Don't be such a turtle!

In Tanzania or Tanganyika as it is called in Swahili, a large population of Muslims live. Being almost half of the country's population, Ramadan of course does not go unnoticed.

Not every Muslim Tanzanian fasts, and for those that pretend to be fasting while secretly eating anyway, the Swahili speaking Tanzanians have given the name of Kasa which means Turtle. Perhaps because the turtle is both on land an in water and has a shell to hide under?

Joseph Ki-Zerbo 1922-2006

"We are not exploited because we are black, we are black because we are exploited. The day we are seen as equals, people will stop seeing the colour of our skin."

Joseph Ki-Zerbo was the first African professor of History in Paris having studied at both La Sorbonne and the Paris Institute for Political Studies. Born in Burkina Faso, he later came to be involved in politics, wrote many books, among them a standard book on African History, established the Centre for African Development Studies and dedicated his life to free his continent from colonialism and later on postcolonial chains that have helped suffocate the sense of worth and respect in the peoples of Africa. He spent some time in Uppsala, Sweden due to the political unrest that sometimes erupted in his home country.

Ki-Zerbo retells a story of an african woman, something very striking which can be seen in peoples of many nations that have been colonized whether it is Senegal or India;

"An african woman went to see her doctor. He told her that he would have to make a small operative incision but assured her he would give her local anaesthetic. The woman became very scared upon hearing the word local and said, "no doctor, please, I want french anaesthetic."