This week, we travel from the clanging church bells of Sicily to the azaan, or call to prayer wafting out of the minaret of a mosque somewhere in West Africa. Long before coming to Italy, I spent about three years living in West Africa, including about two years in Senegal and one year in Guinea. I had the opportunity to visit a number of other African countries too, including Madagascar, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Morocco, Gabon and South Africa.
In each of the places that I have visited or called home on the African continent, the lasting colonial imprint is evident from the moment you get on the plane. If you’re traveling to Mali or Madagascar (former French colonies), you’re much more likely to fly on Air France. If you go to South Africa or Ghana (former British colonies), you’re much more likely to travel with British Airways.
Since you have already been studying the colonial period, I imagine that you’ve already been learning about the massive negative impacts on the existing economic, political, and social structures during the two-plus centuries of the colonial period from the 17th to the 19th century.
