Officially according to Google maps the village I am writing about is Gesarya, Serengeti DC Rung’abure Gesarya, which indicates that Rung’abure is the closest village and it sits in the District Council area of Serengeti.
I expect to write a few blogs about this weekend away. I certainly learned a lot and in future writing about this weekend hope to share some of the culture and practices still prevalent in the Serengeti region.
This first one provides the background to how I came to stay somewhere which is only 110 km from Musoma but might as well have been a million miles from anywhere (using a well known idiom for my non western readers). Google maps shows the village, driving from Musoma and also Mugumu which is 18kms away and the nearest service centre. Despite modernity and services being less than 20kms away villages in the Serengeti live pretty much traditionally with newer houses and mobile phones (from $10 a phone) perhaps being the obvious signs of slow progress in this sprawling region.
Background
Nguti Mwita Nguti invited me to visit his village when I was here last year after he started working for the church as the IT and graphic design manager three days a week. Prior to that he had “volunteered” at the post office as an intern for eighteen months, unpaid attending to their computer needs. He also volunteered at the diocese managing the website. When I reviewed the website it was not functional as the fee for hosting had not been paid. After discussions with the bishop about the communication needs of the diocese, new laptops arriving and the need to have someone managing IT, Nguti was employed three days weekly from about June 2022. Naturally the Post Office was sorry to lose him but I did suggest he advise them that he was available to undertake their computer repairs on a fee for service basis, which occurred.
Nguti quickly demonstrated his value to the diocese as we reconnected the website and I assisted him with suggestions to redesign it. It isn’t great but it’s much better than what he started with. Here is the current version with a rolling banner which was his initiative https://www.actmaradiocese.or.tz/
We then looked at diocesan staff who communicated internationally, and established email addresses for key staff from the bishop and most diocesan staff including me to be used as official communications and advised international partners.
However his real strengths were in the graphic design of the diocesan newsletter which was a communication channel to the world sharing about the work of the church here in Mara. His other strength was in fixing computers which includes upgrading operating systems so that some of the slow functioning and “broken” computers were again functional with Windows 10 or for very old PCs Windows 7 as the upgrade. Some computers here are 12- 15 years old and at Bunda Bible College some go back as far as 2006. I have a new appreciation for the quality of Dell computers because most of these ancient workhorses are Dell.
We formed quite a bond. He calls me “father” which is a respect for my age (Baba is what many younger Swahili speakers call me). I assisted him with a basic budget. Not much really, but he mentioned it to me this year and how helpful it was for him to realise even with the part time income he didn’t have enough to live.
He is 29 years of age and we have regularly discussed marriage as he is now at an age where he is looking for a wife. However this is hard for him as you will learn from future posts as his life is complex.
He was born in Gesarya, the fourth (living of nine children) aged from 38 to 13. A brother who was born before him died at a month as he was premature.
So as our relationship developed he asked me when I visited in 2023 to come to his village and learn where he came from, his upbringing and meet his parents.
However the more I heard about its remoteness, the less likely an overnight visit to this I thought would occur but providence provided the opportunity on the only spare weekend (2-4 June) I have between now and my departure from Musoma on 15 July.
The bishop is away this weekend and so I have the spare vehicle but no driver to drive to and from the office. The bishop on learning I was planning to visit Gesarya was happy for me to drive myself (he has been surprised at my skills ever since I reverse parked into his carport, something he does now). My only other “safari” as it is called here was to Bunda a month ago on all sealed roads. I had been to Mugumu in 2017 and rememebred what a terrible road it was but lots of roadworks are being done all over Tanzania and I was surprised at the quality improvements in six years.
The other thing Bishop told me is that he has stayed at Nguti’s house when he did confirmations there years ago So I thought accommodation must be OK if he has spent a night there. He had a village upbringing so I still wondered.
The drive out was fascinating as I stopped and spoke to people, took photos and saw the progress in various communities. Having Nguti with me provided a lot of information. There was no rush and given my first time on unsealed roads, the only requirement was to arrive by sunset, so three and a bit hours gave me plenty of time for a two hour journey.
Roadworks were taking place on the “highway” as well as town roads as you see below. Note the way vehicles were stopped from driving on new works. The drainage system below was hand dug and rocks moved manually.
The dam below was proximate to roadworks and I was told built by the government. I am guessing for road works. The middle photo had a truck loaded with 40 people and had stopped in the middle of the road. Initially I thought approaching it from the other side it was a catlle truck but as I passed, I noted it crammed full of bodies. Nguti explained it was a cheap form of transport for locals.
As we drove east a steady stream of women carrying sacks on their heads and bags in their handswere obvious for kilometres. I was told it was market day every 2nd of the month and after about 10kms the markets appeared in the distant rise.
Women do a lot of the heavy lifting, although young boys seem to start their role as cattle herders at very young ages. I have seen them as young as 7-8 years tending cattle.
The monthly markets have traders coming from Musoma and elsewhere selling basic goods such as soap and other personal items, shoes, clothing and other items not available elsewhere. These people do not travel. I was told many here have never been to Musoma and Mugumu, which is
Heading east after the markets we saw many peopleherding cattle. Nguti told me these were cattle bought at the markets. People do not have bank accounts so on market days, people will come to sell produce or animals for cash to purchase other market goods or for other reasons – school fees, medical costs or any other purpose. So markets act here as markets have historically as a form of exchange (bartering) but cash is now the medium of exchange and traders from town are cash merchants.
I stopped a few kms down the road when I saw a man herding as we learned twenty six cattle. I suggested he was just a local herding existing cattle, but no I was told he had bought at the market. We stopped and engaged in a fascinating discussion, which led to the following headline.
Disparities of income
Passing through many villages which were poor we suddenly came across a village and twon centre where the wealth was obvious. This was a local gold mining area where locals were digging shafts and prospecting for gold by bringing up dirt by pulleys and sifting for gold. There is a major gold mine north of here so it is no surprise that there should be depsoits here.
The Serengeti Cow Bank
Commerce here is done using animals as a form of savings. Nguti reckons less than 10% of people would have a bank account. So a total population of 340,000 in 62,000 households is likely to have less than 6,000 bank accounts and that still sounds a lot.
And those who have heard of bank accounts ask why would you put money in a bank when you can buy cows and make more cows? Well that’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.
So our cattle buyer told us he had just purchased these 26 cattle at market for six million shillings (6,000,000TZS) which is about AU$4,000. Even I knew this was an extraordinary purchase. He told us he was a tobacco farmer who had just sold his crop of two acres with a harvest of four tonnes (4,000kgs) at 6,500TZS/kg. My mental calculations confirmed by Nguti’s calculator revealed a total sale of 26M TZS or about $18,000. He would have maybe had costs to come out but that is some harvest.
Nguti did indicate tobacco is very difficult to grow and like Australian wheat farmers perhaps a good crop every 3-4 years make up for the bad years. So he bought cows which will give him more cows eventually. Some cows will be used for marriage (see future post on marriage and the bride price) and other funds may build a house but none of that cash will see a bank account. It will be stored in value in some form of local economy.
From there we continued towards Gesarya turning left at Tarime Rd. Right takes you to the Ikoma Gate entry to the national park. Girls carrying water was a common sight.
Near Gesarya we saw the Anglican Church where this weekend a confirmation service is being held, proceeded into town where we passed the secondary school, constructed since Nguti finished school. He had to walk 12kms each way daily to and from school. We saw the mission preceding the confirmation and which nightly was showing a film based on This is Life which I gather is a series of films with moral teaching. Tonight’s was on marriage, very relevant in this polygamous area. Saturday’s was The Jesus Film.
We then after watching the mission for a short period left the town centre and arrived at Nguti’s fatehr’s compound. This is a square area about 45-50m square with 8 feet high brick walls on all sides or the front has the house walls as the boundary. Inside there were numerous houses and partiially completed houses belonging to siblings who no longer live in the area.
The compound gave an insight as to how humans and animals coexist. Dung from cows, shee and goats was over the compound and cleaned up daily. Nguti’s dad has 28 cows over 20 sheep of a variety I mistook for goats and goats.
Dinner by torchlight that night was in the guesthouse, the newest looking building with a large area with a bedroom coming off it. It was fully enclosed and lacked air. However I noted that on the plains the temperature dropped quickly and noted the lack of mosquitos which meant I didn’t sleep with a net that night.
The night finsished with us walking to see the film and discovering a flat tyre. Oh well that’s a problem for Saturday.
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