You can say what you wanna say about conflicts and political turmoil in Africa, and how those ones never seem to get it together.
What I can't help noting, coming from where I come, Tanzanians are masters of finding ways to make it function in practical life. I'm not talking about politics, but about everyday life.
Maybe because that is your only option: to make it work.
In Denmark you've got options, and you can choose to make things complex. One of the biggest political issues in Denmark over the recent years have been if women can wear a veil in public space. 'I wouldn't feel comfortable if my doctor wore a veil,' people argue with nothing but an irrational emotion to draw upon.
The debate, it seems, somehow really is more about acceptance of Muslims representing a culture most Danes know too little of; and of (not) knowing your own grounding ( (or boiling it down to some presumably Danish core concept monopolised by the Danish People's Party. The arguments raised are in my opinion ridiculing a modern democracy and the people living in it.
To me one of the biggest assets of a community is namely the ability to accept diversity and find a way to gain from it, instead of rejecting it.
I myself have been raised in a rather conservative, safe, Danish setting, and on a positive note I believe it has given me the solid grounding of who I am before I went exploring diversity (I also went through a period of my childhood where I though I had to be adopted originating from somewhere more exotic).
This also means that I think one has to try things before you reject it. The Tanzanians live with diversity everyday, and I am rather impressed on occasion how it isn't an issue.
The camera woman from TBC wore a veil - and a flowery dress - when she recorded the parade at the Sauti za Busara. I have no idea of her qualifications as a camera woman, but it is evident that she lived in a community where I'm the only person paying attention to what she wears.
