:: louder than swahili

2009: Where did it go? 2010: Where will it take me?

  

Same day, last year I wrote abstractly about my New Year resolutions here. 

I've had a 2009 in high speed, a year which never took me off the continent, but on the contrary to many far corners of interesting places in Africa.

I have met a great variety of people; I have met some absolutely fantastic personalities; and 2009 gave some new, extraordinarilyy good friends.

I've tried not to overwork, and I believe that the extra time given has been spent exploring an learning. In general, I do think I made the most of it.

Here at the last day of 2009 my house is booked down to the last bed; People are arriving here for drinks and then we're off for a roof top party on Kimweri Avenue.

I'm still struggling with sensible New Year resolutions for 2010, and I can't really transfer them into words. However, I do think it is something about finding my way out of Africa; about (a new) course and direction; about making real money; and probably about getting to terms with some waiting time before I realise what will be.

For me it is a huge thing to leave Africa, and I don't feel like thinking about it in details. Lakini, that will happen in 2010.

Twentyten, I'm sure will offer a lot of new opportunities. Europe can't be that bad after all, can it?!

I wish you all a Happy New Year:

Heri ya mwaka mpya!

Ketchup as red as plastic furniture

Who has the most hip-hopish attitude?

Peter, Janne, the brother of the district commisioner in Kilwa - or one of the children from his extended family?

Competition was hard the day before yesterday on the beach in Kilwa.

Happy belated Christmas!

I'm beginning to suspect that Tanzania has signed a UN convention on what Christmas songs to play in public places and to what extent. At least it appears that the Tanzanian shopkeepers and restaurant owners in Dar es Salaam take Christmas music rather serious.

Unfortunately, they all have the same CD.

I'm not a huge fan of the traditional Christmas ado. But I do enjoy the fact that I'm off, that the office is closed, that friends have travelled far to come to Dar and that I have friends with similar attitudes to Christmas.

The fact that people were still sitting on my veranda drinking wine this morning when I woke up with the sun, is a clear sign.

Happy belated Christmas!

How to deal with public transport breakdowns in Tanzania?

Experience and solid advice from a friend here. 

A matter of interpretation

Yesterday's 'Citizen' has an interview with the state minister in the Vice President Office (Environment), Dr Batilda Burian, who said that the conference (the climate change summit in Copenhagen) has laid a good ground for next year's climate summit which will be held in Mexico.

Of course, one wonders what Burian did while in Copenhagen, when you have read everything else which everyone else has said about the outcome of the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The South African media, for instance, last Sunday dubbed it Hopelessnesshagen.

Plant more trees!

  A photo from a refugee settlement in northern Uganda, from when I worked here.

No electricity on Zanzibar for the next month. Kweli!

This is the main story of December in Tanzania: Zanzibar to celebrate Xmas in darkness.

But hey, there was power during the Ramadhan. And, as you know, you can't have it all.

It is always one or the other.

And there must be reasons for the waswahili to say 'eh, eh...' and the wazungu to say T.I.A. And if you are rich enough to say the latter, you will as a visitor not be bothered much anyway, tucked away in a resort running on a generator.

Undoubtedly, the tourist industry - not to forget the Zanzibarians who lived their all the time - will suffer from this.

Misunderstood solidarity

Let me say it the kali way;

If you, the mzungu who come to Tanzania or any other country in Africa for a shorter period of time, suddenly find yourself faced with the evident lack of fairness and inequality, and you decide to support, let's say a school child with his or her education, you better stick to it.

Via my job I have received my share of emails from people who have been here, returned to Denmark, and realised that this support they promised while they were here, is a financial burden and a logistical challenge. Or they need someone to document or check up.

This morning I just received a letter from someone in Denmark explaining me his financial constraints contra his promise to pay a young man's school fees; and his failed attempts to get an NGO or others on board.

In general, I don't mind wazungu supporting Africans on a private level. What I don't get, is that a lot of wazungu don't understand the range from how easy it is to make a promise while they are in it in Africa, to how difficult it is to fullfill it back home. A lot of wazungu don't understand that they have to take the full responsibility for what they embark on and for the expectations they create.

What really pisses me off is when a person writes me from Denmark appealing to my conscience, attempting to make me feel guilty (while listing a lot of extremely important facts which appear only to apply in that particular case), because that person wants someone to take over his/her promise.

I find it immensely selfish, and those cases are, in my opinion, in fact the worst examples of misunderstood solidarity.

Inspiration?

I'm not the only one who get inspired in Kariakoo.  

Climate Debt: Little Mermaid Repossessed for Africa

 

From here.

'Daima Tutakukumbuka': Help me translate!

Dear watanzania,

I need help to translate the title of the Michael Jackson kanga here.

The text says: 'Daima Tutakukumbuka' - and I cannot make a precise translation of this kanga writing, so please help!

The kanga will, along with a few Obama kangas, be part of an upcoming exhibition at the Troopen Museum in Amsterdam.

Straight from Uhuru Street.

Climate Change: Again. What do African media say?

I tried to do a sum up here. (Not fully comprehensive at all.)

One of the fastest ways to get a one-way ticket home...

Canadian Diplomat in spitting row is recalled from Tanzania.

I guess, if you don't act diplomatic, you don't deserve the right to unlimited diplomatic immunity?!

No matter what happened here exactly, spitting on an official on duty in a country where you are a visitor, while representing an embassy, only has one predictable outcome.

Mandela as a rockstar

Wall painting down the road from the church of Regina Mundi in Soweto. I went there last week with someone who were there on June 16 1976.

Puts life into perspective.

Football training in Senderwoods. Johannesburg.

Africa. In words.

More here.

How to find your way Africa?

BBC Africa has an excellent article on how to find your way in African cities.

I have been horribly lost more than once. Sat there in the car, stuck, off track, sweared at the people I was going to find.

Last time I got on a big detour around Mansese - one of  the biggest uswazi in Dar es Salaam. At night. Pitch black.

All because it is a question of 'go straight, continue through the deep pot holes and where the road goes down hill and a little to the right, then turn left at the mango tree, look out for the duka with the Tigo sign....'

The 'Danish text leak' - as a wordle

 

Make you own at www.wordle.net.

'Danish Text Leak': What does Africa say?

I'm blogging for the NGO I work for here about issues related to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. This is my post for Friday:

Not being in Copenhagen, but in the other end of the African continent, namely Johannesburg, things are not just remote in a geographical way, it is also not easy to get a real idea of the atmosphere in Copenhagen. However, for the past few days I've been following what the Africans say about the so-called 'Danish text leak' on on-line newspapers, Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

The 'Danish text leak' does not exactly support the rich countries' attempt to bring on that rich and poor countries are equal in the negotiations or in real life, though Ban Ki-Moon has been working overtime to reassure the good intentions; 'I have been very consciously engaging with developing countries,' he said. 'Even if there have been some trust issues, we have been bridging this gap as much as we can. This is what I am going to continue to do.'

On the other hand; it hasn't exactly caused an avalance in the African media.

When the 'Danish text leak' hit the social media a Kenyan friend of mine opened up with this Facebook status on Wednesday: Is anyone surprised? But the World Bank, seriously? Shame on you Denmark! And then she linked to Gado, the Kenyan illustrator's Facebook page, where people amongst others have commented on the illustration below as follows:

 

• - Talks, talks and much more talks. That is all! It has been like this since WW2. Participants get allowances during such meetings and they go back to their countries with just recommendations that are not binding!
• - Its a climatic talkshow...just too much co2 emission with no action after the show
• - God is the only King who can change all situations in the world don be cheated by the copenhagen gathering nothing will take effect....lets pray enough prayers n all shall be well.
• - It's time we Africans took responsibility for our problems instead of always blaming foreigners. 
• - prayers are for the faint hearted....we need to stop hiding in Gods name and act on his behalf may be......doing whatever you can to save his creation iif you believe in that.....www.climatedebtagents.com visit that site for more.

The South African Mail & Guardian on Wednesday here delivered an observant analysis quoting Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, when he explained 'why the poor countries he represents were so incensed' about the text leak: 

'We will not walk out of the talks at this late hour, because we will not allow the failure of Copenhagen. But we will not sign an inequitable deal; we will not accept a deal that condemns 80% of the world population to further suffering and injustice.'

However, some of the comments replying to the article are in deed indicating that the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit isn't just black and white (for all comments look here):

• - 132 developing countries, and they choose Sudan to represent them! WTF?
• - It's most hypocritical for world governments to lecture everyone about reducing greenhouse gases when they spent time flying around the world for countless conferences. There are just too many world jamborees. I will just name a few - UN, AU, Sadc, EU, G8, G20, now G77, East Asia Community, South American Confederation, NATO, China-Africa, East Africa Union, West Africa Union,Non-Aligned Movement, Arab Confederation,Food Summit, Climate Change, etc.
• - If Zuma and his ilk are so concerned about climate change, why aren't they driving small, energy-efficient cars, like the Toyota Prius, instead of huge gas-guzzling R1 million Beamers?? Where is the gvt's long-term plan to reduce carbon emissions? Why are new houses for the poor not fitted with solar panels as a matter of course? Why all those overseas visits in private or army jets? If I were the West, I'd want to be sure that my money was actually going to be used to combat climate change, instead of being just another gift to the corrupt politicians.

Adam Welz, a South African, participating in the summit in Copenhagen is here blogging a first account of the Di-Aping speech:

'He then went on to forthrightly address the weakness of many African negotiating delegations, noting that many were unprepared and that some members were either lazy or had been “bought off” by the industrialised nations. He singled out South Africa, saying that some members of that delegation had actively sought to disrupt the unity of the bloc. He said that civil society needed to hold its negotiators to account, but warned of a long and difficult struggle for a fair climate deal (words to the effect of ‘you have no idea of the powers that are arrayed against you’, spoken in the tone of someone who has spent years interacting with these powers.).'

The limited amount of reactions to the 'Danish text leak' and the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in African media does not mean that Africans are indifferent to climate change.

My personal guess is that the majority of Africans have no idea of what's going on in Copenhagen this week, nor of its potential impact on their lives; secondly, the Africans, who do have an engagement on this account, simply have very few illusions in regards of  the expected outcome of the Climate Change Summit. Thirdly, a recurrent issue is that Africans suspect that their politicians are not in this for real; i.e., The Tanzanian government has been criticized of bringing the secondlargest delegation (and for chasing the per diem) and South Africa's Jacob Zuma didn't make up his mind until last minute.

Climate change does matter to Africa; Africans do talk about the weather, the sudden mud slides, the draught and the rising water levels. These are real factors in many Africans' lives. However, the complex discussions dominating the agenda in Copenhagen dealing with man made temperature rises, CO2 quotas and fossil fuel are simply not matching most of the Africans' reality.

The 'Danish text leak', in my opinion, sadly underlines this, and the big question really is; whatever happens in Copenhagen, will it improve the everyday lives of the Africans?

Illustration by the Kenyan illustrator, Gado. Taken from here.

South African Flag: It gotta be right

I went back again today to Pimville in Soweto to interview some more kids.

In between an interactive, sudden session occurred on which way the South African flag must turn.

The kids finally got it right.

No uswahili lingering here.

Copenhagen Climate Summit: The Danish text leak. Give me your opinons!

The UK Guardian is reporting that the second day of the UN Copenhagen climate summit erupted in even more controversy today after developing countries reacted angrily to documents that were leaked showing world leaders will be asked to sign an agreement next week that gives considerably more power to rich nations and curtails the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.

 

Read more here.

 

I'm writing on a blog post for http://ms-action.dk/blogs/climate about reactions from the Africans bloggers and tweeters on 'the Danish text leak'.

 

Africans, please, give me your opinions!

Kliptown. Soweto. Low sun.

 #1 Moroho - the South African version of 'sukuma wiki' - greens.

#2 Woman waiting for transport.

#3 Tapes for sale. No matter where you go in Africa: tapes!

#4 Gold caps for front teeth. I watched while a 14-15 year old teenager got one put on (while I mimicked; 'never').

#5 Kliptown Fashion. 'If 50 Cent can wear them, so can you!' Already regretting I didn't buy the red ones for my friend here.

South Africa: What is football really about?

Today I spent the day in Soweto, most of the time at Tshebedisano Primary School in Pimville, where the NGO Grassroot Soccer has arranged a week full of football and education on HIV/AIDS for about 100 pupils.

The daily programme is mixed between educational sessions and soccer matches.The children were told the rules for the soccer matches; That it is not only about the goals you score, it also is about team spirit - basically about how much cheering, dancing and singing you can come up with on the sideline.

I couldn't help thinking that that is what life is exactly about, that this is what should apply to the politicians ruling the world (but that most of us forget it when we enter our offices).These children did not. I didn't come across one sulky teenager. In stead you had children listening and asking questions when their Skillz Coaches shared their own personal experience with HIV/AIDS. And then you had children going absolutely crazy cheering, dancing and singing while supporting their team. Take away the vuvuzela, you'll still get noise for the 2010.

And that is how it should be.

Yesterday I was again reminded how capitalism runs this continent.

Everybody talks about fottball and the 2010. South Africans want to want the football, too.

But who can afford the tickets?

What national football team will be cuddling up in comfortable Knysna - flying in and out for the games, never getting in touch with how the majority of the South Africans live? (The Danes, of course)

Who will make money on the visitors' fear of South Africa?

I asked one of the girls at the school what she thought 2010 would bring on for South Africa, and she looked at me and said: Honestly?! I really don't know.

To some the answers come easier. People explain that the infrastructure (around the bigger cities) will improve; to others it is about image and pride. During the draw in Cape Town on Saturday Jacob Zuma held the trophy and said it is going to stay in Africa after the cup. That might be wishfull thinking, but it is a huge thing that probably the most football crazy continent finally get to host a world cup. But it is also a challenge when you see the distance between the expectations from the national teams to what is Africa on the ground.

Warning: Don't mix family or friends with business

I've got time to go through my photo collection. Just found this one from a Sudanese refugee settlement in northern Uganda, Mungula.

In Johannesburg

I'm in Johannesburg for the next two weeks, visiting friends, but also working on a set of articles and photography for a Danish youth magazine dealing with South African youth and the upcoming 2010 FIFA world cup.

I find it rather ironic that for the past four and a half years I have been cruising many kilometres along and across the Ugandan border to Southern Sudan, in an out of Nairobi and to far corners of Tanzania - rather carefreely - now I have to think in order to go a trip to Soweto.

South Africa is no way as easy as East Africa in this regard. More about this experience later.

Tanzanian sum-up on public dismay over corruption. But who write what?

Tanzanian papers focus on public dismay over war on corruption.

Yes. But who wrote this sum-up?*

Is it an NGO employee, and international NGO hired expat (with a sponsored agenda) - or a Tanzanian journalist who is genuinely tired of what's happening in his/her country?

For me that is essential to understand the dynamics behind the recent, increased attention in the Tanzanian media on corruption issues. The papers write that the public is expressing dismay. - Where?, I ask myself? In the daladalas, dukas or the offices? Or do they really refer to the NGOs promoting the agenda (i.e. the survey referred to from the Foundation for Civil Society, which the media pick up)? 

* I have searched the site but can't find a name of a journalist for this article.

Guts

I have gone through the effort of not blogging under a secret profile. It is my choice. Many bloggers decide not to as it obviously puts a limit to what you can blog about or not.

However, I started blogging because I found the information about being a Danish development worker in Africa too political correct. Lacking passion, presence and precision. I wanted to use the opportunity of living in Africa to add nuance and perspective to this, to add a personal dimension and to illustrate what it actually feels like.

Faking who I am would evidently collide with that mission. Nevertheless, there are no rules, only your conscience.

I repect that other bloggers keep quite about who they are, there can be many reasons and it can take time to get familiar with the blogosphere.

However, when I put myself out there, I also appriciate when people commenting on my blog don't make up fake emails or names when they comment. Especially if you are Danish, and live in Dar es Salaam (I can see your IP adress and Internet provider).

If you don't have the guts to come forward, I will not publish your comments or answer them.

The vuvuzela. An irrational, South African invention

'You can't hear yourself speak'  the Japanese are argueing towards the South African vuvuzela.

The Japanese want the South African vuvuzela banned before the FIFA World Championship begins.

 

My nephew (picture) got a vuvuzela some years ago by a South African friend, and fortunately he couldn't stand long listening to the sound himself (check the sound on the YouTube video).

The South Africans whom I know, laugh and scrugg their shoulders talking about the Japanese. I'm kind of impressed that the South Africans can stand the noise themselves. It is irrational, and therefore fascinating.

I can't help thinking that it is a bit T. I. A., part of the package; the noise, isn't it?!

Useful words in Kiswahili: 'mkali' - the bitch

One of my other favourite words in Kiswahili is 'kali'

Depending on the context - whether we are talking animals, food, weather or women - in English kali can mean anything from {violent}; {wild}; {bitter}; {vehement}; {ferocious}; {fierce }; {mean }; {strict }; {cruel }; {distressing}; {hot}; {intense}; {scorching}; {severe}; {urgent}; {sharp} or {sour }.

Add 'm' and you have an 'mkali', a person who, depending on the context, is strict, intense, wild or cruel. I have been labelled 'mkali' several times in Tanzania, most frequently in situations where a woman has to say; 'I mean no, when I say no!'

For instance, when the co-owner of the container bar next to my house in Dar es Salaam told me that 1) he was a spy for CCM; and 2) that he knew exactly where my bed was positioned in my house, and now all he didn't get was why I didn't want his free beers, eh, eh...?!

Then it is time to mark boundaries with a; 'I mean no, when I say no!'

'Mkali' he replied. Fair enough, rather be a bitch than an idiot.

I must add that I've have also been titulated mkali with a sneaky smile, which I like, as I do happen to belong in the category of women who prefer that to 'babiii' or 'mzungu ladiiii'.

At least I have then done something setting me apart not only through my gender and skin colour.

Correction: Afrika ya kusini (not kaskazini) :-)

Afrika Kaskazini. Nakwenda. Kesho

Climate Change Summit Catering in Copenhagen stocking up nyama choma?

Thanks to the journalists, Mkinga Mkinga and Beatus Kagashe, at The Citizen for pointing out the humongous number of Tanzanians going to Copenhagen for Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change!  

Tanzania appears to be sending the 2nd-largest delegation from Africa to Copenhagen!

This is an interesting article in terms of observations and conclusions, including research involving statistics and a visit to the Swedish Embassy (where you get your visa to Denmark these days).

Jamii Forum has picked up my blog post from yesterday (which of course is a great honour), where I criticized the not so curious microphone holders among the journalists covering news in Tanzania.

Evidently there is - in any country - a strong relation between the degree of this phenomenon and the government's desire to control what the media express. In this regard, let me just emphasise one thing: It is my personal experience that Tanzanian media are improving in terms of playing a watchdog role, and that an article of this kind is part of sparking the debate on i.e. the government's priorities.

Territory of Microphone Holders

I'm quite interested in how politicians express themselves, how the media quote them and why the journalists refrain from asking them complex questions. Basically I find it entertaining, but it is also part of convincing myself that it might help me understand this country to a higher degree.

For instance, lately I have been enjoying reading papers quoting Tanzania's prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, who seems to be travelling to every corner of Tanzania to ensure that citizens act accordingly to government policies.

Back in January Pinda encouraged mob justice on albino killers, which he however later regretted during a speech in the parliament.

In yesterday's Daily News Pinda was in Arusha, where Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has threatened to take action against a Chinese company building the Arusha-Namanga road if it fails to complete its work within the agreed time.

I drove on that road a month ago. It is rather strange that it isn't finished. And true, the road construction does appear as the Chinese have given it up. What I find most interesting, however, is that this is another example of how Pinda gets quoted for expressing severe disatisfaction. 

Pinda threatens. But with what?

Last week it was the power tillers in Lindi which made the Daily News headline: Procure power tillers or else... Again I did ask myself 'or else what?', and hoped that the journalist would have been just as curious.

In yesterday's Daily News Pinda was in Ireland, and while adressing the Tanzanian diaspora he appealed to Tanzanians living abroad to bring tractors. Maybe the journalist could also here have asked some few practical questions? For instance if that sentence was meant as a metaphor? Or how do you bring a tractor to Tanzania if you live in Ireland?

Not to forget quizzing Pinda a bit more when he stated that the economic situation in the country (Tanzania) had improved contrary to some media reports, Pinda in fact said Tanzania was not a country of corrupt people, and that the government was taking legal actions against suspected corrupt officials.

I mean if anyone in real life opens any conversation with any of these statements over a Kilimanjaro in Bongo, there will be heated debate.

The journalist could maybe have asked if Pinda was familiar with the Transparency Index (TI) which was published some two weeks ago, and which dropped Tanzania four steps down the list of the most corrupt countries in the world. At least to get some discussion going as this journalist is doing (though I am not completely sure what track he's on).

In Denmark we call journalists who don't ask critical questions 'microphone holders'.

Microphone holders can be bought here (where the photo also is taken from). 

Dresscode: kikoi, konyagi and malapa. It's all you need.

The upcoming festivious season is an event I and some friends have spent many hours debating.

 

Where others leave Bongo for Christmas and New Year, we stay. The IST is closed (and no kids have to be driven to school in a landcruiser), which means lovely less traffic, fewer wazungu hanging out in Dar, and less crowds on the beaches.

 

However, the seasonal festivities have also proven to be a logistical challenge when friends and families are coming in and out of Bongo on very different dates, bringing with them different budgets and colourful expectations.

 

Add to that that I'm leaving Dar on Thursday for South Africa, only returning four days before I am (ambitiously) planning to host a Christmas Party (fortunately not a regular Danish one, as my mother would have dictated).

 

Friends are arriving from next week on. My Icelandic family after Christmas.

 

And it just feels so good. The party ambiance is already radiating on line.

 

A friend arriving from Denmark next week asks what to bring:

 

What is the dress code for Xmas and NY... Do I need them stilettos?

The answer is:

 

yes... you have two options actually:

a) stilettos, gala dress, and a bottle of konyagi

b) flip flops, kikoy, and a bottle of konyagi

 

I promise you, it'll be good.