Africa Travel: Burkina Faso & Burundi

by Adrienne Wilson on

I’ll admit it is a pretty ambitious goal to tackle and track down some of the secrets behind every country on the African continent (especially when one has never been) for Black History month and a hard one too. As I started looking for things to pour out to the masses on Burkina Faso and Burundi I hit a brick wall. However, Burkina Faso, a west African country north of Ghana has a few things for the interested tourist. One Lonely Planet reader actually listed Burkina Faso on his Blue List with attractions being the SIAO Art Festival and Yako – the halfway town. You can read his notes here, but outside of this and the LP online guide I didn’t find a whole lot of promotion for tourism within the country.

Things got even worse on my Burundi searches. Let me not say worse, but complicated. This central African country sits east of Democratic Republic of the Congo and has suffered from years of ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi much like its neighbor to the north, Rwanda. Though things have simmered down it is still advised visitors seek other travel destinations over Burundi. The photo above is from Burundi taken by Jan Oberg found this Burundi.nu a site dedicated to spreading tourism and general information on the country. Created by John Jorgensen and his Burundi born wife, Chantal Nahimana Jorgensen the site deserves all your attention if you ever consider travel to Burundi.

Anyone with additional sites or experiences on either of the countries, please share.

Paddling South Georgia

by Erik Olsen on

I just did a quick survey of the stuff we’ve posted about lately and I realized that we…or that is I, since
this is a particular favorite activity of mine….have not posted nearly enough paddling stuff. I lay much of the blame
for this on old man winter. Face it, the last thing you want to do on a blustery day in the city is paddle up the Hudson
River. Wait, scratch that. That doesn’t actually sound so bad. Let me put it this way instead. It has been cold, so
we’ve focused more on winter sports like skiing, and come spring/summer will most certainly start doing more paddling
posts. There.

But that said, let me at least get this one out there. Here is a superb piece in Outside Magazine on
paddling South Georgia.

You know South Georgia right? From history class? South Georgia is the island the
Shackleton and his men landed on after just the first grueling leg of their epic and unimaginably awful trip to the far
south. Well, in the piece here a couple of Kiwis paddled solo around South Georgia Island, a truly massive feat. Read
the Outside piece and then head over to the expedition’s Web site.

Google Maps Redux

by Erik Olsen on

Google has added two more levels of zoom to most
of their satellite maps. Check out the
really impressive detail in shots like the one here of the Statue
of Liberty. I mean, how cool is all of this? Someday, I’ll bet they’ll have this stuff live, and we’ll be able to
read a book someone is reading in Central Park, or check out the line in from of your favorite restaurant. Truly
mind-blowing that not only ths stuff exists, but that it is free on the Internet. I mean, what if Thomas Jefferson or
Socrates were here today to see all this stuff. Wouldn’t they be impressed? Wouldn’t they rejoice at how far human
ingenuty has taken us. The distance we’ve come? Or maybe
not.

Ian Frazier's Adventures in the City

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve posted about one of my favorite writers — Ian Frazier — here a few times.
Frazier is one of those rare breeds of writers who can bang out a side-splitting bit of satire like Acme v. Coyote, and then turn around some serious non-fiction, like Great Plains and On the Rez. He also edited
the 2003 “Best American Travel Writing” anthology, which is one of
my favorite books every year. I also gave a nod recently to his article in Outside called Terminal Ice.

Frazier has a new book out called Gone to New York: Adventures in the City, that billed as travel, and promises much. I have not read
the book yet and only read about it in this piece on Worldhum, but I am very
excited about it. I’ll do my best to get my hands on a copy and will review it here. In the meantime, please read the
review by Frank Bures over at Worldhum.

Countee Cullen's Baltimore

by Adrienne Wilson on

Black
History Month always brings back memories and lines from some of my favorite poets and writers from the Harlem
Renaissance. During this 1920’s artistic movement poets like Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Claude McKay
along with several others created the first large body of work in the United States written by African Americans. One
of my most favorite poets of the time being Countee
Cullen, whom I can relate to on many platforms often molded his pieces from his own and the collective African
American identity. In his lifetime he had many works published and one the that always sticks out most is a poem titled
Incident.

In his short poem of time spent from May to December Cullen recounts his only
memory, riding around in Old Baltimore when a young Baltimorean about the same age as he, poked out his tongue and from
his lips tumbled a racial slur. As a child I’m sure this was very scarring to the poet and for many during that time or
anytime for that matter. Unlike Cullen, I choose to keep my negative experiences abroad from lyrical prose and place
them at the very bottom of my travel memories, reflecting mostly on the good. At the most I’ve spent no more than eight
hours in Baltimore and for no real good reason other than limited time. During that trip I took a quick run through the
National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Though I can’t remember if Countee
Cullen is included in any of the exhibits it makes for a great stop in your own B-more travels in exploring Black
History during the month.