kearneyjourney

The birds woke me up again at sunrise. This was an ever-recurring phenomenon; and I have conjectured that, if I were ever to live in this part of Africa, I would morph into a morning person – something that I have never been before (except when jet-lagged). It gets dark at around 07:00 in the evening and light at around 06:00 in the morning; and since this part of Tanzania is just a few degrees south of the equator, the length of the days varies little throughout the year. And since there’s no winter to speak of, the birds serve as a perpetual wake-up call every day of the year. I have never seen more sunrises in such a short period of time than during our ten days in Tanzania.

I went outside to the front of the tent to get a few pictures before trying to sleep some more; but it was a futile attempt. The morning was beautiful, clear and sunny with the songs of tropical birds competing with each other against a backdrop of grunts and moos from the nearby wildebeest. There were no hyena noises last night, despite Hannes’s prediction that we would hear them every night due to the proximity of their burrows (about four hundred meters west of the campsite).

We left around 09:00 and headed west toward the small market town of Mugumu (population 18,000). I was again shocked by the roads, which were even bumpier and more rutted than in the Serengeti and the Ndutu region. It took us about 90 minutes to cover the 45km to Mugumu, where we picked up a guide in the center of the town, then proceeded another fifteen minutes outside the town to the Ikoma Cultural Center.

The cultural center is a small portion of a village sectioned off to provide some insight into traditional Ikoma life and culture. The Ikoma are one of the 120 tribes in Tanzania and are located primarily in the western Serengeti; and Agnes Makanga is the head and founder of the Ikoma Cultural Center in Nyichoka Village outside Mugumu (agnesmichoka.ikomacenter@yahoo.com).

When we arrived at the cultural center, we were greeted by Ikoma dancers in traditional costumes welcoming us to their village. They danced and sang a welcome song; then an invitation song; and finally the female members of the group gave us a rendition of a traditional song praising “female domestic virtues”, which had something to do with diligence in the household and loyalty to the husband. Agnes then invited us to sit down at a round concrete table covered by a grass roof and served us a millet-porridge and a sweet tea with milk. By this time, Kate was not feeling well and did not partake of the food. I again pulled out a course of antibiotics (my last) and hoped this would also do the trick for her.

After this snack, Agnes took us through the Ikoma museum, which consisted of some traditional Ikoma tools for grinding millet and working the fields and a small grass-roofed dwelling made of mud and sticks. She explained that the Ikoma originated in the Sudan and wandered south in search of better pastures for their cattle, ultimately ending up in Kenya, where they split into two groups, one (Wakumba?) remaining in Kenya and the second (Waikoma) migrating further south into Tanzania. Today, the Ikoma are both farmers and pastoralists, having abandoned their previously nomadic existence. Agnes founded the Ikoma Cultural Center to keep alive the history and traditions of the Ikoma people, as the younger generation has less and less touch with these elements of Ikoma culture. We learned that the zebra is a sacred animal in Ikoma culture and that, earlier, a man proposing to marry a woman in the tribe was required to kill a zebra and feed the meat to his fiancée and her family. This was a prerequisite of marriage. In the meantime, this tradition is no longer practiced, but the zebra is still a sacred animal in their culture. Also, the giraffe is revered by the Ikoma; and it is prohibited to kill this animal.

We then walked to the top of a hill at the north of the village where the male Ikoma dancers were waiting.

They performed a ritual fire dance using only sticks, cow dung, straw and dry branches. In the end, a beautiful campfire glowed among the trees; and not a single match had been struck. One of the men mentioned that, in 1961, when Tanzania gained its independence, the entire community went to the top of the hill to light a huge bonfire. And they repeat that recent tradition every 9th of December on their day of independence.

From there, we walked back to the village to a lunch consisting of rice, chicken, ugali, mandrake and watermelon. Katie spent most of the time in the Land Cruiser sleeping on the back bench. She was very upset at having missed the activities at the Cultural Center, as this had been one of her main areas of interest.

When our visit was over, there was a rather protracted ritual of thanks and farewell on both sides. Agnes asked me to give her some feedback on how the visit had gone, as she wants to continue improving the activities. She said they get about three groups per month, but that she would like to get the rhythm to three groups per week. She is hoping that each group that visits will create some publicity for their center.

We drove back to Mugumu and stopped at the Giraffe Hotel for some refreshments. Ray asked us whether we wanted to take a walk through the town; but Chris and Kate decided to stay put and have some more drinks. The rest of us proceeded into the town; and it was immediately apparent that we were indeed a novelty in those streets. Literally, everybody was staring at the visiting wazungu, and I did not feel very comfortable as the object of such attention. Still, it was a worthwhile tour, as we could see how a rural town of this size looks and operates. There are almost NO tourists in this part of Tanzania, so for anybody looking for an authentic Tanzanian village, this is the place to visit. What struck me in most Tanzanian communities was the stylish dress of the women: they were always impeccably clothed and presented a colorful pageant in their kanga-patterned outfits. Also, most of the people on the streets appeared to have good shoes, which is always an indication of prosperity. We visited the market and found it full of fresh fruits and vegetables and other consumer goods; and the people overall looked quite healthy and content. Ray stated that Mugumu is one of the towns benefiting from a higher standard of living in the northern part of Tanzania, as compared to the central and southern parts.

While walking back to the Giraffe Hotel, three young boys (ages seven or eight) ran up to Ray and said something to him in Swahili. We learned from Ray that they were fascinated to see a mzungu child (Nick), because they had never seen one before. And they wanted him to stay and play with them for a while. They were really cute and a bit disappointed when we did not fulfill their wishes. The city of Mugumu was a collection of brick and concrete-block buildings with corrugated tin roofs and not a single paved road. There were empty lots between the dwellings where some trash had collected; but the city was actually rather clean. We wanted to drive to the school that Access2Tanzania is supporting. However, the road in that direction was under construction. In fact, I learned from Ray that they were intending to lay an asphalted road in that part of the city, the first paved artery of transportation in Mugumu.

We drove the rough road back to Mapito and prepared for the New Year’s Eve dinner. Katie was still not feeling well and declined to join us for the evening meal. Hannes and his team had prepared a very good meal of chicken, ugali, spinach and banana (again, the plantain variety). There was also a delicious chocolate cake with 2011 inscribed across the surface. After dinner, we all gathered around the campfire. In the meantime, two additional families had arrived at the campsite; and in total there were four Finns, two Austrians, one American, one Austrian-American (Chris), one German and one Italian, plus the Ikoma guards with their bows and arrows. The two Finnish men and Chris decided to have an archery competition and tried to hit a tree near the campfire. Chris had some difficulties; but the two Finns, both practiced archers, nailed the tree. And one of them burrowed the tip of the arrow so far into the trunk that Chris needed to get his bush-knife out and help carve the tip of the arrow out. The guards were all fascinated with Chris’s luxury flashlight and showed Hannes how far they could illuminate the bush with it. But Hannes said they would have to make do with their lower power flashlights, as these could be recharged using solar power; and Hannes didn’t want to buy a bunch of batteries.

Hannes had managed to download the Blue Danube Waltz from iTunes; and as midnight approached, he brought out three bottles of champagne with wine glasses (no champagne glasses at the campsite). We rang in 2011 by uncorking the bottles and waltzing around the campfire. I even stood in for the truant Italian, whose German wife was left without a partner, and did double duty after my waltz with Gertrude.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 10:53 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.