I think when you've travelled around a lot in Africa, you understand something that many people here don't recognize: the extraordinary power that is Africa at village level - at community level.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What I generally get from being in Africa is a sense of warmth and openness. As a stranger, you are always welcomed into people's homes and people are always offering you food. That generosity is incredibly touching.
If people in this country think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won't understand that these people are you and you are them.
Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.
Africa is a continent that provides so much for the existence of the rest of the world. We go around the world and cultivate so many things.
I don't think anyone who has been to Africa comes away untouched by the place. You see a lot of beauty and optimism, but you also come away with an awareness of the huge gulf between what most of us have and what most of them have to make do with. Then, every now and then, a famine or a war makes everything a hundred times worse.
People wonder why I love Africa so much. I say this is where I was born and raised. My roots are in Africa; that's were I developed.
Africa is not a fun place, you know. A fun place is somewhere that lifts the spirits, that cossets the senses. I don't think that can be said of the Africa I traveled in.
It is my firm belief that action on the issues that matter for Africa must emerge from within Africa itself.
I've got to where am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture.
One of the things I love about Africa is the amount of dignity and respect and humility you see all the time. You don't realise how often you're disrespected until you are surrounded by respect.