To me exploration isn’t about conquering natural obstacles, planting flags… It’s not about going where no one’s gone before in order to leave your mark, but about the opposite of that – about making yourself vulnerable, opening yourself up to whatever’s there and letting the place leave its mark on you
— Benedict Allen, quoted in Nature’s Connections: an exploration of Natural History, The Natural History Museum, London, 2000
This quotation from Benedict Allen spoke to me because it provides an echo of all human experiences…if we can recognise it. My own studies about the different cultures of the world and the challenges of exchange between them has confirmed that one of the significant frontiers of exploration in this globalising age might be termed Encountering The Other—that is: the one who is different to ourselves. Allen points towards a manner of encounter that is vulnerable and open—surely the most necessary precursors to true and constructive engagement that is free of domination, intimidation, manipulation or exploitation of The Other.
I’ve supplemented the quote with a photograph of the road to Léo, because that is the place where my own exploration of Burkina Faso, in West Africa, began.
The image of a road stretching out ahead of us demonstrates that others have gone before and prepared a way for our travel; the presence of other road users affirms the route’s value—it leads somewhere that others are going.
Nevertheless, the way the road meets and disappears into the horizon also encapsulates two further truths: firstly, even though others have preceded us, we don’t know what that route may hold for us personally. Secondly, the broad horizon confirms our chosen route represents only one direction amongst a myriad of others that might be taken.
To us, the road we are on may seem self-evidently the clearest, most effective, most obvious route to take. Yet we don’t know the stories, motivations and myriad reasons of Others for taking a different route, road or journey. All of life is an exploration and we are all explorers in some way or another.
