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Kiswahili Blogosphere This Week

Ndesanjo Macha · 14:41

Cows, human beings and camels - Indian Ocean, Tanzania by Michuzi

Official records in Tanzania and elsewhere state that in 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Did it really happen? Where is the original document of the Articles of the Union? Mwandani asks. Recently, 10 Zanzibaris went to court seeking the Articles of the Union from the Zanzibar Attorney General, Idd Pandu Hassan. To the shock of many Tanzanians, the Attorney General, in a counter-affidavit, said that he does not have the Articles of the Union. Neither does he know who has them.

Picking up on the Union controversy, Kasri la Mwanazuo has decided to publish a play on his blog, Safari ya Mashua, about the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. This is the first time a Kiswahili blogger is publishing a play. Poems and short stories are very common.

Does the new statute in Dodoma of the first President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Nyerere, look like him? Asks Miruko, a journalist based in Dodoma, Tanzania. One of his readers thinks that the statute, which was made in South Korea, looks like Kim II Sung!

Another Kenyan blogger, Dollars4U, has joined Mawazo na Mawaidha, who has hitherto been the only Kiswahili blogger in the ever expanding Kenyan blogosphere. However, Dollars4U, unlike Mawazo na Mawaidha, is a bilingual blogger. He writes both in English and in Kiswahili. Recently, he posted a short documentary featuring East African renowned scholars, Alamin Mazrui, Prof. Ali Mazrui, and Ngugi wa Thing’o talking about the significance of African languages.

The 7th International Language and Development Conference took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last October. Mwandani supports the argument made at the conference that education in European languages depresses school achievement in Sub Saharan Africa.

While Kiswahili bloggers consider their use of Kiswahili as a means to decolonize cyberspace, Father Privatus Karugendo, a Roman Catholic priest in Tanzania, writes a feature article in Pambazuko challenging Kiswahili bloggers to first “decolonize” the language itself from Arabic influence.

The Internet is crucial for survival of African languages, notes Mwandani after reading this article. Has the Internet helped Kiswahili to reach its defining moment? (thanks Mawazo and Mawaidha for the link)

Dira Yangu writes about a recent statement by the Tanzanian President, Benjamin Mkapa, attacking the western media.

Nyembo calls the the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni a “King.” Museveni has officially decided to run for re-election following the constitutional amendment earlier this year, which allowed him to run for the third term. Nyembo calls him a “King.” Other former African Presidents such as Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia tried unsuccessfully to ammend their constitutions to run for the third term. Museveni's main challenger, Dr. Kiiza Besigye, has been detained and charged with treason and rape. He returned to Uganda from exile last October.

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Don’t Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers

Haitham Sabbah · 10:11

I've just got a tip from a staff member at Al Jazeera that they have just started a blog. Don’t Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers is the name of this blog.

Al Jazeera staff member told me that this blog is to give voice to a lot of concern around the office regarding what is going on - and will also serve as a tribute to fallen journalists.

Bookmark this blog: http://dontbomb.blogspot.com/

We are not afraid of your threats - we are journalists, by Aljazeera Staffer

On the other hand, Al Jazeera Staffer's has started a flickr album. The published photos so far are of today staff organized symbolic gathering outside their offices both in Doha and around the world on Thursday 24th of November 2005 at 2pm Doha time (GMT+3).

All of this comes as a reaction to the “Bush sought to bomb Aljazeera” news that was published up by the Daily Mirror a couple of days ago! [More details here]

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Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 10:09

This week was even quieter than last week in the Saudi blogosphere. However, we can still find some interesting posts from here and there. Unfortunately, most of our featured posts for this week are in Arabic. I know that most of you can't read Arabic, so I tried my best to translate the most significant parts of every post.

Prometheus compares between the Arab World and other parts of the world when it comes to publish hatred material (Arabic). He tells us is about two Singaporean bloggers who were jailed and fined after being accused with using their blogs to spread hatred and threaten the social peace. “It is different here,” he writes. “Some internet forums have been publishing threads by unknown writers, where they attack other religions and sects.” However, nothing is done about it. He also comments on the news about Bush's administration plans to bomb al-Jazeera TV station, and asks, “why should a big superpower with such a great political and diplomatic influence brush aside all other effective means of pressure and persuasion, and resort to force to silence a small TV station?”

Fouad al-Farhan has dedicated a post to the Swiss president (Arabic), who criticized the Tunisian government for their human rights record and their position from freedom of expression, and described him as a “free man.” After finishing his speech, the Swiss president went to sit on his chair next to the Tunisian president, who did not look disturbed at all. “He is a dictator. Do you expect that he would cry?” al-Farhan wrote.

Farooha comments on the case of Mohammed al-Harbi, a chemistry teacher, who was unfairly sentenced with three years in jail and 750 lashes. She calls everyone to help. “Save the chemist, and would be inventor by leaving these good people your two cents!” she wrote.

After the terrorism attack in Jordan, Abu Joori says the reaction of Jordanians to the attack was different from that one Saudis had (Arabic) when they had similar attacks in the past few years. He thinks the attack has helped Jordanians to form a national unity; something that Saudis did not do. He says, “I think we, as Saudis, have missed yet another excellent opportunity to develop the feeling of nationalism, and to emphasis the concept that we all share this part of the world, and it is our duty to protect it and serve it.”

“Even here at the Saudi blogosphere, we find some people who clearly announce their hatred to a certain sect, a certain region, or even to the American president George Bush, forgetting there are groups who attacked this nation, every citizen lives here, and they did not even said a word to condemn these attacks,” he added.

Metallic Kitty writes about racism against Arabs in Europe. “It sucks how most countries consider Arab people dogs,” she says. “Isn't that embarrassing? Isn't that shameful?” she asks. Meanwhile, ubergirl87 says she is “sick and tired of Hollywood portraying Arabs as ignorant, evil people.”

Finally, here is our weekly selection of random, quick snippets from around the Saudi blogosphere: Dotsson posts an imaginary and funny interview with Michael Jackson, who recently moved to what he called “our tiny neighbor Bahrain!” Jo describes the sense of independence she felt when she was able to cash a cheque. Trilancer is wondering what “exactly is happening to Arabian TV,” and thinks that Arabian channels are “competing in showing the most smut possible without triggering a riot.” And Tyt notices that the majority of Saudi bloggers in English are females. “We need to hear the opinions of the Saudi male bloggers,” he says.

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