By FREDDY MACHA 

Covid 19 has made travelling harder. So, when the red banner to travel to Tanzania was lifted in October it was like a massive gush of Oxygen. Living too long in the Western world is like donning multiple masks. For the mouth, nose, your eyes, ears, fingers and toes. We came here to work, study and see other cultures but it is stifling. 

First time you came to the developed world you wondered why cigarette smoking is so chic. Every smoker tells you it helps cope with stress. Instead of Oxygen you puff in black, smelly, disgusting soot. 

A life of permanent speed and rushing as in Bob Marley's 1976 song Rat Race. As soon as your plane touches down in East Africa you feel two big things. The heat and smell of earth.  A freshness anciently forgotten in London streets. Windows, doors, houses forever closed and replaced by phones, TV and the clock. 

Ticking Time is the Enemy. What is the second thing you notice? Everyone so laid back. Eyes and ears of airport officials are vigilant, yet mannerisms and general demeanour is relaxed. People seem easy. 

You will soon notice many problems, though. Speeding cars that do not stop to let folks pass through Zebra crossings. Food filled with too much salt, sugar and ketch up. Yet the intricacies of meals are different. The food is richer and healthier. Meat tastes better. Fruits and veggies are in large succulent portions. 

Fruits of life. Sweet Mangoes and Bananas, welcomes you home - Avocados seller in Upanga, Dar es Salaam

Many problems. 

Dalas Dalas minibuses are packed and women and children get thrust inside like sardines, yet people do not complain of headaches. They plod on and listen to the loud blaring music. In Zanzibar bus radios also blasts melodic Taarab and Islamic sermons about being a good person.

“You get punished for sin and bad behaviour when you are ill. The solution is simple. Pray to your God. Repent and promise to be a better person.” So preaches the Imam. 

In Mainland Tanzania some of the best Zouk rhythm music is from Christian bands. Makomando wa Yesu (Jesus' Commandos) for example:

“Pale akili yenu ilipoishia

Baba yangu ndipo anapoanzia...”

(Where your mind ceases operating; that’s where God starts working)

If you do not get the Kiswahili words you would think it was a South African -Zouk outfit from the 1990s. Imagine Brenda Fassie and Kassav. reincarnated. 

Instead of Uber (in developed nations), Bajajis and Boda Boda motorbikes across main Tanzanian towns , help with quick  travelling, alongside Dala Dala mini buses.

These are superficial impressions. 

Digging deeper, you find prices are high. The Dollar instead of Shilingi measures everything. Having changed your European money, to Shillings you realise prices are not far from Europe and USA. You ask.

How can Wananchi budget salaries of around 20 to 100 Dollars a month?

“Life is expensive.” says a mother of two. “ We live in God's grace.” 

God mentioned 24/7. Gratitude is massive. And therein lies the secret. The code missing in the developed world. Here folks earn five, six times more than back home. Oh yeah. Yet we chase ghosts all the time. Counting bills; dancing and belching bills. 

In debt and forever counting. No wonder mental health is such a big issue. Youngsters gape at pornography and sexual relationships are the lowest they have ever been. Back home, getting Pesa is on everyone's lips. Not Covid 19. 

Pesa and Malaria. 

Inspite all that respite, there is inner joy. The guys opening gates of the building you are staying at Mikocheni in Dar es Salaam or a Zanzibar hotel, always smiling. The joy of the couple you visited in Kibaha, is not shown through beautiful teeth. It is sincere.

“Karibu tuuu...Karibu jamani tuleee...”

So many vowels in words that are said in harmonic, short sentences. People on our continent do not know how expensive Joy is. Joy is abundant in Africa. Still some analysts and thinkers are critical.

“Africa is endless suffering.” Says an MA student planning to move to Canada. “Living in Africa is a death sentence...” 

Repeating in a tone of abject horror. Does he know where he is heading to? To the developed world where Google stats says life expectancy was 40 years in 1800 and above 82 in 2020. As you look at 2021, WHO suicide rates  across the planet  Lesotho leads by 72.4, followed by Guyana 40.3 , South Korea and Lithuania, Russia and South Africa.

What does this tell us? 

A good, perfect life; a better society does not exist. Every place has layers of good and bad; tough and easy, hard, and soft.  For example, you find most Tanzanians complaining about the intense 35 Centigrade plus degree heat while London mourns a cold below 10 degrees in December. 

Everyone, everywhere, has something they do not like. While we pay large sums of money to test Covid … Africans are wary of Malaria and dream of a day when the Malaria Vaccine will be available as much as Covid 19.  Malaria Nuisance. Everything is so relative. Just like the Bible reminds us in Proverbs 17 : 22

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crashed spirit dries up the bones.” 

Freddy Macha is a London based Tanzanian writer and musician. 

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