An American Pilgrimage to Africa

We both knew we would go to Africa one day, not necessarily for romance, or with romantic notions, but as African-Americans with open eyes and spirits visiting our beautiful yet pillaged and war-torn homeland. Ours would be a humble pilgrimage of a separated people.

We decided to go there for our honeymoon, a notion that seemed difficult for friends and family to grasp. But, we explained, for the warmth of sunny beaches, palm trees and tropical serenity, Lome in Togo and Banjul in Gambia are two cities that fit the bill. For the vibrancy and night life of a big city, Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast could keep us dancing until dawn. And, of course, we were sure to stumble upon cultural, historical and intellectual exploration everywhere we went.

IVORY COAST

If you have romantic notions about a warm embrace in the motherland, there is a risk in making Abidjan, Ivory Coast, your first taste of West Africa. It is easy to let this big city wear you down with its coldness and inflated prices and infuriate you with its pretensions. The wealthiest country in West Africa, Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer of cocoa and the third-largest producer of coffee. It is also probably the West African country with the strongest ties to its colonizer, in this case France. In Abidjan, the country’s largest city, the wealth and the Francophone influence are only too apparent.

You might ask yourself, “Is this Africa or Paris on Memorex?” as the famous French love of fashion and rudeness seems to have been copied here flawlessly.

A big city with a full-bodied skyline and 2 million people, Abidjan is divided into four peninsulas surrounding a lagoon. Like New York City, Abidjan contains both the very rich and the very poor. Its personality differs significantly, depending on the neighborhood.

For example, Cocody is lush and ritzy, with large posh homes--many owned by the ministers of Houphouet Boigny, the 85-year-old who has been president since independence in 1960. Plateau is the business section and “downtown,” where the embassies and government offices are located. The city skyline is dominated by the jutting, modern cathedral, which sits atop a hill next to the lagoon like a work of abstract art. Only about 15% of this country’s 10 million people are Catholics, but more importantly, Houphouet (called Le Vieux or The Old Man) is Catholic.

Just across the Houphouet Boigny Bridge from the Plateau sits Treichville, the lively home of much of Abidjan’s night life and depravity. When we suggested to our Abidjan guide that we would like to sample the Treichville night life, his eyes bulged and he begged, “No, please. We will suggest somewhere else for you to go.”

Treichville also contains an enormous market, which resembles a sprawling house of cards stacked several stories high. There is no experience that can adequately prepare you for a trip through a large African market. To make it through, you must take along reserves of energy, patience and even some measure of combativeness.

The vendors can be relentless in their quest to get you to at least look at their wares. Some even grab you by the arm and try to drag you to their stalls. In September, when we were there, they were rather desperate, since it was still nearly two months before the heavy tourist season.

For Americans used to shopping by price tag, bargaining in Africa may be difficult. Vendors start by quoting a high price and expect you to play the game by offering a lower price. According to the shopping tips that were passed along to us, your first offer should be a fourth of the price you were initially quoted. And you should never pay more than half of that initial price.

Nothing in Abidjan is cheap. You would have difficulty finding a full meal in a real restaurant for less than 7,500 CFA (about $30). At a nightclub with a cover of $14 per person that includes one free drink, we were charged $14 for a second rum and Coke.

Seafood is a staple of the Abidjan cuisine, because the city is so close to the ocean. We sampled some excellent African food at a place called The Vatican, but authentic African restaurants certainly are not plentiful. There is no problem finding Chinese or Polynesian or French or Italian. Abidjan fancies itself a cosmopolitan city, but for authentic African you might have to look a little harder, such as at one of the maquis --small, open-air cafes that serve local specialties at reasonable prices.

TOGO

Several hundred miles away on the Atlantic shore, Lome, Togo, offers a gentler entree to the continent. With fishermen along the beaches and a famous fetish market filled with traditional African medicines and charms, this city offers a closer glimpse into the lives of its people.

And the living is easier. Here, we were able to drop our bags at the Sarakawa Hotel and hurry out to set foot on the African shore. For as far as you can see, the Atlantic pounds against the beach, and with such force that swimming is not suggested. You can wade, however, and sprawl afterward on the coarse sand.

The rainy season in West Africa is June to September. Luckily, we missed the rain and enjoyed clear days for sightseeing. Downtown Lome, filled with both ritzy and poverty-stricken low-rise neighborhoods, includes a sprawling indoor-outdoor market, one of the largest in West Africa; an artisans collective where fabrics, carvings and other items are produced; a museum, and the towering Hotel de Deux Fevrier, near Place de l’Independance.

One must visit is the fetish market, but don’t go if you are fainthearted. Desiccated animal heads and parts, skulls and bones are displayed on tables, and inside small huts there are altars where resident voodoo priests offer to bless those who enter.

Togo’s 3 million people are divided into 40 ethnic groups, with the two largest groups being Ewe and the Kabye. In addition to their native languages, most people speak French, the national language. The local cuisine, including a mouth-watering dish of spicy spinach cooked with your choice of seafood, meat or poultry, is served in several of Lome’s restaurants, including Pili-Pili and La Pirogue. Many restaurants also feature German and French cuisine, reflecting the last two countries that occupied Togo before its independence in 1960. Like each country we visited, Togo was proud of its local beer.

SENEGAL

The warnings about Senegal had come in abundance from Americans who had had a difficult time dealing with the big-city foibles of Dakar. But this bustling metropolis on the westernmost tip of the continent thoroughly charmed us with its quaint beauty and warm demeanor. Of all our stops, Dakar was tops. It was here we began to get the feeling that we had long sought, of the orphan children finding their way back home. It was here that we first began to wonder: Was this where we began?

Senegal is, by far, the most popular tourist destination in West Africa, mainly because of Dakar. Dakar was the only West African city we visited where much of our desired entertainment was within walking distance of our hotel, the Novotel, which overlooked the Atlantic Ocean.

The hub of the city is the Place de l’Independance, a plaza dedicated to the country’s veterans of World Wars I and II, located three blocks from the Novotel and surrounded by many high-rise hotels, banks, stores and restaurants.

Near the University of Dakar, perched on the edge of the city overlooking the ocean, is Boulevard du Martin Luther King, one of the most picturesque streets in the city. From this street, you can see Cape Manuel, the westernmost point on the continent, and Goree Island, which was the infamous hub of the European slave trade.

GAMBIA

It was fitting that we spent the last leg of our trip in Gambia. Its friendly people and rich traditions, combined with its vestiges of colonialism, a dilapidated infrastructure and overemphasis on European tourism provided a final look at the underlying struggle we had seen in Africa since our arrival.

Banjul, the capital city located on a small peninsula where the Gambia River meets the Atlantic Ocean, is a study in contrasts and history. It is probably one of the best places for sunbathing that we visited. But to do that, you should be sure to stay at one of the hotels in the city’s suburbs, such as Bakau or Fajara. In contrast to beaches at hotels in the city, such as the Atlantic, suburban beaches are quieter and cleaner.

In addition to first-class hotels such as the SeneGambia and the Kombo Beach Novotel, the suburbs contain Banjul’s best restaurants, including the Bakadaji, which serves mouth-watering traditional African dishes, and Francisco’s Grill House, which specializes in seafood.

More than any other place we visited, Banjul appeared most devastated by the colonial experience. The English had occupied the country during the slave trade and colonial periods and, after three centuries, had extracted vast human and natural resources, but built only one hospital and one school. The town, with many tin shanties and open sewers along some streets, never shakes the appearance of an outpost, dusty when the dirt roads are dry and muddy after an overnight rain.

Given the country’s history, you might find it shocking that British tourists flock to Gambia “on holiday.” We suspect that it is because of inexpensive package rates from England.

In Gambia, you will find some of the lowest prices for clothes, fabrics and carvings in West Africa. Tie-dying is a specialty here. There is also a good variety of fabrics as well as carvings at the tourist market. However, we found some of the best carvings at markets on the outskirts of the city. And at the silver shop in Banjul, you can buy jewelry and other crafts at discount prices.

When we were ready to venture outside Banjul, we took an excursion to Juffure, the village that Alex Haley made famous in “Roots,” his novel based on his family’s history. To get to Juffure, you take a ferry across the wide Gambia River and drive northeast, eventually reaching a road that looks more like a winding path pocked with mud-filled craters. After negotiating this poor excuse for a road, our driver drove onto a wider road where we passed fields of peanuts, millet and corn and bunches of palm trees.

There were animals galore: herds of cattle, some of which came up to the car to peek inside; goats; an amazing array of colorful birds, and a variety of monkeys--red-face, black-face and small ones that swung at the top of the trees.

Enclosed by a fence of high reeds and wooden slats, with several small houses--most of cement with tin roofs--Juffure looks like many of the other villages in rural Gambia. The smattering of residents out on this hot morning told us, however, that since the worldwide fame of the book and the TV miniseries of the same name, a few things have changed in Juffure, things that make it stand apart from other villages. Most prominent was a generator, paid for by Haley, that supplies electricity and powers a water pump.

In Juffure, we were led to the 102-year-old chief of the village, who greeted us in his darkened house. Sickly, he sat on his bed talking through an interpreter. The younger men in the village then took us to see Binta Kinte, an old woman who told us she is the last person in the Kinte lineage to bear the family name of Kunte Kinte, Alex Haley’s ancestor who was snatched away from the nearby forests by slave catchers more than two centuries ago.

Our journey was coming to an end. Over the next couple of days, we would pack our carvings, kente cloth, pillows, drum, kora and our clothes for the last time and take an eight-hour trip by car back to the airport in Senegal. On the way, we would again cross the Gambia River and drive through the countryside of Gambia and Senegal, where--south of Dakar--the sun was a glorious yellow ball reflecting on a large, man-made lake used for mining salt.