It’s Monday and I head out with George to do some shopping at a local supermarket to grab snacks for the upcoming week, while Debbie rests at the hotel.
George continues his overview of Tanzania from the previous night. I am struck by one of the themes that quickly emerges.
Having never set foot on African soil before, my opinions of the continent to-date have been formed by the numerous wildlife and cultural documentaries that I’ve watched, and the limited media exposure that we receive in Canada. Even though I should know better, part of me was hoping to find the Africa of the early 20th century, with colourful dress and a myriad of vibrant cultures untouched by Western influence. But as I drive through Arusha and talk to George, what I find is a society that is rapidly modernizing and struggling to maintain its traditional cultures.
MPESA and a million other PESA (Swahili for money) companies that operate as de facto banks in the country dot the streets and represent the changing face of the country. I ask George about how he’s seen the country change in his lifetime, and how this compares to the experience of his parents and grandparents. He tells me that up until the 80’s women didn’t wear trousers, but as TV became commonplace in the nation women began to demand their right to pants. He also speaks of the cheap $10 feature phones and $40 smartphones flooding in from China, that caters to those with lower income in the country. Cleary, these changes are positive for most Tanzanians.
However, along with modernization comes the loss of age-old traditions. George is clearly a modernist, and laments some of the traditional tribal practices that continue in the country. Having grown up in a small village himself, he talks of many of the negative tribal practices that we’ve heard about in the west. As he talks about the Massai, he provides a different view from the glorified portrayal I’ve seen in many movies. The society he speaks of, is highly patriarchal and polygamist, with forced marriages for girls as young as 10. A society that in many ways is resistant to progress and still practices ineffective traditional medicine that result in many deaths per year. He seems uninterested in hanging on to most of Tanzania’s tribal traditions.
Another guide we meet, Saleh, has a different view. He comes from a different tribe who are known as farmers, with vastly different traditions from the Massai. His tribe is less patriarchal with each man taking only one wife. Saleh’s views on modernization more closely align with my own; the need to respect and keep the positive and important traditions within one’s culture while evolving those that are outdated. Farming with his parents in the morning, and then acting as a tour guide in the evening so that he can one day open up an ecotourism business that will expose his tribe’s practices to tourists – he is a living example of achieving this balance.
This struggle between modernism and traditional beliefs and culture strikes a chord with me. Obviously I want to see progress in my own society, and take advantage of all of the benefits that entails, but I am also saddened to think about living in a world that seems to be becoming more and more culturally homogeneous and westernized, when it is our differences that makes the world an interesting place to me. If there’s anything I’ve taken away from Africa, its the strengthening of my desire to retain my family and cultural traditions while keeping up with the changes of the modern world. If I’m lucky, maybe the world will take a similar course.
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