AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

The results for the first round of votes towards Canadian Blogs Awards are out.As you all know this blog had been nominated for Best Cultural Blog category.Unfortunately, this blog did not make it to the second round. You can see the results here. Does that surprise you? For sure it surprised me. I thought I had a better blog especially in that specific category of my nomination. What do you think?

What I know is that a lot of you voted for me. The numbers of e-mails, phone calls, sms etc. were overwhelming. THANK YOU very much to each one of you. That meant love, support, dedication, honor, respect and commitment towards Africa, culture, traditions, humanity and development.

This blog, at a wider point of view, stands for all of the above. Its people like you who, therefore, make it worthwhile to write, read and get challenged sometimes. I must also agree that the nomination made me feel good, made me feel that I am not just writing just in vain but for a live audience out there. Thank you to whoever suggested to the committee that I am nominated. That is enough reason for me to continue writing. I shall.

I wish the rest of the bloggers whose blogs have made it to second round all the best. Feel more than free to write what you think. Lastly, I know some of you will be mad that I did not win. To all of you please play the below video, stand up and dance to Three Little Birds by one of my all time legend, Bob Marley. Thanks a lot.

I am currently reading a book titled Fashioning Africa:Power and the Politics of Dress which is edited by Jean Allman. Thanks to my friend Scout of Harper Valley for recommending to me this book through sending me one of the essays. The book is fascinating. It is like reading the history again, in different perspective. The book revisits some historical facts and histories using “fashion”. The book tries to draw a clear close connection between the clothes we wear and our political expression. The book bases on facts that to date, few scholars have explored what clothing means in 20th-century Africa and the Diaspora.

The book is a collection of essays from an international group of anthropologists, historians, and art historians who bring rich and diverse perspectives to this fascinating topic. From clothing as an expression of freedom in early colonial Zanzibar to Somali women’s head covering in inner-city Minneapolis. These essays explore the power of dress in African and pan-African settings. Nationalist and diasporic identities, as well as their histories and politics, are examined at the level of what is put on the body every day.

Above are pictures of three African leaders. On the left is Nigerian President, Oleusegun Obasanjo, on the middle is my Tanzanian president,Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and on the right is King Mswati III of the kingdom of Swaziland. Now with reflection of connection that you think our clothing styles have with our political,social and even economical stances, do you see anything in common or out of common in these leaders? What can you say about cultural issues by looking at the pictures?

Few weeks ago, when I asked my readers to reflect to me what they would like to have me blogging about, one of them asked if I can talk about African Music. Now when you talk about african music, you are talking about something real huge,something attached to the soul and hearts of millions.You will be touching some people’s foundation of life.While I am still gathering the long “literature” about that topic, I thought some of you would enjoy getting a taste of rythm from Tanzania mixed up with Congolese tunes. Have fun

Some days comes with great news. That is how sweet life is. Today is one of them to me. I have just received notification that this blog (African Perspective) has been nominated for 2006 Canadian Blog Awards in Best Cultural Blog category. Many thanks to whoever nominated me for the award. My love to culture must have influenced this consideration.

Votes are now underway. I for one need your votes to win. Isn’t that obvious? It could be but I don’t want to take your vote for granted. Therefore, I am asking you to vote for me. You can cast your vote (for me) by clicking here. Scrow down until you see Best Cultural Blog category. After a tick in African Perspective, scrow down again and submit your vote at the end of the page. Thank you!

The sun is shining, the wilderness is amazing.
An African child is up again, to face another day. From above the mountain, Africa can be seen. It is a shining pearl. Love it or hate, it’s a cradle of mankind.

Please sit down. Let us talk about culture. Walk me through the valleys of culture and traditions. Tell me the great tales of humanity. Let us talk about humanity. Talking about culture is hard, isn’t it? Most people do not want to hear about your culture. They want theirs to dominate. Yours is primitive. Mostly dangerous is that more than few people care about culture nowadays. To them culture is a dead end. They look at me with a scorn when I dare mention the word. Whom can we blame? I promise to listen, every culture matters.

I can still hear those echoes; let us preserve our cultures and traditions. For real? Let us dance again to that lovely song. That song of heroism as we emerged from the cold river, in the coldest morning of the month. When we became men through teachings and discipline and not just a new year. I can still hear our women’s ululation. Who said we do not honor them? Wouldn’t they click our wounded groin if we showed no respect? Above all, are we not just like any other societies, where men and women should be allowed to mistakes sometimes? Why are we condemned then?

When are we going to spend the nights dancing while feeling the light from stars and the moon? What happened to that life, full of respect to cultures and traditions? That life which truly meant what it said and offered nothing but justice? Does it still practically mean it takes a village to raise a child? Do we still drink our “juice” using a calabash?

Here in North America, they have what they call “values”. I feel dumb that I am yet to understand what they mean by that. Do they mean what they say though? Nevertheless, I respect their opinion, even when they choose not to respect mine. Even when they choose to think from my home comes wars and diseases alone. When they choose to ignore the fact that I too bleed, sweat and die.

I choose to stand on top of the mountain and blow the trumpets of justice, love and all that counts. I honor the grain of wheat. It must die first in order to give a way to another life. What if you and I were also just like the grain of wheat? Who or what would you die for? Please tell me! You know what I would die for, don’t you?

Christmas season is just around the corner. Here in North America the “temptations” are already out there. The tv commercials are already flashing every five minutes. To many Africans, christmas is still a western holiday.But that has not stopped them from celebrating christmas even more than westerners themselves. There are of course tons of theories against and for christmas. But one important question is Are Christmas Traditions Christian? I found this article that tries to answer this question. Click here.

As hard as it may be, today I need to start by saying sorry to all of you who have been visiting my blog in hope of finding something new just to find same old 14th October article. I know some of you have visited me, yes, I know and I thank you and beg you please accept my apology. See, blogging is fun but also a voluntary responsibility especially when you write for both sides of the sword, yourself and your readers. Somehow, I also start to think of blogging as some sort of addiction. I feel real bad when I don’t write anything for a even just a little while. I feel empty. Do you also feel the same?

Since the beginning of this blog, I have been writing and discussing almost everything on earth while paying a much closer attention to how global issues relates or affects the African continent. That explains this blog’s name;African Perspective.

While writing about almost everything is not that bad, I find it tiring, confusing and not real energenizing. At the end of a long day one does not real know where and on what he/she stands. The sense of specialization evaporates on air just like sweet cologne. You can call call it stinking cologne if you want.

Apparently, I have been blogging much about politics than any other subjects. I am not a politician. In fact, I hate politics. Whoever said there is a thin line between love and hate must have had a good point. In other words, I have been writing about what I do not like! Therefore, you can only imagine how much stress that has brought into my life.

On another hand, it is almost impossible to live without politics. I understand that part too. Almost everything around us is politicized. At the end of a long and rough day, I can hardly avoid seeing the 10 o’clock newscast just adding salt on a wound by bringing breaking news from political world. A painful day of seeing half of your cheque goes to Mr. Taxman ends with another pain!

Now, I seriously want to start blogging about things that I like most, things that will lift my spirit so that I can live longer. That should tell you that I do not fancy death.

One thing that I am very sure about is that I love Africa. I love its people, its environment, the savannah, the rivers, mountains, landscapes etc. I love the simplicity of African lifestyle. If you have ever heard that “there is no hurry in Africa”, you did not hear a myth. It is true.

Initially, my main plan was (and may be remains) to portray African continent, as it should. When I say as it should I mean the reverse of how the continent is currently portrayed or how it has been portrayed for centuries and decades. However, those intentions have slipped away sometimes. I have found myself writing about Canadian politics, American politics, world politics etc. I still believe that it is never a wrong thing to write, talk and discuss about something which, whether you like or not, affects your life both directly and indirectly. I just find it depressing and out of my core intention.

I therefore wish to go back to the intended roots. I want to make Africa shine in the eyes of Canadians, North Americans, Europeans and even African themselves. However, I still have one problem. That is where I want you to come in. What do you know about Africa and its people? It does not matter whether it is positive or negative. It should not matter whether you took African studies at university or never heard anything about the continent. The idea here is to allow you to help me shape the authority I want to take when it comes to Africa issues, written by an African in Canada.

If you happen to be an African, I would love to hear what do you miss most about Africa. What do you think this part of the world can learn from Africa? Goodbye politics. From now, I will write about politics only when I find it inescapable.