Are back-seat drivers creating safer roads in Kenya?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Anyone who’s ever ridden in a matatu in Kenya knows why traffic accidents are responsible for twice as many deaths in that country per year as malaria. While the drivers of these shared vans understandably want to collect as many fares as possible, this often leads them to zip around town utterly heedless of pedestrians or other cars. Traffic accidents involving matatus make up a full one-fifth of all crashes in Kenya.

But two economists think they’ve found a simple solution to this problem: encouraging passengers to become “back-seat drivers.” The economists, James Habyarimana and Billy Jack, recently performed an experiment in which posters were placed in random matatus which asked the passengers to “heckle or chide” the driver if he was driving too recklessly. After a twelve-month experiment, the economists found that those vans with the posters were only one-quarter as likely to be involved in a traffic accident as those without.

[via Chris Blattman]

Tour d’Afrique Off and Running!

by Kraig Becker on

The 2009 edition of the Tour d’Afrique got underway last Sunday, with cyclists setting out from Cairo, Egypt on a 7317 mile long race to Cape Town, South Africa. In between they’ll pass through the Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, fostering international goodwill along the way, while raising funds for environmental protection and promoting cycling in Africa.

The race is broken down into 96 stages of various lengths, with a typical day getting underway at 7:30 AM, when the top riders start out on the course. They are soon followed by another group who may not be contending for the top spot, but still want to complete every mile, while the “Back Pack” is made up of a group of riders who just want to enjoy the adventure and soak up some of the culture of the countries they are passing through.

This is the seventh year that the race has been run, and the web coverage seems to be the best ever. For instance, there are photos from each stage, videos from the various countries and introductions for some of the riders, and a daily blog with results and news from the course.

With six stages done, the riders have more than three months of riding ahead of them through a variety of climates and terrains before reaching their final destination on May 9th. They’ll struggle through the Sahara Desert, roll across the Equator, and race across an endless savannah, and they each payed more than $10,000 for the privledge. Seems like it’s an adventure worth every penny.

Fancy breakfast with the giraffes?

by Abha Malpani on

When I was 6 years old, I was taken to Longleat National Park in the UK, where our car got attacked by monkeys, chased by lions, and gazed at by giraffes. I recall desperately wanting to pat and feed the giraffes; those tall, magnificent, doe-eyed, beautiful monsters. I also remember feeling like a Lilliputian in front of them, but they are so adorable that their sheer largeness didn’t scare me. I was smaller than the leg of an adult giraffe, and fed them however I could, sitting on the shoulders of my uncle. Pretty awesome.

So when I read that you can go to Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, where you might get woken up by a giraffe tongue in your ear, I was strangely excited about the concept.

Located in the Langata suburb, the Manor spans an area of 140 acres, and has 6 bedrooms for rent. The area is inundated with dozens of giraffes and the Manor’s windows are made so that the giraffe can let his neck in for breakfast. After the first jolt you’ll get facing a giraffe for breakfast, getting used to the idea will certainly make it the most pleasurable and unique part of the day. Giraffes are harmless herbivores, so you really have nothing to worry about.

The history of the place is interesting as the Manor used to be the house of people who spent a large part of their lives working for the cause of endangered wildlife in Africa. The family started the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife and the Giraffe Center, and now run the Giraffe Manor. Each room costs $275-360, but that includes all meals with wine, alcoholic beverages, a sight-seeing vehicle, entrance to the Giraffe Center, and taxes, so it’s not a bad deal for doing once. The Manor’s website has a cool picture gallery, check it out here.

Oh, and happy Boxing day!

Obama’s Election Inspires Baby Naming in Kenya

by Josh Lew on

Aaron recently wrote a post here on Gadling about a production of Obama: The Musical in Kenya. The song and dance-filled bio-play shows how ridiculously popular Barack is in his father’s home country. Well, some Kenyans are upping the ante further by naming their children, and their beer, after the prez-elect. “Senator” Beer, a locally made brew, was inspired by Obama’s previous political rank. No word yet on how sales stack up against perennial favorite, Tusker.

Mothers in Obama’s ancestral homeland of Kisumu have been naming their newborns Barack Obama, or some variation thereof. Have a girl? No problem. Several female babies in the province bear the name of Michelle Obama. Sharing your name with the future president of the US doesn’t come without its share of pressures. One mother told a Reuters reporter that she expects great thing out of her pint-sized Barack Obama. “I would like that by the time he is in his 40s he becomes the president of this country.”

I know there is a lot of excitement now, but wouldn’t it be wise to wait to see how Obama performs in office before naming your child after him? I mean, what if your parents had named you after Richard Nixon?

And it appears that a few Americans are getting in on the fad as well.

%Gallery-36287%

[Via Reuters]

Bollywood Reaches the Ends of the Earth

by Josh Lew on

Is Indian musical cinema challenging Hollywood’s world-wide pop culture dominance? Perhaps not in most places, but the 4-hour, song-and-dance-filled melodramas have fans in some pretty unexpected parts of the world.

Shashank Bengali, the East Africa correspondent for McClatchy, has come across a growing number of young Ethiopians who have embraced Bollywood films and musical numbers even though they are also exposed to a barrage of American hip hop music and action films.

There has always been a small market in Africa for Bollywood movies. Indian immigrants in South Africa and Kenya are a ready audience for these cinematic imports. However, a recent trend shows that the movies have been embraced by non-Indian audiences throughout the continent. Bollywood had a large following in Somalia until its films were outlawed by the militant Islamic leadership.

While the popularity of Indian cinema in Africa might not be a signal of the end of Hollywood, it does show that there are other cultural forces out there besides the ones created by Spielberg and Bruckheimer. It is also welcome news for closet Bollywood fans in the US, who can now travel to Africa without having to hide their secret vice.