Back to Africa

We will head to Dulles Airport shortly, to board South African Airways’ nonstop flight to Johannesburg.  We will spend half the next week on a friend’s ranch in the Kruger Park, mostly tooling around in a Land Rover, taking pictures of the herds of elephants, water buffaloes and various kudu, springbok, rinos, lions, cheetahs, etc. etc.  And then the other half in a small village in Congo, where, I am promised, there will be wifi.  If so, I’ll be online.  If not, we’ll be back in time to vote and will be back online on Nov 3rd or 4th.

I’ve been going to Africa for a long time, on average twice a year, and I’ve got lots of good friends there.  For the most part, it’s been a wonderful experience, and for Americans who have spent a lot of time thinking about “race,” going to Africa is a great education, because very few Africans think much about it.  The big thing is tribe, not race.  We’ll be with Zulus, Swanas, and Bacongo, for the most part.

Remember when Clinton went to Africa and tried to apologize for the slave trade?  And President Museveni of Uganda cut him off, laughing, and said “don’t apologize for that;  we did that”?  There’s a certain basic realism to life in Africa that cuts through many of the stereotypes of political correctness.

In Kruger we’ll eat mostly meat;  in Congo, mostly fish, with lots of vegetables and fruit.  And great beer everywhere, one of the benefits of European colonialism.