Black and white image of soldiers in Tanzania

The wonderful world of Kanga

The history of Kanga is implicitly bound up in the history of slavery. Slave women were forbidden to wear colourful, printed or decorated cloth, forced to wear plain, uncomfortable, very durable, but very hot white canvas. The kangas on sale today in Tanga and Zanzibar reflect along historical deep embrace of life, and freedom.

Photograph C. Samantha Reinders, from the blog ‘Woven Voices

The international trading of Slaves began to diminish long after it was formally made illegal in (1833 in GB, 1865 in the US).  Locally made and imported colourful fabrics, called Kanga, were a deliberate rejection of the dull, heavy canvas cloth ‘Amerikani’ that colonial subjects were forced to wear and a strident statement of freedom and autonomy. Like the Capulana fabric in Mozambique, women’s rebellion and resistance to colonial rule in Tanzania took the form of wearing bright colours. the early kanga were hand printed. This is one of the earliest photos of women, the servants of the Zanzibar Princess Salma, wearing hand decorated kanga:

Floral motifs on the patterned clothing of free Swahili women. Here the servants of Princess Salma of Zanzibar proudly model their clothing. As concubines of the Sultans and mothers to princes, royal servants were entitled to dress and be treated as free Swahili women. Photo: Compliments of Zanzibar National Archive, AV 31.32

Modern kangas reflect floral patterns and contemporary designs, and come in a variety of qualities (of material).

As well as dance, song, poetry, and literature, smart colourful clothes (kanga) are key to Swahili cultural heritage. There are a number of behavioural attributes (politeness, discretion, being quiet, hospitality) that are also considered very important to Swahili life.

 

Tanzania, Tanga. Washing clothes, compound of Mwanamvua Salehe December 2019. None of thes fabrics are kangas, but Chinese polyester fabrics, again which are beginning to replace kanga. Copyright Jenny Matthews

Kanga comes in many colours designs and can be wax printed on heavier cloth, or directly printed, but kanga is always two pieces of material. The kanga is often decorated with proverbs, sayings, strong beliefs or personalised insults. This dates back to the British colonial government, who in post abolition East Africa, favoured members of the Swahili society, reserving certain types of privileges and rights only to them. To access such rights, many ex-slave women claimed Swahili identity. So they learned Kiswahili and adhered to Islamic ways of behaving involving piety, discretion, politeness and a ‘gentle tongue’. Kanga was one of the few ways women could express ‘unIslamic’ thoughts, and is therefore an integral part of Swahili society, and women continue to use kanga to challenge social, religious, and political ideals within their society.

Swahili women chide bad behaviour through the publicly acceptable medium of kanga cloth. In this example, a well known proverb advises people to beware when someone speaks ill of others. By wearing this kanga around a well-known gossip, a disparaged victim exacted revenge.

MBAYA HASEMI LAKE ANASEMA LA WENZAKE

 “An evil person does not talk about her evil deeds; she talks about other people’s evils”

Black and white image of soldiers in Tanzania

Early European Colonialism

For a very detailed look at this period, please download the British Empire in East Africa teachers pack (suitable for A-level and University students) HERE and watch this space as we upload more material.

By the end of the 19th century, MPs and civil servants of every hue in Westminster and a bewildering collection of lobbyists were questioning the rationale of supporting  extensive foreign spending, and British role overall in its imperial colonies, including Tanzania. There was a vigorous and growing movement of Africa political figures, freed slaves such as Oloudah Equiano and white philanthropists who felt slavery was morally repugnant. But as ever propaganda was at work: many of the horrific scenes, photos and etchings were to serve a political point: that Britain was no longer squandering its money on failed colonial experiments, and this was the impetus behind the determination to end the slave trade. There certainly were passionate and dedicated groups in UK such as quakers who opposed slavery on moral and religious grounds, but enormous dissent in liberal society about whether African and Caribean people were equal to Europeans. The ‘mainstream’ regency and Victorian intelligentsia and scientific communities appear by 21st century standards as disagreeably racist and accepting for obvious bias and lies. (See Das and Lowe 2018, and Olusoga 2015 and Olusoga 2018 for further information).

1822, the British signed the first of a series of treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until 1876 was the sale of slaves finally prohibited.

The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a large portion of the African Great Lakes Coast, known as Zanj, as well as trading routes extending much further across the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River. However, from 1887 to 1892, these mainland possessions were lost to the colonial powers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, with Britain gaining control of Mombasa in 1963.

Zanzibar was famous worldwide for its spices and its slaves. Tanga, 27 miles away, and Pangani and Bagamoyo were departure points from the mainland to Zanzibar, and from then on to Europe, US and Brazil. Zanzibar was the Africa Great Lakes’ main slave-trading port, and in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the slave markets each year. British early interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both access to commercial resources, taking advantage of the opportunistic trade winds and strategic advantage, much as it is today.

However, supporting the British Empire was a messy and vague business. The British, under William McKinnon who directed the British Imperial East Africa company, ‘oversaw’ 240kms of East African coastline with an ‘imperial charter’- which remains today undefined what it means. The IBEAC oversaw an area of about 246,800 square miles (639,000 km2) along the eastern coast of Africa, its centre being at about 39° East longitude and  latitudeMombasa and its harbour were central to its operations, with an administrative office about 50 miles (80 km) south in Shimoni. It granted immunity of prosecution to British subjects whilst allowing them the right to raise taxes, impose custom duties, administer justice, make treaties and otherwise act as the government of the area. This obviously went down very badly indeed with local Tanga residents and other coastal citizens, who had in no way agreed to this arrangement. There were a total of 44 uprisings and resistances (that we know about) in this time. See the teachers pack HERE for more detail.

In 1893 the IBEAC transferred its administration rights of the territory to the British Government. The territory was then divided to form the Uganda Protectorate in 1894 and East Africa Protectorate (later Kenya) in 1895.

In reality IBEAC seems to have been concerned with stopping Middle Eastern traders from disembarking and getting access to gold and ivory, and to a lesser extent cotton, cloves, spices sugar and coffee. The IBEAC fell apart in 1893, as the egos between colonial partnerships clashed. “Brewing conflict between rival factions ultimately prevented the company from investing the necessary time and money into this venture. The four groups involved in Uganda, the Kabaka, French Catholics, Protestants, and the Company, could not resolve their squabble amicably and civil war broke out in January 1892.”

Mackinnon overwhelmed with debts of over £10,000, including commissioning a ship in kit form he wanted named after himself, backed down from IBEAC’s directorship, having bankrupted it. Only to mysteriously reappear to personally fund the ill-fated expedition to ‘rescue’ Emin Pasha a few years later.

“IBEAC was already struggling financially due to customs issues but the money spent funding this skirmish all but bankrupted it. This also made clear that the company would be unable to continue its poorly executed attempt at colonizing eastern Africa”. (Source 2021)

Tanzania, Tanga. Mama Mefaki , coffee seller. The custom of taking coffee or chai on the barazza (terrace/pavement) with a small sweetmeat is hundreds of years old, and an important Swahili tradition of discussing, reflecting and relaxing in the year-round humidity. Photo Jenny Matthews February 2020

Zawadi and her colleagues go through the scraps left in the nets for smaller, young fish which are fried immediately and sold my the roadside as cheap snacks. Michokuni, November 2019. Copyright Jenny Matthews

Hidden Histories, a collaborative oral history project recording the knowledge, skills and aspirations of Tanga people, Tanzania

This project documents intangible cultural heritage and skills that are disappearing in Tanga. We talked to farmers and fishermen, about their lives, hopes and knowledge. This AHRC project began in December 2016 with chats on the beach, under the baobab tree, with a group of 6 older fishermen. There were also 3 women there, not on bicycles, there to buy fish for their (extended) families. They cooked a small amount of surplus, to sell later in the evening in Tanga market, about five miles away. There was a confident outspoken woman (Zawadi) who never mentioned a husband: I liked her, she was there every day, on the tides, buying up fish and really knew her species, her markets, and how to present the best cuts to get maximum profits (about £1.50 a day).

Zawadi Jumanene, 35, mother of 3, working as a fish collector and seller since the age of 15 when she left home and started up alone on the beach in Michokeni (photo Copyright Jenny Matthews)

Zawadi Jumanene, 35, mother of 3, working as a fish collector and seller since the age of 15 when she left home and started up alone on the beach in Michokeni (photo Copyright Jenny Matthews)

Our research took place in a small coastal hamlet Mwambani/ Mkocheni, of about 3000 people, just outside Tanga town, Tanzania. Tanga town is situated within Tanga region;  Mwambani/Tanga village in Tanzania is the end point for the $1.5-billion  Chinese funded, (Hoima/Uganda- Tanzania) pipeline.

Zawadi and her colleagues go through the scraps left in the nets for smaller, young fish which are fried immediately and sold my the roadside as cheap snacks. Michokuni, November 2019. Copyright Jenny Matthews

Zawadi and her colleagues go through the scraps left in the nets for smaller, young fish which are fried immediately and sold my the roadside as cheap snacks. Michokuni, November 2019. Copyright Jenny Matthews

 

Satellite map of Tanga to zoom in on: https://satellites.pro/#-4.549046,41.610718,7

Google maps Tanga: https://www.google.com/maps/@-5.093822,38.111839,532351m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en-GB

Using the material: talking about painful and dehumanizing issues

Another element of this project, is understanding how centuries of looking at slavery from a European perspective has fundamentally moulded our reactions in the UK.
Our research team- all Tanzanian- took copies the photos above to a group of people in Tanga.

We knew that slavery is taught in very little detail as part of the Tanzanian curriculum, but our interviews reveal that large chunks were missing. You can listen to some of the interviews HERE.

Many conversations emerged, over three months using participant observation, and the following prompts:

(Thanks to Aaron Jaffer at Royal Museums Greenwich)

  • Have you seen an object/photograph/picture like this before? If so, where and when?
  • Can you tell us anything about what is show in the photographs/pictures, including anything about…
    …the buildings?
    …the people
    …the clothes
    …the hairstyles
    …the places
    …the objects
    …the plants
  • How do they make you feel?
  • How do you think our museum should display these objects? What stories would you use them to tell?


These and other objects/images relating to East African history can be viewed online for free HERE.

Of the photographs that elicited most reactions – tears, sorrow, stunned silences were the ones of the young person chained to a block of wood he had to carry. Many of our interviewees had relatives that walked hundreds and sometimes 1000’s of miles to get to Tanga for work. One of our interviewees recounts his grandfather telling him stories of walking from the interior HERE.

But crucially, also, Tanzania’s historical role in slavery informs us why and how people were keen to disassociate themselves from the trade- either as slavers or traders- by establishing their Swahili identity, which is a shortcut for saying that they were not forced to be on the coast, they were not traded, but were established here. Equally, one woman who has Omani ancestors felt unable to talk about her family’s business as slave traders, too upset and embarrassed to go into detail.

Slavers Revenging Their Losses, mid-late 19th C. (c) Royal Museums Greenwich collection

For downloadable teachers pack on how to use this material HERE

For a downloadable toolkit on how to undertake oral history about really sensitive issues, HERE

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH

After speaking to the fishermen and women, I had a preliminary discussion with an experienced Tanzania land rights lawyer, about the poverty and lack of land deeds in the Tanga coastal region, and the impending construction of a port and pipeline to process and transport liquid natural gas and oil.

Evictions and construction began in Tanga in 2013 and 2018 respectively, although the enormous projected gains from oil and liquid natural gas from Uganda to Tanzania, carried down a transport ‘corridor’ are yet to materialise. Mooted as one of the largest projects, ever, in Africa, the belt and road initiative includes maritime – road shipping lanes, railways, roads, a new port, an oil processing plant, and linked media, education, mining and military policies. At present however (June 2021) only the port in Tanga has been dredged. There is uncertainty about whether this ambitious massive Chinese international development initiative will happen within the projected time frames, if it happens at all.

There was so much about this small world that fascinated me: how did men get work every day? Were they unionized, in co-operatives? Where did they learn such in depth fishing skills? How did they remember where the fish were and which moons they would rise with? Who was still making these old boats? Why was there no place that celebrated the incredible knowledge and experience they had? Why was there no proper market place, it was all done on the floor, on the beach.

After every fishing trip the net has to be detangled, repaired and laid out for the next trip. This method is called long net fishing: two boats cast out the nets and gradually draw closer, bringing the nets, and the fish in with them. The holes are relatively large, so all young fish escape, making this much more sustainable than the EU and Chinese trawlers that also (illegally) fish here. Mzee Peter, Mwambani 2019, copyright Jenny Matthews

After every fishing trip the net has to be detangled, repaired and laid out for the next trip. This method is called long net fishing: two boats cast out the nets and gradually draw closer, bringing the nets, and the fish in with them. The holes are relatively large, so all young fish escape, making this much more sustainable than the EU and Chinese trawlers that also (illegally) fish here. Mzee Peter, Mwambani 2019, copyright Jenny Matthews

How many people were involved in this informal, precarious lifestyle, and how could it survive, if the trees that were used for boat-building were being pulled down, if the fish in the seas were so dramatically depleting, if the port and oil processing plants were scheduled to be built where they fish?

In June 2019 we finally received an AHRC grant to document the stories of a small village on the Tanga coast. I know this area very well, I’ve been going to the same house (which is opposite the baobab tree) since 2012. Now I was living in it, and listening to the calls, jokes, arguments of the fishermen leaving on dawn tides, and sounds of boats being weather-proofed.

Boats are weatherproofed by burning eucalytpus or other oily trees below the hulls. This draws out the natural resins in the wood, but also closes up the porous holes in the wood. Copyright Jenny Matthews

Boats are weatherproofed by burning eucalytpus or other oily trees below the hulls. This draws out the natural resins in the wood, but also closes up the porous holes in the wood. Copyright Jenny Matthews

The focus of our research has seven strands:

  • To document the skills and knowledge in this small community and look at how they inter-connect, so for example how boat-building, rush-weaving and fishing are all interlinked, as they all support each other.
  • To start with land and sea as resources, and look at how they are used by people in material ways. From there to draw out the cultural and symbolic practices, behaviours that are unique to the Swahili coast. For example unyago, medicinal healing, witchcraft and kanga.
Sophia Kinogo cutting up spinach she’s grown in her garden for supper, 2020, copyright Jenny Matthews

Sophia Kinogo cutting up spinach she’s grown in her garden for supper, 2020, copyright Jenny Matthews

  • Tease out the stories and knowledge stored in people’s heads (not written down) in the area and think about positive ways to honour them, draw constructive attention to them and feed some of it back to younger members of the community.
  • Explore what modernity and modernising (Mandaeleo) means in this context to people living in this area.
Mzee Namna, fisherman, Mchokuni beach January 2020, making rope out of a thick reed, that is time consuming and water-hungry to grow. It has largely been replaced with nylon ropes. Sisal, grown widely in the area, was also spun into ropes, and 1000’s of people lost their jobs on the sisal plantations when nylon factories emerged in the late 60’s and 70’s in Tanzania. Sisal ropes- made in homes- were on sale in the markets as recently as 2012. Copyright Jenny Matthews 2020

Mzee Namna, fisherman, Mchokuni beach January 2020, making rope out of a thick reed, that is time consuming and water-hungry to grow. It has largely been replaced with nylon ropes. Sisal, grown widely in the area, was also spun into ropes, and 1000’s of people lost their jobs on the sisal plantations when nylon factories emerged in the late 60’s and 70’s in Tanzania. Sisal ropes- made in homes- were on sale in the markets as recently as 2012. Copyright Jenny Matthews 2020

  • To work proactively with organisations involved in Swahili marine cultural heritage (other NGOs, the museum sector) to find ways to celebrate Swahili cultural heritage, over and above buildings. Influence policy and decision making and promote ICH.
Mama Mwamvua, who’s in her 80’s collects a particular type of thin rush that is now harder to find (because it’s very thirsty and this land is now being used to grow rice). To make this food cover takes several weeks, and is very labour intensive. None of her kids want to learn this skill. Mwambani 2020, copyright Jenny Matthews

Mama Mwamvua, who’s in her 80’s collects a particular type of thin rush that is now harder to find (because it’s very thirsty and this land is now being used to grow rice). To make this food cover takes several weeks, and is very labour intensive. None of her kids want to learn this skill. Mwambani 2020, copyright Jenny Matthews

  • To focus on women’s stories. Too often research projects mainstream the male experience, without even realising it. It’s slightly harder to get women to collaborate in Tanzania, however our small research team was predominantly female, run by women, and we went out of our way to find younger and older women to listen and talk with. We also tried to work as much as possible in Swahili.
Sisal plantations in Tanga Province

An undated and untitled photo from the sisal plantations, in Tanga province, with the railway tracks in the foreground. Sophia Kinhogo says they remember their parents having good memories of working on the plantations: work came with housing and was secure, reliable and relatively well paid.

  • To explore the history of the area (slavery, the use of ‘uchavi’ and witchcraft, the groundnut and sisal schemes) through the eyes of people who still live there, and can recount their experiences. Currently the history of Tanga is mediated predominantly through a colonial lens, or prisms of white European knowledge production, when in fact there is a huge amount of information, knowledge and discussion alive and kicking in Tanga.
  • To create a series of policy recommendations that can be used by UNESCO that will start the conversation to create much greater appreciation, funding and recognition of Swahili intangible heritage. You can read the UNESCO document HERE.
Youth unemployment, disillusion and depression is rampant in Mwambani

Youth unemployment, disillusion and depression is rampant in Mwambani; fishing and boatbuilding are dying trades, so are thatching and farming. Many young people tell us they want to be mganga – traditional healers. There’s few vocational training opportunities in the locality, and a chronic lack of jobs since the fish processing plant shut down. Elders talk a great deal about the poor opportunities for work, education or training for the majority of the population who are under 30. Copyright Jenny Matthews 2020

What is Intangible Cultural Heritage?

Physical cultural heritage is stuff we can hold, touch, look at: baskets, beads, pottery, jewellery, mosques, historic ruins, tombs, gold and sculpture. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is harder to define. At its most basic, it’s stories, ideas, knowledge, experience, the stuff in peoples’ heads. It can also be habits, rituals, practices, dances, ‘the way things are done’ so that it includes behaviours like hospitality or discretion that are particular to a certain group. ICH is often more fragile, and more contested, and more political, because it’s harder to define, and often it’s dominant elites who determine ICH, at the expense of those unable to access books, writing, official record keeping and institutional cultural sites.

‘Ngoja ngoja, inaomiza matumbo’

A long wait hurts the stomach

Gathering information about intangible heritage is time consuming, labour intensive, and therefore slow. Immaterial or intangible cultural heritage is defined as

“[…] The practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history(ies).

[…]Emphasis is not only placed on the objects, but also in the context that grants them meaning, including the information of ecological, economical, climatic and geographical type of the archaeological area, which allows for an interpretive framework of the culture and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity” .

Our research took intangible cultural heritage to be interpreted as any one, or combination of many, of the following:

  1. Languages and oral expressions.
  2. Knowledge and practices on nature and the universe.
  3. Culinary knowledge.
  4. Traditional medicine.
  5. Elaboration of objects, instruments, wardrobes, constructions and corporal ornamentation.
  6. Musical and sound expressions.
  7. Dance expressions.
  8. Ritual, scenic and ceremonial expressions; festival acts, games and sports.
  9. Traditional forms of social, legal and political organization. (Baron 2008)
Zawadi - Hidden Histories

Zawadi (27) also left Arusha to start a new life as a taxi driver when he was 15. He wants to start a poultry business. He was our driver for this project and part of the team.