Children of the Nile

The Nile is not just a river. The Nile is more than that. The longest river in Africa is the heart of hundreds of peoples, the source of food that feeds millions and an impassive witness to the rise and fall of the most powerful dynasties on earth.

Over its 6695 kilometer course, which begins in deepest Africa, the Nile flows past mountains, cliffs and swamps, always north, overcoming the challenge of the desert until it reaches the Mediterranean. Its very name evokes the secrets of impossible pyramids and underground chambers full of treasure, and feeds the pride of age-old civilizations that still struggle for survival to this day.

Today, the Nile is the peace of Northern Uganda but also the war of South Sudan, it is life in the valleys of Ethiopia but death in Egypt and Sudan, it is dictatorship, inequality, hope and yearning for freedom. It is also the dream of revolution.

But in spite of its scars, the Nile continues to be a cradle for the mingling of the great African and Mediterranean cultures of the past and present. We are all children of the Nile, the river that made us want to travel.