Destination: Africa
Like Writing on Water
by Christopher Vourlias | 08.06.08 | 11:30 AM ET
Photo by Christopher Vourlias In western Uganda, Christopher Vourlias met Colin, a farmer and poet who questioned the purpose of life while happily revealing the meaning of nohandika ha maiise.
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Yahoo! BuzzFrom the Times of London Archives: Thesiger in Ethiopia
by Eva Holland | 07.25.08 | 9:47 AM ET
Legendary travel writer Wilfred Thesiger waited more than 60 years before writing The Danakil Diary, a narrative about his Ethiopian travels in the early 1930s. At the time, though, he also wrote a handful of dispatches for the Times of London, and the Times travel section has posted those original articles as part of an ongoing series of “travel classics.” Keep an eye out for more travel content from the Times’ extensive digital vault. The section editor expects to post four or five vintage stories each month.
Related on World Hum:
* Top Travel Books: No. 1: “Arabian Sands” by Wilfred Thesiger
My Senegalese Cousin, the Rice-Loving Pig
by Katie Krueger | 07.15.08 | 11:53 AM ET
Photo by Katie Krueger. When the woman selling peanuts at a Samba Dia market learned the Senegalese name adopted by Katie Krueger, negotiations took an insulting turn
Understanding America Through the Eyes of Weird Al Yankovic
by Michael Yessis | 06.16.08 | 11:37 AM ET
The man and his accordion wield some intriguing power abroad, at least for one expatriate family in Cairo.
Climate Change Threatens Africa’s Most Famous Landscapes
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.11.08 | 4:49 PM ET
Bad news from the UN: A lack of snow on snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro. Shrinking glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains. Disappearing Lake Chad and Lake Victoria. An almost 400-page report released yesterday by the United Nations Environment Programme contains the details—and many scary satellite photos.
Related on World Hum:
* Are ‘Climate Tourists’ Wreaking Havoc on Fragile Land?
Photo of Mount Kilimanjaro by pintaa via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Axum Obelisk Returns to Ethiopia
by Eva Holland | 06.11.08 | 10:46 AM ET
In an extreme case of touristic vandalism—a very, very extreme case—the 1,700 year-old obelisk had been removed by occupying Italian troops in 1937. According to Agence France-Presse, it will be reassembled throughout the summer.
Bryan Mealer: ‘War and Deliverance in Congo’
by Frank Bures | 06.11.08 | 10:43 AM ET
The former AP correspondent traveled up the Congo River. Frank Bures asks the author of "All Things Must Fight to Live" about following in the wake of Joseph Conrad.
Violence, Tourism and Hemingway in Kenya
by Eva Holland | 04.14.08 | 9:13 AM ET
In the Globe and Mail, Stephanie Nolen offers alternative safari destinations for travelers scared off by the recent post-election violence in Kenya. For those of us not currently planning a wildlife-peeping trip to Africa, though, the most interesting part of the story is Nolen’s scene-setting introduction: from the normally hustling (and now abandoned) Exchange, a Nairobi bar once haunted by Hemingway himself. She writes:
Black Gold and the Golden Rule
by Jeffrey Tayler | 03.28.08 | 1:33 PM ET
In Nigeria, Africa's leading petrostate, a local oil worker named Sunday had every reason for rage and despair, but as Jeffrey Tayler discovered, he turned the other cheek.
Tosi and Me
by Alexis Wolff | 03.03.08 | 3:53 PM ET
Photo by Sam Limmer. During her summer in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Alexis Wolff bought a pet chicken. It purred. It baaked. And when it left her, she discovered something about happiness.
‘Things Fall Apart’: 50 Years Later
by Frank Bures | 02.29.08 | 11:15 AM ET
For many, Chinua Achebe's classic novel serves as an introduction to Africa. But Frank Bures writes that the place it depicts is now hard to recognize.
A Journey to Remote Kenya to Meet Granny Obama
by Jim Benning | 02.25.08 | 10:17 AM ET
Fascinating column Sunday from Nicholas D. Kristof, who visits a remote village in western Kenya to meet the elderly woman Barack Obama calls his grandmother. She’s illiterate and lives without electricity or running water. Among the wacky political highlights: “You might think that all Kenyans would be vigorously supporting Mr. Obama. But Kenya has been fractured along ethnic lines in the last two months, so now Mr. Obama draws frenzied support from the Luo ethnic group of his ancestors, while many members of the rival Kikuyu group fervently support Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
Mint and Djinns in Fes
by Terry Ward | 02.18.08 | 1:03 PM ET
Photo by Terry Ward. Terry Ward wondered if her Moroccan friend believed in genies. Over a pot of tea, she learned just what she wanted to know.
Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro: ‘Worse Than Childbirth’
by Eva Holland | 02.14.08 | 1:53 PM ET
That’s the verdict Gayle MacDonald comes to, after making the climb with 11 other middle-aged Canadian moms. Her recent story in the Globe and Mail, which is heavy on the ugly details, doesn’t exactly make me eager to try taking on Kilimanjaro myself, but it does make for a fun read about an unlikely group of people breaking from their routines and rising to a challenge. Here’s a sample:
U.S. Issues New Kenya Travel Alert
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 9:50 AM ET
As post-election violence increases and the World Bank threatens to suspend projects, the U.S. State Department urged citizens Thursday to “strongly consider the risks of travel to Kenya at this time,” adding, “U.S. citizens should avoid all travel to the cities of Kisumu, Nakuru and Naivasha, and defer all non-essential travel to the remaining portions of Nyanza, Western, and Rift Valley provinces.”