MALI
FESTIVALS
INTRODUCING
RICK ANTONSON
Tourism
Vancouver's CEO is an author,
traveller and one of the "founding
fathers" of the Vancouver 2010
Olympic and Paraylmpic Winter
Games
Rick Antonson,
Tourism Vancouver's president and
CEO, would seem to have his plate
sufficiently full. Not only is
Antonson guiding the convention and
visitors bureau toward the Vancouver
2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter
Games (just 13 months away), he's
also stick-handling Tourism
Vancouver's $90-million stake in
Vancouver's Convention Centre
Expansion project and serving as a
director of the Pacific Asia Travel
Association. In addition, Antonson
is considered one of the "founding
fathers" of Vancouver's 2010 Winter
Games bid. He was one of the people
that got Vancouver's Olympic ball
rolling way back in 1998.
But that's not
all. In the past year, the exuberant
CEO has found time to write a book.
In To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A
Journey Through West Africa,
Antonson writes about his
unforgettable voyage by train,
four-wheel drive, river pinasse, and
camel through Senegal and Mali to
his discovery of the endangered
existence of Timbuktu's 700,000
ancient manuscripts.
1) When
did you find time to visit Africa
and then write your book To Timbuktu
for a Haircut?
One finds the
time to do the things that are
important to them - and both travel
and writing are important to me. The
trip itself came about when I
planned a month away, on my own,
without my wife along. One evening
she said, "Why don't you just go to
Timbuktu...?" I thought that was a
brilliant suggestion! Long ago, I
spent many years as a periodic
travel writer, and before being at
Tourism Vancouver my career included
an active role with a book
publishing company.
2) Where
does the title "To Timbuktu for a
Haircut" come from?
It is rooted in a
lie my father told me when I was
five years old. Even if his absence
from home was for only an hour, he'd
often say: "I'm going to Timbuktu to
get my haircut." But it didn't start
out with the final title. My early
writing was reflected in discarded
working titles such as A Timbuktu
Sabbatical; later, Timbuktu, A
Traveller's Story; even Waiting for
Mohammed and On the Road to
Timbuktu.
3) Which
was more challenging: travelling
through West Africa or bidding for
the 2010 Winter
Games?
Both experiences
let me see the best in the
communities involved. The people of
Senegal and Mali proved to be among
the most welcoming hosts I've
encountered anywhere in the world.
I'd like to think Vancouver and
British Columbia will earn that
reputation when we host the world
for the Olympic and Paralympic
Winter Games. My travels in West
Africa had the element of personal
quest whereas the Olympic Bid was a
quest for thousands of people who
dreamt of Vancouver as an Olympic
host city.
Author
and tourism executive, Rick Antonson
sets out on an unforgettable journey
to Africa, and chronicles his
adventures in
TO
TIMBUKTU FOR A HAIRCUT: A Journey
Through West
Africa,
published by Dundurn
Press.
"To
Timbuktu for a Haircut is a great
read - a little bit of Bill Bryson,
a little bit of Michael Palin, and
quite a lot of Bob Hope on the road
to Timbuktu." - Professor Geoffrey
Lipman, Assistant Secretary-General,
United Nations World Tourism
Organization.
Historically
rich, remote, and once unimaginably
dangerous for travellers, Timbuktu
still teases with "Find me if you
can." Rick Antonson's
encounters with entertaining train
companions Ebou and Ussegnou, a
mysterious cook called Nema, and
intrepid guide Zak will make you
want to pack up and leave for
Timbuktu tomorrow. As Antonson
travels in Senegal and Mali by
train, four-wheel drive, river
pinasse, camel, and foot, he tells
of fourteenth-century legends,
eighteenth-century explorers, and
today's endangered existence of
Timbuktu's 700,000 ancient
manuscripts in what scholars have
described as the most important
archaeological discovery since the
Dead Sea Scrolls.
TO
TIMBUKTU FOR A HAIRCUT combines wry
humour with shrewd observation to
deliver an armchair experience that
will linger in the mind long after
the last page is read. "I left
Africa personally changed by the
gentle harshness I found and a
disquieting splendour that found
me. Mali was the journey I
needed, if not the one I
envisioned. And I learned that
there's a little of Timbuktu in
every traveller: the
over-anticipated experience, the
clash of dreams with reality."
&endash; Rick Antonson
Rick
Antonson is the president and CEO of
Tourism Vancouver and a director of
the Pacific Asia Travel
Association. He has had
adventures in Tibet and Nepal, and
in Libya and North Korea, among
others. The co-author of
SLUMACH'S GOLD: In Search of a
Legend, he lives in Vancouver.
To Timbuktu for a
Haircut: A Journey Through West
Africa is published by Dundurn Press
and is available at major retailers.
For more information on Rick
Antonson, contact Tourism
Vancouver's media relations
team.
