The Chinese are everywhere in Tanzania, from mobile phones to Christmas decorations to infrastructure. The University of Dodoma has a whole department dedicated to the study of Chinese language and culture. Richard Dowden says in Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, “Where the West sees Africa as the place to make […]
What do you make of this image? Where does it take you? City Wonder (introduction/all posts) is a series of visual meditations on the city, exploring themes like creativity, ecology and decay/renewal. Each image is a window into a realm or mindframe; an invitation to an ethos or concept; a meditation on histories […]
This semester I am again studying in the Swahili department at St John’s University where we work. All the lectures are in Swahili so it’s a brilliant exercise for me in listening comprehension, which is appropriate because this time I’m doing a third year course ‘Theory and Traditions of Oral […]
From Richard Dowden‘s Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles: Three words come to mind when people try to explain the failure of Africa’s first generation after independence: leadership, tribalism and resources. They are not bad starting points, but they do not fully explain why Africa, free at last, endowed with enormous […]
What do you make of this image? Where does it take you? City Wonder (introduction/all posts) is a series of visual meditations on the city, exploring themes like creativity, ecology and decay/renewal. Each image is a window into a realm or mindframe; an invitation to an ethos or concept; a meditation on histories […]
We have these dear friends. Let’s call them Andrew and Rachel. They’re Tanzanians, 10, maybe 15 years older than us. They’re highly educated and lived in the west for a few years so they know a bit of where we’ve come from. They’ve had quite a bit to do with […]
I love alternate histories and alternate maps! (My favourite world map is the dymaxion map; check out this rendition.) Here’s an alternate Africa called Alkebu-lan 1260 AH by Nikolaj Cyon (full-size version). It’s set in 1844, on the eve of Europe’s Scramble for Africa, but in a world in which Europe […]
Meet Jesus at uni 