Johanna Maula was only eight years old when her family-mother, father, and four small girls-moved from the snow-covered Finnish countryside to middle of the tropical heat of Nigeria. The Biafran war was raging, and the young girl saw many historical events unfolding that impacted her deeply and set the course for her life. Dr Maula later worked for the United Nations, the International Labour Organisation, and the African Development Bank. She travelled the length and breadth of Africa and saw tragedy and misery, but also the beginnings of growth and hope. In this memoir, she presents unique insights into the life of people in the rapidly changing Africa, from the street children in Lagos to Vodou priests in Benin; from destitute women of Ethiopia to presidents, ministers, and business leaders in these countries. Her story combines a seasoned social scientist's viewpoint with pertinent and pointed observations covering more than four decades of socio-cultural and economic developments in Africa. Dr Maula candidly recalls her work, her friends and neighbours, starting a family, and the ups and downs of raising an infant in Ethiopia and a moody teenager in the pre-revolutionary Tunisia. Through her experiences in Africa, Dr Maula also learned to look at her own native country with new eyes. Hilarious and tragic by turns, her story throughout bears great compassion and love for Africa and her beautiful and talented people.
THE JASMINE YEARS
FROM MY AFRICAN NOTEBOOKSBy JOHANNA MAULAiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Dr. Johanna Maula
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4759-6008-2Contents
Prologue.....................................................................................ixI Africa Revisited...........................................................................1II From Finland to Africa....................................................................9III The Hibiscus Years: Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, 1969-1970..............................19IV Ugali na Pombe: Travels in Tanzania, in 1985-1993.........................................52V Vodou, Mangoes and Coconuts: living in Porto-Novo, Benin, in 1988-1989.....................78VI A Cool Celestial Island: Living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2001-2002.......................137VII The Jasmine Years: living in Tunis, Tunisia 2007-2010....................................206Epilogue.....................................................................................315Acknowledgements.............................................................................325End Notes....................................................................................327Literature...................................................................................339
Chapter One
Africa Revisited
The Jasmine Revolution, Year Zero-Tunis, December 2011
In Tunisia, the Jasmine Revolution has toppled the old regime and the first democratic elections have brought Al-Nahda ("Renaissance") into power, a moderate Islamist party that received almost 40% of votes. I am travelling there in December 2011 for the first time since the revolution. I used to live there in 2007-8 and again briefly in 2010 and am now very keen to see myself what has changed and how.
Some fear for the worst. My North African friends talk in suspicious tones about "les barbus", ("the bearded ones") now being in power, and using it to erode democracy from the beginning. "They want men to marry four wives and women to veil themselves," wails my friend Rabab. "I want to be free! No one should tell me how to dress or what to believe in!" Others are more optimistic; after all the Al-Nahda leader lived for 25 years in exile in the UK. Surely he is already westernized enough to respect those rights that the Tunisian women have learnt to take for granted during the country's 60 years of independence?
However, the country faces huge challenges: unemployment especially among the young is estimated to be 25 % and even many educated people cannot find jobs. In some places dissatisfied workers have demolished factories, mixing vandalism with democracy, leading to scores of foreign investors leaving the country. While secular and Islamist forces still are battling it out, the government is not able to accomplish much to redress the economic situation that has been growing worse since the revolution.
With tourism revenues still low after the revolution it is even more difficult now for many to make the ends meet. Sadly, many of the young men and women who started the revolution are now fleeing the country to find a new life in Europe. A large part of the illegal immigrants that arrive in Lampedusa in South Italy are from Tunisia. "There is not enough money in the foreign currency deposits of the country to pay what we owe," claims a friend who works with foreign transactions.
Yet the Tunisian sky in December is as clear as always. The sun is shining although slightly paler than during the summer months. I feel that could go and embrace each one of the palm trees which I remember so well from the time when I lived here. Street sellers are offering my favourites, les figues de barbarie, the cactus fruits, and soft sweet dates. Hot mint tea, and on wood fire grilled dorado that is served in restaurants are as delicious as always.
My friend Nadia who has recently remarried has moved to a new apartment block in La Marsa with her husband and they proudly show me around their comfortable home: a living room with large cupboards with glass shelves and selected objects on display, a painted mirror prepared by a handy father-in-law, a luxurious bedroom where the huge marital bed offers morally acceptable and even expected sensuality with its pink cushions and satin bedcovers.
During the revolution they saw how their neighbours arrived home carrying brand new TV sets, CD-players, even refrigerators and washing machines—all looted from department stores that belonged to the former president's family members. Now Nadia and Fakri would like to start a family, but the political and economic situation being so unstable, Nadia, who has a business degree, has started to look for jobs in Dubai.
I spend an evening with a North African colleague and friend who has a small bachelor apartment with white walls and white marble floors. "Why don't you stay here the night? I have a guest room," he inquires. "My mother was really upset to hear that you are going to stay in a hotel instead of at my place," he adds. I am left to wonder what I really know about the Arabic or Islamic morals which seem to deem it appropriate for a married woman to spend a night in the apartment of a single male friend. Demands of friendship and hospitality here exceed those of morality and presumed chastity.
My friend Samia is nowhere to be found. A mutual friend tells me that Samia has gone through a difficult divorce from her husband, whom she liked to call Gollum after the greedy troll in the Lord of the Rings, and moved from her big house to a flat with her two daughters. I get worried messages from our friend who has not been able to contact her. It finally emerges that as soon as her divorce was clear, Samia had packed her daughters and the necessities and flown straight to North America, where her mother lives and where she wants to start a new life, far from her exceedingly cold husband and his nosy relatives, and far from the country where she did not feel safe anymore. She was afraid that her husband would somehow manage to prevent her leaving with their daughters and has not dared to tell anyone about her escape.
Beautiful Samia! I hope she and her daughters will succeed in their new life and not feel too home sick for Tunisia. She used to criticize the country and her in-laws in biting, ironic words. Nevertheless I suspect that forgetting the blue skies and the sea breeze over Tunis, the friendly sun and the buildings in tens of shades of white, pink, pale yellow, peach and beige will not be easy. In a country like Finland or the northern parts of the American continent where winter lasts so many months, in the harsh whiteness of snow and during the long nights your eye will seek in vain for the lush greenness, your skin will miss the memory of the caressing sun, your palate the soft crispy juice of oranges and the mellow sweetness of dates.
The Cool Celestial Island on Rise—Ethiopia in 2012
In Ethiopia the economy has continued to grow at an amazing pace for almost a decade now, sometimes reaching double-digit figures as the government is proud to point out. Construction takes place everywhere: new houses, hotels, banks and shops are built, roads are improved, restaurants and cafeterias are opened. I used to live here in 2001-2 and can now hardly recognize parts of Addis Ababa. From being the third poorest country in the world ten years ago, Ethiopia now can boast the third fastest growing economy in the world.
My friend Adam, who in 2002 predicted that the country...
