Murder and Violence in Malabo

This is my last stop on a five week sojourn in Africa.  I'm in Malabo on the Island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea, which was Spain's only colony in Africa.  In colonial days Malabo was known as Santa Isabella and Bioko as Fernando Poo.  Equatorial Guinea also has a piece of territory on the African mainland known as Rio Muni which lies between Cameroon and Gabon.

Map of Equatorial Guinea showing both Bioko Island and Rio Muni

Since 1968 when the country became independent, Equatorial Guineans have lived under two repressive dictators, both stemming from the same family.  The current president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodoro_Obiang_Nguema_Mbasogo is the nephew of the first president, Francisco, Marchias Nguema, who many considered insane and who on Christmas Day in 1975, has 150 coup plotters killed in the national stadium while a band played "Those Were the Days."  For more on the country's sordid political history see the following link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea#Politics

 Shortly after independence, the State Department opened an embassy in Malabo and assigned two officers -- a charge' d'affairs and an administrative officer.  The stress of opening an embassy on Fernando Po must have gotten to the Charge' as in 1971 he radioed the Embassy in nearby Yaounde, Cameroon to report that the Administrative Officer was involved in a communist plot.  The embassy directed that the consul from Douala immediately charter a plane to Malabo and to take control of the embassy.  Upon arrival he found that the charge' had killed the administrative officer in the embassy under very mysterious circumstances.  It was a bizarre case that shocked Washington and led to the closing of the embassy which had only recently opened.  The following two articles from the Foreign Service Journal review the murder and its aftermath. 

http://www.uniset.ca/misc/fsj_erdos.pdf

http://uniset.ca/misc/heartOf.pdf

I first heard about this murder shortly after entering the foreign service in the late 1970s and had no idea at the time that I would play a role in reopening embassy Malabo in the 1980s while I was posted in Yaounde. At that time Ambassador Hume Horan was accredited to both Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and oversaw a team from Yaounde that helped set up the new embassy on a floor of Malabo's Hotel Impala.  Despite Equatorial Guinea's close proximity to Cameroon, there were no scheduled flights to Malabo from either Yaounde or Douala.  We therefore chartered a small plane to Malabo every few weeks to assist new staff that had been assigned there.  At that time Malabo was the poorest place I had ever been and was without electricity or running water.  The new embassy and the residence that was set up for the first resident ambassador ran off of Caterpillar generators 24 hours a day.  It has often been said that one can tell how poor a place is from its garbage.  There was virtually no garbage in Malabo and I never saw a dog, a cat, or a rat which says something about their source of protein. And when we were there for a few days, we never knew what we might find to eat in the island's few restaurants.  Malabo is the only place I have eaten porcupine.  Despite the poverty, there was virtually no crime due to people's fear of the violent police state they lived under.

The embassy we opened in the early 80s was closed for a second time a few years later as a budget cutting measure when it was determined that our interests in Equatorial Guinea didn't warrant a full time presence. However with the discovery of oil in 1996, an embassy was established for the third time and with a new US Government-owned chancery compound now under construction, we can now probably assume that a US presence will remain. 

Equatorial Guinea has been the target for at least two coup attempts.  The first, against former President Marchia, is said to be the setting for Fredrick Forseyth's book "The Dogs of War" which was made into a movie by the same name. The second, the so-called Wonga Coup, took place after oil was discovered.  It was led by Simon Mann, an Englishman living in South Africa and the son of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is said to have helped finance this attempt.     

 Here are a few links related to these coups:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth(see section on controversies)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/4942006/Frederick-Forsyth-in-real-life-African-thriller.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_%28novel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Mann

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonga-Coup-Simon-Billions-Africa/dp/1861979347

With the discovery of oil in Equatorial Guinea, Malabo no longer resembles the place I visited in the 1980s.  It is now crawling with international oilmen, businessmen and construction workers.  A new four lane highway crosses the island and there are several first class hotels, including one with an 18-hole golf course. An impressive new hospital, staffed with more than 40 M.Ds from Israel also recently opened.  On the surface, Malabo appears to be quite affluent but I doubt that the country's new found wealth trickles down very far and I believe that most of the population still remains very poor.  

The Yaounde' Coup

I'm back in Yaounde', Cameroon for a few days which was our first foreign service posting from 1982-84.  It is the first time I've returned since we left so it has been a trip down memory lane.  During our two years here, family life was basic but pleasant. Although there weren't many places we could take a young family, we nevertheless had an active social life within the American and diplomatic communities, typically meeting in homes, at the Marine House, or at the American Club, which was co-located with the American School.  We also started playing a lot of tennis which we enjoyed for the rest of our foreign service career.

For old times sake, I went past our former house in Quartier Bastos which was large and reasonably comfortable, but which had clearly been built without an architect or an engineer and without reference to any building codes.  One morning during the rainy season, Gertrud went into the kitchen to discover a large termite mound in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Apparently the house had not been set on a concrete pad and instead the builder had simply laid the floor tiles directly on top of compressed dirt. The termite colony had pushed itself up through a crack in the grout during the night.  It was not uncommon to see large termite hills along the roads during the rainy season, but it was certainly a surprise to find one in our kitchen. Termites swarming out of mounds was also a delicacy for the natives. We frequently saw Cameroonians grab termites out of mid-air, and after pulling off the wings, popping the wiggly protein directly in to their mouths. I've read that if the world ever has a protein shortage, the insects of Africa could quite readily be exploited as a new source, with termites being among the tastier ones.

When we lived in Quartier Bastos, our veranda overlooked a traditional African neighborhood which we felt part of because we could hear and observe almost everything that went on. When they celebrated births or weddings we knew it and when someone died we knew that too.   Today the area consists of large houses, shops, restaurants and cafes filled with expats and successful Cameroonian businessmen which have supplanted the old African neighborhood.   In the 1980s there were few restaurants in all of Yaounde' and to my knowledge, no cafes.

And now about the Yaounde' coup:

Shortly after midnight on April 6, 1984, we were awakened by sirens and gunfire coming from the nearby presidential palace.  About an hour later a message came over the embassy radio confirming our suspicion that palace guards were attempting to overthrow the government.  The message directed all embassy staff and families, except essential security personnel, to remain home until further notice and to stay close to their radios. In the early 1980s, their were few working residential telephones in Yaounde and the embassy radio net was our sole source of reliable communication.  Sporadic shooting from guns, armored vehicles and aircraft continued for the next couple of days. We spent many hours at a neighbor's home listening to live accounts of the insurrection on Radio France International.  From the neighbor's patio, we also had an excellent view over the city and watched low flying planes and helicopters as well as jeeps and armored vehicles hurrying through the streets.  Occasionally helicopter gunships flew directly over our house. After a few days, government forces put down the insurrection and the shooting stopped.  When we returned to work and school, we continued to be uneasy because young soldiers manning checkpoints throughout the city, pointed their guns directly at us until we stopped. We held our breath hoping they didn't have a hair trigger. The following wikipedia link provides a good summary the coup attempt.

 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Cameroonian_coup_attempt).

Our greatest foreign service travel adventure happened in Cameroon when I decided to take the family with me on State Department business by car to N'Djamena, Chad instead of flying  (Click here for a map and information on Cameroon: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26431.htm  I'll try not to bore you with detail here and will only say that it was a National Geographic-type experience in the real African bush. Northern Cameroon is incredibly picturesque and includes such market villages as Mora, a game park at Waza and lunar-type landscape around Rhumsiki.  And on our first day of driving while approached a small town, we were suddenly waved over by a policeman.  He had seen our diplomatic plates and wanted to invite us to a local political rally, which we accepted out of curiosity.  Like many political rallies in the American West, it included riders on magnificent horses. However the topless dancing girls shaking their bodies to pounding music while the politicians clapped their hands, was probably more of a local custom, but then what do I really know about what happens in politics?

Crossing the Chari River From  Kousseri, Cameroon to N'Djamana, Chad was its own adventure.  Due to almost continuous civil war in Chad over many years, the Cameroonian Government refused to allow a bridge to be built.  So we had to drive our car onto a small homemade ferry and to then get into a dugout boat which men pushed and steered with long oars. It was certainly an exotic crossing and we were relieved that our car didn't sink.

It was quite a shock to see N'Djamena due to all of the shelling it had suffered. We were there while a peace treaty was in effect, but it wasn't long until fighting broke out again. The roof of the cathedral was missing and most of the homes were reduced to piles of mud bricks.  But the people were still friendly and there was brisk commerce in the markets. Gertrud and the kids enjoyed visiting the local handicraft markets and perused what remained of N'Djamena.  An interesting side note here: the Ambassador in N'Djamena had a clay tennis court which he paid a man a dollar a day to maintain. The man simply  went into the street and picked up some of the clay bricks that were laying all around and then broke them onto the court with a hammer.  After he rolled the court, the Ambassador's court was fresh for tennis.

Indulge me in  one more story: Hissène Habré, the President of Chad wanted to give Ronald Reagan an Arabian stallion as a present but  apparently never saw President Reagan in person so presented the horse to the Ambassador on Reagan's behalf.  Word came back that Ronald Reagan had gratefully accepted it but the embassy was told that under no circumstances should the horse be shipped to the US and that the embassy should take care of it in Chad for President Reagan.  I saw it there on several trips eating grass from the embassy lawn.  A locally hired Canadian woman on the embassy staff who I knew, had been tasked with taking care of the horse and I believe she tried to ride it a few times even though it was very high spirited. I don't know what ultimately happened to it, perhaps it is still there.

Anyway, after a couple of nights in the very rustic Hotel Chadienne, we returned to Yaounde' the same way we had come. For anyone interested, here are links on some of the places we visited:

Rhumsiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhumsiki

http://www.google.com/search?q=rhumsiki,+cameroon&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&ei=HupIT8DSJoasgwf_0_SKDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCUQ_AUoAQ&biw=1152&bih=555

Mora Sunday market
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/f93e5/

http://collection.peacecorps.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p9009coll11&CISOPTR=405&CISOBOX=1&REC=2

Waza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waza_National_Park

A final note:  In February 2011, I wrote a post on this blog on the subject of German colonies in Africa. I made a few comments regarding Cameroon (Kamerun) having been a German colony from the late 1800s until after World War I when the former colony was given over to the British and the French to be administered under a League of Nations mandate.  The following link provides a good summary on Kamerun

 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamerun

Jambo Bwana in Kenya

Last evening I flew into Nairobi from Madagascar and will be here about 30-hours before catching my onward flight to Yaoundé.  The layover provides an excellent opportunity to blog about Nairobi where the family lived between 1984 and 1987.  For a charming Swahili introduction to Kenya, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrVeRGo5IM&feature=related.

Our three years in Nairobi were among the most enjoyable of our lives: how does this lifestyle sound, even if only for three years?

--we had a large, comfortable house in a beautiful garden;

--we could afford household staff, including a driver which made it very enjoyable to host family and friends from Germany and the US;

--we needed neither heating nor air conditioning in Nairobi's ideal climate;

--the kids attended the wonderful International School of Kenya, and were very content with school, friends, sports and other activities;

--We lived in a very diverse and interesting culture, included exotic Kenyan tribes, a large Indian/Pakistani community, a small, but very visible White Kenyan/British settler minority, and a vibrant expat community of diplomats, teachers, researchers and adventure seekers.

-- I enjoyed my job at the embassy; Gertrud enjoyed her part-time embassy job and volunteer work.  She was a guide for the Kenyan Museum Society, which exhibited many of the anthropological finds of Louis and Mary Leakey and hosted lectures by such famous researchers as Richard Leakey and Stephen Jay Gould.  She also provided volunteer support to an orphanage in Mathari Valley, Nairobi's largest slum.

-- We were often in Kenya's fabulous game parks, either on safari, or simply relaxing over dinner or drinks at sunset, observing elephants, rhinos or giraffes at a watering hole.

-- Gertrud, her sister, and the families spent a week on a very exotic camel safari, led by a former game hunter who had to create a new life for himself when some of the species became endangered (unfortunately I had to miss this opportunity due to work). The safari consisted of two camel trains -- one that went ahead to  prepare high tea and to set up cots, mosquito nets, hanging tree showers and latrines for the night. Everything was ready when the second train arrived with the guests, and according to Gertrud was very comfortable and even luxurious.

--We belonged to the famous Muthaiga Country Club (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muthaiga_Country_Club), which was a frequent venue in the movie "Out of Africa." You will recall the scene where Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) was booted out of the club's  all-male bar. In response to a posting on the Club's bulletin board, I became an extra in the movie, being paid $20 for a days work.  My sole claim to movie fame is that I was directed by Sydney Pollack: during one scene, he briefly looked at me and said "Hey you, please move over there!" Alas, all the celluloid with me in it ended up on the cutting room floor. 

-- We visited Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, often called the"Cradle of Civilization." We also spent a couple of days in the unique ecosystem known as the Ngoro Ngoro Crater, which provided an excellent opportunity to view many of Africa's magnificent animals up close.

-- During a business trip to nearby Rwanda I visited a family of mountain gorillas in their natural habitat  (I wrote about this last year in a posting about Rwanda).

--We spent a few wonderful days on Lamu Island which I believe may have the purest version of Swahili culture left. 

Unfortunately, fond memories are often interrupted by real world events. In 1998 while in Utah on home leave, we turned on the TV to learn that the embassy in Nairobi had been bombed. The building I had worked in for three years was completely destroyed, with seven Kenyan employees killed who had worked directly for me. Here is a wiki summary of the terrible event:  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings.)

Today I visited the park created at the site of the former embassy to remember those who died.  Here are a couple of my photos:

Welcome sign at the peace park on former embassy site

Some of the names on the memorial wall

When the bombing was announced in Utah, Peggy Stack, a writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, and a close friend who we had met in Kenya, knew we were in town. She mentioned our presence to one her Tribune colleagues who wrote the following article, which you can click on to make larger. Unfortunately I scanned the article from a paper copy and is a little difficult to read.  I am hoping to replace it with a more readable version. 

Adventures in Madagascar

Madagascar is unique: it's not Africa and it's not Asia but an exotic blend of the two with some French colonial influence thrown in. The majority of the Malagasy people in the highlands and around the capital Antananarivo (Tana), appear Asian.  And although I haven't  been to the coast, I'm told that the coastal people tend to be African.  Madagascar is a magnet for biologists and botanists with over 90 percent of its flora and fauna not found anywhere else.  

On this, my fourth trip to Madagascar, I finally made it out of the capital of Antananarivo. I had a free Sunday and hired a car and guide to pick me up at 6 a.m. so that I could see as much of the Island as possible, with my primary goal being to glimpse some of the island's famous lemurs. Our drive to lemur country took about 3 hours on an excellent highway running through scenic towns, mountains and valleys. I was surprised at how clean everything was. Rice paddies were common in the valleys which made the island feel very much like Asia.  I've never seen a rice field in Africa which supports my view that Madagascar is not really Africa, despite the close proximity.  During my trip, I never had the impression that the rural population was really poor. Poverty is much more visible around Tana.

I saw my first lemurs at the Andasibe reserve, the home of the Indri, the largest of the species. I spent about two hours with a guide hiking around the park with binoculars, looking at the shy Indri which remained high up in the trees eating leaves and chattering with their mates and which were almost impossible to photograph.  We also saw several brown lemurs at Andasibe.  Our next stop was at Vacuna Forest Lodge where we had lunch. On lodge property is a small island with about 5 species of lemurs including the ring tail. The Vacuna lemurs are much more accustomed to tourists than those at Andasibe and when we got close they climbed on our shoulders to eat the bananas we had brought for them. It was a long day, but I can now say I've seen lemurs.  I also have a much broader appreciation for the island than previously.

With Ernest, my lemur guide, at Andasibe

Brown lemur at Andasibe National Park Madagascar

A colorful lemur species at Vacuna

My second Madagascar adventure started on Monday morning when I arrived at the embassy for work.  A meeting of the Emergency Action Committee had just been called to prepare for a category 2 cyclone that was coming straight at Antananarivo and was expected to arrive that night.  Monday morning had blue sky and many in the embassy were skeptical that we would really have a cyclone that day.  However the Charge' d'affairs directed that everyone except essential security and administrative staff, remain home on Tuesday because most embassy employees live long distances from the new embassy compound that was completed in 2010, and they have to pass through low lying areas that always flood with major storms.  Since my hotel was near the embassy, I was told I could work, which I did for a few hours although the  computers and air conditioning was down.  

As predicted, the storm hit Monday night with a fury.  The wind howled and torrents of rain came down for several hours.  On Tuesday morning I could see some flooding and damage from my hotel window, but the worst of it was on other parts of the island.  After about 12 hours the wind died down and things began returning to normal.   The airport was closed for a couple of days but opened just in time for me to leave on Thursday as scheduled.

Anything else you may want to know about Madagascar and lemurs can probably be found at one of the following links: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antananarivo

http://www.parcs-madagascar.com/index_en.php

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/lemurs.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemur

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/species/lemurs/Indri_indri_indri.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_lemur

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/conservation/parks/Andasibe_Mantadia.html

http://www.hotelvakona.com/en/

Click below to see some pictures of some of Madagascar's scenery and to hear the most famous German song ever sung about island:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcwryj_freddy-quinn-wir-lagen-vor-madagask_creation

Good bye, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania 

The sun is setting on Oyster Bay on the last evening of my visit to Dar es Salaam.  I'm sitting at the hotel pool trying to decide whether my sun downer should be a Tusker or a Kilimanjaro.  Having lived three years in Nairobi, I'm partial to Kenya's finest, but think I'll opt for my first Tanzanian Kilimanjaro.

My first visit to this Tanzania capital was in 1979 and my second in 1985 while the family and I were living in Nairobi.  In the 1980s, Julius Nyerere, the Father of Tanzania and its long time president, was still pushing his African socialist agenda even though the country was in economic tatters. Sisal was the primary export and the country had barely tapped into its incredible tourism potential. Many Americans and Europeans thought that such famous venues as Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Ngoro Ngoro Crater, the Olduvai Gorge, Lake Manyara and the Serengeti were in Kenya because they were primarily visited as side trips from Nairobi. My  family and I crossed over the border to visit all except the Serengeti which is an extension of Kenya's Masai Mara which we visited.  The Ngoro Ngoro Crater and the "Cradle of Mankind" known as Olduvai Gorge, are among the most important tourist venues in the world, regardless of continent.  

Many of us posted in Nairobi in the 80s had regional responsibilities including some in Dar es Salaam. Because the hotels in Dar were so spartan, we inevitably packed basic hotel provisions in our suitcases when going there.  A colleague often told about her first trip: after checking into the hotel and taking her belonging to the room, she returned to the reception desk to ask a question.  When she returned to the room, someone had stolen the bed sheets, the toilet paper and the light bulbs she had just brought from Nairobi.  Today Dar is much improved: through government and private sector cooperation, supported by foreign investment, Tanzania has new roads, hotels and safari camps, as well as upscale beach resorts on Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Tanzanian destinations are now among the most desired in Africa, competing very successfully with Kenya and South Africa.

In 1997 I fulfilled a long time dream of visiting Zanzibar.  Its reputation as one of the original spice islands and as an stopping place for Dutch, Arab and Portuguese traders rounding the African Cape fascinated me when I was still in my teens.  It was every bit as interesting as I had expected with the spices still being grown and traded, and the walls of ancient Stone Town echoing its incredible history, including its infamous role in the slave trade. With world class beach resorts one can now spend a vacation on Zanzibar that is both comfortable and educational.

People in my age group, may remember that at independence in 1961, Tanzania was first named  "The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar."  In 1964, the country's leaders created the new name "The United Republic of Tanzania" which rolled off the tongue easier and which better represented the unification of the two former colonies into one new country.  Prior to World War I, Tanganyika was part of German East Africa (Deutschostafrika).  After Germany lost the war, it became part of British East Africa which it remained until independence.

Below are links to some of the places and personalities mentioned above:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kilimanjaro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olduvai_Gorge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngorongoro_Conservation_Area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serengeti

http://www.tanzaniaparks.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Nyerere

http://zanzibar.net/zanzibar/what_is_zanzibar_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_East_Africa 

Lilongwe in the former Nyasaland

I'm in Lilongwe, Malawi.  This is my fifth trip to Malawi with most of them having been in the 1980s.  It is one of Africa's poorest countries with most of the population living from subsistence agriculture. A major hindrance to the country's development is its isolation. It is landlocked and imports and exports must be trucked from ports in Tanzania, Kenya or South Africa on difficult roads at great expense. Despite the poverty, the people are unfailing friendly and polite and the level of crime is much lower than in many surrounding countries. Seventy percent of the population live on less than one US dollar per day and the country is a major recipient of international humanitarian assistance and development aid.   A large percentage of the people I see at breakfast in the hotel are  European and American aid workers and Evangelical Christian missionaries whose revivals and church services are widely advertised around town.  Local TV is also dominated by Christian programming produced abroad with "God TV" (http://www.god.tv/node/1) one of the most watched channels.

As described in the following link, Malawi evolved out of England's Nyasaland Protectorate 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyasaland)  and was part of Rhodesia before becoming independent in

1964.  The father of the country and "Life President" until he passed away in 1997, was Hastings Kamuzu Banda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Banda).  Despite the country's colonial past, Dr. Banda was a strong Anglophile and tried to get his country to emulate the English. To promote British culture and history,  he created  Kamuzu Academy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamuzu_Academy) as a Britsh-style boarding school which the best students in the country are still admitted to and educated at government expense.  Many speak of it as "the Eaton of Africa" and in order to matriculate, students are required to read and analyze classic European literature and philosophy.  Banda also insisted that his countrymen dress conservatively according to British customs of the time.  During his tenure, women in Malawi were not allowed to wear pants and men were not allowed to have long hair. The Life-president was the only Black African leader who openly maintained full diplomatic and economic relations with Apartheid South Africa.  This made him extremely controversial on the Continent but provided the country with a major nearby trading partner and a significant source of imported goods.

Dr. Banda also established Lilongwe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilongwe)as the capital of the new Malawi, transferring the government  from Zomba which had been the capital of Nyasaland Protectorate. Blantyre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blantyre remains the long-time economic center of the country.

The best known and dominant natural feature of the country is Lake Malawi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Malawi), the third largest lake in Africa and the 8th largest in the world. It's Chambo are a very popular eating fish and the lake provides a variety of recreational activities for locals and tourists.  Fly fishing is a popular tourist pastime and Malawi is known internationally among fly fishermen as an excellent source of hand-tied fishing flies. 

Back in Southern Africa

 I was in Southern Africa last winter and I'm back again.  In 2011 I worked in Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Rwanda.  I'm currently in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, and will travel to Malawi, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea before returning home in early March.

Perhaps you know that the RSA has three national capitals -- Pretoria where the President and cabinet have offices; Cape Town the seat of Parliament; and Bloemfontein the home of the Supreme Court (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa). In the US we believe in a constitutional separation of governmental powers; in South Africa the separation is even geographical.  

Last February I spend a very pleasant weekend safari in Midikwe Game Park on the RSA/Botswana border which I described in this blog.  Unfortunately I won't have any time for pleasure on this South African stop. My most extensive South African travel was in 2007 when I was able to tour both the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces. Western Cape Province includes the Cape of Good Hope, extensive vineyards producing some of South Africa's best wines, and several interesting cities.  Highlights included a few nights at Cape Town's elegant Victoria and Alfred Hotel where I especially enjoyed watching the fog rise off of famous Table Mountain during breakfast,  a tour around the Cape of Good Hope which included a hike up to the Cape's lighthouse,  a visit to a large penguin colony;

and a tour of the wine village of Stellenbosch with its charming Dutch architecture.  In Gauteng I spent a day at Soweto Township recalling the events that brought an end to South African apartheid.  Those of us who have reached a certain age will vividly remember the historic Soweto uprising in 1976. Here are a few links on the Western Cape and Soweto:


 

http://www.cape-town.info/pages/attractions/cape-of-good-hope.php

http://www.aboutcapetown.com/table-mountain.htm

http://www.aboutcapetown.com/penguins.htm 

http://www.stellenboschtourism.co.za

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_uprising  

In 2007 I also flew from Johannesburg to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls after having seen it from the Zambian side in 1986.   The magnificent Falls are on the Zambezi River which forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  It is truly one of the seven wonders of the natural world, falling 108 meters from a wide bend in the river into an extremely narrow gorge, causing tall plumes of mist to rise high into the sky and to be visible from a great distance by approaching aircraft. When viewing the Falls up close, one must wear a poncho or trench coat to avoid get sopping wet. I wore only shorts and a shirt and was drenched to the bone.  My accommodations were in the world famous Victoria Falls Hotel (http://www.africansunhotels.co/Index.cfm?fuseaction=hotels.info&na me=the_victoria_falls_hotel) built in 1904 and frequented by colonialists and aristocrats.  It has the Livingston Dining Room and the Stanley Bar and is thoroughly British, serving high tea every afternoon. In 1855, David Livingstone was the first European to view the Falls and named it after Queen Victoria (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/livingstone.htm).