope. Traveling in Africa can be challenging, exciting and invigorating, but is never anything but worth it.
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