Something special about Africa touches the souls of millions of people around the
world. Firstly, whether you are wide-eyed first-timer or a frequent visitor, Africa cannot fail
to get under your skin. From the tropical rain forest of Central Africa to the endless rippling
dunes and waterless tracts of the Sahara, From the signature savannah of the east to jagged
mountains and green-tinged highlands all across the continent, Africa has few peers when it
comes to natural beauty. Secondly, a Noah’s Ark of wildlife brings these landscapes to life,
with a tangible and sometimes profoundly mysterious presence that adds so much
personality to the African wild. Gong on safari may be something of a travel cliché, but we
are yet to find a traveller who has watched the wildlife world in motion in the Masai Mara,
stumbled upon the paradise that is the Ngorongoro Crater, or communed with gorillas in
Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and has not been reduce to an ecstatic state of
childlike wonder. Finally, even as the past retains, it holds over the lives of many Africans
who bring creativity and sophistication to the continent’s cities and urban centers.
Sometimes this New Africa is expressed in a restless search for solutions to the continent’s
problems, or in an eagerness to break free of the restrictive chains of the past, but just as
often, modern Africans are taking all that is new and fusing it onto the best of the old. If you
come with an open mind and widely open eyes, it is easy to see how amazing Africa can be.