Introducing Blogs

Blogs, short for Weblogs, are the people's media. A blog is a website that enables anyone to write their story, express their opinions on other people's stories, articles and reports, provide commentary, alternative views and additional facts and create lists of just about anything.

Blogs are an important development both in internet technology and in the production of media. Each entry is date and time stamped and posts appear in chronological order and in categories. The posts are interactive as they allow for readers to leave comments and enter into discussions.

Blogs can cover any topic ranging from politics, culture, music, media, personal journals, technology, the list is endless. They can be written by one person or a group of people or even a small community. People who write blogs are called bloggers and the community of bloggers is known as the blogosphere. It is estimated that there are some 60 million blogs worldwide.

In the African Blog Roundup I will be presenting a weekly digest of some of the stories and commentary in the African blogosphere. Unfortunately this time of the year blogging is at its lowest due to people taking their vacations but things should return to normal by September. I will start with some of my favourite African blogs one of which is the Kenyan Democracy Project (http://demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/ ) who report from Nairobi on the ongoing demonstrations called by opposition groups opposing Mwai Kibaki’s handling of the Bomas draft constitution and the violent response by the police. The question being asked is

"Why are the police on the streets? Why are innocent people being arrested merely for wishing to stage their right of expression? I want the Minister to tell us what police are doing roaming our streets. When did he declare Kenya a police state? Couldn’t they be better used in other insecurity-prone areas like Marsabit?"

Indeed we should all ask the “why”?

African Bullets and Honey (another Kenyan blog) http://bulletsandhoney.blogspot.com/ poses the question “are the formerly colonised set to colonise their colonisers?”

Apparently due to a decline in the numbers of British men entering priesthood, churches in Britain are having to import African priests to take over rural parishes.

“We are entering an era when the welfare of the European soul shall be in the hands of the African. Europe has always had a peculiar need for Africa as a guiding light to its self awareness. The two, African and European, in the latter's mind at least, have occupied opposed sides of a binary divide for the last couple of hundred years: black vs. white; stupid as opposed to intelligent; savage vs. civilised; backward vs. forward; lazy vs. industrious.”

This is ironic considering the early days of colonialism when racism was being constructed by the Empire, and the story was us Africans had no souls. The tables have now been turned and it is Europe that needs re-envangelising!

The Zimbabwean Pundit (http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/2005/07/farmers-urged-not-return.html) has an interesting piece on the Zimbabwean government secretly asking for white commercial farmers to return to their land. However a right wing lobby group for the farmers has asked them not to heed the call until there is “rule of law, an independent judiciary and firm guarantees property rights will be respected” .

Ethiopundit (http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/07/rule-britannia.html) declares that World War IV is still being fought today on British soil.

“Through experience, historical memory, and without a doubt a healthy dose of cultural programming on two continents, we have acquired a profound affection and respect for the people of the UK. It is certainly a well-deserved regard in every aspect from humanity's lessons in the Magna Carta onto the Royal Navy ending the Atlantic slave trade and the lonely years of fighting Nazi Germany alone onto the road to Basra just two years ago. Certainly from the Boston Massacre to the bloody suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion there are stains on that record... but at this point other, at times painful, truths emerge.”

Britain's existence has to an astonishing degree been a boon for mankind.

Ethiopundit then goes on to publish the complete “Rule Britannia”. I think they call this re-writing history!

* Compiled by Sokari Ekine, who runs her own blog that you can visit at http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]