A Photo Journal: African Safari - Part III (Tanzanian Culture)

On our African Safari, we saw far more than just wildlife. Our itinerary included multiple cultural experiences as well. We visited local families to see their homes and how they lived. We visited basket weavers to learn about their craft. We visited multiple organizations that are helping to improve the lives of the locals. One organization is increasing access to clean water by producing affordable ceramic water filters. Another is providing employment opportunities for the physically disabled. Yet another is supporting persons with albinism, a group often shunned for their physical appearance. 

This photo journal highlights a few of our cultural experiences — a visit to a Maasai village, a visit to a local school, and a tour of the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre. This post also provides background about the song "Jambo Bwana" that we heard everywhere we went.

Maasai Village

The Maasai are a nomadic community, often recognized for their vibrant clothing and ornate body jewelry. The clothing and personal decor reflects one's tribe, position within a village, and individual personality.

Here I am checking out one of the Maasai's beaded ear decorations.

At the village, we met the Chief, his three wives, his 23 children, and his 30 grandchildren.

The Chief, Wife #1, Me, Wife #2, Wife #3, and Mom.

I can hear the polygyny questions percolating in your mind, so let's clear those questions before we continue. The purpose of a cultural exchange, after all, is to better understand the ways of a group of people. We were encouraged to ask whatever questions we had. Nothing was off the table. Here are some questions we asked. Perhaps they are the same questions you are wondering.

Q: How does the Chief decide which wife to spend the night with?

A: Each wife lives in her own hut in the village. The chief will take turns staying with each wife in her respective hut.

Q: Is there jealousy between the wives?

A: Not at all. The wives are best friends. They take care of each other and help out with each other's children. 

There you have it! Let's continue...

Here is one of the Chief's many descendants.

We took a tour of the village, which consisted of a large open area, a number of individual huts, and a garden. Goats roamed the village as if they were pet dogs. When we toured Wife #2's hut, I smiled when I saw she had a photo of her husband on her wall. 

A photo of the Chief on the wall of Wife #2's hut.

After the tour, the Maasai sang songs for us.

The Maasai singing for us.

Look at all those colors!

And look at those shoes on the men! They are made from recycled tires!

Later the group chanted while the young men demonstrated how high they can jump. Jumping is a part of a man's initiation into warriorhood.

 

We were then pulled into the group for some cultural interaction. 

Mom joins the village women...

...and uses her body language to communicate.

And then there was dancing. As the youngin' in the group, I was volunteered (not by me!) into the center of the circle.

You can tell from my beet-red face that I really loved this part. 🙄
I will say that the young man I danced with had incredible eye contact. 
I'm pretty certain he could see directly into my soul!

After the singing and dancing, we sat with the Chief and a tribeswoman for a discussion about female genital mutilation. For centuries, the Maasai have circumcised girls as a part of their initiation into womanhood. We learned about the history of the ritual as well as the reasons why many of the Maasai have been turning away from this practice in recent years. It was interesting to draw parallels between female circumcision in the Maasai culture and male circumcision in our own. 

Finally, the Maasai women made beaded bracelets for us.

Displaying all of our wrist jewelry.

Before parting, I took a selfie with the woman who made my bracelet.

Our first selfie.

And then I taught her how to take a photo on my phone.
Boy, we had some good laughs making funny faces.

The visit made me wonder how different my life would have be had I grown up in a Maasai village.

Local School

Another day we visited a local primary school. We got to meet the students and learn about their curriculum. I really enjoyed hearing what all the students wanted to be when they grow up. There were teachers and preachers and pilots. Not a single one of them mentioned "computer programmer."

The classroom of students.

The children sang a few songs for us, including this song, which you'll recognize.

We also broke into small groups so we could tell the children a bit about ourselves.

Here I'm telling the students about how I travel by bicycle.
I'm pointing to a photo from a bike trip to Alaska.

Here Mom is talking with a couple of girls who were absolutely fascinated by Mom's white hair!

These two girls escorted me from the classroom out to a shaded area
in the school yard where the children performed more songs for us.
Look at those smiles!

This visit made me wonder how different my life would be had I been educated in this school.

Cultural Heritage Centre 

I really enjoyed our visit to the Cultural Heritage Centre in Arusha. The centre houses an incredible assortment of art and artifacts, surprisingly all which are for sale.

The Cultural Heritage Centre is huge.
We only had a short time to explore.
I could have easily spent an entire day here.

I loved these lights in one of the buildings.

And I loved this carving.
This is a small part of a much larger carving that tells the story of an entire village.

I loved this painting of a Maasai.
Many of the Maasai have red stains on their teeth because of the high fluoride in the water.

I loved this painting of a boy in a Batman shirt.
Aside from his skin color, this boy looks an awful lot like
my younger brother when he was a child.

And I love this capture of Mom enjoying a wall of photographs.

Jambo Jambo

Jambo is Swahili for "hi" or "hey there." You hear it everywhere in Tanzania, at least in the tourist circles. Whenever we walked into a lodge or a restaurant or a village, we were greeted with ginormous smiles and the words "Jambo jambo."

In 1982, the Tanzanian band Them Mushrooms released a pop song called "Jambo Bwana" (Swahili for "Hi There, Sir"). With its catchy tune, the song quickly became a hit. The song sold more than 200,000 copies in the five years after it was released, thus earning the song platinum certification. 

Nowadays the song has been adopted as a "hotel pop song," perhaps because the ditty includes many simple Swahili phrases — such as habari gani? nzuri sana ("how are you doing? very well) and hakuna matata ("no problem, no worries")  — that are often taught to tourists. As we heard this song at least two or three times a day, "Jambo Bwana" has become the theme song for our African Safari.

I'll leave you with the song, covered by a group called Afrika Couleur. Enjoy!