Across Tanzania, East to West - in the footsteps of Dr Livingstone

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Dr Livingstone, I presume?
By Balfour Ankomah.

"Africa is a beautiful continent, full of potential and attractive people who deserve more...Yet it is not clear that the continent can generate its own salvation. It may be necessary to devise some form of neo-imperialism in which Britain, the US and other beneficent nations would recruit local leaders and give them guidance...while removing them from office in the event of backsliding" - Bruce Anderson in the Independent, 2 June 2003.

There is nothing so harrowing as to see a Western writer consumed by nostalgia parodying himself because these days the "natives" of Africa "have ideas above their station", and will no longer carry Western explorers in hammocks to go discover many a lake, a mountain, a river, a waterfall, even a people somewhere on this beautiful continent of ours.

Poor Bruce Anderson. He must blame his parents. If he had been born in 1813 and died in 1873 like David Livingstone, he would surely have ridden on the shoulders of my grandfather, Nana Kwaku Turamasi, to discover the stream behind our village from which our ancestors had always drank.
-Balfour Ankomah in the New African, July 2003

Why the long quote? As I was travelling across Tanzania I was troubled and disturbed by all the memorials to Livingstone and H M Stanley. Balfour Ankomah's article from the New African magazine expresses what I would feel about Livingstone if I was African. Which I'm not. As to Bruce Anderson's Imperial fantasies - they are beneath contempt.

So, what was so bad about Livingstone? It was his own pious, sanctimonious 3 C's: Christianity, Civilisation and Commerce, which became the epitome of racial superiority and British economic self-interest. Because, of course by commerce, Livingstone meant British commerce, not in his eyes the 'inferior' French, German, Belgian or Portuguese versions. He was the forerunner of a new wave of imperialism in Africa.

If Livingstone was not the saint of British imperial propaganda, H.M. Stanley was a sadistic monster. He was also known as Bula Matari, which means breaker of rocks in the Congo. For good reasons. Stanley wrote " the savage only respects force, power, boldness and decision". He practised what he preached, being directly responsible for many deaths. He also helped establish the personal rule of the Belgian King Leopold in the Congo. King Leopold's rule of the Congo was the worst single episode of European greed and genocide in African history.

My overland journey across Tanzania was long and difficult. Not, as difficult as Livingstone's 134 years ago, but Kigoma is still a very remote destination today, if you want to overland it. Of course I could have cheated. There are direct flights to Kigoma from Dar es Salaam. But, where would be the adventure in that? So why did I want to go to Kigoma? What's there?

Kigoma is the most important port on Lake Tanganika. Lake Tanganika is the deepest of the Great Lakes in the Rift Valley, is stunningly beautiful and is most famous for the colonies of chimpanzees that live in the nearby forests. The chimps at Gombe Stream National Park are international celebrities thanks to the famous primatologist Jane Goodall.

So, the rest of this blog is my diary of the journey across Tanzania from East to West, and then North to Mwanza. Finishing off with the journey from Mwanza across the border into Rwanda.

At the end of the last blog I had just arrived back in Dar from my trip to Zanzibar.

THURSDAY

13th OCTOBER

It was a quiet day in which I concentrated on uploading the last blog. I also tried to buy a train ticket from the train station in Dar. There is a train that runs 3 times a week from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma on Lake Tanganika. It's a very slow train and takes about 3 days. But, when I went to the train station I was told that all the first and second class tickets had been sold out until the 28th of October. Of course I could have just turned up and got on the train as a 3rd class passenger, but the prospect of 3 days in a 3rd class carriage on an African train was not very appealing. Even first class is not luxurious; 3rd class is more like a cattle truck.

So, I decided that I would try to get across Tanzania by bus, breaking the journey every 10-12 hours, to stay in hotels along the way. I wasn't surprised that it was so difficult to get hold of a train ticket. I had read an article in a local newspaper a few days before about the problem. The woman journalist who made the trip said that the railway staff at Dar always say that the train is fully booked. The only way she got hold of a ticket was to buy one on the black market at a considerable mark-up on the published price. I suspect that the ticket staff in Dar may have some sort of deal with ticket scalpers.

So, instead of buying a train ticket I bought a bus ticket for Saturday, which would take me to Dodoma. Dodoma is the political and administrative capital of Tanzania.

FRIDAY 14th

I managed to finish off the last blog. It was an even quieter day than Thursday. I was a bit surprised in the morning to find everything closed except for a chain restaurant and a supermarket. Both of the places that were open are South African owned. I hadn't realized it until it crept up on me, but the 14th of October is a Bank Holiday in Tanzania. The Bank Holiday is Mwalimu Julius Nyere day. It commemorates Tanzania's independence leader and first president. He died on October the 14th. The country was molded in the image of Nyere. He is always known as Mwalimu which means teacher, he was one of Africa's elder statesmen and was the conscience of black Africa.

SAT 15th

I booked out of the Sofia Hotel in Dar and caught a bus to Dodoma at 9.15am. I was using Scandinavian again, which are relatively comfortable coaches. I arrived in Dodoma at 3pm. Dodoma is the administrative capital of Tanzania - it's where the parliament sits. But, it is in fact a small quiet isolated town. I liked the place. It's surrounded by scenic hills and has a small town friendly atmosphere. Tourists are a rarity, everyone assumed that I must be working in the country.

After wandering around the centre of town I booked into the Cana Lodge which cost me 15,000 Tanzanian shillings ($US13), for a room with on suite bathroom and satellite TV.

SUNDAY 16th

Another quiet day, which I spent reading, although I went out and bought a bus ticket for Monday. The ticket tout who sold me the bus ticket told me that he was a famous Tanzanian cyclist, that everyone in Dodoma knows him. His name is Louis Musisi - his website is www.Luisi.musisi.8m.com

MONDAY

17th

I booked out of the hotel at 9am, but had to kill time until the noon reporting time for the bus. Although I reported on time the bus didn't actually leave till 2pm. The bus was old and shabby. The journey was very slow because the road was a pot holed dirt track. At 9pm we arrived in the town of Singida. I had a ticket that would take me a lot further along the route, but I decided to get off the bus and find a hotel because it looked like a sizeable town. There is no information about Singida, or many of the places that I stayed on my journey in my Lonely Planet guidebook. I got off the bus and asked a taxi to take me to a hotel. He took me to the Singida Stanley Motel, which cost 15,000 shillings ($US13) for a room with en-suite bathroom and satellite TV.

TUESDAY 18th

Another day on a bus. The bus tout told me that the reporting time was 11am, but in fact the bus didn't leave till 1.30pm. So, I spent a lot of time hanging around the bus station, which consisted of dusty waste ground surrounded by a collection of run down wooden shacks. Whilst waiting for the bus I had lunch in one of the shacks. My lunch was an East African delicacy - a chip omelette. Yes, that's right, omelette's with chips (French Fries - translation for my American readers!) embedded in it. Very greasy but surprisingly tasty.

When the bus arrived it was packed, there were no seats. It was a coach that should have seated about 50 people. They probably packed double that number onto it. So, to add to my discomfort I had to stand for 5 hours. We were packed closer together than sardines in a tin. The only way to get off the bus was to climb over the other passengers. What everyone did, was to climb over people by crawling on top of the headrests of the seats. I even saw some people just jump out of the windows. Being a large coach it was quite a drop to the ground from the windows. The road was appalling, again for most of the day. But, at some point the road actually improved and became tarred. That threw me a bit because it meant that we covered the distance more quickly than I expected. The upshot was that I missed the junction town where I intended to get out of the bus. Instead I found myself in Shinyaga at 10pm on the road to Mwanza. It seemed a good idea to find a hotel for the night. So, a taxi driver took me to the Hotel Muroleka. It cost me 20,000 shillings, for an en suite room with satellite TV.

WEDS 19th

I noticed that Shinyaga was on the train line to Tabora and Kigoma. So, at breakfast I asked about the train, but no one knew anything about it. After breakfast I wandered into town. I noticed that there was a comfortable bus service to Tabora - Mohamed Transport. At the booking office for Mohamed Trans they said that the bus was full. A bus service that doesn't keep putting people on - they only take passengers sat down. I was thinking of going to Tabora and trying to catch the train from there. Tabora is only a 12 hour train ride from Kagoma, so at a pinch I could buy a 3rd class ticket and suffer! But, I didn't want to wait around in Shinyaga, so I decided to continue by road.

At 9.30am I booked out of my hotel and walked to the town's bus station, where I got into a minibus that was going to Kahama. Kahama is the junction town I needed to get to, in order to get another bus to Kigoma. It was a relatively comfortable ride for Tanzania, because I had a window seat which gave me a good view of the countryside. I got into Kahma at 12.30pm and booked into the Manyanyo Lodge which only cost 7,000 shillings. The room had an on-suite bathroom with a smelly squat toilet. I noticed from the booking in book that I appeared to be the only non- Tanzanian that had stayed in the place for a very long time. Kahama is a low rise, shabby junction town with a surprisingly large number of cheap lodges and hotels. It's the sort of small African town where donkeys sunbathe lazily on the main road.

I had lunch and supper in the Marine Hotel. Elias Boniface was working the till in the restaurant. He was keen to make friends with a foreigner (me!), so we had some long chats and exchanged addresses. You'll see here that I also took a photo of him.

THURS 20th

I booked out of the lodge and walked to the bus station. When I got there I was told that there were no buses to Kagoma for 2 days. I didn't fancy hanging around Kahama for 2 days so I changed my plans. Instead I decided to return to Shinyaga. From there I intended to book myself onto a Mohamed Trans bus to Tabora. At Tabora, I intended to try and get on the train to Kagoma. The journey back to Shinyaga seemed much worse than the journey to Kahama had been. The minibus driver drove far too fast. It may also have had something to do with where I was seated. On the journey back to Shinyaga I was on the back seat, the previous journey had been on the front seat. Anyway it was a much more uncomfortable ride - I kept flying out of my seat, as the driver took corners far too fast and seemed not to notice the holes in the road. He certainly didn't seem to think it was worth slowing down for potholes!

I got back into Shinyaga at noon, and booked back into the Mwoleke Hotel. This time they only charged me 15,000 shillings, 5,000 less than I had paid previously. Had I been overcharged before? Or were they rewarding me for being a repeat customer? I don't know, although the guy on reception did greet me by saying that I could have my usual room! Having sorted my room out for the night I then booked myself a place on a Mohamed Trans bus for Friday to Tabora.

FRIDAY 21st

I booked out of the hotel and reported for the bus at 8am. It didn't actually leave till 8.45am - it was a reasonable coach with no standing allowed and they served free soft drinks during the trip! Luxury! Although the roads were appalling most of the way. Tabora is not actually that far from Shinyaga - but we didn't get into Tabora till 2.30pm. I worked out the average speed - it was about 30km's an hour. The Mohamed Trans bus depot is near the centre of town. I ignored the offers of the taxi drivers and walked into town. I wandered around looking for hotels and guest houses. All the places in the centre of town looked very run down. So, I decided to walk out of the centre and see if I could find anything better further out. I had seen the railway station from the bus as the bus had driven into town. It seemed a good idea to make my way back towards the train station - there might be something near the station. As I was walking along, not far from the train station, someone asked me where I was going. I told him I was looking for a hotel. He said that there was a place very close. He pointed to a building a few hundred metres away and told me that he worked there as a waiter in the restaurant. From a distance the hotel looked smart - not the shabby run down look of all the other places I had seen. In fact the Orion Tabora Hotel is a very impressive building - it helps that it has obviously been renovated recently. It has the air of colonial elegance. I booked into the place - it cost me 30,000 shillings, which I thought was a very good price. Later I chatted with the hotel manager who is Somalian, he told me that it was in fact a colonial building. It was built by the Germans 100 years ago, when the Germans were the colonial power. There is though a dark side to the Hotel's colonial splendour. Until 1959 the the Hotel had a notice that said "No Dogs or Blacks". That changed obviously. The place was then nationalized - over the years it became very run down, because no money was spent on the place. Then in 2003 the Government sold off the hotel - it has been extensively refurbished since it was privatized. It is a 35 bedroom hotel. It was sold for $US80,000.

SATURDAY 22nd

I tried to sort out a ticket for the train, with the help of a member of staff of the Orion Tabora Hotel. Without success. The station master told me to return to the station in the evening when the train was due. He would see what he could do. So, I spent the rest of the day not doing very much until it came time to check the train. At 7.30pm I went to the train station, only to find a notice on the station wall saying that the train was expected at 9pm. So, I returned to the Hotel and waited in the lobby. Sat in the lobby I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I returned to the station at 9pm. The train actually arrived at 9.30pm. So, I went to see the Station Master again. He couldn't get me on the train, but he told me that he could get me a 2nd class ticket for Monday. I thanked him and said I would like the ticket for Monday. He said to come back on Sunday or Monday morning to pick up the ticket.

I therefore returned to the Hotel and re booked in. There was a party taking place in the Hotel bar, so it was very noisy. There was no point in trying to go to sleep, so I sat in the bar and chatted with the other customers until 1am.

SUNDAY 23rd

My main activity of the day was visiting Livingstone's Tembe just outside Tabora. The house where Livingstone lived had previously been the home of a notorious slaver. On the way to the village near Tabora where the old Arab House is situated the taxi drove through a lively election rally. The election was due on the 30th of October, but was later delayed until December because of the death of the running mate of the opposition leader. Although the elections on the mainland were put off until December, the elections on the semi- autonomous island of Zanzibar went ahead. There was considerable unrest on Zanzibar and accusations that the ruling party had rigged the result. Tabora is well off the usual tourist agenda. I found a tourist site on the internet that said of Tabora that, there is nothing there, except an airport. Not true. Apart from Livingstone's Tembe, Tabora was an important trading centre on the caravan route from Lake Tanganika to the coast before the Europeans set foot in this part of Africa. Later, Tabora became the administrative capital of German East Africa. It is now a backwater whose main product is tobacco. But, there are many historic buildings in the town, as a result of its past.

A bit of background on Livingstone's Tembe. Livingstone lived in this old Arab slavers house. On June 23rd 1871 Stanley reached Tabora looking for Livingstone. H.M. Stanley stayed in the house, then left for Ujiji near present day Kagoma, where he found Livingstone on November 10th. They both returned to the house in Tabora on February 18th 1872. Stanley left for the coast on March 14th. Livingstone stayed until August 25th, after which he left for Lake Bangweula where he died in 1873.

MONDAY 24th

First thing in the morning I walked to the train station and bought my 2nd Class ticket from the Station Master. I didn't do much for the rest of the day until the evening when the train was due. I checked out of my room at 6pm and waited around in the lobby of the hotel. At 9pm, I took a taxi to the station. At the station, I found the station master who told me that the train wouldn't arrive till 11.30pm. So, I returned to the hotel and waited in the bar. At 11.30pm I returned to the station. There was a notice on the wall which listed passengers and carriages. Unfortunately there is more than one railway track, and there were several trains on the lines. It wasn't at all clear which was my train. So I asked someone, who lead me to my carriage. It was midnight when I got on the train. It didn't actually pull out of the station till 2am. The 2nd class carriages had places for 6 people - fortunately it was a sleeper, with 3 beds on each side of the carriage. That doesn't give you a lot of headroom if you get up quickly in the night.

TUESDAY 25th

The guard in the restaurant car told me that the railway was going to be privatized next year. I can't see that the Tanzanian Government will get much money for it. The tracks and the trains are in a terrible state of disrepair. I don't think they've spent a penny on the system in 30 years. The lack of investment in the system explains why the trains are so slow. We finally pulled into the station in Kagoma at 2pm. I booked into the Tanganika Beach Lodge which cost me 15,000 shillings. It is somewhat run down and was not good value compared to some of the other places I had recently stayed in.

WEDS 26th

I moved to the upmarket Hill Top Hotel. Again, I thought it was poor value for money, at 70,000 shillings. Kagoma, because of the proximity of the Gombe National Park has a tourist trade. But, it's not that big. A lot of the lodges in the town are filled with aid workers. There is a large UNHCR base on the outskirts of the town. There is also a refugee camp outside the town. So, I suspect prices are driven up by the presence of aid workers and tourists. The reason for the large UN and aid presence is because of the recent tragic history of the neighbouring states in the Great Lakes region. Kagoma, is the major port on Lake Tanganika and is therefore a good base for aid agencies in the region.

My plan was to catch a boat to the Gombe National Park on Thursday, spend the night in the Hostel just outside the park and then go Chimpanzee tracking on the Friday. I would though need to take food with me. So, I walked into town and bought food for 3 days. I also managed to get a first class train ticket for Sunday night. Whilst wondering around I met one of the passengers I had shared a carriage with.

THURSDAY 27th

It was my intention to go chimp tracking, but when I woke up I had a cold, so I decided to cancel my trip. Primates can catch human germs, so it would not be a good idea to visit wild chimps with a cold. So, instead I spent the day hanging around in the town's bars. It was my birthday - 46 and counting. I moved out of the upmarket hotel, and booked into the Aqua Lodge.

FRIDAY 28th

Another quiet day. I moved hotel, back to the Tanganiqua Beach Lodge. Whilst sitting, nursing a beer on the lake shore I saw a white UN transport plane fly very low overhead. An hour later a group of 8 white UN soldiers entered the bar.

SAT 29th

I took a taxi out to the nearby village of Ujiji in the morning. Ujiji is where Stanley and Livingstone met. Otherwise it was another quiet day.

SUNDAY 30th

Again a quiet day until I had to catch the train at 6pm. I was catching the train back to Tabora. From Tabora I intended to catch a bus to Mwanza which is the second largest city in Tanzania. I had considered catching a ferry to Burundi. The problem would have been getting out of Burundi to Rwanda. Everyone told me that the land border between Burundi and Rwanda is still dangerous.

MONDAY 31st

The train pulled into the station at Tabora at 7am. I got off the train and walked to the Orion Tabora Hotel, where I booked in again. I rested for most of the day, although I did organise a bus ticket to Mwanza for Tuesday.

TUESDAY 1st NOVEMBER

An early start. I got a taxi to the Mohamed Trans bus depot at 5.30am. It was a good bus, although the roads were bad. I got into Mwanza at about 2pm. I walked around the centre of town looking for hotels. Eventually someone asked if I wanted help. I told him that I was looking for a hotel. He walked me to the New Mwanza Hotel. It cost me 55,000 shillings. It is a very smart hotel.

WEDNESDAY 2nd NOVEMBER

When I came down for breakfast I found the guy who had shown me the hotel in the lobby. Over breakfast, it turned out he had an agenda. He is a 7th Day Adventist and a god botherer. My eyes glazed over as he tried to sell Jesus. Unfortunately he seemed to want to stick to me. I did though eventually manage to lose him. I didn't do that much all day, thinking I needed a day of rest before attempting to cross the border in Rwanda.

THURSDAY 3rd NOVEMBER

I checked out of the hotel at 9am and walked to the city's bus station. At the bus station I found out that the bus to the border town of Benaco left at 5am. So, I bought a ticket for Friday and returned to the New Mwanza Hotel. Checking back into the hotel only half an hour after I had checked out. So, I had the rest of the day to watch TV and look things up on the internet.

FRIDAY 4th NOVEMBER

When I got up at 4am and left my room I was greeted by thousands of mosquitoes. The night air of Mwanza was thick with mosquitoes. I took a taxi to the bus station, then took my place on the bus, with clouds of mosquitoes around my head. The bus was supposed to leave at 5am, but in fact it left at 5.30am. Half an hour later everyone got off the bus. We had to queue for ferry tickets. So, I watched a beautiful sunrise from the deck of a ferry. Before the ferry got to the other side everyone got back on the bus. It continued. The roads after the ferry trip got a lot worse, turning into a pot holed dirt track. I was lucky that I had a seat, because they continued putting people on the bus - there's always room for another passenger in Africa! At about 11am, we stopped in a small town. I needed to go to the toilet. But, the bus was packed, there was no way that I could get down the isle of the bus. So, instead I opened the window and jumped out of the coach. After re-leaving myself I then climbed back in.

Finally I arrived at Bennaco at about 2pm. From there I caught a taxi to the border which is about 15km's from the town. At the border I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to pay anything for a visa.

After the border formalities I found a minibus that took me to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

Rwanda has been called the land of eternal spring, it's a very scenic country. Although it's better known to most of the world for it's tragic history, the civil war and genocide of 1994. But, the security situation has improved a lot in the last few years. My next blog will be about my time in Rwanda.

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Comments

[Job]

Cana lodge is now on the web!
www.dodoma-guide.com/canalodge

[Jackie tyler]

History of the hotel
Is th Orion hotel once the German commandants Hse? If so I was born n the new hospital in 1940 and we lived at the Orion hotel before it was a hotel. My father was Bwana Banki. Mr. John Page of Barclays Bank. I am now nearly 76 years of age!!