2006 – Page 40 – Kikuyumoja

Nordmende Globetrotter Amateur & Co.

Yesterday evening, while preparing some auctions for eBay, I took a closer look at this old Nordmende Globetrotter Amateur world receiver my father had bought in 1960something…..Uhh…selling this one on eBay would generate something like EUR 20,- and I wanted to sell it because I thought it’s broken….

Well, it isn’t. I do repair these things from time to time and somehow I must have forgotten that I had recently repaired it, that is, it just works. It works perfectly! All those DX-stations like BFBS here in Germany are easy to tune into (nice filters!!) and the best thing about this radio is that it comes with a really huge loudspeaker that produces a very clear sound. Mmmhhh….a reception like that is pure pleasure!
My 0.1-2059 MHz W-FM/N-FM/AM/LSB/USB Commtel 610 radio handscanner is nothing compared to this old, but goooooood radio!
Kudos to the radio engineers of Nordmende who designed this awesome gadgetimoja back in those days!

More geekstuff? Here you go:

Look at this old UHER 4000 Report-L magnetic tape recorder. Remember those old (german) Derrick episodes on Kenyan Television? Yep, they were using a machine like this one to record the testimonies. Old, but good! This one is almost 40 years old, but still running fine. Changed a few rubber belts and adjusted the head inside last month et voilà, hakuna shida! Spare parts? OF COURSE!

Kikuwear™

Two friends of mine recently told me on different occasions that german tourists in the US could be easily identified on their EASTPAK® backpacks. They also told me they dislike EASTPAK® stuff for that particular reason.

Ati?? Me I don’t want to look like a tourist!! Kûrita nî kûru….I had to do something with that EASTPAK® label on my messenger bag:

I wonder if there’s any difference on that tourist image now….

think, world

cyberNomads

“..is an online community for the international black Diaspora with focus Black Europe coming together to recover and document their own social, artistic and academic history establishing the “mothership” databank.

Our goals are:

academic information to tackle stereotypes and racism
decrease the social isolation by networking the community and its supporters
cultural and political change through technology”

I wasn’t sure whether I should broach the issue of this on my blog – however, Sokari’s recent thoughts on racism over at Black Looks reminded me that there IS a need to talk about these things.

When I lived in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa – it never occured to me that I should associate with other WHITE people in order to explain Kenyans that stereotypes like white people = rich aren’t really true. As a heterosexual person, it also never occured to me that I should join other heterosexuals to support and explain my sexual orientation to others.

Sure, those are different situations & circumstances and just as it’s good to see people networking and helping each other, it is sad (for me!) to see that there’s an actual need for such groupings.
Why can’t the world just be tolerant enough to accept and respect others – without making a big fuss about it?

Why should I be regarded a stranger when I go to Kenya and apply for a job with e.g. dayliff.com as a water engineer just because I am a Mzungu? Why are people crying foul when I openly turn this subject around and ask a counter question of why there’s still a difference between skin colours & origin?

As for me, there’s no difference. Neither in Kenya nor in Germany.
But what about the other people?

En attendant Godot

"The food security situation in the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya is rapidly deteriorating." (source [PDF])

source: IFRC [PDF]

More Maps? => ReliefWeb.NL …

Ploum Ploum

Speaking of 1960s & Co, Monsieur Glückauf! today indirectly pointed me to Jean-Marie Boursicot’s Film Library [which] provides a huge database of more than 700 000 commercials. They also have this Gauloises commercial I’ve mentioned the other day.

A country/continent search on "Africa" reveals the following commercials among others:

FIAT 13, une voiture pour homme, une voiture pour toi ! (1970)
(nb: a french commercial with a KENYAN numbaaa plate? :-)

PLOUM PLOUM parfum de Paris (1966)

OMO washes brightest (1965)

SOL, la première lessive bleue (1976) (=OMO?)

BLUE BAND, la margarine bonne mine (1985)

SIMBA, pour une cuisine Zaïroise plus raffinée .(1993)

And a classic 3:15min piece from 1952 for ASPRO (Aspirin®):

(watch his clothing!)

and within another ASPRO commercial from Algeria:

shuukran, Aspro…

Sorry, direct/hot linking of these mpeg files didn’t work – see it as an incentive to take a stroll through this interesting historical library of commercials and make your own picture of how the world has changed during the last 50 years. Well, has it really changed?

The criticism I have is that (I think) people watch these phoney worlds on tv and try to adopt their lifestyle according to what they see. So what about those that orientate themselves and their standard of living on these commercials and yet don’t have the resources to actually compare these tv worlds with reality (in the West)?
Remember those Royco Mchuzi Mix commercials from early 1990s Kenya where all the kids of this posh mid-class family gather round the table, asking mum for another round of spiced chicken ("more please!")? How many families back in those days were actually living that way? And today? Today, it seems, even the hawkers on the streets have a GSM mobile phone. Yes – that’s our Africa. Not (only!) this half-naked guy as seen in the Aspro commercial. Yani, is this still the african Africa or the westernized Africa? Wrong question?

How did this world of Cussons Soap, Smirnoff Vodka, BlueBand Margarine & Royco Mchuzi Mix – as seen on tv – actually affect the lifes of ordinary people?

In the same way (attention, interest, desire, action) it affects people around the globe? Maybe. However, I am sure, recent advertisment campaigns like the following picture of a billboard in Nairobi, Kenya contribute a lot to the economical boom – especially in places where people desperately try to improve their living standard and virtually stick to anything exotic to emphasise their progress on this.

golden afrique

Despite all those indy/alternative/emo/electro/whatever-tunes I normally go for, I am an avid collector of (good!) music from the continent. Not necessarily new stlyes from the West or East – but the Golden Age of 1960s when music was still kick-ass and many African countries busy with celebrating independence (Uhuru!!). Why? I don’t know. It’s just a passion.

Next movie I am almost dying to see, though, will be HIP HOP COLONY!

(pls feel free to check out Kenyan Hip Hop over @ Msanii_XL‘s blog :-)

wapi? (part 2)

wapi?

@afromusing: hint, hint :-)