In early 1998, in our fourth issue, we published a story about the challenges facing the Maasai in Kenya’s rapidly modernising economy. Soon afterwards, at a consumer travel show in London, a young East European student spent some time gazing at the cover before asking me: “Is this the face of Africa you should be portraying?”
I was in my late twenties and, frankly, hadn’t given much thought to the role we played in how people might view the continent; at that point we simply wanted to share our love for Africa and encourage others to visit. We ended up having a wideranging and thought-provoking discussion about the role of the media at a time when cultural tourism was beginning to make a serious impact.