Country: Tanzania

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Members of the Nile Project (source: nileproject.org/Press)

Interlacing cultures

Music of the Nile

The Nile Project was a multinational music collective inspired by a river. It sang songs in a variety of styles and languages about life along and with the Nile. Like many projects in the region, it failed because of politics. By Katharina Wilhelm OtienoMore

Nile project website"Jinja" by The Nile Project: Go with the flowQantara photo essay: Ethiopia's dam – blessing or curse for downstream Sudan?Dam treaty between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan: Who owns the Nile?
Four labourers in high-visibility clothing work on the track in Tanzania (image: Xinhua/picture-alliance)

Construction and infrastructure

Turkey supplants China in East Africa

Uganda is abandoning its Chinese partners and turning to Turkey to build a new railway line that will connect to neighbouring Kenya. East Africa is keen on improving its railway network as part of a pan-African project. By Philipp Sandner, Emmanuel Lubega & Burak UnverenMore

Turkey-Africa summit: Erdogan scores "Made in Turkey" pointsAnkara’s Maghreb moment: Advancing Turkey's economic, energy, and military aimsAl Boraq, M6 and neo-liberalism: Morocco's fast-track development programme bypasses manyChina, the Arabs’ preferred partner? Mr. Xi goes to Riyadh
Nobel prizewinning author Abdulrazak Gurnah (photo: Amrei-Marie, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Nobel winner Abdulrazak Gurnah

"It's good to make right-wingers cry"

Abdulrazak Gurnah, the British-Tanzanian Nobel-winning writer, has spent a lifetime confronting colonialism and racial politics – and welcomes a new generation keeping these issues aliveMore

Abdulrazak Gurnah's "Paradise": "Freedom is not something they can take away"Abdulrazak Gurnah and Tsitsi Dangarembga: Can the Nobel Prize "revitalise" African literature?Abdulrazak Gurnah – "Pilgrim's Way": As foreign as a drop of oil in water
Nobel Prize for Literature winner Abdulrazak Gurnah is from Zanzibar, has lived in the UK since he was 18 (photo: Matt Dunham/AP/picture-alliance)

Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah

Exile, migration and the art of writing

The Tanzanian-born Nobel Prize winner talks to Annabelle Steffes-Halmer about his decision to leave Zanzibar, to write in English – and about the rise of African writers in the post-colonial eraMore

Abdulrazak Gurnah's "Paradise": "Freedom is not something they can take away"Abdulrazak Gurnah – "Pilgrim's Way": As foreign as a drop of oil in waterQantara dossier: Literature
Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature (photo: Ger Harley/stock Pix/picture-alliance)

Abdulrazak Gurnah's "Paradise"

"Freedom is not something they can take away"

When Abdulrazak Gurnah was named winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, the German translation of his novel "Paradise" was out of print. In early December, it was re-released. "Paradise" upends the prevailing black-and-white view of colonialism in the most striking manner. By Felix StephanMore

Abdulrazak Gurnah and Tsitsi Dangarembga: Can the Nobel Prize "revitalise" African literature?Abdulrazak Gurnah – "Pilgrim's Way": As foreign as a drop of oil in waterTidiane N'Diaye's "The Veiled Genocide": Selective theses on the Arab slave tradeCharlotte Wiedemann: "Now is the time for utopias": The end of white dominance
Abdulrazak Gurnah smiling in a garden (photo: AP Photo/picture-alliance)

Abdulrazak Gurnah and Tsitsi Dangarembga

Can the Nobel Prize "revitalise" African literature?

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the fourth author from sub-Saharan Africa to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Is the tide turning for African writers? By Annabelle Steffes-HalmerMore

Abdulrazak Gurnah – "Pilgrim's Way": As foreign as a drop of oil in waterNobel Peace Prize 2014: Serving stereotypes about the subcontinent?Philippines' Nobel Prize winner Ressa says "nothing is possible without facts"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (photo: Reuters/T. Berkin)

Turkey and the Gulen movement

Erdogan seizes the school initiative

Since the attempted coup in Turkey, President Erdogan has been pressing foreign nations to hand over schools run by the Gulen movement. Although many countries have entrusted control of the schools to the Turkish Maarif Foundation, the controversial movement continues to enjoy protection. By Ulrich von SchwerinMore

The restructuring of Turkey: Filling the gap left by GulenThe Gulen movement and the failed coup in Turkey: Harmless is not the wordThe Gulen movement in Turkey: Creating an elite to lead the state
Flag of the radical Islamic "Uamsho" movement in Sansibar (photo: Mohammed Khelef/DW)

Islamism and Politics in Zanzibar

Religious Hatred in Paradise

For the some hundred thousand tourists that visit Zanzibar each year, the island is paradise on earth. Yet, beyond the calm of its tourist venues, religious tensions on the island have been increasing. The attacks on churches, hate tirades by preachers, and leaflets inciting violence are but mileposts of a growing religious radicalization. Danja Bergmann reportsMore

Zanzibar: Dealing with the Gruesome History of SlaveryIslamic Reform Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa: Religious Renewal and Social ChangeQantara Photo Essay: Islamic Architecture on Zanzibar