To celebrate the beauty, variety, and transformative capacity that is Guinea...
So much media coverage of Africa, or for that matter "information" from governments and non-profits alike, is of death, chaos, destruction. These exist ~ don't get me wrong: I'm not rose-colouring things. But Africa has accomplished what many other groups that have felt the grip of European colonisation have not: they survived! Unlike the Incas & the Aztecs in the Americas, for example,
they survived " with a great deal of their culture, however bruised and battered, intact." (Maier, Karl. Into the House of the Ancestors)
Travelling to Guinea is transformative. Venture forth, and never come back quite the same: inspired, saddened, enriched.
Through this, we come to understand both our commonality and uniqueness.
The moment this happens, we are no longer limited by the confines of thinking. Wherever they were set, the original boundaries of thought are challenged.
This exanding sense of "other" changes who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who we imagine we can be.
