Travel in space and culture

This week I traveled from Lilongwe, through Blantyre, Addis Ababa, Vienna and Stockholm to Oslo. As I moved from Southern Africa through Horn of Africa to Europe I realized that I was part of a cultural journey.

Human mobility has increased exponentially with new technology and improved economic power. Travel in air, belonging to the well-off in the Western world only a generation ago, is now commonplace around the world.  People converge from all kinds of directions and depart for different destinations.  Airplanes and airports have become cultural happenings.

At Lilongwe Kamuzu Airport the flavour of Africa was very present.  Women in colourful dresses and with fancy scarfs shaping their hairstyle walked around in high-healed shoes.  Young boys in suits were clearly expressing that the upcoming journey was a major event in their lives.  Luggage was brought in all kinds of shapes and forms; huge suitcases, over-sized plastic bags, cardboard boxes wrapped with rope...  Extended families crowded the departure area, winking farewell to their dear ones.  I was experiencing Malawian community-life. Asian and Western looking people blended in as a small minority.

As we landed in Addis, we entered the interface between Sub-Saharan Africa and Arabian sphere. We met turbans, jalabiyyahs, heavy perfumes and hijabs. Arab and Somali sound-bits mixed with African vernacular languages and English.  Addis airport is a hub for travels north, south, east and west.

On the plane through Vienna to Stockholm there were still a variety of skin-colours and languages.  Clothing and luggage were slightly less diverse, but rather more streamlined towards the "world traveler" style.  I was not anymore in an African community.  I was no more part of a minority of Europeans.  We were a mixed community - in between.  In Vienna a number of the Sub-Saharan Africans, Arabs and Somalis left the plane.

I now entered the last phase of my travel as representative of the mainstreamed majority.  Most of the colourfully dressed had left us.  Those who originated from Malawi, Ethiopia, Somalia... were mostly dressed in Western clothes, carried modern suitcases and roller bags.  Perfume smell was subdued and languages gradually shifted towards Swedish, and even Norwegian.  Swedes and Norwegians - white, brown or black - were obviously returning home.  Whether their origin was Blantyre, Mogadishu, Addis or Oslo they blended in.

I had been part of not only a travel in time and space, but certainly a travel in culture and identity.  Globalisation has many faces!