'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

MENTAL MIGRATION TO AFRICA: I

MENTAL MIGRATION TO AFRICA: I am definitely on my way, switching gear between my obsession with the unfolding Iraq situation, and my upcoming five-week research trip to Africa.

Wednesday, I picked up my Mozambique visa in DC. Thursday, I picked up my traveler's checks. Today, I picked up my re-issued ticket. I am definitely ready to rock and roll! Sunday evening will be the time I actually leave, from Dulles airport near DC. Then I'll arrive in Arusha, Tanzania Tuesday evening. Kilimanjaro International Airport, here I come!

Because of the way I work, I do nearly all the work of preparing my research trips myself. No-one ever gave me a secretary. But that's okay. I kind of love the nitty-gritty of it all: sending out the emails and faxes; planning the schedule; poring over the well-thumbed Lonely Planet guides to East Africa and Southern Africa; etc etc.

And then, there's reading myself into where I want to be with the subject of the research. If you want to know what my project is about, there's a description of it here. That description is a little old at this point-- I do need to FTP my latest version of it over to the site. But you'll get the general drift there. These days, I'm recontextualizing it a bit. I see the project as looking at how effective the different strategies have been, that these different societies chose back in the 1992-94 period, to deal with legacies of grave recent violence-- and therefore, what does it take for societies to escape from cycles of violence?

The three cases in question are Rwanda, Mozambique, and South Africa. And yes, I know that the violence that occurred in each case was very specific, very sui generis. But still, I'm comparing the escape-from-violence strategies, not the violence itself.

Of the three, I'll confess that right now it's Mozambique that intrigues me the most. Maybe because it's been so little studied. Maybe because it challenges so many of the unquestioned assumptions of the "modern" western view of the world. Yes, yes, contacts who are anthropologists of Mozambique have warned me against essentializing the cultural/cosmological differences between western and Mozambican worldviews, and against "exoticizing" my view of Mozambique.

But still...

(What's the opposite of "exotic", I wonder? I guess it should be "endotic"... )

Just yesterday, I got hold of and started avidly reading Leslie Swartz's intriguing book, "Culture and mental health; A southern African view." (This morning, I found LS's email address, and sent a message to him pleading for time to talk w/ him while I'm in SA.)

Anyway, I wanted to write something here about a really interesting interview a friend from FCNL sent me today, in which Africa Action Exec Director Salih Booker talks about the devasting effect the present USUK war on Iraq is having on people in Africa. Maybe I'll take some excerpts from that interview and discuss them in a subsequent post. Bottom line: "The war in Iraq is sure to have an overwhlemingly negative impact on Africa." But go to that link I put, to see some of the really horrendous details Booker talks about.

I have also found it really inspiring, as I've been preparing for this trip, to go and read the "Jaded in Africa" blog that I have a link to in the column to the right. Yvette, who writes that blog, is a most remarkable person: a Filipina who's doing social-development/social-organizing work in Somaliland. She's observant, sensitive, self-aware, funny, informative, and dedicated. And she writes a beautiful blog!!

Today, she wrote a post about the Somali concept of "bulshada", which is sort of like a strong concept of "community". She writes that she's found a strong and supportive bulshada with other Filipinos working in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa.

I have a number of great, supportive bulshadas. I have a fabulous family. I have my f/Friends in the Charlottesville Friends Meeting (Quakers), and in our town's lively peace-and-justice community. And I have friends and contacts around the world who provide emotional support as well as intellectual challenges and plenty of humor.

And now, thanks to this amazing world of the blogosphere, I have another new friend, whom I've never met but for whom I feel huge empathy: Yvette. Go read her blog!

Please send me your comments.