World’s Longest Walkathon in Africa

That's the plan. Getting it to happen is another story. That's what this article is about - the story behind the 'Big Idea' of Walk4Africa - and how you can help to make it a reality.

Why Walk4Africa?

As Africans, it is up to us to change the often cited and totally misinformed global narrative about Africa being "a continent that needs saving" to "a continent that is thriving." Join us on this journey of discovery and social awareness of sustainable development around the continent.

We need local entrepreneurs, tourism professionals, research academics, environmental activists, and journalists, in fact, any passionate individual to join us as founding members of this amazing initiative to create the world's longest walkathon for sustainable development in tourism.

What is Walk4Africa?

Walk4Africa is an African initiative. In practice, it's a multi-stage coastal walkathon that will see locals and international tourists walking the coastlines of each of Africa’s 40 coastal countries - a distance of approximately 40,000 km / 25,000 miles including the islands that make up the continent of Africa. In reality, it's a decade-long storytelling journey for environmental conservation. In effect, it's a collective of like-minded individuals uniting to attain common purposes.

What’s the Purpose?

To unite African nations in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) objectives by 2030 through:

1. Researching, measuring, enhancing, and educating on the 17 SDGs;
2. Developing partnerships with public and private sector organisations, institutional investors, civil society, and scientific institutions to facilitate actions and responses consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C over this decade (refer our Climate Emergency Declaration);
3. Identifying new sustainable tourism product and service opportunities in collaboration with local communities, tourism experts, and governments, to create much-needed jobs in rural areas;
4. Researching the impact of plastic pollution on marine environments along Africa's coastlines and river estuaries;
5. Creating global awareness of Africa's abundant natural beauty, pristine beaches, and cultural heritage to grow inbound tourism numbers (particularly ecotourists) in Africa.

Why only Coastal Countries?

The majority of Africas’ people live close to the coast so this is where the greatest impact can be made in terms of all 17 of the SDGs. Additionally, “Beach & Sun” holidays are ranked as the second-largest tourism attraction. And finally, walking the coastlines makes it a lot simpler to plot a continuous route for the multi-stage walkathon journey.

Which 40 Coastal Countries will be Walked?

Arranged in alphabetical order, the 40 host countries are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comores, Congo (The Democratic Republic of), Congo (Republic of), Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia (The), Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, S?o Tomé and Príncipe, Reunion, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.

Country Steering Committees

Walkathons begin at the committee level. Each Country Steering Committee (CSC) will arrange its own walkathon event. The concept is for the host country to contract local suppliers where possible. That’s the whole idea behind sustainable tourism - to spend money where it counts the most - with local communities. A Correlation Network Office (CNO) admin team based in Cape Town provides the CSCs with all of the marketing tools, expertise, and financial support necessary to organise a successful walkathon. And, as each country launches and concludes its walkathon, we will all learn from the experience to improve the next county’s event.

Africa Coastal Odyssey

Given the irregularities of coastlines, which vary in typography from long stretches of beach to impassable cliffs, boulder-strewn shorelines, wide river estuaries, and dense mangrove forests, determining the optimum daily walkathon distances and best locations for over-night group camping is impossible by just looking at Google Earth images.

That’s where the Africa Coastal Odyssey comes in. We'll do a pre-launch recce by walking the same W4A route ahead of each countries coastline walkathon launch. The information gathered along the route (GPS coordinates, walking difficulty, etc) will be uploaded onto the walk4africa.org website (still under construction) to assist country steering committees to plan and coordinate their respective walkathon events by following in the Odysseys' footsteps.

The plan is for a team of seasoned journalists to mentor young journalism, film and visual communications students from each host country so that they can gain practical storytelling/reporting skills and experience.

Along the journey, they will interview coastal communities, conservation NGOs, and marine-related academics to glean insights into their respective stories. They will also observe, and report on, climate and marine pollution-related issues that adversely affect ecosystems and the livelihoods of communities who depend thereon. 

More importantly, the Odyssey will support the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN Decade) - an initiative that we all need to rally behind over the next decade. And there's no better way to do that than by hosting 603 students for one week each over the 10-year duration of the journey.

The Africa Coastal Odyssey expedition will need to kick-off from Cape Agulhas on 18 March 2021 to ensure that it ends before the W4A walkathon launches along the same route in September. If we manage to get funding, that is. The budget to cover the first year (cost of equipment, supplies, and student hosting for the 21-week South Africa and Namibia journey) works out at ±$80,000 USD. This includes having a custom-designed expedition trailer built to haul about 100kg of equipment and supplies.

To get the ball rolling, I've set up a crowdfunding plea, but that's a long haul and time is running out. So, if you know a corporate sponsor or grant funding programme that I can approach for funding, please do let me know by popping an email to [email protected].

The Walkathon Launch Phase - South Africa

Walk4Africa will kick-off at the Southernmost tip of Africa, at Cape Agulhas, to coincide with World Tourism Day on the 27th September 2021 and walk 360 km / 224 miles to the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for the official launch.

Then, from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, the walkathon will continue ±782 km / 586 miles to reach Alexander Bay on the Namibian border about 25-days later. And so the process will repeat itself in a clockwise direction, circumnavigating Africa's coastline, and ending back in South Africa at Cape Agulhas by 2030 to coincide with the United Nations' SDGs objective.

How can you join Walk4Africa as a founding member?

Simply pop an email to [email protected] and indicate which of the 40 countries you would like to represent in the subject field of the email. I'll then email you the Walk4Africa Project Proposal and Steering Committee Terms of Reference document. Or just connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you're not a citizen of any of the 40 host countries but still want to be involved, perhaps as an ambassador or media representative, please do send an email. Or subscribe to the 'Walk The Talk' newsletter for regular updates as the Walk4Africa project unfolds.

What's expected of Founding Members?

How much time you give is really up to you. Right now, we need your local knowledge and advice. We need your local contacts, especially government contacts, to gain permission to walk along the coastlines of national parks and protected area reserves.

Who's already on board as Founding Members?

At the time of updating this article (Monday 28 September 2020), we have founding members in 31 African countries. In terms of occupation, their expertise ranges from tour operating and guiding, hotel and resort operations, catering services, social development consulting, conservation and ecology consulting, and marketing and media, to social anthropology.

What we urgently need is founding members to come on board for the remaining 9 countries. Namely; Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Liberia, S?o Tomé and Príncipe, Reunion, Sudan, and Western Sahara.

Please share this article with your contacts. We need all the help we can get to make this project a reality.