I Blog, therefore I am in the UK

By Ndesanjo Macha

It has been incredibly hectic here in the UK since I got in on Monday. Today's been basically the first moment of calm, after getting to Edinburgh. Yesterday, back in London, we met with two of the UK media's bloggers - Paul Mason, Business Correspondent and G8 Blogger with BBC's Newsnight, and Rafael Behr of the Observer Blog - my first time meeting any UK bloggers, actually. 

Bloggers from different countries have very different views on and styles of blogging.  Kenyan bloggers, for example, talk about public issues, but they also talk about private things. A Tanzanian blogger would never talk about private issues - their newest pair of shoes, their favourite breakfast cereal, what bus they took to work, etc... 

How can we explain the differences?

Maybe it's history, post-colonial political ideologies - Tanzania adopted Ujamaa, in which the collective was at the centre of everything, whereas Kenya went down the capitalist road, with the individual at the centre of everything.  In Kenya it's I, in Tanzania, it's We - and you can see this clearly in Kenyan and Tanzanian blogs.

But then Kenyans tend to blog under inventive pseudonyms, without a photo, whereas Tanzanian bloggers put up their real name, email address, photo and often, their phone number.  So if they're focusing on the collective, then how come they're putting their photos up?  The thing is, Tanzanian bloggers are mostly journalists, so they're already used having their opinions and photos in the public sphere. 

As far as Rafael and Paul are concerned, well, the new thing I'm seeing from them is that their approach to journalism and blogging is the same - they're the most passionate journalist bloggers I have met.  I'm still thinking about what makes this British...

In any case, this is the first time there has been a G8 meeting that's on Africa, not typical G8 agendas, and that it has generated such an intense media focus on Africa in the UK makes this dynamic all totally unique.  And maybe it's having an effect on me too - it's the first time I'm blogging an event of this kind, working with an editor, and as one journalist on a team, rather than as my own editor.

So for me in the UK, it's blogito, ergo sum!

Comments

[Robin Grant]

You got a plug from me too:
http://www.perfect.co.uk/2005/07/blogging-the-g8

[paschal boris bagonza]

Ndesanjo Macha>>>>
a group of african journalists would like to be assisted in creating blogz. actuall we woud like to do so we are 13 from different countries.

[paschal boris bagonza]

Ndensanjo help us do so. create blogs.