Sisters are doing it for themselves!

By Tracy Hammond

Oluchi and Choima Ogwuegbu are Nigerian sisters in the process of completing the adventure of a lifetime: a journey across the continent of Africa.
Conscious of the negative images portrayed about their beloved continent, the sisters have long wished to be able to change this status quo – most especially among Africans themselves.
So mid-2008, they started their journey ‘Celebrate Africa’, in West Africa, with the aim of sharing good news and offering their services to organisations improving standards of living. The final aim of the project is to produce a short film about each country visited.
Equipped only with “...our creative minds and souls, plus our passion for our land”, the adventurous women travel by road as they believe this ensures they stay in touch with the people on the ground. So far they have visited Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Cote d ‘Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone. They admit that, even as members of the pro-African movement, they have been blown away by the plethora of incredibly friendly people, the innovation amongst those who have nothing and the breath-taking beauty of the places they have visited. They say that what has surprised them most so far is the process of crossing the border from one country to another – something they expected to be like pulling teeth but which in reality has turned out to be a much easier and quicker process than expected. Currently the sisters are in Gabon and move on to Congo Brazzaville next.
“Many young Africans, they all want to leave Africa. I’m not saying that Africa is perfect but our aim is to first tell Africans about what is here, what we do have here” says Choima.