Dag 11: Ons aankoms in Luanda

​​(English translation below)

Dag 11: Ons aankoms in Luanda
 
As wit, middelklas Suid-Afrikaners weet ons hoe om in paralelle wêrelde te leef en onsself blind te hou vir wat ons nie wil sien nie.
 
Hier in Angola is daar ook verskillende wêrelde wat reg langs mekaar loop. Daar is die lang slap SUV's met donker ruite wat verby jou jaag en die zoemponies wat swaargelaai maar gelate 'n bestaan probeer uitkerf. Daar is die vyfster-hotelle en die ingerygde hutte met maer honde en bokke en hoenders en kaalvoetkinders. Daar is die toeriste-uitkykpunte oor die Atlantiese oseaan reg waar die Weste destyds skeepsvragte vol mense opgelaai en as slawe weggevoer het.
 
Angola is 'n land van kontraste waarvan ons min geweet het, behalwe dat ons pa's se generasie destyds hier kom veg het.
 
Vroeër vandag, toe ons 'n blaaskans soek, het De Witt 'n klein paadjie gevind wat tot reg langs die see loop waar plaaslike vissers hulle nette regmaak en die vis op droograkke uitpak. Dit was 'n kortstondige ontmoeting met 'n wêreld wat al eeue bestaan, maar waarby mens gewoonlik net verbysnel op die hoofpad. Toe ons stop en afklim, sien 'n klompie tienerseuns die motorfietse en vra of hulle maar kan kyk, foto's neem, voel, oplim. 'n Oomblik om aan 'n konkrete artifak van 'n skynbaar onaantasbare wêreld te kan vat.
 
Hoe min weet ons nie van Afrika nie? Vir my was enigiets Noord van Namibië nog altyd net 'n dowwe begrip van donker, gevaarlike Afrika. Eers nou, met die onvermydelike ontmoeting van wêrelde wat ons ekspedisie ons bied, begin ons oë stadig oopgaan vir die polsende bestaan van kleure, klanke, geure en teksture van Afrika in Luanda, Angola. 'n Plek om weer en weer te kom besoek.
 
Day 11: Our arrival in Luanda
 
As white, middle-class South Africans, we know how to live in parallel universes and keep ourselves blind to what we don't want to see.
 
Here in Angola there are also different universes that run right next to each other. There are the long lanky SUVs with dark windows that rush past you, and the zoom-ponies that are heavily laden but eagerly trying to carve out a living. There are the five-star hotels and the shacks with skinny dogs and goats and chickens and barefoot children. There are the tourist lookouts over the Atlantic ocean, right where the West abducted shiploads of people as slaves.
 
Angola is a country of contrasts that we knew little about, except that our fathers' generation came here to fight.
 
Earlier today, when we were looking for a break, De Witt found a small path that runs right along the sea where local fishermen mend their nets and unpack the fish on drying racks. It was a brief encounter with a world that has existed for centuries, but which one usually only passes by on the main road. When we stopped and got off, a group of teenage boys saw the motorbikes and asked if they could look, take pictures, feel, mount. A moment to touch a concrete artifact of a seemingly untouchable world.
 
How little do we know about Africa? For me, anything North of Namibia has always been just a vague notion of dark, dangerous Africa. Only now, with the inevitable meeting of worlds that our expedition offers us, our eyes slowly begin to open to the pulsating existence of colours, sounds, flavours and textures of Africa in Luanda, Angola. A place to visit again and again.

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/expedition-h2o-back-to-basics