Iringa – A brief Historical and Cultural Tour

One of Malcolm’s interests is the history of places, so last Sunday he went on a walking tour of Iringa. This was led by a resident, Darlene, who described some of the history of the town.

 

The Germans first colonized Tanzania in the 1880’s and fortified Iringa in 1890. One of the oldest buildings, built by the Germans as a hospital, is the ‘Boma’. This has recently been renovated and houses the small museum and was the start of the tour.

The Germans did not have an easy job holding onto Iringa. One of the heroes of the country is Chief Mkwawa who defeated an expeditionary force of German soldiers (mainly Askaris) in 1891 using spears to defeat muskets. The site of the battle, Lugalo, is now used as the name of the Tanzanian military base in Dar es Salaam.

The memorial to the German 'Askaris' (Foreign mercenary troops) stands in front of the original German military headquarters.

 After the battle Chief Mkwawa continued to harass the Germans using Guerilla tactics until his death, by suicide, in 1898 to avoid being captured.

 

One interesting thing about the German occupation, is that they didn’t build a prison.  So much more efficient to ’interrogate’ any suspects – and then hang them!

The Germans lost Tanzania in 1916 when it became a British Protectorate.

The German’s also built the original market hall, which still stands but is difficult to see as it is surrounded by the new market and shops. 

Here you can by a wide range of vegetable, spices and other day to day necessities.

The tour concluded with a visit to the war cemetery which contains graves of British, Commonwealth and German soldiers killed in both world wars as well as those of the early settlers,

 

Time to Market

The nearest town to Kiwoko is Luweero, about 10 miles away. On Saturday Irene and Corrie needed some urgent shopping and so visited the market there.

 

 The first stop was at the vegetable stall. Here there was a variety of recognisable vegetables such as tomatoes and onions, as well as those not usually found in Britain, such as matoke (ma-toke-ay)which looks like a green banana but tastes more like potato.

It is unusual for stall holders to have scales. Instead items such as tomatoes are sold by quantity whilst potatoes are sold by the bucket – Here Irene is buying a quarter bucket.

 

Buying meat is more of an adventure. Chickens are bought live for ‘processing’ at home whilst meat is bought off the bone at open air butchers. Its best to shop early before the meat has had a chance to ‘mature’ in the sun. And flies are no problem!!!!!!!!

 

Finally, after a hard morning shopping there’s always a chance to cool off with an ice-cream at the local ‘supermarket’.

 

Back at the Hospital we also had a different sort of market. Over the months a variety of clothes had been brought out by visitors and left to be sold. On Thursday we held one of our very popular ‘Sales’ where staff, students and villagers were keen to buy clothes, shoes and suit cases. The money will be used for some for the Christian and Children’s ministry at the Hospital.

 

We don’t think it was a homeless clothes moth, but the next day a large moth decided to rest on the frame of Malcolm’s office door – could it be the moth-er of all moths?

 

This week’s Proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Zambia: ““A person who sells eggs should not start a fight in the market”

Give us this day our Daily Bread, corn flakes, coffee………….

We are settling into Kiwoko.

 

One of our daily needs is shopping. Kiwoko, being a small village, sells a limited range of items. The busiest day is Saturday, market day. Last week Malcolm accompanied Denise and Natasha to buy some vegetables and to have a look around.

 

For more serious shopping Malcolm leaves it to Irene. On Friday she went with Denise (the bosses wife) on the 50 mile journey to Kampala. There she found coffee shops, restaurants, a hairdresser, clothes shops and western style Supermarkets. She was particularly pleased to find the reduced price section for bargains

 

Security is taken seriously in Kampala. Cars are checked for bombs, and may be searched when you drive into shopping mall car parks. And even in the wc toilet rolls are protected from opportunity thieves - one sheet or two, madam?

There are an interesting range of bugs around the hospital. This one was spotted on the wall of our house.

 

 This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is Swahili “Better to stumble with the foot than with the tongue”