In addition to hygiene, safety is certainly one of the biggest concerns of anyone who travels Africa. That has a good reason, too. After all, every day the media bombards us with reports of wars, abductions, accidents, and much more.
In addition, you get to hear all the horror stories from any possible and impossible people. The interesting thing is that these come almost exclusively from people, who have never been to Africa before or at maximum have been on a package holiday in a huge hotel complex. And then they did not leave it without a guide anyway, since that would have been "too dangerous".
However, if you talk to other backpackers who have already been to Africa, they mostly confirm that there is nothing to fear at all.
In the following, I would like to give you a short summary of my own experiences in Africa: During my six months in Africa, I never felt seriously at risk. Admittedly, I have traveled to a lot of countries in this world, where I felt a lot less comfortable than in the African countries.
Again, you just have to use your common sense, and listen to your gut feeling now and then. Some people are so worried about their safety that I am seriously wondering why they are actually getting into a car and are not better off building a bunker somewhere, to wait until their lives are over.
Theoretically, anything can happen to us anytime, anywhere. Personally, I think there is always a bit of destiny (or the will of God or whatever each one may call it) in when and where something happens to us. Of course, however, you should also not provoke your own misfortune.
My best safety tips
I have consistently found that Africans are extremely hospitable people and want their country to be seen from the best side by tourists or backpackers. They even alert you when they feel you should, for example, take better care of your bag or do not move too far away from your backpack at the bus stop.
During my two-year backpacking journey, of course, I have heard a lot of horror stories from other travelers. For example, one girl told me that three guys robbed her at night in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She was traveling alone, on the way home from a party and had not drunk much there. When I met the girl, she looked relatively dressed up, with beautiful gold jewelry and an expensive-looking bag. Truth be told, walking like this through a town in Malawi at night when drunk, I would not be surprised that she got robbed.
What I am trying to tell you is this: Just use your mind, and do not challenge the evil. Also, Malawi is a very poor country. Gold jewelry and expensive designer handbags generally should not be worn there. Personally, I find that very contemptuous towards the locals. So please, do not attract too much unwanted attention by valuables that are flaunted openly.
Even things from me were stolen twice
The first time was in a small village away from any tourism in Malawi. I found a cheap accommodation for the equivalent of just one Euro per night. Although this inn neither had electricity nor running water, it otherwise was quite nice. At about 8 o'clock in the evening I left my room to go to the washroom. Of course, I locked the door.
When I came back into the room, I searched my cell phone in vain. I was quite sure that I had left it on the bed. I notified the owners of my accommodation. These brought the security man. He seemed to have slept already. I did not want to blame him, because he seemed to be about 80 years old and appeared a bit demented. He began to defend himself, saying that he was sure nobody entered the property.
However, not far away was a small bar, from which you could hear loud music. There always were lots of drunken villagers. Sometimes one or the other got lost here to quickly use the toilet.
Since my room was at ground level, we stood in front of it and began to speculate on how someone might have stolen the phone. We also got behind it quite fast. The windows of my room in fact were only secured by bars, so there was no glass in the windows. In front of the window I found a forked wooden stick. My phone case had a loop on it. So it would not have been too hard to fish it out with this stick. Then it also occurred to me that my mobile alarm was set to 20:15 o’clock.
The story can be summarized very simple: Someone from the bar was probably just here to pee and heard the alarm of my cell phone. Looking through the window, he saw my smartphone lying on the bed. Of course, he fished it out.
Meanwhile, the whole neighborhood had already gathered around me. They all seemed outraged by the theft. One gentleman said, we should search the guests in the bar. That seemed very insane.
Whoever had my cell phone now, certainly already left with it or had at least hidden it somewhere safe. I was sure I would never see it again. Sure, at first I was very angry and also sad, because I had saved all my travel photos and much more on it.
Since I was already so tired, I only wanted to go to sleep. But the villagers did not want to give up the search. They seemed even more worried than me. They speculated and discussed. A new person – a young man – was now suspected.
They suggested that we visit and question him. Again, I did not understand how this was supposed to help, but well. We all went together to the house of the suspect. When he opened his door, he was completely sleepy – after all, it was almost midnight. Of course he knew nothing about where my phone was.
The next day, someone knocked on my door at six o'clock in the morning. There were a few guys from the previous day, who tried helping to find my stolen phone. They wanted to help me and escorted me to the police station that was in the next town. I was very touched by their helpfulness.
The people at the police station were extremely friendly. Although they really wanted to give me hope, I realized that they too would not bring my phone back. Actually, I just wanted to quickly get the papers for the insurance, as that day, I had planned to leave for my three-day hike to the highest mountain in Malawi, Mount Mulanje. But the African clocks tick differently. Nothing is fast here. At least, the policemen quite naturally shared their lunch with me.
In the end, I was there all day and then noticed at home that they did not write "Austria" but "Australia" on the confirmation for the insurance, although I had said several times that these are two different countries. Well, "T.I.A.", I just thought. I had no desire to once again go the long way to the neighboring town.
When I thought about the whole story in my bed in the evening, I was touched by all the compassion and helpfulness of the people here – from the villagers and the boys, to the police. In Africa, such manners seem to be self-evident. And I had the impression that most likely no one in my home country would have been interested in it, even if something had been stolen from the neighbor.
The second time something got stolen from me, it was something more unspectacular. I was in the small town of Maun in Botswana. There I stayed in the really great Old Bridge Backpackers camp.
Together with a young Chinese woman, I shared a tent, which was only a few meters away from the river. Real crocodiles were in it. Between the river and the tent was just a chain link fence – that was kind of scary. The owner of the camp told us that one of the crocodiles had eaten his dog a few days ago.
In any case, one morning, I decided to indulge myself, once again. I booked a horseback tour through the beautiful Okavango Delta. The lady who owned the horses was an American. She picked me up from the camp, and we drove to her farm. Two young African men were already waiting for us. One of them would be my guide.
The American said, that I should leave my backpack with the other young gentleman, so that it would not interfere with my riding. I briefly had a bad feeling, since I had my money and other valuables in there. But soon, I did not think about it anymore.
When I arrived at the camp in the evening after a wonderful day, I noticed that my money was missing. Fortunately, I only had the equivalent of 30 Euros in my purse. I was annoyed for a moment, but then thought that it was my own fault. It was a lesson for me to take better care of my things in the future.
So you see, I did not have really bad experiences, and both were opportunistic thefts. Getting threatened with weapons or being the victim of an organized crime is certainly an absolute exception.
In short: With the usual precautionary measures and a little common sense, you get along well in Africa.
Online backup of your documents
Before leaving home for traveling abroad, you should also backup a copy of all your important documents. This is best done online, because if you should ever lose everything – for whatever reason – then you can, at least, access your most important documents from any computer with an internet connection.
So you scan all your important documents like …
… and save them in the internet.
There are a variety of options, such as Google Drive, Dropbox and many more. In addition, it is beneficial to carry some important documents with you as a copy in your backpack. This includes, for example, your passport. So when going on day trips, you can safely leave the passport in the hostel locker, and just take the copy with you. In the capital of Uganda, I sometimes went to a festival or a nightclub. Passports were often required, and they were satisfied with the copy of the passport.