People & Culture

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Tanzania’s People - A Diverse, Hard-working Society

Posted: Monday July 17, 2006 1:37 PM BT

Most residents in the Iringa region live off the land, growing corn and beans, in addition to raising a variety of livestock, including cows, goats, mules and oxen. Life is simple and serene. Most homes are constructed of handmade bricks or woven stick frames with mud walls, thatched roofs and earthen floors. Daily activities in each household include grinding and drying corn.

Volunteers are often invited to homes for traditional African meals of ugali (a dish of cooked, ground corn or maize), mboga (greens) and beans, served in the traditional style in communal bowls on a mat on the floor and eaten with fingers.

Tanzania's 100 or more different tribal groups are mostly of Bantu origin. The Sukuma tribe from Lake Victoria is the largest with a population of over three million. Other large tribes include the Haya from western Lake Victoria, the Chaga who occupy the fertile Kilimanjaro slopes, the Nyamwezi and Gogo in central Tanzania, and the Hehe, Ngoni and Nyakyusya from the southern highlands. Perhaps most famous is the Masai tribe, which dispersed across the northern plains and beyond into Kenya.

During the late Stone Age, Tanzania was the scene of many immigrations by African ethnic races. Contacts through war, trade and migration in search of new land caused these various peoples to intermingle and form tribes. Today Tanzania, as the home of four major African language families, boasts the greatest linguistic diversity in the whole of the African continent. Here, in the northern central area of the country, one can find the Bantu, the Khoisan or "click" language, the Cushitic and the Nilotic languages.


As a result, Tanzania has a very mixed society of Christians (45%), Muslims (45%) and indigenous beliefs (10%). The majority of Muslims are concentrated along the coast and in the islands. Compared to Islam, Christianity took a long time to make an impact, and even then (during the 19th century) it was practiced mainly among tribes of the interior.

There are still many tribes who follow neither of the big-name religions and instead worship the ancient spirit of their choice. Principal among them are the Masai, who put their faith in the god Engai and his Messiah, Kindong'oi, from whom their priests are said to be descended. It's claimed that there is no religious bias present in the country's political and civil administration.

The Arab influence on Zanzibar and Pemba islands is evident in the people, who are a mix of Shirazia (from Persia), Arabs, Comorians (from the Comoros Islands) and Bantu from the mainland, though the latter predominate. The major non-Bantu people in the Iringa area are the Masai (Nilotic speakers) who inhabit the northeastern section of the country.

To the mainly Moslim descendants of the Arabs who inhabited these areas, a woman must cover her legs, hands, body contours and, occasionally, even her face. The coastal men often spend their leisure time in a long white robe known as a kanzu.

Dress in the Iringa region where Global Volunteers works is predominantly western-style, with khanga and kitenge cloths mixed in. Easily regarded by the female population as their most useful garment, they are worn by all ages and for all occasions. For her wedding, kitenge cloth paves a grass walkway to the church to celebrate an African woman's purity and her joy.

The cloths grace kitchens, gardens, funerals, parties and formal occasions with equal style, depending on how they are worn. Rolled into a doughnut, they act as a cushion on her head to ease the weight of the water she carries from the river. Also, they can be used to carry babies or items, hung to provide shade, or as a drop-cloth to sit on.

"What you don't learn from your mother, you learn from the world." ~ Masai Wisdom

The influx of western fashions has made little impact on the Masai tribe, however. They dress as they have have for centuries - a style all their own. For the men, a light toga-like drape covers their lithe bodies. Spears, knives (sime) and sticks are essential accessories. The woman heavily load their necks, arms, legs and ears with bead jewelry, resisting western make up and decorations.

Only silver, bronze or copper and glass beads are used by the Masai for jewelry. In fact, the beads are often given as barter for these valued metals. The men smear ochre mixed with oils over their bodies and on their elaborately plaited hair. Young males approaching circumcision paint their faces white, while dressing in black calico.

Makonde men file their teeth and tattoo their faces and bodies. The women wear lip plugs. In Zanzibar and along the coast, the painting of hands and nails with henna is very common, especially for special ceremonies such as weddings. (You will likely encounter this around the Global Volunteers host community as well.) In urban areas, women may straighten their hair, yet the traditional plaited styles retain a prominent place among young women.

For more information on Masai people,

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