Blogging on daily events and happy babies

Today we have had a guest lecturer in class, as Maggid Mjengwa, Tanzanian blogger and newspaper editor, has been presenting to us his blog and telling how he operates it, updating pictures and comments usually several times a day.

Maggid is a long-time friend of mine from Iringa, where he is heading the Tanzania programme of the Swedish NGO, Forum Syd. But he is also a journalist and managing editor of the new weekly newspaper Kwanza Jamii. His blog at mjengwa.blogspot.com is today one of the most famous and most visited blogs in Tanzania, giving a sympathetic picture of the lives Tanzanians are living in both the rural areas and in the cities. You’ll see photos of people and peculiar events wherever Maggid moves, telling a story often more worth than thousand words.

These days you can see in his blog pictures from Zanzibar with comments. Here some coconut vendors, here are some sporting youth, and from this link you will see pictures from the Sauti za Busara festival showing the Tanzanian rumba star Fresh Jumbe on stage with his Japanese dancing group.

Lately, there’s appeared several other interesting blogs in Tanzania, each of them usually focusing on one particular topic.

Daily News journalist Jiang Alipo maintains the Mama na Mwana blog for publishing happy photos of babies and comments about baby care. Tuntufye Abel is hosting a blog on football coaching, with comments and advice. Mzee Mwanakijiji, again, is a Tanzanian living in USA and running a podcast blog with audio recordings, on corruption revelations and other local Tanzanian topics.

I’m not aware of any Zanzibari blog before this training, but I will make a link list for other Tanzanian blogs later to the column on the right side. (Update Feb 16: I have now provided links also to a few Zanzibar blogs. See the list on the right.)