Tale of Two Cities

First impressions are influential. I always thought that was simply a cliché used in too many dandruff control or deodorant commercials, but when it comes to Africa and capital cities, I think it might be true.

 

My first images of Africa are of a chaotic, loud, smelly, smog-filled, jam-packed city, full of friendly people who mostly just left you alone to do your own thing (except taxi drivers looking for business, but they are the same everywhere in the world).

 

Welcome to Kampala.

 

Lots of run down buildings, copious corrugated-tin roofed shelters, dusty side roads, construction everywhere (but never seeming to be completed), fences around the few grassy/green patches (making them inaccessible), and of course the gigantic, rather vulture looking maribu storks perched above you in every large tree.

 

But then I took a night bus to Nairobi. I admit I expected Nairobi to be a bigger Kampala, but a hundred times more "dangerous" (Nairobi has the unfortunate reputation of being the most dangerous city in East Africa).

 

Nairobi couldn't be more different than Kampala.

 

Nairobi, and Kenya in general, obviously has a lot more money. Thirty-story buildings, intriguing architecture, tree lined boulevards, huge parks, flower gardens, divided streets, continuous (unbroken) sidewalks, huge department stores, and even a couple of neon billboards. The convention centre looks like something from Star Wars and has an intriguing central room that resembles the UN's main hall in NYC (I think that's because this hall might be used for African Union meetings or other meetings with heads of states). Nairobi looks more like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); it is after all a major international city. It's where many UN agencies have their head offices, where corporations hold their shareholder meetings, and where tourists come on their way to the famous national parks like the Maasai Mara, or the Serengeti or Ngorogoro in Tanzania.

 

As for the question of safety, I can't say I felt any more unsafe in Nairobi than I do in Kampala. That being said I never was out walking at night in Nairobi, the time when you are most likely to get into trouble. On the other hand, I do walk at night in Kampala (and I probably shouldn't their either), but I try and avoid large groups of idle men or dark allies.

 

The long and the short of this rambling monologue is that I love how being here has forced me to throw my African stereotypes and generalizations out the window. Every time I think I see a pattern I realize I couldn't be more wrong. It's also made me wonder just how skewed most North American's view of "Africa" probably is if mine led me to strange conclusions and I would call myself fairly well travelled and open-minded. I'm not sure how anyone could generalize Africa - Africa, the continent with its something like 40 different countries, thousands of tribes and cultures, and of course equally as many languages (or dialects), traditions and ways of life.

 

What an amazing part of the world.