Amazing wi-fi in the hotel this morning so I have put up some photos on Flickr – a mixed bunch and even here I never seemed to have enough time. It took me about 3 days to move beyond gates 1-12 and see what else was happening. Talking with other participants we are all very tired, haven’t been able to achieve as much as we had hoped but at the same time we have all achieved a great deal. The launch of Fahamu’s two books “Grace, tenacity and eloquence: the struggle for women’s rights in Africa” and “African Perspectives on China in Africa ” were both a huge success with packed venues (I have a chapter on blogging the former which I wasn’t aware of until just now!) Both books are worth buying and for those interested in China’s agenda in Africa the China book has an excellent set of essays. Other than that I feel those who attended the workshops on Sexual Rights, Reproductive Rights and the Feminist Dialogues all came away with something positive and uplifting -whether activists can build on what was achieved remains to be seen but certainly there were some dynamic speakers and ideas coming out of these forums. Unfortunately there were so many workshops I wanted to attend and report on but was unable to – time wasted waiting for internet connections mostly and just too much.
One think worth pointing out were the number of Christian religious groups/organisations present at the forum with one catholic group holding services throughout the day and then there was the Coca cola being sold when it had been banned but obviously someone smuggled some in.
A lot of people had stuff stolen including one from our group – one set of press were held up at gun point in the WSF and another group had their taxi carjacked and their stuff stolen. Still I really like Nairobi – the LGBTI activists are doing great work and there isnt a sense of tension like in Joburg for the community. The people are calm but the driving is crazy and reminds me of Lagos – not too impressed with the food but I think if I lived here I would find the right places to eat and of course would be going to the market etc – yes Nairobi is a cool place.
The WSF venue closed last night including the Q-Spot. I missed that as I was with a friend stuffing my face and then we went to watch some friends of hers play out the WSF Bangla called Midival Punditz who were brilliant (I think I will have to study adjectives and come up with some more interesting words!)
Today we (Fahamu) have a long day with a ICT workshop and then the closing ceremony which apparently starts at 2pm but no one seems to know exactly when or what is happening except around 5 there will be some bands including Midival Punditz. So that’s it. I leave at 7am tomorrow and will put up some videos over the weekend sometime. The video casts I did for PZ should be up next week which are worth watching and quite a few more podcasts from a variety of people over the next few weeks. Most of mine are not up cause I lost my cable somewhere so couldn’t upload them but will get there eventually.
Tags: WSF; Kenya + Nairobi
