- 10 hours ago
From the waves of Robertsport to the roads of East Africa, this episode crosses borders. We ask why it's so hard to move within Africa, follow a truck driver on the Northern Corridor, and discover Seychelles' Creole culture
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TravelTranscript
00:06You know, everyone says this, travelling across Africa as an African can be torturous.
00:11And we have tons of stories to back this up.
00:14And it doesn't mean that Africans are not travelling.
00:17Quite the contrary, there's been reforms that enable Africans to travel from one country
00:21to another.
00:22But, are these reforms really realistic, like seriously?
00:32Hey there, welcome to The 77%.
00:35Today we're scooping into the visa and flight stories in Africa.
00:40My name is Fatou.
00:41And I'm Rachel.
00:42But first of all, guys, before we get into it, follow us on our socials, we're everywhere
00:46from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
00:49Let's keep this conversation going.
00:51Yeah, that's a crucial one.
00:52Make sure to do that all the time.
00:54We are here on the socials as well to continue the conversation.
00:57You know, Rachel?
00:57Absolutely.
00:58Now, you know, when we talk about Africans travelling, the experience is always a headache.
01:03Imagine needing visas, like four visas or four flights to travel from one African country
01:08to another.
01:09It's insane.
01:10Yeah.
01:11And Rachel, I have tons of stories, you know, as to that as well.
01:15But of course, we have more juicy stories from our colleagues.
01:18Samson and them are on standby to give us all the details.
01:22So, you know what?
01:23Over to you, Samson.
01:26Hi, Fatou.
01:27Hi, Rachel.
01:27How are you doing?
01:29It is not easy with an African passport.
01:32Crossing borders feels impossible.
01:34Endless questions, long delay, constant stress.
01:39Sometimes, I even think it is easier to fly to Europe than to move from Nigeria into Benin
01:46or Togo, especially at the borders, where my passport feels like a limitation instead
01:53of a key.
01:54When it's easy, it's really easy.
01:56When it's easy, it's really easy.
01:56Like, you're welcomed into a country, like you're their family member, and there's this
02:01warmth that just makes everything flow.
02:03But there are times that it's really complicated, like getting visas.
02:06For example, if you're travelling on an African passport, it can feel like you're being treated
02:10with suspicion just for wanting to explore your own continent.
02:14So, Nairobi flight to Malabo, first of all, I had to apply for a visa, which is $75, which
02:22is more expensive than even some visas for outside of Africa.
02:26And then the flight cost.
02:27The flight cost was so expensive.
02:31Esh, esh, esh.
02:32T for tough.
02:34T for tough.
02:35Fatou, you know a lot about this.
02:36Well, yeah, somehow, Rachel, like, let me just start, right?
02:40So, some few months ago, or a few weeks ago, in fact, we tried to get tickets from Banjo
02:46to Freetown, and you will not imagine this.
02:50Banjo to Freetown is less than two hours, right?
02:52And the ticket cost over €500, about €540.
02:58That's a lot.
02:59That's insane for a journey that is less than two hours.
03:02But not long ago, I was in the UK during the holiday season, and I bought a ticket for €60.
03:09And this is for the same flight time of less than two hours, right?
03:13And, you know, the interesting thing here is that Africa is really, like, very, very big, right?
03:18So, we can't also deny the fact that it's a big continent, and we have different languages,
03:23we have different cultures, indigenous languages, and, you know, traveling from a Francophone-speaking
03:28country to an Anglophone-speaking country, that in itself is really, really hard.
03:33And sometimes, you know, like, I was reading something, and they said that 72% of the time
03:38when you're trying to travel, you will need a visa.
03:41Yes, that's true.
03:42And we will have a lot of those visa stories.
03:44And some of these, you know, complexities that you've talked about, even Samson really
03:48touched on.
03:49But, you know, it also just points to the fact that I've had, for example, Seychelles in my
03:54bucket list for a very long time.
03:57But, for some reason, the idea to go to Seychelles has always been far-fetched.
04:01And now, I want to understand, really, if there's a footing in this, in reality.
04:07Because we have Isham, who's, in fact, in Seychelles, to show us around.
04:11And I really want to see whether there's opportunity to even see this place in the first place.
04:16So, you know what, Isham, just take it away.
04:20Hello, my name is Isham, singer and artist from the Seychelles.
04:23And today, I'm going to take you on a tour to my city, Victoria, on this beautiful island
04:29of mine, in the Seychelles Islands.
04:32Yavini.
04:33Tiny Seychelles is a tropical paradise and magnet for luxury tourists and honeymooners.
04:39And for most visitors, the first stop is Seychelles International Airport.
04:44Tourism fuels 72% of the country's gross domestic product.
04:48Nearly 400,000 tourists came in 2025.
04:52Sustained tourism has pushed the Seychelles' GDP to around $22,000 per capita, the highest
04:58in Africa.
04:59The biggest island, Mahe, has some 500-plus hotels, including around 20 to 25 luxurious
05:06five-star resorts.
05:07We are now in the heart of Victoria.
05:09And behind me is our very own Big Bang.
05:13Seychelles' Clock Tower.
05:15And very recently, I was performing on these streets for the Creole Festival.
05:22Creole culture unites the Seychelles Islands with music as its pumping heartbeat.
05:26Mucho Music even got a UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage nod in 2021.
05:31For young musicians like Isham, it's gig heaven in the capital, Victoria.
05:37But let's be honest, we're here for the beaches of the Seychelles, and Isham has just the spot.
05:43Welcome to the beach of Constance-Ephilia, one of the best hotels in the Seychelles.
05:49And we, as young musicians, have this great opportunity to play in different hotels,
05:56as Seychelles is one of the most famous tourist destinations.
06:00There's also another opportunity for us to play our original composition in front of
06:06the international guests, where they live with the songs in their heart.
06:12While Isham entertains on the beach, back in Victoria, nobody captures Creole vibes in
06:17art like George Camille.
06:18He's a living legend of modern Seychelles painting.
06:22Isham swings by his gallery, Kazanana, Pineapple House in Creole.
06:26Kazanana, or Pineapple House in English, is an old colonial wooden house that I opened as
06:35my gallery in Victoria.
06:37And the gallery's been running for about 35 years, and hopefully more artists will join
06:44the sector, the creative sector.
06:46It's time for a tropical lunch, so Isham dines at Kalamaz Takeaway at Unity Roundabout,
06:52a trendy local hangout in Victoria.
06:54It's giving.
06:55This is prawns curry and cassava, and this is part of our culture.
07:00Mm-hmm.
07:01And it tastes amazing.
07:04The tasty food and island paradise is just a three-hour flight from Nairobi, Kenya, but
07:10it's not cheap.
07:11Round trips from Nairobi hit $700 to $1,000, jumping to $1,200 in July and August.
07:17Price is out of reach for most visitors from the African continent.
07:20I wish I could see more of my brothers and sisters on the mainland, the motherland of Africa.
07:28We are so close, yet so far away.
07:32Isham, I'd like to respond to you personally, because I really felt those words.
07:36They spoke to me.
07:37Imagine, if I'm sitting three hours away from you, I'm just so close, yet so far away.
07:43And that was really heavy.
07:45Why don't we just see more Africans on this island?
07:49Seychelles, for example, is a visa-free country.
07:51Anyone can go to Seychelles, including all of us Africans, right?
07:55That's one thing.
07:56But to get there, that's the problem, right?
07:59And they also have all these criterias that you need to fill.
08:02You have to show proof of being able to fund yourself.
08:05At least, what, $150 per day?
08:08For me, I really think that we have everything in Africa.
08:11You know, the seashells, which has beautiful beaches.
08:13But I mean, if you go to Kenya, we have good mountains.
08:16We have everything there.
08:17If you want to see a desert, you go to Namibia or you go to this northern African countries.
08:22Why are we seeing this around the continent?
08:25And what are some of the experiences that people have lived?
08:28Edith also has so much, you know, to tell us about that.
08:31Because she was right there in Nairobi, your country, to talk to people about this.
08:36My people from the 254, I'm sure.
08:37Let's see what Edith has to say about this.
08:39Hello, and welcome back to the 77% Street Debate.
08:42This week, we are in the heart of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
08:47Now, if you're an African and you've tried taking a flight,
08:50then you might have come to the conclusion that traveling intra-Africa is really cumbersome,
08:56not to mention expensive.
08:57Who better to answer this question for me than actually a mixed bag of people from all over the continent?
09:03Diana was joking earlier about traveling, but she travels quite a bit,
09:06even though it's very expensive, right?
09:08So give me some practical examples, some experiences that you've had,
09:12where you held your head and you're like, what is going on?
09:14Yeah, so I was attending a conference, a travel conference in Ektorial, Guinea.
09:19I noticed most of my African counterparts were actually exhausted.
09:23So a friend from Senegal just told me, do you know how many hours I took to fly here?
09:27So I expected maybe four hours, four hours, five hours maximum.
09:31But he told me he used 20 plus hours.
09:34And this is because he had to fly to Ethiopia.
09:36And in Ethiopia, there was no connecting flights available to Ektorial, Guinea.
09:40So he had to sleep over for almost 10 hours.
09:43That's a 10-hour layover.
09:44Then fly again from Ethiopia to Ektorial, Guinea, which is like a seven to eight hour flight.
09:50So you can imagine.
09:51Diana is speaking from the experience of being a travel content creator,
09:54but you also have this business where you're helping Africans explore the continent.
09:58Are these some of the challenges they're finding?
10:00Yeah, because for most of my clients, we're booking travels out of Africa, not in Africa.
10:07Okay, so tell me about that.
10:08Is it easier or cheaper if I want to go to Germany today than compared to, say, Senegal?
10:13Yeah, it's cheaper.
10:15Yeah, it's cheaper because there is someone who traveled from Oslo to Cape Town, Kenya to Cape Town.
10:21The flight costs were the same.
10:23The person coming from Oslo was actually paying a cheaper flight compared to someone coming from Nairobi to Cape Town.
10:29Yeah, so it becomes so expensive.
10:31So you find that Africans don't explore Africa.
10:34All right.
10:35So, Precious, have you experienced a hint of corruption as you try to cross into East Africa being a student
10:40from Nigeria?
10:41I'm actually scared seeing this.
10:43Speak your truth, speak your truth.
10:45Yes, I came and the immigration officer took my passport and then he saw I was Nigerian.
10:51So he took me one side.
10:53I think there's a lot of stereotypes when it comes to Nigerians and it makes most of us actually scared
10:59to actually come here.
11:00Yeah.
11:00And also the visa application.
11:02Let me ask Claude here because Claude is the true East African son because you were born in Burundi, you
11:09lived in Tanzania and now you're studying here in Kenya.
11:12What's your experience like?
11:13You reached somewhere and then an official tells you you have to like to pay something like this.
11:19They just deal with like cash, cash on cash.
11:22Okay, so because immigration has been mentioned quite a bit, let me bring in our expert here.
11:26So you know what happens behind those closed doors?
11:28What goes through the mind of a policy designer in deciding who is allowed and who's not?
11:34You'll find three categories of people who can come into the country.
11:37There is a category called referred visa category.
11:41And it has countries that are banded on the basis of this is a terrorism prone area, this is a
11:49drug prone area, this is a human trafficking prone area.
11:54Sounds to me like it's stereotyping.
11:57Maybe if you listen to the explanation it would help.
12:02By the way, Dr. Swanee is a professor, yeah?
12:06Yeah.
12:06So then you have categories which are done even beyond immigration.
12:10Actually, this is done by security agencies that would then go through what we call an alert list.
12:17An alert list would have people who are being tracked for various things.
12:22Now, for my sister there, if you don't fall on that particular category, they allow you entry.
12:28Yes, it's important that we really come in there, right?
12:31Because he was responding to what the Nigerian lady was talking about and he mentions the visa categories.
12:37Look, I think you don't have to be a Nigerian to know that Nigerians are going through immense discrimination when
12:44it comes to travels.
12:45You know, the authoring that's happening there.
12:47Nigerians, they have one of the weakest passports, not only in the region, but also globally.
12:52Just not long, I realized that a study for 199 countries ranks Nigeria at 89th.
12:58And this is even an improvement from a previous ranking of 94.
13:02So you can imagine what they're really going through.
13:05And then he talks about these categories, really, of why people impose visa restrictions.
13:10When you look at Central Africa, for example, Equatorial Guinea, these are countries that you cannot go to without first
13:16getting your visa.
13:17You, as an East African, cannot go to Equatorial Guinea without a visa.
13:21You know, on that note, Fatou, you know, guys, I remember Fatou asking me the other day, like, Rachel, what
13:26color is your passport?
13:28And I was like, why does that even matter?
13:30But this is the thing, right?
13:30Why does the color of my passport matter?
13:32And then I was like, yeah, it's sky blue.
13:33And Fatou told me, you know, in West Africa, it's green.
13:35It's green.
13:36And apparently, if even the color of your passport really determines how much travel you can actually do, which means
13:43that sometimes it's not even about where you're from, it's about the color of your passport.
13:46And I'm wondering, like, guys, what color is your passport?
13:50I also want to hear what they've said in the other part of the debate because I'm also very curious.
13:55We like to know the solutions and the way forward.
13:57Oh, I love the enthusiasm.
13:58There's people there.
13:59Let me come.
13:59Let me come.
14:00Let me come.
14:00Talk to me.
14:01Thank you, Edith.
14:02My name is Joy.
14:02Did you know that it's 30 to 50 percent more expensive to travel within African countries than it is to
14:10travel abroad?
14:11A flight from here to Dubai is more cheaper than a trip from here to Nigeria.
14:16Why is that?
14:16I actually have the experts here.
14:18These two ladies that you're seeing here are actually captains.
14:22We heard, first of all, when you're looking at a map and the airlines that are flying across Africa, it's
14:26like a dead space.
14:28Why?
14:28The taxes around most African countries are prohibitive.
14:33Secondly, right after everyone got their independence, they started their own airlines.
14:37And instead of us, like, coming together, making it liberal to travel across all of Africa, what we did first
14:43was go to the European countries because we had the bilateral service agreements.
14:48So every single country comes up with its own agreement, its own terms, its own taxes.
14:53Ideally, we should be flying across the continent like a breeze.
14:57Why are we not?
14:57The discomfort might be we are going to lose our independence.
15:01So now we are thinking in silos instead of thinking, like, as the continent itself.
15:06So maybe in the short term, my country might lose.
15:09But in the long term, we will all benefit as a bloc in terms of economically.
15:14Do you see the appetite for traveling reducing once people see, you know, this is the actual cost of traveling?
15:19Have you seen potential tourism being taken away from the continent of Africa and somebody saying, I'd rather go to
15:24Dubai instead?
15:25Yes, definitely with my clients, myself.
15:28When I started traveling, I used to do mostly Africa.
15:30But for the last year, I've been doing outside, going to Asia, going to Europe because of how easy it
15:36is.
15:37But in Africa, some countries, you have to go to the embassy where you have so many papers.
15:41Because you're there, you're told, no, you don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this.
15:44Yeah, so that also reduces the morale.
15:46Okay, so let me get some comments at the back.
15:49We need to know that the root cause is partly colonial because these immigration laws, we sort of got them
15:56from them.
15:57And we are reciprocating according to the way we have been given.
16:01But the Western, and that's why it's easier for the North Americans and Europeans to enter here, they negotiated their
16:08way and their laws.
16:09And we're talking about African continental trade, free trade area.
16:13But it's so slow.
16:14Dr. Swani, really quickly, what does it say when African governments make it so slow and still so difficult for
16:21other fellow Africans to travel to each other?
16:24We are sending a bad message.
16:27We are saying we are still in that silo mentality.
16:31We need to move beyond it.
16:34I think, for me, the more we break the small territories that we have and look at Africa as a
16:41continent,
16:42the faster, the better for all Africans.
16:45Yeah.
16:45But do we trust each other as Africans?
16:48Let me ask a question.
16:49Do we trust each other?
16:50Do we trust each other?
16:51I think for us as Africans, it's time we started seeing ourselves as Africans instead of Kenyan.
16:57Tell us where you're from.
16:58I'm from Ghana.
16:59I'm from Ghana.
17:00So if we...
17:01I'm from Ghana.
17:03So I think we should see ourselves more as African.
17:06Because basically everything we do in Kenya, in Uganda, we do the same in West Africa.
17:13So how about we see ourselves as a collective Africa instead of a divided Africa?
17:19Yeah.
17:19So I think it's a question of unity.
17:22And what do you guys think?
17:23Let me hear from you.
17:24We have a problem with xenophobia, where it's shown up in South Africa and Nigerians.
17:29In Kenya, it's slowly growing up between Kenyans and Somalis.
17:34Blame the EU, blame the government, but are we open to open our borders to our fellow Africans, to us?
17:39The African Union rolled out the African Union passport.
17:43Now I'll ask you in the Kenyan context.
17:45Why are we not adopting that passport?
17:47I don't know if Dr. Swanee can answer this question for us, but you're the best place person to.
17:51What happened?
17:52These are negotiations that are done.
17:54And when people somewhere agree in Addis Ababa, this is what we are going to do, I don't know if
18:00Kenya is resonating with it.
18:02I don't know if another country is resonating with it.
18:04So sometimes I wonder, these treaties, are they piece of paper or we need to move ahead and implement some
18:09of those things?
18:10Good point.
18:11So there's a serious gap between policy and implementation.
18:13All right, Diana, you're the African whose policies are being built for and around.
18:18What would delight you about traveling in Africa?
18:21Essentially, what would make you happy about Connected Africa?
18:25Free movement, of course.
18:26That would be very nice.
18:28And for me, what I think will take us a step further can be cross-border marketing.
18:32Every country is marketing their own.
18:35Tembea, Kenya, visit Rwanda, the Cape Town one.
18:37What if we do cross-border?
18:39Because we want interest.
18:41But now when I come to policy, when I was at the African Tourism Board, it got to a point
18:45I was so tired of attending conferences where it's one Africa, borderless Africa.
18:51But we talk, we talk.
18:53The conferences last 10 hours over three days.
18:56But we're always back to the drawing board.
18:58No progress.
18:59That's very enough.
19:00Okay, so what needs to be done for Africa to be borderless?
19:04At the moment, that doesn't seem to happen because IATA says that Africans only make up 2% of global
19:09international travelers.
19:11Perhaps after implementing some of these suggestions, that could change.
19:14Thank you all for watching.
19:15Bye-bye.
19:22I mean, it's a lot of interesting points there, and I think it's the perfect conclusion to this debate.
19:27How can we unify as one?
19:29It has been projected long since that a unified Africa, an African passport, would contribute immensely to every economic spectrum,
19:37you know, in the continent.
19:39Why is it not happening?
19:41Why is this process lacking?
19:42It's part of the agenda, 2063, but it is still not being realized.
19:46But are we going to be there in 2063?
19:48Fatou, we will be grannies by then.
19:50I want to be alive by then, right?
19:51I just don't want to be like, I'm 63, and now all of a sudden I can travel from Nairobi
19:56to the banjo, you know?
19:57But guys, please make sure to watch the full version of that street debate on YouTube.
20:02We're already having comments coming in, Fatou.
20:04Read them out.
20:06Yes, and somebody here said that it's really unfortunate that Africa rates the lowest in intercontinental trade,
20:12yet we have so many resources.
20:14And when you look at the corridors, we also experience this in West Africa, the Senegamian corridor, of course.
20:20I have seen firsthand how business or traders struggle just to cross over from Banjo to Senegal.
20:28And these are our neighbors, right?
20:30And they've always said that there is effort to make this a seamless process, but it has been hectic.
20:35In Kenya, we have the Kenya-Uganda border.
20:37There's always stories about, you know, truck drivers having this horror story.
20:41So beyond the pleasure and leisure, we need to talk about the experiences that truck drivers actually go through.
20:47So have a look at this report.
20:48The Northern Corridor ranks among Africa's most vital trade routes.
20:53Every day, trucks, haul fuel, food, and machinery from Kenya's Mombasa port to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and beyond.
21:01Over 40,000 truck drivers powered the regional economy.
21:0637-year-old Polo Alusala is one of them.
21:09As children, we often competed by selecting which cars we liked.
21:14It was then that we began asking each other what we wanted to do when we grew up.
21:19I said I would drive a semi-trailer one day.
21:23Today, he sets off on a 1,700-kilometer journey from Mombasa to Malaba, the busy border crossing into Uganda.
21:32But first, Paul runs through his safety checks, reviews the journey plan, and assesses risks on the route ahead.
21:39They hand me consignment documents to review, and once I've confirmed the documents are in order, I drive to the
21:46port.
21:48Paul drives for Natnail Gamee & Co, known as Natto.
21:52The company launched in 2017 and now employs over 150 drivers.
21:59We are vibrant, and we also want to see it grow.
22:02So, in terms of personal to young people, the opportunity for them to be employed.
22:11The Northern Corridor Transit Transport Coordination Authority reports that through the corridor reached over 2 billion US dollars in 2023.
22:20But crossing these borders is anything but simple.
22:23Delays often stretch into days, sometimes weeks.
22:26It's very difficult to move in Africa.
22:29Some of the issues are the barriers that are always at the border.
22:36Yet, despite these obstacles, hope remains.
22:39The company also invests in training, helping young workers meet international safety standards.
22:44For Paul, this job connects countries and supports his family.
22:52There are a few challenges, like the children missing me because there are days I travel and I'm away for
22:59a while.
22:59The time I spend with them is limited, yet they would love to spend more time with me.
23:05But they are happy with my work.
23:08Interesting.
23:10It's a sad one, you know.
23:11It's a sad story.
23:11People just want to make a living.
23:13People just want to just exist.
23:16Fatou, you know, in my community, I will always be described as a Murema girl.
23:21What is that?
23:22Do you know what Murema is?
23:23It means mountain.
23:24So it means I'm a mountain girl.
23:25I like the mountains and all these things.
23:28Are you team mountain?
23:29Are you team beach?
23:31Girl!
23:31I'm from the river Gambia.
23:33I'm all for like the river, the sea, the beach and the vibe.
23:38Why would I just kill myself to hike?
23:41I don't like hiking.
23:42I mean, in Scotland, it's something that I never did.
23:45I don't know.
23:45For me, it's just exhausting.
23:46I can just lay on the beach and just...
23:48So this story then maybe will really resonate with you because this coming story is about surfing in Liberia.
23:54And when you think about surfing, you know, you always think about Australia, Hawaii, but I never really thought that
24:00we could surf in Liberia.
24:02So, yeah, so let's have a look at this report.
24:04Let's find out.
24:08When I'm surfing, I feel like I'm home.
24:12In all the panic, I feel relaxed.
24:15Because I know my ability, I go for the wave that I feel like I can handle any wave in
24:20this country.
24:21Philip Bonini and his friends in Robertsport, Liberia, don't just surf for sport.
24:26They surf to stay off the streets and out of trouble.
24:31Surfing can help a lot when it comes to dealing with emotions.
24:33Like, when you are sitting home, you feel trouble and you don't feel like talking to anybody.
24:39If you grab your surfboard and come into the ocean, you forget about everything that happened.
24:45Some of Africa's best waves break right here, especially in the rainy season.
24:5120 years ago, no one in Robertsport served.
24:54The community started in 2003, just after the Civil War.
24:59Travelers brought boards and shared the sport.
25:01Local kids picked it up.
25:03One of them is Irene, the community's first female surfer.
25:06They call her Butterfly for how she moves in the water.
25:10I bet on some of them, some of them come to me and say, I like your style.
25:14I want to be an international surfer.
25:16And if one of these days, I will travel.
25:19So it's all my big dream.
25:22For now, Irene and her surfer mates are riding the waves.
25:29Wow, that looks super cool.
25:32It's about time maybe we visited Liberia, you know, who knows?
25:34It is about time, but like Rachel said, do you know what?
25:37Follow us on our social media platforms and be a part of the conversation.
25:41On Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube.
25:43Make sure to subscribe right here because we will be coming with banging topics.
25:47Yes.
25:47Every single time.
25:48Every time.
25:49Every single time, guys.
25:50I was Fatu.
25:51I am Rachel Nduwati.
25:53Until next time.
25:54Bye-bye.
26:05Bye-bye.
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