Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

Royal Geographical Society’s Hidden Journeys London to Dar es Salaam Flight

August 6, 2012

Fly the length of Africa with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)’s Hidden Journeys The Hidden Journeys Project aims to enliven the flying experience and transform it into a fascinating exploration of the people, places and environments thousands of metres below by providing inspiring information to air travellers about the parts of the world they fly over (www.hiddenjourneys.co.uk). The flight path from London to Dar es Salaam explores the fascinating cultures, physical landscapes and current political developments beneath this diverse flight path. This journey takes you across the tiny yet beautiful nation of Luxembourg and the striking landscapes of the Ligurian coast, before crossing the Mediterranean and traversing the length of Africa, eventually flying past Kilimanjaro and landing in the [...]

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Champion of The Kilimanjaro Forests: Sebastian Chuwa

March 22, 2012

Tanzania is at the vortex of the African tourist industry, positioned equidistant from everywhere, and packed with just about everything that anyone needs to see of Africa in a compact fortnight’s worth of travel. The integrity and standards of preservation of Tanzania’s national parks are almost unique in Africa, and with iconic names like Serengeti and Ngorongoro to pull in the crowds, the crowds come. The petit Kilimanjaro International Airport daily disgorges hundreds of visitors, each processed and divided up among the dozens of tour busses and safari Landcruisers lining up in the parking lot under the spreading red flamboyant trees. It is an industry that handles nearly 400 000 visitors a year, a major contributor to the Tanzania economy, [...]

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Rourkes Drift and Isandlwana: Key sites of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879

January 1, 2012

Deep in the signature countryside of Zululand – undulating grassland punctuated by rubble crowned kopjies and shallow river valleys – lie two key sites in the mythology of the black/white struggle for Southern Africa. The Anglo/Zulu War in many respects was the beginning of the end of black independent monarchy in Southern Africa. It came about as a consequence of a number of factors, some political and some visceral, but all of which were defined by one simple defining principal.: the simple fact that an aggressive and expanding British Empire could not tolerate the existence alongside it of of an independent, militarily vigorous, politically cohesive and culturally intact black mass such as the Zulu. Whatever might have been the political [...]

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Food & Wine in the Mother City of Cape Town

December 20, 2011

This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaFine food and wine has been a tradition at the Cape since founding of the first European settlement In fact it was when the first administrator, Jan van Riebeeck, produced the very first recorded Cape wine, noted down as the year 1659. An extremely fertile industry was founded at that moment that has been built over many generations into the celebrated wine industry and culture that defines the Cape region today. Integral to the recipe are the many cultures and ethnicities that merged at the Cape, some willingly, but many not, but all of which have contributed extraordinary diversity to the general mix of Cape [...]

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A quick look at South African music

December 20, 2011

This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaThe taxonomy of the local South African music industry is divided most cleanly along the line of race South Africa’s social mindset is informed by race. While this is in fact true for all the countries of Africa that experienced permanent white settlement, South Africa was settled more comprehensively by Europeans over a very long period of time – several hundred years – which has left a deep imprint, a permanent population and a rich and developing culture. The sophistication of the South African music scene is owed to musicians of each race, and all the sub-divisions within these. The result has been the growth [...]

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The South African Festival and Music Scene

December 20, 2011

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaSplashy Fen Legend has it that two friends, Peter Ferraz and Bart Fokkens, were sitting around over a beer one evening in 1990, discussing the decline of the great music festivals of yore. Concluding that the moment had come to reverse this trend the two decided then and there to found a festival in the grand old tradition, and thus the Splashy Fen was born. For those of you not already making plans to drive, hitchhike or walk to Splashy Fen farm in the Drakensberg, then it is probably too late this year to catch the opening acts, but the festival runs for four days [...]

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Experience Africa History Through Travel

December 17, 2011

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaThe brave new frontier of venture travel in the rapidly expanding heritage/history market. This is perfectly configured for the Baby Boomer age group who have the money, a wider world view than their parents and a cerebral view of travel. The heritage market has some obvious and evergreen candidates that will always be at the top of the world culture and heritage listings. Europe, with such notable destinations as Italy, France, Spain and Britain, offer a unique view of the Old World that will never diminish in popularity. Other key destinations are India, with a cultural legacy second to none, various destinations in South East [...]

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South African Cultural Monuments: The Aparheid Museum and the Voortrekker Memorial

December 15, 2011

This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaIn South Africa the Politics of Revolution and Cultural Tourism Collide. Every lodge and hotel in Johannesburg or Pretoria offers come variant of the Soweto Tour, and of course it is impossible to complete a visit to the Mother City of Cape Town without a trip across the bay to the penal settlement of Robben Island, where a peep into the prison cell of former president and iconic revolutionary Nelson Mandela is somewhat akin to a visit to Graceland. However, one of the most compelling and popular sites on the urban map of South Africa is the Apartheid Museum of Johannesburg. The Anti-Apartheid struggle of [...]

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Robben Island: A Legacy of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle

December 14, 2011

This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaPrison Islands occupy a particularly sordid place in the macabre history of crime and punishment. Thanks to the searing autobiography of French detainee Henri Charriere, entited Papillon, or the Butterfly, Devil’s Island has become one of these. The entire Australian continent also lays claim to a penal history. One supposes that the fact of confining dangerous prisoners to an island discourages any form of escape, and no doubt isolates the facility from any kind of investigation, which was certainly the case in the establishment in South Africa of the notorious Robben Island Prison International Heritage Site Robben Island, with its cell no: 46664, the 18 [...]

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A Brief Look at the History and Culture of Tanzania

December 14, 2011

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in Africa

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Heritage & Cultural Travel in AfricaAmong African nations Tanzania has an extremely strong history and cultural heritage. It is here that evidence of the earliest human development has been found, where one of the greatest campaigns of World War I was fought, where one of the great oriental dynasties created a sultanate, and where some of the more memorable tussles of the colonial period took place. The opportunities for Cultural and Heritage Travel in Tanzania are enormous. From the slave market in Zanzibar to the battlefield sites of WWI, the possibilities are endless – with, of course, the beauty of Tanzanian wildlife always a backdrop. A Brief History of Tanzania [...]

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A classic journey: Peter MacQueen’s 1909 Summit Attempt Kilimanjaro

July 30, 2010

The following is an excerpt from American Hunter, explorer and adventurer Peter MacQueen’s account of his 1909 hunting expedition in East Africa AFTER a delightful week with the Germans and the colonists of Moschi we made ready for an ascent of Kilimanjaro. We consulted with Sultan Sulima, and he procured for us sixteen of his strongest young men to carry our loads up the mountains. The chief guide was the famous Souho, who five months before had guided an expedition led by Dr. Ahlbory. They had reached the edge of the crater of Kibo, but on the way down had lost several of their men by the terrible cold on the bare, storm-swept slopes of the upper mountain. We took [...]

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