Agreed that experience counts beyond anything else. It builds decision making skills, and ocassionally teaches you the hard way that there are certain things you should and shouldn't do. No doubt that Africa is a good place to get experience, but obviously not at the price of safety.
I've flown with guys who have learnt "tricks" or said yes to unreasonably risky requests (normally from the CP or Ops manager) and does it make them better pilots? Not in my opinion - all it does is lull them into a false sense of security that they can safely do something which clearly is not safe, and one day that will come back to bite them in the arse.