Here's my thought on this: In a place like Niger or Chad or any Muslim place that gets very few American tourists, it is genuinely dangerous for Americans (or apparent Americans) now, even though the danger was greatly exaggerated in the press before the 9-11 attacks.
Suppose that only 20% of the population are pro-Al Qaida. And of these, only 1% really want to do anything to help the cause. Still that's a lot of people. Now their leader Osama bin Ladin has said that killing any American is good; their problem is that there are no Americans around to kill. If only 40 young men in all of Chad want to kill an American, and you are known to be one of the few non-official Americans in the country, it seems likely that you will be SELECTED for trouble, simply because you're almost the only candidate. That danger (on top of the ordinary ones) seems bad enough to keep me away unless I have a strong reason to go.
Most of Ghana is delightful -- but I'd avoid the far north (north of, say, Yeji) which is Muslim and "troubled".
FL
