DIVING INTO SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA HEAD FIRST

A FISH OUT OF WATER OR IN YOUR ELEMENT? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO STAND OUT IN A CROWD? Post No.39 (A 14 minute read) 

Nothing quite prepares you for sub-Saharan Africa as a European born person. Or should I say, NO ONE prepares you for sub-Saharan Africa as a European born person. On the contrary actually. We are taught to be prejudiced where skin tone is concerned. We are taught hatred towards darker skin tones. We are taught to believe that pale skinned folk are superior to darker skinned folk. What we are never taught, is to embrace our modern African sisters and brothers!

With great pride I can say that my first teacher in life my mother, taught me equality. We are all HUMAN beings just we live in different worlds; which we do! I have already talked of the documentaries watched at home. Dark skins were always my favourite. They seemed much more HUMAN to me. They seemed to have an exotic appearance by comparison to our own. Their lives seemed so interesting to me as a child and I would even then, have enjoyed Africa and all of its splendour.

Hello and good morning to each and every reader around the world. I have now been joined by readers in France and South Africa. A very warm welcome to you all. I remind you all that this is a continuous thread going on here. My trains of thought are unravelling chapter by chapter in my first book ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN and I am reviewing post by post this book. 

The post index is on the left side of the page and all my posts are filed by date and number, beginning in November 2022. So, if you are feeling a bit bemused, may I suggest that you start at the beginning??????

To see on my global statistics map of my blog visitors, my beloved Morocco lit up and now South Africa too. Africa is looking my way! I love you mother Africa and all my brothers and sisters there. We are all African just that I did not develop pigmentation as my folk did not need it up in the north with our low sunshine levels!! That is the major visible difference. But what about the similarities. That was what was now about to change my life permanently.

I found out for myself just how wonderful are the myriad of complexions around this sub-Saharan region but also how, in spite of all those different complexions, all those different shades of brown, how they all lived peacefully side by side. I was reminded of my home city as it had been just a few years earlier in my teenage years. The beautifully coloured hairs of the Punks and all of our adornments, the tribe of Punks! 

Then there were the Mods, with their dress style and hair cuts. There were the Rockers with their long hairs and leather studded clothes. Then there were the new romantics, men wearing make-up again and feminine clothing, big hair and big make-up!! It is like this in Africa and the crossroads towns in particular are quite a sight to see.

They are known as Ethnic groups, we were known as Urban tribes. I could always see an affinity with ethnic peoples and their strong desire to resist being pulled into a life style that they did not agree with. A new life style of someone else´s making!! It is just the `N´ that differs between Eth- N-ic and Ethic. Ethical, the Ethnic peoples live by Ethical laws; not by man-kind´s laws!

That was where we as Punks could really see our affinity with all of those that we knew something of. We would talk on these subjects and the rights and wrongs of colonization and culture changing against people´s will. We were always challenging the powers that be and their ETHICS. Ethical, man-kind never was and he has built his man-made world without giving a thought to ETHICS either. Everything HE does, is UN-ETHICAL. HE is that which ENDANGERS all life on Earth.

I had my personal friend at school who was African and well, those ever increasing circles encompassed much I can assure you and within that much!!!!!????? There were guys from Africa directly, there were guys from the Africa-America-Caribbean-British route as well. I had been travelling for some years now and so, had experience of Arab guys too. The males were a hundred times more HUMAN than our typical pale skinned male!

So, I had no qualms whatsoever stepping into dark brown skinned lands, none at all. I was longing to be surrounded by my most modern family members and I do now today, finally understand why that meant so much to me. What I could not know from a distance, that wishful thinking distance, was just how it would all FEEL. OH, YES!!! You have to FEEL Africa. And I went to FEEL Africa and its people. I quote myself from this chapter thirty-six, DIVING IN:

I am not quite sure how I thought a modern African African might be really. I knew that poverty and famine went hand in hand with the majority of them, all through their short lives. Lives coming to a close so early through sickness and disease! I expected living conditions to be very basic, I certainly was not expecting any luxury of any kind on this trip and I knew that even eating was going to be a lean affair. 

None of that surprised me therefore, that is not to say that it did not shock me! It did, because seeing is believing!! What really surprised me were the smiling faces, the gay chatter amidst the African busy-ness, the friendly forward nature of the people and the beautiful bright colours of their clothing which made up for the lack of any other beautiful object in the surrounding area! My fear melted away almost instantly as I began to communicate in French once again with the locals. Not that I was afraid of anyone in particular, I was maybe fearful of my own lack of knowledge!

Was I really prepared for these coming months ahead? Had I bitten off more than I could chew? That said, I did not even once think of cutting short my trip, which I could have done at anytime. Like my Mum would say, "No one is forcing you to go!" NO MUM, only me forcing myself to go wherever I have to, in order to find out what I need to know! Travelling can seem intrepidating sometimes, particularly when you are travelling through terrains and cultures so different to your own. End of quote. 

BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN MEN IN THEIR TRADITIONAL ROBES.

This is a very chunky chapter it is. I explore the why of this desertified land of poor production. Centuries of domestic animals are responsible for much of that land clearance. No electricity supplies mean that wood fire cooking is the norm. Cutting down over time, all the available kindle for cooking that meat. The two go hand in hand, we were wrong to become meat eaters and we were wrong to keep domestic animals for food. 

That is one of the biggest issues that we have as a world right now. We produce more food for our domestic animals than we do for human consumption. We just take the old learning to a new location and begin the process all over again. I am witnessing here in Almería, Spain, the desertification of the region. 

This is a man-made cycle. HE cannot get out of his cyclical behaviour patterns. Lack of knowledge here in sub-Saharan Africa is to the detriment of the communal future of the whole continent. But it has always been in the interest of the west to keep Africans down, keep them empoverished and they will be so desperate that they will even be grateful to work for us! SLAVERY!!!

The heads and the rumps scenario, wishing no offence to any other rumps like myself, yes, I am a rump right now, going round and round in circles. That is why for me, it is so important to follow my trains of thought that run on very different tracks to the HEAD to my rump. Unexplored talents, none even know what they could achieve if given an opportunity to aspire to achieving something beyond pure survival!

I talk of our concrete man-made world in comparison to this world of natural materials. How we are living in such different ways and our own knowledge levels are so very different. But it was I who had FELT a strong NEED to come travelling in Africa, I knew there were answers to the questions that I still did not altogether understand. I quote myself again:

The next morning´s bus was a national bus service which ran once a day. The African people really do seem to travel with everything bar the kitchen sink. Great big holdalls and the `COULIS´ as they call them, the bundles. Literally a large piece of cloth with the four corners coming together around the items to be carried and tied together! A COULIS would have pots and pans, clothing, food, you name it and someone would have it in a COULIS!

As ever in Africa there were more bums than seats and my available lap saw me take my first little African child from the mother of two who was sat beside me. Well, she only had one lap! What a beautiful little boy who was plunked on to my lap! I was still just twenty-two at this time and still had very little experience of children. It was time to start learning. This little boy set about exploring me and satisfying all his curiosities before falling asleep, cuddled up to my chest!

Everyone around us watched with smiles as I allowed this sweet little child to feel his way all over my face. He loved my hair and was fascinated by my earrings. Within ten minutes, he had decided that I was absolutely fine and settled down to sleep. Each and every step of my journey was to follow the same pattern. 

The mothers would try and stop their children´s hands but I would say, "It is ok, he has never seen a face like mine before, has he? He is finding things out for himself. I do not mind at all!" And the Mums, seeing that their child was happily settled, would nod off too knowing that their child was in safe hands.

This acceptance right at the beginning of my sub-Saharan trek was a source of great happiness to me and from that point onwards, communication with everyone who I crossed paths with, was the REAL joy of every days hard travelling! End of quote.

Arriving at the ancient desert crossroads town of Agadez, I had my first encounter with the ethnic Wodaabe people and I have a good chat over mint tea with a group of Wodaabe males. I learn first hand from them something of their traditions and life styles. The importance that is placed on their amorous encounters, the art of seduction and working always to improve yourself as a man! I paint the picture of us young things out at the weekend in our discos hoping to find a mating partner.

I draw the comparisons between  our respective courtship rituals as young males and females here in Wodaabe world and my own in Norfolk, Gran Bretaña! Obviously one major difference that I found between the Wodaabe men and every other man that I had known to date, was that the Wodaabe men were amply aware that they needed to be able to sexually satisfy their female partner, otherwise she would not look to you again. Rightfully so!!

The Wodaabe woman has the right to choose her sexual partners and expect sexual satisfaction from that encounter. She also has the right to choose who she has children with and when. She also has the right to decide to enter into a semi-permanent realtionship with a man (marriage!). I had come in part, to know these Wodaabe women. This culture absolutely shows me the way to go as male and female relationships.

Marriage has become a dominance tool of our communal puppet master, man-kind. Marriage has become one of the major institutions of the man-made world. Trapping women into ignominy and into becoming personal whores and substitute mothers. Fortunately as males have begun to accept divorce, divorce has now become a frequent use tool!! Thank goodness for that. The whole concept of a marriage union needs to be revised world wide. So, as you see, there is a lot in this chapter.

In the next chapter which is thirty-seven, is titled THOSE EARRINGS........AT LAST. Yes, I finally meet some Wodaabe women and wow!!!!! I found myself reflected back at me and they FELT the same way too. Heaven is in my world!!!!

What do you think about the institution of marriage? Does marriage actually mean anything to men? Have you had a good marriage? Are you having a good marriage? Has marriage lived up to your expectations?

Thank you so much for reading today and any other day. I am pretty vacant and so, I write a post at least three times a week but I am a spontaneous type of person. I respond to myself and my FEELINGS and so, they will come as they will! They are all dated and numbered! I would love to hear any comments that you may have about my posts. 

Please FEEL welcome to do so, there is a comment box below and a box at the top right should you wish to send me your e-mail address and make contact. Or why not click the follow tab and keep up to date? And if you would like to read the book, you can find it here on Amazon: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

Until then, happy learning!

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