79: Nikiwe Bikitsha on Curiosity, Travelling Africa & the Places We Overlook
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Nikiwe Bikitsha is one of the reasons this podcast exists. Years before I started Chica Travel, I heard her travel across the continent on 702's Africa Connected and thought, what if I did this?
In this episode she takes me from a childhood in Mthatha glued to the news, to countries across the continent, to three weeks in Pakistan, to Japan, and to Oxford finding her when she was not looking. We talk about curiosity as a way of moving through the world, seeing a city by running through it, the places we overlook, and the love she was met with everywhere she went in Africa.
Watch the video version on YouTube at Chica Travel with Lelo, find me on Instagram at @chicatravelpodcast, and if you enjoyed this one, please leave a review. It helps more than you know.
In this episode she takes me from a childhood in Mthatha glued to the news, to countries across the continent, to three weeks in Pakistan, to Japan, and to Oxford finding her when she was not looking. We talk about curiosity as a way of moving through the world, seeing a city by running through it, the places we overlook, and the love she was met with everywhere she went in Africa.
Watch the video version on YouTube at Chica Travel with Lelo, find me on Instagram at @chicatravelpodcast, and if you enjoyed this one, please leave a review. It helps more than you know.
Chapters
- 00:00 The dream that started it all
- 00:35 The woman who inspired this podcast
- 02:35 Mthatha, Aunt Dolly, and the making of a journalist
- 05:45 First trips out: Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls
- 08:30 Three weeks in Pakistan
- 11:50 Africa Connected: how it came to be
- 16:30 No preconceived notions, only curiosity
- 17:15 Lagos: nothing can prepare you
- 18:50 What the journey revealed about the continent
- 20:50 The warmth, the safety, and what worries her now
- 22:00 We can only thrive if we embrace each other
- 23:30 The one still on her list: Morocco
- 24:30 Running the world: the Six Star Majors
- 30:00 The Tokyo Marathon that got away
- 31:35 Japan: the one place she felt unseen
- 33:25 How Oxford chose her
- 41:30 Istanbul, the city that deserves more
- 43:50 Italy with her mother
- 46:15 Where to next, and goodbye
