Most of the time our learning about Tanzanian culture is built on observation, but every now and then we get a brilliant opportunity to sit someone down and get them to explicitly answer questions we have. Recently we got to talking about family relationships with two student leaders. Since God […]
We recently received a concerned email asking, what’s the deal with this report? Tanzania’s Minister of Home Affairs, Mathias Chikawe, has announced that churches and religious institutions that publicly oppose the country’s new constitution will be deregistered, beginning from 20 April. Tanzanian Christians oppose a bill that would introduce Kadhi […]
We’re spending some of the uni holidays visiting village churches. Our experience of Tanzania has been largely urban but ‘the village’ is the backdrop to the Tanzanian zeitgeist as well as the background or future for many university students. We’re doing the visits separately so that the other of us […]
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 […]
Not long ago I visited my friend Lizzy and her 6 week old baby at her home. I only found out she has been pregnant when she sent me a message to tell me that she had had a baby girl! This is a woman I had seen just about […]
As the new academic year begins in Dodoma, it seems like every weekend features another mkesha, the big all-night gathering for university students. The mkesha phenomenon is little more than a decade old. We’re told it began in Dar es Salaam around 2000. With packed daily timetables, students were busy, but were […]
In the last couple of weeks, as the new semester begins, I’ve heard three visions for life at university. Each had a slightly different message and way of using the Bible. I’ve sketched them out below. Wanachuo refers to university students — it’s a neologism that reflects the emerging reality of Tanzania’s […]
Meet Jesus at uni 