Touch down in Nairobi. Of course the new airport is far removed in appearance and sophistication from the place I landed in 1968, but there is no question one has touched down south of the Equator.
In those days, all the pilots and many of the crew members were still Europeans. Now Kenya Airways flies the biggest planes built and is staffed totally by Kenyans. The plane was full with no seat to spare and the crew were friendly and fun. The passengers are much more fun and boisterous than the quiet restraint of the people who flew out of Montreal the night before. Whole families on the move with a tendency to try to bring too much carryon luggage into the cabin. Ground crew catch them at the boarding gate, so it seems to have evolved into a system where the extras are impounded in the hold and returned upon arrival.
The tea is excellent. The coffee shop prides itself in serving all the popular formats of coffee and tea and all of it made with Kenya produce. It’s not just boosterism to encourage tourism, there is a great deal of pride in being Kenyan and distinct. On the other hand it is back to the suits which were decidedly absent on the flight out of Montreal and in the airport in Holland. The suit came with the colonial civil service and it is still the uniform of success.
I have started catching up on some long overdue reading. It is impossible to understand the situation of Africa today without understanding the nature of colonialism that predates the independent countries that exist today. My historian bent comes out when I want to do an analysis so I am reading Albert Memmi’s 1957 classic The Colonizer and the Colonized with the preface by Jean Paul Sartre in the 1966 edition. It is a classic and helps clarify why so many elements and symbols of the colonial system remain intact despite the conscious effort of many independence leaders to remove them.
The connecting flight to Lilongwe has been delayed from an 8:30 departure to a 10 o’clock departure. It does not matter that I stripped out of my long underwear and wool socks, I am still way overdressed for the weather and will have to stay this way until I settle in for the night in Lilongwe. I have no idea where I will stay, but that partly depends on whether someone meets me at the airport.
Still have to work on a theme for this blog concept.
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