what is africa time
If you have traveled to Africa, you may have heard the term Africa time. Africa time (or African time) basically is slang for a more relaxed attitude to tardiness and causal slowness. In general, there is a lack of urgency to get to one place on time. After having traveled in Africa for more than 3 months, this was pretty abundant. Most of the time, you just got used to the fact that buses and transportation would be delayed and take longer to arrive than anticipated. You may also plan to meet at a specific time only to find yourself waiting for 30 minutes to an hour for the other person. It was more of a commonplace than not, but some instances really stood out making for some pretty comical stories.
my experience with africa time
Some of the more hilarious aspects of Africa time included our trip to the Ssese Islands in Uganda and our flight from Dar es Salaam Tanzania to Lusaka Zambia. As we travelled, we became so adjusted to things being on Africa time that we became accustomed to it. When we reached South Africa, we had a nice on time tour to remind us how adjusted we had become.
Uganda- Ssese Islands
We decided to visit the Ssese Islands from the Masaka region, so we were going on the local ferry. We found a general timetable and hired a car to bring us to the ferry port. We added a buffer of time given we were not sure of the process. We waited amongst many other passengers on the ground for the boat to arrive. Per usual, everything runs on Africa time and the Ferry was very delayed. When it arrived, vehicles were unloaded, and new vehicles loaded on while oncoming passengers had to wait by the side. It felt like the longest wait to get going on this boat. Suddenly, the ferry boat pulled it is horn and every Ugandan began sprinting toward the ferry. We had never seen a bunch of locals running and first were taken aback and then realized very quickly we better get moving if we wanted to get on the ferry. We grabbed our bags and began running towards the boat and made it on just in time as the boat was pulling from the shore. So be prepared to run onto the boat in this fashion. After waiting for hours and waiting as the boat slowly was unloaded, we went from Africa time to running in the span of a second.
Tanzania to zambia-five day delay
We were traveling from the island of Zanzibar to Zambia. We were going to fly from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka and then the plan was casually take a bus over to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls and then join up with our tour on the Zimbabwe side of the falls. As we were heading to the small airport in Zanzibar to catch the puddle jumper to Dar es Salaam, we received a message that are flight from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka was not only canceled but rescheduled for 5 days later. The flights from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam are separate from typical airline tickets. At this point, we were about to join and over land safari tour starting around Victoria Falls Zimbabwe thus we knew we had to take this flight and figure out our options once we landed on the mainland airport. Yes, I have had flights canceled and even scheduled for the next day but 5 days later. This was the true definition of Africa time. I can’t even imagine being like yeah that is ok I’ll fly in 5 days no problem.
Overland safari
From Zimbabwe through South Africa, we did an overland camping safari. The poor tour guide did everything possible to keep us on a schedule, but undoubtedly, we ran behind sometimes. He commonly would call this Africa time. The slogan was used to help get us moving more and to be more punctual. Not sure if really worked but I think we all got a kick out of it. The only time it really stunk literally for everyone on the tour was when he gave us thirty minutes at the iconic seal colony at Cape Cross in Namibia. The stench is overpowering but the seals were so incredible. Almost everyone could barely stay off the bus due to the overpowering odor, but four of us really were enthralled by the seals and powered through and even went slightly over the time. No one was thrilled about Africa time while there (well except me because the seals were amazing!)
south africa-cape tour
In South Africa, we took a tour of the Cape of Good Hope. This tour was awesome and stopped at Hout Bay, Boulders Beach with the penguins, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point Nature Reserve and the guide had to make multiple announcements about trying to get back on schedule and that the tour wasn’t running on African time. Because we were so used to being a little late we were always last on the bus and got deemed the tourists who truly adopted Africa Time. We got a kick out of it but I’m sure the other tourists were not as pleased.
the lesson
When you travel, you have to be flexible and understanding all along the way. Sometimes you will be waiting for others and sometimes others will be waiting on you. Just breathe! You are on vacation and you will enjoy everything even if you are going on African time. If you stay there long enough you will start to realize why Africa time is such a wonderful thing!
