Intense things take hold of you in Africa. Thus another Conradian journey into the Heart of Darkness commences. Drink driving by an American who knows it would not happen back in civilization. An old white couple who have become Lifers. The kind of prisoners who have no chance of release. They are trapped, ‘That’s what happens [...]
Tanzania Invades Nigeria…
March 26, 2010
Well, sort of. On Sunday March 21st, the Nigerian newspaper NEXT featured the above cartoon by Tanzania’s very own Gado. It is quite exciting to see the glimmers of continental integration that this cartoon syndication shows – a Tanzanian cartoonist, working for a Kenyan media house being published in a Nigerian newspaper. A less remarkable [...]
Old Media vs New Media, Part 1.
March 2, 2010
Last week, the German broadcatser Deutsche Welle in collaboration with DED/InWent and the Goethe Institute hosted a panel discussion at the old parliament building, Karimjee Hall, on the challenges facing the media in this election year. One of the panelist was a young blogger by the name of Maggid Mjengwa. At the point where the discussion [...]
The Exchange: M.G Vassanji
February 19, 2010
M.G. Vassanji was born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania. Having immigrated to Canada in 1978 with a PhD in nuclear physics, Vassanji began writing fiction while teaching at the University of Toronto. Mr. Vassanji is the author [...]
SAL Abroad: Lagos, February 2010, Ctd
February 16, 2010
It all happened rather quickly. By Wednesday last week, Nigeria had, in former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, an Acting President, a position which is apparently unrecognised in the country’s constitution. There are only two ways in which an incumbent President can be removed from office in Nigeria. Either the Federal Executive Council, i.e the Cabinet, [...]