Nomadic lifestyle

I could get used to this nomadic existence. Love waking to the sound of unfamiliar birds, looking up from my book and seeing a different place most days, camping in a welwitschia forest in the desert, the challenge of driving difficult roads, packing and unpacking every other day, camping beneath a 100-year old mango tree, the taste of fresh roasted peanuts, still warm, from the side of the road, the sounds of genuine weekday worship...

There are many nomads in Africa, sadly mostly European. When we chat, we say we have been through Namibia, Angola and Zambia but, to me, we seem rather to be traveling through the Kingdom of Ndongo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Ndongo?wprov=sfla1/

In Namibia, we pass through towns like Oshikango... Ndongo was a vassal of Congo.

In Angola, bill boards sometimes refer to ‘Ngola... Morne, our man in Angola, tells us the legend of the last ‘Ngola (King) of Ndongo. At the time he died there was no internet, no TV, no radio. So they chopped his head off and took it on a tour of Ndongo that ended in Namibia.

To this day it is a contentious deal breaker between Namibia and Angola. “Return the ‘Ngola’s body or we will cut the hydro power we provide you with.” “No, but if you cut our power we’ll build a dam upstream.”

Later in a museum in Ujiji we find a map of four lost African Empires; Mtesa’s Granda Empire, Mirambo’s Empire, Nyungu-ya-Mawe’s Kimbu Empire and the Yao Chiefdoms under Mataka & others. Located along Lake Tanganyika, these are not grand Empires in the style of the European empires...but where are they now? Not even in Wikipedia.

Local residents seem to have special dispensation at the border and can come and go more or less freely. Our helper on the Namibian side popped up in Angola! (Good thing too. We were given the wrong documents for our car and he caught up with us waiting for cash from the ATM in Angola.)

So one feels that the border posts on these absurd colonial lines are for the benefit of European nomads and truckers only.

But here in Africa, one is never made to feel like a criminal at a crossing.

The process is quicker than UK (max 4hrs compared with 3-4 weeks) and cheaper (R800max compared with R2000 – and the largest cost at African borders is road tax or road insurance).

We have not yet experienced the legendary corruption at African borders. Not even a hint of grift.

So how to reconcile these differences? Governments in Africa probably make a loss on their border control operations. Even the smallest border posts were always fully staffed, at least between 6am and 6pm.

On the other hand much of the processing for a UK or European visa has been outsourced to the private sector and profit margins must be huge.

So borders seem to me to be some arbitrary European construct at a location historically determined by some arbitrary European authority who, definitely had no real right to meddle in Africa.

The further we travel the more border crossings become like bad roads; to be endured and taken slowly but in the end we’ll come through safely. Sometimes quite a lot of fun.

There seems to be three types of European nomad. The first are swallow nomads, like Johan from Germany. He first brought his Mercedes 4x4 to Africa about twelve years ago and has been returning every year, packing spare car parts into his luggage. He has another vehicle in Mongolia, same story.

Then there are the nomads who have sold up everything and are now living in a mobile home traveling from place to place. Robert and Beate have been traveling for four and a half years, working along the way.

Finally the cycling nomads, probably the most impressive of all nomads. Like the young Lebanese and American couple who left Egypt a year ago and have only just reached Kigoma.

It seems to me that cyclists experience a different Africa, one not open to nomads in cars and trucks. At the end of the day a cycling nomad might not be at or near a campsite or lodge and will have to interact with villagers to find a place to set camp, so, it seems to me that cyclists are closer to the essential Africa than other nomads.

So, what kind of nomad are we really? Definitely not European, definitely not hard core. Could we become proper nomads? Maybe, but I miss the smell of cortados in the morning.

(After thought: truckers are the real nomads of modern Africa. They are the gods of the roads, mobbed by vendors at the push of a hooter. One often sees an impossible overtake, a truck swinging out to miss a pothole, bearing down on you... it’s scary out there on the main routes through Africa...best to take the road less travelled).