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Africa began with no call, no sign, no indication. The gate for boarding at Heathrow International Airport opened and that was the start. All rows, all seats, all passengers crowded like a Haitian voting-poll, but eventually formed into two snaking lines as black as a cobra’s sheen. A few white spots speckled the arrangement, I among them. Suddenly, the minority I sought was found—and it was me.
Another African Day
Camron Karsten2006-02-18 20:22:17
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Africa began with no call, no sign, no indication. The gate for boarding at Heathrow International Airport opened and that was the start. All rows, all seats, all passengers crowded like a Haitian voting-poll, but eventually formed into two snaking lines as black as a cobra’s sheen. A few white spots speckled the arrangement, I among them. Suddenly, the minority I sought was found—and it was me.
Albeit, twenty-four hours in London proved as a pleasant coat of primer. As I perused Piccadilly Circus around its surrounding Tube stations, words from worldly tongues quizzed my ears. People everywhere. Cultures and their dialect were a circus of conversation unbeknown to my conscience. French, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic—the usual—then the sharp speeches of far Eastern Europe and the twisted consonants of the northern Netherlands. And then Greek? Could that have been Latin? I passed the lines for Oxford and Cambridge. Tours of Japanese elders huddled in masses, moving steadily as the centipede’s legs. Chinese, Thai monks with neon Theravada robes, and Brazilians, their football jerseys standing out like a bull’s eye among England’s club teams.
Was this London? And they call America the melting pot? The U.S. has its share of cultures and ethnicities Wandering, and I must admit, half waiting for the anticipation of that African day.spread out across a continent, but that is just it; peoples have disseminated throughout a vast expanse of land, water to a dry sponge. So many people, so much land. The United States of America.
Now London, equally, if not more diverse (no…for sure), but concentrated as a can of frozen Minute Maid Humanity.
Lisa said that was London. “Throughout the year, London is London, but when it’s summer, that’s when the city comes alive.”
Well, it wasn’t summer. In fact, on the day I arrived it could rightfully be determined the first day of winter.
“Yesterday was warm,
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See photographs from:
Nigeria Gallery
