an african treasure hunt

trends-and-insights-africa by: kangye david

They say meaning is lost in translation. This is true for many stories told from a less informed point of view. Maybe all stories are told from a biased point of view but that should not take away the fact that they ought to be informed.

Take Paulo Coelho's Alchemist for example; a young shepherd boy leaves his country for a treasure hunt. Every new destination comes with a reference to another new destination. Yet with each destination is a fundamental lesson. In the end, the shepherd finds the treasure hidden under the tree at home.

Unless you move, you may never find your treasure. You may read about the faraway lands, their beauty, and magnificence but until you go to where they are you may never know. Unless you touch the ground, you may never come into contact with your treasure. Again, they say home is the place where the heart is. Sometimes, it is also true to say that you don't know where home is until you step out to go and look for it.

Africa is one beautiful continent that many people ignorantly talk about as if it is one country. Out of the 54 countries that make up Africa, you find that each country has more than 20 different languages. Each language comes with a different culture to it.

Language is the currency with which society trades. It is through language that cultures are formed and people are defined. Africa has diverse languages and cultures spread across. Yet the most beautiful revelation about this is; diverse and different as they are, people can still hear each other speak and understand the language. The coastal people of Mombasa will join in a conversation in Cairo because of Arabic. The Bantu speakers from Uganda will find no problem listening to their fellow "ntu" speakers in Southern Africa. On top of the languages are the shared norms and traditions through which people do life.

There are so many communities in Africa that rely on pastoralism. Over the ages, it has been done differently, but a lot has stayed the same. This applies to the entire food network. It is as rich as it gets and it works wonders. Yam is a celebrated crop that comes with full-color harvest festivals in West Africa as corn is in the greater Eastern Africa.

There is a lot of treasure hidden in Africa that can only be found only if you dare to go deep inside. It is beneath the news reports that come with a narrative. It is beyond the leopard and lions chasing the gazelle narrative that many get to see. It is beyond the archaic black image of a woman with wood on her head and a child on her back tracing her way home at sunset. There is more to it than the famous giraffe under the acacia tree in the park. Yes, there is that too but there is yet more. A thousand more.

Think of just the Nile, the longest of its kind. The Nile has its source in Jinja, Uganda. It is also argued that the river traces its source from as far as the Rwenzori in Kasese while River others assume it is from the Kagera in Rwanda. The network of the Nile is such that it breathes life into the entire horn of Africa through the Albertine Rift. As if that is not all, the northern part of Africa is at a lower altitude, allowing the river to flow northwards. The water system is widely spread to reach all parts of Africa.

What the media never tells you is that Africans are very happy people. They are very welcoming and very accommodating. They open easily and can be as warm as the bonfires they light in the night. Africa is home to a number of growing cities and tech hubs which are causing disruption in several traditional systems in the world.

Every corner of the continent is distinguished from the others. From the pyramids of Sudan and Egypt to the rainbow of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, you will find uniqueness in all these things.

Your only obligation is to stretch out and go find the treasure. You can never know where it is until you get started with this hunt.

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