Goodnight Dark Continent: Dar By Night
Upon my fifth visit to Dar Es Salaam, three nights before my departure to South East Asia, I bid farewell to home-bound Milli, whose journey abroad has come to a close. For the greatest part of her months abroad I have been fortunate to share in her company. From our French reunion to her Tanzanian departure, Milli and I have challenged each other and our relationship for which I am proud to announce has endured a jarring and exhausting overland journey across Southern Africa. The length of my journey so to is approaching a close for an uncompromising deadline has been set, the 26th of July, the eve of Milli’s 23rd birthday.
I myself exit Africa more cynical than when I had arrived. Exhausted by the state of decrepitude, commissioned grifters and transit extortionists amidst an atmosphere of expectance. The hand is forever out here. A survivalist rational dominates the populous, where moral decency, logical reason and the preservation of your human counterparts are not prerequisites.
Of mistakes made along my journey I have endeavoured to adapt my thought to suit but I have accepted that assimilation is not attainable for me. I am a foreigner, a tourist, a mzungu and for that I can not fuse myself amongst the residents of this Dark Continent.
For each day of my journey, albeit mundane on occasion, I was afforded a sensory feast, a richness of colour and sound, hustled roads and magnificent vistas, a human connection absent from the Western world. To recount my safari would be redundant, suffice to state that discarding a list of to-do’s and an itinerary was truly a success. Although my journey did not stretch as far as Kenya I am certain of my return to Africa for which I shall endeavour to explore, among a number of other countries, Namibia, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
Seen More Than I Remember 