Away from Africa

By Wendy Lee Since I left Cameroon at the end of my Peace Corps service in 2010, I return to the continent for the first time. At the end of 2010, I did  take a trip to Tunisia , which is technically in Africa. Though this time, nearly 4 years later, I feel like I’ve returned home. I took Qatar Airways & Emirates from Shanghai via Doha, Dubai, and finally to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian’s capital city. If anyone has a chance to fly Qatar or Emirates, do it! These airlines put US operated airlines to total shame. There is a meal for even a 90 min flight. Flight attendants greet you with warm towelettes as you situate into your seat. With the right airline, flying can be luxurious! A good friend of mine from grad school is living and working in Addis, and I took the opportunity to visit. I always prefer to visit a new place that has friends who can play your guide. If for nothing else, that very expensive graduate degree from Columbia/LSE has resulted in a global network of places ...

on the occasion of the 9th Annual African Economic Forum - New York City: "Africa Reclaiming Africa" The African Ingenuity I am not an African, but in the two years of   my Peace Corps service   in Cameroon, I had fallen in love with the African people. Like most naive twentysomethings who set out to go “change the world”, I was humbled by my time in Cameroon. The country changed me in more ways than one. I barely made a dent in changing my village, much less the world. I discovered Africa beyond the mainstream portrait of the continent. Africa is a massive place, and while civil wars, famines, and the like do still exist in parts of the continent, the Western media somehow rarely highlights the incredible growth that is taking place in this part of the world. In working with the Cameroonian people, they taught me the realities of African life. Western solutions to problems often do not align with these African realities. Western perceptions of Africans often...