Travel New and Now: Harley Exhibit, Park Film, Airbnb Africa

Fans of motorcycle culture have until Labor Day to see an exhibit at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee that celebrates the design work of Willie G. Davidson.Davidson became the brand's first design director in 1963. He created designs that defined the brand's factory ustom motorcycles for nearly 50 years. Classic motorcycles designed by his styling studio included the Super Glide, which established the factory custom category in 1971; Low Rider; Heritage Softail Classic; Fat Boy; V-Rod; and Street lide.

The exhibit includes his watercolors and personal memorabilia that inspired him — from American folk art to Native American artifacts — in addition to examples of his motorcycle designs.

Harley fans know Davidson as "Willie G." from his frequent participation in motorcycle rallies and other aspects of Harley culture. He is the grandson of one of the brand's founders, William A. Davidson.

NATIONAL PARKS IMAX
A new 3-D film about America's national parks will be hitting IMAX theaters next year with Robert Redford as its narrator.

The film, "National Parks Adventure," is scheduled for release in February to coincide with the centennial of the National Park Service next year. The movie will be shown in IMAX theaters around the world.

The film features mountaineer Conrad Anker, his stepson Max Lowe, who's an adventure photographer, and family friend Rachel Pohl visiting Yellowstone National Park, the Everglades in Florida, Arches National Park in Utah and other places.

The movie captures the beauty of these preserved wild places and unique landscapes with the goal of inspiring travelers worldwide to visit.

The film was made in collaboration with Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States.

Redford also stars with Nick Nolte in "A Walk in the Woods," expected in theaters in early September, based on author Bill Bryson's funny account of walking the Appalachian Trail.

AIRBNB IN AFRICA

Airbnb reports that it has more than doubled its listings for Africa in the last year. Growth has included a more-than-double overall increase in the number of people staying in Airbnb listings on the continent, as well as a more than doubling of Africans using Airbnb.

For example, in Kenya, there are now more than 1,400 listings available to book through Airbnb, with more than half of them in Nairobi.

Listings around the continent range from a studio on a lagoon in Namibia that promises "birdwatching from your doorstep" for $45 a night to $60-a-night guestrooms in a beach house on the Indian Ocean on the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania.

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Mwana Africa returns to diamonds

Pan African mining group Mwana Africa said it would restart underground mining at its Klipspringer diamond mine in South Africa and evaluate the viability of reprocessing residues at the mine after gold production from Zimbabwe stagnated.Overall profit for the year to March fell sharply from $50 million (R636m) to $7m, underlining a difficult year with low gold and nickel prices.

“The past year has proved to be particularly challenging for the Mwana Group as a whole as the prices of our two principal products, gold and nickel, weakened and have continued to fall since the financial year-end,” Mwana Africa executive chairman Yat Hoi Ning said.

This has prompted Mwana Africa to focus on its diamond project in South Africa, the Klipspringer mine.

The company said the recovery of diamonds at the Klipspringer residue treatment joint venture had reached planned capacity, although the capacity was below anticipations.

“Consideration is now being given to the reprocessing of coarser tailings,” it said.

Current projects to “recover fine diamonds from old slimes residues” had continued although the company said the resource from slimes was limited, hence the move to reprocess other residues.

Progress has also been made during the period with restarting its nickel smelter facility and kick-starting the Trojan nickel mine.

Money to restart the projects was secured through a fully subscribed $20m bond issue.

It said resumption of smelting operations would give the company ample capacity to process its own concentrates into nickel leach alloy.

The Trojan nickel mine will focus on extracting ore from higher-grade bodies. The mine had mothballed in recent years owing to low nickel prices that rendered operations unviable. Mwana Africa also runs the Freda Rebecca gold mine, where production stagnated in the past year due to equipment failures and problems in accessing high-grade ore zones.

“These problems have now been rectified and I confidently expect that our underground and surface operations will attain their full potential during the 2016 financial year,” Hoi Ning said. – Tawanda Karombo

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South Africa: Eskom Hikes Create Move from Maize to Rice

The hike in electricity costs is making an impact on the food choices of South African households, a new report shows.The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) Baseline, released on Friday, for instance, looked at the results of focus groups held by the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action, which revealed that electricity cost increases were changing the eating habits of residents in lower income households.

More South African consumers seem to be moving away from maize meal to rice, because rice has a shorter cooking time.

The BFAP Baseline 2015 found that the cost of healthy eating is climbing faster than inflation in South Africa. Between January 2011 and April 2015, the cost of a healthy eating plan for a family of four rose by 36%.

It also found that household income is rising, but so are debt levels. The average household income increased from R6 928 in 2009 to R10 525 in 2014.

The report emphasised that South Africa must focus on growing the production of agri-processed goods to decrease its R21bn trade deficit in this area.

"South Africa traditionally uses foreign suppliers to process our own produce, which adds a cost to the final product for local consumers," said Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde at the release of the report.

When researchers studied the National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' figures of the average import versus export values between 2006 and 2010, they noted a major deficit.

"Part of our strategy to grow the size of the agri-processing sector is looking at how we can reduce imports, where possible, by promoting local products. With the cost of healthy eating increasing, opting for local produce will give consumers welcome relief," said Winde.

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture has developed an agri-processing index, which ranks the best products in terms of employment potential and performance in local and global markets.

"Project Khulisa has identified agri-processing as a key growth sector, presenting a significant opportunity to increase jobs in rural areas. Under a high-growth scenario, this sector could add up to 100 000 jobs to the local economy over the next five years," said Winde.

The report shows the importance of trade with the rest of Africa. In 2014, South Africa's exports of agricultural products were worth R104bn. African markets are a key driver of this growth. Over the past 13 years, SA's exports to Africa grew by 14%, compared to the EU which saw an 8% increase.

"This study allows us to map patterns like these and assess whether our programmes are responsive to global trends. I would like to encourage the private sector to consider this report in making their own plans," said Winde.

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Investors place bets on Africa

From milk churning in Zimbabwe to rose growing in Ethiopia, private equity investments in Africa have returned to pre-crisis levels and should keep rising as funds seek big returns in far-flung markets.Private equity deals in Africa totalled $8.1 billion (R103.1bn) last year, the second highest on record after the $8.3bn posted in 2007, according to the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA).This year could be even bigger as investors tired of low returns in developed markets look to cash in on the rapidly emerging middle-class consumers in Africa.

Private equity deals in Africa between 2007 and 2013 earned 60 percent more than the MSCI emerging market index, AVCA said.

Traditionally private equity buyouts in Africa have been supported by development organisations but there are signs over the last year that global funds are taking more aggressive steps to tap into a continent of 1 billion people.

“The growth story in Africa is compelling,” said John van Wyk, the head of Africa at Actis, an emerging-market focused fund.

“Global funds are realising they need to have some sort of Africa strategy and that hasn’t always been the case,” he added.

Debut entries
Large US private equity firms, including TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), have made their first investments in Africa in the last year.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund, one of the largest US pension funds and worth about $180bn, said in April it could invest up to $5bn in Africa over the next five years to boost returns and diversify its portfolio.

TPG said in June it would invest up to $1bn in African companies under a tie-up with Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim’s Satya Capital, which has interests ranging from health care in Nigeria to manufacturing in Tanzania.

Investments are focused on fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, health care and telecommunications.

Bigger funds are looking at infrastructure projects, including filling massive unmet electricity demand across Africa.

KKR last year invested $200 million in Afriflora, a rose farm in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Though interest in Africa is rising it comes off a very low base with even large funds raising only about $1bn, a meagre sum compared with developed markets.

More money was raised in India last year than in all the 55 countries in Africa.

Low base
“While there has been more capital raised, its low compared to other geographies,” said Marlon Chigwende, the managing director of Carlyle’s sub-Saharan African business.

High returns are also far from guaranteed. Food and drinks giant Nestlé offered a dose of reality last month, saying it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce in Africa because it had over-estimated the growth of the middle class. Still, middle-class households in 11 key sub-Saharan African countries, excluding South Africa, are set to triple to 22 million by 2030, according to Standard Bank. “Things can take a long time in Africa so people should not expect instant results,” Chigwende added.

Many fund managers believe African investments have longevity because money is increasingly flowing to markets outside South Africa. Nigeria and Ethiopia, Africa’s two most populous countries, are often cited as new opportunity areas. Verod, a small Nigerian private equity firm, earned 15 times its investment this year when it sold its stake in GZI Industries.

While optimism is increasing, major obstacles remain, from huge infrastructure and skills deficits to lingering political instability. “There is risk everywhere. There is risk on Wall Street,” said Muvirimi Kupara, the head of Spear Capital, a Zimbabwean fund with interests in dairy processing.

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A victory for all in Africa

There was a game scheduled Saturday, a historic and perhaps groundbreaking one, the first involving NBA players in Africa, a continent heavy on promise and light on experience and exposure to basketball.

But first came the game before the game. And this one was far more competitive.

Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo, the greatest players Africa ever produced, were asked by league organizers to come out of retirement and make a cameo in the exhibition. Olajuwon is a Hall of Famer and Mutombo will be enshrined next month. They would suit up for Team Africa, a squad of players with African blood, against Team World. Their jerseys, along with one belonging to the late Manute Bol, hung ceremoniously in the rafters above the court inside the arena. Therefore: A simple and brilliant request, right?

Brilliant, yes. Not so simple. Mutombo was receptive. Olajuwon said no. Olajuwon is 52, Mutumbo 49. They are fit and trim, but as basketball players, they were finished. It was not going to happen. Organizers pleaded. The answer, up to the day before tipoff, was no from Olajuwon. Truth be told? Both were afraid of being embarrassed on TV, in front of fans who knew them as legends. Neither wanted to play like chumps.

And then: Olajuwon weakened. He brought along his two pre-teenaged boys, who never saw him play, and so he agreed. When they checked in midway through the second quarter wearing their throwbacks -- Rockets for Olajuwon, multi-colored Nuggets for Mutombo -- the NBA Africa game had its signature moment, its energy, its second-loudest applause of the day.

The biggest bedlam? That burst arrived when Olajuwon reeled back to 1993, executed the Dream Shake that froze Nik Vucevic, faded and shot a 15-footer that kissed the rim and fell in. Cray-zy. The crowd pounced. Players on both benches jumped.

"I made the move, I made the shot, it went in," said Olajuwon. "I missed my first shot and was happy to make the next one. And I was really happy to participate."

After a minute of action, Olajuwon playfully grabbed his chest, Fred Sanford-style. Gregg Popovich, who knows about coaching old players with the Spurs, did the humanitarian thing and allowed Olajuwon to wobble back to the bench and into re-retirement.

As for Mutombo? Didn't one trademark basketball moment deserve another? As in, a blocked shot and finger wag? Popovich drew up a defensive play that you'll never see in a Spurs game. He ordered his players to allow guard Trey Burke to reach the rim, where Mutombo awaited. The trap was set but the mouse didn't cooperate. Burke passed the ball.

"So many of these young players don't want to see themselves on YouTube," said Mutombo, "so they run away." As for the rest of the game: It registered in Africa. It was All-Star Game-like. Lots of dunks, and then three-pointers in bunches in the final five minutes. This was NBA action, finally, in this continent and the crowd treated it as such. Team Africa lacked a point guard. Didn't matter. Team Africa also lacked shooters. Well, that mattered when the World rallied in the final moments and pulled ahead. Burke was booed at the free throw line with seven seconds left and Africa down three. Tough crowd. Proud crowd. Biased crowd.

But after the buzzer sounded and the World won, 101-97? Every player in the game was treated like Africans. "We all won," said Olajuwon. "The whole week was a winner." Yes, absolutely. As Chris Paul said: "The game was secondary to all the great things that took place."

Where do we start? Maybe at the beginning. On the 16-hour flight to South Africa, Paul passed the time and fought sleep by reading Nelson Mandela's book, A Long Walk to Freedom, on a recommendation from a friend. The book resonated.

"I thought it was fitting for me to read that book on the way over here," said Paul, "because it gave me a great sense of what he and others have been through in Africa. To me to go to Soweto and then to Nelson Mandela's house was amazing."

The youth clinics, run by Masai Ujiri, went smoothly. Meanwhile, the Raptors' GM, who also holds two basketball camps annually in Africa, was honored by the Mandela Foundation's Hall of Fame, his name chiseled on the same wall as Bill Clinton and other dignitaries. It was a defining moment for someone who idolized Mandela, and a confirmation that his constant work to develop basketball in Africa is appreciated by his homeland.

"To receive such an honor, I never thought this would ever happen to me, growing up in Nigeria," said Ujiri. "It's life changing. Everything he symbolizes is the right way a human being should be. It's not easy to be selfless, but he was."
Many players and coaches choked up while visiting the SOS Village, where they were swarmed by orphaned and abandoned children.

Their stories and their plight were heart-wrenching. Lionel Hollins, the Nets' coach, left with thoughts of adoption.
And speaking of that: Alexis Wangmene was in attendance at the game. He was spotted at a Basketball Without Borders camp in 2004 by R.C. Buford, the GM of the Spurs. Buford and his wife brought the 14-year-old from Cameroon to San Antonio and gave him a home and a new brother, Chase Buford. Long story short: Wangmene prospered, played college ball at Texas and for the last few years played professionally overseas.

"My journey started here, 11 years ago," Wangmene said. "I met the most wonderful man I know. He changed my life. He's always been very supportive, very encouraging. I remember first meeting him and him talking to me like it was yesterday. Being here at this game helps bring back all of those memories. Good memories. Coming to San Antonio and being with his family was the best time of my life."

The purpose of the four-day trip to South Africa, of course, was to stimulate the appetite for basketball in a place that's slowly producing professional players and hoping that one day, a trickle of talent turns into a gusher. Africa has a billion people but is slower to become a basketball factory, for several reasons, which puts it well behind Europe, Asia and South America. Even Australia has turned into a faucet in relatively short time.

Again: Africa didn't even have a point guard for Saturday's game. And over half of the players who suited up for Team Africa were weaned on basketball in other countries.

The main roadblocks are coaching, facilities and resources, although the tireless work of Ujiri and especially Amadou Fall, the NBA's director of development in Africa, gives some hope.

"Something is going to come from this," said Fall. "This will grow."
Here's what will likely not happen: Olajuwon and Mutombo, huffing their way down the court in an organized game.
"Come on, man, I'm old," said Mutombo. "Nobody better ask me about playing basketball again. I was out there for five minutes and my chest hurt. It's not easy out there."

They sacrificed their limbs and lungs for Africa. And they did something else, Mutombo and Olajuwon. By being Hall of Famers, they helped the NBA field a team of players with African heritage and stage a game on the continent, and the NBA plans to keep the door open for coming back. That's what pioneers do.

Luol Deng grew up in strife-torn Sudan and soon escaped to America, where he learned the game and attended Duke and eventually became an All-Star. He knew what Olajuwon and Mutombo meant to him during those developmental years.

"As a kid, I never could watch NBA players or see an NBA game because that didn't happen over here," he said. "Because of Hakeem and Dikembe, this is why this game happened today. It's a huge step forward."

The NBA made sure not to leave out the third player in the African Trinity. An MVP trophy was split between Deng and Paul. It was named after Manute Bol, a fitting tribute for the memory of the 7-7 shot-blocker from Sudan.
"God bless his soul," said Mutombo. "He was a good man for his country. He was good for the game. He would've loved to be here. And everyone would've loved having him here."

"When you talk about Dikembe and Hakeem, you talk about two iconic figures," Pop said. "And to be here in Africa, and roll them out, it makes the whole day special. You could see the players on both teams. They were in awe."

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South Africa’s ‘Discovery of India’ starts October 2

In an era of truncated tours, South Africa will spend 72 days in the country playing four Tests, five ODIs and a three-match T20 series When Hashim Amla & Co. land in Delhi in the last week of September, they’ll be welcomed by the last rays of a torrid summer. By the time they depart for home from the Capital, some 72 days later, winter would have set in and Delhiites busy haggling for woolens.

In that period, the Proteas would have traveled 16,251 kilometres across the length and breadth of the country, soaking in more sights, sounds and smells around India in two-and-a-half months than most Indians would do in a year or two. It will also mean that some like Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel, who were integral parts of their respective IPL franchises during the summer, would have spent four months of 2015 in India.

If anything, Amla and his team might be well equipped by the end of it to pen down their own South African version of the Discovery of India. For, their journeys will see them criss-crossing from the far north to the far east — a 2,101 km trek from Dharamsala to Cuttack — and the farthest west, Rajkot, to the south-eastern coast of Chennai — 2,029.7 km apart.

This will be South Africa’s longest tour to India not just in terms of duration, though. Never before have the two nations faced each other in a four-Test series, and the Proteas are yet to play an international T20 on Indian soil. For the record, they will play three games of the thrill-a-minute variety to kick off the tour, with the first one at Dharamsala. The T20 series will be followed by five ODIs played in a two-week period.

Goa trip
So long will the South Africans make India home that they are even scheduled to make a two-day trip to the tourist destination of Goa for some team-bonding and recuperation before returning for the Test series, which will be preceded by a two-day tour match in Mumbai. That it will pit two teams who will be expected to be on a par in terms of quality and competitiveness across all formats only makes the tour all the more enthralling. In addition of course to the retro feel it possesses in terms of its scheduling.

This is how it used to be after all. Lengthy vigils in a foreign land with hectic on-field action doubled with plenty of off-field explorations with the visiting players getting assimilated into the host nation’s psyche, forming lifelong bonds along the way. It’s during such tours that heroes and legends never heard of before would be created, with their tales becoming a part of cricketing folklore. Not to forget the tour diaries that would get adopted as cricket literature and fill up almanacks and history-themed book-shelves. And often it were these tours that brought two nations closer than any number of ambassadorial visits, long before Steve Waugh promoted his famous ‘embrace the culture’ campaign during Australia’s 2001 tour to India.

But cricket has accepted the inevitability of channeling itself into the fast-paced modern era — except maybe when the Ashes are played — and its most obvious sign are the truncated tours with back-to-back matches, which have come in vogue. It’s an era where a number of cricketers from around the world have succumbed to the pressure and stress of being away from home and coiled up in hotel-rooms for months on end. Even countries like Australia and England, who were the pioneers in playing hosts for extended periods, have begun dividing tours, hosting teams for Tests and ODIs separately.

England had spent 78 days in India three years ago when they played four Tests, two T20s and five ODIs spread between November 2012 and January 2013. But Alastair Cook & Co. had gone back home to spend Christmas and New Year’s with their families before returning to India two weeks later. It was a long enough break to suspend the flow, which will be the feature of the 2015 South African tour.

For the likes of Steyn and De Villiers, warming up to Indian audiences might not be a unique experience, considering they’ve done that year after year in the IPL. In fact, the schedule has been planned in such a way that the South African ODI captain will complete a significant milestone by playing his 100th Test in front of his ‘home’ fans at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. But Amla has somehow always remained an enigma, barring the times he’s piling on the misery of the Indian bowlers while scoring runs as a pastime. That, though, is about to change in a couple of months’ time, as the South Africans script their ‘Indian summer’ this coming winter.

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Airbnb Plans Africa Expansion

Airbnb is hoping to spread its unique brand of hospitality throughout Africa. The San Francisco company, which allows people to rent rooms in their private homes to travelers over the Internet, held an event July 27 in Johannesburg, where Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky walked local reporters through the company’s ambitions in the world’s second-most populous continent.

Airbnb recently hired a general manager for Middle East and Africa, Nicola D’Elia, who was the former head of international growth and partnerships at Facebook. D’Elia, based in London, will hire staff to manage the business in Africa and says he may eventually open local offices in the region. In the coming weeks, Airbnb says it will also roll out its “host guarantee” in Africa, which reimburses hosts for up to $1 million U.S. dollars if a guest damages their homes.

Many Africans had already taken to Airbnb despite the company’s lack of a physical presence there. With news spreading mainly through word of mouth, some 9,400 homes are for rent in South Africa, making it the company’s largest market on the continent. The biggest cities for Airbnb are Cape Town and Johannesburg, and the company says listings in South Africa are increasing 138 percent a year. The number of people staying in Airbnb homes in the country is growing 257 percent. “Africa is an incredibly exotic place to travel to, and this is an incredible way to experience it like a local,” says Chesky, on his first trip to the continent.

The preemptive outreach to South Africans could help Airbnb head off resistance from local regulators and businesses down the road. Another company in Silicon Valley's so-called sharing economy has received a turbulent reception in South Africa. Drivers for Uber, which was launched in Johannesburg in 2012, were recently threatened in the Sandton business district by metered taxi drivers anxious to protect their business. Uber said it served 1 million rides in South Africa in 2014.

Airbnb has experienced similar pushback from regulators in such places as New York, Paris, and San Francisco. D’Elia says the company has not started talking to housing or tourist authorities in Africa. “We’re keen to start working with local governments and to help them understand how home sharing can be beneficial to cities,” he says.
Airbnb recently hired Laurence Tosi, the former chief financial officer for Blackstone Group, as its CFO, and has been in talks to raise a round of financing that would give the six-year old company a valuation of at least $24 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last month. Part of the promise for investors is Airbnb’s potential to create a global travel platform, letting tourists enjoy a similar level of personalized service wherever they go in the world.

Before his trip to Johannesburg, Chesky attended the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, as a guest of President Barack Obama and met with Nairobi entrepreneurs. Ahead of Airbnb’s press conference on Monday, Chesky spent time with a dozen South African hosts in the backyard of a four-bedroom Johannesburg home listed on Airbnb as “Entertainers African Dream - Bliss!” The home had a thatched roof, a pool in the spacious backyard, and the high walls and gates common in homes in the affluent neighborhoods of Johannesburg.

Nearly all the hosts at the event had first heard about the Airbnb platform only in the past few months. James McNeany, 66, says Airbnb has helped to allay his financial anxiety after he recently got pushed into retirement at an insurance firm. “I was hanging onto my previous job as long as possible. I couldn’t imagine what I’d be doing next,” he says. Now he rents out three suites on his property near Hyde Park for $463 a week, mostly on Airbnb but also on rival website Booking.com. He has a live-in housekeeper from Zimbabwe who helps him maintain the properties, and he says that in some months, bookings via Airbnb have equaled his former salary.

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