TAKING I T TO E XTREMES

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR YOUR TV SERIES,

It’s something I’d wanted to do for decades. As a child watching the news in the UK, all the images I ever saw of the African continent were of war, corruption or poverty. I wanted to change that. So, for the four-part BBC Two series, I travelled through what, as we aimed to show, is such a fun, exciting, diverse continent — not one homogenous place. It was part travel, part current affairs. I also wanted to do a homecoming story of sorts, as I moved from Nigeria to London when I was three years old.

WHAT MADE THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOU?

When we travelled from Cape Verde to Senegal, we followed the story of the slave trade, seeing the places where slaves were kept in unfathomable conditions. Some of the most sought-after slaves came from the Uraba tribe in Nigeria, where I was born. It was a shocking realisation for me.

WHERE CHALLENGED YOUR PERCEPTIONS THE MOST? Mogadishu, Somalia. To go to a place that’s so notorious for death and destruction was significant. To see someone like me, with a disability, in a place synonymous with flak jackets and tanks: it’s not what the world expects. We had security with us around the clock, undercover guards and such a short time in which to get the stories of these incredible characters.

There were women playing basketball who leave home for the court without saying anything to their families. Once they were behind closed doors, off came the burkas and on went the tracksuits. They knew that if they were caught, they risked being stoned to death, but they wanted to change the world for other women. As an athlete, I’ve never risked death to play ball.

Adedoyin Olayiwola ‘Ade’ Adepitan MBE is a TV presenter and wheelchair basketball player. Africa with Ade Adepitan was broadcast on BBC Two last year. adeadepitan.com

My most recent expedition took me 1,000 miles across the Sahara, crossing endless golden dunes, facing weeks of moon-like barren wastelands and watching hundreds of camels gallop towards a well for water. These unforgettable experiences have all had an indelible impact on me, but it’s the small family compound where I live, in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, that has changed me the most.

The Amazigh village of Imlil comprises a main street and a clutch of red clay buildings built into the mountains, with the douar (family compound) accessed via a track overlooking a sea of walnut trees. Three families and a number of cows and chickens live in the douar with me, our houses looking onto a communal courtyard. Life in Morocco is segregated by gender, so my home life is with the women. Initially, I worried how I’d fit in — I fail on every level as a female here, where home and children define your worth. I have neither husband nor children, and I can’t cook couscous.

My first ally was a 90-year-old grandmother. She would come to my house daily, bringing an orange or some apricots, and teach me words in Tashlaheet, the local dialect. Looking out at the glory of the mountains, with her warm hand in mine and the sun on our faces, brought me a simple and complete happiness.

‘One hand can’t clap’ is a saying in Arabic, and here it’s impossible to be lonely. If I sit on my front step, a neighbour will immediately appear for a chat about nothing in particular: the weather, who’s had a baby, what we’re having for lunch. I’m always invited to join the women at 5pm, when they congregate to drink sweet mint tea and eat flaky pastry pancakes dipped in wild honey or home-churned butter.

It’s the opposite of the busy life I was used to. Here, everything is simpler. People have time for each other — and time to sit and watch the flocks of rooks swirl and swoop over the peaks.

Alice Morrison is the presenter of BBC Two’s Morocco to Timbuktu: An Arabian Adventure, author of Adventures in Morocco and creator of the Alice in Wanderland podcast: alicemorrison.co.uk/podcast