On Wednesday, the President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, met with the Chairman of Barrick Gold, John Thornton, who had flown in from North America for the purpose. The State House communications team released a video, shot on the steps outside the meeting, in which the President and Mr Thornton shared their versions of what had transpired. This dominated the headlines on Thursday, with most papers presenting the meeting in a very particular way.
More on that in a moment, but first, here’s the video: Continue reading →
Tanzanian rapper, Nay wa Mitego was locked up on Sunday, for a song. He was released on Monday, after the intervention of President Magufuli and the new Minister of Information, Harrison Mwakyembe, and permission was given for the song to be played.
The President also offered some advice to revise the lyrics, and an invitation to meet and discuss how the song could be “improved”.
Here’s my rough translation, compiled with some assistance from others better qualified than myself. A word of warning though: much of the Swahili in the song is not to be found in any dictionary, so our translations and interpretations are open to challenge – I will happily make corrections if you point them out. And apologies that my translation has lost most of the (considerable) poetry of the original.
Wapo! (There are!), by Nay wa Mitego
What you plant today is what you will reap tomorrow
It’s been written that men must earn through sweat
I ask now who has seen tomorrow
Get moving and if you sleep you have nothing Continue reading →
Earlier today (March 24, 2017), President Magufuli spoke at a ceremony in to formally appoint new Ministers and Ambassadors. He referred directly to two significant events earlier this week, the visit of World Bank President Jim Kim (see also this sharp-eyed post by Aikande Kwayu) and yesterday’s events in the car park of St Peters Catholic Church in Dar es Salaam. Among other things, the President had some interesting things to say about the media in Tanzania.
I have translated some key excerpts below the video.
Just this morning, Nape had been the Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sport, until President Magufuli added his name to a long and growing list of public officials fired by the President and his senior colleagues.
In the official letter announcing the “reshuffle” (see right), no reason was given. Indeed, Nape is not even mentioned in the letter, which merely announced the appointment of a new Minister. But no explanation was needed, this story has had Tanzania’s media and public gripped for several weeks.
Nevertheless, it’s worth going back a little, to recount how we reached this point. You could not make it up. Continue reading →
I hope you don’t mind me writing you a public letter like this. But it feels like the most appropriate way of saying what I want to say.
Because your decision to stop blogging has left me dejected. While I don’t always agree with what you say (I usually do), yours has been one of very few voices asking important but difficult questions. Those who find #UhuruWaKujieleza (freedom of speech) to be an annoyance (or, if we are charitable, an unaffordable luxury,) will be celebrating. We are all worse off as a result. Continue reading →
The recent arrest of digital media entrepreneur Maxence Melo of JamiiForums.com raises serious questions and concerns about freedom of speech, but one relatively minor aspect of the case has potentially serious implications for a lot of people.
Among the charges laid against Melo was “management of a domain not registered in Tanzania.” This took observers by surprise; even many close followers of media and technology issues in Tanzania were unaware that it is now apparently illegal to operate a website that does not use a dot-tz domain. The relevant laws have actually been in place since 2011, however, and the government posted a notice in the press last year calling on people to adhere to it.
But since it has now come to wider attention, it’s worth asking some questions. In particular, what exactly does the law say? And more pertinently, should you be concerned if you manage a domain other than something.tz? *
I’m a big fan of puzzles – crosswords, riddles, mathematical puzzles, mind-games and more. I need to sharpen my writing skills in Swahili. And I think there might just be an audience in East Africa for puzzles in Swahili. So the new blog is dedicated to exactly that: sharing (and occasionally creating) puzzles in Swahili.
There are four puzzles there to get things started, and more will be added every couple of weeks.
The first two should be solvable with a little effort, the third is more of a challenge, but the last is a doddle: Continue reading →
