David, Son of Jackie Robinson, at the University of Minnesota

On Thursday, September 22, I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, to hear David Robinson, a coffee farmer in Tanzania. He is the last of the children of Jackie Robinson, the legendary African-American baseball player and indomitable civil rights activist of the forties and fifties, who passed away in 1972.

Visiting Ethiopia as a teenager, David fell in love with Africa and, in the early eighties, decided to settle in a village called Bara, tucked away in the Mbozi district of southwestern Tanzania. He introduced himself to the curious village elders, telling them that he was an African from somewhere in Africa--even though he didn't know where--and that he had been taken from the continent and was lost for several centuries in slavery in far away America. Now he had decided to come back home, and he wanted land to establish a farm.

The villagers showed him a large area and he set about establishing a coffee farm, creating, together with fellow villagers, a cooperative society called Sweet Unity Farms. David talked about the activities of the cooperative farm, the challenges, and the lessons gained along the way.

He talked about not only the work on the farms, but also the business side of things--which is rife with challenges. This includes marketing and selling Sweet Unity Farms coffee around the world. Though located in a rural place, Sweet Unity Farms seeks ways to establish itself in a global market dominated by big multinational corporations.

The photo on the left features David, Limi Simbakalia, a Tanzanian student at St. Olaf College,  where I teach, and me.

There is much information online about David Robinson and Sweet Unity Farms, such as this wonderful article. I have been reading about David Robinson for some years and, in the process, a little about Jackie Robinson. After meeting David, however, I have been learning more about his father and gaining a good sense of the stature and significance of this legendary sportsman and civil rights activist.

My Book Donation to "Papa's Shadow"

During the recent Ramble Pictures fundraising campaign for the documentary film, Papa's Shadow, I contributed a little money and copies of my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. to be given to donors who gave 200 dollars and above.

Today, Jimmy Gildea, founder of Ramble Pictures and maker of Papa's Shadow, who was one of the students in my Hemingway in East Africa course, visited me at St. Olaf College as we had agreed, to get the books. I signed five copies, and we had some time to talk about Ernest Hemingway, our visit to Montana, the fundraising campaign, and so forth.

Jimmy also took the opportunity to film some footage of me reading Green Hills of Africa and taking a short walk in St. Olaf College's quadrangle. Jimmy wondered if I had any photos from my childhood or younger days. I could tell he was keen to add these elements to Papa's Shadow, although it is a wonderful documentary as it is. I know because I have seen it.

Papa's Shadow will be released soon, Jimmy believes, probably in February. It is not a work of fiction but a documentary on the life, travels, writing, and philosophy of Ernest Hemingway, especially as pertaining to his East African safaris in 1933-34 and 1953-54. Much of it is a conversation on these topics between me and Patrick Hemingway, the only remaining child of Ernest Hemingway. I can hardly wait for the release of this documentary to the world.

International Festival Faribault, August 22

August 22, 2015, the International Festival Faribault will take place in Faribault, Minnesota. This will be the 10th year of the festival, which brings together the various nations represented in Faribault, to share their cultures and foster mutual understanding.

I have already signed up as a participant. I will have a table where I will display my books and talk with people about my work as an educator, writer, and cultural consultant. I consider events of this kind an extension of my classroom, whose spirit of give-and-take is highly rewarding. What I learn on these occasions enriches my teaching in various ways.

The International Festival Faribault is an opportunity to meet people from different parts of the world and to see the cultural items and other things they display, watch their performances, and sample their foods. Year in and year out, I have found the conversations with different people enlightening.

This year, I will also talk about a documentary film on Ernest Hemingway titled Papa's Shadow, produced by Jimmy Gildea, a 2014 alumnus of St. Olaf College, who was one of the students who came to Tanzania in 2013 on my Hemingway in East Africa course. The documentary features me in conversation with Patrick Hemingway, the only remaining child of Ernest Hemingway, born in 1928. We are talking about Hemingway's life, travels, and writings, especially those concerning East Africa.

Hemingway was an avid world traveler, who was genuinely interested in, and respectful of, other cultures. As an African, I like sharing my great admiration for Hemingway's lifelong fascination with Africa, an aspect that is not well acknowledged by readers and scholars alike. Indeed, Hemingway exemplified the kind of spirit the International Festival Faribault stands for.

My 2013 "Hemingway in East Africa" class at Lake Babati

In January, 2013, I was in Tanzania with St. Olaf College students on my "Hemingway in East Africa" course.

I designed this course in 2006 for Colorado College, prompted by Professor John Watkins of that College, who had heard me rave endlessly about Hemingway's African travels and writings and his life-long love of Africa.

The course aimed at sharing with students what I call the African dimension of Hemingway. This incorporates his writings based on his two trips to East Africa in 1933-34 and 1953-54. Professor Bill Davis of Colorado College and I inaugurated the course in 2007.

Traveling in the places where Hemingway traveled and reading his writings about those places--the land, the people, the fauna, and the flora--students acquire a unique perspective on Hemingway. The writings include Green Hills of Africa and Under Kilimanjaro; the famous short story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber;" letters and journalistic writings.

The photo above features the 2013 class, together with our driver/tour guides, at Lake Babati. In his Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway wrote about Babati and Lake Babati:

     We left, soon after midnight, ahead of the outfit, who were to strike camp and follow in the two lorries. We stopped in Babati at the little hotel overlooking the lake and bought some more Pan-Yam pickles and had some cold beer (p. 143).

The South Asian Literature Final Exam

This afternoon, my South Asian Literature students did the final examination. I drafted the questions last night, after a two day struggle as I noted in my previous blog post. Looking at these questions, neither I nor anyone else, I suppose, can believe that it took me a rather long time to create them. For two days, my mind was simply unable to do what I desired.

Eventually, I created three questions, from which the students were required to answer two. I am willing to present the questions here, for whatever they are worth:

1) Discuss the situation of the Parsees in Bapsi Sidhwa's The Crow Eaters and how they deal with it.

2) Discuss one of the characters in Bapsi Sidhwa's The Crow Eaters.

3) Discuss the relationship between any two characters in Romesh Gunesekera's Reef.

Certainly, I could have created a question dealing with narrative techniques or artistry in general. However, considering that the class comprises students of different disciplines, spanning the spectrum from mathematics to exercise science, I decided to ask questions that would be fair to everyone. If this was a class of only English majors, I would create at least one question on the artistic dimension of the literary works.

With the teaching and the final examination over, I am bracing myself for grading the answer scripts, a task that can be full of surprises but is always interesting and refreshing. One of the surprises is simply that a student majoring in, say, biology or economics might be the one with the best performance in an examination like this one, which, according to conventional wisdom, is outside that student's field. In a liberal arts college such St. Olaf, however, such surprises are not uncommon. That, at least, has been my experience.

St. Olaf International and Off-campus Studies Open House

Today, here at St. Olaf College, we held another international and off-campus studies open house. An annual event, around this time, it is an occasion to showcase the many international and off-campus study programs we run. St. Olaf is a top-ranked college in the USA in this field.







We have programs in different parts of the world, a number of them in African countries, including Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, and Namibia. I am the advisor for the ACM Tanzania and ACM Botswana programs.

Students interested in, or curious about, these programs get the chance to learn more by talking with program advisors.





It is always a pleasure to talk with students seeking to study abroad, to tell them about the countries they are thinking about, the educational system, the people and the culture, and such things.

Studying abroad is a valuable part of the students' education, and we encourage it seriously.

A Visit to the School of Environmental Studies

Today I visited the School of Environmental Studies (SES) in Apple Valley, to talk about folklore and the environment. Although I have visited this school many times, each visit is a new and refreshing experience.

As in the past, Todd Carson, the class teacher, invited me. I told the students today that I love and respect their school so much that I would never decline an invitation to speak there.

I discussed the evolution of language and folklore as vehicles for human survival and development. I talked about how humans have used and continue to use myths, legends, folktales, and other folklore forms to make sense of the world around them. Through incantations, rituals and ceremonies, humans have sought to influence the world.

Discussing stories of the origin of the world, I mentioned the Popol Vuh of the ancient Mayans, having just taught it in my folklore class at St. Olaf College. I also mentioned the widespread African story of how God separated himself from humans.

I talked about how story telling appropriates advances in technology, such as writing. Nowadays story telling goes on in newspapers, television, and social media such as blogs and Facebook and Twitter. In response to a question, I said that all disciplines are, essentially, forms of storytelling.


Since I visit the SES when the students are reading selections from Matengo Folktales, I always get to share some tales. Today, I told one tale from that book, "The Monster in the Rice Field."

My visits to the SES are always memorable. The students are different every year, but always delightful, brimming with intellectual curiosity. They ask great questions, and the two-hour session ends rather quickly. (Photos by Todd Carson).

International Studies Open House, St. Olaf College

Today was International Studies Open House at St. Olaf College. This is an opportunity for faculty and staff involved in study abroad programs to showcase the programs to interested students: the academic environment, subjects offered, how previous students have rated them, safety issues, housing arrangements, opportunities for homestays and travel.
Over 70 percent of St. Olaf students study abroad, and the College is nationally ranked in this respect.











I have been involved as an advisor on programs that send students to Africa, such as LCCT, ACM Botswana, and ACM Tanzania. I enjoy talking about Africa and about my country, Tanzania. It is a priviledge to help Americans go there, and sometimes I take them there.



I tell the students that one of my greatest interests is offering cultural orientation to Americans going to Africa, as I report on this blog from time to time. For example, read here, and here.