1st part of day 13: Field trip to the remote Akie Ndorobo tribe

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Tuesday 15th February


How sad didn’t this morning feel, this trip’s last full day? Harriet woke us up early as we had a meeting with our friend Mr Meela, the bee expert, today. We were to spend the morning with him and Harriet on a field trip to see how the Akie tribe was getting on with the beekeeping and animal husbandry project they were involved in. In the afternoon we were planning to go to the big ‘mnada’ or Maasai market in Kibaya which happens on the 1st and the 15th of every month.
After breakfast we set out with Massud driving, our first stop being Mr Meela’s house from where we were to pick him up. He lives in Kibaya, not far from Harriet, in a neat, white washed house with a small shamba and a well swept yard. He was there to meet us, dressed in a burgundy short-sleeved suit, and there was a lot of laughter at our reunion.
He wanted to show us his bee hives that he had in his garden, and it was really interesting to see them at close quarters. There was one hive in particular that he was proud of. It hung quite low in a tree just outside his house, and it contained a sting less bee, which yielded a lot of very potent honey. This honey is used in local medicine and is so popular due to the ease of care and friendliness of the bees. Even so the cost of the honey was very high, thousands of Tanzanian shillings per kilo. Mr Meela prised open the hive with the help of a big kitchen knife (he couldn’t find the special tool he had for this purpose) and the tiny, black bees were quite visible in there.
After this inspection we got into the car and left for the Akie village, about half an hour’s drive away. Again the road was poor at the end, and it felt like we really were out in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly there were people all around us, and we had arrived at the village, which turned out to be a small cluster of houses - very similar to Sintei’s. A lot of men and some women greeted us as we got out of the car and there were all the usual greetings to be gone through. Mr Meela does not speak Akie but there were some who spoke Swahili, so there was no problem with conversation. I would not have been able to see the difference between Maasai and this tribe, but Harriet said she could tell them apart. The men were very handsome and fantastically dressed in red shukas and some jewellery, and the women were bald headed and dressed, like Maasai women, in blue. Most of them carried a baby on their back. There was one warrior with the elders and he had waist length braided hair, ochre in colour and very fine jewellery both on his body and in his hair. One of the younger elders had only one eye; the other was milky white and obviously blind. He was chewing a blade of grass, which might have made him look nonchalant but because of his proud bearing just made him look relaxed.
We walked through the village, the houses blending in amongst the bush and then we stopped to look at one of their goat herds, which was on its way out in the bush for the day. I found these goats very interesting. The village had received 5 bucks specially bred to be able to better cope with the particular conditions, and these bucks were now doing their duty as the main breeding males. To stop the other males from breeding with the females a simple but ingenious device had been used. This consisted of an A4 size yellow, plastic sheet tied with a leather belt around its middle, so that the sheet hung underneath the animal. When the buck tried to mount a female the plastic sheet would be in the way! Very clever and very cheap and it didn’t seem to bother them at all. So far the combined herd consisted of about 120 animals, and there had been a definite increase in milk production. The village had also received 5 specially bred cockerels, which were used to improve the local chicken breed and as such increase egg and meat production. We did see these proud cockerels strutting in the dust, and giving voice seemingly to their great importance!
We then started walking into the bush on a white, sandy and well trodden path. The trees were very green, and even the baobabs had leaves on. I had forgotten what a beautiful tree the baobab really is when it’s in full leaf. Normally of course you see it bare, and one of the legends says that God was so displeased with the tree’s vanity that he picked it up and put it back upside down with the roots in the air!
The path wound through the bush, sometimes quite steeply, and Mr Meela very kindly helped Anja to cope with the steeper parts as she was only wearing open sandals. We approached some slightly larger trees and here we saw beehives, similar to some in Mr Meela’s garden, hanging from the branches. They were made out of white painted wood and looked like large two drawer bedside tables suspended by wire in the trees. Mr Meela eagerly went to inspect them, but was disappointed in finding that they were all empty! Not a bee in sight, not to mention any honey. He questioned the villagers, but they were adamant that they had both cleaned and looked after the hives as instructed. This Mr Meela did not quite believe, as the hives were very dirty. I think the main problem here was that the hives were meant to be of communal ownership, and this went so totally against tradition. The goats had been a success as the individual animals were owned by individual families. As no one could claim direct ownership of the hives they were simply not looked after. The people who had been trained to care for the hives were probably also not the right ones, they would have been elders and not the women who may have done a better job of it. The hives, although much more productive, did look very different than the traditional kind. The new ones hung much lower and as such would have been much easier to empty, rather than climbing high up into the branches to cope with the small, time-honoured ones. I know that there were often accidents when people fell down during the emptying of honey, but although safer this new way was surely not working. This part of the project would have to be looked at and adjusted later.
After a lot of talk and explanations, we headed back towards the car, going via the sand water dam which had been built some months before. Here another disappointment awaited as the hand pump was not working! The dam was there, and so was the well and there was water to be had. An old man was sitting on the pump and was putting down a tin tied to a piece of rope through a hole in the concrete. With this he managed to get up some clean water. Mr Meela was very upset as this water pump had been such an exiting addition to village life, and made it so much easier for the village to cope through the dry season. The pump had been installed not by the same project as the goats and bee hives, but through a community initiated project, and as such Mr Meela and Harriet could not directly help in sorting this out. Mr Meela was trying to explain that someone from the village had to write to some government official reporting the problem and that way alert whoever was responsible to the fact the pump had broken down. This seemed to me to be a futile way forward as there really wasn’t anyone literate enough to do this. I have not yet heard how this was solved, but I feel confident that Harriet would not have let this important issue pass by with out help.
The open sand dam was absolutely full of butterflies, attracted to the damp soil. The herd of goats came past and so did some donkeys, with ripped ears. The butterflies flew up like a cloud when disturbed by the animals - it was a great sight.
We now headed back towards the car, as we were to be shown a traditional Akie home, which was situated quite far into the bush. First though I had to take some group photographs by the car. Interestingly it was only the men who posed for this; the women were not keen at all. I had of course taken a lot of photos and video while we were walking, but I tried to do so discreetly, and am not sure if they knew quite how much I had taken. This posing was initiated by the men, and I got some lovely pictures of them organizing the pose, with Anja in the middle.
The car became very crowded as most of the men got into the back, plus one of the women. She carried a baby on her back, but this baby was quite ill, and looked ashen. Poor thing, it had a stomach complaint of some sort, and Harriet did not give it much chance of survival. Massud was driving and he drove as far as he could through the bush and then we walked the rest of the way. We met up with some more villagers and set off in a single row. It was quite a long walk, but I enjoyed it hugely, as it still wasn’t too hot and walking in the African bush is just so special. Anja’s legs and feet were scraped by tiny acacia saplings, which were scattered all along the path. These tiny trees had 5 cm long thorns, sharp as needles, gleaming white amongst the green leaves. The air smelled of what I can only describe as bush, quite heavy, smelling of wild animals even though there were none visible. Insect and bird noises were loud and the dust got into our shoes. We walked on until we spotted a huge baobab tree in the distance. This was our goal and just to the left of it on the horizon was a volcanic mountain, classic in its cone like shape. This mountain was sacred to the Akie, as they so often are.
The baobab tree was just amazing. It was one of the biggest ones I had ever seen, and into the hollow trunk had been cut a door opening on one side. Looking through this door way we saw a ‘room’ of about 7 square metres and about 1 metre below ground level. It contained a bed made out of twigs on one side and a fire place on the other. Scott was keen to go inside and after asking permission both he and Anja climbed down. This caused huge merriment among the Akie and Mr Meela almost choked with laughter. Scott took some pictures from the inside, as we really couldn’t make out what was in there as obviously no light was available apart from what came in through the door.
Paul wanted to know if snakes ever came in as it looked like an ideal hiding place for them, and we were told that the Akie have special ‘medicine’ which they smear around the opening outside, which stops all snakes in their tracks! We were shown a lot of plants that had medicinal uses, it was absolutely fascinating. Paul was also interested to know about some pegs hammered at regular intervals into the baobab trunk on the outside. These were to help climbing the tree, and to get to the traditional bee hives high up in the branches.
These tree homes are not commonly used anymore, but I saw that the fire place had been recently lit, so I suspect that they are used for overnight visiting. I understand there was a Danish scientist who lived with the Akie for many months some time ago, and it would be interesting to talk to her about her experience. We did ask as much as we could, but some is always lost in the translation.
We then walked back to the car and to Massud who was waiting for us. Scott and Anja were quite happy to be sitting in the car again, as it was now after midday and getting very hot. Dessie was delighted to see us when we got home and Anja was delighted to play with the sweet kittens. Harriet fixed lunch for us but she was getting quite concerned for me as she felt I wasn’t eating anything. I had tried to play down how ill I actually felt, and kept my temperature reading to myself, but I couldn’t hide the fact that I had no appetite really whatsoever! There was no way that I would miss the mnada this afternoon, so it really was just a case of getting some more paracetamol down and plan to sleep in the car back to Dar the following day.
(continues on the next journal)

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Photos

The main goat herd of this Akie village
If you look closely you can see the yellow plastic sheet hanging under the males' bellies