African Bloggers

July 3, 2008 11:13 AM

Internet in Africa is more than just Nigerian spam. There are honest African bloggers who fight corrupt government and police to go where mainstream journalists dare not. Compare their blogging experience with your own. Imagine the government calling you over the phone at night and questioning about a particular post you just wrote.
posted by Surfin' Bird (13 comments total)

The blogs:

Cédric Kalonji from the DR Congo

Makaila from Chad
posted by arcticwoman at 11:26 AM on July 3 [1 favorite]

Both of those blogs are en Français.
posted by arcticwoman at 11:27 AM on July 3

"Internet in Africa is more than just Nigerian spam."

No shit?!
posted by Eideteker at 11:34 AM on July 3

posted by Surfin' Bird Imagine the government calling you over the phone at night and questioning about a particular post you just wrote.

*RING* Hello?

"Hello, this is Prince Ngobe Ugandazaa, and I have an urgent business proposition for which I will pay you 3.2 million American dollars . . . "
posted by optovox at 11:49 AM on July 3 [4 favorites]

Interesting, thanks! (I was startled to hear the Chadian blogger pronounce Tchad as /kad/; I have no idea whether that's his idiosyncratic pronunciation or widespread in the country.)
posted by languagehat at 11:55 AM on July 3

Just one link to a video? This is not the best of Metafilter, though the subject certainly deserves attention. If this post is meant to make a difference, why not direct links to the bloggers who are making a difference?
posted by tinkertown at 12:17 PM on July 3

Just one link to a video?

Have you been hiding in a cave for the past couple of years? Many, many MeFi posts are "one link to a video," just as others are "one link to an essay." The only relevant question is how good the linked item is.

This is not the best of Metafilter, though the subject certainly deserves attention.

Since you agree the subject deserves attention, I presume your "not the best" refers to the first point; see above.

If this post is meant to make a difference, why not direct links to the bloggers who are making a difference?

Possibly because they're in French? In any event, they were linked to in the first comment.

Sheesh, people are really cranky about posts lately. If it isn't THE GREATEST MEFI POST EVAR, it shouldn't be there. Me, I'm damn glad I saw the linked video, and I'd trade a whole passel of "OMG mashup/kitty/Google app" posts for this one. YMMV.
posted by languagehat at 12:23 PM on July 3 [2 favorites]

Also see.
posted by prefpara at 12:43 PM on July 3 [1 favorite]

This is Zimbabwe
posted by adamvasco at 1:07 PM on July 3

I am sure someone can dig up an anecdote regarding a Secret Service visit to a US resident following some blog post or other...
posted by rokusan at 3:41 PM on July 3

(Derail) "She had posted her poems on websites under the screen name the Lyrical Terrorist, prosecutors said." British Muslim successfully prosecuted for posting poetry glorifying terrorism of which the state disapproves, 2007. (End derail)
posted by alasdair at 4:13 PM on July 3

According to Cédric's last post, he's now (or recently finished) helping other reporters in the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania to create and learn to maintain their own blogs. Good on him.

Also, I lol'd. Not at the subject matter of the video, but at Cédric's sarcasm and use of the reverse FTFY in the post with the picture of a shiny new SUV.

Further in that post, he writes about how there's money available to buy new SUVs for members of parliament, senators and other Kinshasa officials. But, mysteriously, when it comes to the citizenry, there's no funds: profs at the university of Kinshasa have been on strike for months, and there's an overabundance of ratty-ass (but recently patriotically repainted) smoking buses as public transit... two of which caught fire after being in service for only a week.

In the beginning of it, however, he writes:

Ce que je trouve intéressant dans le choix même des marques c’est que tous, parlementaires, sénateurs et députés provinciaux de Kinshasa ont choisis des 4×4. Pratique pour arpenter les pistes et affronter les nids-de-poule de la capitale. Pas besoin donc de se faire chier de se presser de refaire les routes!

"What I find interesting about the choice of brands is that everyone, members of parliament, senators and Kinshasa provincial deputies, chose SUVs. Useful for off-roading and confronting the capital's potholes. No need to give a shit about be in a rush about repaving the roads!"
posted by CKmtl at 4:17 PM on July 3

New Liberian is an interesting look into a nation with one of Africa's weirder histories. Full disclosure: I have a personal connection to it.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:30 PM on July 3