Women in Tanzania

I have been wanting to write about ladies for a long time, but I really needed some pictures because a written explanation just wouldn't be enough. People here have been over-photographed, however, and are really sensitive to having their pictures taken. I can totally understand - it's been completely exploitative. But that doesn't help me get some photos to show examples of how things are. I found a solution recently in farming out my camera to a local friend who blends in and could get me what I was looking for.

Ladies here do EVERYTHING! They are expected to do all the housework in addition to all the major physical labor required to keep things running. Nearly all street cleaners, farm workers, wood choppers, and general carry-alls are women. It is always surprising to see what women can do while carrying things on their heads - and they carry everything on their heads.




While the head is reserved for carrying anything of substantial weight, backs are reserved solely for babies.


You can just see the outline of this wee one's head.


While some women wear pants, it is more common to see women in skirts. Gender norms are a tad bit different here and my ideas often elicit surprise and laughter. A woman at work once asked me "If you don't wear skirts, what makes you a woman?" My reply involved pointing and other hand gestures, indicating that there were many things not involving skirts that did indeed make me a woman. This need to reinforce women's role in skirts extends to the police. This is something I just don't understand. How can a woman fight crime in a skirt??


In any case, womanly skirts and dresses are exceptionally creative and varied. Buying off the rack is quite rare since there is an abundance of different kinds of fabric and even more design options that are fairly inexpensive to have made. In general there are two different kinds of fabrics - kanga and kitenge. Kanga is thin and has a large design surrounded by a border and some kind of message or saying woven onto the bottom. Two pieces are sold together (about a metre each) and a woman usually wears one as a wrap around skirt (the two girls carrying bananas on their heads above are wearing kanga skirts) and the other is made into a shirt, or used as a shawl, or (as can be seen in the picture above) a baby sling. Kitenge is a bit more heavy fabric, is one all-over pattern, and is sold in 4-metre pieces. Most of the bright, creative dresses come from kitenge - sleeve designs are one place that they show their uniqueness. Ladies that wear kitenge almost always have a strip of the same fabric that they use to wrap around their heads in bold knots.

I could only get one good picture of a kitenge dress and I will put up more if I can, but here is one example:


In addition to creative dresses, hair styles are changed like shoes. Black hair provides for a plethora of options that can be changed every week or so. Extensions are common and look way more awesome on these ladies than on "mzungu" hair. Women get braids in all kinds of designs on their head (my favorite is a flower/leaf design that they braid in) - thick braids, teeny skinny braids, braids from the bottom up that are finished in a tower on top of the head. Wigs are totally embraced here as well, and you can't really tell - they look great! Here is one of the more elaborate braiding designs I have ever seen:


Regardless of dress, hair and carrying things, there are all kinds of women here. I have met both shy and bold women; women who embrace independence and shun the need to have a man in order to be fulfilled as well as women who are willing to forsake all their own ambitions and fold themselves completely under their man - in the words of one lady at work who quit right after getting married: "my husband is my first job now." (The same one who commented on women and skirts). I'm sad to say that the first kind are in short supply, although I am encouraged to know that they are teaching gender equity to their children, especially their boys.