Research, research, research...

[liz_marcs]

Note: My Africander Soundtrack is still available for download.

On ludditerobot's rec, I've been watching National Geographic's Africa from 2001. (Thank you, Netflix!)

The immediate thought that jumps out at me: Were the Angel writers high when they tossed out the bon mot that Xander was in Africa in 'Damage'? The Sahara alone is the size of the United

Comments

[smhwpf]

To be fair, all we get from Damage is that a) Mr Giles and a few "key Sunnydale Alum" are tracking down Slayers and b) (later) Xander is in Africa. (and sent Andrew a fish). We're not told that he's tracking down Slayers, though that's a reasonable presumption. We're not told he's the only one in Africa (though there'd probably have to be some 'less key' others involved), and even if he is the only one in Africa, we're certainly not told that he's expected to cover the whole of the continent. Which as you say he obviously couldn't do.

[aadler]

In defense of the canon writers (something I don’t always feel it necessary or appropriate to do), they didn’t say that Xander was in Africa by himself. In fact, they didn’t even say that Xander was in Africa. They had Andrew say that Xander was in Africa. Andrew could have been wrong, lying, or extrapolating from something he heard (this is the guy that thought Faith had killed a Vulcan).

Does this matter? Well, did Shakespeare say, “Let’s kill all the lawyers?” No, one of Shakespeare’s characters said that. It’s a line from Shakespeare, not reflective of his own attitudes or knowledge.

I think of my comments here as a clarification rather than a criticism. I’m enjoying your observations on this larger subject.

[skipp_of_ark]

Gotta chime in here with my observation that ever since Damage aired, it's been a fanon assumption that Xander was assigned to Africa on a semi-permanent to permanent basis and/or that he's essentially going to be there for years, if not the rest of his life.

Who's our source? Andrew, who also says that Willow is supposed to be in one city in Brazil but always seems to be in Rio whenever there's a conference call. Yet later that season, in either AHITW or Shells, Angel is shown calling Giles in an effort to get in contact with Willow in order to help Fred, only to be told that she's doing some astral projection or something in Tibet or Nepal, I don't remember which.

Heck, even in that godawful Queen of the Slayers novel, Xander's visit to Africa is brief and is specifically about one particular mission, and when he returns he's not going back

[ludditerobot]

Thanks for your kind words. The Africa videos kinda rock. The thing I got from the Tuareg part is the salt trade. I had heard of salt mines and Lot's wife getting turned into a pillar of salt, but actually seeing them helped me understand.

The pygmys, you will find soon, didn't have homes, permanent structures they lived in, until the 1970s. Makes me wonder how they combatted the vampires drawn to the dark of the forest. There's a story there.

[ludditerobot]

And the fish is from near Tanzania, so, if I weren't trying to get him everywhere, I'd stick him in southeast Africa, maybe centered in Nairobi.

[set_aka_ian]

Apparently the Pygmies (Twe) are fairly short-tempered about the whole [url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/22/1053585643490.html] being eaten [/url] thing...

[4thdixiechick]

I heart your joy of research!

[ladycat777]

Pssst -- that FBI watching the ILL thing? Proven to be a hoax; the student admitted that he lied. I'll link you the article when I get home and have semagic :D