east africa: travel and politics
i suppose it is important to note that when i left for my trip through both west and east africa, i did not do any sort of in-depth research on the political situations of the countries that i would be visiting. whether this was a wise decision or not(part of me wants to claim it was because i'd rather have a more "objective" view of the places i visit, not one that is shrouded by the opinions i'd formed based on limited amounts of information, but that would mostly be bullshit, because really i was just doing other stuff before i left for my trip, no other reason than that); i'm unsure.

margot informed me of the impending presidential elections elections in kenya, a country i'd deemed fairly developed and safe compared to what i knew of niger and cote d'ivoire. we planned (smartly, on her part, not mine) to be out of kenya and well into tanzania during kenya's elections, "just in case". we had also planned originally to return to kenya shortly after the new year, a plan that has changed (and changed again, and again) due to violence that is both politically and ethnically charged in all of kenya. travel by land throughout the country is not safe (which is what we'd been planning to do).

with the slight and selfish disappointment that comes from having our plans changed comes much more of a sense of adventure and the realization of my nievete (spelling? hmm) about the state of the world, politics, and the things people are driven to do when they are faced with injustice. (create more injustice? i am still naive). according to the dar es salaam guardian (the english-language newspaper i've chosen as my favorite here over the last few days), kenya was once a source of stability in an unstable region, and the fact that it has dissolved this quickly after a very new attempt at democratic elections (the country has only been independent from britian since 1963, and hasn't held democratic elections much since that independence was "granted") is debilitating on the hearts and minds of many east africans, africans in general, and, i suppose, proponents of colonially installed "democracy" throughout the world (maybe i hope would be a better word choice...)

margot's done quite a bit of research on the political systems governmental configurations of kenya in her time here, and i am very lucky to be traveling with someone who knows much more than i do about the history of colonial rule and its aftermath. the incumbent president, who has been accused of rigging the december 27 elections (it's pretty obvious), is a member of one of the tribes in kenya that had been favored by the british during colonialism. those who supported british rule and institutions during that time were rewarded, and those reward systems and mindsets, as well as the uneven distribution of land, power and wealth (also remnants of colonial times) have remained in kenya, even though it is now "independent".

the opposing party's candidate, who i would venture to guess really did win the popular vote in kenya (but we all know those don't really matter anywhere, don't we?) is a member of one of the tribes that was not favored by colonial rule, and of a tribe whose members live mostly in the more neglected regions of the country. those people, already neglected by government support because of the framework set up by colonialism, are responding to the injustice of a stolen election with violence, towards members of the tribe of the incumbent president. so who is the bad guy? everybody? or nobody?

this is where it gets complicated. margot and i have been talking about it lots and lots during our time here in dar es salaam (it is a pretty cool city, not as beautiful as mombasa, but we've found some sweet spots), which as been extended by yet another day by the train being delayed. we were supposed to be heading northwest to mwanza this evening, but (hopefully) will be on that train tomorrow evening. i've had this problem with trains in the US, so i guess i'm not surprised, really.

from mwanza we will get on an overnight ferry that takes us across the southwest "corner" of lake victoria to bukoba (still in tanzania). from bukoba we will travel by bus to kampala, uganda. kampala is supposed to be super-cool, and is about an hour away from jinja, where we will hike to the source of the nile (who knew this? it starts in uganda and flows NORTH to the sea... since when do rivers flow north??). we might go white-water rafting near jinja as well (but no promises, my insurance doesn't cover rafting).

we are safe, out of harm's way, so don't worry. we hope that the situation in nairobi is such that we will be able to safely fly into nairobi airport on january 16 or 17, and catch our currently scheduled (and paid for) flights out of nairobi on january 18. we have 2 other friends from madison who are flying into nairobi on the 16th, as well, so our hope is for them, too. they spent the last few days in nairobi, and are now in mombasa.