Two Africas, One Heart

The continent and its incredibly resilient people © Illustration by Paola Bilancieri

My relationship with Africa began in the early 1980s, when I first traveled across the continent on public health missions. From the start, the continent captured not only my attention but also my imagination. In many ways, it felt like a return to origins: my father was born there, the son of a Lebanese immigrant who had journeyed to the Transvaal—then a province in northeastern South Africa known for its mineral wealth—to supply food to miners.