Afromusing

Some of you may already know who he is, if so, go right ahead and check out his story “Kampala Endless Nights”. For those of you who do not know, nor have never heard of him, Unganisha is an amazing storyteller/blogger, his posts are humorous, beautifully written and a joy to read. Be sure to comb over his archives. Literary gold i tell ya. [I hope i am not fawning too much, but hey i like his writing]

If you love Lady Smith Black Mambazo, check here (Afropop Worldwide) for their tour dates in the US.
UK Diaspora, they will be there in May with the Mahotella Queens (Not only do i love their music, their hats rock!) For tour dates…here.
For more info, also check out their site Mambazo, yes, they do have a tour blog.

Aside: Who remembers the episode of Family Guy where Peter or Brian makes a reference to Lady Smith Black Mambazo?

On my previous post on chardust, is a..
A question for you *KT’s and KR’s, keyboard/pajama activists, bloggers, would you donate/pay 5 dollars or more on a site to pay for reforestation - such that someone in Kenya is paid a dollar for each tree they plant; be it on public or private property?

input that i would like to highlight…
bankelele

Tree planting is becoming another divide between the have’s and the have not’s. The poor use all their land for food and (maybe) some cash crops, while those with excess land can devote acreage to trees for several years and reap the huge profits that mature trees can deliver.

The poor expect others to plant trees or the forests to always be there - and it is embedded in African culture i.e kids are sent out into the forst to collect firewood for cooking.

So the group of KT’s and KR’s must create a sense of ownership among the community where the project will be based.

and

Tax benefit: The Standard today reports that Panpaper will receive a 5% tax waiver for planting 600,000 ha of trees and the project will be financed through the IFC. Perhaps more corporates can be enticed?

Mental, Whis and Keguro have already expressed interest…do chime in with your thoughts!

Update: If you have some companies/organizations in mind that are based in Kenya (preferably with a website) please pass along the information, and do check out the comments section for some great input from everyone!

Image and story from Solarbuzz

In his first decade on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods won 10 major championships. But Woods says his most important legacy carries his name and sits on a plot of land in his old neighborhood - the solar-powered Learning Center that he helped create.

If you needed another reason to love Tiger, here it is. As for me, i am just smiling and applauding him from this here little blog. Btw, Bill clinton was also there during the dedication of the learning centre.
Now to the cool (er) part of this story.

The facility also features two solar electric systems, a roof-top array and a custom, curved BIPV curtainwall both designed by Solar Design Associates, Inc. of Harvard, MA. The BIPV curtainwall features custom, thin-film modules with varying light transmission employing ASI® glass from Schott. The roof-top array is from PowerLight. SDA worked closely with project architects, Langdon Wilson of Irvine to ensure that the BIPV application met the architect’s design intent.

“The curtain wall design is both curved and sloped, requiring us to specify BIPV modules of differing size and shape as well as differing light transmission,” said SDA President, Steven Strong.

“The BIPV curtain wall varies in light transmission from 5% to 30% top-to-bottom - like the tinted band on your car windshield - and transitions to clear at the vision area,” Strong added. …”

Just how cool is that? A wall that generates energy.

Meanwhile: Today GW will be visiting a company that makes solar panels, batteries and hydrogen cells, yet asks congress for $250 to push for nuclear energy
Something about talking and walking the walk that doesnt quite jive?

Via SquatterCity
Chardust

Chardust Ltd. is an alternative energy company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. We’ve developed innovative techniques to convert biomass wastes into low-cost charcoal briquettes. We sell over 200 tonnes per month into institutional and domestic markets in Kenya, displacing an equivalent amount of unsustainably harvested lumpwood charcoal. At the same time as providing a cheaper energy alternative, this contributes to job creation, waste recycling and environmental conservation.

At Chardust we also manufacture water heaters that use our briquettes, enabling savings of over 70% to be made over water heated with electricity

For more on this initiative in Kibera, please click here.
Alarming fact also in the article

Charcoal production and other industrial uses of wood have shrunk the country’s forests by more than 80 percent since the country’s won indepedence from Britain in 1963, according to the environment ministry.

During my last visit, i noticed (as have most of you) that there are definitely less trees in kenya. We seriously need to plant more trees especially if the rains come in April.

A question for you *KT’s and KR’s, keyboard/pajama activists, bloggers, would you donate/pay 5 dollars or more on a site to pay for reforestation - such that someone in Kenya is paid a dollar for each tree they plant; be it on public or private property?

*Kenya tourist - diaspora , Kenyan Roots - pple who live and work in kenya - abbreviations inspired by M’s Post.

I was wondering how come i hadnt been receiving wired news stories on my rss reader, turns out they were working on something… they now have podcasts on most stories. So y’all Ipod toting wired magazine reading, adjusting tape on your glasses, dreaming in code people…subscribe to their feed.

And for those who do not like ironing like i do, there is this guy who invented the washDryIron machine, that washes, dries, and irons clothes.

Sat Feb 12th, Kenya and US tied 5 - 5

SA and Fiji, i think - correct me if iam wrong

I met 2 members of the KBW fam in LA at the IRB Sevens Rugby, which was just too much fun. What a pleasure it was. That is the only photo i was authorised to post…Guess whose shoes those are!

Update: Poi got this one right..
I met Magaidi and Strawberries. Very cool people. Check out Magaidi’s site for a recap of the rugby.

Pole for the guys who commented, and didn’t see their comments right away; i set up an anti-spam plugin that worked alittle too well, i recovered most of your comments…

Check it out on KBW

The story. It originally appeared on NY Times magazine Jan 26th 2006 edition - The Call by Daniel Bergner.
The story helped me organize my thoughts about my recent trip to Samburu Land, specifically Rumuruti, Maralal and Baragoi. This post will contain afew thoughts about that specific story and my impressions of both the story and of samburu as i saw it.

The piece reminded me of the few days i spent in Maralal and Baragoi. It was pleasant reading of places like South Horr, Mt. Nyiru, and have a real concept of where it is. Before the trip, i thought that i knew the great rift valley, so wrong was I. On the trip I saw the valley from so many views, and was in awe each time i looked at it. If you travel to Baragoi, you will see more facets of the valley like never before.
Within the article, there is mention of the samburu belief system:

The Samburu faith is monotheistic. It holds its own sacred history in which, I was told, humankind had once been linked to Ngai by a ladder made of leather. Ages ago, a Samburu man, enraged by the death of his herd, cut the ladder, and ever since the people have been disconnected from their deity. Yet when the Samburu spoke to me about Ngai, they evoked not a divinity that is abstract and removed but one that is, though invisible, close at hand, especially on the steep mountains that bound the valley, and most especially on a particular set of ridges and rocky peaks known collectively as Mount Nyiru. This, the tribe’s most hallowed mountain, about 9,000 feet high, rises immediately to the west of Kurungu. It looms over the family’s backyard. Ngai is up there, taking care of his people. He had granted the Samburu the knowledge of how to survive on cow’s blood, Andrea and his crew said. And he was forgiving when the people did wrong. He had placed a spring at the spot where the leather ladder had been cut.

My cousin told me that the spring is in a place called Kisima, and it is a must-see. It is about halfway between rumuruti and maralal, and not too far from the main road. We couldn’t stop to go there, but i plan on visiting next time i go back. There are imprints in the rock of where the animals came off the ladder, and it is revered ground among the samburu.

Click here for afew of my pics [sorry i cant post the rest since they are of family].
I had some misgivings about the attribution of pictures in the original piece in the Times magazine (print edition), a picture of the preacher had clear annotation of his name - Richard Losieku. There was another picture of two samburu warriors with this in the margin
“convertible? Samburu Warriors. Their tribe, especially the men are among the last holdouts in Africa”.
Well, how come their names were not included? If one had the time to take the picture, they would also have a moment to write down the warrior’s names?

The author deftly touched on the topic of FGM and i think his facts were on point. Of note

Most Samburu girls have the cutting done just before their weddings, which often come when they are young teenagers. Others have their clitorises excised as part of a Samburu ceremony initiating and circumcising boys and young men as moran older sisters must be cut before their brothers can become warriors.

It is a real part of Samburu life. What i learned in addition to the above and some of the other points in the article is that the only times that a samburu woman shaves all the hair from her head is after she is circumcised, or if someone in the family has died.

In discussing the linkages between US AID policy and evangelicals…

Even beyond conversion, and even beyond abolition, the impact of Western missionaries in Africa has often been immense. When peace was finally brokered between north and south in Sudan in January 2005, much of the credit went to evangelicals like Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, who runs the mission organization Samaritan’s Purse. He and his staff were well acquainted with the country’s devastation, and one of his hospitals had been bombed repeatedly in the south. He put pressure on President Bush to make ending Sudan’s conflagration a diplomatic priority.

I am abit puzzled that much of the credit would go to the evangelicals, i do understand that in context of what he was writing about, that would flow preety nicely, is it too much to ask for acknowledgement that the sudan peace deal was brokered by Africans, specifically Kenyans like Lazaro Sumbeiywo (nominated for a nobel prize as noted by bankelele here )?

Well, moving along - I feel the same way as the author about the samburu independent spirit. I will let him sum it up, as he does that better than i could, especially the part about the drought in various parts of Kenya.

All across Africa, I had heard cries of desperation, cries for Western rescue. But even in a season of drought, with the threat that livestock would start to die, I heard nothing like this from the Samburu.

The people seemed, as much as the people of any culture can, satisfied with their lives. Their satisfaction was expressed not only in the pleas they didn’t make but also in the praise they gave themselves. They talked about communal land, shared among the tribe’s herds, and about communal lives. ‘In your home,’ one man, who had returned to Kurungu for a break from his job as a policeman in Nairobi, explained to me, ‘you say, this is my bed. If a Samburu walks from here all the way through the mountains, any place he sees a hut, the mat inside will be his. To share, to sleep next to the others. There is always a place. We don’t have, this is my bed.’

On the way to Baragoi, we were on a bus called the Ngiro Express, the bus driver stopped afew times to drop off jericans of water for the samburu who would wait for him to come by. He would typically carry water for the radiator, but as he got closer to the town and did not need it, he would give it away, though he did say that he would also sell the water at times. I was expecting to see people in dire straits, the people i saw seemed to be doing fine.

In talking to some of the people we visited, something important that one of them told me is that the samburu are facing challenges like other seminomadic tribes, especially when it comes to education. For example, he said that 30% of samburu children go to school, this figure being so low because of the pastoralist life. There is no incentive for education, but one program that he thought was beneficial and effective, was the feeding program in the schools. This provided a very strong incentive for parents to send their children to school. Poverty levels are still very high, and as in other parts of Kenya, employment is sorely needed.

I think David Bergner tackled the question of religion and conversion in the piece very well, his discussion with Rick about the effect of introducing christianity to the samburu and how it would disrupt/change the culture was very clear (If you havent read the story please do).
On this I wondered, if i lived the samburu way of life, amidst the grandeur of the plains, the expansive sky with trillions of stars clearly visible, how would that affect my beliefs? If i woke up every day with amazing views of Mt. Nyiru, saw white and burnt orange flowers bloom in parched earth, and between rocks, if i saw the spring in kisima with the marks of animals decending from the ladder, who or what would i believe in?

One thing I learned from the trip to Samburu land is that despite the harshest of conditions beauty abounds…and wow - Life