The journey “Africa on the road” will start from  Milan in the beginning of September; with destination South Africa after crossing the borders of 20 African states in 5 months on a total of 25000 Km.                                                               

The route will be long and could be modified on the way crossing the borders of several states such as Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawy, Zambia, Zimbabwe,Botswana,Namibia, Cape Town, South Africa  will the final destination.

The journey will be “on the road”, covering a total distance of 25.000 Km with every kind of means of transport such as buses,trains,boats,bicycles and motorcycle.

These kilometres are full of significance, because they will take place on the roads of Africa,a Continent which has always been struggled by wars, diseases, and slaughter which has made this area become the “darkest” part of our planet.

The most important aim of this journey is not reaching a destination (which remains Cape Town) but an introspective research into a Continent which has always been considered the “Cradle of the world”.

In this “cradle” a million children die every day and without our help many more will have no chance of surviving or growing up.

This journey is meant to draw the attention of the public opinion and the mass-media to Africa, about which we have stereotyped ideas such as starvation, war and poverty and to make people know the values,the wealth and the potentials of this continent.

This experience will not only be the topic of a thesis but also a means of getting to know and spreading of the African reality, which lives very close to us even if  we sometimes consider it as a world apart.

Opening our eyes to the Western world is just the first step which could be made by man; a slow journey getting know people, places and borders of a dying Africa. We have to save it be cause this continent  is the place where men moaned  for the first time and  where every year million moans died under the silence of a broken life.

However, we, illegittimate children of a world we ignore,live paddes in a cosy, comfortable life while the other side of the Mediterranean Sea struggles against every kind of incomprehension.

 

Open our eyes to the world because that’s what our mother Africa wants.

Fabio Miggiano