[Imc-africa] One step at a time

[Jay]

Hello John, Nyenti, Nicolas, imc-africa, everyone,

Thanks, John, for your insightful and encouraging words.

As some of you may know from following the imc-africa list archives, I 
admittedly haven't been too involved in the planning of the conference so I 
can't answer too many of the concerns raised.  I think Sphinx has given us 
all the opportunity to review the discussions here through the links he has 
provided in his recent e-mails, and I encourage anyone with questions to 
check through those links because they will surely provide some answers.

As far as I understand it, the goal of the conference in Dakar (and every 
face-to-face Indymedia gathering) is to allow people who are involved in 
independent media a chance to meet in real life, to get to know one another 
beyond our Internet personas, to talk with one another by looking each 
other in the eye (rather than through e-mails that are not an ideal form of 
personal communication), to brainstorm with one another and inspire each 
other.  The goal of this Dakar conference has been to find a way for people 
around Africa to come together and discuss ways to support existing 
independent media in their communities, as well as build networks that will 
strengthen and grow independent media throughout the continent.  I really 
think that's something we should all support.

My sense is that, while the details of what is going to be discussed day to 
day at the conference are quite important, the real success of the 
gathering will come because current African Indymedia organizers, and those 
who are just starting to organize IMCs in their countries, will have the 
opportunity to exchange ideas for how to strenghten their local independent 
media.   I'm not saying we shouldn't question Sphinx or any of the others 
who have been working on the conference as to their vision, organizational 
abilities and motives, but I do think that John's parable rings true -- 
there are some of us who are more inclined just to jump into the ocean and 
risk getting our arms chewed off. :))

I don't know whether enough money will come to imc-africa to allow a lot of 
delegates to come to the conference.  If so, fantastic.  If not, I'm sure 
the people who do make it to Dakar will have a tremendous experience there 
anyway, meeting each other, thinking big thoughts and building ideas that 
will take all African independent media makers forward.

I wasn't involved in any organizing or fundraising for this conference at 
all until a couple weeks ago, but if those who are organizing IMCs in 
Africa believe another face-to-face continental gathering will help -- a 
year from now?  maybe two? -- I would be really excited to be involved in 
whatever respect they would invite me to, and from the beginning so we can 
be sure to raise enough money for travel expenses to allow everyone who 
wants to attend to get there.  Whatever happens in Dakar, this will be but 
one step along the long road toward the formation of an extremely powerful 
African indymedia network.

Optimistically,

Jay








At 2/15/2004, John Bwakali wrote:
>Hamjamboni (Swahili for Hi All),
>I have many thoughts to share with you but I will spare them for another 
>forum. Internet is not easily available for the majority of people in 
>Kenya and I believe many other parts of Africa. I am however delighted at 
>the ongoing email discussions even if I am not playing an active role in 
>them. Allow me to share some of my thoughts through a parable, "Two people 
>wanted to swim in the Indian Ocean, so they left for Mombasa, a coastal 
>town in Kenya that is endowed with awesome beaches. When they arrived at 
>one of the paradise-like beaches, they both had a mutual desire to dive 
>head-first into the wonderful blue waters. However, one of them wanted to 
>know how deep the water was, how warm or cold it was, what fish species 
>swam there, how many people had ever swam in that particular portion of 
>water...The other person simply dived into the water without any further 
>thought. Unfortunately, he lost his left arm to a hungry crocodile after 
>swimming for one hour. When he bravely swam back to the beach, his 
>colleague was still pondering on his many questions. The two friends left 
>a short while later."
>
>I view the upcoming conference in particular and the Indymedia network in 
>general as an ocean of sorts. Some of us will cross the bridge when we 
>come to it while some of us need more fact and all. I think it just has to 
>do with our different worldviews and strategy inclinations. For me, the 
>Senegal conference will be an opportunity to brainstrom so much that we 
>shall be able to weather any storm. In light of this, reaching Senegal and 
>meeting is the primary issue. The hows..(how to do this, how to do that..) 
>are secondary issues that should of course be dealt with now, but also not 
>allowed to dominate everything.
>
>Internet discussions have tried to give everyone a chance to participate 
>in the run-up to the conference. I therefore appreciate this approach as 
>it is at the very least a step in the right direction. But it is also 
>emerging that teh internet can infact discriminate against those who do 
>not have access to it. So what do we do and what is the alternative? Maybe 
>Senegal will help us to annswer this. So let us go to Senegal. But maybe 
>we may lose an arm in the process (like in the parable above). Maybe the 
>conference may not meet our expectations or it may actually exceed our 
>expectations. You just never know. But in case you have to know, we owe it 
>to you to respect that.
>
>Jonbwak
>
>
>_____________________________________________________________
>Sign up for FREE email from kenya.com at http://www.kenya.com
>_______________________________________________
>Imc-africa mailing list
>Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa