I presume

I took a ride to Ujiji, the small town close to Kigoma, famous for the Livingstone Memorial Museum and for the spot where Stanley uttered the famous words ‘Doctor Livingstone, I presume?’ An old guide at the museum relayed the history as we sat in the mango grove where the meeting allegedly took place. The two large mango trees currently there are said to be grafted from the one standing at the time, yet I think this is where stories enter speculative and fanciful territory.

A short distance from the museum the shore of Lake Tanganyika laps fishing villages. An enterprising lad Abdul offered me a wooden canoe ride around the reeds and boatyards of Ujiji. When I say boatyard I mean overgrown areas of the lake’s shallows with huge wooden hulks moored in various states of disrepair. Abdul was sporting an Arsenal shirt which he kissed when I mentioned it. His father apparently supports Nottingham Forest.

Tourists, visitors and the western world in general have done the dirty on Africans. The blocks closest to the museum were intense in terms of requests for gifts (zawadi) but mostly money (pesa) from the passing mzungu (foreign person), indicating that tourists have come here and dished out money willy nilly. After the canoe ride I was trying to get change at a small hatch so I could tip Abdul. An old bloke rocked up and spent some money on cigarettes. On seeing me he cupped his hands and asked me to buy food visible in the same hatch. Westerners have infantilised and exploited Africans, leading to situations like this.