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Laptop, coffee mug, paper and pens. in yellow is written HABARI

We would be happy if you would like to contribute something to our Habari magazine! We cordially invite you to submit your application topic- or project-related contributions.

Theme

The theme of the next issue (03/2024) will be ‘Humour’:

Hardly anyone can imagine a good life without laughter. Yet the function of humour often goes beyond fun. Humour plays an important role in Tanzania, both socially and politically. The double meaning of the word ‘utani’ in Kiswahili, which means both ‘joking’ and ‘friendship’, expresses the importance of humour in strengthening social relationships. Inter-ethnic jokes (utani wa makabila) are a special case, which play with stereotypes and prevent serious hostility through their playful connotation as a kind of authorised disrespect. Politically encouraged, this form of humour has played and continues to play an important role in peacekeeping and nation building in Tanzania with its more than 120 ethnic groups (SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions). However, the popular political cartoons that can be found in every newspaper, as well as TV and stand-up comedians, are also used for agenda setting, allowing criticism of politics and society and thus questioning existing power relations. In this way, they have a strengthening effect on freedom of opinion and freedom of the press (SGD 16). On a socio-psychological and individual psychological level, humour acts as an outlet for dealing with difficult situations, problems and traumas and thus makes an important contribution to mental health (SDG 3: Health and well-being).

At the same time, humour and what is and may be laughed at is highly culture-specific and therefore predestined for misunderstandings in intercultural communication, including in our Tanzanian-German encounters. In addition to knowledge about the social and political function of humour in Tanzania, our HABARI would therefore also like to impart knowledge about the culturally specific aspects of humour and thus promote mutual understanding.

Are you involved, researching or working in the field of humour? Then you are welcome to present your work and write an article for the HABARI magazine!

Partnerships and Projects

Are you involved in a development policy project of North-South partnership work? The Tanzania Network also sees itself as an exchange platform. Please present your association / organization / project.

Media 

You can recommend a novel, a textbook, a film on the subject of Tanzania, development policy, (post-)colonialism, etc.? Feel free to write a review.

How do I submit a Habari entry?

Either you contact the Habari editorial team (redaktion (at) tanzania-network.de) with your idea and wait for feedback, or you write an article and email it to the Habari editorial team (redaktion (at) tanzania -network.de). Please heed the following information:

  • The deadline for the next issue (03/2024) is August, the 15th 2024.
  • Send article as a Word document without any formatting
  • Length of texts: partnership/projects and media briefings: 1000-2000 characters (without spaces); Topic posts: 1000-4000 characters (without spaces)
  • Formulate texts in a generally understandable way, in German, English or Swahili
  • Send the author's text (2-3 sentences about the person) as well as pictures (stating the picture rights).
  • Unfortunately we do not pay any compensation.
  • The decision to publish the text lies with the editors.

Here you will find all the authors' notes again - please take note of them in detail and take them to heart, the editors thank you!