From Massai to explorers; from lions, tigers, and bears (Oh My!)....
Its indeed the circle of life...
Friday, May 8, 2015
Tanzania in a nutshell...
Tanzania is a country
full of amazing people, animals, and landmarks. Throughout its history the
people of Tanzania have proven they have a great deal of fight and spirit to
keep things sacred and attempts to prosper. Many things, people, and events
have affected the history of Tanzania; some in great ways and others in not
such great ways. The ocean played a crucial role in people coming and exploring
and later settling parts of the land. The ocean also provided influence in
agriculture, food, music, and even the introduction of diseases. Tanzania has
many resources to that take care of its people and if managed properly could
indeed help prosper the country.
Tanzanians often pride themselves on their culture, art,
paintings, or traditional dance. Each tribe within Tanzania may have its own
dance or rituals such as the Zaramo people. They often dance to melodies like
“Mitamba Yalagala Kumchzi” on tuned goblet drums, cylindrical drums, and tin
rattles. (www.britannica.com)
Music and dance has grown with the exposure to people of Tanzania also a genre
of music called Taarab. This is thought to have descended from Islamic
roots. During the 1960s Tanzania was
greatly influenced by African, Latin, and Cuban music. This is largely due to
the access by the ocean where explorers would come to explore, exchange, or
barter for goods. (www.britannica.com)
Paintings and art work were a part of the culture by way
of expressing and preserving history. Paintings would often reflect beliefs,
superstitions, or landscapes. Popular paintings in Tanzania are called
“Tingatinga”. These paintings are named after their founder, Mr. Edward Saidi
Tingatinga and have been a way of painting in Tanzania for years. Along with
paintings and music, religion has played a significant role in the history of
Tanzania. Origins can be found in its tribes where storytelling keeps ideas and
beliefs moving throughout generations. There can also be Muslim, Hinduism,
Roman Catholicism, and Christianity. Religion has long been an area that has
caused fights, divisions of people, and in some cases war. There have been
great issues between the Muslims and Christians in Tanzania; so hostile it
resulted in people being killed in schools and businesses. (www.mapsoftheworld.com)
Missionaries have also influenced Tanzania since about the sixteenth century.
During the 1830s there was a caravan route established
which allowed for early missionary influences. There was already an Arab slave
trade established and this route helped communication happen for Europeans to
end the slave trade. (www.histclo.com/country/afr/Tanzania)
Missionaries came through the caravan route and some only passed through and
some settled land to make life there. Many churches were established through
these missionaries for example missionaries from Portugal and Roman Catholics.
(www.encyclopediaofchristianity.com)
As missionaries continued to come to Tanzania they saw a
huge need within the country. A huge issue that was arising in Tanzania with
explorers coming and going; diseases were also brought. People of Tanzania were
contracting diseases they had no way of treating. Missionaries now found they
could best serve the people of Tanzania by way of establishing hospitals,
clinics, or providing medical drugs for treatment.
Along with its people, music, paintings, and influence of
missionaries that make Tanzania what it is today, Tanzania offers many
attractions across its vast land. A few major cities would be Arusha and Dar es
Salaam. Dar es Salaam is an embarkation point for Zanzibar and also is home to
a few schools of Tanzania. Tanzania is also home to many lakes for example Lake
Victoria and Lake Malawi. Tanzania also has a volcanic crater called Eden of
Ngorongoro. Many mountains and wildlife land exists in Tanzania as well. Mount
Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru are two of the largest mountains in Tanzania. The
Serengeti is home to the greatest population of game animals in the world.
Animals and land were also affected over time by new people investigating and
explorers finding new ways to make money.
During the colonial era in Tanzania had explorers coming
and going all the while bringing goods, animals, or cloth to trade. Though
trade and new people brought some good to Tanzania, it also brought some bad.
Tanzanian wildlife found itself in a very vulnerable situation. The people of
Tanzania lived off the land for some time and having the explorers trade and
often poach the animals caused many people to starve to death. Restrictions
were put on the killing of animals because of the fear of extinctions however
this caused the people who lived off the killing of animals to survive to
starve to death in many cases. It is clear that the arrival of explorers caused
good and bad to the people of Tanzania.
In some cases Tanzania benefited from outsiders settling
the land but many cases there were wars and strive that broke out. The people
of Tanzania at some points broke out in rebellion in efforts to gain control
again. Europeans would control the land for a while then the Germans would take
control for a time. With new people brought territory issues, greed, and
slavery. (www.lonelyplanet.com)
Tanzanians have fought for independence and in fact gained it though the land
did not find stability right away. Even today Tanzania finds itself fighting
for peace with each other and with each religion. In some regions of Tanzania
people are thriving and have found to live in peace while others find
themselves trying to survive day to day. Tanzania has a large albino group who
has to struggle each day to stay alive. Albinos are often sought after for
their arms and legs for witchcraft practices. (www.bbc.com/news/world-africa)
There is protection offered to them however people are paid a lot of money to
kill adults or babies for these practices.
Though Tanzania has made good strides to move forward it
still finds itself as one of the poorest countries in the world. Present day
Tanzania finds a large portion of its money comes from tourism. With new
Presidents brings new policies that would be set in place with intents to make
the country better though many reforms often brought hardships. Tanzania can be
labeled as many things and has had its share of wars and poverty. Today it
still has its problems though the people have made huge strides to better their
country. Tanzania today is beautiful, vast, and colorful.
Resources:
www.encylocpediaofchristianity.com;
Erwin, Fahlbusch; WM.B. Eerdmans Publishing company, May 7, 2015
www.mapsoftheworld.com,
May 7, 2015
www.lonelyplanet.com;
May 7, 2015
www.bbc.com/news/world-africa;
“living in Fear: Tanzanian’s Albinos”, July 28,2008, May 7, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)