Arjen Westra’s African Weblog

Sometimes I get reactions. Why are you so negative about Africa if you say you love this continent? Ok, if you just take the observations in this (very young) Blog, you would agree: this guy is very frustrated and negative. Unfortunately people who think this, are wrong. The things I am writing here, are daily life events. By telling these stories, I hope people wherever in the world, would get a better understanding of how life is in other places in the world. What people have to deal with. The critics are right if they say that sometimes I am a bit negative. Ok, journalism is about the choice what to write down, I agree, so I could write down positive stories. About solidarity of the average African people for example, their art to survive and keep smiling in any situation. But journalism is also about writing down as honestly as possible what you observe. Having your facts right and check and double check. This Blog doesn’t pretent to be a journalistic report on ‘life in Africa’, but it is a personal account about my observations, emotions, findings. Sometimes this might be negative, sometimes I am extremely angry, happy or disappointed. It will reflect my emotiosn of that very moment and place. I hope I will give others a better insight in ‘African’ society whatever that may be. An insight that you won’t always find in reports of press agencies and in a cool analysis of the political situation. Why would I not write them down? If you love your wife, you have to be honest to her. I love Africa and try to be honest about this beautifull continent. If I wouldn’t bother, I wouldn’t give a damn about what I wrote down.

Yess.. after a short delay. Arrived in Maputo. The train from Jo’burg arrived at 6.38 in Komatipoort. From there a minibus to Maputo. Arriving in Maputo, arrested by the police. They wanted me to unpack my back in the streets. No way! (of course they were after bribes, my visa was ok). I didn’t want that, so i suggested to go to the police station. After spending too much energy in talking (seven officers in the backyard thought that it was very interesting what I had in my bag. They wanted to make me clear that I was in big trouble and I had to leave my laptop behind. Fifth time in Mozambique, never happened before, by the way). I did not leave my laptop. Now I am free again. Going to the Ministry of Tourism now. Working on stories for newspapers and magazines in Holland and Belgium.

Always the shock of landing in a ‘Western’ country. Last night I arrived in bright lights-smoothly-paved-Johannesburg with the late KQ-flight. Advertising everywhere, extreme good coffee and a smile when they quickly serve it within seconds after ordering. What I also noticed this morning, although I have been here several times: people hardly look at each other in the streets. This is a city like other Western cities, with contrasts you will find in a lot of places on this planet. City of fortune seekers, immigrants from all over the continent. Johannesburg is a kind of New York for the African continent, at least it is the richest city. Tomorrow I will leave this city built on ‘gold wealth’, by train to Maputo. The capital of Mozambique, one of the poorest countries on this beautifull continent. Miners from Mozambique used to take the train, crossing the border to South Africa, to work for their living. My train will only bring me to Komatiepoort, the border town. They say it is full of smugglers there. From Komatipoort, I have to cross the border by foot and hopefully catch an other train.

… to take off for Jo’burg. I always feel like a little child when I am travelling. The multiple entry visa for Mozambique is in my passport. Nairobi-news today is about the striking civil servants: the 9000 who went on strike for a 600% payrise recently, will be sacked. For the 400 nurses that went on strike: same story. Imagine! You ask something very reasonable in my eyes (some people here earn around 4000-5000 shilling (50 euro) or less in a month. Per day a lot of people spend 40/50 shilling for their transport home, which means that around 3500 shilling is left over for food, school fees for the children… The price of one litre of milk in the shop is about 50 shilling.) These people safe lives, and now they will sacked. Meanwhile members of Kenyan parliament here earn more than 5000 euro… a month and it can go up to 8000 euro (800.000 shilling, yes!) if you include the allowances, which is more than the salary of the Canadian Prime Minister and apparently more than a nurse (not to talk about a Dutch journalist )

Normally I buy my vegetables with the stalls along the road, but the stalls disappeared, so I went to the supermarket today. The guy who priced my vegetables asked me in swahili ‘Where are you from?’ I answered that I am from The Netherlands. ‘Oh, that is the country where they stabbed somebody to death in the midde of a city, i saw it in the news.’ I nodded. ‘So even in your country, there is still a lot of insecurity’, the guy said. I had to agree. ‘But’, I said, ‘…in Nairobi the police is killing 21 people in a week, that is only the police and not even alll the killings.’ He was laughing. I had the impression that this guy felt releaved that Kenyans are not the only people that have to deal with insecurity and people that are being murdered. At the same moment I realised that The Netherlands does not always get good headlines here. Yesterday there was this item in the paper that foreign journalists had problems with covering the referendum about the European Constitution. Minutes before some colleagues had to go on air, the police had come and ordered them to move the car with the satellite dish because it was not allowed to parc there. I was surprised. These things are happening in Kenya, but not in Holland. Maybe I should tell this story to the vegetable guy in the supermarket. He might feel more releaved when he hears this story.

Getting things organised to leave for Southern Africa. Busy.

The Kenyans celebrate Madaraka day, ‘Self-Governance Day’, today. This means: no traffic jams and parking wherever you want. This morning I took an early matatu (‘mini bus’) to town. I hardly had to wait and I realised that the matatu-system of transport is not that bad. You never have to wait. Unless it is rush hour, ok (what I remember from The Netherlands is long waiting on a cold train station, buses going every half hour and at some places not at all on Sundays) In Kenya, you just stop a minibus. They bring you where you want. I was wondering why we don’t have such a system in The Netherlands. Could work quite well. Especially for elderly people it would work quite well. Apart from that working on proposals for reports on Southern Africa. James Morris, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa calls for the world to re-focus its attention on the chronic problems affecting this region (drought, HIV/Aids) To be continued!