Polite Notice: 10 things I learned while in Kenya (and Tanzania)

1. Help people find their way if they're lost even if it takes you out of your way. (Nearly everyone did this for me and I was extremely grateful ... especially the time I got on the wrong matatu and ended up in Eastlands and had no clue how to get back to Westlands.)

2. I do not need many clothes to get by. (I landed in Nairobi with one - count it! one! - suitcase. I was told, "You don't look like you wear the same thing every day." See?)

3. Buy less.

4. Wear sunscreen.

5. Carry only "little money" and no bank cards. (This is partly for safety reasons in a big city like Nairobi, but it also was good for curbing any thoughtless spending.)

6. Eat whole foods, but not whole mangoes.

7. Be generous.

8. Talk to people.

9. Don't be too ambitious about how much you want to get done in a day. (Pole pole!)

10. There's dancing everywhere. Just go look for it.

Polite Notice: The electric purple tree is a jacaranda

Just in time for my departure from Nairobi I have learned that the electric purple trees I so love are actually jacarandas. 
This plant is native to South America and was introduced to parts of Africa (like East Africa) and is also found in Australia. 
I noticed the other day that the jacarandas on my street had shed all their blooms. So now they're just green leafy trees.

Polite Notice: One last video interview for the road

My colleagues at Fahamu gave me some lovely going-away presents. As a farewell gift to them, I quickly cut together this one-on-one interview between George, the programme officer overseeing Fahamu's Pan African Fellowship, and Firoze, Fahamu's recently retired director.

Polite Notice: Baby elephants will make your day

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi houses orphaned baby elephants (and rhinos - but these are elusive). 

I went to visit them on a Sunday morning. I edited this short video, taken with a point-and-shoot camera, with a program called VideoSpirit Pro (trial version). I'm not sure I fully understood the software because the audio cuts out under a few clips. This is definitely not Final Cut, but the elephants are cute anyway.

When a baby elephant (anywhere between birth and three years) is found alone in the wild, the Wildlife Trust is called in to rescue it and raise it at the orphanage before helping it to re-integrate into the wild. 

The re-integration process takes from age three to age eight. All of them, regardless of where they are found, are re-integrated into herds in Tsavo National Park. At the moment, there are 19 elephants at the Trust and two rhinos.

Some of the babies were found at the bottom of wells. They can fall in and their mothers are unable to rescue them, so they are left behind. Nearby people will hear them crying and call the wildlife authorities. Many elephants were orphaned by poachers who killed their mothers for their ivory tusks. A few were left orphaned when their mothers died from starvation in drought-affected areas of the country.

When they are old enough, they will slowly re-integrate into established herds in Tsavo. This process takes a long time because the baby elephants must develop a new "mistrust" for human beings after spending their infancy with them.

Watch and smile! These elephants are under 18 months old.

Polite Notice: Muthurwa residents are taking their case to court

Muthurwa is one of Nairobi’s oldest estates (by estate, I mean a sort of housing complex). More than 3,000 families live on what – by my totally unofficial estimate – is less than a square kilometer on the east edge of Nairobi’s downtown. 

Muthurwa was built by the Kenya Railways Corporation just after the Second World War to house its employees. When the railway was privatized a few years ago (thank you structural adjustment), residents had to start paying rent. Management of the estate was passed on to a separate entity, which has announced it plans to sell the land. Rows of houses (single-room dwellings) have been marked with large Xs for demolition.

I attended a community organizing meeting on Sunday, 24 October. (It was mostly in Swahili, but instructive nonetheless.) The residents are working with the rights NGO Kituo Cha Sheria to bring their case to court and put a stay on the demolition. (They already managed to stay the demolition once, back in July, when they were given three days – three days!! – notice to vacate their dwellings. They are living on borrowed time now.)

Under Kenya’s new constitution, the residents can plead with the court that their right to housing is being abused. As Priscilla from Kituo Cha Sheria told me, if they can’t save the houses, they at least want to fight for a dignified eviction. The residents need time to find new places to live.

Muthurwa is very conveniently located. Transport from the next affordable estate, one resident told me, would cost her 70 shillings (CAD$0.83) each day. She can’t afford that. Many of the residents either run small businesses in Muthurwa, or work in or near the downtown core.

Patrick is helping the residents organize. He works with Bunge la Mwananchi, a social movement in Kenya that was prominent in the run up to the constitutional referendum on 4 August this year. Bunge la Mwananchi mobilizes all sections of the grassroots for various causes. Here, with the help of Kituo Cha Sheria, they’re helping Muthurwa residents take their case to court.

On the Sunday I visited, the people elected 11 representatives to be their voices in court in November when they will go before the judge.

Last month, the water corporation shut off the water in Muthurwa. In July, several outdoor toilets were destroyed and a row of houses torn down. Muthurwa’s electricity was cut off around that time, too.

Polite Notice: iMovie ain't no Final Cut, but it will do the trick

I shot and edited a series of interviews for the launch of Fahamu's Pan African Fellowship Programme. This is an exciting project where ten young Kenyan grassroots activists will get training in activism, work in established NGOs and help strengthen their respective movements.

These interviews were shot on an HD handycam and edited with iMovie. Now, it's definitely less sophisticated than Final Cut (you can't split the audio tracks, for one, so all the background sound is there, and it's pretty loud) but I think it does the trick.

Polite Notice: Don't drink the tap water?

The tap water here seems fine. I boil it for five minutes and drink it, use it for cooking and brushing my teeth and I haven’t gotten sick or died (yet).

I stopped using bottled water when I realized a) it’s absurd to buy water in such large quantities! What did they build water pipes for then? b) I can’t lug 5L bottles of water home all the time from the supermarket. I walk everywhere here. c) those large plastic jugs seem awfully wasteful. I don’t know whether there’s any kind of recycling system in place for them, so I figure I won’t even put any into the system.

I know lots of expats who don’t even bother boiling the tap water before using it to drink or cook or brush their teeth. One day if I’m feeling especially fearless I will brush my teeth with water straight from the tap. For now, I’m a big kuku (chicken).

Polite Notice: Window shopping is easy

Lots of people have witnessed this around the world, but there’s something I like about street vendors. It’s like browsing the internet from the comfort of a car seat, or window shopping without walking. The vendor comes up to the window and shows you what she’s got and if you’re not interested, you move up. In Nairobi, there’s a stretch of Peponi Road near Westgate Mall where you can get all kinds of interesting things from vendors right in traffic. These include:

-         pet rabbits

-         puppies

-         skirts

-         peanuts

-         wire contraptions that look like TV antennas

-         screwdriver sets

-         kitchen knives

-         hand-made banana leaf note cards

-         newspapers (naturally)

-         paintings, batiks

-         pirated DVDs

-         plastic pinwheels

-         Kenyan flags

I know one person who has bought a rabbit (not clear whether it will need to visit a veterinarian and its gender also remains a mystery). I generally walk everywhere, so “window shopping” from the sidewalk is really more like having things thrust under my nose with expectant salesmen telling me they’ll give me a good price for the banana leaf sculpture/wire motorcycle toy/silkscreen art/pirated DVDs. I almost always say 'No thank you' but it's kind of fun to go through the ritual every day on my way home from work, otherwise I wouldn't pass anything really interesting. It's easy to window shop.

Polite Notice: Yes, Argentine tango is also African

I did not pack my dance shoes. I didn’t think Nairobi had any Argentine tango on offer. I was wrong! There is a fledgling tango community here in Nairobi thanks to a brave Maltese-Canadian who, after a lot of encouragement from two local "tangueras", decided to start teaching. He started an association called Patamango.

 

(Special thanks to Patamango Association for Argentine Tango for sharing this photo.)

I’m glad there is tango here in east Africa now. As a former student of African studies, I now have a new area of culture and diaspora to learn about.

The tango as we know it originated in Argentina about 150 years ago, but there are theories that suggest it is tied to African forms of music and dance.

My teacher recently sent me this article from the magazine Indy Week, on the theories of the historian Robert Farris Thompson, who suggests Africans and people from the African diaspora played a much larger role in tango than is actually acknowledged:

'The origins of tango are black, via Kongo culture imported from Central Africa and Cuba. Tango, "the fabulous dance of the past hundred years," started life as a creole: "the Kongo grind, caught in a waltz-like embrace."'

Among other things I have learned, tango is related to candombe (or candomble), danced mainly in Uruguay. Candombe is a musical genre that developed in Latin America among African slaves. It is a partner dance similar to tango, but danced with very bent knees.

There are theories that the name tango comes from Africa, too. One theory suggests the word “tango” comes from the Niger-Congo languages, but other theories suggest the name comes from the Latin word tangere, or to touch, or that it borrows its name from the musical form “tangos” in flamenco dance.

So the tango has come back to this part of Africa … but the dance shoes haven’t. I briefly considered having a pair made by the shoemaker in Sarit Centre mall (After all, how often does one have shoes made anymore? This is a service that I don’t think even exists in Canada anymore), except he doesn’t really deal in dance shoes, but rather in prescription orthopedic shoes, so he can’t make my dream of a pair of shoes in metallic light pink leather with silver straps come true.

Miraculously, I found a pair of affordable strappy heels that seem to substitute for tango shoes rather well, despite the fact that they have plastic soles, instead of suede ones. I dance twice a week now.

A few of us are advanced dancers. Most are beginners who seem really dedicated to the art form. There are a few dozen tangueros now (or maybe there are more in Nairobi and we just don’t know about them … I’m waiting for them to come out from behind the bushes).

I admit I also didn’t pack my dance shoes because I expected to sign up for a more “traditional” form of dance. Anyway, I stumbled on the tango – my favourite of favourites – and now I feel I can justify the choice because this is the continent where it all started.

Polite Notice: October 20 is Mashujaa Day

On Wednesday, October 20, 2010, Kenya celebrated its heroes. Instead of hanging around Uhuru Park and watching the parade, I went for a picnic at a park just outside Nairobi called Paradise Lost. The park, with its little lake where you can paddle boats, is surrounded by coffee plantations. There were plenty of picnickers, a camel, an ostrich, some horses, prehistoric caves (which seem quite comfortable for living in), and a beautiful narrow waterfall.

But back to Mashujaa Day. This was Kenya’s first Mashujaa Day (or Heroes Day). Up until this point, October 20 was known as Kenyatta Day, to honour Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first post-independence president.

Some critics say Kenyatta Day had become a little too Kenyatta-centric, instead of celebrating all the people who helped fight for Kenyan independence from British colonial rule. 

So, on Mashujaa Day, Kenyans celebrate heroes like Dedan Kimathi, the Mau Mau freedom fighter, and a group known as the Kapenguria Six: Achieng' Oneko, Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Jomo Kenyatta. 

Although I missed the president’s speech, the police parade and the fly-overs, I was a bit excited for Mashujaa Day. This is the first-ever Heroes Day, and it happened just a few months after Kenya proclaimed the Second Republic by passing its new constitution. 

President Mwai Kibaki’s speech at Uhuru Park (which I missed) went like this at the beginning: 

“It is my great pleasure to join you as we celebrate the first Mashujaa Day since the inception of our Second Republic that came into being following the promulgation of our new Constitution. Mashujaa are men and women who have made a lasting mark in the lives of fellow Kenyans and in the history and development of our country. They are men and women who have taken great risks in service to save, advance and protect their fellow citizens. These are also men and women whose hard work, courage and perseverance have had a great impact on the socio-economic well being of our people.” 

Some of the mashujaa he mentioned included:
1. Successful Kenyan companies like Equity Bank, KCB Bank, East Africa Breweries (brewers of Tusker beer), Safaricom, and tea and flower farms. (In Kenya, business owners are heroes. They take their status as regional economic powerhouse seriously.)
2. Kenyan scholars including the author Ngugi wa Thiong’o (who teaches in the United States) whom I admire immensely. He was shortlisted for the Nobel this year for his novel ‘Wizard of the Crow’. 

… but I was busy eating cheese sandwiches and exploring prehistoric caves when all this was being said.

Polite Notice: Please read my attempt at analytical journalism

Published today in the 500th edition of Pambazuka News in the Comment & Analysis section:

Panacea or predicament? Kenya's constitution and land rights

Polite Notice: Take your broad-spectrum antibiotics with you, even in Mombasa

I spent a weekend in Mombasa. Click on the pin-points on the map below to see what I managed to visit ... before I got sick with a mystery stomach bug and had to stay in bed.

Mombasa used to be a major trading centre along the East African coast. It is one of the oldest settlements in East Africa, in fact (at least 700 years!). Now it's also a major tourist area, thanks to the miles of sandy beaches. The old part of Momabasa town shows the influence of Portuguese rule, the British colonial period and local sultanates. The city is on an island linked to the mainland by a few roads.

My visit focused on the Portuguese-built Fort Jesus and Haller Park (further north up the coast).

View Mombasa in a larger map

Polite Notice: To Us, All Flowers Are Roses

I don’t usually quote poets in my head, but the purple-blossomed trees here make me think of Lorna Goodison’s poem, “To Us, All Flowers Are Roses.” (Goodison is a Jamaican poet, and her poem is really about place names in Jamaica, but for some reason, the electric purple trees remind me of it. I don't have Goodison's anthology here with me in Kenya, otherwise I would quote from it. It's a beautiful poem.) 

One of Kenya’s biggest industries is horticulture (flowers, fruits and vegetables are the top export). Kenya is Europe’s lead supplier of flowers, according to the Kenya Flower Council. The Kenya Horticultural Council reports that the horticulture sector grows by 15 to 20 per cent each year and employs 4.5 million people. Areas in southwestern Kenya have become major flower-growing centres: near Lake Naivasha, Nakuru, Mt. Elgon, Eldoret and the Mt. Kenya region.

The top exported flower? Roses. 

After some reading, I have learned that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) – to which Kenya still hasn’t signed on – are expected to make Kenya an even bigger flower and produce exporter to the EU. The EPAs are meant to establish free-trade areas between the European community and African, Caribbean and Pacific states. Proponents of the EPAs say that if Kenya doesn’t sign on, it could lose millions of shillings in revenue (EPAs are meant to be reciprocal). Other analysts, however, suggest that the EPAs favour Europe, since its cheaper goods will have easier access to African markets. All of this raises questions about whether policy priorities should centre on food self-sufficiency (floriculture uses a lot of arable land and water that, some critics argue, could be used to farm food for local consumption) or earning foreign exchange.

(If you're interested, you can read more about this debate in Khadija Sharife's story Biotechnology and Dispossessions in Kenya, in Pambazuka News' latest issue.)

I pass a garden centre on my way to work. It’s right at the edge of the road. Rows and rows of little black bags (or large white bags) of dirt – like flower pots – neatly sectioned off into blooming flowers, ground cover, ferns, trees, and even hanging plants. I don’t know much about flowers, so all I can spot so far are geraniums, impatiens, poinsettias, gerber daisies, and roses. Nairobi seems like a great city for a garden.

There are flowers all over Nairobi, in completely un-manicured places, too. For example, in the ditches along the sides of roads, there are tiny orange flowers growing on dusty bushes. Creeping up the fence outside the army barracks in the south end of the city are bright fuchsia flowers. Pink flowers cascade over the outer wall of the Progressive Park Hotel near my office. The flowers stand out against the sky (hazy quite often), the ground (rust-coloured dirt) and the buildings. The electric purple tree near my building makes me happy no matter what.