I came to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity. I could have chosen Asia or South America. I ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest. I came and I stayed. For nearly 25 years I have lived off andon Mozambique. Time has passed, and I'm no longer young; in 1fact, I'm approaching to old age. But my motive for living this 2straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the another 3in European snow, in the melancholy region of Norrland inSweden that I grew up, has to do with wanting to see clearly, to 4understand. The simplest way to explain what I've learned from my life in Africa is through a parable about why human beings have two earsand only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to 5listen twice as much as we speak. In Africa listening is a guided principle. It's a principle that 6has lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one 7seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else. From my own experience, I've noticed how much faster I have toanswer a question during a TV interview than what I did 10, 8maybe even 5, years ago. It's as if we have complete lost the 9ability to listen. We talk and talk, and we end up frightening by 10silence, the refuge of those who are at a loss for an answer.