Window to Africa
South Africa 2008
Cairo 2005
Zanzibar 2015
South Africa 2008
Zanzibar 2015
South Africa 2008
Kilimanjaro (TZ) 1998
Tanzania 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Tanzania 2015
Tanzania 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Zanzibar 2015
South Africa 2008
Zanzibar 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Zanzibar 2015
Tanzania 2015
Tanzania 2015
Marrakech 2007
Cairo 2005
Publications (headlines)
The Amaswazi Tribe, South Africa (2008)
When I first moved to South Africa in 1989, my parents taught at a local farm school. Some of their pupils – our neighbors on a next door farm – returned one day from school to find that their home had been demolished and their parents taken into custody. This was during the last days of Apartheid, right before Mandela was released from prison, and the Amaswazi did not have any formal rights to their ancestor’s ground. Decades later they retrieved some of this land, where they are rebuilding their villages. But is their traditional way of life sustainable in the new South African Republic? South Africa has the richest economy in Africa and a diverse population, culture and nature. However, there are many challenges and contradictions - one being that there is a shortage of space for traditional farming, so the tribes will always claim more land, what Africa really needs is commercial farms. Take Zimbabwe as an example – it used to be called “Africa’s food basket”, but now, after most of the white farmers have been kicked out – it is a disaster. South Africa, in general, is haunted by corruption scandals. Escom used to be rated one of the best electricity companies in the world, supplying the whole southern region of Africa. A popular joke nowadays is: ”What did South Africans use for lighting before candles?” The answer, “electricity.”
