Journal

Two forced migrations built Mauritius and the island remembers them separately. Slavery, indenture, and where a returning descendant can begin.

A Hindu majority, a Creole heart, four working languages and a great deal of quiet politeness. How Mauritius holds itself, and how to fit in.

Four UNESCO-inscribed traditions and a public calendar that belongs to four religions at once. What Mauritius celebrates, and when it moves.

Four cuisines arrived on one small island and did not stay separate. What to eat in Mauritius, from street samoussas to a Sunday biryani.

One of the oldest botanical gardens in the southern hemisphere, and the clearest surviving record of the plant economy that indenture was imported to serve.

Malawi has one long rainy season and one long dry one, and the choice between them decides whether you get roads or waterfalls.

Malawi sat on the eastern slave route, not the Atlantic one. The lake carried captives to Kilwa, and the trail that records it is on the Tentative List.

Greetings that take time, a matrilineal inheritance system and a masked society older than the state. How to be a good guest in Malawi.

Six traditions on the UNESCO lists and one lakeside music festival. Malawi keeps its calendar in dance rather than in dates you can book.

Nsima is not a side dish in Malawi, it is the meal, and UNESCO inscribed the whole tradition around it. What to eat and how it is eaten.

The richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa, painted by BaTwa hunter-gatherers and by Chewa farmers, and still used in initiation today.

UNESCO compares this park to the Galapagos finches. Hundreds of cichlid species, nearly all found nowhere else, in one clear corner of the lake.