Having traveled to West and Southern Africa, I found myself wanting to experience the culture on the Swahili Coast. Time allowed for a three week trip to Tanzania, a country world-famous for its game parks (notably the Serengeti), Africa's highest peak in Mount Kilimanjaro, and its white-sand beaches.
Yet after a couple of days on the ground in-country, warning signs appeared that my choice to visit Tanzania would produce two unfortunate and closely linked consequences: high costs and tourists.
The costs of tourists.
You would think that in a region of the world - Sub-Saharan Africa - where 50% of the population makes less than $1 a day, costs of travel and food would be cheaper than in the West. Not so in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of the country. Nor is it so in Arusha, the tourist-capital of the country. Nor in Zanzibar, the beautiful and historic island a two hour ferry ride off the coast. See the trend?
Because of Tanzania's popularity as a tourist destination, prices in urban centers - especially in areas where Mzungu (foreigners) are likely to be present - rival the costs of living in the suburbs of a US city.
"If I wanted to relax, I would not have come to Africa."
The second consequence happens to be the tourists themselves. It's difficult to enjoy parts of the country simply because of the population density of foreigners, eager to take advantage of the white sands, the views, and the wildlife, without the slightest interest in the history and the people of Tanzania.
As a result, taxi drivers, hotel managers, and travel agents flocked to me over the course of my time in Tanzania, eager to tell me where I could go to 'relax.' But that wasn't the purpose of my trip. As Paul Theroux puts it in his travel memoir Dark Star Safari, "If I wanted to relax I would not have come to Africa." Rather than relax with the other foreigners on the white-sand beaches a stone's throw from barefoot children living in homes made of mud, I wanted to see the real Tanzania. Ultimately, it would require leaving the urban centers entirely.
Still, despite the negative externalities of my choice to visit Tanzania, the benefits outweighed the costs in the end, and the country's people, history, and culture left me with yet another unforgettable visit to Africa. It was a crash-course in Swahili, where I learned new phrases and realized that I already had some of the language built into my vocabulary.
Hakuna Matata, Rafiki, Safari.
Those three Swahili concepts account for the better memories of my time spent in East Africa. In the next three posts, I'll elaborate on each one.
