Is It Safe To Travel To Africa?

Africa is for many a scary destination, but is it actually dangerous to go there?

On UN’s Human Development Index the 10 least developed countries are all African. Africa also contains the 10 countries in the world with the lowest GDP per capita. The continent has a long history of war, famine, suffering and other issues. Even today civil war continues in multiple countries and the majority of government travel advice is issued for African countries.

All of this suggests that Africa is a continent you should stay far away from. Thankfully this assumption is incorrect, as it assumes that all places are equally unsafe. As a matter of fact several places are safer to visit than Europe, not to mention way more exciting!

Sunset in Africa – and we survived! Maybe it isn’t that dangerous after all?

One assumption can be made through, namely that it is generally more dangerous in cities than rural areas. That being said, it applies for most places in the world, not just Africa. And Africa is not the world capital of city break destinations, after all safari, nature and wildlife experiences is what makes Africa such a special place.

The difference in safety between countries like South Sudan and Namibia is also huge. Internally countries can also have areas that are plagued with riots and violence, while others are quite safe. Local knowledge goes a long way to avoid dangerous situations and areas, as well as common sense, like any other place in the world.

From our own experience it is safe to say that we felt safer many places in Africa than what we did in Europe, Asia and America.

Statistics about safety in Africa

Finding facts about safety in African countries is a challenging task. There are many ways of measuring safety and so many crimes are unaccounted for. Still, it is possible to look at trends from different types of research and get an indication of how safe Africa really is.

The website Safe Destinations has made a list of 136 countries ordered by how safe they are to travel to. These rankings are based on crime and homicide rates, likelihood of terrorism and terrorism casualties, police force effectiveness, costs of security and several other factors.

Safe Destinations, Vision of Humanity’s Global Peace Index, TravelRiskMap and World Economic Forum all agree that standing here in Namibia is just as safe or safer than it is in the United States of America.

This ranking is in other words very comprehensive and provides a more objective view on how safe Africa is as a holiday destination compared to just our own opinions and feelings. Safe Destinations has ranked Namibia among others as safer than USA and Botswana as safer than Great Britain. But can this be correct? The ranking is supported by among others Vision of Humanity’s Global Peace Index, TravelRiskMap and World Economic Forum, making it quite credible.

Far from perfect

Lion's Head in Cape Town — Climbing to the top of Lion’s Head at midnight was a great experience, but we did not realise until a later time how dangerous it could have been to wander around at night in this city with camera gear in dark alleys.

We are not just going to mention how much better the safety in Africa is than many people have an impression of; there are some problems as well. In the cities one should be above averagely cautious. As a matter of fact we were robbed in South Africa in 2017 and have since spoken to a few too many people who share the same experience. Cape Town is a city that light look very nice and peaceful, but is plagued with high crime rates. On a guided tour we visited a university and this was the first time in several weeks that they could show us this place due to threatening behaviour from students. Apartheid may be abolished in South Africa, but the repercussions are unfortunately still present.

This critter chased us in Zimbabwe while driving through a national park.

We also had a few “exciting” encounters with animals. For us it was just a great story to tell when we were chased by an elephant, but at the same time a reminder that wild animals are exactly that, and that there are threats in Africa that are different from what we are used to in Europe.

On one side of the camera is the deadlines species every to roam this planet. On the other side a lioness… One is to have respect for wild animals, but don’t think that safaris in Africa are much more dangerous than other activities. Lions account for around 70 deaths per year worldwide, humans account for around 500 000.

A continent with an undeserved reputation

After spending a month in Africa and looking at the statistics we cannot do anything but conclude that Africa has gotten a bad, not to mention undeserved, reputation. We are not going to sugarcoat it either, because there are still areas with high crime rates, violence and war, but overall it is not more dangerous than many other places. No-one would say that Canada is dangerous because there is conflict in Venezuela and both are located in America; yet some assume that Namibia and other African countries are unsafe because of conflicts in Mali and Congo.

Tips to safe travels in Africa

Read travel advice for the areas you are going to.
Use local guides that know the areas and what to avoid.
Spend more time in the wild and less time in cities
Avoid areas in the cities without people and off-the-trail streets. It is rare to hear that someone got robbed in the middle of a large crowd.
Southern Africa is in general more safe than Central and North Africa. Countries like Namibia, Botswana and Zambia are particularly safe.
In the cities it is safer to be in a larger group of people. Most people getting robbed are walking around alone.
Know how to act among wild animals. Safe behaviour isn’t always intuitive behavior.