Journal

Homowo hoots at hunger and Aboakyer opens with a live hunt. What Ghana’s festivals are for, when they fall, and how to attend one well.

Ghana has two wet seasons in the south, one in the north and a dust laden harmattan between them. A month by month reading of when to go.

Jollof, banku, waakye and kelewele. The staples worth knowing, how street food actually works, and what to ask for if you avoid chili.

The last bath before the coast. Assin Manso was a great inland slave market, and is now a place of return, of reburial and of quiet.

The largest of Ghana’s coastal castles, a World Heritage Site and a working museum. What stands there now, and how to visit it properly.

Begun in 1482, St. George’s d’Elmina is one of the oldest European buildings outside Europe. What survives there, and how to visit it.

Kenya is not West Africa, and its diaspora story is an Indian Ocean one. What return travel here actually means, and what it does not.

Greetings are not optional in Kenya, and the coast has its own rules. What to say, what to wear, and when not to take the photograph.

Ugali, sukuma wiki, nyama choma and the Swahili coast. What Kenyans actually eat, and how the coast became a different cuisine.

The oldest and best preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, lived in for over seven hundred years. What to see, how to get there and how to visit.

Kenya has two rainy seasons, two dry ones and a coast that ignores the highlands. A month by month reading of when to go and why.

Maulidi at Lamu has been held since the nineteenth century. What Kenya celebrates, when it falls, and how to attend without being a problem.