On Tuesday 9 July 1996, we flew from Dodoma at about 7.30 in the morning to Musoma, with a stop at Arusha to pick two other passengers up. Taking off from Arusha the surrounding landscape was filled with lush vegetation, including Banana Palms. Houses were round with cone-shaped thatched roofs, grouped in twos and threes …
My journey to Tanzania on 1 June 1996 was the first time I had travelled abroad alone and I was apprehensive about the journey. When my plane touched down in Darussalam on a very warm winter’s evening there was some sense of relief, although I suffered from nerves which made my passage through customs uncomfortable. …
Ten years ago I spent forty-one days in Tanzania. Some memories… Darussalam at sunset. The road out of the college where I was staying in June 1996: Kongwa, Dodoma province. Elephants on the plain at sunrise. Kongwa at sun down.
When the thunder clattered and the rain lashed the ground, the power went off and SOAS library’s computer network ceased to function. There was no rain in Tanzania, the power went off, but it was more than the computers that suffered. Michael Franti of Spearhead fame, the hiphopster on a mission of musical literation, would …
