HE IS 'PROBABLY' MY BROTHER

He is ‘probably’ my brother

Binyavanga Wainaina’s stay in Dar-es-salaam was accidental, his displaced baggage and the lack of immediately connecting flight to Nairobi which, as it seems, was his original destination

Wainaina was on his way to the Kenyan Capital to attend his mother’s funeral.

So he ended up spending the night at the Tanzania’s coastal city (we still haven’t made up our mind whether Dar should be regarded as the country’s capital).

He finds Tanzanians friendly, which isn’t surprising taking into consideration that he had just arrived from South Africa. The online story doesn’t indicate when this was, but one suspects it might have been in 2008 when foreigners from other African countries were being ill treated (and killed) in Johannesburg.

While Tanzanians are still regarded as more hospitable than other Africans, including (and especially) their immediate neighbors, the Kenyans, it was almost a surprise to Mr Wainaina that such friendliness should be experienced even in the most impersonal of all places; the airport.

Before he left the airport to find a place to sleep, Wainaina had already made friends with an airport attendant, a security officer and, en-route the ride to town, the taxi-cab driver who volunteered to be his guide in the city at no extra pay, why he even contemplated to take his foreign fare home to spend the night.

Tanzanians’ hospitality is usually more noticed by foreigners either because here we take everything for granted or if the truth is to be said, our people like to befriend and be extremely nice to foreigners than they are to their own.