Goodbye Africa – Flying to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines

Happy Fourth of July America! While y'all are BBQing and prepping for the fireworks in a few hours. I am on plane heading to Addis Ababa and praying that I catch my connection to Dubai. It would not be an overstatement to say that I will never ever ever ever fly Ethiopian Airlines again. Not only did I have to wait in line for two hours just to get my boarding pass, I nearly missed my flight because no one was willing to authenticate my credit card which meant I could get on the flight. I kept getting passed back and forth between various people. It was only when I lost my temper that someone actually helped me. I hate to say it but third world countries need to get out of the airline business and privatize their national carriers and introduce competition (Note on 7/6/2010: This is an understatement!).

Obviously, the reason I am on this flight is because I just spent two awesome weeks in South Africa with Abbie, Joe, and Chrysanthi. The side of effect of all the fun has been that I have not had a chance to blog at all. Hence, I will try to summarize all some of my thoughts about South Africa into this blog post.

Cape Town is hands down the cultural capital of South Africa and is set in one of the most picturesque locales I have ever seen. Buttressed by Table Mountain on one side and the Atlantic on the other, the birds eye view of Cape Town is breathtaking. That being said, the best thing I did in Cape Town was visit the National Gallery. Their collection ranges from traditional South African artisan work through to the development of modern South African art.

It is an impressive collection. While I was able to discern some of the influences on South African modern art, much of it remained opaque to me. Walking through the halls trying to make sense of the varied styles and ideas on display, I realized how unaware I was of South African history. Shaped by the experience of Colonialism, Apartheid and traditional African culture, modern art in South Africa is worlds away from any of my experiences. It occurred to me that outside of some vague ideas about African wildlife and crushing poverty and hunger, Africa the continent has been disappeared from the consciousness of the West. By contrast, the art on display in Berlin seemed very accessible because the history of modern Europe is the history of the world. Hence, I was cognizant of the frame through which German art saw the world. This was not the situation for South African art and the visit to the National Gallery has left me with more questions than answers. However, it has also inspired me to delve deeper into the history of South Africa and its relationship to the West. And when I return to the continent after my Masters, I will be better prepared.

I will be in Karachi soon and blogging will probably come to a halt. I am still not sure where to go next. Any Ideas?