April 14, 2011
4:00 A.M.
I’ve just awoken 2 hours before our flight is due to land in Nairobi around 6 A.M. What a process this has been! Two and a half days in planes and airports! And strange as it is, we complain about the length of time the flight takes, when our ancestors had to use ships, and trips took months.
Last night, supper was being served over Germany and Italy. It was beautiful to look at the webs of light far below, rolling up and down with the hills, and meandering across the landscape. The mountains, I assume the Dolomites, were particularly pretty as the lights were not strung together haphazardly. Rather, travel corridors were distinct and well lit and surrounded by darkness, perhaps broken by the pinprick of a house. From above, I was reminded of a network of veins and arteries, pulsing away with the lifeblood of capital. The lights, in a sense, represent opportunity, or a map of it. More lights imply that there is money to be made at a particular location, or perhaps a route to be travelled to prosperity.
I opened my eyes about 200 miles south of Khartoum, Sudan. We have flown about another hour and a half and are now cutting across Ethiopia. I have not seen a single light since I woke. Not even a speck. I cannot say that I have been anywhere other than the open ocean and not seen a single speck of light.
The dark continent, indeed.
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