Nairobi book club

Our lifestyle here brings loads of opportunities for us all to do lots of reading. I'm mixing some gentle fiction with learning more about Africa and all aspects of life here, and plenty of bedtime reading of Angelina ballerina and Hiccup's dragon related adventures. School has a well stocked library for the children and a grown ups' book exchange so we can all regularly refresh our reading material. And we are making the most of the worldwide web. There are book clubs here too but for now we are keeping this as a family activity.




Much of grown up reading time is spent keeping up with the news locally (where the rain and associated flooding and political manoeuvring in advance of likely elections in 10 months time currently dominate) and internationally. We get most of our international news from the radio and on line - another reason I love my iPad - but sitting at the table over a lazy Sunday morning coffee doesn't quite feel the same with laptop and tablet next to us rather than Sunday papers sprawled across the table. Regular purchases of the weekly Guardian offer some relief although the boys (young and old) still miss their Sunday fix of extensive sports coverage.

A particularly thought provoking read for me has been Africa,
Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, a collection of essays by American journalist Blaine Harden written during and soon after the four years he spent living in Nairobi in the 80s. Of course lots of things have changed in the subsequent 25 years, not least the end of Apartheid, but much really resonates with the current themes on world service Africa. Harden writes about the importance of family in society across Africa; tribal tensions in Kenya (a common theme here just now as various men start positioning themselves for next year's Presidential elections and tribal allegiances come to the fore); bitter war between north and south Sudan (then one rather than 2 countries but many of the names haven't changed); military coups, lack of election transparency and big men running Africa (at the end of the 80s Charles Taylor is just emerging as the chosen successor to take Liberia out of the mess Samuel Doe made - now he's an indicted ICC war criminal); the challenges of aligning aid to people's needs and knowing that donor funds are making a positive difference; and the vibrancy of life here, which resonates with a current twitterati debate Why I love Africa . Writing in the late 1980s, Harden sees Nigeria as Africa's big hope - I think he doesn't factor South Africa into his equation because at the time of writing it still stood apart from black Africa. The economic stats still largely support his thesis but his observation that Nigerians largely put aside tribal and religious tensions following the horrors of the Biafran war looks increasingly out of date in light of recent events there.

As Kenya and others' approach 50th anniversaries of Independence, I found it sobering to reflect on what has and hasn't changed in terms of the quality of individual lives here during my adult life time.


Anne