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PREPARE A POSE FOR THE LONDON FREEZE 30 APRIL 2008 LIVERPOOL STREET STATION 18.24-18.28 SPREAD THE WORD Here’s what happened in New York: Brought to you by Improv Everywhere...

I found traces of inadvertant humour in the African city guide in BSpirit, the inflight magazine of Brussels Airlines. Here are some exerpts: Abidjan: Hotel Ivoire is a local landmark and a real treat if you like late-1960s architecture… The ice-skating rink was closed many years ago, but the bowling alley is still open every day until 10pm. Banjul: Traditional wrestling is the Gambia’s national sport, and a fascinating way to spend a Sunday. Bujumbura: If you’re interested in Burundian cuisine (predominantly beef or fish brochette, chips or fried plantain), try Le Layor … Conakry: The many markets of Conakry offer the chance to take home African hardwood sculpture (some incredible pieces of ebony)… Douala: Las Vegas Refuge will leave a lasting impression...

Made of Stone: a lion in Oxfordshire There always seems to be a degree of unseemly disorder and crush around the boarding gate for the flight to Kinshasa, whether in Brussels, Paris or Nairobi. Perhaps it’s a hangover from the not too distant days of lax hand luggage rules, which led to urgent competition for space to stow all those TVs, fridges and bags of vegetables. Or it could be an expression of distrust in the reliability of airlines such as Brussels Airlines (formerly known as SN Brussels, and before that Sabena) and Kenya Airways, not to mention the Congolese domestic airlines, most of which have been banned from international routes. Otherwise, I don’t know what the rush is about. In our case, we were delayed by an hour (once everyone was onboard) so some vital part...

Human traffic lights, some call them Continuing the theme of my last post, travel writer Chuck Thompson describes a couple more entertaining close encounters with hard-up Congolese officials who are still adepts of Mobuto’s notorious Article 15: “Debrouillez vous” or “Fend for yourself”: 1. The passport inspector (DGM?): “Do you know what I make in salary each month?” the official asked me. When I said I hadn’t the foggiest, he shook his head plaintively, scribbled something on the paper and turned it around for me to read: “Par roi [mois] 22,000 FRC = $45.” “That’s not much of a salary,” I said. “It is a crime that a man in a position as revered as yours is not remunerated more fittingly,” added Henri, my local traveling companion and...

I have just finished reading Then I Saw the Congo, a 1920’s travel memoir by Grace Flandrau, a novelist from Minnesota who shared an editor with F. Scott Fitzgerald. (It happens that her biography is being published this spring.) I had misgivings about the title (see below), but found Flandrau’s writing pleasantly unburdened by the conventions of the adventure travel genre, and she disparages - even mocks - the then-fashionable pastimes of shooting large animals and ill-treating ‘the natives’. Since the book is long out-of-print (Nayembi discovered it in an antique book shop in Lilongwe), I’ll spare you a review and transcribe some of the more memorable passages instead. First impressions of Kinshasa: At first glance Kinshasa gives one the rather...