Somewhere in Tanzania

Tarangire National Park

A week after the baby

Just a week after she had a baby Lauryn Hill took the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stage by storm as she performed at the 2011 L.A. Rising Festival in Los Angeles. And I gotta say She looks great! This is ththe best I've seen her in a while...

Egypt's First Female Candidate runs for presidency

She'll be running later this year, Political activist Bothaina Kamel...This is a great message she's sending...
A woman is equal to a man, and we, as young people are convinced of that. But the nature of Egyptian culture, as an eastern, Muslim man, they would not allow for a woman to rule them. But everyone knows inside of them that a woman is equal to a man - we have women managers and ministers, but we have not reached the stage where the president can be a woman


So long as we are demanding the removal of a structure, then we as revolutionaries, have to propose alternatives.

The first message I received, which really made me aware of the importance of the announcement of my candidacy and all that followed -- through the trips to different parts across Egypt was a message on the internet from a girl who told me: Auntie, I know your road is difficult and your experiment is not easy, but you have opened the doors of hope for us to dream of leadership positions in our country and of the presidency of the Republic.

My presidential agenda, the main outline, is the same as the slogans of January 25th: 'Dignity, Freedom and Social Justice'. This is based upon two central ideas, the fight against poverty and the fight against corruption.

Mara Hoffman's Africa Inspired Swimwear...

I love these swimwear pieces with the tribal vibe to em, Earlier this year, her swimwear was Ndebele inspired... And she's creating a trend with this African print swimwear, I'm loving these recent pieces as well..

Save Africa...

This might be an old article, but I stumbled upon it and it seemed worth sharing...

Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.

"Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!

My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.

"Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.

It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.

Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/" I am African" ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, "help us stop the dying."

There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority.

My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like "Can Bono Save Africa?" or "Will Brangelina Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."

Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been "granted independence from their colonial masters," as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?

Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.

Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.

By Uzodinma Iweala
Washington Post

Grafiti on the walls of Tanzania

Check out this art untold on the walls of Dar Es Salaam..

Tanzanians who believe in self expression through the creative arts, will chronicle Graffiti spotted in Tanzania and serve as a digital archive of a sub-culture, that has gone unrecognized for far too long


See more here

Tanzanian Scientist's Fight againts Malaria with Smelly socks...

Good News This morning, a Tanzanain scientist just might have discovered a possible a new tech fight against Malaria...with Smelly socks!! (Who woulda thought right?)

Researchers in Tanzania [spearheaded by Fredros Okumu, a Ph.D. candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in England] have chemically reproduced the stench of smelly feet in an innovative new approach to combat the spread of malaria in the country.

Mosquitoes are lured inside the boxes by the synthetic odor, which is dispersed by a solar-powered fan. Once inside, the insects are either trapped or poisoned and left to die.

“This is a great example of an African innovator, with an African innovation, tackling an African problem,” [said the head of the non-profit co-funding the project.]

"The goal is to eliminate malaria," said scientific researcher, Fredros Okumu, who is developing the technology. "We are going to do this by tackling the transmission of disease outside the house."
Mosquitoes are lured inside the boxes by the synthetic odor, which is dispersed by a solar-powered fan. Once inside, the insects are either trapped or poisoned and left to die.
"We know mosquitoes don't see people, they smell them." Okumu said.
The result, said Okumu, was a chemical blend that "smelt just like dirty socks."
"Substances we emit when we sweat, such as lactic acid, act as a signal to mosquitoes ... The aim here was to produce a mixture that would mimic a human being."
"If you came to our lab when the research was being done, you would have thought that someone had just come off a soccer field," he admitted.

Source:CNN