Money in African and American Culture

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Does No Mean No?: Communication in African and American Culture

My Cross Cultural Conversations program started again on October 29. I had started this series of Saturday conversations by Zoom in the spring but you put it on hold in the summer. The topic on October 29 was "Does No Mean No?: Communication in African and American Culture."

I introduced the topic drawing from my Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, with additional ideas from my video, Culture and Business Between Africans and Americans. As expected, the participants brought up thoughtful questions and observations.

Resuming My Cross-Cultural Conversations

Neelam Babul's Review of "Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences"

Today, October 21, 2022, Neelan Babul wrote a review of my book in Tanzania's The Citizen newspaper. Click on the image.

"Zamda's Kilimanjaro Journal" (Nahida Esmail)

This summer, in Tanzania, I met Nahida Esmail, an award winning writer of books for children and young adults. I had heard her name, but meeting her and talking with her revealed a writer with a passion for writing for children and young adults. I decided to acquire and read her works, starting with Zamda's Kilimanjaro Journal, which is available online, for free.

Zamda's Kilimanjaro Journal is, indeed, a journal, written by Zamda, a fictional sixteen year old girl from the Mikocheni area of Dar es Salaam. She records her experiences and observations about different places, situations, and people, especially her parents, teachers, and schoolmates. Born and raised in a Muslim family, she is proud of her faith and makes pertinent references to prayers and Islamic teachings.

Zamda's journal takes an abrupt turn when a teacher declares that the students will be going on a field trip, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Zamda completely dislikes the idea of climbing mountains. However, as the days pass, the school's preparations for the trip intensify. Zamda gets more and more anxious, hoping, for example, that her parents would refuse to grant permission for her to go on the trip.

To Zamda's disappointment, her parents not only consent to the idea of the trip, but urge her to undertake it. They manage to persuade her, especially after telling her that the Qur'an has verses extolling mountains as pegs that keep the earth stable and firm. Zamda becomes eager to go on the trip. 

The trip goes ahead and Zamda manages to overcome all its obstacles, reaching the peak as the only student to do so, out of 24 students. She is thrilled, grateful that her parents saw the potential in her. Returning from the trip, she is celebrated by all in her school as a "shero." She has learned useful lessons from the adventure, a major one being that no matter who you are, you can always aim for the skies or the summit.

Zamda's Kilimanjaro Journal is an engaging story on various levels. One highlight, for me, is how Zamda changes her mind about mountain climbing. Nahida makes this transformation a convincing one, testimony of her storytelling skill. The happy, triumphant ending of the story is another highlight.

While reading this book, and afterwards, I looked around and discovered that Nahida is a mountain climber. She has been to many parts of the world, following mountains: Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Machu Picchu in Peru, Mount Toubkal in Morocco, Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Damavand in Iran, and Everest Base Camp in Nepal. I discovered also that she has a special interest in writing about mountain climbing and climbers. That discovery gave me a fresh perspective on her Zamda's Kilimanjaro Journal.

It might seem unusual that a teenager would keep a diary, but it was one of Zamda's teachers who had asked the students to do so, as a class project. Zamda rises to the challenge, creating a fascinating and varied account of memories and observations. Nahida writes very well, and I have no doubt that young adults will enjoy and learn from her story.

A Meeting With My Readers

On October 1, 2022, in Burnsville, Minnesota, I met with two of my readers: Sarah B. Kamsin from Sudan, and Brighid McCarthy from the USA. Sarah had organized the meeting. She and I had known each other since July, 2019, when she met me at a book festival in Blaine, Minnesota and acquired my book Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. 

Later, Sarah published a book of her poems, Vita, Babel, Cauliflower," which I read and reviewed. You can see a section of my review on Amazon. Sarah has a talent as a composer of poems in English.

From our conversation two days ago, I learned that after reading my book, Sarah had started telling her long time friend Brighid about me and my book. As a result, Brighid was very happy to meet me.  She had a copy of the book, bearing much underlining on many pages, proof that she has been reading it with much reflection. I was impressed by her recollection of specific details.

We talked for about three hours, mostly about cultural differences mentioned in the book. We also talked about the need for us to collaborate in dealing with needs of certain areas of East Africa, such as water and education. We were pleased to realize that we have already been doing such work. Brighid, for example, has been doing things in Arusha. We are inspired to do more.

Cross Cultural Dialogue in Tanga, Tanzania

On June 11, 2022, I was the featured guest speaker at the first meeting of Cross Cultural Dialogue, a group based in Tanga, Tanzania. Here is what group coordinator Georgina Harris Hill wrote on her Facebook page about the event:

Tanga’s first official cross cultural conversations meet up with special guest speaker. Professor Joseph Mbele was our guest, several months ago I connected with him online after reading his book; Africans and Americans embracing cultural differences. Teaching and living in Minessota at a university there but from Tanzania originally his book is a unique perspective on cross-cultural interactions. 

Having lived cross culturally my whole life this topic has always been a deep interest of mine, so discovering his work was exciting and I began sharing it widely with others. 

I had started already informal gatherings with a few friends who had a shared interest but when I heard Joseph was coming to Tanzania and we had a chance to hear from him and buy his books, I got into motion organizing a group meet up and extended the invite to him to come to Tanga. Thankfully he accepted. 

The attendants were from different parts of Tanzania, Germany, Russia, Barbados and Latvia but between us all had lived all over the world. But all currently call Tanga home. 

Talking culture can be stressful or at least awkward and maybe a bit taboo but this great group all had so much to share. 

Listening to professor Mbele talk about the importance of embracing cross cultural differences allowed us all to freely discuss our own unique experiences we faced living, working and communicating cross culturally. 

We got a chance to see and frame them in a new light and validate our experiences. 
We laughed at how we misjudge and label one another and ways to talk, see and understand cultural differences in a way that unites and builds bridges. We shared stories and insights and I think we all left with excitement to meet up again and continue this important conversation! 

Thankful to Professor Mbele for taking the time to come and meet us! And so excited for our next group meet up. One thing I love about living in Tanzania is it has taught me so much about stepping outside my comfort zone and introduced me to some incredible people and cultures!

I really recommend reading the books available on Amazon--Mbele's books

Or at Novel idea in Dar Es Salaam or Arusha for Tanzania based folks