Dar es Salaam is a city that was designed to accommodate roughly 300,000 inhabitants. There are more than 3.3 million people living in Dar es Salaam at this time so one can certainly see why traffic is such a pain. Add to that the fact that many streets are unnamed, that urban development followed no structural plan but a constant ad-hoc expansion of the city and then one can certainly become a little bit more optimistic: it could have been much worse than it actually is. Another issue that needs to be taken into consideration is the narrowness of the roads in the city. Many of these streets can only accommodate two lanes but if you take into consideration the cars parked on both sides of the street at all time, driving in Dar es Salaam is like being an overweight mole in the ground trying to constantly squeeze in through the tunnels that can no longer accommodate the animal.

The local authorities have recently announced that starting as of next year, things will change. An Italian company has been chosen to carry out an urban development project meant to ease the traffic and create new arteries throughout the city. Pompously called the Dar es Salaam Transport Policy and System Development Master Plan, the estimated 3 billion-project that is co-financed by the World Bank is assumed to take at least five years to complete (call me cynical, but i will eat my hat if the project is actually completed in time!).  The plan was designed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and it looks strikingly similar to an earlier plan made by a bunch of Canadian consultants back in 1979, a plan which failed to be financed by the government because Tanzania had to channel its resources at the time towards ousting Idi Amin from power in neighboring Uganda (an endeavor which cost the Nyerere government at the time more than 500 million dollars).

According to the Citizen:

Apart from the flyover bridges, it proposes widening the main arterial highways – Morogoro, New Bagamoyo, Nyerere and Kilwa roads – and also constructing roads parallel to Ali Hassan Mwinyi the Selandar Bridge area, as well as near Morogoro Road, to relieve some of the bottlenecks at rush hours. JICA also recommends revamping public transportation through more effective regulation, and to encourage more commuters to use public transportation rather than personal vehicles.

Typical Dar es Salaam road

I’m not an urban developer, but I have spent countless hours in traffic in Dar es Salaam. And during those hours the only thing I would think of was precisely how congested the city was. And then the one thing that troubled my imaginary plan to redesign the city were the private businesses and residential areas that stand against such an ambitious plan. I don’t even think that 3 billion dollars would be enough to give a fair compensation to the people who reside along the main arteries in Dar es Salaam which this plan attempts to redesign. In addition, I agree with the plan’s assertion that some arteries should be assigned as expressways, but I fear that there aren’t enough roads in the city to allow for the reservation of particular streets as “heavy-loaded roads”.

Changing gears for a second, I find it quite interesting that the project was assigned to an Italian company. Italian private entrepreneurs have become a part of African economies in a rather silent and unceremonious way. From various Italian NGOs and hostels in Dar es Salaam, to the Italian tourist operators in Malindi (Kenya) and Kampala (Uganda) and in much of Southern Africa (I stayed at Italian guesthouses in Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique over the last five years), Italian private ventures are everywhere in Africa. And, honestly, I don’t have a problem with that but I am quite surprised that very few people are actually analyzing these entrepreneurs. They seem to be discrete, cost-efficient and highly skilled, predominantly middle-aged men (a generalization I base solely on the Italian businesses I have been exposed to) and they are all seeing to their business relations, staying out of the political and public sphere. In addition, the two Italian businesses I know in Dar es Salaam are also very aware of the local customs and informal relations as their owners constantly pay off local policemen  to avoid harassment and constant raids. Without a doubt, this new master plan is the largest project assigned to an Italian private firm and I hope that more journalists and researchers find the time to look more into it, at the very least for information purposes. For now, however, I find that both the Italian communities in East Africa and the new master plan’s long-term consequences are severely under researched to the point of neglection. And that can’t really help anyone…

You can read more about the Dar es Salaam Transport Policy and System Development Master Plan here.

Brain drain and Africa are old acquaintances. For as long as we have heard of post-colonial Africa, we’ve known of people leaving the continent, willingly or not (or better said because they had no other choice), in search for a better place. And the problem with a phenomenon like brain drain is that it is so overused in development/ political discourse that it somehow becomes meaningless. If you grew up hearing about, you would likely not pay attention to it. Or better said not internalize it as a real problem. But as it turns out, brain drain can have a direct impact on current affairs and, in some industries / business sectors, the effects of brain drain can be disastrous. For Africans and Westerners alike.

The East African ran a piece this week on flight controllers (the technicians who coordinate pilots for takeoff/ landing procedures). As it turns out, both in Kenya and Tanzania, flight controllers seem to be leaving the country for other regions and airlines. For various monetary reasons, the numbers of controllers have not been increased for quite a while. What’s the situation at right now? Uganda has 80 controllers, Tanzania 50 (for 12 airports) and Kenya 150 (to operate 8 airports).

To be an air traffic controller is no easy job. In fact, some consider this job to be one of the most demanding in the world because one employee has to take into account a very large number of variables in their daily work (there are so many things that can go wrong at once!). Combine that with the fact that this is a highly specialized and skilled job and you can certainly understand why a) East African air traffic controllers would like to leave the country and get a better salary (UK average per controller is 90,000 pounds a year) and b) how the rest of us interested in traveling to East Africa might somewhat be…screwed.

Benjamin wa Mambo, photo credit: Facebook

Art in Tanzania is an NGO operating in East Africa with projects in Tanzania and Ethiopia. One of their amazing initiatives has been to promote and support local artists and assist them with recording and promoting their music. This project has had some success and the organization is working on new strategies that will give their projects more media exposure. Recently, one of the young artists that joined the project finished recording an awesome song and this post is primarily dedicated to that. The artist is called Benjamin Wa Mambo and the song is called Nimefulia. You can listen to the song here. Also, the artist is on Facebook so if you want to add and express your support for his work, you are welcome to do so. Enjoy! Also, if you have any interest in volunteering in Tanzania you should definitely try to get in touch with the people at Art in Tanzania. They have over 1500 volunteers working on their projects every year.

This video gives you an idea of a project led by Art in Tanzania:

“I have complex feelings about Eastwood and his libertarian politics: for me, he has never understood social processes, and works with lone, heroic figures that must triumph despite society and law. So I felt sure that he would scant the complex historical forces at play in Mandela’s historical role, and in the South African transition. Resorting to the game and the world cup was then a simple formulaic device to reduce these complexities, and also the challenges of nation-building under postcolonial conditions.”

Invictus was only the second movie directed by Eastwood that I’ve seen, after Million Dollar Baby. Recently, I watched an older Africa-related movie made by Eastwood, called White Hunter, Black Hurt. And now I accurately understand what my acquaintance meant.

Eastwood plays the flamboyant and historical character of director John Huston, the famous filmmaker and screenwriter who made African Queen, one of the earliest movies about Africa. Called John Wilson here, Huston has two obsessions: he wants to make a wonderful movie and kill an elephant. Why killing an elephant? Because it’s a sin he wants to commit. White Hunter, Black Hurt, an adaptation of the novel with the same name, deconstructs these obsessions and tries to make sense of this extremely complex personality. To some extent, Eastwood is successful in his endeavor. The character he plays borders paranoia and shows a libertarian mantra so uncharacteristic of people of his time (the action happens in the early aftermath of the Second Word War).

Making a movie about the conflicts inside an artist is quite an appealing project. But what Eastwood, the director does, is exactly what the anthropologist quoted earlier said. He oversimplifies the realities of the time and portrays an eccentric man who fights against everyone for justice. Which ends up being a quite shortsighted perspective.

Wilson goes to Africa accompanied by his friend, Pete Verrill, an elegant Jewish young man whose main mission is to smile, entertain his older companion and keep him on track with his project.  When they reach Africa, Uganda to be more precise, they go to Lake Victoria hotel, a famous high class hotel owned by a white settler. One evening, the two have diner with a gorgeous young woman who Wilson fancies quite a lot. But it turns out that she’s anti-Semite which makes the old director snipe and dismiss her in a very brutal manner out of reverence for his younger friend. But immediately after that, a servant drops a tray and is mistreated by his white employee. That makes Wilson go after this guy as well. The character challenges the white owner to a fight and then tells Verrill: “we fought the preliminary for the kikes now we will fight the main event for the niggers.” Really? Is that Eastwood’s conception of an individual making the world a better place? Granted that his character admits he’s an intruder in Africa, do we really reduce racism and anti-Semitism to a snide dismissal over a glass of wine and a fistfight? Seriously…

See the scene for yourself right here:

This movie might have some interesting scenes but overall it’s way too verbose and, as I’ve been pointing out, it oversimplifies some of the issues it deals with, to the extent that it looks fake. On a different note, both Eastwood and Jeff Fahey (as Pete Verrill) play their characters quite honorably (my criticisms are related to the script and the vision of this movie, not the actors’ play). In addition, the limited glimpses of African life that we get are quite charming. Parts of the dialogue, especially between Wilson and his producer are hilarious. This suggests that there might be some value in watching White Hunter, Black Hurt after all.

The tragedy with Clint Eastwood and his character is that they both believe that small gestures can have a huge impact or that they mean a lot. They can, but not always.

This movie has a 90% rank on rottentomatoes.com which I find completely overrated.

I give this movie 4/10 as I ultimately considered watching it a waste of my time.

Movie trailer:

To me, the most emotional part of the movie is not his return to Kisumu, but his visit to the refugee camp in Chad. He is exposed to terrifying stories about their daily struggles and the lives they are condemned to live. Both Barack and Michele are devastated by what they hear and pledge to take a direct interest in the region. But the Darfur issue, like all the other major themes in this documentary, is treated in rather shallow and superficial terms. The hard questions are never asked and to a great extent Obama seems very cautious not to upset anyone in his travels. Which, in turn, upsets me as a viewer with a ground knowledge of African politics and realities.

I cannot say I didn’t like the movie as a whole but the complete lack of objectivity and impartial narrative line was something I was rather uncomfortable with. Given the fact that I’ve been an Obama supporter from 2006 I didn’t need any convincing that the current president is a great politician, which means that I expected more from this DVD. I didn’t get it. At the end of the 60 minute long documentary, we still don’t know what Obama’s view of African politics is, what his vision for the continent might look like and whether he approves or disproves of how politics is made across Africa or say the least in his father’s native country. He takes an equidistant stand on African current affairs and his speeches are rather broad and definitely not indicative of what his thoughts and views of the continent are.

In some ways, watching this documentary made me think how disappointed I would have felt, if I were an average Kenyan who might have had the chance to meet Obama on this trip. The senator sounds so interested in African politics, in the small businesses or the social issues he addresses and he definitely gives you the feeling that this great American will in fact give his best in trying to enact change in US foreign politics. Everywhere he goes, specifically in Kenya, he is welcome like a local hero, a man who succeeded in his life and is now ready to give back to his community. I’m not saying that Obama is socially or culturally Kenyan, in fact I believe quite the opposite (that he is truly American) but to the people he meets and interacts with, that’s how he looks like.

Obama makes what turned out to be an unfulfilled promise in this documentary. In one of his speeches he promises to try to shape the United States’ policy towards Africa so that the interests of the countries he visits will be addressed to their benefits. Five years later we see that his pledge has yet to be addressed. Perhaps now President Obama is the one who should watch this documentary, as he clearly suggests that the continent might be of great significance to America’s interests which has yet to be seen in US foreign policy.

I rate this documentary 6/10

Movie Trailer

90 people lost their lives in a EA plane crash two days ago. My most sincere condolences go to the families affected by this tragedy. It is only the third fatal accident in Ethiopian Airlines’ history, the largest airline in Africa.

If you have dollars, Euros or any major currency, you should make sure you bring 100 euro / dollar bills. In East Africa, you get a better rate for 50 / 100 bills than for 10/20 bills. (EAC)

Whereas this has not been such a problem as in the past years, I advise you not to take pictures in front of the government buildings in the city. Policemen might stop you and ask you to either delete the picture or even try to confiscate your camera. This whole picture-free policy followed the 1998 bomb attacks on the American Embassy in the city. Officials believed that the bombers posed as tourists and took pictures of the embassy from different angles. So they now forbid anyone to take pictures of the government buildings. It’s kind of a narrow-minded policy simply because you can take pictures of these buildings from any hotels neighboring any of these buildings but, you know, it’s the law. Personally, I took pictures in front of all these buildings because some of them are quite beautiful and old. But I always looked for policemen and took the pictures very fast and then left the place while hiding my camera. So it’s up to you if you want to risk having an argument with a policeman or not. Just for your information, at the Parliament you might be able to ask the guards to take 1-2 pictures in front of the building if you promise them that you will be in the photo and not simply trying to take pictures of the building.

***EAC – if you see the symbol EAC at the end of some of the 20 recommendations listed in this post, the same rules apply to all the other countries that are a part of the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi.)

Sidede Onyulo as Owour, in Nowhere in Africa, the role he will always be remembered for

Sidede Onyulo (1955 – 2008) was an internationally acclaimed Kenyan actor, most famous for his role as Owour in Oscar winning movie Nowhere in Africa or his performance as Ignosi in the 2004 adaptation of King Solomon’s Mines. He is also credited for his brief role in another Oscar winning movie that had a very wide international exposure: Constant Gardener.

 Sidede Onyulo was born in Kajulu (Kenya), attended school at Muthaiga Primary (1965-1968) and at Nairobi Secondary and High School (1969-1978) before enrolling at the University of Nairobi where he studied law between 1975 and 1978. In 1979, Onyulo quit his law practice and decided to embrace theatre, a decision that was denounced by his friends and his family. Onyulo explained in an interview why acting had such a small number of fans in Kenya:

“They think this is a career that should not be taken seriously and look down upon actors. They think we are mad the way the people of Kafira thought Jasper Wendo was in Betrayal of the city.”

He made his acting debut with Jero in Wole Soyinka’s play Trials of Brother Jero. He followed this with various roles in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Trial of Dedan Kimathi and Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City which were also presented at All Africa Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Nigeria in 1977.

Onyulo made his film debut in 1987 when he received the role of a house boy in Shadow on the Sun.

It is said that Kenyan film experts recommended him at a very early stage for the role of Owour, in Nowhere in Africa, but he could not be found, having moved away from Nairobi to Kisumu, in the Western part of Kenya. A local casting agent tracked him down to his home village of Lake Victoria and offered him the role that brought him fame at an international level.

 He is credited for the following movies: The Last Elephant (1990), Eye of a Witness (1991), Two worlds, Nowhere in Africa (2003), King Solomon’s Mines (2004), and The Constant Gardener (2005).

 It is a real shame that an actor of such talent would leave this world without a word of appraisal.