Meeting the Maasai

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For the average visitor, a trip to Tanzania is usually a whistle-stop tour to check out Kilimanjaro, race through some reserves, and hop over to Zanzibar. But there is more to Tanzania than that. With a cultural tourism programme now in operation, there is no excuse not to meet the local people and experience the real Africa.

Most visitors fly in here, climb Kili, get to the summit, then go home,' says Dixon Mambaly, a Tanzanian guide based in the coffee-growing area of Marangu. 'Their friends ask them what the people and the country are like but they cannot really answer. That isn't right. They should learn about our land.'

Miet van Spittael, the co-ordinator of a cultural tourism programme established in Tanzania in 1997, couldn't agree more. 'It's of major benefit to the locals,' she says of the programme, 'but at the same time gives tourists unforgettable memories of the African people and a much richer experience of the local culture.'

With supervision and training provided by the Tanzania Tourist Board and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), the programme comprises 17 cultural tours spread out over several small villages, mainly in northern and north-eastern Tanzania, but also further south, around Mbeya, and around Dar es Salaam. Under the watchful eye of Van Spittael and her guides, the income derived from the programme goes directly back into the local community to help with social upliftment and education projects. The funds are used for very specific purposes, such as improving schools, buying energy-saving stoves, building cattle dips and mending irrigation canals.

'The programme is already benefiting the local people by helping them earn extra income and assisting them to improve their lives,' says Van Spittael. 'They've been trained in conducting guided tours, showing visitors what their life and culture are about. After a five-year period, the project will have become a self-supporting scheme.'

I've had my yellow-fever injection and my hepatitis A shot, stocked up on Larium and got my cholera vaccination certificate. I'm all set for my East African culture class.

As we leave Kilimanjaro International Airport and drive towards Arusha, visions of Africa soothe away my tiredness. Baobab and acacia trees stand silhouetted against the purple sky. Smiling Maasai men wrapped in their distinctive red blankets watch us from the roadside. The dusty landscape glows gold as the African night falls.

Early the next morning, we meet up with Miet van Spittael before setting off to the slopes of Mount Meru and the village of Ng'iresi. A veteran of 15 climbs up Mount Kilimanjaro, 'mamma Mietie', as she is endearingly called by the locals, has very definite views on the cultural path ahead.

'If you travel to Ngorongoro or the Serengeti, you see so many Maasai on the side of the road just waiting for tourists,' she says. 'The women dance and sing and the children beg for sweets. This is not what we want from tourism. Performing like this disrupts the people's daily lives and destroys their traditions. We want tourists to rather come and visit the locals in their villages, where they can get a proper insight into how they really live.'

The 2 700 inhabitants of Ng'iresi are of the Wa-arusha tribe - farmers who depend on agriculture for survival. We are welcomed by elder Loti Sareyo and his wife Lightness, chairperson of the Juhudi Women's Group. Ng'iresi perfectly illustrates a village making a harmonious transition from traditional to modern African life. One of the most impressive examples is the Traditional Irrigation Programme, in which the SNV has taught the farmers how to establish terraced fields and conserve the soil by using compost as a fertiliser instead of chemicals. The healthy fields of Ng'iresi yield crops of carrots, beans, sweet potatoes, spinach, bananas, maize, coffee, oranges, lemons and avocados.

'Before, we only got water from a long way away,' says Sareyo. 'Erosion was bad. Now we can conserve our soil and instead of only growing crops for ourselves, we can grow enough to sell to markets and earn ourselves some extra money.'

Another interesting venture is the bio-gas project. Sareyo shows us how cow manure is transformed into methane gas, used to generate electricity for their homes. In Ng'iresi, the entire community gets involved in the agricultural process. 'We especially involve the children, who help to make the compost from cow manure, fire ashes, decaying leaves and chicken droppings,' explains Sareyo. 'The youth are our future so they need to learn about farming from an early age.'

We visit two small mud huts where two widows live with their seven children, whose education will be funded by income derived from the cultural tours. Another beneficiary is the local school, where funds are used to buy desks and build new classrooms for the 530 children.

After a healthy lunch of carrots, rice, spinach and cooked bananas, we ascend the lower slopes of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano that last erupted over 100 years ago. We are soon enveloped by the sounds and silence of the forest. A big blue monkey bolts up a 20-metre tree, from where he peers inquisitively at us before swinging through the air to another branch. We continue up the hillside until we arrive at a giant fig tree, near which smoke curls up from a clearing in the bushes. Paolina the medicine woman is busy cooking up a potful of plants.

'If people are sick, they come to me and I make them better. I love my work,' she says shyly, offering me a swig of the sweet brew of bark, berries, herbs and leaves. For thousands of years, traditional healers in the area have used herbs and plants to cure illnesses such as measles, mumps, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, sore joints, backache, fever and pregnancy problems.

It is getting late and we still have a long drive ahead to the Mkuru camel camp - although it is only 40 kilometres to Mkuru, the state of the road makes it almost a three-hour drive. We leave the main road and head along a rough track towards Arusha National Park. Huge plumes of dust envelop our 4x4 as we pass fields of onions and beautiful acacia trees. We zigzag around large boulders, stopping to watch buffalo, zebra and Tanzania's national animal, the giraffe.

We arrive too late for a safari, but in time to watch the camels being milked. Over a hundred camels are kept in the camp and every day the Maasai lead them into the plains to search for forage. In the afternoon, they return and the camels are milked by the warriors.

The Maasai clan of Mkuru leads a very isolated life. Pelo, the 68-year-old chief, and his family have never travelled far from their home in the foothills of Mount Meru. To them, northern Tanzania is the world. Their only contact with others is a weekly visit to the market and meeting the occasional traveller who journeys to Mkuru for a camel safari.

Since camels were introduced to Tanzania in the early 1990s, the Maasai have come to appreciate these animals in the semi-arid plains between Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Natron. 'We love our camels,' says Pelo. 'They're a big help to us because there's not much water here and our donkeys could only carry 40 litres of water. Camels can carry 200 litres, from far away. Also, their milk tastes very good,' he adds.

For Pelo and the hundred members of his clan, it may be an isolated existence but it is a life they love. 'Every morning I wake up, have some chai, then go and see if the camels are okay,' he says, wrapping up against the evening wind in his blue-and-red-checked blanket. 'Then I come back, eat some ugali and go to look after the goats and cattle.'

The Maasai are pastoral nomads whose lifestyle and culture revolve around their cattle. In time gone by they had free use of the grazing lands around the Serengeti and the Crater Highlands but more recently they have been pushed off their land for the sake of wildlife conservation. Their cattle died of starvation, forcing some warriors to become poachers simply to survive, and the Maasai learned to loathe conservation and tourism. But now, thanks to the cultural tourism programme, their attitude to tourism is changing.

In Mkuru, part of the proceeds from the camel tours go towards building a kindergarten. Pelo takes us to see the wooden framework of the school. 'There's no primary school in Mkuru so the children have to walk long distances to neighbouring villages,' explains Van Spittael. 'For the very young it's too far to go, so they need a kindergarten here to begin their education.'

The next morning I am up before sunrise. The horizon is just starting to tinge pink over a giant acacia and two Maasai warriors are stoking the fire. There is not a breath of wind, and the only sound is the twittering of birds in the still African dawn. Before breakfast, Van Spittael and I go for a short hike in the woodlands surrounding the camp. This is part of the wildlife corridor between Amboseli National Park in Kenya and Arusha National Park, where game can occasionally be spotted from a distance. We cross a dry riverbed and walk beneath giant cacti and shady trees. In the distance, Mount Meru plays hide-and-seek in the clouds.

The beauty of the bush astounds me. 'Do you think there are any wild animals... ?' I begin to ask, but before I can finish the sentence I catch sight of a brown jackal slinking through the veld.

Having breakfasted, we head on eastwards, past the picturesque town of Moshi to the coffee-growing area around Marangu. Nestling in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Marangu's scenery is pure magic. Several walking trails take the nature lover down deep green gorges to spectacular waterfalls and through the villages of the Chagga people.

Our guide, Dixon Mambaly, welcomes us with a warm smile. For him and his community, the tours are already starting to pay dividends. 'We must thank mamma Mietie because she's given us lots of encouragement,' he says. 'A group of Americans has just been here for a week, especially to see the cultural tours in the area after reading about them on the Internet. On their last day, they handed over more than a thousand dollars' worth of books, encyclopedias, paints, stationery and cash to our secondary school.'

We watch the traditional blacksmiths bang out spears and tools to be sold to the Maasai. Then, in the hot midday sun, Dixon leads us through fields thick with coffee trees to visit a traditional Chagga thatched house. Most of the Chagga settlements have hidden passageways and caves running underground. These secret tunnels date back 400 years, to a time when the Chagga and the Maasai were waging war and the caves provided refuge for the Chagga. I climb down the ladder into the darkness and count myself lucky that I don't suffer from claustrophobia. The winding tunnel is dark and humid, and in several places I am forced on to hands and knees. Some larger caves and cooking areas open off the tunnel, but after 10 minutes I have had enough - I am ready for some fresh air.

We have a full afternoon ahead of us and first pay a visit to the Mengeni Primary School, where the children welcome us in their pretty floral garden with a bright burst of song. Next on the agenda is a hike to the Moonjo waterfall. On the way, we stop to watch a young boy work a coffee machine, a hand pulper that skims the outer skin off the freshly picked coffee beans before they are laid out to dry.

A steep and narrow goat path takes us down into a lush green valley, where the Whona River is flowing fast. Just upstream, we rest in the spray of the magnificent Moonjo waterfall, cascading from the peaks above. For sunset we climb Ngangu Hill, from where you can gaze at unrivalled views of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro. This evening, however, the mighty mountain is covered in cloud, so instead we turn and look out into Kenya.

Our last destination is deep in the Usambara Mountains. After a five-hour drive we arrive high in the hills of Lushoto, where the Wasambaa farmers produce most of Tanzania's plum and pear crops. The Usambaras have one of the highest degrees of biodiversity in Africa and are famous for harbouring the Usambara or African violet.

The mountain terrain is majestic. Fertile terraced hillsides fall away into green valleys with sparkling rivers. We stop to visit the Mhelo Primary School, where the pupils sit proudly at new wooden desks. Then we make our way up the high Kwamongo Mountain, famous for its multi-coloured butterflies, to visit the tiny village of Shashui. Shrouded in mist and seldom visited by travellers, it seems forgotten in time.

By the time we get back to Lushoto it is almost sunset and the village is buzzing with life. A soccer match is in progress on the field, while up in huts mothers are preparing the evening meal. Small children greet me from clay doorways. 'Jambo, jambo,' they call, welcoming me to their world.

Getting there
The cultural tours take place at various centres, mostly scattered around northern and north-eastern Tanzania although they have also been established near Mbeya in the south and around Dar es Salaam. The best place to base yourself is in Arusha and visit several of the communities from there by road.

Air Tanzania flies from Johannesburg to Kilimanjaro International Airport twice a week - on Mondays via Dar es Salaam and on Saturdays direct, Kilimanjaro International Airport is 55 kilometres from Arusha.

Entry requirements
Most tourists to Tanzania require a visa. These can be issued on arrival, but it is best to organise it before departure. Contact your nearest Tanzanian embassy for more details.
Health requirements

Tanzania is a high-risk malaria area, so it is essential to take the necessary precautions. Visitors must also have an up-to-date health card showing proof of a yellow-fever vaccination. A hepatitis A injection is advisable.

When to visit
There are two rainy seasons in Tanzania: the long rains from mid-March to May and the short rains in November and December. The best time to visit is June to October, when the rains have finished and the air is cool.

Highlights
There were many: meeting a medicine woman on the slopes of Mount Meru; the spectacular mountain scenery and Moonjo waterfall hike in Marangu; exploring mist-shrouded villages high in the Usambara Mountains; the songs and smiles of the schoolchildren we met. But the biggest highlight was witnessing that tourism can indeed lend a healing hand to the everyday people of Africa.

Lowlights
Long rides on some very rough roads, especially in the Usambara Mountains. My trip necessitated a lot of travel in a short space of time, but on a less hectic schedule the dirt tracks and rocky roads could be appreciated as just another African experience.

Further information
• There are 17 different cultural tours to choose from, so some pre-planning is necessary to make the most of your time. The best way to experience the cultural tours is to overnight at the villages or in nearby guest houses or hotels. Many of the villages are set in stunning mountain scenery, so take time to explore the surroundings if you can.
• Tanzania's cultural tourism programme was honoured recently with the 'Socially Responsible Tourism Award', established by the German TODO organization.

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