Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

AFRICAN NEWS

A round-up of travel news from Brussels Airlines’ long-haul network

Hotel with a view
Ndali Lodge, Uganda

Where is it? Fort Portal, Western Uganda, , ndalilodge.com What’s the view? The Lodge sits on what was once the rim of an old volcano, which subsequently became Lake Nyinambuga, and looks out over the Rwenzori Mountains made famous in Henry Stanley’s In Darkest Africa.

What to expect? Lots of local colour with rooms furnished in sun-baked shades and locally sourced materials. Every cottage has its own private veranda and fantastic views of the mountains. Breakfast – including passion fruit juice from the Lodge’s own vines with homemade bread and wild honey – is served on a terrace overlooking the lake.

What you need to know? You’ll be getting back to nature in a big way. There’s no electricity here (after sunset the Lodge is lit by candlelight) and you’ll have to share the walkway from the reception area to the dining room with the owls, fruit bats and frogs who use it as a thoroughfare to the lake.

Why go there? Mostly for the stunning setting. The surrounding countryside supports a vast array of wildlife, the lake is home to five species of kingfisher and the Lodge is just a 45-minute drive from Kibale Forest National Park.

What does it cost? Cottages from €154.

Rebuilding lives in Liberia

The civil war in Liberia saw children ‘recruited’ as spies, cooks and soldiers. Four years on, Unicef has forged a new partnership with over 700 of the country’s communities to help re-integrate these children into society. Many of the children have missed out on even basic primary education, but in addition to this, Unicef’s initiative also teaches them vocational skills in areas such as agriculture, mechanics and carpentry. Almost 2,500 young people have graduated from the scheme already, and another 2,500 have enrolled. One former child soldier, Tarnue, has said of the programme: “I was ruined by the war in Liberia. I had no hope and no future. But after I joined the training programme, my life changed. Soon I will be working on vehicles to make a living.”

One to watch… Kasaï Allstars

Like their Congolese contemporaries Konono No1, the Kasaï Allstars have built on traditional trance music, augmenting it with heavily distorted electric guitars, thumb pianos and drums. Although all 14 members hail from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s creatively fertile Kasaï province, they come from such diverse musical backgrounds that many previously assumed their styles would be incompatible. Having seen the group in action, people soon changed their minds. Their shows, which feature dancers, singers and storytellers, have won them international acclaim and their own spot on the latest Congotronics album. Their own debut album is scheduled for release soon.

Great apes

Scientists may be close to solving the riddle posed by a mysterious group of Congolese apes who are rumoured to hunt big cats and howl at the moon. For a long time, civil war had rendered much of the DRC off limits, and what little was known about Bili chimpanzees was based on legend. People speculated that the apes might be a yeti-like species or a chimp-gorilla hybrid. In local parlance they were known as ‘lion killers’ and were said not to succumb to poison arrows. But in recent years, primatologists have been able to study the animals at closer quarters and get nearer to the truth than ever before. Cleve Hicks has spent three years watching the apes and, although he did discover one feeding on a leopard’s carcass, he’s quick to point out that the chimps do not howl at the moon. However, many of them do nest on the ground, a fact that seems to indicate that the animals have no natural predators. Fascinating stuff. www.wasmoethwildlife.org

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