What Would Julius Nyerere Do?
Recent and current leaders in Tanzania like to be compared to Mwalimu Nyerere. Take current president, John Magufuli. He has been working hard to claim Nyerere’s mantle.
Tanzania
The Great Question in Dar es Salaam
It’s the Great Question in business, and the Great Question in public offices.
The impasse in Zanzibar
After a tough election in Tanzania, won by the ruling party, a constitutional crisis looms in Zanzibar.
The year of the girl child in Tanzania?
October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child, and October 25 Tanzania will run Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The presidential elections, in particular, will or will not be the closest ever, depending on which poll one prefers, but one thing is clear: youth matters. According to the 2012 Census, of the close to 45 […]
The oil giants are coming to Tanzania
International oil giants are bearing down on East Africa. Off the coast of Tanzania, the discovery of 46.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves has put the country on the world energy map. The number is expected to rise to 200 trillion cubic feet in the next two years, and eventually transform Tanzania into […]
An Unflinching Take on Albino Killings in Tanzania
White Shadow, a feature film directed by Noaz Deshe and executive produced by the actor Ryan Gosling, tackles the persecution and killing of albinos, and the underground trade of their body parts for traditional medicine. This has long haunted Tanzania, a country that ironically has one of the highest percentages of albinism in the world. The film […]
Films to fall asleep to
Are development agencies derailing the film industry in Tanzania?
The Black Atlantis
The negative effects of tourism, globalization, and commercialization in Zanzibar.
Under Nelson Mandela Blvd, Part Two
A Story About Cape Town’s Tanzanian Stowaways—Spring 2011.
We need to talk about Jeremy Clarkson
"Top Gear" presents Africa as background to white, English gentlemanly machismo.
RIP Bi Kidude, Empress of East Africa
Bi Kidude, who died on April 17, 2013, was probably Tanzania's foremost singer and performer of Taarab music.
Weekend Music Break, N°35
We hardly ever feature Brazilian music, and even less their take on Afrobeat. The above tune by the Abayomy Afrobeat Orchestra dates from last year, but the video’s new. Hope to see more from them. We’ve got 9 more videos lined up for you this week. Ugandan duo Radio & Weasel came up with this:
Vice and Albinos in Tanzania
Vice.com's reductive and alarmist style of writing about the continent is not only outdated, but deplorable and contravenes responsible journalism.
Mozambique, the new frontier of global capitalism
What is being cultivated at the new frontier of global capitalism—and for whom?
The politics of translation
The film, "Veejays," comes across as an earnest attempt to learn about the ways people are remixing dominant culture industries to make their own.
New Media and Activism in Africa
The limitations of working in the online space, given the small percentages of people with online access (despite the expansion of mobile technology).
The Afrikaans struggle
The obituary of British anti-apartheid campaigner Bruce King makes reference to his marriage to his South African wife, Jamela Adams. It describes their wedding in “a Muslim ceremony in Cape Town” in 1964 in defiance of the Mixed Marriages Act. The couple left for England (presumably to have another ceremony there), and was then predictably refused entry back into South Africa. They then moved to Tanzania. But there’s this tidbit about their time in Tanzania:
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°4
Five for the weekend. I haven’t done this in a while. First up Philadelphians Chill Moody (rapper) and Cody Kahmar with the music video for “My Eyes”:
Music Break. Cabo Snoop
An older Cabo Snoop tune (kuduristas in Angola and elsewhere have been dancing to ‘Zagala’ since 2010) but it comes with a new video in which he gets away with dropping his name (and record) among the Kenyan Maasai, while effortlessly branding the South African clothing label Amakipkip in a next shot.
Al-Andalus in East Africa
The clear signs of African influence on the Arabian Peninsula and the cultural fluidity that exists throughout the Indian Ocean.