Marc, I don't know about Africa, but before our trip to New Zealand last year I got one of the Motorola quad band phones from Cingular. It worked beautifully from New Zealand -- better reception than across town here -- and I'll be trying it out in Europe this October. If you go to the Cingular web site, you can see the international service coverage and which phones are compatible, costs, etc. Coverage is more limited in Asia than Europe, and I'm not sure about Africa.
