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Published: March 31st 2008
Dodoma Billboard
The gentleman on the billboard is President Kikwete. "Tanzanians agree to support forever unity and peace for our nation. We do not support division."This month I thought I would give you more of a look at the city of Dodoma where we live. Actually, there are three Dodomas - Dodoma Region, the Rural District of Dodoma and the city of Dodoma. Dodoma Region is much like a province of the country. It is roughly 200 km east-west, 300 km north/south, has a population of 1.7 million and sits geographically in the centre of Tanzania. The principal population centre in the region and the third largest city in the country is the city of Dodoma with a population of 325000. The Rural District of Dodoma then, is the district surrounding the city of Dodoma.
It is not easy to take a picture in Dodoma. It is against the law to take pictures of any public building or anyone in uniform. While the children love to be the subject of a photo, adults are not so keen. One has to be particularly careful not to take pictures of cattle and goats without permission. A herd of animals (cattle and goats usually go together) represents the wealth of the herder so to snap a picture is like drawing attention to how wealthy someone is or is
not, and how much money they have in their walking bank account (the animals). In the same way that in Canada we would not normally draw attention to someone’s material wealth, it is considered rude here too. In taking our pictures we have tried to keep all this in mind.
There are two distinct seasons. I have tried to illustrate that with the two photos taken a few km out of town on a road we often go for a walk on. The ‘brown’ one was taken in October and the ‘green’ one was taken from exactly the same spot in March. What a difference a rain makes! The rainy season begins in mid-November and will be over by mid to late April. Once the rains stop in April we will not expect to see another drop of rain here until November when, we hope, the process will begin again. Rain is terribly important here. A large percentage of the people in the area rely for the bulk of their diet on what they grow. As I write this in mid-March we are at a critical time. The amount of rain this year has been only barely satisfactory so
the crop yield will depend heavily on what happens in the next month. If the rains peter out, there will be a need for famine relief. If we continue to receive some good rains there should be a satisfactory supply of food.
I don’t think anyone could ever capture in a photo what it is like to shop in the market or walk among the shopping streets here and experience the sights, smells and level of activity. The shopping district is a maze of dusty side-streets, often quite potholed, lined with small dukas (shops) and workshops. Throughout the area throngs of people are repairing bicycles, building furniture, buying and selling, loading, off-loading, transporting, arguing, eating, sleeping, chatting, laughing … The level of activity and interaction between people is wonderful to experience and is the aspect of living here that I have come to enjoy the most. A walk through the town and a few exchanges with sales people and others on the street never fails to put a smile on my face.
So, that is a glimpse of our town of Dodoma. While the travel guides are quick to point out that in the opinion of their writers
there is no good reason to come here, we have found Dodoma to be an engaging and interesting city in which to live and work. Hope you enjoy the snaps.
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