LIVE IN TANZANIA Field Research Report 2016 Cerra Teng
Design for change In the summer of 2016, I came to Tanzania to do my design education project, ‘LIA.’ While much progress has been made in Africa since they obtained independence, there are still many issues facing the continent which require attention such as poverty, . The LIA project is a result of my belief that given the proper tools and support, the best people to solve the local problems in Africa are the locals themselves. During the meantime, I learned Swahili, experienced local lifestyle, collected data, and presented it in my website, photo-blog, videos and this report. I hope this will give you a better idea what the life is like in Tanzania in 2016. I would like to expand my project and collaborating with creatives and entrepreneurs. If you are interested, contact me via email.
liatanzania.com facebook.com/liatanzania
Cerra Teng Designer / Impact Maker
C O N TE N TS
About Tanzania Observation Transportation Infrastructure Poverty Agriculture Waste Water Corruption Human Rights
Life in Tanzania
THE PLACE I’VE BEEN Uganda days in Tanzania
24
Arusha Mt. Kilimanjaro
Burundi
May
Aug
Kenya
Rwanda
2 0 1 6
22
L AN G UAG E S
7
days
Moshi
Serengeti
Boma Lushoto
Ngorongoro
trekking on Mountain Kilimanjaro
5895
NATIONAL PARKS
Lake Manyara Zanzibar m
Dar es Salaam
Congo
Swahili English different tribes MASAI
Arusha
CHAGGA
Moshi
RELIGIONS
19,341’
EAST AFRICA AREA 947,303 sq. km
Christian Muslim
P O P U L AT I O N
Zambia
Malawi
53.47 million Mozambique
2015 data from world bank
Tribal lifestyle There are 120 different tribes in Tanzania. They have their own dialects and Swahili is the common language they communicate. Most of the tribes have adapted to modern lifestyle. The Maasai people, especially those living inland, are the only tribe that maintain their traditional nomadic lifestyle.
ECONOMIC 1985
Command economy
GDP: $48.06 billion
Market economy
US GDP: $16.77 trillion
2014 data from world bank
Main economic activity: 24.5%
Agriculture >50% employed workforce
GDP
22.2%
Unemployment rate:
Industry and construction Mining, electricity and natural gas
10.3% 60%
SWAHILI TIME
“Pole - pole” - slowly in Swahili
Tanzanian has different time system. It’s very confusing even the locals get confused with English time. Swahili Time start from sunrise - 7 o’clock is their 1 o’clock. They use 12-hours system and note morning or night after the time.
Morning 5am - 10 am
Afternoon 10am - 4pm
Evening 4pm - 7pm
Night 7pm - 5am
Mchana
Jioni
Usiku
4
4 Asubuhi
10 11 *In general, Tanzanians have a very loose concept of time. It’s common to show up late for a meeting. They use both English time and Swahili time which adds the confusion. Just make sure when you are agree on a time, that all parties are using the same time system.
10 1
1
11
Observation
TRANSPORTATION squeeze like banana
“It never gets full.”
Dala-dala (which means 5 shilling in Swahili) is the main transportation from town to town. They are operated by different private companies or individual. They aggressively compete to each other. It’s usually overloaded with people and the car is rusted, torn, and usually not in maintain.
In the towns where I lived (Moshi and BomaKilimanjaro region), there were no traffic lights. Instead, there were roundabouts at the intersection.
As a result of the lax traffic regulation and general chaos, Tanzania suffers an average of 13,684 road accidents annually, resulting in the loss of 1619 lives
INFRASTRUCTURE Road Only the main roads connecting to larger towns are paved by tarmac. The rest are not maintained. As a result, the road condition is quite poor, and often the smaller roads connecting to remote villages turn to mud in rainy weather conditions. These roads are often too small to transport goods by car, so remote villages especially suffer. No Address Roads are not named, let alone the numbers of houses. Mail or package are delivered by simply checking the post office every once in a while. Electricity 50%
Natural gas 20.4%
Sources 28.9%
Thermal sources Hydropower
2011, only15% people have electricity
POVERTY “Without money, there’s no happiness.” The percentage of people living in poverty has slightly decreased in this decade. But, since the general population number increased from 2001 to 2012, the total number of people living below the poverty line has actually increased by 1.97 million. 47.78m 32.4m
28.2% =13.47m
35.6% =11.5m 2001
2012
Population Poverty Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line
The national poverty line was estimated by the NBS in 2001 based on the 2000/01Household Budget Survey. It represents the cost of goods (food and other goods) typically consumed by poor households. In 2001 the national poverty line was Tshs 7,253 per person per 28 days.
AGRICULTURE 24.5%
GDP
85%
50%
Export
Workforce
Due to the lack of knowledge and infrastructure to develop and implement some kind of agricultural technology, any droughts, floods, or temperature shocks can severely damage the living standards and create huge increases in unemployment, hunger, and rates of malnutritionrates, as well as, in severe case, mortality due to starvation Food crops: Maize, sorghum, millet, cassava Cash crops: Coffee, cashew nut, tea, cotton 30% Robusta
17% Foreigh exchange
70% Arabica
WASTE It is common that people throw waste on the ground due to the lack of the awareness of the clean environment. Garbage trucks don’t reach every village, so local people have to come up with alternative ways to process their waste. Traditionally, food waste is buried or dump in the ground. After a while, it becomes fertilizer. Bury
Burn
Dump
In many cases, wates is piled on a field and burned. In these areas, the air smells unpleasant in the early morning and at nighttime.
In some cases, waste is dumped illigally into the rivers at nighttime, which leads to contamination of drinking water.
WATER Source Due to the hot, dry climate, safe water is scarce for most of the rural population: 23 million people in Tanzania don’t have access to safe water and over 4,000 children die every year from diarrhoea. Shortage In dry seasons, water shortage is a serious problem, especially in semi-desert areas. It’s unavoidable, so local people store water, utilizing big buckets or tanks
Polluted by waste Waste is often illegially dumped into the rivers, causing contamination. This situation is improved with the introduction and enforcement of fine.
CORRUPTION Police It’s common to be stopped by police while driving on the main roads. Usually, it serves as a regular safety check. Sometimes, police convicted the driver with unreasonable offenses, such as “damage to front left tire.” In these cases, the drivers can fined up to 10,000 Tsh (around 5 USD). Mt. Kilimanjaro To boost the tourism industry, Tanzanian government regulates climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Climbers must be registered with climbing companies and each climber must be assigned at least two porters. The maximum load of a porter is 20 kg. However, some climbing companies bribe the staff at the weight station, and porters may carry more than this amount.
HUMAN RIGHTS Porters in Kilimanjaro Porters usually don’t get the amount of salary and tips they deserve. Since it’s common for climbing companies to bribe the weight stations, often, porters have to carry overweight loads. Their working conditions are also rough and unregulated; in many cases, porters only receive one meal per day on the mountain, and are crowded into tents at night, often without sleeping bags. Truck Drivers Truck driving is a high-risk and high-paid job, often bringing in $250 USD per month. They drive for 24 hours at a time without sleep; some of them take drugs to keep awake. Often, they are only able to have some time for rest after two straight days of driving. LGBT 90% of Tanzanian don’t accept LGBTQ+ community. Men face 25 years of imprisonment if they are discovered to have same-sex relations. This restricts the community from gaining the access to healthcare, especially those inflicted with HIV/AIDS.