Today we have a guest lecturer in class, as Maggid Mjengwa, Tanzanian blogger and newspaper columnist, has been presenting to us his blog and telling how he operates it, updating pictures and comments usually several times a day.
Maggid is a long-time friend of mine from Iringa, where he is heading the Tanzania programme of the Swedish NGO, Forum Syd. But he is also a journalist, writing weekly columns to the Raia Mwema newspaper and publishing an online media site called Kwanza Jamii. His blog at mjengwa.blogspot.com is one of the most famous and most visited blogs in Tanzania, giving a sympathetic picture of the lives Tanzanians are living in both the rural areas and in the cities. You’ll see photos of people and peculiar events wherever Maggid moves, telling a story often more worth than thousand words.
These days you can see in his blog pictures with a short description from along the 800 kilometre journey from Iringa via Dodoma and Babati finally to Arusha. Here some children on a donkey cart, here an elderly couple is sharing a traditional brew, and here is an example of the poor maintenance of the rural road infrastructure. What is happening to all the road development funds?
Here Maggid himself is taking a cup of tea at a place proudly named as Sheraton Hotel in a village outside Dodoma. And here a group of young men are watching the president speak on TV in a shop window in Sokoine Road here in Arusha.
Lately, there’s appeared several other interesting blogs in Tanzania, each of them usually focusing on one particular topic.
Daily News journalist Jiang Alipo maintains the Mama na Mwana blog for publishing happy photos of babies and comments about baby care. Tuntufye Abel is hosting a blog on football coaching, with comments and advice. Mzee Mwanakijiji, again, is a Tanzanian living in USA and running a podcast blog with audio recordings, on corruption revelations and other local Tanzanian topics.
Other blogs include the cartoon blog Katuni inasema, Cartoons say it all, by Tanzania Daima cartoonist Said Michael, the fashion blog 8020 Fashions by Darhotwire journalist Shamim Mwasha, and Albinos in Tanzania, a blog reporting on the violence targeting albinos and the general situation of people with albanism in the country.
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