Have Love, Will Travel

24 years of travel to Africa finds me continually impressed by how vibrant, energetic and open the people are - especially when it comes to music. They’re just there, doing it, in it, with a natural rhythm and swing.

Vamizi Island, Northern Mozambique, is no exception.


Vamizi threw my mind out of its familiar, monotonous, grooves by its sheer beauty.


Vamizi is completely unspoilt and has a special vibration.


Palm trees sway in the wind; the turquoise sea shimmers and heals. The blue sky reflects something deeper and the white, soft sand is home to a whole world of shells and sea creatures.


Vamizi is a true Robinson Crusoe hideaway. I lay awake listening to the soft snoring of Barbara, an excitable but completely lovable (Italian) room mate, as my fantasies turned from Robert Reford to Man Friday...

Vamizi isn’t a cliché, it isn’t just a picture postcard.


Travelling to Africa as a Product Manager of a well-established travel company, you carry a price tag. There are expectations to fulfil. With potential business to offer it goes without saying that everybody is interested to know you. The red carpet is rolled out (sometimes literally), taps are polished, food is prepared with extra care and smiles are set to impress.

In other words, to begin with there is an agenda. Everybody has their roles. The boxes have to be ticked. Contracts exchanged and then hopefully a flow of tourists and money is set up from developed to developing, from north to south, from richer to poorer. Efforts are being made to redistribute wealth and this 'trickle down' effect can be clearly seen on Vamizi.

But, almost without exception, relationships develop beyond this. Friendships are formed and a genuine interest in Africa, its culture and its wildlife is shared.


Music is just one way to dissolve these roles and time and time again i've seen it form a firm bridge between cultures.

As we walked into Vamizi Village, the villagers were there to meet us. There was a buzz in the air. White smiles in black faces greeted us as the children rushed forward to present us with fresh coconuts to drink from.


The music started....


A circle formed and we watched as hips swayed, hands clapped and the sheer exuberance for life burst over. What I liked about the atmosphere is that these guys were enjoying themselves regardless of our presence. We were just an excuse.


These villagers had seen tourists coming in before. Maybe spending a lot of time with cameras held up to their eyes? Smiling a little awkwardly perhaps and then leaving?

So often our conditioning holds us back. I know because i've suffered the pain of constraint many times. The result is that so often in these sort of situations the sharing of music is one sided.


However, thankfully this time around Ganesha (the Hindu elephant God of happiness) came to the rescue.

The tune seemed to be a hit and people picked it up quickly. (Check the woman with the yellow scarf wrapped around her head and the nice body moves..).



With the expanding process of globalisation, I feel it is becoming more and more essential to share that part of our self that is universal. To shift our attention from outer appearance and language, which serves only to divide, and to move further towards the thing that unites.


Music is one of the many vehicles that we have at our disposal to express, what has the potential to be, our purest feeling.

As the chocolaty voice of Nat King Cole suggests............


“Love Is The Thing.”