TEDxDAR 2011: Richard Mabala

Richard Mabala started by asking for one minute of silence in memory of Imagination which died in our education system several years ago. At which point of course we all clapped, of course. His presentation kicked off with a story about a lady who goes to Einstein and tells him: I want my child to be like you, what should I give him to read? Einstein said fairytales. She replies: what more? And Einstein says again: Fairytales. And so on and so forth. Einstein's point was, how can you imagine a new physics or a new anything if you don't have imagination?

True confession: the first Smartphone I ever got blew my mind because it had brought a lifelong fantasy to life for me. Ever watched Star Trek? Remember how Starship crew could just tap on their badge and their communicator would go on and they could talk to anybody? And how about those portable gadgets they used to carry around that told them everything they needed to know about everything? Got one of those too, mine's an Apple. From Leonardo's drawings to the cramped seating in Economy Class of any airline- imagination and elbow grease. From scrap metal to a home-made wind turbine: creativity and elbow grease. Making the future what we want it to be: imagination and elbow grease...

Which is why I was sad to hear Richard Mabala quote Mwalimu as saying that "Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills from one generation to the next." For a teacher, Mwalimu did have his moments of intellectual conservatism that could be quite disappointing. And yet ideas can linger past their sell-by date and we are stuck with a public education system that is decent on paper but quite atrocious in terms of delivery. My position is that if the government demands by law that parents send their children to school, it should at least start with this premise: first do no harm.

The language issue: children should be taught in the language that they understand- this is an argument that professional educators have been making forever. English as a language of instruction in schools is just about killing our education system right dead. However, I want to throw a spanner in the works here and I aim this at the educators: how come we perform so poorly in our Standard VII exams? English is only introduced at Secondary School, which the majority of Tanzanians don't get to complete anyways. Lets dig deep into this education thing.

'Creativity is subversive' says Richard Mabala. It can be. There is something frighteningly God-like about the power of human imagination. I recently came across an article about Craig Venter, a man whose work has the potential to change how we think about life. The two most powerful sentence in the English language starts with two words: "What if..." Use it wisely, but use it, please.

The Weekly Sneak: African Social Intelligence

The UK riots, eh? Who could have predicted that? Well, most social scientists, actually. Here's a great post that gives a brief breakdown of the circumstances leading up to the explosion we just saw. I imagine this is just the beginning- like Columbine spawned a series of copycat crimes, this youth-anger-slash-and-burn method of social protest might just gain legitimacy as a form of "revolution." Look what happened after the Arab spring: a global obsession with reproducing the phenomenon.

Well (expletive deleted) that. While I am all for cultural exchange, I am decidedly a cultural relativist, and in many ways a total Afrocentric conservative. And this ka-"youth culture" that is emanating from the American mediatainment industrial complex has created a global fetishization of youth that I often find completely abhorrent. Women's magazines horrify me with their sexualized emaciated prepubescent children passing as supermodels, hip hop terrifies me with its vastly unchecked misogyny, violence and consumerism... anorexia, bulimia, self-hatred, botox, cutting, rioting, plastic surgery, preserved Hollywood celebrities who pervert our notions of what a forty- or fifty- year old looks like in real life... young Tanzanian women with perfectly beautiful pear shapes worrying about whether they are skinny enough or not...

Some aspects of what passes for "modernity" can just go straight to hell as far as I am concerned.

Too long it has been desirable (expected, frankly), for Africans to look Westward and Northward and take our cues from there. We have internalized this message, unfortunately. I can see it in the Facebook updates of people demanding that we bring violent means of conflict resolution to Tanzania to change our internal relations of power. That this is said with no irony whatsoever (violence in the service of... peace? in Tanzania of all places?) makes me wonder how self-aware we are as Tanzanian youth. Also, just how much world history we understand...

Anyways, I do think we've got something precious that apparently the UK could use more of. I call it Utu, although it goes a little bit beyond that. So this week, I took the UK riots as a jumping-off point to say to my peers: yeah, we got problems. But let's step away from all the cultural and political copycatting and handle our business like some well-raised, intelligent, self-aware Tanzanians. If we don't, we'll only end up in the same tight spots when its our turn to be called Elder. And won't that be a bitch to explain? The UK riots are the horrible lesson we don't have to live through to learn.

"Which leads me to the notion of respect for elders. This one is a double-edged sword: anyone who has spent five minutes watching Bunge TV will know that age does not automatically confer good sense, wisdom or even good manners. Sometimes drastic measures are needed to discipline our elders when they misbehave, since the worst of them believe complacently that age will protect them indefinitely from critical scrutiny. However, even as angry youth we cannot afford to ignore the ways in which our society provides for inter-generational conversation and mutual support in the things that matter. Those who have walked before us do know one or two lessons about life that are worth learning, wisdom does have its place in life."

Besides, we have a legacy to respect here. Mwalimu was barely in his thirties when he took command of a new country and foxed his way through the Cold War to protect a fledgeling country from predation. Most of his cadres were hardly old enough to shave. I can bet you that the previous generation didn't earn us the international reputation we enjoy by being hot-headed dingbats. Yeah, youth is cool, but maybe we can learn a thing or two from the old revolutionaries. They actually earned their stripes.

Oh, yeah. So this is for the EA. Which is owned by the Aga Khan, a mzee poa if there ever was one (and he started out pretty young). I expect to be thoroughly caned for my conservatism this time around :)

The King's Diary: Why We Teach in English

Dear Me

The other day I visited a secondary school. Expanding access to secondary education has been one of my favourite policies. It has made me popular with parents because many pupils who complete primary school can now continue their studies. At the same time my supporters benefit from the construction required.

Having pushed this policy for so long, I was curious how successful the project really was. While inspecting the building I decided to do a small investigation. I asked a Form 3 student: “How will your secondary education be of use to you and to Tanzania?”

His answer left me with little doubt: “In my secondary education used to find the political in swahili. I dont know why dont you find all subjects in secondary in Swahili others in English. I think if the subjects we can find in swahili the secondary it is their happy to enjoyed the subject except eny reason”. The answer was clearly incomprehensible.

Then I switched language and asked the same question in Kiswahili. This time I got a sensible answer: “Elimu yangu nitakayopata katika shule ya sekondari itaninufaisha mimi pamoja na taifa langu. Nitashiriki kikamilifu katika kazi ya kujitolea nafsi yangu kuondoa ujinga, magonjwa, nitashiriki kikamilifu kuwafundisha wazee ambao hawakupata nafasi ya kusoma” (The secondary education that I will get will benefit my country and me. I will participate fully in volunteering in person to eradicate ignorance, disease, I will participate fully in teaching the old who did not get the chance to study).

I was very pleased with the results of my research. More than 1.4 million students are enrolled in secondary schools. As a consequence there are at least 1 million families who are proud of the achievements of their offspring. By implication these families are grateful to me, the King, the one who has created this opportunity. At the same time these students do not learn much because they do not understand the language of instruction. And that’s wonderful too.

Parents are happy because their offspring made it into secondary school. Teachers are happy because they have jobs. My inner circle is happy because the children educated by the public education system will never form a threat to themselves or their positions. Even their children (who go to private schools) will never be outcompeted by these uneducated ignoramuses.

That night I slept really well. Rarely perform projects as satisfactory as this one.

TEDxDAR: Vicensia Shule

"I was told..." Vincensia Shule used that phrase to jump off the received wisdom on Julius Kambarage Nyerere and tell us her story: to her, Nyerere was an Artist. As she is.

While explaining Mwalimu's role in promoting culture, she broached an interesting subject: under the British, western forms of art such as theatre were introduced for the enjoyment of the colonials, and the black elites, the 'Black wazungu' aka coconuts, aka Oreo Cookies or whatever other pejoratives might be applied to such folks.

Hm.

Just to look next door for a second- Kenya has a fantastically vibrant intellectual and artistic scene with world class theatre, literature, music, etc. Tanzanian art is... well. Let's just say it's a good thing Wole Soyinka wasn't born here. We don't value arts and culture as a society, lip service aside.

Anyways, Vicensia tells us that Mwalimu established cultural groups and schools for the arts. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Culture has suffered from the same forms of neglect that the Ministry of Community Development, Women and Children, namely the Who Cares Problem.

Vincesia says that Mwalimu Failed *gasp!* the arts because he didn't put in place mechanisms to nurture and support culture and policy. We apparently didn't even have a cultural policy until 1997. He also forgot that *gasp!* This World Is Not a Socialist World. He didn't put in place a system to promote the arts and culture because it was all in his head and he didn't make allowances that we are not all mind readers nor do we all agree with his philosohies in perpetuity.

Vicensia has a very quiet voice and measured delivery, which is why I think that the challenges in her talk slipped into our Tanzaphilic ears so quietly to fester. Thanks for the corrections, Vicensia!

Peter Mhunzi- TEDxDAR

"My goal is to encourage Tanzanians to value equal bilingualism"

He's talking about English and Kiswahili and how we treat them in Tanzania through the lens of diglossia. This is some deep stuff, and something I know that many of us Anglophones struggle to master in an Kiswahili+'Tribal'tongue society. In diglossia:

- The high language is that of 'governance' has formal prestige

- Low language is the language of everyday discourse

Not hard to see what's happening here, if you have ever wondered why our leaders speak fluent Kiswanglish. Worth noting of course: TEDxDAR is being conducted in English. More importantly- you cannot fully participate in the Intellectual Life of Tanzania if you avoid English. You cannot fully participate in the Everyday Life of Tanzania if you avoid Kiswahili. There lies the rub.

This is the first time I have heard someone acknowledge, define and promote the inescapable fact that Bilinguality is a better and more honest state of being for Tanzania than the often politically-motivated adherence to one language.

Fantastic talk by a fantastic speaker- Peter Mhunzi.