1) All economists analyse humans according to their essential characteristics, be it their classification in the labour / capital divide as Marx did, or their rational thought process as a member of the species homo economicus. Race isn’t one of them, and we knew this even when others around us were mourning the end of the slave trade (tip of the hat to Aid Watch).
2) On Sunday, I’ll be in Dar es Salaam to see Youssou N’Dour perform. I’m very excited. As a taster, here he is performing two of my favourite songs, New Africa and Africa Remembers. Both are from my favourite of his albums, Eyes Open. And no, I have no idea how to embed things on this blog.
As an aside, in Zanzibar we call Dar es Salaam ‘Bongo’, derived from the Kiswahili word for ‘brain’. Because if you don’t use your nut out there, that city’ll eat you alive.
3) One thing I’ve been asking people about in the last couple of days is Popobawa. Popobawa is a folk-monster with wings of a bat which attacks people at times of collective anxiety. Attacks range from simply scaring people to anal rape of both men and women. Popobawa hunts have led to murder before, commonly of those with mental illness. This is a great article about the phenomenon, by an anthropologist who lived on Pemba when the biggest Popo-scare took place.
What’s most interesting for me is the divide in the myths of origin of Popobawa among Pembans and many people in Unguja (Zanzibar’s main island, the place most people mean when they say ‘Zanzibar’). It reflects the different primary concerns in their livelihoods as well as their dominant political affiliations.
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Ah, I knew that an Mbongo was technically someone from Dar es Salaam (although it's sometimes used to simply mean 'Tanzanian'), but I didn't know where the word came from.
Every day's a school day.