Flemish author and theatre maker Tom Naegels calls himself a ‘social writer.’ His contribution for Radio Books is a disturbing look at the chasm between different cultures.

Tom Naegels - 'Arusha'

Tom Naegels was born in Antwerp in 1975 and studied German at the University of Antwerp. He came to prominence in his early twenties with the publication of a collection of short stories called ‘Into the Universe’. His status as a young rising star was confirmed with his third novel ‘Los’ (Loose) which was published in 2005 and  won the Gerard Walschap prize. The book has also been made into a film.

Naegels describes himself as a ‘social writer’ and says he wants to explore the importance of the individual’s place in the whole. His RadioBooks story is a disturbing look at the chasm between different cultures and how the individual can create, unwittingly, even greater barriers. Axel, a naïve young Belgian man, has travelled to Tanzania to do something that might free himself from the tedium of his life. His aim is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

"And he had never in his life done anything really spectacular. Climbing Kilimanjaro, he thought, that would be really spectacular. He hadn’t really thought about it for very long: Kilimanjaro, that was it. He would be able to tell stories about that for the rest of his life. How he had stretched his boundaries. Confronted nature. That sort of thing."

Tourist experience

Axel also wants to discover the ‘real Africa’ and he stays for a few days in Arusha in the north of the country where he is being shown around by a guide. What he sees disturbs him but is his reaction any different to other tourists? He may buy bread for a child but is his experience a life-changing one?

"He walked to the nearest shopping street and bought two bottles of mineral water and a loaf of bread. When Axel handed these over, the boy smiled broadly. That should have made Axel feel happy, but it didn’t. Two days and this boy would be eating plastic bags again. And did Axel think that was awful? No. He was proud that he had bought that bread. Axel took another photo of the child in his ragged clothes, with his marker, his plastic bag, his dirty jeans and his bread, in front of that gleaming, hideously ugly monument."

‘Arusha’ by Tom Naegels was translated by John Nieuwenhuizen. The story is read by Chris Chambers.

The series Radio Books is an initiative of Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren in Brussels, in association with the Flemish radio broadcaster Klara and Radio Netherlands Worldwide.