A few days ago I was rather amazed to see a photo of my old home, which is located on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in a glossy magazine published in Brussels. It has been turned into a spiffy little resort! Can’t say I’m completely pleased by this…. Amongst my memories of living there – aside from several productive years working on livestock improvement issues and restocking – are regular rebel incursions and other grim happenings.
Lovely house – 3 levels and 6 sides, floor to ceiling glass, and other wonderful accoutrements. I loved living there! (Actually, it is not 5 km. from city center, but about 12…)
The magazine in which the photo appears is a very upmarket monthly glossy job that is put out by Brussels Airlines for their customers. It presents stories and pictures for business-persons and tourists of a kind that everyone would like to think is representative of Africa – except, possibly, NGOs and other organizations seeking funds and other kinds of support for their africa-based work…
Here are some photos from the same magazine:
Magazine cover.
So, where are the men?!
Being sportif…
Building great things…
Expert craftsmen – when living in Kenya, I would try to buy cheese from this great place.
Well, yes, women are back on the farm (when they’re not modeling)…
Elegant food from Africa, for northern hemisphere markets and hotels in Africa…
Now, a bit of space for other dimensions of Africa:
Of course, just about everyone likes to give some time to the wildlife.
One of the interesting aspects of this magazine, is its bypassing of the growing and vibrant middle class in Africa. But of course, that’s not their target.
As for my prior home appearing in the magazine, having been transformed into an up’market resort, I am not very happy, and will do another blog about that….
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I’ll look forward to your blog reflecting on tourism industry taking over your home. While living for a summer two years ago on the Congo River in Mbandaka, Equateur Provine of Congo, in the house I had lived in forty years before, I often contemplated when the tourism industry would develop in Congo and was floored by finding only one Congo based business offering tours in Congo.
Thanks – hopefully, I’ll get to a tourism blog and my lovely (past) home next week. Tourism here is also pretty slow, due to rebels and so forth. But it’s now slowly picking up.