TEDxDAR 2011: Bi Kidude

It is past six in the evening, I have been here since 9:00 and it has been a day well spent. Bi Kidude is weaving her way through a medley of songs and I am going to enjoy the moment.

Score! Nilimsalimia Bibi, akanikubalia picha :)

We have a habit of saying that 'mwanzo ni mgumu' or the beginning is always tough. Last year TEDxDAR was a smaller crowd sitting underneath a slightly leaky awning in Masaki. This year the crowd is bigger, the technology is techier and we're in the auditorium of the National Museum. The trick is to hang in there. Thank you to the TEDxDAR Team of organizers, volunteers, fans and attendees for doing this little thing together and helping it grow into a not so little thing.

Thank you for reading the TEDxDAR 2011 liveblogs, and hopefully you will be here in person next year. Kwa heri.

TEDxDAR 2011: Leila Sheikh

Leila Sheikh is a feminist activist who is concerned with a constituency that is rarely talked about: sex workers. I like that she's calling it a profession, framing the discussion around the challenges that people who engage in sex work face. Anyways, you can imagine that as a constituency, sex workers face a lot of barriers when it comes to talk about their jobs. There are issues of health and HIV/AIDS, issues of abuse of course, and the protection of their rights to economic justice and social justice.

The attitude in Tanzania is the obvious one: sex work is illegal and immoral. Why do we lie to ourselves like this? Shame on us, even. If sex work was so immoral and illegal, why is it that Tanzania has more sex workers than Kenya and Uganda and pray tell: who are their clients?

There are different kinds of sex workers. The voluntary sex worker who has chosen to pursue this profession exists in Tanzania too, some women see it as a way of reclaiming their bodies and pursuing something that they feel they are good at. There is the involuntary sex worker, people who have been trafficked or otherwise coerced into sex work, which is problematic. It is the second group of sex workers who tend to focus the discussion on sex work.

An audience member brought up a central question: isn't it part of the oppression of women to validate sex work? I think that it is one of those issues where sometimes one has to agree to disagree. While I understand the reluctance of sister and brother feminists about the issue of exploitation, let's not forget that some of the more extreme militants believe that all heterosexual sex is rape. I imagine they have their reasons... I align better with feminists of my generation who are sex-positive and consider sex work to be a valid choice for an individual.

TEDxDAR 2011: John Stephen Akwari

John Stephen Akwari is the man who finished who finished a marathon in spite of his injuries during the 1968 Olympics. He said 'My country did not send me to Mexico to start the race. They sent me to finish it." Just about anyone can start a race and anyone can be a winner. But to finish the world's most difficult footrace on principle, with a torn up knee? That's a whole other level of grit. We just don't make them like this anymore*.

His life makes for a good story, but I realized that the first few statements sum it up completely: one of 16 children, he was sent to school because he hated herding cattle and simply wouldn't. Stubborn kid. Look where it got him: a lifetime of sports, comptition, and the kind of feat that reminds us that once upon a time being an Olympian required something that no amount of sport science can help you with. As for the rest of his life story I am afraid it's one of those moments that can't be typed up easily. The reminiscences of a veteran sportsman and some sports history too. I think that the video of the presentation on TEDxDAR will tell the story better.

*How come everything really good seems to have happened in the 1960s anyways?

TEDxDAR 2011: Evans Rubara

Evans Rubara's presentation is about the social and environmental impact of the mining industry in Tanzania. It's going to get interesting up in here because the large-scale mining debate is a controversial one.

Mining started here in 1898 the the first gold mine opened up in Tanzania, and things have been going interestingly since then. Tanzania opened its doors to large-scale commercial mining relatively late in the game but I can't tell you the date because I was too busy editing my last post to catch the date on the slide.

Some of the issues that are synonymous with large-scale mining in Tanzania include high rates of human rights violations and environmental degradation. The slideshow included pictures of people who have been affected by drinking or bathing in the waters of the Tigithe River in North Mara. They are not pretty. I have been looking at these pictures for years now and to be honest with you the whole situation is one big grey area.

Tanzania is mineral rich, and I imagine that the mining sector is only going to grow. What Evans Rubara's said in conclusion is: whose responsibility is it to make sure that the mining sector is run well. He has a point: it is only the collusion of government and investors that has led to the trouble that the mining sector is having now. If the government chooses to act in favor of the people, there is no reason why Tanzania shouldn't benefit from an exemplary mining sector.

I am not of the opinion that we should leave our natural resources unexploited- we need to use what we have to get where we need to go. The only problem is, and isn't it always, our governance issues and corruption. If teensy little Botswana could cut a good deal with the diamond barons, surely we can handle ourselves better.

TEDxDAR: Sanaa Sana

Time for the post-lunch musical interlude. Sanaa Sana are performing a few numbers, on stage there are: three drummers, one guitarists and dancers/singers. It's all about The Beat, isn't it :)

So there's that thing about Africans having some kind of innate dancing ability. As I type this it is hard to keep from moving my body to the music, actually, which must be quite funny for the folks sitting behind me. Innate, though? Not so much. It's just a skill that, like many others, can be learned from childhood. And of course, practice only makes perfect... so never be shy. Just dance.

Dunda, dunda, dunda, eh!

TEDxDAR 2011: Bob Muchiri

Bob Muchiri's presentation is titled 'The Disneyfication of African Storytelling.' Due to an accident of timing and low blood sugar, I am simply not getting into this presentation the way that I want to. Bob is talking about his experience making a film using African storytelling, and his theories on what African storytelling actually is.

He concluded an interesting presentation with the following advice: "Take advantage of the technology we have available now cheaply. And take African filmmaking as a way to preserve the tradtition of african storytelling but to archive african stories for future generations."

Sorry folks, I will have to 'fix' this blogpost post- TEDxDAR.

TEDxDAR 2011: Let's Talk Orgasms

A nice break for the liveblogging/livetweeting crowd, we are now firmly in the taboo subtheme of TEDxDAR 2011. Warning: the linked video below contains graphic sexual talk and imagery, please do not click on it if you can't handle the subject matter. Okay. We're talking sex, or rather thinking sex as we watch Mary Roach's presentation at TED Global titled: 'Ten Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm'.

You know, there is something very interesting about the fact that so much research on human sexuality took place in the middle of the last century in the United States. Conservative times, seriously unconventional research. Kinsey, Masters and Johnson took away the taboo element I suppose by making it 'science'. So if you want to study, talk about something really interesting but seriously taboo, do it under the cover of a PhD ;)

On a serious note, I haven't come across much research into African sexuality or much research on sex on Africa in general*. This is not good. The Fifth Annual Conference on Sexual Health and Rights is compromized by its NGO-ish obsession with the political side of the sexuality discussion, but at least it is trying. If I could catch a hold of a sexologist working on the continent, I would have these questions for them: how do the different forms of female circumcision affect a woman's sexuality? And: what was the genesis of the practice in the first place? The WHO mentions hygiene and tradition, but (no offense folks, I know you are health professionals...) I suspect that even they are lost in the woods on this one.

*That's not strictly true. If you Google the term 'African Sexuality' you'll see an interesting phenomenon. Try avoiding FGM, HIV/AIDS, jungle fever etc. I could get into why I think this is the case, but I think you know...

TEDxDAR: Susan Mashibe

"When I was four years old, I took my first flight..." and that is how Susan Mashibe fell in love with flying. She used to watch planes at Dar es Salaam International Airport back in the days when they allowed it, and she's right: there is nothing like the thrill of watching a Boeing 747 landing, or take off.

Having gone through the public education system, Susan wasn't able to learn all of the skills that she needed initially to pursue her dream... yet. Particularly poignant was her statement that she had to imagine bunsen burners in class and imagine the experiments because her school wasn't well resourced. The government had planned a teacher's life for her, but at 19 years of age she managed to go to the united States and flight school. Where she had to re-learn English to be able to communicate with the control tower. And so a step at a time Susan got close to her dream of a flying career until...

September 11 changed her dream. Her future of as an airline pilot died that day. Her student visa was expiring, the industry can't justify a foreigner when Americans don't have jobs. In 2003 she formed her company in Dar es Salaam and started her company. Her companies pay 1/2 a billion TShs or more in corporate taxes per year. She has her dream: she can fly, she can maintain aircraft, she has her aviation company. Now it is time to give back.

Susan talked about philanthropy, the practical kind, and her practice is to make sure that she supports the education sector through voluntarism at ward-level schools. I just want to note that there is a wave of quiet philanthropy that's becoming part of Vanessa's lifestyle- sometimes redistribution isn't material. When asked about ATCL, Susan answered that 'things started going wrong when we let politics determine the welfare of our country.' I love that statement.

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.

TEDxDAR: January Makamba

January Makamba (CCM-Bumbuli) is here in his capacity as a civilian, having been strongly warned not to use the stage as a political platform and game enough to try and cope with the high-tech environment while delivering his presentation. Multitasking, eh... :)

So his talk is about the amenities of life. He kicked off the meaty bit of the presentation with a slide that only had one word on it: Sameness. His idea is that although there is a wealth of diversity amongst people, there is a sameness that we should be embracing. I am listening with a skeptical ear until I realize that January is going to talk demographics. The set-up is this: he contrasts Zawadi with Vanessa...

The typical Tanzanian, aka Mtanzania wa Kawaida, he named Zawadi: female, 17, rarely eats meat or fish, walks almost everywhere, no mobile phone, born in a family of seven people, first sex at 17.5 yrs, married at 19, her husband will be 5 yrs older, first child at 19.5, last child at 36 yrs, lives in rural area, works on the farm. How does her life compare with yours? Good question for a TEDxDAR audience.

We are Vanessa, in the top 20% bracket of income earners: assured of university, living in 4 bedroom houses, drinking bottled water, driving to most places, 78% chance of employment, more than one mobile phone/smartphone, first intercourse 18.5, first marriage 23 yrs, finish university at 21, husband 26 yrs, first child at 23 yrs, last child at 32 yrs. Both Zawadi and Vanessa get married pregnant (zawadi 3 months, vanessa 5+). Number of children: more for Zawadi, fewer for Vanessa. However, in terms of power consumption, the pattern falls apart... our energy consumption is erratic, cannot be entirely determined by income bracket. And so on and so forth, January contrasted the top 20% with the remaining 80% to challenge our perceptions and thinking about how our country is structured.

The Question: what would it take for Zawadi to live the same lifestyle as Vanessa? On the consumption side, here are just a few data: by 2050 72% of tanzanians will have water problems... Zawadi's income would need to increase x6. For Zawadi to eat meat we would have to slaughter 7 million cows a year- the current national herd numbers roughly 15 million. Electricity consumption would have to increase x28. The list goes on. But here is something to challenge your thinking: the Hadzabe eat better than the average Tanzanian, and enjoy a better quality of life in many ways. Is it that Zawadi should be aspiring to Vanessa's lifestyle, or should Vanessa and Zawadi maybe learn something from the Hadzabe?

January's presentation used data from the Demographic and Health Survey of 2010. It is available on the NBS website, the report was launched a few months ago and apparently makes for riveting reading.

As a final point, Nadeem asked January: 'What can we, the Vanessas of Tanzania, do to improve the quality of life of all the Zawadis?' I think that the answer depends on a person's politics. In that vein, I am going to try and get a bit of a Twitter argument going with Shurufu kicking around some ideological perspectives. Let's see if that works...

TEDxDAR 2011: Msafiri Mzawose

Talking about culture now: Msafiri Zawose is a musician from a family of musicians, at least a second generation performer himself. I am listening to his take on the history of culture in Tanzania, stating that under Nyerere culture was supported by the state. Especially traditional music. His father, Hukwe Zawose, was a world-reknowned musician who had many recordings, he was also one of the first musicians to teach traditional music at the Bagamoyo School of Arts. Hukwe Zawose passed away in 2003, but as part of his legacy he left behind 18 children- some of whom have followed in his footsteps.

I actually got to see Msafiri Zawose perform with some other family members at a Pen&Mic event, and his music is lovely. He pointed out that music is dynamic when asked how he differed from his father, in that it keeps up with the times without necessarily departing from its roots. Currently traditional forms of art including music are struggling, in large part because the government hasn't been interested in traditional arts since Nyerere gave up the throne.

It has to be said: he has a point. We're at the National Museum and I can't claim with any honesty that the government has put much effort into curating what few displays it has. There is that sense hanging about the air of- this is nice... but it could be so much bigger and better if somebody actually cared. However, Msafiri's observations have raised a question: would it be possible to stimulate some kind of commercial interest in traditional music? Can consumers, in this particular case, bring Zinjanthropus back to life?

Excuse me now, Msafiri is playing a song about modern life accompanying himself on the illimba and I want to really get into those Gogo harmonies. Familiar as they are, it's a hard sound to hum along to, and try as I might I can't get that ka-inbetween beat down...

TEDxDAR: Erasto Mpemba

During the Roland's talk about renewable energy he mentioned William Kwamkwamba, the boy who harnessed the wind using a little brain power and whatever was at hand. Which was a nice set up for the talk by Erasto Mpemba who recounted how he found out in Form One through a little observation that warm water or warm liquid freezes better than cold liquid. It is a good tale of a curious boy who was a natural scientist, and the challenges that he faced getting his discovery taken seriously. He finally got published in the American Journal of Physics in 1969. It is called the Mpemba Effect. Researchers are still trying to figure out the 'why' of it.

Every so often the issue of intellectual productivity comes up. In traditional measures of intellectual productivity, for example the number of peer-reviewed journal articles published per country- Tanzania does not perform well. Somehow I don't think that this necessarily reflects what is going on, or not going on, in the sciences locally. There are quite a number of academics and scientist lurking around quietly or working overseas. Where the challenge seems to lie is in recognizing the utility of the intellectual resources that are available to us. If the Arts are neglected in our education system, the natural sciences are really struggling- we simply don't invest.

So to bring it back to the theme of Zinjanthropus: if we have so much natural talent hanging around, what are we going to do about it? Did we kill Zinjanthropus by gutting our education system? Can we invest in our intellectual resources, in the sciences, in our scientists?

Mr. Mpemba is currently a herbalist, having travelled the world and perhaps seeking the next discovery where his intellect leads him. He is talking about the confluence of herbalism and modern medicine, certainly an interesting field. Here is a free tip from Mr. Mpemba: if you suffer from a cranky stomach, take 6o leaves from a guava tree and boil them down. Drink up the 'tea' and you should feel better.

TEDxDAR 2011: Roland Valkenborg

'You as energy consumers have killed Zinjanthropus' - We are addicted to energy and electricity. Now this is just about my speed. Roland Valkenborg started off by pointing out that it has become normal for most of us to expect to have energy at the touch of a switch. We don't spend much time thinking about where all of this is coming from.

So naturally the electricity went off for about a minute during Roland's talk which left me split between trying to listen to him talk about renewable energy- his field is wind- and trying to get back online after I had been kicked off WiFi. And I am back just in time to say I missed the bulk of the talk but I did gather this much:

-there is an energy crisis going on globally, whether we like to admit it or not.

- renewable technologies aren't able to take care of our thirst for energy entirely, but it's an area worth developing

- look into it. conserve energy at home and think about investing in renewable forms.

On a personal note: living in Dar I am amazed that no one has really developed solar technology for the private market. Photovotaic cells on the roof of a house in Dar make a lot more sense than trying to get a Tanesco connection, but until the price comes down and the technology can do more than run one lightbulb and half a fan, what's the point. There's a challenge.

TEDxDAR 2011: Framing Ideas In the 50th Year of Independence

TEDxDAR is underway and the sponsors have been thanked. It has to be said: without the help of sponsors and all the volunteers who have given their time and skills towards this event it wouldn't happen and it wouldn't be free to attend, nor would it get online and out to the world, so much appreciation.

Nadeem Juma, our host, has kicked off the event with an introduction of the theme: 'Who Killed Zinjanthropus.' It is an ambitious theme, I think, in keeping with the idea of discussing the dynamic tensions of our living past's effects on our present, and our hopes for the future. He mentioned that the majority of Tanzanians are currently aged between 26 and 34 years of age- I believe the number is 60%+-. This is reflected in the TEDx Team of organizers and volunteers.

Whoever Killed Zinjanthropus, seems like young Tanzania is trying to rescucitate him. Karibu TEDxDAR 2011. Let's talk.

TEDxDAR 2011: One Last Thing...

Here's what we've been waiting for: the Speaker line-up for TEDxDAR 2011. It is a very exciting gathering of individuals and I am very much looking forward to the presentations. But I do want to point out one speaker in particular whose presence has got me all knotted up with excitement. Bi Kidude is the stuff of legend.

At the moment I am meandering my way through Shaaban Robert's 'Wasifu wa Binti Saad' or Binti Saad's Biography, about the Taarab musician Binti Saad who mentored Bi Kidude. These women's life stories are incredible, and you can imagine that to see/experience the continuity between a literary work that is part of Kiswahili canon and the real life people who ARE the story is all kinds of mind blowing. How often is history, and literature, quite literally alive for you?

Bi Kidude is also a bit of a feminist/libertarian heroine to me, though I doubt that she would use those terms to describe herself. If I had just one quarter of the je-ne-sais-quoi this woman has, the world would be my cocktail.

TEDxDAR 2011: Is Zinjanthropus Stuck Outside?

The final sub-theme in TEDxDAR takes the outcast by the hand: 'As the river finds its way by taking the path of least resistance, so too, uncomfortable subjects have been left out of general discussion.'

Taboos are wonderful things, often bizarre beyond belief with a hidden logic that is oddly compelling. Everything from food interdictions (why can't a woman eat fish, or eggs, or chicken?) to sexual mores (why is it alright to rob a woman of her vulva?) to physical expression (why must a woman kneel to greet a man?) to the absurd (how come women can't whistle in public?) can be governed by these seemingly arbitrary rules.

Can we talk about this? Who dares to talk about this? Find out on Saturday if you register.

TEDxDAR 2011: Did the Consumer Eat Zinjanthropus?

The third sub-theme of TEDxDAR addresses the issue of Energy in the broadest possible terms, travelling from the issue of food production and consumption through to green energy and by intimation other forms of energy such as labour, or intellectual production. The core question is:

'Could energy be the linkage between what we hope to achieve and the act of achieving it?'

And the other side of the coin:

'What happens to our land, environment and resources in the process [of producing/consuming energy].

Having finally seen the speaker lineup, I have put in my questions nice and early to January Makamba (CCM-Bumbuli) using some oh-so-convenient social media. If he has time to answer, this might provide some insight into policies and initiatives that are environmentally conscious... and hopefully friendly. Haven't registered yet? Still some space left.

TEDxDAR 2011: Then and Now

The first sub-theme of TEDxDAR 2011 is the tension between the past and the present. This is a subject that just keeps giving in my opinion, and a salient discussion in present-day TZ. By far my favorite question there is: how does modernity differ from development and where do they intersect? I don't think we do enough critical reflection on the distinction between modernity and development, so it will be interesting to see what emerges on Saturday.

My take is that while I can understand anyone who gets exasperated by our habit of glorifying the past- and we can really lay it on thick- we still have to dredge it up to inform our current perspectives and decisions. We also need the past to tell us who we are now and how we got here in the first place. Without that reflection, we simply can't make informed decisions. I see this affecting everything from the production and reproduction of culture to governance and how we understand our leaders' responsibilities towards us. Without that reflection, it does become difficult to distinguish between grand ideas like modernity and development. It is hard to figure out what we mean by them, or why we desire them in the first place...

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