Kufa kwa wengi ni harusi means ‘For many, (a) death is a wedding,’ where wedding is representative of a big party. When I first heard this proverb, I assumed it was about people who die, that for them death is a happy thing or a release. It’s not that. The […]
I feel like the longer we are here, the more I see how much we have to learn. If we spent our first three years trying to get our heads around prosperity gospel, I have spent the last few years trying to get inside Tanzanian understandings of hierarchy, and it […]
Yesterday we visited a different church, to see our friends Eliud and Dorothea get officially engaged. The denomination was Evangelistic Assemblies of God Tanzania (our normal church is just run-of-the-mill Tanzania Assemblies of God), and this particular church was called ‘Kambi ya Waebrania’ — the camp of the Israelites. Up […]
In a hierarchical society, who is powerful? It’s natural to me to think that it’s the people at the top, with people becoming less powerful the further down the hierarchy they are. Those down the bottom of the hierarchy are vulnerable, and therefore would benefit from gender equality. This is […]
Today is 6 years since we arrived in Tanzania. We are often asked if we enjoy living here, but it’s not that simple. I find myself echoing the words of ‘For Good’ from the musical Wicked: Like a comet pulled from orbit As it passes a sun Like a stream […]
My language tutor and I have been discussing the roles of various people in society: women, men, children, etc. Last week we were discussing the role of elders. Among other things, one proverb that came up was: Ashibaye hamjui mwenye njaa means ‘The full one does not know the hungry one’. […]
My friend Cath has been enjoying my recent reflections on Tanzanian theology, and asked me what has been challenging or helpful to me. I was aiming for a coherent blog post, but for the time being, I’m just going to reproduce the stream of consciousness comment I made to her […]
