Jul
20
The Tailor
Filed Under fasihi, Soyinka by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
In the course of reading Oyin Ogunba’s “The Movement of Transition”, I came across a case of Achebe making fun of Soyinka. It strikes me as odd that I have not come across more incidences of these two Titans of African literature interacting (writing about each other, citing each other, fighting – anything). They are, after all, from the same country and period. Then again, I haven’t read nearly all their works and, given the passage below, I have probably missed the incidences I have come across.
We were met outside the exhibition hall by the president of the writer’s society, a fellow I used to know fairly well at the University. In those days before he became a writer he had seemed reasonably normal to me. But apparently since he published his novel ‘The Song of the Black Bird’ he had become quite different. I read an interview he gave to a popular magazine in which it came out that he had become so non-conformist that he now designed his own clothes. Judging from his appearance I should also say that he tailored them. He had on a white and blue squarish gown, with a round neck and no buttons, over brown, striped, baggy trousers made from the kind of light linen material we sometimes called ‘obey the wind’. He also had a long untidy beard.
This is satirizing Soyinka’s designs of the Mbari shirt.
Jun
18
A question on Authenticity
Filed Under filosofia, maswali by Mucheru | Comments Off on A question on Authenticity
There is a push in African discourse to be true to ones roots. Authenticity often calls for disrobing of the colonial identity, including dropping European names and customs. For an intellectual, this provides a certain conflict. We are inducted into a learning that is not historically African and whose movements hold values lauded as ‘universal’ but having no African elements. To be fair, Africa’s absence is often because Africa was unknown to the movement founders and not because they set out to intentionally ignore the continent’s contributions. In any case, an African joining a foreign intellectual movement and subscribing to its values faces the authenticity challenge – can an African, remaining true, claim to inherit intellectually or be part of a movement from other parts of the world? Read more
May
15
Nadharia katika Sayansi ya Tarakirishi
Filed Under sayansi, teknolojia by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
Maswali na majibu baada ya Gödel na Turing
Neno sayansi linatokana na neno “scio” la kilatini lenye maana ya kujua ama kufahamu. Hivyo basi, masomo yote yanayochukuliwa kuwa aina ya sayansi yanajihusisha na kutafiti ukweli wa mambo – iwe ni kwa kufanya majaribio (ambapo inakuwa sayansi tendeshi) au kwa kukisia kanuni za ukweli na kuzithibitisha (ambapo inakuwa ni sayansi nadharia).
Nitakayoyazungumzia hapa ni historia fupi ya utafiti wa sayansi ya kompyta, haswa maswali yaliyoanzisha usomi huu. Kwa watu wengi, masomo ya tarakirishi huchukuliwa kuwa miongoni mwa masomo ya uhandisi. Ni kweli kwamba sehemu nyingi za somo hili zinazojihusisha na kifaa tarakirishi chenyewe – iwe ni hadweya au softweya ya vifaa – na sehemu hizi huwa ni uhandisi. Lakini pia, somo hili linajihusisha na mengi zaidi ya haya – ukiangalia asili la neno kompyuta utapata linatokana na neno “compute” la kiingereza ambalo lina maana ya “kupata jibu, hasa kwa swali la hisabati, kwa kutumia kanuni fulani”[1] . Tutakavyoona sayansi hii inahusika na maswali ya muundo wa “Je swali hili linajibika kwa kufuatia kanuni?”,”Linahitaji kanuni ngapi?” n.k. Read more
May
5
A glimpse of Sartre
Filed Under filosofia by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
After reading Sartre’s Orphee Noir, I was curious about this philosopher’s other writings. I picked up a copy of “Being and Nothingness”, translated by Hezel Bernes. The ‘Translators Introduction’ section was an interesting puzzling piece. It gives us reason to believe that Philosophy is at times too abstract for its own good. In speaking of Sartre’s impact, Bernes says:
Most important is Sartre’s rejection of the primacy of the Cartesian cogito. He objects that in Descarte’s formula – “I think; therefore I am”[my note: the latin of which is cogito, ergo sum] – the consciousness which say, “I am,” is not actually the consciousness which thinks. Instead we are dealing with a secondary activity. Similarly, says Sartre, Descartes has confused spontaneous doubt, which is a consciousness, with methodological doubt, which is an act. When we catch a glimpse of an object, there may be a doubting consciousness of the object as uncertain. But Descarte’s cogito has posited this consciousness itself as an object; the Cartesian cogito is not one with the doubting consciousness but has reflected upon it. In other words this cogito is not Descartes doubting; it is Descartes reflecting upon the doubting. “I doubt; therefore I am” is really “I am aware that I doubt; therefore I am.” The Cartesian cogito is reflective,and its object is not itself but the original consciousness of doubting. The consciousness which doubted is now reflected on by the cogito but was never itself reflective; its only object is the object which it is conscious of as doubtful. These conclusions lead Sartre to establish the pre-reflective cogito as primary consciousness,and in all of his later work he makes this his original point of departure.
May
3
Free things
Filed Under siasa by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
Yesterday Kibaki made public a proposal for free secondary education and interestingly this program goes into effect in January of 2008. Obviously, this declaration ties the hands of whoever is to succeed him. The fact that the president promised it means there exists a source of funding and the necessary infrastructure to implement this policy. Let’s see what ODM does with this. Below is Gado’s take on this.
Apr
14
On Nigeria’s elections
Filed Under siasa by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
Godfrey Mwapanga, alias Gado, is Kenya’s leading editorial cartoonist. Occasionally he does disappoint but it is pieces like today’s that keep me as a fan. The seeming obliviousness of leaders to exactly how destructive bad elections practices are is caught in the piece below – and with such style!
Jul
21
Adapting technology to rural settings in Africa
Filed Under teknolojia by Mucheru | Leave a Comment
I attended a talk titled “Confessions of a Nerd Herder” given by someone who had been a Program Manager in Microsoft Research for twenty years or so. The talk itself was somewhat disappointing – he painted too rosy a picture of MSR, making it out to be a utopia where brains walk unbriddled; where only the brightest of the bright get hired and ,once there, they go about changing the world and saving puppies.
The most interesting thing I took out from the talk was the question “How would you design a computer for people who can’t read?” The idea is not novel. It sounds like the kind of design question you would get in an interview. But taking this after the Hamming talk on great ideas, I translated it into a challenge – how would you design a computer for the developing world, for Africa in particular? Sure enough, there are many people in African can and do use computers in their present incarnation. However, the overwhelming pool of potential users is locked out as a result of poor infrastructure (power and communication) as well as the fact that barely any software or content is currently provided in African languages. Working within these constraints gives an interesting challenge. Read more