I’m trying to re-learn Swahili. Once, I knew it well but now it’s rusty. My intentions are good, but it’s hard to stay disciplined and study it regularly. The hardest thing to nail down is noun classes. Every noun in Swahili belongs to one of fifteen noun classes and all modifiers, including plurals, change according to their class. For example, kitabu (book) and kiti (chair) are in the KI/VI class so their singular and plural forms are kitabu/vitabu and kiti/viti.
Last week I noticed that the word for time (wakati) is in the noun class of long thin objects like walls or forks. Is there a universal, intuitive sense of time as long and thin? Maybe so. One of the ways that we depict it is as a timeline – long and thin. Poets and writers refer to it as a cord or thread, swiftly passing by.
So, that little language lesson got me thinking about other Swahili words involving time. John Mbiti’s classic African Religions and Philosophy explained a traditional (and now defunct ) concept in East Africa that divided time into a near past and a far past. People who died in living memory were considered to be in “the near past.” As long as anyone alive remembered them, these loved ones stayed “near.” When no one alive remembered them anymore, they became part of the far past or the Zamani. People who are always remembered (like Abraham Lincoln, for example) were always “near” and never moved into the far past. But most people eventually pass into a time when no one on earth remembers them and they become part of the Zamani, that storehouse of memory of those who are beyond memory. These people are honored as “the ancestors” because of their humanity and the collective gifts they gave to their children, many generations down the timeline.
This concept of time is long gone in today’s East Africa but it seems natural that this is the place that developed a concept of past time that encompassed every person who ever lived. This is, after all, the region of the world where we find the first known historical presence of human beings. The fact that there is a respect for the unknown ancestors here and a sense of being part of some long thin line of time seems all of a piece with what we know of our origins as human beings on this pale blue dot in the universe. The Zamani concept connects us to everyone who has gone before, those who are near and those already in the great Zamani. My parents are no longer living but I like to think of them as “near” and, when I am gone, I hope that those who knew and loved me will think of me as “near,” too.
So, here’s a brief ode of gratitude for those unknown multitudes of people who worked diligently all over this earth for thousands of years, patiently improving each crop of maize from season to season, selecting the best rice seeds for next year’s planting, learning how to spin and weave fibers and coaxing colors from myriad plants to dye them with, figuring out how to build simple irrigation devices, learning to use the stars to navigate the seas, developing geometrical skills and thereby figuring out accurately, over 2,500 years ago, that the earth was round with a circumference of about 25,000 miles.*
The awareness, in this part of the world, of the nameless and seldom-heralded people who lived before us and bequeathed to us so much may have prompted what we in the West think of as Africa’s respect for all ancestors everywhere. And the motives that inspired our ancestors from time immemorial to work diligently to create this enormous bequest of improvements that make our lives better every day were likely similar to ones that motivate us, their descendants, today: wanting to create a better life for our children and future generations, striving to build a world more just, equitable, fair.
* The fact that the earth was about 25,000 miles around has been known around the world for at least several thousand years. People in the Americas also figured that out and accurately identified the cause of lunar eclipses (only a circular object casts a circular shadow) long before Columbus washed up on their shores. We have the American fabulist Washington Irving to thank for creating the myth (in the 1820s!) that Columbus’ contemporaries thought the earth was flat. Columbus thought the earth was only about 6,000 miles in circumference because that is what his Bible indicated. So, he erroneously concluded that, heading west from Europe, Asia was no more than several thousand miles away and he could go all the way there, across the Atlantic Ocean, without perishing. But the scientists were right and he was wrong. The earth was, in fact, not 6,000, but 25,000 miles around and Asia was ten thousand miles away. It was not possible then to carry fresh water in sailing vessels across more than ten thousand miles of ocean – the distance from Europe to Asia. Had the Americas not been there to save him, Columbus would surely have perished at sea – lost in the Doldrums, anonymous forever in the Zamani.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
How Big is Africa?
Very big.
Scroll down to the political map of Africa on the right hand side of the page. The distance between the most western point of Senegal and the most eastern point of Somalia in the Horn of Africa is over 4,000 miles, about the distance from New York City to Berlin, Germany. From Tunis to Capetown is more than 5,000 miles, the distance from New York City to Santiago, Chile. Very big.
Here’s another way of thinking about it: you could fit four continental United States into Africa and still have room left over.
Or, you could fit the United States, China, Europe, the British Isles, and India into the continent of Africa.
Here’s a map from Boston University's African Studies Center that fits in the United States, China, Europe, and Alaska with room to spare:
East Africa is big, too. It includes Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. The United States, east of the Mississippi River, could fit into East Africa with only Florida sticking out.
Tanzania itself is big. You could fit Ohio and Pennsylvania into Tanzania and still have room for Texas.
On the other hand, Morogoro is small. You could fit Morogoro into Harrisonburg, Virginia, or Lancaster, PA, and still have plenty of room left over for shoofly pies and the entire Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival every spring.
Scroll down to the political map of Africa on the right hand side of the page. The distance between the most western point of Senegal and the most eastern point of Somalia in the Horn of Africa is over 4,000 miles, about the distance from New York City to Berlin, Germany. From Tunis to Capetown is more than 5,000 miles, the distance from New York City to Santiago, Chile. Very big.
Here’s another way of thinking about it: you could fit four continental United States into Africa and still have room left over.
Or, you could fit the United States, China, Europe, the British Isles, and India into the continent of Africa.
Here’s a map from Boston University's African Studies Center that fits in the United States, China, Europe, and Alaska with room to spare:
East Africa is big, too. It includes Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. The United States, east of the Mississippi River, could fit into East Africa with only Florida sticking out.
Tanzania itself is big. You could fit Ohio and Pennsylvania into Tanzania and still have room for Texas.
On the other hand, Morogoro is small. You could fit Morogoro into Harrisonburg, Virginia, or Lancaster, PA, and still have plenty of room left over for shoofly pies and the entire Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival every spring.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year, 2012
Out with the old and in with the new! We’ve been here the last half of 2011 and it’s been a good year. The best part came at the end when our immediate family was all here for Christmas. Jess came from Blacksburg, Virginia, on December 13 and stayed two weeks. That was great. I really miss extended family and friends a lot so, thanks, Jess, for getting on that plane even though you had to leave Jake and Emma at the kennel!
Back home in the states, Christmas goes hand-in-hand with bare trees, wintry cold, snow on the horizon and bundling up to go outside but here it’s summer year-round and Christmas pops up when it’s hot with tropical foliage everywhere. Some trees and plants have striking red and green foliage right now and that looks pretty “Christmas- y.”
Oddly enough, the wintry trappings of Christmas that developed in northern climes have been transported here with depictions of a bundled-up Santa pulled along by those ridiculous reindeer and fake Christmas trees with sparkling lights whose intent, originally, was to ward off the wintry dark!
But the generous spirit of Christmas transcends climes and borders and that was brought home to us when a Muslim friend turned up at our door with a little evergreen tree branch that he cut from somewhere way up the mountain just for his Christian friends. Nathan cut it down to size for a table centerpiece. Several weeks ago I got a locally-made crèche with African figures to add to my little “global” crèche collection so that went under the little tree-branch.
We had planned to spend Christmas weekend on the coast in Bagamoyo north of Dar es Salaam but torrential rains washed out bridges and roads in that area. About five thousand people who live in low-lying areas of Dar lost their homes. With more heavy rain expected in the next few days, it’s not likely they will be able to return. The Tanzanian government is promising to help them find other housing, even offering them land far outside the city if they are willing to relocate. I expect the town planners in Dar would be happy to move people out of the crowded city and a flood might look like an opportunity for them – but probably not for the people who are displaced.
We went out west to Iringa when Jess was here. Iringa is high and surrounded by rocky outcrops and mountains. One afternoon we hiked up to some rocks above the town and that’s where we took the picture at the top. There’s a craft shop in Iringa run by the Lutheran church that sells ice cream, chocolate pastries and cakes so we spent considerable time there! We also discovered an Italian Consolatta convent in town that makes wonderful pasta, pesto, ravioli, caponata, jams, and other delights that you can’t generally buy here. We came out of there carrying boxes of good stuff! There’s a Consolatta monastery west of Iringa that makes cheese (wow!!) but it was too far away, alas.
We also spent several days at Ruaha National Park. I really love Tanzania’s game parks. Without them, a lot of these animals would be wiped out by now and Tanzania does a good job of protecting these rare creatures while using money generated from park visitors to help surrounding communities. The night sky in the parks is breathtaking. You get the feeling of being alone on the top of the world surrounded by the widest sky imaginable and the stars just burst out at you from the horizon to top. When we lived in Babati many years ago, there was no electricity at night and I would sit in the backyard and gaze at the Southern Cross and the entire brilliant southern night sky and feel at one with the cosmos. Thirty years later, in every town of Tanzania, it’s too lit up at night to do that.
We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, water buck, impalas and other animals at Ruaha. Here are a few pictures:
Ruaha allegedly has 10,000 elephants and here are a few of them.
The lions were all focused on their own lives and activities -- paid us no mind. Note the little cub on the left.
And the "Little Prince" baobab trees were all leafed out and everywhere -- forests of baobabs. Loved it!
Back home in the states, Christmas goes hand-in-hand with bare trees, wintry cold, snow on the horizon and bundling up to go outside but here it’s summer year-round and Christmas pops up when it’s hot with tropical foliage everywhere. Some trees and plants have striking red and green foliage right now and that looks pretty “Christmas- y.”
Oddly enough, the wintry trappings of Christmas that developed in northern climes have been transported here with depictions of a bundled-up Santa pulled along by those ridiculous reindeer and fake Christmas trees with sparkling lights whose intent, originally, was to ward off the wintry dark!
But the generous spirit of Christmas transcends climes and borders and that was brought home to us when a Muslim friend turned up at our door with a little evergreen tree branch that he cut from somewhere way up the mountain just for his Christian friends. Nathan cut it down to size for a table centerpiece. Several weeks ago I got a locally-made crèche with African figures to add to my little “global” crèche collection so that went under the little tree-branch.
We had planned to spend Christmas weekend on the coast in Bagamoyo north of Dar es Salaam but torrential rains washed out bridges and roads in that area. About five thousand people who live in low-lying areas of Dar lost their homes. With more heavy rain expected in the next few days, it’s not likely they will be able to return. The Tanzanian government is promising to help them find other housing, even offering them land far outside the city if they are willing to relocate. I expect the town planners in Dar would be happy to move people out of the crowded city and a flood might look like an opportunity for them – but probably not for the people who are displaced.
We went out west to Iringa when Jess was here. Iringa is high and surrounded by rocky outcrops and mountains. One afternoon we hiked up to some rocks above the town and that’s where we took the picture at the top. There’s a craft shop in Iringa run by the Lutheran church that sells ice cream, chocolate pastries and cakes so we spent considerable time there! We also discovered an Italian Consolatta convent in town that makes wonderful pasta, pesto, ravioli, caponata, jams, and other delights that you can’t generally buy here. We came out of there carrying boxes of good stuff! There’s a Consolatta monastery west of Iringa that makes cheese (wow!!) but it was too far away, alas.
We also spent several days at Ruaha National Park. I really love Tanzania’s game parks. Without them, a lot of these animals would be wiped out by now and Tanzania does a good job of protecting these rare creatures while using money generated from park visitors to help surrounding communities. The night sky in the parks is breathtaking. You get the feeling of being alone on the top of the world surrounded by the widest sky imaginable and the stars just burst out at you from the horizon to top. When we lived in Babati many years ago, there was no electricity at night and I would sit in the backyard and gaze at the Southern Cross and the entire brilliant southern night sky and feel at one with the cosmos. Thirty years later, in every town of Tanzania, it’s too lit up at night to do that.
We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, water buck, impalas and other animals at Ruaha. Here are a few pictures:
Ruaha allegedly has 10,000 elephants and here are a few of them.
The lions were all focused on their own lives and activities -- paid us no mind. Note the little cub on the left.
And the "Little Prince" baobab trees were all leafed out and everywhere -- forests of baobabs. Loved it!
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