During the month of April in Rwanda it is common to see a purple cloth wrapped on people's left arms, in their necks, and pockets. purple is the colour of death in Rwanda, IN some cases as is often during the month of April, a white cloth cris crossed by purple on many caskets containing the remains of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
But it is not just colours, I once stayed with a people who took the howling of dogs/wolves meant some disaster, in most cases death. "Emisege," they were called, although as we were later to learn the term also meant another term. I was left thinking about disaster recently.
The other day I wore a pair of black jeans and a black shirt. When I was masquerading around the is just walking about in the corridors aimlessly,
Then in my housemate opened the door to her room and saw me passingby. She was surprised and utterly shocked. "Oh my God," she reacted in horror. I was confused in the moment as to what had shocked her and quickly realized it was my attire and the prominence of black.
I was thinking today as I listened to Prof J's song "Nazeeka" where he says "if you want to know the importance of the bum try sitting on your head."
"Ukitaki ku'juwa muhima wa matako jaribu kukaa'ria kichwa."
I don't know why this song, a Tanzanian urban hip hop thing that is completely unrelated reminds that while people are still struggling to find the colour of love, we were quick to know the colour of death.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Friday 25 December 2009
Pub talk: The Citi, the Commonwealth, and the good times
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Majukumu: Just the other week the famous Performance Contracts were undergoing their annual assessment in the parliament under the watchful eyes of the leaders, snoops, elders and well wishers. All these stake-holders were keenly following mayors and district officials present their performances for 2009 and setting the next step in the march to Vision Venti Venti.
Performance Contracts were following shortly after or is it before, the Itorero ceremonies. Among other things, the national Itorero or Itorero ryi'Gihugu is a national dance troupe, sort of a Champions' League of dance and drama, but with a more modern catch than just your theatre! By the way, do you go to the theatre? Do you have a theatre in your town? Do you know any local playwrights or 'plays'?, I don't mean just the Uranana. What is your idea of leisure beyond Primus and the cow dances?
So I was talking about the performance contracts event held recently in the Citi, percentages were read out, visions were set, questions were asked, answers were given and I can imagine it was a good time in many hometowns for Citimen . God times facebook reminds me!
Mambo'yetu: You see the pride in my hometown pub talk was in watching one of us, speaking on national television with The Leader, who was seen to be following with serious interest and even asking questions. Who are we to have a local boy speaking on television with such an audience. So the neighbourhood was in high spirits going into the christmas period. Welcome to the 2009 PLAN of our home towns.
We have heard unfortunately that one of us, a KalinaIngufu is on the run. Uhm, one wonders, this boy? we saw him a few days ago, he is/was the pride of the pub.
Is he not the one whose name means "a small man with power," now he even just went epic, this power thing I tell you!! He was about to be promoted and transferred to the party city of Africa, but as an appetizer, he was sent to a 15 day vacation to think about his next career step which was a perched office in the Lap Green conglomerate In the party city.
Well, while the 'little man with power' was preoccupied with evenings at FatBoys, Bubbles O'Leary and Just Kicking, Nakulabye, Bbunga and Kabbalaga, he decides to step down on the Cape, see whats up there. Then, don't say it. Whisper instead, INterpol is looking for him. Shyhhhh!!!!!!!
This boy, I think he was a bright spot in the vision at some point? Who is Eric Kariningufu?
Bwana'Mkubwa: Yes, earlier in their cycle of growth, the Citimen were dismissed by many not least their neighbours, they were called baFella, war mongers, a bunch of thugs meant to destroy or create an empire. Yes, they were said to be creating an empire; a "hegemony" as one mogul called it.
Eh, those people, remind them that now the Citimen are engaged in Keeping Peace in other places. Have you not heard? recently we have lost our sons killed by ambush attacks in Darfur. Have you met Darfur in the news?
It is a strange place up north and our fellow Citimen are very popular there. They walk around with guns and big bags on there backs. They are not back packers>
And remember just yesterday the Citimen were seen as a bunch of "dominators." Those neighbours, we laugh at them, they only tried to understand us in one scope, that of two kinds of people who lived close to each other but never shared peace or love.
Yes, the empire was a big idea at sometime and at one point was called a " dynasty." Woe to those people.
Our two sided street on the only road passing through Citi was lined with such avenues such as war, hatred, genocide and genocide ideology. But thanks to the new vision brought in by the new brand of Citimen to whom as a foresight, Kariningufu, like other alleged bad apples belongs.
The new crop of Citimen decided that the Citi brand had to change, if Citimen cannot get along properly, the new people said, they would open up Citi, let it be explored by other people, much more different, the Citiz would then learn how to make better of the relations between themselves on the single road running through our beloved Oh Citi. The avenues on our road had to change to cooperation, peace, stability, peace, cleanliness, peace, order and if one knows the Citi well enough, good food.
Citimen have now invited other people on our single street Citi. Our stretch now springs from Kampala, Dar Salaam and Mombassa, it is called the EAC. Oh yes, we are now open for business in Paris and Kinshasa. The Commonwealth is an added advantage of course. Oh yes, I am reminded that Rose Kabuye is currently charming up the streets in Citi, and we are open in Berlin too! We have some criticism too, but that is for days yonder.
Yes, there's a problem with being a new kid on the block, at some point the other members of the East African Community complained that Citimen were rushing them about reforms and targets. Citimen knew too well that the only people they had to impress were the good old Donors.
That is why at the time the EAC was reluctant we approached African Peer Review Mechanism, (APRM) and signed on, at that point the EAC had to play catch up with us. I tell you, we even managed to convince the World Bank. Look at the World Bank 2009 Doing Business Index.
Alright, we'll see you in 2010...
Tuesday 22 December 2009
From SA’s dance melodies to Nigeria’s movies, Africa’s scene
Sunday, 6th September 2009
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Wole Soyinka
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Much of Africa’s entertainment industry in the 1990s was very much an offshoot of events and issues in South Africa, and how musicians developed a talent for telling their stories of the brutal apartheid experiences, in groovy songs that were favourite disco and dance tunes at the time.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka with songs as Stimela and Thank you Mr. DJ was the queen of Africa, Brenda Fasie, the pop princess and Lucky Dube, was a sweet melody to lovers in disco halls.
Dube’s music was not even known as reggae at that time, it was slows. The likes of Pat Shange and Chiko Chimora were the party blues, complimented by a variety of Congolese stalwarts like Tshala Muana, Arlus Mabele, the incredible Madilu System and Kanda Bongoman. (Where did he go?)
The songs and videos of continental music told of misery under dictatorships or absolute poverty, yet in the disco halls and party homes the music was a soundtrack for passionate dancing and joy.
Africans of this time danced with a certain zeal, that even one big DR Congolese star General Defao made himself a name primarily on dancing moves that resembled the gorilla walk.
The mid 1990s Congo or Zaire was still under the tutelage of the Kuku Wa’Zabanga al Mubutu Tse Koko. His people having given up hope of getting rid of him-he was considered a god after all-had invested all their energies in sweet Lingala tunes.
Their music with that of the South Africans was the soundtrack of the new Africa.
This was no ordinary time in Africa, Tanzania was breaking free of communism; Uganda was coming out of various episodes of war, South Africa was closing in on apartheid while Rwanda was going to war and later genocide. Robert Mugabe was still undergoing political adolescence.
Algeria was still fighting the famous Ninjas. But the music on the continent then was superb. Every event of name in any urban and rural part of Africa had to have some music from Lucky Dube, Chaka Chaka and Brend Fasie, Pepe Kale, Judi Boucher and UB40 to be worth a memory.
African music at that time indeed told of the continent’s quest from ‘Kumbaya’ and the famed idea that Africans were able to turn misery into celebration and so could only be good at dancing.
Considering that the South Africans at that time knew very little of the ‘other’ Africa, it is difficult to fathom how they created music that enthralled the whole continent. But South Africans love their dancing with passion, they supported their musicians and the musicians in turn told the story of the people.
The biggest music stars of the time in the country were equally as popular as such figures like Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani.
Sometimes their music was about working conditions in mines or farms, saving only for food and Umuqomboti. Yet most of these songs told the stories of the other Africa that they never knew.
The ‘other’ Africans loved this music; many ‘cool’ guys of the time had to have a Chaka Chaka or Dube cassette tape
And when Chaka released her I Cry song, about the struggle of a woman, married to an unreasonable jealous African ‘big man’ that had for long treated her to domestic violence, the government considered Africans not intelligent enough to know about gender equality, so the song was banned from television and promotion.
Like other artists her music was strictly for black people, it was not supposed to be promoted or marketed to other races.
The song was banned from SABC, the government not being happy after interpreting itself as the unreasonable jealous man in the song!
And then South Africa got rid of apartheid in 1994. The music changed as well. Where we had the Chaka Chaka’s now, arose; Mafikizolo, Black Smith Mambazo et al.
The rhythm changed to more energetic and powerful dancing, they had already figured out the computer sound. Africa was now in touching distance of the ICT ladder.
With the breakthrough of television in Africa in the late1990s, (during this time, the importation of television sets was banned in Tanzania, only Julius Nyerere imported and watched TV and sometimes he watched CNN and the next day when he addressed crowds he appeared as a philosopher or prophet. He knew his subjects would not figure out where he got his information.)
South Africa again led the television revolution in television, in many African programmes; Mnet presented an African vision and image of the continent that CNN, BBC and the movies never showed.
The corporate and ‘civilized’ Africa! They capped it all by the introduction of Saturday soccer pubs. Programmes such as Egoli, Generation and Isidingo not only told a story of diversity, they also depicted the corporate and ‘normal’ African, discussing business, talking law and even falling in love- without the use of force or witchcraft.
The story of Africa as told by South Africans was a happy and refreshing one indeed. The script changed when Africans started buying DVD players and abandoned regular television.
The Nigerians noted this. Having produced such giants of story telling as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, the Obas invented the famous “KiNigeria” movies.
Their entry reduced the love and vigour of dance on the continent, African continental stars also perished in their place we are now watching Nigerian gold diggers, African big men, Pentecostal prayers and Cinderella stories to get status.
We need a new era, idea or zeal with which to invoke this continental spirit again.
It remains to be seen who is going to lead us from this stage to the internet era as events in South Africa, DRC and Nigeria have not been forward steps.
Ends
E-mail article Print article
Wole Soyinka
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Much of Africa’s entertainment industry in the 1990s was very much an offshoot of events and issues in South Africa, and how musicians developed a talent for telling their stories of the brutal apartheid experiences, in groovy songs that were favourite disco and dance tunes at the time.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka with songs as Stimela and Thank you Mr. DJ was the queen of Africa, Brenda Fasie, the pop princess and Lucky Dube, was a sweet melody to lovers in disco halls.
Dube’s music was not even known as reggae at that time, it was slows. The likes of Pat Shange and Chiko Chimora were the party blues, complimented by a variety of Congolese stalwarts like Tshala Muana, Arlus Mabele, the incredible Madilu System and Kanda Bongoman. (Where did he go?)
The songs and videos of continental music told of misery under dictatorships or absolute poverty, yet in the disco halls and party homes the music was a soundtrack for passionate dancing and joy.
Africans of this time danced with a certain zeal, that even one big DR Congolese star General Defao made himself a name primarily on dancing moves that resembled the gorilla walk.
The mid 1990s Congo or Zaire was still under the tutelage of the Kuku Wa’Zabanga al Mubutu Tse Koko. His people having given up hope of getting rid of him-he was considered a god after all-had invested all their energies in sweet Lingala tunes.
Their music with that of the South Africans was the soundtrack of the new Africa.
This was no ordinary time in Africa, Tanzania was breaking free of communism; Uganda was coming out of various episodes of war, South Africa was closing in on apartheid while Rwanda was going to war and later genocide. Robert Mugabe was still undergoing political adolescence.
Algeria was still fighting the famous Ninjas. But the music on the continent then was superb. Every event of name in any urban and rural part of Africa had to have some music from Lucky Dube, Chaka Chaka and Brend Fasie, Pepe Kale, Judi Boucher and UB40 to be worth a memory.
African music at that time indeed told of the continent’s quest from ‘Kumbaya’ and the famed idea that Africans were able to turn misery into celebration and so could only be good at dancing.
Considering that the South Africans at that time knew very little of the ‘other’ Africa, it is difficult to fathom how they created music that enthralled the whole continent. But South Africans love their dancing with passion, they supported their musicians and the musicians in turn told the story of the people.
The biggest music stars of the time in the country were equally as popular as such figures like Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani.
Sometimes their music was about working conditions in mines or farms, saving only for food and Umuqomboti. Yet most of these songs told the stories of the other Africa that they never knew.
The ‘other’ Africans loved this music; many ‘cool’ guys of the time had to have a Chaka Chaka or Dube cassette tape
And when Chaka released her I Cry song, about the struggle of a woman, married to an unreasonable jealous African ‘big man’ that had for long treated her to domestic violence, the government considered Africans not intelligent enough to know about gender equality, so the song was banned from television and promotion.
Like other artists her music was strictly for black people, it was not supposed to be promoted or marketed to other races.
The song was banned from SABC, the government not being happy after interpreting itself as the unreasonable jealous man in the song!
And then South Africa got rid of apartheid in 1994. The music changed as well. Where we had the Chaka Chaka’s now, arose; Mafikizolo, Black Smith Mambazo et al.
The rhythm changed to more energetic and powerful dancing, they had already figured out the computer sound. Africa was now in touching distance of the ICT ladder.
With the breakthrough of television in Africa in the late1990s, (during this time, the importation of television sets was banned in Tanzania, only Julius Nyerere imported and watched TV and sometimes he watched CNN and the next day when he addressed crowds he appeared as a philosopher or prophet. He knew his subjects would not figure out where he got his information.)
South Africa again led the television revolution in television, in many African programmes; Mnet presented an African vision and image of the continent that CNN, BBC and the movies never showed.
The corporate and ‘civilized’ Africa! They capped it all by the introduction of Saturday soccer pubs. Programmes such as Egoli, Generation and Isidingo not only told a story of diversity, they also depicted the corporate and ‘normal’ African, discussing business, talking law and even falling in love- without the use of force or witchcraft.
The story of Africa as told by South Africans was a happy and refreshing one indeed. The script changed when Africans started buying DVD players and abandoned regular television.
The Nigerians noted this. Having produced such giants of story telling as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, the Obas invented the famous “KiNigeria” movies.
Their entry reduced the love and vigour of dance on the continent, African continental stars also perished in their place we are now watching Nigerian gold diggers, African big men, Pentecostal prayers and Cinderella stories to get status.
We need a new era, idea or zeal with which to invoke this continental spirit again.
It remains to be seen who is going to lead us from this stage to the internet era as events in South Africa, DRC and Nigeria have not been forward steps.
Ends
Tuesday 15 December 2009
Rambo Ronaldo
His story is that of any prodigy, it is perhaps telling that his f chierival to the throne of world soccer today is Lionel Messi. Christian Ronaldo is so amazing that he is a threat to Lionel Messi to world domination in soccer today.
Yet even when is so brilliantly talented Messi looks like the 20 years he is, he has an innocent frown, a guy just minding his business in the street, on the other hand Ronaldo is so good enough that he has been renamed Rambo.
Rambo is the American movie star Sylvester Stallone whose action films about the Vietnam war and the heroics of American troops, he had extremely built well muscles, was handsome and strong, yet Rambo also loved life. His movies had women, beautiful women and sex, machine guns, kicks and blows. Rambo represented America and Hollywood to the world.
Rambo was fit and had appeal, guns, women and cars, most young guys at the time secretly imagine themselves as Rambo, he was America at the time in short.
The first movie I watched was a Rambo action film, I walked the whole of 20 miles to watch in 1993, I was thirteen and my 15 year old brother Tony had a word of a visiting cinema from a bigger city called Mityana. We walked from Kyiterede after Kyakatebbe to Kakungubbe near Myanzi.
Okay this is not my story, but I read about the new 'Rambo' as Christiano Ronaldo is currently reffered to by newspapers in Europe. When I saw the Real Madrid star scoring for Real Madrid against Olympique Marseile in the Champions' League i thought about coincidences.
Having grown in the era where David Beckham shifted football from sports pages to fashion, humanitarian and educational pages in newspapers and magazines, Ronaldo horned his skills studying one of the greatest sportsmen in his generation. He improved is talent and appeal, Ronaldo inspired Manchester Untied to one Champions' League victory and another final, he also was the star of the technology inspired games on Playstation.
Ronaldo's fitness was supreme, then he transfered to Real Madrid in 2009, where his goal celebration has coined Rambo..
Saturday 12 December 2009
Alliance of housegirls and the Citi's homage to butlers
GEORGE KAGAME
Last week's 'alliance of the maid' reminded me of the one time I had a 'house boy' myself. I'll indulge you, it is Sunday after-all.
Two years after my graduation with a degree in journalism I was in the employ of a daily newspaper in the Citi, 2007 to be exact. Having been appointed as a staff writer of a first street daily newspaper in the Citi, I moved 'up' a suburb, a bigger house and even a busier schedule. 'As such' I could not cook my own food nor wash my own clothes leave alone clean after my self. I acquired the services of a 'mU'boyi.'
I met Olivier after a frantic search of two weeks. We agreed I was supposed to pay him the equivalent of 20 USD per month on top of full board living. He would basically clean after and cook for me in exchange. The first night Olivier spent at my house he locked me out and I spent the night on a verandah. When he woke the next day, he said in his defense; "Bosi it has been a longtime since I had a good sleep."
As a student I had been a senior editor of a campus newspaper and during that time I met so many people that have turned out bosses today. I have met bosses myself, in fact I made a career out of meeting bosses every other day. Olivier apologized and convinced me not to fire him, a few weeks later he simply picked 100 dollars from my drawer and disappeared. I was left laughing at myself and the folly of development.
Yet last week when I introduced the encounter with the maid of a prospective old Italian landlady and her cheating ways, I remembered the moments when I have met with the equivalent of mU'boyis in my life. At the time of writing, many households in the Citi have the services of mUboyis, the same can be said of many cosmopolitans neighbouring the Citi.
As a teenager I had met an old lady in her 50s, she had left her own family 150 miles away in another region, she was the first 'housegirl' I met and many came and went in all places I have lived. I also remembered the times when I have discussed with a house girl, as I did with the one who works for the Italian landlord and thought the next revolution would come from her kind, the alliance of housegirls.
Upon acquiring a job many of the people in the Citi had a predictable scale of preferences top of which was to have a house, a car, a butler, a wife/husband and other items. The people involved in the descriptions of butlers at a time ensured they were youthful boys and girls, every successful person (elite or illiterate) in the Citi employed a butler. Sometimes three generations in one family had a butler, parents, children and their grand children.
Today In my home town, entire legends, songs, poems, and plays are dedicated to house girls. As a result the 'butlers' are important enough to be a regular point of reference in the media there. As a young journalist I was just beginning to climb the Citi's hierarchy of needs. Many more before and after me had these butlers who cleaned after them and cooked for them in exchange for meagre salaries. As such whenever there were serious crimes in a family a house-girl was normally an important and prominent witness.
The best movie in The Citi was made by a man who had worked in the services of a butler! History was very cruel to the butlers. After all, were they also not present during colonial times? It was said that the people who served the colonialists at their dining tables are the ones to whom independence of the Citi was bequeathed in the 60s. Housegirls/boys are very important in the Citi, the most successful Citimen/women were said to be working in western countries, in the services of butlers. They were given a vernacular name which translated to 'sweepers' in English.
Now the Citi had been reported to be in a cosy affair with Dubai, woe to both. The Arabs were said to have a budget of 230 million US dollars to invest in the godsend industry of butlers in the Citi. As it turned out the Arabs were selling feathers of white ants. In a dramatic turn of events Dubai pulled out of the investment which had ensured an entire neighbourhood had been hustled out of their homes in the suburb that was meant to host the butlers' cathedral.
The Arabs in Dubai were a good inspiration to the Citimen. Having formed their country 38 years earlier today, Dubai was promoted as a planning country and their speciality was in the services of butlers., they also had very many 'Sweepers.'
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Samuel Eto'o Interview 2010
World Soccer'sDan Brennancaught up with Inter Milan and Cameroon starSamuel Eto'oon the eve of the African Cup of Nations. The prolific striker discussed his exit at Barcelona, his new role with Inter and Cameroon's chances to reclaim African glory.
World Soccer:After having so much success at Barcelona, were you surprised the club let you join Inter Milan?
Eto'o:That's a question that I can't answer myself. The coach [Pep Guardiola] has to do that. I heard and read what he said about there not being a "feeling" with me -- and I keep asking myself what "feeling" means when you've always given everything on the pitch, always delivered and helped win every possible title. But I have to look forward. I'm at a great club and I think this season we will have a very good campaign.
World Soccer:After being used to playing such attacking football at Barça, is it hard adapting to a team where you have onlyDiego MilitoandWesleySneijderhelping you in attack?
Eto'o:I hope this will be corrected as we go along, because otherwise we will not go far.
World Soccer:What do you think ofJosé Mourinho? He wasn't very complimentary about you and your Barça team in his autobiography...
Eto'o:That was at the time when Barcelona faced Chelsea and I had just a general impression. But now I can see him daily in training, I think that he is doing a good job and things are looking good.
World Soccer:You moved to Inter last summer as part payment forZlatanIbrahimovic's transfer to Barça. What do you think about him?
Eto'o:A great player. There is no problem with him and surely he will adapt to the tactical scheme that they have at Barcelona, although we are different in our approach to the game. I hope it works out for him.
World Soccer:Do you still feel positive towards Barça despite the circumstances of your exit?
Eto'o:Of course. I still have the club and the fans in my heart.
World Soccer:Do you miss La Liga?
Eto'o:A little, yes. It was a large chunk of my life. I spent 13 years in Spain and when you spend that amount of time somewhere it has a deep influence on you. But now I'm facing a new challenge. I have to adapt and try to succeed.
World Soccer:Speaking of success, you've enjoyed a bit of that over the years, haven't you?
Eto'o:I've managed a few things, yes, and it's always a pleasure, but to keep winning you have to regard whatever you have already won as history. You must always start from scratch, find the strength to win again.
World Soccer:Is Inter bigger than Barcelona?
Eto'o:They are different. Inter shares the football limelight in Milan while, with respect to Espanyol, Barcelona represents the city, and that's why they say it's "more than a club."
World Soccer:Are you a problem player?
Eto'o:No. People can say that if they want, but I don't accept it. I work hard at my job. Like everyone, I've had controversial moments in the past, but those are already forgotten.
World Soccer:Which specific moment would you consider to have been the most significant for you while in Spain?
Eto'o:Perhaps it was havingLuis Aragonésas my coach. He is like a father to me. I worked with him at Mallorca. I arrived [at Mallorca] on a low, because Real Madrid always sent me out on loan, and whenever the season ended, I'd return to Madrid without a clear idea about my future. So I stayed at Mallorca and Aragonés really shook me up. He talked to me a lot, he advised me and I stayed there for four seasons until I ended up at Barcelona. That's why I was so happy when he won the European Championship with the Spain national side, because I respect him so much as a coach and as a man.
World Soccer:Many say that you have a complex with Real Madrid because, though you played for its second-division reserve team, Castilla, in 1995-96, you never established yourself.
Eto'o:It's not like that. Over time, I became closer to Barcelona than Real Madrid, but I had very good friends amonglosBlancos, people who I have fond memories of. Perhaps it's just that my character is very expressive and when I win, there is an outpouring of emotion.
World Soccer:What was your lowest point in Spain?
Eto'o:Without doubt, it was when I was on loan from Real Madrid at Espanyol in 1999. The coach,Miguel Brindisi, never played me and I felt depressed there and couldn't wait to return to Madrid.
World Soccer:Do you have an idol in football?
Eto'o:Sure,Roger Milla, who was everything for Cameroon. I was lucky enough to have seen him play a great match when I was only 6. At the end of the match, Milla threw his shirt to the fans and I was very lucky to catch it. Ever since then, I was fascinated by football. At the age of 12, I was already playing with people aged 20 without many problems.
World Soccer:How did you first move to Europe?
Eto'o:I was 15 when I made my debut for the national team. Then I found out that the game was being watched byPirri[a Real Madrid legend in the 1960s and early 1970s] and he was the one who took me toFabio Capello, who was the coach at Real Madrid. They loaned me straight to Leganés. I actually arrived in Madrid in February 1997 when I was 16. That early experience helped me to grow and become strong inside.
World Soccer:Do you still regard yourself as "running as a black man but living as a white man?"
Eto'o:That phrase has been discussed a lot, but I think it is not always understood what I meant by it. What I meant is that you have to sacrifice to live well. I like some luxuries, such as cars, but because I pay for them with what I earn, there's no debate. And while I do like to enjoy the good things in life, I also have a charity to help children in Cameroon and I feel good doing this. I feel like I am giving back everything that football gave me. I feel privileged to be able to do what I enjoy doing and that I also get paid to do it. That gives me great pleasure.
World Soccer:Do you think that this World Cup, the first to be played in Africa, may finally be won by an African team?
Eto'o:That's my dream, but we know how difficult it is. Cameroon, fortunately, has enjoyed some success over the years and I am already lucky enough to have an Olympic gold medal, from Sydney 2000, when we beat Spain in the final. Who is to say that we can't do the same again in South Africa?
Read more:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/world_soccer/01/06/samuel.etoo/index.html#ixzz0btwLa4Mr
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Sunday 6 December 2009
Urban living; The tenant, The landlord and the rent
| BY GEORGE kagame | |
| It is said by people who know more about knowledge than me that to travel is to see and to have seen is to have learnt. In my first language it is even more eloquent, it goes; “One that has not eaten elsewhere other than their home thinks his/her mum is the best cook in the world.” As a budding young man I read several books about Italy, I don’t know why but I have always been fascinated by Italy and I have no personal attachment to that country, other than enthusiasm for AC Milan football club and Italy in the World Cup. But early in my adolescent life all the books about Italy that I managed to read seemed to tell a story similar to my own African experiences. These stories would be about employment, city living, family and community relations and so on. I always thought that if ever there was a comparison between Europe and Africa, (or anything like surrogate brothers), Italians were the closest to Africans as chimps are to human beings. Yet I am aware of the geography of the world I live in and I know as well that if an Italian reads this article he/she will think of me as a crazy loser in life. The way Italians marry, conduct business with each other, compete and relate as genders is not very different from our African ways. In old Italy, a family chose the design of their communities by controlling friendships and commerce and even marriage was a calculated step, the way we do it in my culture. Recently I met an Italian landlord. She owns an old town house in my neighborhood and I was interested in renting part of it. She stated her price and we agreed. We had a deal. I paid my rent for two months and like in the old Italian books, when I gave her the money and looked into her eyes, I did not think for a moment that a lady with children as old as I am would later be in a position to play dirty tricks with money. I held her in so much high regard that I did not feel it was necessary to immediately get a receipt for my payment. But alas!!! After moving into the house I found that many of the things she promised were not available, all the amenities mentioned in our verbal and electronic exchange were not there. I decided to inform her that I was leaving her house and considering alternatives elsewhere. As a result, I asked her to return my money. She refused. Switched off her phone and left me with no alternative but to go to her house and demand my money back. At her house, the lady left a small open window at a vantage point from which she could see who was coming into her yard and when she did not like what she saw she would simply just ‘chill’ and no amount of knocking, phone calling or even noise would bring her out. As an African man that has grown up in the urban section of renters I have inbred skills of dealing with landlords in urban centers. So the next day I devised a new mechanism to get my money. I pitched camp in a nearby library and after thirty minute intervals would go to check on my hustling indebtor. It took a whole of 6 weeks to speak with her again and even then I had to connive with the maid to waylay the landlord. Like me, the maid had her own issues with her boss. She had not been paid for services in three months and whenever the topic came up between the two her boss would immediately point out the failings of the maid. This state of affairs ensured that whoever had a bone to pick with the Italian lady would find a willing ally in the home of the Italian. The connection between the Italian and the African is that both have a marginally high propensity to be unfair once they are positioned in places of advantage. There are many maids in my neighborhoods that would identify with the young maid who works for an untrustworthy landlord and the actions of this landlord are very much in sync with what many people renting/living in African urban centres only know about so well. Next week I’ll write you more about the maid and her endeavors to get her three month payment. Till then. |
Tuesday 1 December 2009
When I turned 26: first birthday Calgary
Today I woke up early in morning took a shower, dodged all the ceremony of a regular sunday and went downtown.
Mission?
I wanted to watch soccer. It was the huge European derby weekend. Everton was hosting Liverpool, Barcelona playing Madrid in a historical El Classico. Arsenal was hosting Chelsea. In Italy, Fiorentina was playing Inter Milan and these days that is a big game too.
But first I have to introduce you to the importance of a day like this one to a person like me. Where I grew up from-there's no one particular place but I like to refer to Kansanga because it is one of the coolest places on earth I have lived. Soccer provided for the most normal entertainment, I lived close to a place called Half London which hosted local concerts regulary. Most of Uganda's musicains made their bones in the industry when I was watching.
Later, I worked for Sabrina's pub on Bombo road in 2001, I was in high school vacation.
Sabrina's pub not only served the best traditional lunch buffet in Kampala, it was also a joint where most of Uganda's biggest music stars started their careers from. The pub/restaurant advertised itself as 'more than just a pub' and its famed Friday night karaoke was a huge hit in the country's low income earning and mildly educated residents of the city from the 1990s to mod 200s.
Current music giants like Bebe Cool, Jose Chameleon and Juliana Kanyomozi started singing in Sabrina's. With Chameleon I was even closer because I happened to have gone to the same seconday school as him in Katikamu. I grew up surrounded by music. The first and biggest show I loved really was Maddox Ssemetimba, the Ugandan-Swedish reggea maestro.
Therefre, from a start having worked in a music pub and lived near Kampala's party district of Kabalagala and Kansanga I got bored with the whole shebang of night clubs early in my life.
Yet as I joined university in 2002 I got a parrt time gig as a theme night promoter at Club Silk. All I did really was go to Silk Royale, meet Andrew Rwakojo or Rwakakoko something like that, he would give me compliment tickets which I would then take to anyone I chose in Kampala and offer them a night of dance and booze on the house.
In my first year, I used to sell these tickets to my classmates and later friends and later I got bored and giulty that I was leading fellow students to lifestyles where they would get into dangers, there were lots of free/cheap beers that was esecially common on Tuesday Campus nights.
In all this it is only soccer that gave me genuine entertainment, I was not alone, there were other people in my neighbourhood that were addicted to soccer as much I was. Most were young professionals that I liked to call yuppies, there were middle income earning people, the illetrate lot, the Kikubo business people etc.
Soccer for me was not just watching matches on TV, occassionally I actually played in some village teams just for dropping a sweat, but the kind I watched on live TV was mainly for ESCAPE purposes from my daily tribulations of life.
In fact I was not your avarage mad fan, I never shouted in arguments about soccer, I never had one particular team with which to identify-and this is a sin in soccer fellowships like in religions, I LOVED soccer sometimes for giving me an opportunity to drink beer as well.
As I grew and stopped doing pub jobs, my lifestyle changed too.
First my best friend Giusseppe Kizito joined ProLine Soccer Academy as a physiotherapist. I and Giusseppe shared a passionate love for sports, so much that Giussepe, upon admission to Makerere University on a Bachelor of Arts degree course decided to break off after a year and resumed the following year to pursue a Bachelor of Sport Science degree. Upon completing his course and getting his first job with the highly anticipated Proline Soccer Academy by MUjib Kasule, Giusseppe was stabbed by his brother to death on 12 July 2007.
Bu at some point I lost the enthuthiasm for soccer, this is because the English premiership was taking over every avaliable space of commercial radio, magazines and any other social environment. All the time radio presenters outdid themsleves in showing their listners as their competence in premiership analysis.
I feared I was becoming a hooked consumer.
By English premiership however the thing that Ugandans actually watched was only Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. It was the madness between Manchester United and Arsenal fans that made the whole soccer craze become irritating for me. It was even more annoying whenever Arsenal was playing on a particular day, there would be nothing else for alternatives. In case one was not a fan of Arsenal. (Arsenal has a very large following in East Africa,) whenever the club is playing you'd be excused for thinking that some East Africans are actual shareholders to the thing or they are all English from London.
Earleir I had also moved to Rwanda and I had also acquired a regular fixture of my life. I'd work the whole week and spend Saturday and Sunday in a pub watching soccer.
When I moved to Rwanda in 2006 it became quite a puzzle as there were not many sports bars, but James (the tall man from Masisi) had introduced me to a couple of pubs in Remera where I'd watch soccer. After I moved from the Remera part of town to Nyamirambo I lived next to the biggest and only movie theatre in Kigali so I solved my soccer search forays in the city centre, stopped going to PanAfrique in Kigali city centre as well as visiting with Rastaman Seif Bizimana. Oh I remember the torturous days at the Kimironko market pubs and the rude people at Medi's Motel.
In 2008 I moved again from Rwanda to Tanzania and even there I had issues having a decent sports bar in which to catch soccer. The only two exceptional memories I have of Tanzania were watching the 2008 UEFA Champions' League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea at a pub near Diamond guesthouse/Inn in Arusha.
Watching the UERO 2008 Finals at Via Via pub near the ICTR where I worked.
I also cherish the memory of Charlotte Kingsman, but that is a story for another day!!!'
Eerly this year I moved to North America, I arrived here in February when it was time for the 2009 Superbowl. This most important of sports events in North America was pittying the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals.
I watched the game at Robin Honderich's apartment in downtown Toronto. Robin is the son of John Honderich, chairman of Torstar Publishing group, the same man that is responsible for my coming to America.
The match-to people familiar with the game of American football was a beautiful one, I for one did not know any of the rules, but there was great beer at Robin' house. He had his freinds over as well and so I met some young Canadains in Toronto for the first time and shared the experience of a big match-North American style.
Honderich senior had also prepared very good chilli sauce and though the food was still a challenge for me at the start, I liked his dish. The Steelers won the match. After the match I was informed that what I had witnessed was a big cultural expereince in North America. The Superbowl is a very important fixture in North American life. I have listened to passionate conversations about the thing.
Today I was reminded of a big match, (superbowl) as well as cultural experiences-the way I understand it anyway.
As I mentioned earlier, I had been planning since the begining of November as to where I will be watching the 2009 EL Classico, Merseyside as well as the London derbies from. These are the most important of matches, save for Manchester United-Liverpool for a soccer enthusiast.
Since everything in North America starts with the internet I had earlier researched about soccer pubs in the city and came to the conclusion that Ship and Anchor, a pub in the city's downtown core was it. It would be my place of abode on many weekends.
Today I wake up at 7pm, an anormally on a sunday, and head to the bus stand. I get to the pub when the Chelsea and Arsenal match is left with only 15 minutes to end.
I sit and wait for the start of the big one. The all important El Classico.
Unfortunately, today was a day of the Canadian equivalent of the superbowl, after the London derby the TV was switched off and the pub staff feigned genuine interest in searching the channels that were screening the Nou Camp match. I moved from the pub, but after savouring the very well prepared Ship Burger that cost me a whooping 10 dollars!!!!
I visited four different sports pubs and they were all screening the previews of the Grey Cup where a team from Montreal was playing one from Saskachewan, the Montreal team won the game in a very close final minutes of the match. 27-28.
Hopefully the next derby weekend will be better for me.
Today I turned 29.
Mission?
I wanted to watch soccer. It was the huge European derby weekend. Everton was hosting Liverpool, Barcelona playing Madrid in a historical El Classico. Arsenal was hosting Chelsea. In Italy, Fiorentina was playing Inter Milan and these days that is a big game too.
But first I have to introduce you to the importance of a day like this one to a person like me. Where I grew up from-there's no one particular place but I like to refer to Kansanga because it is one of the coolest places on earth I have lived. Soccer provided for the most normal entertainment, I lived close to a place called Half London which hosted local concerts regulary. Most of Uganda's musicains made their bones in the industry when I was watching.
Later, I worked for Sabrina's pub on Bombo road in 2001, I was in high school vacation.
Sabrina's pub not only served the best traditional lunch buffet in Kampala, it was also a joint where most of Uganda's biggest music stars started their careers from. The pub/restaurant advertised itself as 'more than just a pub' and its famed Friday night karaoke was a huge hit in the country's low income earning and mildly educated residents of the city from the 1990s to mod 200s.
Current music giants like Bebe Cool, Jose Chameleon and Juliana Kanyomozi started singing in Sabrina's. With Chameleon I was even closer because I happened to have gone to the same seconday school as him in Katikamu. I grew up surrounded by music. The first and biggest show I loved really was Maddox Ssemetimba, the Ugandan-Swedish reggea maestro.
Therefre, from a start having worked in a music pub and lived near Kampala's party district of Kabalagala and Kansanga I got bored with the whole shebang of night clubs early in my life.
Yet as I joined university in 2002 I got a parrt time gig as a theme night promoter at Club Silk. All I did really was go to Silk Royale, meet Andrew Rwakojo or Rwakakoko something like that, he would give me compliment tickets which I would then take to anyone I chose in Kampala and offer them a night of dance and booze on the house.
In my first year, I used to sell these tickets to my classmates and later friends and later I got bored and giulty that I was leading fellow students to lifestyles where they would get into dangers, there were lots of free/cheap beers that was esecially common on Tuesday Campus nights.
In all this it is only soccer that gave me genuine entertainment, I was not alone, there were other people in my neighbourhood that were addicted to soccer as much I was. Most were young professionals that I liked to call yuppies, there were middle income earning people, the illetrate lot, the Kikubo business people etc.
Soccer for me was not just watching matches on TV, occassionally I actually played in some village teams just for dropping a sweat, but the kind I watched on live TV was mainly for ESCAPE purposes from my daily tribulations of life.
In fact I was not your avarage mad fan, I never shouted in arguments about soccer, I never had one particular team with which to identify-and this is a sin in soccer fellowships like in religions, I LOVED soccer sometimes for giving me an opportunity to drink beer as well.
As I grew and stopped doing pub jobs, my lifestyle changed too.
First my best friend Giusseppe Kizito joined ProLine Soccer Academy as a physiotherapist. I and Giusseppe shared a passionate love for sports, so much that Giussepe, upon admission to Makerere University on a Bachelor of Arts degree course decided to break off after a year and resumed the following year to pursue a Bachelor of Sport Science degree. Upon completing his course and getting his first job with the highly anticipated Proline Soccer Academy by MUjib Kasule, Giusseppe was stabbed by his brother to death on 12 July 2007.
Bu at some point I lost the enthuthiasm for soccer, this is because the English premiership was taking over every avaliable space of commercial radio, magazines and any other social environment. All the time radio presenters outdid themsleves in showing their listners as their competence in premiership analysis.
I feared I was becoming a hooked consumer.
By English premiership however the thing that Ugandans actually watched was only Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. It was the madness between Manchester United and Arsenal fans that made the whole soccer craze become irritating for me. It was even more annoying whenever Arsenal was playing on a particular day, there would be nothing else for alternatives. In case one was not a fan of Arsenal. (Arsenal has a very large following in East Africa,) whenever the club is playing you'd be excused for thinking that some East Africans are actual shareholders to the thing or they are all English from London.
Earleir I had also moved to Rwanda and I had also acquired a regular fixture of my life. I'd work the whole week and spend Saturday and Sunday in a pub watching soccer.
When I moved to Rwanda in 2006 it became quite a puzzle as there were not many sports bars, but James (the tall man from Masisi) had introduced me to a couple of pubs in Remera where I'd watch soccer. After I moved from the Remera part of town to Nyamirambo I lived next to the biggest and only movie theatre in Kigali so I solved my soccer search forays in the city centre, stopped going to PanAfrique in Kigali city centre as well as visiting with Rastaman Seif Bizimana. Oh I remember the torturous days at the Kimironko market pubs and the rude people at Medi's Motel.
In 2008 I moved again from Rwanda to Tanzania and even there I had issues having a decent sports bar in which to catch soccer. The only two exceptional memories I have of Tanzania were watching the 2008 UEFA Champions' League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea at a pub near Diamond guesthouse/Inn in Arusha.
Watching the UERO 2008 Finals at Via Via pub near the ICTR where I worked.
I also cherish the memory of Charlotte Kingsman, but that is a story for another day!!!'
Eerly this year I moved to North America, I arrived here in February when it was time for the 2009 Superbowl. This most important of sports events in North America was pittying the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals.
I watched the game at Robin Honderich's apartment in downtown Toronto. Robin is the son of John Honderich, chairman of Torstar Publishing group, the same man that is responsible for my coming to America.
The match-to people familiar with the game of American football was a beautiful one, I for one did not know any of the rules, but there was great beer at Robin' house. He had his freinds over as well and so I met some young Canadains in Toronto for the first time and shared the experience of a big match-North American style.
Honderich senior had also prepared very good chilli sauce and though the food was still a challenge for me at the start, I liked his dish. The Steelers won the match. After the match I was informed that what I had witnessed was a big cultural expereince in North America. The Superbowl is a very important fixture in North American life. I have listened to passionate conversations about the thing.
Today I was reminded of a big match, (superbowl) as well as cultural experiences-the way I understand it anyway.
As I mentioned earlier, I had been planning since the begining of November as to where I will be watching the 2009 EL Classico, Merseyside as well as the London derbies from. These are the most important of matches, save for Manchester United-Liverpool for a soccer enthusiast.
Since everything in North America starts with the internet I had earlier researched about soccer pubs in the city and came to the conclusion that Ship and Anchor, a pub in the city's downtown core was it. It would be my place of abode on many weekends.
Today I wake up at 7pm, an anormally on a sunday, and head to the bus stand. I get to the pub when the Chelsea and Arsenal match is left with only 15 minutes to end.
I sit and wait for the start of the big one. The all important El Classico.
Unfortunately, today was a day of the Canadian equivalent of the superbowl, after the London derby the TV was switched off and the pub staff feigned genuine interest in searching the channels that were screening the Nou Camp match. I moved from the pub, but after savouring the very well prepared Ship Burger that cost me a whooping 10 dollars!!!!
I visited four different sports pubs and they were all screening the previews of the Grey Cup where a team from Montreal was playing one from Saskachewan, the Montreal team won the game in a very close final minutes of the match. 27-28.
Hopefully the next derby weekend will be better for me.
Today I turned 29.
Sunday 29 November 2009
Eastern DR Congo: EX Nkunda lieutenant forms new rebel mov't
BY JOSH KRON
Nation Media Correspondent
Great Lakes Region
Nation Media Correspondent
Great Lakes Region
CONGO - As the rape and death tolls mount in military offensives against Hutu rebels in eastern Congo, a key leader of the military campaign is forming his own paramilitary group, the United Nations has said.
Nearly a year after being installed in a senior position in the Congolese armed forces, former rebel-general Bosco Ntaganda has formed with other the Front for the Liberation and Emancipation of the Congo (FLEC). The group has not started war, but is institutionalizing control over regions of eastern Congo, particularly Masisi territory in North Kivu province.
Unlike some other rebel groups in the Congo – including Mr. Ntaganda’s Tutsi-led National Congress for the People Defense (CNDP) who wrecked havoc on the country last year – FLEC does not appear to be built along ethnic lines.
Violence both against and between Hutu and Tutsi in eastern Congo have broiled the region in an on-again-off-again struggle that, over the last fifteen years, has directly and indirectly led to millions dead.
While it remains unclear whether FLEC will be an armed insurgency or just a way to make more money, the emergence of the group is the latest sign that the CNDP is breaking up, and the Congo’s army is unraveling in its yearlong war against Rwandan Hutu rebels.
“It appears to incorporate other dissatisfied elements associated with some Mai-Mai armed groups,” said spokesperson Jean-Paul Dietrich.
“According to local sources, FLEC was established because of the reported refusal of pro-Nkunda elements and the former political leadership of the party to associate CNDP with the reported Coalition pour la protection et la promotion du Congo (CPPC).”
Mr. Ntaganda, who became military commander of the CNDP at the beginning of the year when its charismatic Laurent Nkunda was arrested by Rwanda, was supposed to lead the group into integration with the Congolese national army, along with a menagerie of other rebel groups and splinter factions.
In the United Nations-backed offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda – Hutu rebels accused of orchestrating the 1994 Rwandan genocide – Mr. Ntaganda is accused of playing a senior role. In South Kivu, where the bulk of the fighting is focused, Ntaganda’s CNDP lieutenants are the ones doing the finding and the killing.
But now, he and other CNDP officers are spending their time organizing FLEC and already control some of North Kivu’s most fertile grounds, including large swaths of Masisi territory that the United Nations says Mr. Ntaganda and FLEC look to control entirely.
“The people are forced to pay exorbitant taxes,” said the United Nations this week. “Officials justify the provision of first by the need to assist the war-wounded ex-CNDP.”
And there’s no much that can be done, saying that the police in the region were “neither equipped nor paid” by the Kinshasa government.
For years, Rwanda and Congo have battled over the presence of Rwandan genocide suspects hiding out on Congolese soil, killers that fled after the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s own military has repeatedly invaded the Congo in pursuit and have left behind residual militias to do the fighting for them.
Last year, things began to get out of hand, when one of these generals, Mr. Nkunda went on a strong offensive in North Kivu, taking important parts of the province and coming within a few kilometers of the capital Goma. The Congolese military didn’t stand a chance, instead fleeing with civilians from the oncoming rebel group, looting, killing and raping in the process.
It all changed, investigators have argued when Rwanda and Congo struck a deal that placed Ntaganda in the drivers seat and Mr. Nkunda supposedly behind bars. Now, the Congolese army was no longer fighting the CNDP, but the Hutu rebels, and in the process Ntaganda and his troops took command of the war.
It’s been a sweet role of reversal for Mr. Ntaganda. According to the United Nations Panel of Experts report leaked Tuesday, he is making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in illegal tax revenues from the lands he patrols. His elite CNDP that follow him; 60,000.
But as the atrocities mount, Ntaganda has been losing friends. The people who put him in power – including Rwanda – have not gone out of their way to keep all the soldiers below him in line and, as the The New York Times has reported, much of the region has descended into ‘warlordism.’
From Mai-Mai generals to FDLR splinters, new groups have sprung and popped, since the beginning of the year, feeding off each other like water wheels.
A spokesperson for the United Nation in Congo said that the latest developments reflected a “possible division within the CNDP itself,” those working with Ntaganda, and those loyal to the arrested Laurent Nkunda, who remains in Rwanda, somewhere.
“He is our man, he always will be,” says Claude Mutebutsi, a Congolese Tutsi originally from South Kivu. He insists Nkunda wasn’t simply sponsored by Rwanda. According to him, “95%” are still faithful to Mr. Nkunda, who has acquired a Che Guevara-like mystique with his constituents.
The political arm of the CNDP – Nkunda had said he was fighting for the protection of Congolese Tutsi – has accomplished little on paper since peace agreement that culminated integration into the army. Two party members are in parliament.
Mr. Ntaganda’s new group is the latest manifestation in a breakup of the CNDP that has been ongoing for months. The first incarnation was the Coalition for the Promotion and Protection of the Congo. Initially built around Ntaganda and other CNDP soldiers, it fell apart due to deteriorating support for Mt. Ntaganda.
Now, it seems, he is making shrewd utilitarian choices with his supposed enemies as his traditional friends dwindle.
Rwanda joins the Commonwealth
BY JOSH KRON
Nation Media
Rwanda
Nation Media
Rwanda
Rwanda has been formally accepted into the British Commonwealth, becoming the 54th nation to join the post-colonial group after a two-year bid, Rwandan government officials were told this weekend.
The Commonwealth members summit, held in the Caribbean island-state of Trinidad & Tobago, reportedly admitted the Central African country after it applied for membership in 2008.
News of the admission was first made public by a spokesperson for the Rwandan government late Saturday night, ahead of announcement from the Commonwealth itself, who had given the Rwandan government formal news of the admission.
“The government sees this accession as recognition of the tremendous progress this country has made in the last 15 years,” Rwanda’s government spokesperson Louise Mushikiwabo said in the capital Kigali.
Rwanda’s foreign minister, Rosemary Museminali, said a longer statement to the press would be made available later Sunday.
Announcement from the Commonwealth itself is due this evening, but Rwanda’s envoy to the conference had been given formal notice of the admission.
Along with Mozambique, who joined the group in 1995, Rwanda became the second nation without any formal historical ties to Great Britain to join the group, came under scrutiny due to criticisms of its human-rights policy.
The country’s ascension to the club marks an acme for its post-genocide development and President Paul Kagame’s drive to sharply redefine Rwanda’s orientation towards the English-speaking world. In 2007 the country, along with Burundi, joined the East African Community. :Last year, all sectors of government and education adopted English as the official, operating language.
Rwanda was first colonized by Germany in the late 19th century and then by the Belgians. The country later held close ties to France, which were severed after the 1994 Rwandan genocide by President Paul Kagame’s current government. France is accuse of playing a key role in the build up and arming of the genocidal government that killed 1 million Tutsi.
Much of the current government was raised as refugees in Uganda and since then, Uganda has been one of Rwanda’s biggest backers to join the Commonwealth group.
Saturday 28 November 2009
Introducing Ship&Anchor Pub Calgary
Pubtalk: A bizarre soccer week mares Commonwealth debut spirit
GEORGE KAGAME
There’s a story, true or false withstanding, about one of several Taifa Stars coaches in the 1990s. It is about a dramatic incident in which the coach tantalized Tanzania's press with carefully chosen English terms, a language he knew would attract few questions during the press conference. Therefore downplaying the controversy raised by the issue of dismal results after a series of friendly matches played by the team on a special and rare visit to Brazil.
Witnesses to the press briefing, which was dubbed as 'the exclusive English interview' organized to coincide with his team's arrival at Dar International Airport was even rarer in the comedy that is Tanzania's football.
The friendlies themselves had been organized as a step forward in the country's timeless-and ongoing unsuccessful attempts to- develop the standards of the game in East Africa's largest and most populous country.
AT the time the trip to Brazil, (the equivalent in Soccer as Mecca is to Islam,) was organized following another in the series that is the disastrous performance of Taifa Stars-going by the extremely high expectations of the average Tanzanians which have now stabilized at mocking the team and laughing it off as a comedy series.
In this era, the tour gave the Stars an opportunity to participate in, and loose in all friendly matches between them and their Brazilian hosts. In the circumstances, the Taifa Stars lost in huge margins that upon their arrival at Dar International airport, an explanation was demanded of the coach in a press briefing. The national coach was asked why his team had lost in all the matches and whether the team had learnt anything at all in their training camp.
Asked in Swahili about the dismal performance of the team and knowing fully well that just a handful of journalists present at the press conference would ask many other questions in English, he excited the crowd when he decided to address the journalists in English. The event is also said to be his first interview exclusively in English, an uncommon language in football circles at the time.
It is further said that at the end of the interview journalists present were left in wonder and amazement. Apparently, the team had more than undertaken soccer training, they had also learnt language skills. Shooting two birds with one stone!!
You may ask where the resident of the Hammock is going with this mambo jumbo about soccer, especially Tanzanian soccer, when the newspaper has enough pages and columnists dedicated to sport/soccer. Well, there’s the issue of the ‘hand of God 2009’ Version featuring Thiery Henry that made it hard during the week to think of anything else of national importance to discuss at the local pub. Note. In this pub, known as the Ship and Anchor, soccer has provided some hilarious moments for its patrons over the times. And as such the game is a very serious affair to which women of wisdom-no women of any calibre-are invited in equal numbers as men.
There was one such moment last year when French national football coach Raymond Domenech was asked a simple question in a live interview about his team and the nature of tactics it had used to fail so embarrassingly at Euro 2008.
Domenech responded to the question by proposing to his girlfriend (a journalist herself) in a press conference broadcast on all major news networks and media houses. Now put this into persecutive, a press conference involving France’s national soccer team is an important national issue. Sometimes even the president of the country is watching the thing.
In the spirit of celebrating Rwanda's entry in the Commonwealth as well as announcement by all the five presidents to launch the full EAC Customs Union on 1 July 2010, (just days before the World Cup final in South Africa in 2010.)
I’ll save you the details about statistics and all, that was way after the pub closed.
"We are in the Commonwealth today, from now, we are going to adopt English as the language of drinking in this pub."
One patron announced after his third beer and staring at the barman as only a man that has drunk three Mutzig bottles plus eating two zingaro brochete can stare.
This pub is a serious one, it is important to be discussing national matters.
In fact so important and heated was the discussion on Friday that it was agreed unanimously on many issues surrounding Rwanda's commonwealth debut. The members again agreed that in order to further the country's English competence, "We are also signing up seriously with the East African Community. We shall get rid of the Franc one day and if change does not come, we will will seriouly consider taking on Swahili as the first business language. And as if that is not enough, we will abolish the Rwandan passport and adopt an East African one. Yes, with a little foresight, Felicien Kabuga can officially and legally operate his business on Kenya.
We intend one day to become like the EU, in fact we shall have our own serious version of the UEFA Champions’ league. Have you not heard of our preparations for this year's CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup?"
Continue to the next page!
Sunday 15 November 2009
Africa needs to enter the highway of history or risked being blurred
BY GEORGE KAGAME
In a week during which memorial ceremonies commemorating the defeat of Hitler's axis and the end of the second World War were held I watched two movies of peculiar interest but with a slightly similar violent story. One, an oscar award winning performance by Kate Winslet chronicles the legacy of the gas chambers in which millions of Jews were burnt by Hitler during the Holocaust, the other is about the conflict in Sierra Leone which ended in the early 2000s after claiming more than 50,000 and was fueled by one of Africa's curses; the diamond.
The first, The Reader is about the story of an illiterate female prison officer that falls in love with a young supposedly Jewish law student that later participates in the trial of the gas chamber guard. The story shows the blind hand of fate and the innocent clash of two other-words irreconcilable worlds. The other movie, The Blood Diamonds tells Africa's miserly in dealing in its natural resources and its failure simply to connect source to market without a war. The story is told in the simplest of terms that only Hollywood knows and wants to understand about Africa and our confilcts.
As is expected, there's wielding of sharp machetes here, grosteque images of Africans butchering each other there and the occasional whiteman baffled by the exercise. The whiteman is on the beaches holidaying, holding a photo camera, sometimes writing the next big humanitarian story from Africa for a major media house in the US or Europe and other times it shows the businessman unconcerned with a 'dark' people who cannot coexist peacefully while he is doing business.
From my simple write up you can tell one thing, the way that I grasped the stark contrasts in the two movies. The complicated nature of the legacy of Nazi German and the simple 'good bad' guy in the African story.
The European story is told in such a way that tells of sophistication, it is a civilized encounter among human beings that are innocent. On other hand, the African story is told in such way that its actors are simple blood thirsty vampires bent on eliminating each other by virtue of greed for resources whose value they cannot grasp as the diamonds are shown to be traded far away in Europe.
And thats the story of Africa. Since most people out of AFrica never read about the continent in books or in newspapers, they know most things about the continent from movies, and some times (honourably) wildlife features about the animals on the continent. (It is my opinion that Europeans and North Americans know more about the animals in Africa than the people living in the continent.)
So since movies tell their stories in terms of good and bad guys, most people outside Africa know of the continent in terms of good and bad guys too-recently, an acquaintance introduced me to his North American girlfriend, "he is among the good guys", and I was baffled by what he meant.
If one comes from Rwanda and travels to another part of Africa or the world, they will once in a while be asked a question or two after the proverbial; 'Where do you come from?" Having established that one is from Rwanda the next question or conversation will be probing to establish whether one is Tutsi or Hutu, in order to place you among the good or bad guys of Africa. And people in developed countries know about conversations and getting information when they want to. They thrive on information afterall.
To many, this probing is humiliating, some foolish people are quick to point out that they are Tutsi as this is likely to win any sympathy votes, (In a related idea and also as part of this paradox, every Rwandan that goes outside Africa automatically gets the Tutsi tag and plucks it on a pedestal.) There are categories of bad and good in other parts of the world as there was during the holocaust but their differences were not recorded on obvious structures as ours.
In the same way, if you were asked to describe the bad guys of the European genocides, (they have had a couple there, have they not?) This description will pit one particular idea against another. No particular specifics, these are civilizations after all. It is not really popular how the Jews were identified for extermination by the Nazi for example, but there's a wide collection of variables that the Hutu used to butcher the Tutsi in Rwanda. If the identity card never gave one a particular designation of tribe, you could look at the neck, the mouth, demeanor, the hair, complexion and particularly the nose.
The good bad guy analogy is a simple one in the Rwandan context, this is because of the fact that as as you answer innocent queries about your Hutuness or Tutsiness ( such that one can approve whether what they watched is true) They have a set of givens and trademarks as established by anthropologists. It is an attempt to show the blur on the African story.
Closer to home, the story of Rwanda's genocide-in its most famous script as told by Paul Rusesabagina and his book; "An Ordinary man" way after he left Rwanda, and more eloquently in Hotel Rwanda is the moral of this rambling.
When a local story is told in the eyes of a foreign audience and acted out for that audience the people affected by actual events of the story become figures, graphs and theories. And in this way Africa misses out in the real story of the world, our story is told only when a powerful entertainer visits and we take advantage of the photo ops or a charity organization makes a video asking for sponsors of this or that cause. (Hotel Rwanda is off a book written by a Hutu man, and acted by an American and a Nigerian plus a couple of Ugandans.)
The people that are living the events are reduced to appear as extras. It is with this hindsight that French president Nicholas Sarkozy remarked in 2007 at a Senegalese University ‘Africa has never entered history.’ Africa needs to find a way to help real African story tellers to get into mainstream media outlets. Or even easier to develop our own media where we will not be fed on other people's impressions of us.
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
In a week during which memorial ceremonies commemorating the defeat of Hitler's axis and the end of the second World War were held I watched two movies of peculiar interest but with a slightly similar violent story. One, an oscar award winning performance by Kate Winslet chronicles the legacy of the gas chambers in which millions of Jews were burnt by Hitler during the Holocaust, the other is about the conflict in Sierra Leone which ended in the early 2000s after claiming more than 50,000 and was fueled by one of Africa's curses; the diamond.
The first, The Reader is about the story of an illiterate female prison officer that falls in love with a young supposedly Jewish law student that later participates in the trial of the gas chamber guard. The story shows the blind hand of fate and the innocent clash of two other-words irreconcilable worlds. The other movie, The Blood Diamonds tells Africa's miserly in dealing in its natural resources and its failure simply to connect source to market without a war. The story is told in the simplest of terms that only Hollywood knows and wants to understand about Africa and our confilcts.
As is expected, there's wielding of sharp machetes here, grosteque images of Africans butchering each other there and the occasional whiteman baffled by the exercise. The whiteman is on the beaches holidaying, holding a photo camera, sometimes writing the next big humanitarian story from Africa for a major media house in the US or Europe and other times it shows the businessman unconcerned with a 'dark' people who cannot coexist peacefully while he is doing business.
From my simple write up you can tell one thing, the way that I grasped the stark contrasts in the two movies. The complicated nature of the legacy of Nazi German and the simple 'good bad' guy in the African story.
The European story is told in such a way that tells of sophistication, it is a civilized encounter among human beings that are innocent. On other hand, the African story is told in such way that its actors are simple blood thirsty vampires bent on eliminating each other by virtue of greed for resources whose value they cannot grasp as the diamonds are shown to be traded far away in Europe.
And thats the story of Africa. Since most people out of AFrica never read about the continent in books or in newspapers, they know most things about the continent from movies, and some times (honourably) wildlife features about the animals on the continent. (It is my opinion that Europeans and North Americans know more about the animals in Africa than the people living in the continent.)
So since movies tell their stories in terms of good and bad guys, most people outside Africa know of the continent in terms of good and bad guys too-recently, an acquaintance introduced me to his North American girlfriend, "he is among the good guys", and I was baffled by what he meant.
If one comes from Rwanda and travels to another part of Africa or the world, they will once in a while be asked a question or two after the proverbial; 'Where do you come from?" Having established that one is from Rwanda the next question or conversation will be probing to establish whether one is Tutsi or Hutu, in order to place you among the good or bad guys of Africa. And people in developed countries know about conversations and getting information when they want to. They thrive on information afterall.
To many, this probing is humiliating, some foolish people are quick to point out that they are Tutsi as this is likely to win any sympathy votes, (In a related idea and also as part of this paradox, every Rwandan that goes outside Africa automatically gets the Tutsi tag and plucks it on a pedestal.) There are categories of bad and good in other parts of the world as there was during the holocaust but their differences were not recorded on obvious structures as ours.
In the same way, if you were asked to describe the bad guys of the European genocides, (they have had a couple there, have they not?) This description will pit one particular idea against another. No particular specifics, these are civilizations after all. It is not really popular how the Jews were identified for extermination by the Nazi for example, but there's a wide collection of variables that the Hutu used to butcher the Tutsi in Rwanda. If the identity card never gave one a particular designation of tribe, you could look at the neck, the mouth, demeanor, the hair, complexion and particularly the nose.
The good bad guy analogy is a simple one in the Rwandan context, this is because of the fact that as as you answer innocent queries about your Hutuness or Tutsiness ( such that one can approve whether what they watched is true) They have a set of givens and trademarks as established by anthropologists. It is an attempt to show the blur on the African story.
Closer to home, the story of Rwanda's genocide-in its most famous script as told by Paul Rusesabagina and his book; "An Ordinary man" way after he left Rwanda, and more eloquently in Hotel Rwanda is the moral of this rambling.
When a local story is told in the eyes of a foreign audience and acted out for that audience the people affected by actual events of the story become figures, graphs and theories. And in this way Africa misses out in the real story of the world, our story is told only when a powerful entertainer visits and we take advantage of the photo ops or a charity organization makes a video asking for sponsors of this or that cause. (Hotel Rwanda is off a book written by a Hutu man, and acted by an American and a Nigerian plus a couple of Ugandans.)
The people that are living the events are reduced to appear as extras. It is with this hindsight that French president Nicholas Sarkozy remarked in 2007 at a Senegalese University ‘Africa has never entered history.’ Africa needs to find a way to help real African story tellers to get into mainstream media outlets. Or even easier to develop our own media where we will not be fed on other people's impressions of us.
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Awareness lacking as full customs union and common market begin in 2010
BY GEORGE KAGAME
I am going to step into the muddy waters that is the relationship between Tanzania and Kenya as well as between Tanzania and the five members of the East African Community.
But before I do that I suggest that you find/if you have not yet/ read a book titled; “The Shackled Continent.”
The Economist Reporter Robert Guest like so many before him writes about the mess that has been Africa since the end of colonialism, he attempts as much as only a journalist can to ask; “Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the last three decades. Why?”
The book is not likely to show you much more that you have not read elsewhere, nevertheless, it is rich with dozes of information that can come in handy while you have a pub/living room/class/garden or roadside chat under a tree shade about Africa.
First, to tell you briefly about the book. The general idea that Guest discusses is that Africans lack property rights or any awareness about it, have not experienced economic integration in small part due to our tribal tendencies and its evils, and have an obsession with land that borders on religion.
Yet we just get pleasure in the perceived respect of owning land not necessarily using it to access any meaningful financial services that can create capital and spur investments for development. The same belief that my forefathers had in owning many heads of cattle but continued to live in shackled grass thatched houses and died of malaria.
I was thinking of this book recently when I received an email from a Tanzanian friend. The message was a long opinion about his concerns in regard to the the East African Community.
To take you to the message I received from my Tanzanian colleague, he was reacting to a Kenyan media story concerning Tanzania’s reluctance in fast tracking the East African Community and all its frameworks. Like all the five members in the group using a similar passport, a single customs union, single currency and all the prerequisites for economic integrations.
The Kenyan story, allegedly had alluded to Tanzania being a ‘poor dirty’ country, and that Kenyans spoke ‘better broken English’ than the Tanzanians and would therefore be better prospects for business. The Tanzanian was so bitter in his reply that with pure African emotion wrote; “ If defending our great country means the death of the federation, so be it!” He went on to add that Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda are only motivated by the desire to grab Tanzanian land rather than trade, be mutually benefiting neighbours or even share their own resources with Tanzania.
According to him, Tanzania’s land will be fleeced by the other members of the EAC, the other countries have acute land shortage and Tanzania is the answer as it is the biggest country among the five and has a relatively small population.
The relationship between Tanzania and Kenya is a complicated affair, it is especially complicated if you are a Rwandan writing about it. Seeing as it is that Rwanda has been the most vocal and active member of the EAC, we were invited to the EAC late and we were given a set of conditions to fulfill and reforms to undertake so as to access full membership to the block.
As a result, the government introduced massive reforms to be able to join not only the EAC, but do well in The World Bank Business reforms and put in place the prerequisites of joining The Commonwealth family as well. Because of this, Rwanda’s overzealous ambition for reforms was seen as despair by many in the block.
And considering that only 15 years ago there was a Genocide in Rwanda which claimed over a million people, it was/is simply and conveniently argued that we are too many to fit in the country and therefore we are joining these blocks to reduce population pressure. Therefore for a Rwandan to attempt to tell a Tanzanian to relax that we are not after your land is a tough call.
But in the larger scheme of things, Tanzania and Kenya have a very complicated relationship. In my limited experience visiting and working in these countries this relationship is basically made intriguing because of the crucial tourism industry. In this regard, Tanzania has some of the world’s best and largest collection of natural tourist attractions in terms of game parks, lakes, and history as well as having their capital on the ocean.
On the other hand, Kenya with less natural tourist attractions has expert management that markets their tourism in the country a pillar of the economy. Yet the kenyan tourism industry to a large degree benefits from being closer to Tanzania’s wealth of natural God made beauty like Kilimanjaro, exploiting the Serengeti as well as the elegant and prized Ngorongoro crater to attract high end tourists.
This nature of business has continued for a very long while where Kenya uses Tanzania’s natural blessings to attract tourists and the tourists spending all their money in Kenya rather than Tanzania.
Tanzanian politicians on the other hand saw this as an opportunity, they developed the mining industry at the expense of other sectors of the economy and turned national anger towards Kenya. The mining industry is first of all an expensive one as it is capital intensive, it employs a small fraction of locals and is further riddled with corruption bugs everywhere.
The rhetoric was first, they earn millions of dollars in tourism which would be coming to Tanzania and now have ganged up with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi marketing the EAC? They only want your land. So the anger of Tanzanians against the EAC idea while misplaced is justified.
Even the land that is politicized is a misrepresentation of the reality, a large part of Tanzania’s land covering huge expanses in the west of the country is not ideal for any agriculture, it is lacking in water and is invested with herds of mosquitoes.
The view that other members of the EAC are short of land for their people is a popular one in Tanzania, many in this country believe that the EAC is a project aimed at hoodwinking Tanzanians into loosing their land.
It believed in many EAC circles that this idea has frustrated negotiations in the progress of the EAC unfortunately, and at some point Tanzania, in an apparent show of protest joined the South African Development Cooperation to target investments from the wealthy South Africa, booming Botswana and emerging Malawi. Even if this did not stop Kenya being the biggest investor in Tanzania after Britain.
According to highly credible regional business publication The Ratio magazine, “Kenya remains one of Tanzania’s largest investors – in fact, the country has more investments in Tanzania than South Africa, according to the 2007 investment records from the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). Britain had 595 projects worth USD1,115m, with at least 232,030 jobs. In the same year, Kenya had 249 projects valued at USD958.21m, employing 37,511 people.”
The British investments are in the mining sector which mainly benefits politicians and technocrats who are not really Tanzanians and most earnings from this sector is repatriated while the Kenyans invest in consumer services like banks, hotels and shopping malls that benefit regular Tanzanian folks.
Tanzania is itself benefitting from the EAC already, Ugandans have opened their schools for students from Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi to access this quality services, while Rwanda-which is in dire need of expert labour has opened her doors to expatriate Tanzanians to work there in technical capacities.
Regional EAC trade has been increasing since the customs union was launched in 2005, and should continue to rise as internal tariffs come down to 0% in January at the onset of a fully fledged Customs Union, also many companies have moved into Tanzania to take advantage of its port access and borders with growing markets such as Malawi and Zambia .
As the customs union becomes a reality next year, the EAC secretariat needs to get out of hotel rooms and the politics of travel allowances to the field. There’s urgent need to sensitize East Africans what the mutual benefits of the union is about and go beyond the politics of blind and sentimental nationalism.
And talking about land, Tanzania is now in negotiations to sell 1,000 square kilometers (386 sq miles) to South Koreans and leasing 500,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania to Saudis to grow rice and wheat, which means the country has already decided to deal land, therefore the system there needs to depoliticize EAC and land.
I am going to step into the muddy waters that is the relationship between Tanzania and Kenya as well as between Tanzania and the five members of the East African Community.
But before I do that I suggest that you find/if you have not yet/ read a book titled; “The Shackled Continent.”
The Economist Reporter Robert Guest like so many before him writes about the mess that has been Africa since the end of colonialism, he attempts as much as only a journalist can to ask; “Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the last three decades. Why?”
The book is not likely to show you much more that you have not read elsewhere, nevertheless, it is rich with dozes of information that can come in handy while you have a pub/living room/class/garden or roadside chat under a tree shade about Africa.
First, to tell you briefly about the book. The general idea that Guest discusses is that Africans lack property rights or any awareness about it, have not experienced economic integration in small part due to our tribal tendencies and its evils, and have an obsession with land that borders on religion.
Yet we just get pleasure in the perceived respect of owning land not necessarily using it to access any meaningful financial services that can create capital and spur investments for development. The same belief that my forefathers had in owning many heads of cattle but continued to live in shackled grass thatched houses and died of malaria.
I was thinking of this book recently when I received an email from a Tanzanian friend. The message was a long opinion about his concerns in regard to the the East African Community.
To take you to the message I received from my Tanzanian colleague, he was reacting to a Kenyan media story concerning Tanzania’s reluctance in fast tracking the East African Community and all its frameworks. Like all the five members in the group using a similar passport, a single customs union, single currency and all the prerequisites for economic integrations.
The Kenyan story, allegedly had alluded to Tanzania being a ‘poor dirty’ country, and that Kenyans spoke ‘better broken English’ than the Tanzanians and would therefore be better prospects for business. The Tanzanian was so bitter in his reply that with pure African emotion wrote; “ If defending our great country means the death of the federation, so be it!” He went on to add that Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda are only motivated by the desire to grab Tanzanian land rather than trade, be mutually benefiting neighbours or even share their own resources with Tanzania.
According to him, Tanzania’s land will be fleeced by the other members of the EAC, the other countries have acute land shortage and Tanzania is the answer as it is the biggest country among the five and has a relatively small population.
The relationship between Tanzania and Kenya is a complicated affair, it is especially complicated if you are a Rwandan writing about it. Seeing as it is that Rwanda has been the most vocal and active member of the EAC, we were invited to the EAC late and we were given a set of conditions to fulfill and reforms to undertake so as to access full membership to the block.
As a result, the government introduced massive reforms to be able to join not only the EAC, but do well in The World Bank Business reforms and put in place the prerequisites of joining The Commonwealth family as well. Because of this, Rwanda’s overzealous ambition for reforms was seen as despair by many in the block.
And considering that only 15 years ago there was a Genocide in Rwanda which claimed over a million people, it was/is simply and conveniently argued that we are too many to fit in the country and therefore we are joining these blocks to reduce population pressure. Therefore for a Rwandan to attempt to tell a Tanzanian to relax that we are not after your land is a tough call.
But in the larger scheme of things, Tanzania and Kenya have a very complicated relationship. In my limited experience visiting and working in these countries this relationship is basically made intriguing because of the crucial tourism industry. In this regard, Tanzania has some of the world’s best and largest collection of natural tourist attractions in terms of game parks, lakes, and history as well as having their capital on the ocean.
On the other hand, Kenya with less natural tourist attractions has expert management that markets their tourism in the country a pillar of the economy. Yet the kenyan tourism industry to a large degree benefits from being closer to Tanzania’s wealth of natural God made beauty like Kilimanjaro, exploiting the Serengeti as well as the elegant and prized Ngorongoro crater to attract high end tourists.
This nature of business has continued for a very long while where Kenya uses Tanzania’s natural blessings to attract tourists and the tourists spending all their money in Kenya rather than Tanzania.
Tanzanian politicians on the other hand saw this as an opportunity, they developed the mining industry at the expense of other sectors of the economy and turned national anger towards Kenya. The mining industry is first of all an expensive one as it is capital intensive, it employs a small fraction of locals and is further riddled with corruption bugs everywhere.
The rhetoric was first, they earn millions of dollars in tourism which would be coming to Tanzania and now have ganged up with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi marketing the EAC? They only want your land. So the anger of Tanzanians against the EAC idea while misplaced is justified.
Even the land that is politicized is a misrepresentation of the reality, a large part of Tanzania’s land covering huge expanses in the west of the country is not ideal for any agriculture, it is lacking in water and is invested with herds of mosquitoes.
The view that other members of the EAC are short of land for their people is a popular one in Tanzania, many in this country believe that the EAC is a project aimed at hoodwinking Tanzanians into loosing their land.
It believed in many EAC circles that this idea has frustrated negotiations in the progress of the EAC unfortunately, and at some point Tanzania, in an apparent show of protest joined the South African Development Cooperation to target investments from the wealthy South Africa, booming Botswana and emerging Malawi. Even if this did not stop Kenya being the biggest investor in Tanzania after Britain.
According to highly credible regional business publication The Ratio magazine, “Kenya remains one of Tanzania’s largest investors – in fact, the country has more investments in Tanzania than South Africa, according to the 2007 investment records from the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). Britain had 595 projects worth USD1,115m, with at least 232,030 jobs. In the same year, Kenya had 249 projects valued at USD958.21m, employing 37,511 people.”
The British investments are in the mining sector which mainly benefits politicians and technocrats who are not really Tanzanians and most earnings from this sector is repatriated while the Kenyans invest in consumer services like banks, hotels and shopping malls that benefit regular Tanzanian folks.
Tanzania is itself benefitting from the EAC already, Ugandans have opened their schools for students from Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi to access this quality services, while Rwanda-which is in dire need of expert labour has opened her doors to expatriate Tanzanians to work there in technical capacities.
Regional EAC trade has been increasing since the customs union was launched in 2005, and should continue to rise as internal tariffs come down to 0% in January at the onset of a fully fledged Customs Union, also many companies have moved into Tanzania to take advantage of its port access and borders with growing markets such as Malawi and Zambia .
As the customs union becomes a reality next year, the EAC secretariat needs to get out of hotel rooms and the politics of travel allowances to the field. There’s urgent need to sensitize East Africans what the mutual benefits of the union is about and go beyond the politics of blind and sentimental nationalism.
And talking about land, Tanzania is now in negotiations to sell 1,000 square kilometers (386 sq miles) to South Koreans and leasing 500,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania to Saudis to grow rice and wheat, which means the country has already decided to deal land, therefore the system there needs to depoliticize EAC and land.
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