The African Tourism Board is currently going through an identity crisis. Joining Africa together from North to South, East to West is not as easy, but a compromise to generate joint tourism business overseas is getting closer.
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There is no unified way to describe something as ‘African,’ but from a tourism perspective, inviting different regions, people, and cultures to learn from each other and capitalize on this shared opportunity is the idea behind the African Tourism Board.
Seven years after Juergen Steinmetz, the publisher of this publication, launched the idea of an African Tourism Board, ATB has taken many turns and is still exploring its place. However, leaders now understand the endless opportunities that tourism can provide anywhere in the world, including for the many cultures and people in nations across Africa.
Under the leadership of South African Cuthbert Ncube, the organization has been connected in a way that stakeholders on this continent could only dream about a few years ago. Still, the beginning has not even been done yet. This may happen soon when two independent high-level discussion groups within the African Tourism Board reach a consensus and come to a conclusion.
From the outside, African Tourism may be one, but from the inside Shaudzirai Mudekunye makes it clear by saying: “Given the chance I would spend my life traveling to every African country, with my family, absorbing art, learning the people, spending time learning to bead and weave at the local markets, drinking local beverages at the local spots, eating all the street food I can stomach and learning the languages, so I am always in touch with and never forget who we represent.”
From Egypt to Sierra Leone, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, as well as Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritius, and Guinea, Africa is slowly growing together through tourism – thanks to the effort by the African Tourism Board.
A team of leaders, including former and current ministers of tourism, is in discussions to unify the tourism sector, but the necessary unity to bring it together is not yet present. What has become clear is that the African problem of uniting has to be resolved within Africa.
The goal for those who sell travel in regions across Africa and are part of ATB is to market together.
African Tourism Board USA
However, outside the continent, the U.S.-based African Tourism Board USA, under the leadership of qualified PR and Marketing experts, including this publication, is collaborating with anyone from Africa who wants to join this initiative to effectively invite American travelers to explore the diversity that the African continent offers.
African Tourism Board USA – African Tourism Board
Become a trusted African Tourism Board USA partner, and have us represent you.This representation can or cannot be exclusive. Companies or destinations that are qualified and prepared to successfully reach out directly to potential trade and consumer clients in North America or Europe. The African Tourism Marketing Corporation, based in the United States, is part […]
A first step was launched this year with the African Tourism Board USA, with a growing number of diverse destinations and stakeholders coming together to share costs and resources, making this combined representation in the United States work.
A Passionate South African Explains the African Problem
As South African Shaudzirai Mudekunye is passionate about African brands and dedicated to African stories, he says:
Africa is not a homogeneous entity. Therefore, it follows that there cannot be a single proverb, truth, or saying that can represent an entire continent comprising over 3,000 ethnic groups and more than 2,000 languages.
” In my opinion, it’s reductive, lazy, and erases the depth and beauty of our cultural diversity. We (Africans) are not all the same. ‘United’, but united in (despite) our differences.
Let’s break it down for the first-timer, the curious, the well-meaning-but-misguided, and yes, even for Africans who still post “an African saying” like it’s universal:
- 1. Proverbs are deeply tied to language. And much is lost in translation. What holds deep meaning in Zulu might not resonate in Amharic, Wolof, or Tamasheq.
- 2. Proverbs are shaped by local realities: land, history, belief systems, and social structures. A proverb from a Sahelian pastoralist will naturally differ from one from a coastal fishing community. Right?
- 3. The continent’s richness lies in its pluralism, not in flattening it into one “African voice.” That doesn’t exist, so stop giving it to us.
So, No. You can’t just lump it all together under “an African proverb.” Challenge for you all. Before you take the lazy route and post ‘An African saying,’ take the time to research where it originates.
Respect requires effort
- Will it change your life? No.
- Will it make you more respectful to the people whose quote you’re using? Definitely.
- Let’s do better. Respect requires effort.
