"Why Africa?" The question lands lightly, delivered as conversation, as curiosity. But beneath it sits an unspoken hierarchy - one that a Kenyan traveler confronted head-on during an 8-month backpacking journey from Kenya to South Africa.
The traveler's powerful Substack essay challenges Western-centric travel narratives and the subtle racism embedded in questions about whether Africa is "worth" backpacking.
The Question Behind the Question
"I hear it even when it is not voiced: what is there to see? What is there to experience that you haven't already exhausted?" the traveler writes. "Isn't one safari enough? Don't all the giraffes look the same? Aren't the elephants interchangeable?"
The implication - that African countries and cultures are monolithic, that one experience represents all - reveals the double standard applied to the continent. No one suggests that seeing the Eiffel Tower means you've "done" all of Europe.
The Real Route
Over eight months, the backpacker traveled through Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini before reaching Johannesburg.
The journey proved harder and more expensive than backpacking other continents - a reality often overlooked by outsiders. the traveler acknowledged on .
