africa, in a few words

'[africa] is too large to describe. it is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say “africa.” in reality, except as a geographical appellation, africa does not exist.'

(thoughts mirroring my own, but put into words by the most eloquent journalist/writer i have ever read, ryszard kapuscinksi, 1932-2007)

my trip of the past four month through the middle east and africa is not something that i can easily describe. i am not gifted with words. my memory is filled with the smells and sounds and colours of that faraway land, and these are senses that i can't adequately convey with language. so, i can only try to borrow phrases, post photos, and, if you're in montreal and have a spare few hours, you can come drink some karkady tea from egypt, tangawizi tea from kenya, and arabic coffee spiced with cardamom from jordan, or smell berbere spice from ethiopia or thyme from jordan. or listen to me play the rababa, pling-pling(?), or marimba. or press the embroidered green nubian scarf i acquired with some difficulty in the kassala market to your nose and extract the last essence of sudan that it contains. but even then, the memory is brief, and can only suggest the magic that one feels by actually being there.

'in the evening, the quiet beneath the tree is only seemingly so. in reality, the stillness is brimming with the most varied voices, sounds, and whispers. they come from everywhere – from the high branches, from the surrounding bush, from beneath the ground, from the sky. it is best to be close to others at such moments, to feel one another’s presence, for this brings comfort and courage. the african always feels endangered. nature on this continent strikes such monstrous and aggressive poses, dons such vengeful and fearsome masks, sets such traps and ambushes, that man lives with a constant sense of anxiety about tomorrow, in unabating certainty and dread. everything here appears in an inflated, unbridled, hysterically exaggerated form. if there is a storm, then the thunderbolts convulse the entire planet, the lightning teats the sky to shreds; if there is a downpour, then a veritable wall of water pours form the heavens, threatening at any moment now to drown us and pound us into the ground; if there is a drought, then it is one that does not leave a drop of water behind, and we die of thirst. there is nothing here to temper the relations between man and nature – no compromises, no in-between stages, no gradations. only ceaseless struggle, battle, a front line, sparring with his continent’s exceptionally hostile nature, and the mere fact that he is alive and know how to endure is his greatest strength.' -rk