Hakuna Matata and a Difficult Reality of Tourism in Tanzania

Throughout the vast majority of my time travelling alone through Southern Africa, English was all I needed to communicate. In fact, the sole exception to this was a strange evening in a Johannesburg bar being taught some Xhosa chat-up lines – perhaps fortunately, they were never put to use! While this is clearly convenient, it is difficult to not be reminded of the colonial history of this beautiful place that caused the ubiquity of English and a suppression of indigenous languages. This linguistic convenience remained for the most part until I arrived in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Here, as in most countries along the South-East coast, Swahili is a primary language and what I predominately heard spoken around the city. The rare extensive use of indigenous language struck a chord with me.

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Rafiki and Simba from The Lion King (1994).

 I, like most westerners that visit Eastern Africa, knew but a few words of Swahili as a result of growing up with the iconic film The Lion King: simba, meaning lion; rafiki, meaning friend and hakuna matata, which, as the Disney song tells us, means no worries. I enjoyed using the (extremely limited) Swahili available to me, until a shop keeper informed me that hakuna matata is almost exclusively used by foreigners and that a more typical phrase might be hamna tabu. In my mind, this raised some difficult questions surrounding the willingness of the Tanzanians that I encountered to adapt their own language in an effort to meet my preconceptions. How can one travel responsibly and in a manner that doesn’t affect the destination? 

 Certainly, the area surrounding Dar Es Salaam, and particularly Zanzibar, is one famous for a stunningly varied culture, which is borne of centuries of wide-ranging colonial influence. Stone Town, the ancient part of Zanzibar’s capital, is a true mixing pot of Arabian, Indian, European and African cultures that pervades the food, architecture and religion amongst many other aspects of the island and creates a city quite like no other. However, the dark historical reality behind the spice markets and exquisite buildings is never far away. Nowhere is this clearer than the museum adapted from the former slave market. The brutal stories told in these walls remind any that visit that the international slave trade was what brought so many cultures to Zanzibar originally. The slave market casts a long shadow over the Arabian architecture in more ways than one.  

Darajani Market in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Here you can find fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, clothes shoes, cheap Chinese toys, knick knacks, traditional Islamic kofia hats, cooking supplies, local spices and more.

Stone Town was host to one of the world’s last slave markets, presided over by Arab traders until it was shut down by the British in 1873. Now there is an Anglican Cathedral and Museum attached to the site.

 The uneasy relationship between tourism and colonialism is a global experience. In his epic poem Omeros, Derek Walcott discusses the erosion of his Saint Lucian culture as a result of tourism. With local islanders bending to the will of predominately white tourists and adapting their way of life to their expectation, local culture is eroded with worrying echoes of colonial rule. This process is at its most brutally clear when Hector abandons his ancestral craft of fishing for the better pay in being a taxi driver for tourists and eventually dies on the roads. 

 Global tourism is surely a good phenomenon on balance, particularly since prejudice is normally a result of ignorance. However, if tourists arrive at places with concrete preconceptions and minimal consideration for local communities and cultures, vibrant multiculturalism will fade into bleak familiar globalism. The sliding of Swahili to accommodate westerners is certainly sad, particularly since the region is rare in its use of an indigenous language in official capacities. There are no easy answers, but a beginning must be found in awareness and respect for places that are homes, cultures and identities before they are film sets or photo opportunities. 

Written by Bill Bastide - Joint 3rd Place in the AASOA x Exeter ACS Engage in Africa Short Essay Prize.

Image sources:

Darajani Market - https://migrationology.com/darajani-market-stone-town-zanzibar/

Slave Market/Anglican Cathedral - https://www.locationscout.net/tanzania/20143-zanzibar-old-slave-market-anglican-cathedral