Friday, October 30, 2009

Blogging on fashion and football

Today we have had the whole day a guest lecturer in class, as Maggid Mjengwa has been showing 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 and managing editor of the new weekly newspaper Kwanza Jamii. His blog is today 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.

The latest pictures are from the streets and scenes in Mwanza, also called the Rock City. If you want to travel westwards from here towards Sengerema, Geita and even Bukoba, you need to take a ferry. And if you’re in Mwanza, you’ll see of course lots of fish.

Lately, there’s appeared several other interesting blogs in Tanzania, each of them usually focusing on one particular topic. You’ll find photo blogs, human interest blogs, political blogs and also blogs for publishing cartoons.

For the situation of albinos in Tanzania, see the blog of Richard Mbuthia, with latest news of the court trials against people suspected for the albino killings which stunned the country last year.

For pictures of wedding cakes and the latest local designer clothing, try the fashion blog by Shamim Mwasha, journalist of the entertainment site Darhotwire.

Another popular lifestyle blog is the one by Clouds FM radio presenter Dina Marios.

Daily News journalist Jiang Alipo maintains the Mama na Mwana blog for publishing happy photos of babies and comments about baby care.

Mzee Mwanakijiji, again, is a Tanzanian living in USA and running a podcast blog with audio recordings, on new revelations about the Richmond corruption scandal and other local topics.

My favourite is however Tuntufye Abel’s blog on football coaching, with comments and advice. Today you’ll find him being anxious about foul play and bad spectator behavior in tomorrow’s football match between the local rivals Yanga and Simba at the new National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

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