The International Schools Review Forum

Asking for a friend, who would like to teach in Africa, but cares less about the school than the city:

Which city in Africa (with an IS) is safe, and is pleasant to live in?
'Pleasant' meaning that there are some things to entertain you (some cultural events for example), a decent expat community, public transportation or affordable and safe taxis.
Low air pollution would be a plus.

And asking for myself (for a possible future move): would you pick Maputo, Addis Ababa, Accra or Dakar?

Cape Town.

But the schools there are all for profit, and pay survival wages.

I've been to 2 cities on the list that you mention, neither would tick all the boxes for the criteria you list.

Addis is kind of nice and ticks most of the boxes.
Good hub for travelling, safe, has a light rail system nowadays.
Air pollution is a getting to be a problem though, and still very much a developing country.

buffalofan wrote:
> I've been to 2 cities on the list that you mention, neither would tick all
> the boxes for the criteria you list.

If I may ask: which two cities, and which boxes are left unticked for those?

Cape Town and Johannesburg.

I liked Accra for its proximity to the coast and lots of culture in and around it. It’s very hot though.

Johannesburg is quite unsafe (https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Johannesburg), as is Cape Town (slightly less), also when compared to other African cities. Even Lagos is substantially safer (which was surprising, given the awful reputation it has).
All of the South African expats I know are planning to be abroad for the rest of their lives, due to safety concerns in SA.
I have heard from many that Cape Town is supposedly a great city if safety is not a factor.

It might be different if you stay within the expat bubble though, but then almost every city can be considered safe.

I lived in Kinshasa in the DR Conga. I would not recommend it. The level of poverty was hard to take. Additionally, everything was very expensive because it all had to be imported. From a bag of rice to a mediocre hamburger in a "restaurant," everything was easily triple the price in the States. I don't know what it is like there today but I can't imagine it has improved much

Just finished the AISA conference in Cape Town and flying back later tonight. Cape Town was walkable downtown and lots of teachers here from the American School. Pay is not great, but it is cheap to live. Restaurant meal at a nice restaurant under 15 dollars, a great bottle of wine for 14 dollars (and that's an expensive one!), and more.

Walked all over and felt fairly safe. Did not walk as much after dark on long walks...

Been to South Africa twice last 5 years and was robbed twice. First in Cape Town and last time in Johannesburg. Not eager to go a 3rd time tbh.

Windhoek, Namibia; rest of them have either too much crime or disease or even both.

Having been to Windhoek, I don't think it scores very high on the "things to entertain you" criteria from the OP.

Johannesburg expats all live in dreary gated communities located in equally dreary suburbs full of depressing strip malls. Doesn't sound like the OP wants this.

Cape Town is still the best bet, despite the crap salaries. Unless perhaps you intend to live in Mitchell's Plain or the area near the airport, it is relatively safe. I would also take any comments from South African (white) expats with a huge grain of salt, some of them are severely deluded and still bitter that it isn't 1993 anymore.

buffalofan wrote:
> Having been to Windhoek, I don't think it scores very high on the
> "things to entertain you" criteria from the OP.
>
> Johannesburg expats all live in dreary gated communities located in equally
> dreary suburbs full of depressing strip malls. Doesn't sound like the OP
> wants this.
>
> Cape Town is still the best bet, despite the crap salaries. Unless perhaps
> you intend to live in Mitchell's Plain or the area near the airport, it is
> relatively safe. I would also take any comments from South African (white)
> expats with a huge grain of salt, some of them are severely deluded and
> still bitter that it isn't 1993 anymore.

Dreary and depressing? Maybe your last trip was in the 90s...

The suburbs expat live in are beautiful spacious houses, nice pools, green huge backyards. The suburbs are equally pleasant with parks with people havinf picnics with their kids and dogs, people going for runs, etc. There are tons of community events happening all the time from major concerts, plays, cinema, and sporting events. Weekends have incredible markets with the best food, wine and live music. Joburg has the best climate in the world with blue skies over 300 days a year. If that doesn’t define “pleasant”, I’m not sure what does...