So, I depart from Cape Town taken inside the cockpit of an old Mercedes Benz camion due to Cabo Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa. And, eventually, say, as it goes, on the first meters riding aboard this rattle-box, the driver and its occupants, actually from German and from some other countries in central Africa, are already disclosing that they are about to finish their big African crossing, this is, “at this point... we have already crossed all Africa from north to south... I mean,” the drivers say, “I have actually started alone in Tripoli, on the Mediterranean coast, from there I came down through the desert until Agadez, the capital of Niger, then, with already some guests aboard, we have actually passed through Argelia, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and eventually we would reach also South Sudan, this is, on the way through the desert we have actually been throwing rave parties in the here and there, on the desert and out of cities, in prairies, and then, continuing, in Kampala-Uganda, we would participate in the so-called Nyege Nyege Festival, a massive four-day international celebration of underground electronic music and pan-African creativity held annually along the banks of the River Nile near Jinja, a small town located on the top of lake Victoria... the driver says, and then other one with skin more swarthy would add “we have actually made some good friends there...” he says while actually smiling and softly becking behind in the direction of the back seat where a bunch of big breasted ladies are actually installed, some apparently dozing, others hanging on top of each other. And then the German capitan would eventually continue like this “so, following on the side of the Tanganyiaka lake we would somehow reach Zambia, and then Zimbabwe, where we would participate in some more music festivals actually happening in Harare, its capital, and then, on the triangle between Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa something bad would happen, but let’s not talk about that... I mean, Johanesburg was totally mad and then Cape Town was just...” he would say, as we actually follow on the road along the coast, just on the side of False Bay, somewhere in between the Table Mountain National Parkand the Helderberg Marine Protected Area. And so, once reached the Agulhas Cape, the souther point of Africa, where there was a small village inhabited by freaky fishermen and other pariahs of many sort, here I would actually arrange a ride aboard an old Toyota Hilux, due to the border with Mozambique, located about two thousand kilometres from here. And so, here I’m, already installed on the cargo bed of the referred pick-up, actually accompanied by a mate, his name Mandla, thus yeah, Mandla it’s a Zulu name, actually meaning “strength”, so, yes, yebo, he’s a Zulu speaker, but yes, yebo, he also speaks Africans, English, German, and some French, etc. This because he’s actually the son of a German-English man with a Zulu women, that’s it. So, yes, yebo, his skin is not black, not white, more like cream phosphor, let’s say... And accordingly, at this point I already got to know that, he has visited Europe, this is, his family sent him there to study, but... actually, he didn’t like it very much, and so, before long here he came back again, and then, he would go on a big travel all around Africa... that’s what he’s saying, but here now, after the dunes we would eventually pass through a shrub-land he actually call Fynbosis, and so, “the word fynbosvis is often confusingly said to mean fine bush in Afrikaans, as "bos" means "bush"... but actually,” Mandla says, “...typical “fynbos” foliage tends to be ericoidal, and have flowers like bells, rather than fine, or straight…” This is, here now, he’s actually talking about this sappy shrub with thorny leafs that I though to be a cactus, but, he just tells me that this isn’t really a cactus, “those are succulents... that are more soften than cactus... and, like aloe and snake plants, this things are particularly good for removing toxins from the air... I mean, studies show that working or living with this plants can increase concentration and lower stress, blood pressure, and anxiety levels....” he says, and then, attending my request, he also talks a bit about his experiences while travelling in Africa, this is, “Africa may lack infrastructure and means of communication,” he says, “but that, for me, makes travelling even more interesting... I mean, Central Africa can be a bit confusing, but, that's where my favourite countries are... say, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin... and then there’s Ethiopia, yes Ethiopia in my opinion has the more interesting mix of African people...” he says with excitement and I ask why. “...this because, well, they are actually African, Arabian, Indian and even European all at the same time, this is, most of the people in Ethiopia actually speak Afro-Asiatic languages, mainly of the Cushitic and Semitic branches… but, there’s also Oromo, Somali, Tigrayans, Amharas...”, he explains. And so, as he says that, the therm Semitic sounds quite usual to me, even so, I’m actually a bit confuse about the meanings of this term, and so, on the go Mandla clarifies... “this is... the Semitic languages are actually a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, spoken in the Horn of Africa, some countries in North Africa, Malta and even in small pockets in the Caucasus... this is, historically, the term “Semitic” comes from Shem, or Sem, that that was one of the three sons of Noa, the later brother of Caim and Jafé, from the Book of Genesis... and so, accordingly, it is said that Noa had already five years old when Sem born, and plus, it is also said that, some of his descendants were actually Elam, Ashur, Aram, Lud. Arphaxad and Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. But, in another versions from the same book, Shem is also said to be the father of all the children of Eber or Ābir that is an ancestor of the Ishmaelites, the sons of Ishmael... and so, accordingly, Ishmael had one daughter and twelve sons, this is, the "twelve princes" actually mentioned in Genesis... and, let’s say, in Islamic tradition, these actually gave rise to the "Twelve Tribes of Ishmael"... and in Jewish tradition, the twelve tribes of Israel were actually descended from Abraham's other son, Isaac, via Isaac's son Jacob...” he says, and then, when I ask about women, “where is the women?”, he says that, “there was Mahalath, the third wife of Esau, this is, Esau that sold his birthright to Jacob, the one regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites... and also it is said that Esau and his father-in-law actually plotted to kill Isaac and Jacob and thereby inherit both families... well, this is said because Esau have not divorcing his two Hittite wives Adah and Judith, when he married Mahalath, even though, he knew that they were displeasing to his parents... so, if he had married Mahalath to fulfill his parents’ bidding, he should have divorced them, and, since he did not do that, he merely increased his parents’ pain and suffering” he says, and accordingly, on the go I actually get interested in the two Hittite wives: Adah and Judith, but Mandla don’t go to them straight away, instead he comes back to Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. “It’s interesting coz the word “Mahalat” means “tender” or “sickness” in Arab and Hebraic languages, but here in south Africa it’s a Zulu term we use, something like slang, that means “nothing” or “for free”, it’s a word we use to describe something he get without having to pay”, and then the Hittites, “the Hittites...” he says, “were actually Anatolian people, that inhabited since what is now Turkey until the Upper Mesopotamia, more south, a region that has been known by the traditional Arabic name of al-Jazira "the island", coz, in fact, the Euphrates and Tigris rivers transform Mesopotamia into almost an island....”; “hum, I see,” I say, and then he continues, “Esau’s two first wives, Adah and Judith, are actually described as adulterous and idolatrous by the Hebraic scholars... this is, Adah, also called Basemath, is actually linked with harlotry, and Judith, also called Ohlibamah, is similarly described as adulterous. So, in Arab language, “Basemath” actually means something like “sweet-smiling”, and it is said that, Esau ignored God's wishes that Abraham’s descendants keep themselves separate from the Canaanites in marriage so, explaining, the Canaanites were actually nomadic-pastoral groups of people spread throughout the regions of the southern Levant or Canaan, and, it is by far the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible, say, the “book of Joshua” actually includes the Canaanites in a list of nations to exterminate, and scripture elsewhere portrays them as a group which the Israelis had annihilated. But, in real, the Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature, this is, they say that, this name, is actually an endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks as Phoenicians, that had spread along the Mediterranean sea, and later founded Carthage, now Tunisia”, he says, as we keep rolling by the Indian Sea, and then, “about the other Esau’s wife, Oholibamah,” he says “they say that she was actually the mother of the three sons who would become the patriarchs of the Edomites, a tribe that settled in the southern parts of the Kingdom of Judah, where is now Jordan. And I actually can tell you more, this is, in a fantasy novel I have read, say, Many Waters by the American writer Madeleine L'Engle, Oholibamah is actually the daughter of a Nephil, a fallen angel...” he says, and so, here we go by now actually talking about other fallen angels when abruptly a group of baboons cross the road leaping around, and accordingly, the van actually has to do a crazy zigzag to avoid them and so we almost get out of the road with that. And then, as we are actually stop on the roadside, the motor goes off, and so, here we stay in silence, for while... this is, the sea stretching down there, after the cliffs, dark blue waters, plus the breeze released by it, arriving here now. And so, accordingly, in the meanwhile, we actually thrash against the tiny tinted glass that separates us from the front compartment, trying to call our drivers there, to see if everything is OK, but, no answers we get... and, so, in the meanwhile, the baboons are already approaching, neighing and whining like horses while coming by, this is, in a while they are already on our side, and so, as they come Mandla just speaks to them as if he is speaking to people... and in this moment, the ones on the front compartment, actually open a bit the side window and throw out bags of crisps and other foods, this is, they throw it as far from the car as they can, actually a way of inciting them to go away, but that doesn’t work, this is, in the meanwhile some even jump here inside the cargo bed, and so, on the go Mandla is already speaking the Zulu language with them, I guess, and me, well, me too, I’m actually speaking some sort of Chinese with this baboons. And then, when the truck starts moving again, most of the monkeys stand back, but not all, this is, some actually stay with us, accompanying us until the vicinities of Durban, a city that, accordingly, before was called Natal, this because, I get to know, on the Christmas day of 1497a Portuguese fleet led by Vasco da Gama, on his way to India, actually docked here, on a natural port, and so this name, because Natal is actually the world for Christmas in the Portuguese language, and also KwaZulu-Natal is still today the name of this province along the coast, actually a province of Zulu majority. And so, after Durban, we would also make some small stops in uMhlanga, KwaDukuza, Nongoma, Richardsbaai, where actually lived some elements of our driver’s family, and so, after establish communication with this Zulu comrades, we would continue in the direction of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, being isimangaliso a word that in Zulu means "miracle" or "something wondrous", I get to know. And thus, while riding along this wetland, I actually come to see many rhinos, some crocodiles, some hippopotamus, and even some marine turtles including the bigger ones I have ever seen, say, the leatherback turtle, or luth, actually the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to three metres and weights up to five hundred kilograms, I get to know. And so, additionally, one one of our many stops, at some point our drivers would explain while we didn’t took that other road heading north, a better road, actually going in the direction of the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known as Swaziland, or the Swaziland Kingdom, as this country is an absolute monarchy with constitutional provision and Swazi law and customs. “This is...” one of our drivers now says, “in this country, the head of state is the ngwenyama, a word that in the Swazi language actually means Lion... and plus, the Swazi population actually faces a major health issue at this time, this is, it is of public knowledge that about thirty percent of the adult population in that country is HIV-positive... so you see, that is a lot, and so, that’s one of the reasons why we didn’t take that road heading north, but also, because this muddy road here, is actually short-cut, say, the only road actually heading directly in the direction of the border with Mozambique. And then, after reaching Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, the destination of our drivers, me and Mandla would eventually continue up north, hitch-hiking all the way until the border with Tanzania, this is, we would be taken by a bunch of local guys, some talked us about African politics, others about religion, others about American movies, and so, once reached its capital, Dar es Salaam, we would move along the Kivukoni road, that stretches from the Zanzibar Ferry terminal until the Kigamboni ferry terminal.
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