:: louder than swahili

When home is where you family is: At the other end of the world

These are not my photos, but I wish they were.

They are taken by my Icelandic brother-in-law's cousin, Hjalti Arnason, who lives in northern Iceland - Saudarkrokur in Skagafjordur. Hjalte is an excellent photographer, and I have just realised how much it means to know someone in the other end of the world putting daily photos of high quality on display in cyberspace.

June-July is the best period to visit Iceland, and it is way too long since I went there. Hjalti makes me miss my family in Iceland big time, but I can also see that they are well: On the two first photos my nephew, Baltasar, is playing with his friend, Hjalti's daughter. And the last photo is from the fell above Saudarkrokur looking into Skagafjordur, where my sister lives with her family.

This is what eventually will pull me off the continent. And home.

Visiting the Kamusi Project working in Dar Es Salaam

I am a very fond and frequent user of the Kamusi Project’s dictionary, and Wednesday last week I was invited to visit the Kamusi Project working in Dar Es Salaam.

The invitation said that 'the week had been organised by tzLUG (the Tanzania Linux Users Group) and Kamusi Project International in association with ANLoc (the African Network for Localization), with the support of IDRC (International Development Research Centre), and that it is hosting a blitz to complete at least 15 Tanzanian language locales this week.’

The Kamusi Project is a collaborative work by people all over the world working to establish new dictionaries and learning resources for Kiswahili - both within Swahili and between Swahili and English. Kiswahili is the most widely spoken African language, with as many as 100 million speakers in East and Central Africa. Kiwahili is a national language of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and it is an official language of the African Union.

I found the tzLUG group after walking up five stairs in the NRC Life House building on the corner of Ohio Street and Sokoine Drive. Hamna umeme - no electricity. On the 5th floor I found a tiny room full of Tanzanian twenty-somethings scattered around laptops and cables.

They almost lost me there.

And I still don’t know exactly what a ‘blitz’ or a ‘locale’ is. And I had to google ‘kamusi’ only to find out that it means ‘dictionary’.

So I asked them why they had decided to spend all their free time in a tiny room in the centre of Dar for a whole week - to do something so unusual: to volunteer?

Some of the answers were:

- My name appears (on the product), and I feel proud.

- No other person will do it.

- You learn.

- It is the future of IT in Bongo (Dar Es Salaam). 

One of the concrete ideas behind the Kamusi Project is to make it possible that you don't have to know English in order to use IT. Another that the different IT products use the same vocabulary for the same things.

In Tanzania, along with other African nations, the oral tradition favours the written word. In today's world managing the written word gives power. Hence, securing and developing a language in terms of structure and vocabulary adjusted to the current development is of great significance - not just for a national or cultural identity, but also on an individual level: If you use Kiswahili to formulate your first thought, or if this is the language you dream in, Kiswahili is a fundamental part of you.

Check the Kamusi Project here, and note that you can support the project.

10 things to do in Dar Es Salaam...what are your favorites?

I get that question quite often. I usually know what to suggest (though a lot of people forget to explain what they expect in terms of price, interests and quality).

Most guide books tell you to skip Dar Es Salaam and go straight to your next destination. In fact, the majority of visitors to Dar Es Salaam tend to follow that advice, but if you appear to come through Dar with time to kill or if you as an expat have visitors to entertain, – or simply as me – actually like Dar Es Salaam for what it is, give it a try.

Amongst my favorites are (click):

1. Kanga shopping in Uhuru Street.

2. South Indian food at the Badminton Institute.

3. A walk from Mission Street via Mosque Street - maybe all the way down to Kariakoo.

4. Music, art performance or drinks at Dar Alive/Malaika House or the next door Cine Club.

5. Mishkaki at Jackie's on Haile Selassie

6. A visit to the National Museum and a walk round the Botanical Garden

7. Swimming in the Indian Ocean at the Southern or Northern Beaches.

8. Flying over Dar Es Salaam.

9. Exploring the colourful nightlife - from Mediterraneo, Cine Club, Dar Alive, Trinity to Level8.

10. A trip to Bongoy Island.

But there is so much more. I am about to write an article, encouraging people to check out Dar Es Salaam, in stead of rushing through.

 

If you have any favorites, you'd like to share, please do let me know.

African Weather

I know I write a lot about the weather in Africa.

I am such a cliche, I want it to be African sky blue and copper sun sinking low all the time, which also makes up a main reason for why I like to live in Dar Es Salaam. Lakini, looking out my window from the office in Upanga the weather resembles an average Danish summer: Gray, unpredictable and cold.

Yesterday the weather was - fortunately - as it should be on a Saba Saba - crossing with the Magogoni Ferry from Kigamboni.

Kenya: Tackling corruption via spitting image puppets

From the BBC Africa:

At a recent prayer breakfast in Kenya, religious matters were pushed aside and instead gluttony was the order of the day.

President Mwai Kibaki struggled to eat a whole chapatti in one go, Prime Minister Raila Odinga spilt tea down his suit and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka struggled after getting a sausage stuck in his mouth.

Luckily, these were just puppets being filmed in the cramped dining room of a Nairobi home for the latest of 13 episodes of the XYZ show.

More here.

Tanzanians soon to be introduced to a national dress

African Bambataa puts politics in interesting perspective in a blog post called Things That Make You Go Hmmmm... when linking to this article from the Guardian, which certainly also made me - along with African Bambataa - wonder about the government's priorities:

Tanzanians will soon be officially introduced to a national dress, a move that would help put in place a dressing code to preserve African tradition norms and culture, the Parliament was told yesterday.

Responding to a question by Hafidhi Ali Tahir (Dimani, CCM), who had wanted to know if Tanzania has a national dress, Deputy Minister for Information, Sports and Culture, Joel Bendera said the process of introducing a national dress was progressing well.

Bendera admitted that the style of dressing by most young Tanzanians was not satisfactory despite efforts made by the government and its stakeholders in sensitizing the community on decent dressing.

“If this habit is left unchecked, it might lead to moral decay among young Tanzanians,” he said, adding that dressing in provocative outfit presents a negative picture of the nation. “The whole nation, I believe, is not impressed by this,” he said.

He said the government has been issuing directives on indecent dressing through music groups, artists and beauty contestants.

Bendera said the government realizes that if this culture is left unchecked, it will also affect the future generation of the country.

“The task of discouraging this habit should not be left to the government alone. The whole community, especially the parents and the guardians should play a role in this,” he said.

Unfortunately the article is avoiding asking questions which could shed light on why and how this proposal is going to be implemented in real life.

Acclimatising: Tropical Winther and Warm Beer

Acclimatise means getting used to a certain climate. The sign board is from Kilimanjaro Airport, and I simply don't understand it:

Arusha is already cold, so, why would someone have a cold beer to cool down?

Weather changes significantly in June and July in Dar Es Salaam, which is usually tropically hot and humid. It gets colder, windier, more cloudy and less humid. The temperature drops from 32 to 25-27 degrees.

I never use air-condition, but during the past months I have switched off the fan. I sleep with two duvet covers, where I'd sleep with a kikoy the rest of the year.

I don't like it. I prefer it as tropically, steamy, hot humid as it gets. 

A final note on the beer; It is not unusual that the waiter in your local bar asks if you like your beer warm or cold. It is usually a question which makes the majority of wazungu frown.

But you don't drink cold beer, if you are freezing for real, and I think a lot of Tanzanians are at the moment.

And this this is our winther.

Repetition: Saba Saba

Last year I forgot that it was the Saba Saba, and went to work. I won't tomorrow.

Saba Saba is not meant for working.

The seventh day of the seventh month is an important day in Tanzania's history. On July 7 1954 Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was founded by Julius Nyerere, who lead Tanzania to its independence in 1961. It also refers to the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair held every year at this date in the Saba Saba grounds in Dar es Salaam.

Make the most of it. Expat Existentialism

Quite a few of the people I have got to know over the past four years living in Africa have left or are in the process of returning to Europe. I don't understand how they do it. I know it sounds irrational, and it is nothing but a completely irrational feeling: I don't understand how they can leave Africa. I do know on the rational account that contracts terminate and that some of us are tied to places in Europe due to family, friends, bank loans and work.

A final return is simply an avoidable part of the deal. My brain knows that I have to get a real job in the real world at some point down the line. That I need to reconnect with my family, that it is highly absurd that other people get to spend valuable time with my Icelandic nephew, while I am away. But the rest of me simply doesn't reconcile with the fact that Africa can be over and maybe never be again.

The last time it happened in June 2007, I left the decision to the destiny (and it worked).

I know that the returnees struggle with the return as a concept and with integration into European life. I know that I will when my turn is up. My time is in fact approaching again, and hard decisions must be made. Four years in Africa, which initially was only meant to be two years, is a long time. For the last couple of months I have made minus-and-plus lists, balanced rationality with emotions, the fantastic options I get via my job contra my personal dilemma with the development world in general.

I haven't made a clear decision yet. In stead I end up saying yes to all I can get my hands on. More trips deep inside. More dinner invitations, parties, drinks, lunches, trips to the beach, more photography, more interesting assignments, more walks into the centre of Dar Es Salaam. Squeezing out what ever possible of Africa while I am still on the continent.

I feel so extremely priviledged when friends in Denmark tell me that they are missing Africa. I congratulate myself that it isn't me.

Yet.

The Kilimanjaro Beer slogan says 'Make the most of it'. For now it feels like the only right thing to do.

I'm off to fetch some water...

...am back in some hours.

Sauti za Busara 2010

Now is the week of the Danish Roskilde Festival, held every year in the first month of July. I don't do Roskilde anymore - it seems - but I'll use the opportunity to pass on a message from East Africa's friendliest music festival, Sauti za Busara:

After six successful festivals in Zanzibar, Busara Promotions urgently needs to acquire its own quality sound, lighting and stage equipment. If you have contacts for organisations that may be able to supply us with new/used equipment either by donation or at a reasonable price, do let us know. A full list of requirements can be supplied on request.

Such technical equipment is in extremely short supply in Tanzania and is a resource that can be used throughout the year to generate employment and enhance the social and cultural lives of the region, as well as to build financial sustainability for the festival.

Read more here. Busara also calls for artists and sponsors.

And finally, do read my previous blog posts from Sauti za Busara 2008 and 2009 here.

Oh baby, baby, it's a wild world...

When I was in Maasailand in January, I had a bit of time to kill in Kimana Village, while we were filming.

A rather rough place. Evidently heavily marked of the general pressure on land. In Kimana Village the Maasai live side by side with the Wagogo and the Wahehe – people from other tribes deriving as far away as Dodoma and Iringa.

In fact, to me it resembled the Sudanese refugee settlements and the internally displaces people’s camps in northern Uganda: Sun burnt land. People scattered around the trading centres waiting for the rain.

Hanging out.
Getting drunk.
Very drunk.

On cheap karanga.

The smell of fermenting millet greets you from the afar. Well mixed with the smell of fresh meat put out to dry in the sun. Sort of the Maasai version of the South African biltong.

‘How to make karanga?,’ I asked.

A woman with a utensil resembling a paddle, explained that you take a bag of millet, a bag of sugar and some water. Then you pick enough firewood from around, and put the ingredients in a big oil drum. Boil it all day, while you stir. You leave it overnight to ferment, and it is ready to be sold.

Karanga is not just a Tanzanian phenomenon, it comes in many variations all over Africa. In South Africa and Zimbabwe it is common to throw in meat (!) or fruit, I have been told, to support the fermenting process - and the flavour, maybe?

One portion costs 25,000 TSH to produce, and will make about 100 servings, 250 TSH a cup. Hence, the profit is about 15,000 per portion.

The woman, I spoke to, will do this once a week. Most women do this in order to support their children.

I asked if the karanga caused any problems (while trying to get out of the way as an old man subconsciously wobbled his way through leaving a pong of liquid still in the process of fermenting.)

‘Not really,’ the woman stated. ‘If you drink a lot, you’ll sleep.’

Abuse exists everywhere in the world, in particular in places with high depression and potential conflict. For the ones who don't fall asleep, the karanga fuels agression, making life even more basic and raw, from the ingredients to the impact.

However, here, it is a way to make a living

3 interesting articles from the East African

Sex in a time of famine

An example from Kenya on how one specific problem leads to another: climate change→draught→famine→prostitution→HIV→

EA has to wait longer for Seacom, Teams cables

The thing we are all waiting for: A decent Internet (price and speed wise) in Tanzania. However, the process is delayed, but who would have guessed that the reason for the delay is to do with the Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean (!!)

“They’re (the cable-laying ships) very slow when they’re laying the cables and they really can’t get away,” the article explains.

Pornography, drugs boom as our cities fill up with lonely people

When I lived in Uganda 'the personals' in the Ugandan newspapers were always splendid entertainment as they usually put a very explicit life on display. “Newly arrived Indian girls” and “European ladies,” is only one example.

Enjoy.

Should 'new Danes' be like everybody else?

I blog for Blogging Denmark, Denmark's official website, run by the Danish Foreign Ministry, where you can also find other bloggers blogging about issues related to Denmark. My perspective is obviously coloured by my distance.

My latest post:

A Danish union is currently running a campaign for integration of  ‘new Danes’ into the labour market. The campaign is, translated into English, called ‘Part of the Solution’.

The campaign caught my attention when I browsed the Internet, and came across a banner asking me: ‘Should ‘new Danes be like everybody else?’

In Danish we have gradually internalised the concept ‘new Danes’ in our Danish language (‘nydansker’ in Danish). The Danish Language Committee defines a ‘new Dane’ as a person whose family derives from another place than Denmark.

Part of the union’s campaign is an on-line survey here, where some of the questions are (freely translated):

‘Should there be a special room for prayer at work?’
‘Should ‘new Danes’ get used to the regular Friday beer?’
‘Is multiplicity an advantage for the work environment?’

I have worked in East Africa since June 2005, and I couldn’t help wondering about these questions in relation to my own context.

Read it all here.

Give me your gun!

Quick snapshots from my Sunday in Ally Maua, a suburb in Dar es Salaam. According to one of my guides amongst the ones with the worst reputation in terms of crime.

I find it hard to tell, I must admit, on a lazy Sunday like this. The people I interviewed, however, had been robbed recently at night, and not just that once, but for the third time.

Dar es Salaam is a tricky place in this sense. Crime doesn't necessarily come with poverty, and it doesn't show. Moreover, local Tanzanians have a tendency, in my experience, to overstate a potential risk, in order to protect you. On the other hand many wazungu tend to take the advice too lightly, or don't listen at all. 

Nevertheless, I must say it isn't a factor I deal with on a daily basis. I know there always is a potential risk. I have seen drivers on Nyerere and Morogoro Road been robbed for jewellery and mobile phones by street thugs. But it is a rather quiet affair, and the worst thing really is when the thugs are being targeted by mob justice.

In fact, during the past four years violent crime has escalated in Copenhagen to an extent that makes me feel way more unsafe cycling home through the centre of the city at night than talking a walk - in Tanzanian company - in Ally Mavua on a Sunday afternoon.

When working in your own city turns into an expedition

I have been working Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a very talented photographer. James Seigel is normally based in Cape Town, doing phootage of a quality which an NGO of our calibre seldom can pay for.

However, he offered MS Tanzania/ ActionAid Denmark and our partner organisation, Tanzanian Youth Coalition (TYC), his competences in return for basic commodities and a set-up.

So, for the past three days I, the photographer and Adrian and Juma from TYC have been cruising the suburbs of Dar es Salaam talking to people from Mabibo, Makumbusho, Kijitnyama, Sinza, Tegeta (and beyond), Magomeni, Mansese, Ubongo, Ally Maua, Kekuwanga and Bombalauma.

It is amazing how deep you can enter via local Tanzanians and a purpose - suddenly you are in the lounge of a complete stranger's house, who tells you her/his story, while another one of us is battling with a never ending supply of children who want to be digitalised wearing broad smiles.

For the past three days I have seen an uncountable amount of men peeling potatoes - and others frying, selling and eating them.

I have been invited, repeatedly, to church by a reverend who played his gospel out that loud that I'd gone mental if I lived in that place. Many mosques have called for prayers (and I am repeating my regular explanation 'that I don't need a house to practice my faith', when asked what my religion is).

Coulourful laundry everywhere.

Homemade antennas reaching for the blue sky.

Tropical heat under iron sheet roofs, while trying to put my scarce Kiswahili at some good use.

Zig-zagging over channels of sewage and garbage. 

I have been in awe of the colours of dusty walls in low sun.

The smell of  warm charcoal and humid limestone.

I have seen women in kangas much nicer than the ones I have ever bought ('Mombassa' they said, when I asked 'wapi?'). 

In fact, I suggested TYC that we'd start planning guided tours to suburbs with curious names, inspired by this.

The idea was to speak to youth who had received training in entrepreneurship skills at TYC, and to produce some small portraits of youth who have been capable of making a change in their own lives. The interviews were amazing and we were in fact all surprised, as it turned out that all six we spoke to had made impressive changes, and expressed it with pride.

One of the women gave the advice: ' Don’t sit back. Don’t wait for being provided for.'

And finally, I have to say that I myself learnt a few things in terms of photography - the photos are amazing, and I can't wait to put it all together.

Photo by James Seigel.

A Sign Painter's Shop in Dar es Salaam

Yep, it is Osama on the right.

Snapshots from the Dar es Salaam Suburbs

More Money, More Problem!

Must admit that I feel tempted to send this photo to the Danish Foreign Ministry.

However, less money is not necessarily less problem.

The photo is from Moshi.

Twittering From Iran

Lots of debate in the blogosphere on the role of social media in the Iran protests. Should we pass on information, or do we put the people in danger? Twitter is one tool, and one proposal circulating is to set your Twitter profile to 'Tehran' in order to make it harder to detect Iranian twitters. I just did.

What I think? I doubt the amount of the various kinds of information will give anyone the correct picture of the chaos in Iran now. However, the fact that the people of Iran use the social media to express their attitudes, and communicate it so massively, has an enormous impact - and send signals which are hard to misunderstand.

I also think what that would have meant 9 years ago in Belgrade, Serbia, when the Serbs went on the streets to protest against Milosevic. It might have made a difference in the way the outside world understood the Serbs as individuals.

More cartoons here.

Obamania in Kenya

More Obamania here from Africa.

There you are....

hanging on a string in the photographer's window in a street in Arusha...

Sura Kitabu - Facebook in Kiswahili!

Recently, Facebook launched a version in Kiswahili, Sura Kitabu, which targets nearly 110 million Kiswahili speakers.

From the BBC Africa:

Symon Wonda, one of the project's initiators, said they wanted to launch a Swahili version to safeguard the future of the language.

"The youth, the future generation, if you look at the biggest percentage of users on Facebook, they are the youth," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Very interesting ways of thinking in deed.

Jambo Network has a guideline here on how to set your Facebook to Kiswahili.

Not the ordinary safari photos

Just for your information: I didn't kill the hyena.

But, still, quite a safari.

Obama for sale in Moshi (but no safari boots)

I am on a safari, which today took me from Lushoto (where the freezing cold convinced me that Europe is never gonna be real fun again) through Moshi to Usa River.

I stopped in Moshi for a short walk. Departing Dar es Salaam in flip-flops, is a Swahili Coast habit hard to beat.

Hence I tried to buy a pair of safari boots in Bata Shoes.

None my size. though. But I gotta get some. Seems like the northern Tanzanian thing to do.

Blogging for Blogging Denmark: What makes me feel Danish?

I'm blogging for a relatively new initiative called Blogging Denmark, which is a sister site to Denmark.dk – Denmark’s official portal. The aim of Blogging Denmark is to create a range of commentary on Denmark and the Danes.

If you would like to blog on blogs.denmark.dk then contact editors@denmark.dk for more information.

Read my first post here, which admittedly is a write-up of several previous posts from my English and Danish blogs.

Swahili Simplicity

It doesn't take more; 3 plastic chairs, a table, a makuti roof - and the Indian Ocean.

I arrived with a friend at ten this morning to Kipepeo Camp at the Southern Beaches in Dar es Salaam, and later the makuti hut was filled with various people who make this Sunday activity perfect.   

The beach is among the best in Tanzania, much much better than the northern beaches, only problem here is getting there, as you have to cross the harbour with a ferry. A very much disputed ferry, which on occasion tends to run based on principles not obvious to me. A new rule has now been introduced: Passengers are not allowed to sit in the car while driving on board the ferry!

However, as usual, rules can be bended - a white landcruiser with 4 important-looking wazee was excempted, and went first in the line.

On the way back we rounded 56 Bhog in central Dar es Salaam for a South Indian meal. Fantastic. Fantastic to still be able to discover new stuff (20 minutes later my stomach was churning, though, but I'd do it again).

I don't think I'd ever get tired of the Swahili Coast concept. And I do know it is important not just to work your ass off 5 days a week, and do it in the weekends, too. Then I might as well be in Copenhagen. For me there has to be space for taking in what actually makes me want to get up in the morning in the long run.

We're moving mountains

When Sie Nicht Zusammenarbeiten Wollen...

The notice is from my favorite place in Dar es Saalam in terms of Indian food - for instance my favorite kachori with coconut relish and pili pili - the Badminton Institute.

If you have ever seen someone eating paan, you might understand the background for the Badminton Institute's warning.

Will you give us a lift to our Bible classes?

Why not?!

I, on the other hand, needed a photo for an article.

Something which illustrated Christianity.

Sasa hivi.

Something for something, so I got my photo and took three nuns in light blue dresses to their bible classes while answering the obligatory questions regarding my religion.