the writing nib

Category: nib’s things

  • Hi again.

    Hi again.

    It’s been a while! All those memes about university life destroying your mental and physical well-being are true!

    I’ve been writing all kinds of things in the last two months: academic papers, social media posts and angry texts trying to educate people on why the n-word still has power today because of the continued oppression of black people (big sigh).

    Still, I have a couple (thousands, if not millions) of sentences that my keyboard is begging me to type (was this even funny? Haha). Recently, I’ve come across all kinds of journalism on the internet and on paper. I’ve been doing some research on magazines and article writing because I had to write and edit a couple in the last two months. A group of other Tanzanian youth and I having been working on a digital magazine that’s scheduled to come out this June! Head over to our website, Instagram , Facebook and Twitter pages for updates and whatnot. I’m really excited about this because it has been my long-time dream to see authentic written journalism from Tanzania (apart from traditional news journalism on newspapers); something educational and inspiring, yet entertaining. Although I am on the writing end in this case, I have had the most amazing experience and I hope whoever reads it enjoys every word and image.

    What I’ve learnt is that there are so many stories to tell and many different ways to tell them: writing, videography, photography and illustration, to name a few. I’ve been inspired by different photographers and travel bloggers, the likes of Natalie Basha (@thetravelmuse) who does journalism “with a beat in travel and human interest”. Head over to her YouTube channel to see her amazing work. Whenever I think of my dream of becoming a journalist, I think of it in the same way; traveling in order to learn and share what I come across with in other cultures. The world is full of very many untold stories. Platforms like WordPress and YouTube allow us to experience these stories either visually or using our imagination. I hope my words spark your imagination from time to time.

    It has been eye-opening to see how people from all around the world tell stories through photography, videography, writing 😉 and what kinds of stories they choose to tell. It feels great to be a part of the amazing fabric of journalism. The future is exciting (and uncertain, but I kinda like it that way haha). It’s like opening the big pink furry box from RuPaul’s Drag Race =D.

  • Pineapples Remind Me of the Place I Call My Home

    It might be both a good and a bad thing to attach meaning to things. I was just eating pineapples for dinner and was reminded of the place I call my home. How in the evenings my father would bring a pineapple or two and I would groan (when he’s not around, of course) after being told I had to cut it into pieces so everyone could enjoy it.

    Most pineapples in Germany don’t taste as good as pineapples taste back home. Also, some pineapples back home don’t taste as good either. So, when a pineapple I’m having is a bit less sweet than it is supposed to be, I feel cheated. I feel like the meaning I’ve attached to it, home, is a lie and not as sweet as I think it is. Sadly, this is the reality.

    Most of the time I enjoy while in Tanzania involves things that don’t require me to interact with anyone. I enjoy walking along Kivukoni Drive in the evening and just looking at the Dar es Salaam harbor or riding a Mwendokasi bus back to the city after a long day and seeing myself being swallowed by tall buildings. To me, that feeling is almost the same as when I eat some very tasty chicken Biryani.

    But there is a sourness to home. Something that can be seen by everyone and almost similar to a pineapple that is a little bit too sour to be enjoyable, as my father would put it when he realizes that he bought ‘the wrong one’. While being mindful of the community you live in is a good thing, shaming and beating up a woman just because she wore a skirt 2 or 3 inches above her knees is not. The worst thing is that this doesn’t happen to tourists or people who just seem wealthy, because “they were probably brought up THAT way”. These are people who have seen the pineapple-maybe when it was being bought, but aren’t part of the “family” so they weren’t there at the house to eat it.

    And yes, you’re not forced to eat a pineapple just because you’re part of the family, but you don’t really have a choice on what fruit to eat if that’s the fruit your father chose to bring home that day.

    Tanzania is my home, but (many people who live there and I) are not comfortable with the unwritten “customs and traditions” and “morals” that some people throw at others each time something that isn’t the norm is done. It’s an unpleasant situation, much like eating a bowl of sour pineapples.

  • A Very Short Time in Kampala

    A Very Short Time in Kampala

    TheWritingNib (1)

    It must be amazing to go to bed after seeing a view like this (sorry it’s a bit blurry, I’m not a professional photographer). From the fourth floor of a building in Bukoto area in Kampala, I almost dropped my jaw. I had never seen anything like it, honestly. The part of Dar es Salaam where I’m from is just next to the ocean so it’s pretty plain. So when this photo was taken I realized how “plain” my life had been (I’m so sorry for the pun).

    The city looked back at me on my first night in Kampala, Uganda. I’d spent the day walking around Bukoto area with my friend, who’s also Tanzanian, looking for places to eat. We came across a certain restaurant called ‘Cheese Shop…’ on the way to Acacia Mall for pizza (I’m not a super fan of pizza by the way. Fight me in the comments, or not. Please don’t). Anyway, it was at that restaurant where I had Chips and Chap for the very first time. Chap is Ugandan; very tasty! Unfortunately, I never asked what exactly was in it (I can still google) or took a picture, but egg is the one thing that was noticeable at first sight.

    Aside from a nice experience at the restaurant, having a nice man who help me get my sandal fixed after it broke in the middle of the road and the sight of very many Bodabodas in the streets of Kampala, I enjoyed feeling very welcomed. I believe it is common in East Africa to welcome people from other countries in a friendly manner. People are always curious to know why you’re there. The guy who took us to Bukoto from the airport and back was very happy to help with little things, like directions to places to eat, when he found out that my friend and I are from Tanzania.

    This is the kind of treatment everyone should be getting all around the world. It shouldn’t be that people look at you with scowls on their faces or call police on you when you’re busy doing normal human being things, or you know, hold parades aimed at promoting racist ideologies (“races” don’t exist by the way). If people in Kampala were like this then my friend and I would’ve gone hungry that day, because it was kind of obvious that we weren’t Ugandan, and neither would I have been able to walk back because no one would’ve wanted to fix my sandal.

    Overall, it was a nice experience and I wish everyone had nice experiences in the places they travel to. Also, I hope to go back again someday so I can eat chap and take a photo of it.

    Lake Victoria can be seen in the featured image. Taken on the way to Entebbe International Airport, along the Entebbe-Kampala Expressway.

     

  • Spring

    Spring

    It’s finally Spring! Gone are the heavy jackets and dark-colored clothing, the annoying scarves and gloves that make you want to scream each time you have to open your iPhone with Touch ID. Now it’s the season of floral mini-skirts and light stockings. The season to go on picnics and not worry about taking walks late at night because it’s not that cold or dark anymore. It is Spring, and it’s time to show off the tops and shorts we’ve been stocking up on since the Fall sales begun.

    I grew up in a tropical country where the only seasons you get are the rainy and dry seasons. Where there are hot temperatures throughout the year and winds during June and July to make us claim it’s “cold”.

    One reason why I was excited about coming to Germany is because here I can experience the four seasons distinctly. Everything turns orange at around October and leaves fall from their trees, in late December the first big snow falls and melts away by March, making way for the leaves and flowers to regrow freely and attract all the beautiful birds and bees back. It’s a beautiful time, and I’m yet to experience it fully.

    One other exciting and interesting thing about Spring is the idea of ‘love is in the air’. It’s often said and implied in all kinds of art that Spring is the season of love. What I think is that this comes with the association of birds and bees and flowers to love. Maybe it’s just a social construct but it makes sense that all that goes together with love simply because love is beautiful and in some way colorful, just like all those things.

    So take out those picnic mats, cameras and bikes and go outside. Go see the beauty that was underneath all that heavy January snow. Take those nice shots for your Instagram, because you can. Lastly, enjoy and smile, because when Winter comes again and the snow will catch you when you’re in a different continent, and not in the city you wanted to be in, with no idea whatsoever how to be calm about it and you won’t be able to smile then because it’ll be way too cold to do that.

    Photo by my friend Ally

  • The Ocean

    The Ocean

    To some people, the ocean seems like a scary place where you can die. First of all, you can die anywhere. But that’s not the point here.

    The ocean is like this magical if you think of it. I’ve dreamt of the ocean long before I first watched Sebastian sing that super catchy song ‘Under the Sea’ on The Little Mermaid. However, that particular film made me think more of it. Before I mostly thought of the beach part of it where I could play and catch some waves. But after it was about what it’s like to be part of the sea. Do the fish have some kind of kingdom that keeps them all at peace like how Disney tries to insist on all three of their Little Mermaid films? I’m curious.

    Sometimes people ask themselves whether there are different worlds out there. The way I see it, the ocean is another world that, as it happens, everyone except marine biologists and co. is not paying attention to. The sea level is an entry to another world – the same world where Nemo lives. That must mean something because some of us want to meet Nemo and not fry him (sorry?).

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    The Indian Ocean. Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam, TZ. By asuphotolog.

    The Indian Ocean, which happens to be 20 mins by foot from my home (lucky), is my favorite thing to look at. I remember the days when I had to ride the ferry boat every morning to work and the sun would rise high and its light would fall on the water. That one incident marked my mornings because I truly felt like I shared something with another world, a world I can’t live in because I don’t have gills… And this obsession with the ocean even made me visit the International Maritime Museum Hamburg the first time I went to the city. It’s basically a boat museum but the visit is truly worth it. Looking at all the boats gives you the feeling of wanting to be close with the sea world because everything in there tells you just how great the ocean is and not simply in terms of size but in history and whatever is in it and what it can do with its powerful waves etc.. I get a similar feeling when I look at these pictures by asuphotolog.

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    But, of course, as every story goes we, humans, have found lo many many ways to destroy a world that is not ours. I won’t get into that now. But save the oceans, please And take time to appreciate what is around you; the ocean, the lake, the river or even the sky because I’m certain some of us have dreamt of living in the clouds and being able to fly. I can assure you, that kind of thing doesn’t happen in this world of ours.