Africa

Several friends have written and asked me what Africa is like. I do not think my writing skills can manage an accurate description, but I will ramble a bit on the topic…

To me, coming to Africa is coming closer to earth. Sometimes I feel like California life has been plasticized, like a rock wrapped in layers and layers of saran wrap. All the layers make it look sparkly and it feels nice and squishy between your fingers, but it is no longer a rock. Africa is pure rock. There is no protective or decorative coating between your bear skin and the course texture of the natural earth. If it does not rain, people starve. If it rains too much, people become infected with diseases carried by mosquitoes. Every part of human life is entwined with the ebb and flow of nature. There are very few shields. Earth is everywhere and everything smells like earth. People have a sweet, warm ripe scent. Homes are made from earth, food is grown from earth. Water, fire, all the necessities of daily life are gathered daily, directly from earth.

For me, being in Africa feels like a return to something inside me that preexisted modern life. In my courses, we’ve talked about post-modernity and modernity. Modern people operate based on facts, post-moderns on conversation, expression, intellect, ideas, etc. People in the States are kind of a mix based on generation and geography. Africa is pre-modern. Its highest values are survival and tribe. It is an entirely different way of life (and death). It is at once both simple and wild. The simple and wild parts of me feel at home here and I am drawn to a way of life that is unwrapped. It calms my raw American nerves and redefines the use of the word need. This life requires trust in the Creator of the earth for even the simplest of needs. I have tremendous respect for the African people and their ability to survive, and even thrive, in what some would call unbearable situations.

I do not mean to make poverty unduly poetic. I look around me with novel eyes that appreciate and love this place, but I have not lost a baby to disease, nor have I experienced the slow erosion of hunger. Also, I do not mean to create a caricature of Africa as a collection of huts and people with spears. There is tremendous innovation here and push toward modernization and development.

Perhaps the underlying issue is that when I stepped off the plane in 1998 I felt tremendous compassion for Africa. That compassion has grown, but in addition, I have developed a deep respect for this continent and even eyes to see what is good and beautiful here. I began wanting to help, I have shifted to wanting to learn and love.
Africa is like a home and predates the ones you have known. Whether or not one has been here before, there is a sense of return, of coming back.