adminTitled the “African Records World Expedition”, the journey is planned to be a promotional tour of the inaugural edition of the Book of African Records, expected to be published in the first half of 2014.
To do that, Muzawazi and his entourage comprising eight people will need to travel the earth’s circumference by reaching all of the world’s continents.
Expeditions from Europe, America and Asia have circumnavigated the world over the centuries. Africa is to date still rare in global exploration statistics although during the Middle Ages, Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan who visited every Moslem country in the world, from the West African Sahel, East Africa right through to Afghanistan and Bengal, then carried on to non-Moslem China managed to go three times as far as his near contemporary, Marco Polo of Venice. Ibn Battuta then recorded his journeys in a book dictated to a secretary laid on by the Moroccan ruler. He is regarded as one of the greatest travellers in history.
“This is not a journey to guzzle in kilometres for their own sake; it is a journey to take the African brand to the world. We shall not be flying into their countries and stay in their hotels. We shall drive, live with them and eat with them. And introduce them to ourselves and our forefathers and our direction for the future as Africans. It is cultural diplomacy.
“The stated mission of the earliest known European travellers into the interior of Africa was to discover Africa for their motherlands. That is to say to discover the potential riches and minerals they suspected were harboured under the soil of Africa. They were right and sadly the results of their pecuniary missions, carried over long and painful periods, can all be seen today.
“However, we are stating that the mission of the African Records World Expedition is to make the world rediscover Africa; that is to say to unearth the cultural and historical riches of the African continent as demonstrated by the astounding historical achievements of Africa documented in the upcoming premier edition of the Book of African Records,” he said.
The African Records World Expedition is scheduled to start after the first publication of the Book of African Records. According to the organisers, it will last nine months and span 52 000km across 32 strategic world capitals.
In 2009, Muzawazi was nominated “Best Foreign Student in Poland” by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education out of 17 000 foreign students at Polish universities for “cultural diplomacy and helping people in Europe to understand Africa”. In 2010, JCI Zimbabwe enlisted him as one of the “10 Outstanding Young Persons of Zimbabwe”.
Online Reporter