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10 Questions

sociable black poodle. It is a comfortable and well-appointed abode, but with
his collection of African sculpture and masks on loan for Black History Month
to Tequesta’s Lighthouse Center for the Arts, the place feels empty, he said.

“Can you smell it?” he asked. “The smell of Africa.”

place he knows well. He has visited an estimated 25 times since first setting
foot in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in 1968.

unfold in Africa since his first visit. They show the effects of misguided aid
policies, he says, “that make systemic problems out of temporary solutions.”

fishing — and returning to Africa.

Africa, why foreigners can’t solve the continent’s problems and why he can’t
stop going back.

— Antigone Barton

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I’ve lived here all my life. I went to Delray Elementary School at Old School Square — 32 East. It was hot then, no
air-conditioning. I went to Seacrest High School, University of Kentucky and
Florida Atlantic University. I
majored in anthropology.

Q: What prompted your first trip to Africa?

A: Majoring in anthropology. You have to see for yourself. Then there’s always something new to see. It’s like skin-diving, it’s different every time.

Q: What is your favorite country in Africa, and why?

A: Zimbabwe. I’ve watched the country go through this terrible metamorphosis over the last 29 years. The unemployment
rate now is 94 percent. The life expectancy for a woman is 37 and for a man is
39. I’m painting a very bleak picture, so you might say what’s so great about
it?

The people have such tremendous resilience. And it’s refreshing to get away from the twittering and Paris Hilton … and political talk shows. It’s refreshing to get back to the basics of
life. It’s like going back in history.

Q: What is the biggest difference between politics in Africa and here?

A: We’ve had a little bump in our history with the Civil War but it involved the same people with different philosophies on two issues — secession and slavery.
How would you like to run the Congo with 70 different languages spoken? It’s
easy to exploit people when they really have a deep-seated hatred for each
other. Africa has 53 countries. They may need 250 countries. Remember we’re the ones who carved that
up, we put those people together.

Q: What are people doing right in Africa that people here don’t know about?

A: We are obsessed with death. They value life. We see death in the abstract. They see it every day. It permeates their society. If someone dies, they clean the
body. They’re not as fearful of death as we are. Another difference, the Shona
people (a tribe from Zimbabwe) revere the elderly. Most Africans do. The Shona
believe the ancestors speak to the elderly and that’s why they take care of
their elders. Why would you put your smartest people in a nursing home? We take
our old people and we put them out.

The San (tribe located primarily in Botswana) are bush people. You’ll never see a crying San baby. Someone will pick it up. It’s a communal society.

Q: Why don’t more people know about what works in Africa?

A: Good news is boring. Lot’s of good things happen there.

Q: When were you last in Africa and when are you going back?

A: I last went two years ago. I’m going in September this year. I don’t know where else I’m going this time, but I have to go to Zimbabwe, because I have friends
there.

Q: When you are here, what do you miss from Africa?

A: The simplicity of it. I miss the people. I really like the people.

Q: What do you miss from the United States when you are there?

A: When I’m there don’t miss anything. If it wasn’t for my grandkids, I would live there four months of the year. The worst months here are the best months there.

Q: What do you like about living in Ocean Ridge?

A: I’m an ocean person, I love living close to the sea.

Antigone Barton is freelance writer and author living in Lantana. She was a 2009-2010 Knight Health Journalism Fellow in Africa, where she worked with reporters at
the Zambia
Daily Mail.