A Memorable African Experience--By Ndaba Sibanda--Saudi Arabia

A Memorable African Experience

I feel playful today, Island please provide me

with some water sports. For magnificent dishes

can I please have a fusion of Creole and Chinese

and Indian and European flavour? I will tuck

into seafood whilst listening to Sega music!

I guess mountain trekking wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I promise, I shall go hunting and birdwatching.

My stay here will be characterised by visiting

the luxurious shopping malls and picking up

a souvenir or two. What an African destination!

Sightseeing pleasure is in store for me in the form

of breathtaking horse-racing tracks, mountains, parks

and botanical gardens. This is the turquoise Indian Ocean.

Mauritius, with your year-round sunshine, your white beaches,

your beach parties, your scenery—you make my vacation meaty.

Ndaba Sibanda is a Zimbabwean-born writer. His poems, essays and short stories have been published in Africa and the USA. Ndaba currently lives and teaches in Saudi Arabia. Of his career, he says, "writing is my life, and my second wife".