On August 18, a Ghanaian politician and journalist left Accra in a black Toyota Land Cruiser SUV for a road trip. It would not be an ordinary trip. The plan was to cover a historic 40,000-kilometre journey that would span 39 African countries over a duration of 163 days. The man in question is 46-year-old former legislator and journalist Abdulai Mohammed Mubarak, alias Ras Mubarak. His mission was to try and convince Africa to go visa-free for all African visitors through his Trans African Tourism and Unity Campaign.
His first stop was Lomé, Togo’s capital, before proceeding to Cotonou in Benin a few days later. When he reached Nigeria almost a week later, he’d spent one of the longest visits due to the enormity of the country. He toured the country for eight days, meeting leaders and talking to the press before exiting eastwards into Cameroon. By the time he arrived in Kampala on November 16, through Katuna border, he had traversed through 21 countries, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Rwanda.
True to his mission, as soon as he arrived with his delegation, he visited Ndere Center to soak in Uganda’s culture and traditions before driving to Mayuge District to meet President Museveni, who was on the campaign trail in Busoga Sub-region. The Ghanaian was joined by officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities and the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB). ‘When I met His Excellency yesterday (November 17), I was telling him that Mr President, I don’t think you have really showcased Uganda enough. Because from what I saw on my way to Kampala from the southwest was breathtaking. And he agreed with me. He said he’d been focused greatly on the bread and butter issues and security,’ Ras Mubarak said.
In his remarks, Mr Museveni pledged strong support for the initiative, which aims to foster unity, development, and collaboration across the continent through strategic engagement in tourism. The travelling politician and activist strongly believes tourism is the future for Africa, adding that Africans should be incentivised by African governments to travel extensively throughout the continent and that the first step is to scrap all visa requirements for Africans. Which is why Ras Mubarak ensured in every country he visited, he met the President or top government officials to have this much-needed conversation.
Better option
He believes Africa has more to show than the Middle East, which is loved by a huge chunk of all global tourists, and that something must be done now.
‘We’ve overly relied on our natural resources, which, to a large extent, we don’t control. And even those we control, we don’t determine their prices. Somebody is sitting in London or in Paris or in Washington, telling us how much he is willing to buy our crude for. Or our cocoa. Or gold. Or diamonds,’ he says. His dream is to see a borderless Africa for Africans by 2030 so that tourism, trade, and cultural exchange can be fast-tracked to unite the peoples of the continent.
He strongly opines that history will honour leaders who act decisively to unite Africa, and he’s just doing the little he can. A well-travelled man himself, having travelled to more than 100 countries before he embarked on this mission, this avowed pan-African has seen Africa both from afar and from within. He says these extensive travels have opened his eyes to see the enormity of resources in Africa and the ironic lack of opportunities for young people. His idea is to convince Africa to look in the mirror and take advantage of the opportunities within.
Africa is safe
Ras Mubarak also believes that Africa must learn to tell its stories because what he has discovered on this long trip through 22 countries by road is that the continent is safer than we have been led to believe. ‘I think Africa is safer than it has been portrayed. I mean, as we left Accra, there were people who were telling us, ‘You guys are crazy. It’s not safe! You’re going to Congo? You’re going to Angola?’ But we have not suffered any problems in all these countries.
These are all places that we are told to be careful. There’s a lot of nonsense written about us, and I strongly feel that as Africans, we need to begin to tell our own stories. Because at the end of the day, they are putting down our countries. And guess what? When they put down our countries, we lose tourism numbers, and when people are not coming, the hotels can’t keep up, you have to lay off staff,’ he says.
Countries that stood out
Of the 22, the country that stood out for Ras Mubarak the most was Equatorial Guinea for all the surprising reasons. Having never been there, the stories he had heard about the country prior to visiting were those of poverty, dictatorship, corruption and such other stories. On the contrary, however, Ras Mubarak says he discovered a country with top-of-the-range infrastructure and systems that run well.
As it turns out, the country seems to use their oil wealth very well to help the nationals, he says. The other country that stood out for him was Rwanda because of how clean and organised Kigali is and how beautiful the countryside is. ‘Uganda stood out for me when it came to passport control. It took us less than 30 minutes to get everything cleared. This is not the case in many countries,’ he says.
Cameroon’s roads were the worst on his journey.
Out of the 54 African countries, only nine have scrapped visa requirements for Africans, including Kenya and Rwanda. His native Ghana is scrapping these requirements in the next 12 months. He hopes that his campaign yields fruit so that all of Africa is visa-free for Africans by 2030. Ras Mubarak left Uganda on November 18, but not after enjoying a behind-the-scenes experience at Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC)-exactly three months since he left Accra. He was headed to Ethiopia through Kenya to continue with the noble mission.
Sadly, he can’t enter the country because of the outbreak of Marburg virus that happened this week. He has to wait in Kenya. Countries he will visit after Ethiopia are the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and of course his home country Ghana.
UTB Chief Executive Officer Juliana Kagwa welcomed the strong push by the Ghanaian consulate and tour operators and buyers after their exploration of Uganda and engagement with President Museveni for a visa-free travel arrangement. ‘This progressive call reflects growing confidence in our destination and represents a major opportunity to boost intra Africa tourism, ease travel, deepen cultural exchange, and advance the continent’s vision for seamless mobility,’ she said.
BRIEF BIO
Ras Mubarak was born in 1979 and worked as a journalist with Ghana Broadcasting Corporation for 10 years between 1997 and 2007 where he was a dreadlocked reggae music presenter. He left the media to join politics, first volunteering for his party in efforts to help it to get it elected. Later, in 2012, he stood for his first parliamentary election in Ablekuma North in Accra and lost. In 2016 he switched constituencies and stood again, this time in Kumbungu in the north and won. He lost the election in the just concluded general elections.