As an African, this article leaves me exasperated for so many reasons. Broad generalizations and conspicuously missing airline names for the most incredible accusations (meaning the stories can't be independently verified).
Africa is not a country, it has 1 billion people and 54 nations; that is more than the number of states in the US, generalizations this broad are a disservice. This article is the equivalent of "'Did you marry your cousin?' and other basic question about American marriages" with examples from Mississippi and Alabama. No offence.
I don't really see that as a racist cheap shot. The whole point of the comment was to expose the narrow view of the article, which was in my opinion done effectively by translating it to a generalization that some Americans may take offense with. I certainly don't think the commenter meant it as a racist remark from his/her perspective, but rather as an equivalent racist remark that one might say.
My apologies if my comment seemed or is racist - to be clear it was a hypothetical headline. I was attempting to give an example that is relatable to Americans that validates some under-informed individuals' (mostly false) negative worldview.
I wanted to post my favourite quote from the article, but honestly, it has too many gems to pick just one.
>Another friend told me a security officer once confiscated the mangos he was taking as a gift — but only the soft, ripe, delicious, juicy ones, which the officer said were classified as a liquid and therefore banned.
> On the return trip the pilot announced the plane needed to make an unplanned stop — to refuel. The plane descended onto the runway in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the passengers shuffled into the airport. The crew proceeded to take up a collection. That’s right: They hit up the Dakar Jaguars middle school swim team for gas money.
>Days before, the local paper had published a story about Camair-Co’s new fleet under the headline “Flying Coffins.” The government assured the public that the planes were safe.
>I bought my ticket and boarded the Camair-Co flight under lighted signs that warned of bans against flying with opium or uppers or “palm oil, honey, etc.” I’m not a savvy enough traveler here yet to know what the “etc.”
Some travel highlights of my time in Butkina were:
- An 18 hour trip to get roughly 300km. On the very last leg we took a detour in our bush taxi down what was very clearly only a bike trail. The van got stuck on a tree and as we waited one of the drivers took my bike off and just rode away. Turned out he was riding out to get someone from the village we were detouring to.
- During a 20 some hour bus ride to Ghana, a dude popped out in the road and shot at the bus. After the driver pulled over the guy came in and fired a few times down the center of the bus and husseled everyone off. I was just starting a vacation with a number of friends so they got _a lot_ of cash. Eventually when I felt brave enough to look up I saw the Ghana police firing randomly in the woods (Impressively they got there is about 10 minutes). As we were telling the police how much they toke, one of them said in adorable English, "Oh! They sure had a field day, haha".
- On a trip from Ghana we ended up hitch hiking and got a ride from a former head of the presidential guard in a sweet minivan. The dude was super nice but a crazy driver. Among the multiple times I thought we would die, he went to pass a long truck while another huge one was hurtling towards us for a head on collision. Instead of backing off or slowing down, he casually jammed the gas and swerved off road (which had a solid six inch drop) to get around it.
So many more hilariously insane experiences. Lots of fun.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of this article- a bunch of anecdotes about African airline service being sub-par isn't exactly the sort of reporting one associates with the NYT.
And at the same time, it just glosses over the line "A hearty four-wheel drive could take [bad African roads] on, but the threat of kidnapping-prone terrorist groups has made some road travel extremely dangerous." Is the threat of organized violence prevalent enough to impact road travel on a substantial portion of the continent? That would be a big deal!
> Do you have a death wish? Because that's what I generally associate with travelling to Africa.
Which countries specifically? You appear to be terribly underinformed about Africa, here's an interesting quiz for you to take[1], see if you can tell which picture was taken in Africa, and which was taken in the US.
Burkina and Ghana are generally fairly safe for foreigners (or were during my time there). Things got troublesome as you headed farther north - we (Peace Corps) were not allowed to travel in Mali and Niger at some point (though that didn't stop some, haha).
Although I do take your point - violence wasn't the only threat on a lot of those "roads".
Africa is not a country, it has 1 billion people and 54 nations; that is more than the number of states in the US, generalizations this broad are a disservice. This article is the equivalent of "'Did you marry your cousin?' and other basic question about American marriages" with examples from Mississippi and Alabama. No offence.