Remembering Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai | Here & Now

I had the great honor of seeing this courageous woman, Wangari Maathia, in person about five years ago. I can't recall the details of what she said that day but I definitely remember being impressed by her gracefulness, her humbleness, and the sense that she somehow seemed bigger than the room that housed her. The official cause of her death was cancer but I have to wonder if the beatings and death threats somehow contributed to her illness. Dr. Wangari was a fierce envoy of Mother Earth, she defied the brutal fists of patriarchy, and she was a consistent critic of corruption (on this last point I think she was too dismissive of neo-colonialism and how the west undermines African self-reliance). We wish Wangari Maathai a peaceful Homegoing to the Ancestral Realm. Axé!

You can listen to her discussing her memoir Unbowed on the show Here & Now. 

Image source: daylife

Also dig:

• Is Africa poor?
• Genetically modified Ghana
• Yaw Nyarko on “Portfolios of the Poor”

Brazilian activists lead a Pan-African women's collective in Senegal (dap @ Sis. Muauke)

Angel Wainaina

This is a clip from Na nga def: Diasporics Encounter Africans, a stirring documentary about five Brazilian activists who spearheaded a pan-African women's collaborative in Gorée, Senegal. However, the documentary has a sad epilogue. Angel Wainaina, the young Kenyan hiphop activist interviewed in the film, died tragically in Nairobi last year (2009) during a supermarket fire. 

"Black women are treated differently from normal people." (If viewing from Facebook, click here.)

tags: Kenya, Senegal, hiphop, afro-feminism, activism, brazil

Africa is rising: "Kiswahili becomes Kenya's official language" (dap @ Jacky)

Image via Wikipedia

Language map of Kenya

Asante sana (many thanks) to my good friend and favorite Luo, Jacky, for this article about Kenya's new constitution and the adoption of Kiswahili as the official language of that nation. Sister Jacky reports that there is a "lot of euphoria about the new constitution."

 
So why does Kiswahili matter?
 
Kiswahili matters for several reasons. The founding fathers of African liberation touted Kiswahili as the pan-African language of communication and a symbol of pan-African pride. Kiswahili was originally a translocal trade language on the Swahili coast of East Africa. Because it was spoken in several countries and could not be traced to a single ethnic group, so the assumption went, Kiswahili would more likely be embraced by African people throughout the continent. This was a big idea that never caught on because the Founding Fathers were more concerned with protecting their sovereignty and consolidating political power than promoting pan-African ideas that might diminish their individual authority. 

There are now over 100 million speakers scattered across East (and to a lesser degree Central and Southern) Africa, but there is little support for the initiative. However, the dream was revived recently when the outgoing president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, delivered his farewell speech to the African Union (AU) in Kiswahili. Kiswahili also has "official working language" status in the African Union.


Beyond East Africa

Kiswahili is taught at the University of Ghana (or at least this was true the last time I checked a few years back). And across the Atlantic, African Americans were introduced to Kiswahili in the late 60s by way of Kwanzaa, an African American celebration of African cultural roots developed by Maulana Karenga and other cultural nationalists. Afrocentric African Americans have adopted the Kiswahili word Maafa (translated as "great suffering") to describe the Afrikan Holocaust of enslavement. 

Is Kiswahili an Arabic language? 
 
A major misconception about Kiswahili is that it is an Arabic language. This is incorrect. Kiswahili is an African (Bantu) language with a rich lexicon of Arabic loan words. Languages are classified by their structure (e.g. syntax or rules of word order and morphology which includes how a single word is modified to convey different meanings. For example, adding "s" to indicate plurality in English) and only secondarily by their vocabulary. Structurally, Kiswahili is 100% African (Bantu).


The African Renaissance 

I am predicting that this will be Africa's century. The recent events in Kenya will be one of many new developments coming out of Africa. GI

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Kiswahili becomes Kenya's official language

By Wahome Thuku

Kiswahili is now an official language, meaning you can demand to be addressed in it in any office. With the promulgation of the new Constitution, Kiswahili has become one of the two official languages in Kenya. Section 7 of the new Constitution declares Kiswahili and English as Lugha Rasmi (official languages) in Kenya. And under Section 7 (1), Kiswahili retains its previous status as Kenya’s national language. For this language, the journey to its new status has been long and grueling.

Kiswahili had to overcome all odds in the 1960s and 70s even to be accepted as the national language. On July 25, 1969, then Attorney General Charles Njonjo strongly objected to the introduction of Kiswahili as an official language. Then Embu East MP Kamwithi Munyi had tabled the Motion to have Kiswahili declared the official language in Government offices and in the National Assembly.

But according to Mr Njonjo, only 40 per cent of Kenyans then could competently speak in Kiswahili and a lot of work would have to be done to encourage the other 60 per cent to accept the language. Njonjo argued Kiswahili was an Arabic language [this is false. Kiswahili is an African language. see my explanation above. GI] and if all foreign languages were to be done away with then it should be among them. "Nearly every MP has his own way of speaking Swahili and to use it here would make the House like the Tower of Babel where nobody would understand whatever the other said," Njonjo told Parliament. And he could not comprehend how laws would be made in Kiswahili.

On July 4, 1974 President Jomo Kenyatta declared Kiswahili a Parliamentary language, the following day, Parliament was treated to drama as MPs attempted to make contributions in the language. It was even news when Kenyatta addressed Parliament in Kiswahili. Cabinet minister Robert Matano, himself a Swahili speaker, was among those who pushed hard for its recognition.

Read more @ The Standard | Online Edition


tags: kenya, Languages of Africa, african renaissance

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• Swahili is for old heads, how is your Sheng?

Update #1  8/31/2010

      

       • Journal of Pan-African Studies essays on Kiswahili

Update #2  8/31/2010  Does Kiswahili have official language status in other African nations? Kiswahili and English are co-official languages in Tanzania. Mzee Julius Kambarage Nyerere was hugely important on that score. The distinction is that Kenya is the only country that has declared Kiswahili the official language in its constitution.

Update #3  9/4/2010 A Kenyan comrade just informed me that the new constitution legalizes dual-citizenship. My comrade thought the amendment was good in the sense that is easier for Kenyans to opt for US citizenship because they have "nothing to loose." But he thought the previous ban on dual citizenship was good in the sense that it encouraged patriotism among Kenyans.

The Standard:The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times (dap @ Jacky)

The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times

Published on

By James Waindi in Bydgoszcz, Poland
It took Kenya 11 good years to win the 12km senior men’s race, but when the victory came, it came in style.

Kenyans living in Poland who flocked the Myslecinek Park to support their team, some coming from as far as Warsaw which is one hour by air, were not disappointed as the Kenyan anthem played a record eight times on Sunday afternoon during the 38th World Cross Country Championships.

Apart from winning the coveted 12km men’s title that had proved to be elusive over the years, the team under head coach David Leting managed also to bag all the other gold medals at stake in the competition, which included individual and team title and in the process dwarfing archrivals Ethiopia and the other 62 countries that participated.

Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku winning the 8km men’s race

The last time Kenya had a similar feat was 26 years ago in Budapest, Hungary. Repeating the achievement has been a tough task over the years. Mercy Cherono opened the party, leading a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the first race of the day — the junior women race which Kenyans last won in Mombasa 2007, then Caleb Ndiku staged a similar feat in the junior men’s race as Emily Chebet soared high in the senior women’s event, before Ebuya put icing on the cake.

"It is great to hear your anthem played in all the prize giving ceremonies. We worked hard for this and we deserved it," said Leting.
"Winning could be easy but defending is certainly the toughest task. So we have to lift our heads up and ensure we maintain the standards," said Leting.

Kenya’s anthem was the only one played in the entire competition as they swept all the key prizes on offer.

Read entire story @ The Standard | Online Edition :: The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times

tags: athletics, sports, kenya, track and field, poland

A Time There Was: Stories from the Last Days of Kenya Colony (Dap @ Agnes)

Posted by the Ghetto Intellectual on 3/11/2010 

See also: "Imperial reckoning" - The untold story of Britain's gulag in Kenya (2005) by Caroline Elkins

Dig it!

To watch trailer click on video below or click here.

THE FILM

A Time There Was: Stories from the Last Days of Kenya Colony is a documentary film by Donald McWilliams about the Mau Mau Rebellion in 1950s Kenya – one of the most contentious final episodes in British colonial history. Evoking his mentor Norman McLaren, McWilliams employs a broad palette of cinematic devices, framing personal photos with animation and archival imagery.

tags: kenya, mau mau, colonialism, resistance, revolution

Serena Williams Opens A Second School in Kenya

Posted by the Ghetto Intellectual 2/24/2010

Dig it!

Kenya: Queen of Court Gifts Children

23 February 2010

By Sammy Kitula 

It was double joy for the residents of Kilili Village in Eastern Province on Tuesday. They came face to face with Serena Williams, the tennis icon they only see on television.

And there were three helicopters.

“I can’t believe it. I had never heard of her [Serena], neither had I seen an helicopter before,” said Ndunge Kithuku, a Form One student at the newly inaugurated Serena Williams Wee Secondary School. “I will never forget this day; my birthday present has come two weeks early.”


She wears many hats: from world renowned tennis player to model to philanthropist, Serena has it all. And this time in Wee, Matiliku Location, Makueni District, she was wearing the philanthropy hat.

Second secondary school

Serena was inaugurating her second secondary school, the Serena Williams Wee Secondary School, in as many years

On November 14 last year, Serena opened her first local secondary school, in Matooni, about 50 kilometres from Matiliku.

Despite ruling the tennis courts, Serena couldn’t help but gyrate her hips in harmony with the Kamba rhythm that reverberated across the small dusty school which bears her name. Never mind the tennis great couldn’t make anything from the songs. But songs soothe, so they say.

Read entire story @Allafrica

[Photo: Source]

tags: education, kenya, serena williams

Judging by the ICC docket, "crimes against humanity" only happen in Africa

November 5, 2009
I.C.C. Prosecutor Seeks Kenya Inquiry


By REUTERS
Filed at 5:36 a.m. ET


NAIROBI (Reuters) - International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on Thursday he believed crimes against humanity had been committed during Kenya's 2008 post-election violence and he wanted to open an investigation.


"I explained to them that I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed," he told a joint news conference with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.


"So I informed them, in December I would request to the judges of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation and that is the process established by the Rome Treaty," he said.


(Editing by David Clarke)


[Source: Reuters]


tags: kenya, ICC, mwai kibaki, raila odinga, united nations

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga dissed (Thanks JP for sending this!) by the hypocrite Barack Obama. What would Minister Farrakhan say?

Many of y'all have already heard about complaints that Obama's first official visit to "black Africa"  should have made to the land of his father, Kenya, rather than Ghana. According to the Kenyan newspaper, the Daily Nation, the Obama administration has now established a pattern of snubbing Kenyan officials because of "corruption." Most recently the White House "disinvited" Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga from a luncheon.

New York-based Kenyan ambassador to the UN Zachary Muburi-Muita told the Nation on Saturday night that the State Department contacted him on Friday to “disinvite” Mr Odinga from the September 22 luncheon with President Obama in New York for African leaders. The ambassador last Monday confirmed to the Nation that he had received an invitation letter for the PM to attend the luncheon. A dispatch to the Foreign Affairs ministry from Kenya’s Ambassador to Washington, Mr Peter Ogego, seen by the Nation confirmed the cancellation.

And if there was any doubt on the matter, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, put the matter plainly.

“We are looking to have a dialogue with responsible leaders about the future of Africa’s economic and social development,” Susan Rice said on Monday in announcing the luncheon.

Apparently, Kenya is now a charter member of an honor role of sorts: The US list of super "corrupt" (Obama endorses the racist view that Africa has a monopoly on corruption) African nations. 

Kenya has been left out of the list of 40-plus countries invited to the luncheon, and will be among nations the US is snubbing because of disputes over their governance or an antagonistic relationship with Washington. They include Eritrea, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

[Source: Daily Nation via JP]


When will African leaders stop accepting this nonsensical, hypocritical, browbeating from western nations?  Any single American president has been one hundred times more corrupt than any African leader. Do you doubt it? Well, what then shall we call the 90,000 + civilians that have perished in Iraq because Americans need oil? Minister Farrakhan puts this deadly hypocrisy in perspective during an interview by Mike Wallace. 



Any questions?