Ok so my last Africa trip was a couple of weeks ago to Tanzania, the sleepy but extremely personality-warm nation of East Africa. I always get lucky on these trips, and meet the most amazing, fun, quirky and totally inspiring people. What always amazes me is how diverse the continent is. It has all the hallmarks of a fast-evolving and modernising society, but can't fail to impress and depress and all at once. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's mystic capital, after a week of business meetings on energy - partly reflecting the country's rising oil and gas status - I ended up in a club in town called Elements with friends and colleagues. The place was teaming with young and not so young Afropolitans, expatriates and repatriates. No sooner had we arrived did I hear the DJ blasting P-sqaure tunes; (P-square is a Nigerian brother music duo). I struck up a couple of conversations, and the usual 'ahhhhh you are Nigerian', which is often accompanied by the look of horror or sheer excitment/pleasure - the usual reactions are often somewhere in between! Conversations fluctuate between politics, business, music, relationships, poverty. Everything and anything goes, even over a glass of gin and coke. What was even more funny, was that I always end up making friends who seem to know every single person in town - their cousin's brother, their former colleague's cook etc. But it's the instant ability for us all to relate to each other that always floors me. We're all more connected than we think, Africans. And our frivolous divisions and perceptions of each other are usually artificial and self-inflicted at best. This reality was evident, even in the small and charming town of 'Dar' - local slang for Dar es Salaam
Picture above shows sunset at Slipway, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
