But it's much more than that. (And sometimes doesn't provide much help to the traveller at all...)
Like most blogs, Afrika T is a personal journal of news, opinion and curiosities with all the idiosyncrasies that entails. I'm a bit of a policy geek. I'm a writer. I work on tourism development projects and sometimes these are why I travel, sometimes they help pay the bills to allow me to travel elsewhere. All of these interests and influences find their way into the posts on Afrika T, including the occasional voice from a guest blogger.
There's a confluence - a knot, perhaps, or a tangle - of untold stories, inside information, professional frustration and personal hopes that play out around once a week or so in posts. Sometimes in a burst of activity, other times after a long stretch. Ideologically, you could call me a hopeful realist, or a compassionate contrarian, but there isn't a coherent school of thought that I hold to or claim to have developed. In part, that's why this blog is a meaningful labour for me - I'll frequently only know what I really think about something once I've worked out how to write it down.
I try to produce original content as often as I can - essays, commentaries, reviews - but those are time-intensive and wind up being interspersed with observations and comments about other people's material, or with alerts about events, news items, etc.
I try to use Twitter for these kind of more 'timely' alerts, but will also tweet about a new post of mine from time to time if it's a substantive and original one. (you can follow me on kurt_a)
For those interested in knowing what I'm reading online, I try to bookmark the higher quality material using Delicious. This may or may not be travel related, but nearly always has to do with African cultures, development, policy, etc. I select and filter from a number of reliable sources and sites, and feel this is a high quality list of reading material. Feel free to add me to your Delicious network to get the updates.
I also have a Facebook fan page for Afrika T, as some people prefer to consolidate their reading there, but the only material that appears on Facebook that isn't first here on Afrika T will be reader comments and other material posted by fans.
You can find me in some of the online discussion forums for travel to Africa, and I most often frequent TripAdvisor, where I'm one of their "Destination Experts", but I tend to reply less often than other DE's, weighing in on the cultural, eco, and responsible tourism type questions most often. I track Fodor's as well, and Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, although less often than I used to. There are other excellent forums out there (Arty forum, Planeta.com, etc.) but I just don't have the time or professional interest to keep up with all of them consistently.
I moderate all the comments to the blog because there are just too many spam comments out there. Anonymous commenters are likely to be ignored. Readers will also e-mail me directly from time to time, which I welcome, but don't promise to be able to respond promptly, if at all. However, for the earnest question or thoughtful response I will nearly always make time.
Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a participant in the Amazon and Kalahari associates programmes, which are affiliate advertising programmes designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Kalahari.net. This means that links to books in the postings on this blog are ways that, if a reader clicks and then buys, I could actually earn a few rands from blogging. At least, that's the theory.
Your interest (and patience in reading this far) is greatly appreciated, as is your support.
