Today we spent at sea sailing from Cameroon to Benin, bending away from and around the troubled state of Nigeria. No one was giving a second thought to anything but a day of relaxation and a series of fascinating presentations topped off by two special food and drink events.
Marty Klein gave the first presentation of the day, contextualizing one of the darkest but most important periods of West African history, namely the slave trade. This was particularly timely not only because we are moving into the area where a huge percentage of slaves brought to the New World originated, the so-called Slave Coast, but also because we were treated to the first half of the film “Amistad,” so the issue was particularly fresh in everyone's mind. We learned about the who, the where and the why of the West African slave trade.
Greg Anderson followed with a journey through the complex mosaic of languages in western and northern Africa. Passengers learned about the major languages of West Africa, and heard some samples of several of these. He then discussed the largest of all African languages, namely Arabic, or rather the ten different Arabic languages of Africa, and then gave some information about the very different logic that Arabic shows in comparison with more familiar European and Asian languages.
Pam McClusky gave a presentation on West African art styles. We learned about a whole host of different genres of West African art, in particular the importance and symbolism of mask and masquerades found throughout the region, sculpture in wood and bronze, and the beautiful and intricate styles of Ghanaian textiles. We are all looking forward to learning more from Pam about these magnificent expressions of creativity that characterize West Africa.
Finally, Michael Watts delivered an engaging and informative presentation on the development and further prospects for democracy in a range of contemporary African states, and the complex issues that these nations face in developing and consolidating national identity in the face of so many separate ethnic identities and how the various countries will deal with the massive proportion of their population who are youths, who represent an expanding and significant political force.
Today also marked the celebration of the "Half Way There" cocktail party on the sun deck to note the successful completion of the first portion of our epic journey, hosted by the captain. This was followed by a special “Captain's Choice” dinner, featuring Captain Lyons' particular favorites.
The evening ended with a lively musical journey across West Africa, hosted by Jacob Edgar, where we enjoyed samples of the amazing array of musical forms of expression that come from Benin, Togo and Ghana–our next three destinations.
