After Africa

Blue Sky. Finally. And as long as it lasts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How I missed this colour! Full of contrast instead of this gray zone hell we've been cloaked in all winther.

Finally the sky turned blue in Denmark.  Crisp, clear blue. With clear markings of airoplanes leaving and coming.

Same same, but different

Both photos are taken within the distance of few kilometres close to Mbabane in Swaziland.

Both signs were placed near to schools, indicating pupils crossing the road. Back in December 2005.

How I love the differences between the two signs.

Lend me your window!

The way you look upon the world depends on what window you look out from!

Yei Prison, Southern Sudan, 2007/ Informal Settlements, Soweto, South Africa 2007/ Swahili House, Pangani, Tanzania, 2007

More views here.

Vote for my photo of Esther at KLM's Top 11 'Flying Blue Miles'. PLEASE!

This photo, of Esther from Kanaani Village in Njombe in Southern Tanzania, now made it to the best 11 photos in the competition '5000 Flying Blue Miles'.

The top 11 best rated pictures are now featured on Facebook here, and I REALLY wanna win the 5000 Flying Blue Miles, so PLEASE help me, and go vote by clicking on the ‘Like’-button of my picture. Note that it only works, if you 'like' the '5000 Flying Blue Miles' first.

(KLM will be giving away an additional 5000 Flying Blue Miles amongst the likes!)

The story of the photo comes here.

Thanx!

Africans redefine Africa (without my help)

While a selection of Denmark's largest development NGOs together with Denmark's Broadcasting Corporation (DR) and private companies enter a collective coma on Saturday (in Danish), nationally fundraising for what they dubbed 'The New Africa', Africa is redefining itself.

Every day, in all ways, by its own drive, creativity, history and energy.

If you want to know what's rocking Africa, circle Twitter, blogs and Facebook for inspiration and updates. Or, if in Africa, attend the events included on the list below, check out the products produced, or ask people out and discuss what's going on between reality and cyberspace.

Activism, intellect, ideas and creative skills are here combined via social media, which provides options for exchanging and learning. It is interesting because it is relatively new, it is inviting to engage and share, but it is also rather unfiltrated.

The list below isn't prioritised in any ways, but impulsively compiled based on my specific interest in art, culture, music, social media, photography, design, fashion, politics, activism - and East Africa. 

• This Is Africa… How Music and Social Media Are Re-defining A Continent
• Doreen Mashika
• Society hae - Change the World, Create Something!
• TedxDar
• A new breed of techno-savvy politicians in Africa?
• Afri-Love
• Swahili Fashion Week
• Kate Bomdiggity
• PEN & MIC 1
• Alfredmutua
• iHub, Nairobi
• Ladies' Mapping Party
• The Mikocheni Report
• Vijana FM
• Pecha Kucha, Dar es Salaam
• Sanaa Republic
• Kina Klothing
• Global Voices Tanzania
• Sauti za Busara
• MaKuYa Festival in Mtwara
• Swahili Street
• White African
• Mzungu Kichaa
• Pop Africana

And the list doesn't end here, please let me know what I've missed...

Contributing to Mambo Magazine (always happy to give something back to a place difficult to get enough of)

Recently I had a short series of photos published in the new Zanzibari Mambo Magazine: 'Up and Down the Swahili Coast.

Always happy to give something back to a place difficult to get enough of.

From the article:

My first encounter with the Swahili took place in August 2004 on a dhow crossing the Indian Ocean from Bagamoyo to Stone Town on Unguja. At low tide the dhow was loaded with watermelons, a big closet and a stack of damp mattresses. At high tide, around midnight, we set off below clear moon shine.

I had absolutely no idea of what kind of journey I embarked on, and possibly didn’t realise till I was offered a bucket to pee in when I rejected to sit over the railing. A rather stark contrast to the next morning’s view of Stone Town spread out in the distance along a palm tree dotted line imprinted between the turquoise sea, and the blue sky. The fleet of dhows, which had been invisible during night, materialised with the sunrise, and with that a definite trace of stale sweat, urine and fish.

There are at least two sides to the Swahili Coast. The impressions you get from staying in the air-conditioned hotels with fabulous interior designs which find its way into glossy coffee table books. Then there is the Swahili Coast where the Swahili people live their everyday lives. Most in poverty, many still drawing on a strong Swahili cultural heritage.

From 2007 to 2010 I travelled consistently up and down the coast from my base in Dar es Salaam. I gradually realised that the Swahili Coast is one of the places I like to be the most.

FACTS: The Swahili Coast refers to the coast or coastal area of East Africa inhabited by the Swahili people, mainly Kenya, Tanzania, and north Mozambique. The term may also include the islands such as Pate or Comoros which lie off the Swahili Coast.

Get the full version with photos here and more Swahili Flava photos here:  

 

Finally on the road to Phelamanga...

  

At least methaphorically speaking.

Phelamanga is a place referred to in Johnny Clegg & Savuka's 'Scatterlings of Africa'. According to Urban Dictionary, a 'place at the end of lies, or where the lies finish'. It is an imaginary place that lies beyond the imagination where only truth prevails. It could also mean in the context of the song 'Scatterlings of Africa'' the place where we all come from, or ultimate truth.

No matter what, I am sure the place we are talking about is in Africa.

I am leaving for Kenya tomorrow afternoon, and I will be in Kenya and Tanzania till the middle of November, mainly for work. A special blog dedicated my mission is coming up tomorrow.

Northern Denmark. As wild as it gets

 
I have been travelling along the West Coast of Denmark for the past two days - all the way to the geographical top of Denmark, Skagen.

Somehow I had imagined the place a little bit more wild than it appears, but Denmark is so amazingly civilized way down to the last square metre.

Compared to Africa it is also characterised by this immense absence of real people.

No street life, nothing blocking the road, no irregular vehicles, or people trying to sell you stuff you had no idea existed.

Served on a rather limited colour scale.

And as if nothing grows wild, unless decided. Forests are framed; fields farmed in square corners; far out places signposted and numbered; and human behaviour institutionalised from kindergardens to elderly homes. 

Worst thing is maybe that the food producer Steff-Houlberg sets the national agenda for the fast food served. Several stops in small villages confirm that the Danes appear happy with greasy low-quality food. For instance, in a village called Brovst I watched a man eat a hamburger covered in brown gravy (!)

However, at least the tarmac cracks in between, which means there might be hope. The Danes simply cannot control nature completely.

Slide show here.

Wanted! We all wanna go somewhere else

 
Photo from one of my friend's French newspaper clip collections. Click on the photo to read the advert (it is one of the best)

Slide Show: Long-distance driving in Africa

I am now living between four walls in an appartment between many others.

Confined by bricks in a country where it is impossible to find a piece of open land which hasn't been looked upon by eyes yearning to cultivate and regulate.

I miss space. I miss going inside the continent. I miss driving under an open sky, exploring the vastness of the wide horizon, where it might be raining in the west and the sun shining in the east. Not knowing for sure what will happen around the next road swing.

Here's a compilation of photos from the African road: Road trip slide show from Africa.