Seeking a better view by Ronex Ahimbisibwe

“Carriage, take me with you!  Ship, steal me away from here!  Take me far away.  Here the mud is made of our tears!” (Baudelaire qtd. in Botton 46)

Whenever we put ourselves in new places or circumstances we expose ourselves to new ways of thinking. We provide ourselves with the opportunity to look at things from a new perspective. The first chapter of The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton is titled ‘On Anticipation’. I have spent the last several months anticipating this trip to Kampala. De Botton writes that “we are familiar with the notion that the reality of travel is not what we anticipate. The pessimistic school, of which des Esseintes might be an honorary patron, therefore argues that reality mus always be disappointing. It may be truer and more rewarding to suggest that it is primarily different” (Botton 11). I hope that this difference between my expectations and reality will help me to develop new ways of looking at the world.

It is hard for me to pinpoint exactly what my expectations for this journey are. Even though I am extremely excited about the trip and my project, I am not sure how I am going to feel when I get there. The fact that I am returning to the place I was born after so many years also presents its own set of expectations, anticipations and questions. How will what I see compare to my limited memories? How will my visions and preconceptions of Uganda match with the reality?

There is also the chance that I will arrive and be faced with the same questions de Botton asked himself in Madrid: “What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?” (Botton 106). However, l am hopeful that I will be able to avoid sinking too far into those anxieties by arriving, as de Botton suggests, with specific questions and curiosities in mind.

To illustrate this idea, de Botton tells the story of Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian naturalist and explorer. Humboldt traveled to South America deepen his understanding of the natural world. De Botton proposes that Humboldt didn’t have to deal with such questions because “everywhere he went, his mission was unambiguous: to discover facts and to carry out experiments towards that end” (Botton 106). De Botton also tells the story of Humboldt’s excitement upon discovering a fly at an altitude of 16,600 feet on Mount Chimborazo in Peru. De Botton writes that “Humboldt’s excitement testifies to the importance of having the right question to ask of the world” (Botton 117). I hope that throughout the process of planning for my own research and exploration I have found questions to ask that provoke a similar sense of excitement and eagerness to that which inspired Humboldt on his travels.

Another section in The Art of Travel is titled ‘On the Exotic.’ The word exotic has often made me slightly uncomfortable (although this is dependent upon the context of its usage). It is often used in a way that creates a sense of otherness among people. De Botton’s description of his time spent in Amsterdam explains some of the reasons we may find differences between other cultures and our own particularity exciting. One of his arguments is that “what we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home” (Botton 77). This concept of the ‘exotic’ appeals to me as a way to help improve the global society by taking note of what systems work in certain areas and looking for way they might be adapted to work in other environments. However, there are other ways in which the idea of the ‘exotic’ can be potentially damaging.

In The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget, Andrew Rice tells the story of John Hanning Speke who is considered the first European to arrive in Kampala. He explains that Speke “returned to Victorian London to describe the exotic kingdom to a fascinated public. Soon after, the first Protestant and Catholic missionaries arrived, and they quickly set about dividing the Baganda along sectarian lines, competing to win converts away from indigenous beliefs and Islam, which had arrived via trade routes a generation or so before” (Rice 8). Here the idea of the ‘exotic’ was used in way that promoted colonialism and the imposition of the explorer’s religion. While my own project doesn’t have potential ramifications on quite the same scale, I still believe it is important to be mindful of how I both engage in and present my work. Keeping these ideas in mind I believe this journey will expose me to a multitude of new and inspiring ideas.

Works Cited:

Botton, Alain De. The Art of Travel. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Print.

Rice, Andrew. The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda. New York: Metropolitan /Henry Holt, 2009. Print.