ArchiveJune 2010 Life
‘Lower than dogs’
A wave of homophobia is spreading over Africa – By Toby Selander
Homosexuals in Africa are threatened with long prison sentences and even capital punishment. In Malawi, nothing is the same ever since a gay couple took their vows.
Malawi was not ready when Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, promised each other their eternal love in the garden of Mankhoma Lodge in Blantyre. Five hundred curious spectators were there to get a glimpse of the couple exchanging rings. The groom and groom wore outfits cut from the same fabric: Chimbalanga wore a dress and Monjeza a more male wedding outfit.
The leopard children
The writer Wilfried N’Sondé is being hailed as the voice of a new generation of immigrants – By Christiane Grefe
Born in Congo, raised in the banlieues of Paris, working as a social worker in Berlin and traveling across the continent to promote his work as a writer: A true citizen of the world, Wilfried N’Sondé argues for completely new forms of coexistence.
Since the summer of 2008, Wilfried N’Sondé has been inhabiting two worlds with little in common. In the first, the 40-year old is a social worker in the drop-in center of Berlin youth initiative SCK, formerly as a full-time job, now in a volunteer capacity. When he is there, he still gets a bit embarrassed when one of his Berlin friends shouts: “Famous now, are we?” Whenever that happens, N’Sondé laughs and responds: “Don’t ruin my reputation here!”
Africa on stage
A visit to Germany’s oldest and largest festival of African culture in Würzburg – By Klaus Grimberg
Every year at the end of May the Main-Wiesen of Würzburg are transformed into an African exclave in Germany. Africa is presented here as a continent in a state of emergence – with a modern culture far removed from folklore.
Youssou N’Dour needs less than two minutes to get the 2,500 fans in the huge circus tent in the mood. “This is our place,” he calls out to the undulating crowd, “this is our festival.” And the audience knows that for the superstar of African music, the Africa Festival in Würzburg represents a slice of the homeland in Germany.
It is no coincidence that N’Dour is presenting his new show here with almost 20 musicians on the stage – this will be his only concert in German-speaking countries in 2010. “Youssou feels good here with us,” says Christian Raith, media spokesman and financial manager of Germany’s oldest and largest Africa festival. “He senses that the fans understand his music and his messages.”
For Africa enthusiasts across Germany, as well as Africans living here, the long weekend at the end of May has been a must-attend date on the calendar for years. No other festival puts on such a high-caliber musical program.
Caput Nili
The doctor and researcher Richard Kandt was the first white resident in Rwanda – By Arndt Peltner
He is remembered as one of the most important representatives of German colonial explorations. Richard Kandt discovered one of the sources of the Nile and founded Kigali, which later became the capital of Rwanda.
Only a few meters away from the gravesite of the world famous painter Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg is the final resting place of Richard Kandt. The epitaph reads: “Surgeon Major Dr. Richard Kandt, Discoverer of the Source of the Nile, Imperial Resident of Rwanda, German East Africa. Born 17.12.1867 in Posen – died 29.04.1918 in Nuremberg.”
The Bavarian Dutchman
Louis van Gaal plans to make Bayern Munich a permanent fixture in world-class football – By Thomas Kistner
Of all things, it was two Dutchmen – not always popular with German football fans – who helped Bayern Munich to its most successful season in history: coach Louis van Gaal and player Arjen Robben. The coach managed to turn things around with two very German virtues, discipline and perfectionism.
Bayern had lost the Champions League final against Inter Milan, but the team still traveled in a convoy of cars through Munich. It was an event that had of course been planned and agreed on a long time ago by former Bayern managers Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge – known for their large egos – and the new top dog at Bayern, Louis van Gaal. Self-doubt is not one of the strengths of the man from Amsterdam, whose full name is Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal. The Bayern coach never misses an opportunity to draw attention to his qualities, which is how he was convinced his team could have won the match almost immediately after it had lost the Champions League.
A unique club
WASH United tackles sub-Saharan Africa’s lack of access to clean water and sanitation – By Marcela Mora y Araujo
It’s an unprecedented all-star line-up: top players from around the world, political leaders and ordinary people join together to focus attention on a major health issue in Africa.
The World Cup Finals in South Africa will gather most of the planet’s attention for a few weeks – this year the tournament is expected to surpass it’s own record viewing figures from Germany 2006, when 73 percent of the world audience is estimated to have been watching football on TV.
Advertisers know this, which is why the accompanying billboards and commercial breaks are among the most expensive slots in the world, and any product endorsed by one of the many football stars traveling to South Africa is likely to sell well.
What a lot of people don’t know, however, is that during the 90 minutes it takes to play a game of football, preventable diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation kill more than 300 children under the age of five around the world.
This staggering fact is now being addressed by WASH United; a coalition of NGOs, government agencies and football clubs including Bayern Munich and Hamburg SV. They have joined forces to tackle the crisis in access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in sub-Saharan Africa.
Loony ideas
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon thinks his citizens spend too much time on their mobile phones. In early May, he ordered workers in the capital Dushanbe to remove posters advertising cell phones, which he considers “harmful.” A spokesman for the city’s mayor told Dushanbe’s residents the ads would be replaced with “information useful for your health.” A former collective farm boss, Rahmon obviously still hankers after the old Soviet days of planned economies: Three years ago, he proposed capping the amount of money Tajiks could spend on weddings and funerals.
Portuguese Socialist Party politician Ricardo Rodrigues displayed an unorthodox approach to press freedom during a recent interview. Two reporters from the news magazine Sábado were questioning the lawmaker about corruption allegations. Taking exception to what he later called “unbearable psychological violence,” he stood up to leave and calmly pocketed their two recording devices. Unfortunately for Rodrigues, the journalists were also filming the interview and footage of his undemocratic act of prestidigitation, which became an instant Internet hit. The advocacy group Reporters with Borders said it was shocked by his “surreal behavior.”
Castles, palaces and dumplings
Architecture from Thuringia – as well as its music, literature, painting and science – has had a large impact on Germany as a whole – By Edith Kresta
Wartburg Castle is the mother of all castles. Powerful, defiant and proud, it surveys its realm from the top of a mountain. With high towers and well-fortified battlements that seem to touch the clouds, it is formidable, dignified, Romanesque and romantic.
Of course, a drawbridge still protects the entrance to Wartburg Castle. To keep warriors and evil dragons out, it is pulled up by thick, heavy chains.
The entrance through the hall with three gates leads to the narrow inner bailey. Most of the half-timbered buildings and battlements there date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The keep itself is late Romanesque architecture at its finest.
The keep was built between 1157 and 1170. Its historical great hall is legendary. Bavarian King Ludwig II, 19th century creator of fantasy palaces, built a copy of it in his world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle. Today, the great hall in the Wartburg is used for concerts and major events.
Its architecture not only makes the castle the stuff of German legends. According to the saga, minnesingers from all over Germany gathered here in the Middle Ages. That eventually led to “The Battle of the Troubadours on the Wartburg,” a collection of Middle High German poems from the 13th century. Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, who helped the poor and the sick, also lived here in the early 13th century.
An ad agency for sharks
The Sharkproject is fighting to save the oceans’ best hunters – By Thorsten Schatz
Around 80 percent of all North Atlantic sharks were already extinct in 2004, according to a study by Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that 100 million sharks are hunted and killed every year. Scientist Shelley Clarke thinks the real number is double that.
There is not doubt: if nothing changes, sharks are going to be extinct soon. They are in desperate need of help, and are now getting assistance primarily from international ocean and shark conservation organizations. Sharkproject, headquartered in Offenbach, Germany, is one of them.
The sweet taste of success
A Berlin chocolate company offers an almost infinite number of do-it-yourself-bars – By Lisa Ellis
Two German students have combined their love of chocolate with a new way of doing business on the Internet to create a globally successful company.
Few chocolate manufacturers have more than ten billion different types of chocolate bars on offer, but then chocri.de is no ordinary company. Even the way the firm chose its name was unusual. It held a debate on its blog then asked contributors to vote for the best one. The winning suggestion, “chocri.de” sums up the firm’s business: it allows people to create their own chocolate bars on the Web, and then delivers them by mail.
From rap clowns to pop millionaires
German hip-hop band Die Fantastischen Vier has remained true to its roots – By Thomas Winkler
German television channel ProSieben uses the urbane ad slogan “We love to entertain you.” Until now, international stars like Robbie Williams have recited it for them. Die Fantastischen Vier now say the line – in German.
It might be that this isn’t huge news but it illustrates a few points very clearly. First, that Die Fantastischen Vier is right up there with Robbie Williams when it comes to fame – at least, in Germany. Second, without its native language, the band would hardly have become as famous as it has. And last but not least: The quartet is releasing a new record and is pleased to be part of an advertising campaign with such a wide reach.
Even if they don’t really need it. The sales numbers for their latest album, “Für Dich immer noch Fanta Sie” (Respect and Fantasy), will probably be as high as ever, even without any cross-promotion. All of the albums that the Fantas – as their huge fan community lovingly calls them – have released in the past two decades have been top sellers. They are Germany’s most successful hip-hop band.
German firm pipes down vuvuzelas
Whether it’s the Kaizer Chiefs against the Orlando Pirates or the national team against a foreign rival – one thing in South African football is always the same: the vuvuzelas. Now, just in time for the World Cup, the arm-length wind instruments have finally arrived in Europe. Düsseldorf-based Urbas-Kerhberg Ltd bought the exclusive rights to manufacture and market the fan trumpets in the EU from South African company Masincedane Sport CC.