Mambo from Tanzania!

Mambo from Tanzania - that’s hello/ how’s it going? I’ve been here for a week now (granted mainly holidaying in Zanzibar) and have just survived my first two days of work.

Day 1 got off to a rocky start as I managed to cram myself onto a daladala (minibus that shuttles around Dar es Salaam) going in the wrong direction and so ended up a bit late to work… and when I finally turned up, there was no power. The power here in Dar seems to be cut routinely, which the locals refer to as ‘rationing’ and take in their stride. Nevertheless it is pretty disruptive.

On a more positive note, people here in Tanzania are incredibly friendly, and I will often get a “Mambo!” from total strangers walking along the street. Of course I also get the occasional, taunting “Mzungu!” (white person) but that’s mainly from the kids. Taxi drivers tend to be either avid Arsenal or Chelsea fans, judging by the look of their air fresheners. I’ve already learnt to direct them to go ‘lefty’ or ‘righty’ when they need to make a turn, and to order ‘bready toasty’ in my nearby upscale hotel (with free WiFi, enabling me to post this blog) if I want toast.

I should mention that I am working here in Dar for 8 weeks with an NGO called the Children’s Dignity Forum (CDF). CDF works specifically to promote children’s rights in Tanzania, and particularly focuses on the issues of child marriage, gender violence and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Since there was no electricity, I got stuck into the background reading. I first read about FGM in Tanzania, which is particularly prevalent in the northwest of the country, including the regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Mara. Traditionally, girls will undergo FGM before they are married (anywhere from the age of 12 – 18). However, the government introduced legislation in 1998 making it a criminal offence to cause a girl under the age of 18 to undergo FGM, in effect making the practice illegal. Worryingly, the report I read (from 2005) identified that some girls are therefore now undergoing FGM at a much earlier age (from 6 months to 7 years old) in order to avoid detection by the authorities (for example, at school).

FGM seems to be an ingrained part of society in these regions of Tanzania – so much so that some girls would prefer to undergo FGM than to risk not being accepted by their communities. This despite the fact that FGM carries with it some pretty serious physical and mental health risks, not least of which is extremely painful and difficult childbirth. In fact, it is so endemic that one of the leaders of Save the Children of Tarime (a town in the Mara region, on Lake Victoria near to the border with Kenya) held a big feast to celebrate a daughter who had just undergone FGM, whilst actually campaigning against the practice. This kind of double-standard is apparently not uncommon.

I also read a case study from some research carried out by CDF in Tarime, which really fleshed out the consequences of child marriage. It was a about a girl who was married off to an older man at the age of 14 (and who also underwent FGM shortly before her marriage).

Because she was too young to understand her marital responsibilities (which included the daily tasks of fetching the water, collecting firewood and cooking) and because she would often neglect them to play with other children in the village, her father-in-law demanded her bride price (Tsh 300,000 or roughly £150) back from her parents (who apparently refused). When the father-in-law came back from her parents’ village late at night, he ordered his son to tie up the legs and arms of the girl, and then took a knife and cut off the girls’ earlobe. He also cut off a portion of the other ear, and chopped off one of her fingers when she was attempting to defend herself against the attack. When he was done, the father-in-law took the body parts and fed them to the dog. The son and father-in-law then untied the girl and chased her away. She reached the relative safety of a neighbours’ house before fainting and waking up in hospital with the scars that will obviously be with her for the rest of her life.

One of the most desperate results of child marriage is that the girl often ends up being abandoned. When it becomes clear that she is not up to the tasks expected of her as a married woman, her family-in-law often try and return her to her family. But in doing so, they will demand the bride price back, which can be a substantial amount of money or cattle. When the girls’ family refuses to take her back into the family because they cannot afford to return the bride price, she will often end up abandoned by both her husband and her parents. To exacerbate the problem, some girls will end up having children with other men in the hope that they will support her, which is rarely the case.

It’s pretty grim stuff, but something that CDF is hoping to change, mainly through training girls on the rights violations that constitute child marriage and FGM, and establishing networks within the communities so that the girls can support each-other. CDF also deliver training to community and religious leaders on these issues. It looks like I’ll be travelling to Tarime towards the end of next week with Grace, a Tanzanian lawyer who works at CDF, to a Stand Up and Take Action event organised by Global Call for Action Against Poverty, in support of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). I’ve been asked to write a speech about the relationship between the MDGs and child marriage, which will then be translated into Kiswahili and given at the meeting (eek!). Hopefully I will also have the chance to meet some of the girls in the villages who are members of the child marriage support network.

I’ll be back with more when I’m back – and hopefully some pictures too (I’m having slight issues transferring pictures from my digital camera to the computer)!