Trying to explain Kenyan trouble in Swedish
January 30, 2008
For those of you who understand Swedish and want to hear some Kenyan ranting on Sveriges Radio, please go to the Konflikt page and tell me what it is being said other than the parts in English. Same applies to this much shorter interview also in Swedish.
Entry Filed under: Home and Nation, Kenya Violence and Politics. .
1 Comment Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Susanna | February 1, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Hello Martin,
I know Swedish and English (not perfectly) and I’ll try to explain what’s said.
First, this is what’s written about the Konflikt programme:
“Tribal conflicts in Kenya, ethnic antagonism in the Balkans, and clan fighting in Afghanistan – what’s really hidden behind the headlines?
What ignites the ethnic spark – and what’s necessary to put out the fire? Hear the voices from Nairobi, Uppsala and Kathmandu.
When the first acts of violence broke out in Kenya after the disputed election result was announced in a chaotic way on 30 December there was first just a general confusion. But very soon came the explanation – ethnic conflicts between rivalling tribes!!
And you could sense an unspoken reference to other implicitly incomprehensible conflicts in Africa.
Last year, the reporter Magnus Bellander met Faith Wambui Ng’ang’a in Nairobi. Then she had great expectations for the elections in December. Today he as returned to her. He meets her in one of Nairobi’s suburbs with her newborn son Jaheim. Faith Wambui Ng’ang’a is Kikuyu and the father of her son is Kisii, but Faith Wambui Ng’ang’a hopes for a future in Kenya where ethnicity will not matter.
On Thursday the rivals for the presidency Mwai Kibaki and the opposition leader Raila Odinga met for the first time after the violent clashes broke out a month ago. But reconciliation and willingness to co-operate were far away. When they showed themselves together with the mediator Kofi Annan they shook hands dutifully but without looking at each other. Directly after the meeting Kibaki repeated that that he’s the rightful winner, which of course upset the opposition. Many of Kenya’s leading politicians have been active since the times around the independence in 1963. And now there are many people who are looking for a new generation of leaders, who can see beyond ethnicity and pursue politics based on ideas.
One of them is the Kenyan researcher Martin Kimani who recently visited Sweden. He is one of the leaders of the recently formed citizens’ movement Concerned Citizens for Peace, that want to bring together Kenyans over the ethnic divides to solve the crisis.
(Then there are some links)
Listen to the peace and conflict researcher Anna Jarstad talking about how ethnic identity is created and what makes the ethnic identity so easy to use in conflicts.
(Link)
At the CinemAfrica film festival in Stockholm in little over a week the award winning film Ezras will be shown. The director of the film Newton Aduaka has an idea on his work table; an idea about a documentary venture about one of the continent’s worst conflicts; the one that marked the Nigeria born Aduaka’s own childhood – the Biafra war. Mikael Olsson phoned Newton Aduaka in Paris.
In Bosnia Herzegovina ethnicity was the string that political leaders played to mobilise Croatians, Serbians and Bosniaks against each other before and during the war in Bosnia. Roland Kostic at the institute for peace and conflict research at Uppsala University took a doctor’s degree this autumn with a thesis about the significance of ethnicity after the war and he explains why the Dayton peace agreement put an end to 4 years of bloody war but also cemented the ethnic division.
(link)
An important requirement for creating a stable peace is to create a constitution that includes the groups that earlier have fought each other. A veteran in this field is the internationally acclaimed professor of law Yash Ghai – Kenyan with roots in India. For over three decades he has travelled the world to help building the countries that have been torn apart by war and conflicts or just gained their independence. At the moment he is engaged in the peace process of Nepal. When he looks back at his long experience from different conflict areas – Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kenya to name a few – then he notices that ethnic factors have gained a wider significance through the years.
(links)”
Your interview starts with the meeting between Kibaki and Raila, that they’ve been active since 1963 and you’re introduced as one of the people who want a new kind of leader, might be one of the new leaders yourself, is 36, born 10 years after independence and one of the leaders of Concerned Citizens for Peace. It’s said you don’t see ethnic differences as a problem, but that the problem is that they’re used by politicians that make it important to keep power within the own ethnic group, explaining poverty with ethnicity and making it necessary to have the own group in power to get schools, roads etc. What you say about the winner takes all mentality is translated. It’s said that you had no plans to get politically involved, that you’re doing a thesis about genocide at King’s College and was expecting a calm New Year celebration in Kenya. What you say is translated and then it’s told that you were invited to join Concerned Citizens for Peace and there’s a short explanation what this movement is. It’s said that you think both a new constitution and a new political culture is needed. Your words about togetherness at the top (sending their children to the same schools etc.) and politics to divide wananchi along ethnic lines are translated and explained a bit. It’s said you think it’s easy to see parallels to colonialism, but that you don’t lay all the blame there. Then it’s told that you were raised as a Kenyan, became a bit bored with the rituals, but now feel more patriotic than ever before. It’s said you say that Kenya’s great sadness is that the patriotic hope was destroyed by decades of authoritarian government and economic misrule, but that there’s hope for a new generation of patriots. Basically the interview can be understood just listening to the English.
I hope this has stilled some of your curiosity. If there is something in particular than you suspect can have been misquoted, I could check it. I could have a look at the other interview tomorrow.
Best wishes
Susanna