On Art and Michael Jackson

Here is one interesting perspective:

Artists, as they say, lose interpretative control over their art. Picasso's paintings, for example, tell of the disconnect and disjointedness of the modern human mind and the life of disproportion and of a severe crisis of emphasis. His depictions of human anatomy, those circus freaks, reveal a diaspora at the level of limbs and body bulges.

Look at Michael’s moonwalk, his most mimicked move. Unintentional or otherwise, it is the postmodern view of progress: the motions of walking forward while actually moving in reverse, a regression marketed as advancement, steps ahead.

Staying White?

Louder Than Swahili is pissed off by the phenomenon of exclusive clubs in Bongo:

A personal, favorite mantra is to hate the Dar Es Salaam Yacht Club (but not enough to stay away if invited). Basically I'm against the idea that a certain group of people can decide who else they'll allow access to its premises through procedures which are too conservative for my liking.

Besides, if you end up finally becoming a fully granted member, you have to spend every f***ing single night in the rest of your Dar Es Salaam residency life there among all the other sun-dried wazungu in order to benefit from your membership fee.

I could go on & on about this phenomenon, but it wasn't the intentional plan for this post.

I am, however,  wondering why many wazungu in Dar Es Salaam never go anywhere else, but in circles on Msasani, the most expensive area in Dar Es Salaam, also called the Peninsula. Nice area, but also such a diluted version of what Dar Es Salaam really is.

One possible reason for this may be race and a fear of the 'other'. But this may be too simplistic. I think human beings tend to naturally gravitate towards the familiar, the comfort and security it affords. Nevertheless, I am baffled by folks who choose to move away from home, settle in another country and while there proceed to surround themselves with similar people to the ones they left behind. It smacks of intellectual and social laziness and inevitably leads to a narrowness of perspective. Being in a different cultural milieu is unsettling, but in a wonderfully challenging way. It is a chance to experience a reality different from the one we are used to, an opportunity to expand the sense of what is possible and hopefully evolve and grow. This is something that the wazungus in Msasani seem to have missed.

Food for Thought

"Cultural education is just as bad as it's ever been [...] It's difficult in this country to do things that have meaning. Things aren't set up that way [...] We still tend to think of science and math as the meal, athletics as the dessert, and the arts aren't even really on the table. There is an idea that a mind is wasted on the arts unless it makes you good in math or science. There is some evidence that the arts might help you in math and science. But, more importantly, the arts tell you who you are," the jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, in an 18th of July 2009 interview with The Guardian

Feelin' the Beat: A Mixtape by Patrick Neate

Patrick Neate is a British novelist, journalist and poet. He has just published his fifth novel, Jerusalem. His other books include the award-winning Where You're At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet.

He recently shared with us the story of how he came to fall in love with hip hop and named five pieces of music that have been influential in shaping his artistic sensibility.

"I started listening to hip hop in my early teens. The seminal record was probably 'Streetsounds: Electro Vol 9'. I don't know quite what it was that captured my imagination, but I'd never heard anything like it. It sounds daft now, but at the time 'The Fat Boys are back/ And they won't never be wack' sounded like the height of wit. But it was when Public Enemy emerged in the mid to late 80s that I really got hooked. It may seem obvious or ridiculous, but as a white teenager growing up in London, I had no sense of racial politics, let alone the civil rights movement. I wouldn't say that Public Enemy educated me exactly. But they sparked my interest and led me to investigate a whole realm of subject matter that has been profoundly influential on the way I think and, consequently, my work.

"It's funny - I'm often now asked what hip hop's appeal is to teenage boys. It strikes me as remarkably obvious and the trite answer is that it's testosterone-fuelled and often features videos of semi-naked women - if you're a 15 year-old boy, what's not to like? But another way of looking at it is this - if most western pop music is about love and sex, hip hop tends to be about sex and everything else ... and it was the 'everything else' that caught my imagination. From Public Enemy and Nas to Biggie, Jay-Z, Common and Eminem - the stuff that's not about sex is about politics, struggle, friendship, deprivation, hope and all sorts else besides. No other genre of Western pop music could make such a claim."

His Top Five...

1. 'Bring the noise' - Public Enemy

I saw Public Enemy at Brixton Academy in the late 80s and I was energised and terrified in equal measure. Art indistinguishable from politics, I'd never seen/ heard anything like it.

2. 'Spirit' - Lewis Taylor

Lewis Taylor is the great undiscovered genius of British music. His album 'Lewis Taylor', the one I always fall back upon. I wrote a novel called Twelve Bar Blues, which is all about New Orleans jazz and I was repeatedly asked what music I was listening to when writing it. It is true that I listened to a whole lot of jazz, but it was Lewis I  turned to in order to capture the emotional substance of what I wanted to write. And 'Spirit' always makes me cry ...

3.'Optimistic' - Sounds of Blackness.

OK, I know it's a really cheesy record, but I heard it at a particular age when I needed to know that creativity could be simple and joyful. I kept my love for this tune under wraps for years, but I recently read an interview with Norman Jay where he name-checked it as one of his favourite records of all time. So at least I'm cheesy in good company.

4. 'Mississippi Goddam' - Nina Simone.

Creativity is about talent and craft, of course; but, above all, it's about integrity of intention. Nina Simone had a funny voice and was, by all accounts, a bit of a nutcase, but when she wrote and sang, there was no doubting that she meant it.  And it is that meaning that gives her music such unquestionable beauty.

5. 'Halftime' - Nas

I could have chosen almost any tune off 'Illmatic' - I just love that record. A key aspect of art is the way it stands the test of time and, frankly, most hip hop doesn't. But this does. I would maintain that this is still the closest hip hop has ever come to poetry.

(Photo: Patrick Neate performing at the Book Salaam! event during the 'Sauti za Busara' music festival in Zanzibar earlier this year.)

Obama on Africa: Is He Sending Mixed Signals?

In today's British Independent, Eric Kabendera suggests as much:

The initial signs from the Obama presidency were far from encouraging as far as promoting good governance was concerned. The first of the continent's leaders to be granted an Oval Office meeting with the new black occupant of the White House, was my own president: Jakaya Kikwete, of Tanzania.

He had just finished his stint as the rotating head of the African Union, so it might have been a matter of diplomatic protocol, but it was a disappointing choice nonetheless. While at the AU helm, President Kikwete was far from impressive. He stuck to the Africa old norm of "respecting your elders even when they are convicted thieves". So even when ordinary Zimbaweans were suffering at the repressive hands of Robert Mugabe, Mr Kikwete failed to denounce the rigged election and call him to account.

I am not sure Mr Obama grasped the signals he was sending by choosing the Tanzanian leader as his first African guest. This was a man who rabble-roused the AU into refusing to cooperate with the International Criminal Court regarding the indictment of the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for his role in the genocide in Darfur. The AU's refusal was a blessing to corrupt criminal leaders around the continent.

You can read the rest of the article here

Swine Flu in Tanzania

Agence France reports:

Tanzanian officials said Wednesday that a 17-year-old British student who was hospitalised earlier this month has been confirmed as the east African country's first case of swine flu.

Andrew Swai, director of clinical services at the country's main referral hospital in the capital Dar es Salaam, said the teenager was among a group of 15 students and teachers who flew in from Britain via Kenya on July 2 to carry out volunteer work.

"The victim has undergone a first diagnostic test and it was positive" for A(H1N1), he told AFP. "No need for panic this is just a single case and we know how it came about."

Swai added there was no cause for alarm over the patient's condition.

The government's chief medical officer Deo Mutasiwa said Tanzania was well prepared for an epidemic, that stocks of Tamiflu were satisfactory and that doses had recently been sent out to the touristic island of Zanzibar.

The Daily News also quotes Dr. Swai reassuring the country that the government was taking all the necessary precautions to contain the situation:

He said that the government would distribute more PPE at all port of entry, facilitate the production of health declaration forms and strengthen patient management and care. However, Dr Swai said that there was no cause for panic, giving assurances that everything was under control and that the disease would not spread beyond Tanzania borders.

Begging to Master II

It's budget season here in Bongoland. And this year's 9.51 trillion shillings money chest, proudly boasts 40% of it's income from foreign aid. As always, this comes with those 'know who the boss is' strings attached. So after the Swedish government pledged about $231 million for 'budget support' for the next four years they added this little warning:

"Two areas are especially highlighted, public financial management, crucial not least in the fight against corruption, and the local government reform programme, because local government is key to service delivery," Swedish Ambassador Staffan Herrstrom said during a signing ceremony [...] "There are certainly concerns about business climate, where Tanzania has been slipping. Again, we hope to see that taken care of," Herrstrom said.

This comes at the heels of this announcement from the Dutch government:

Development Minister Bert Koenders has suspended financial aid to Tanzania. In a letter to the Lower House, he explains that Tanzania is an unreliable partner for foreign investors. Koenders took the decision after a Dutch entrepreneur lost his investment. 

It makes you wonder why we demanded independence at all if in our 'freedom' we are always begging for money to feed ourselves and placidly accept being treated like children in the process.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...

The country is poor. We can barely educate our children or provide them with adequate healthcare. Consistent electricity service is still a luxury and, for 80% of the people, an unattainable dream. 40% of our budget is foreign subsidized. So what does our government choose to focus on? A national dress code:

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.

Venansio Ahabwe reacts:

The Comrade pledges his prayers for Tahir and Bendera to surmount the gigantic wall that they have offered to scale. 

Yes, let the dressing policy come into force; whereupon we can separate aliens from residents. Two things can then happen, however. 

Some Tanzanians will forge documents to present themselves as visitors who know little or nothing about the official dress code and thus cannot abide by  the rules. 

Others could resort to hide and seek games: carry spare outfits all the time, pull on the official attire when authorities are in sight and revert to the illegal code anon.

Mh. Bendera must be prepared to erect roadblocks and plan for a special police unit to supervise the implementation of and adherence to the national garb [...] The Comrade knows that such a policy was successfully executed in Uganda by Idi Amin Dada. 

Well, good then. As long as we are following the path laid out by such upstanding role models.