Exploring Linkages...

In the Belly of Dar es salaam

In Tanzania, I learnt that the Haven of peace in Arabic means Dar es salaam. Driving through Dar es salaam with Rahab my friend, I imagined that a place called a haven must indeed have a coveted peace. More so, it will hold many foot prints of hope; hope from desperate people who have fled from everything unpleasant. For those whose dreams take long to come through here, I hoped that the beautiful beaches, the trees and all of nature’s beauty I see in this country will serve as a bed of solace.
IMG_5163 (2)In the rumbling belly of Dar es salaam, at the heart of this haven of peace, I and Rahab finally located E & D Vision Publishing house. I was meeting with the first feminist English novelist from Tanzania, Elieshi Lema. As we held hands and she says Karibu; welcome, I was carried away by her natural grace and the ambience around her. She was like the future I admired. Meeting this Kiswahili and English writer added more sweetness to my time in Tanzania. Considering her many works, I looked beyond Parched Earth  aswas strongly drawn to her fiction novel and stories that focused on children. I must say that most of her work represents an embodiment of the linkages between fiction and development. Her partnership with the Children’s Book Project (CBP) Tanzania has helped promote the use of novel writing and publishing in English to encourage language skills for in-school youths.
Her novel In the Belly of Dar es salaam proved she was not neglecting the out-of-school youths either. Through the hour, we talked about governance, the strengths and weaknesses of the African continent, we reflected on feminism and the African woman but most of all, our discussions focused on her novel In the Belly of Dar es salaam. Confidently, she spoke about the life of street children in Tanzania, expressing the certainty of a writer who had passionately researched her work. This novel uses a female as the central character to questions the political rhetoric on the commitment to social-economic development of children in general.

Eleisha Lema serves as Director of E&D Vision Publishing.

Eleisha Lema authored Parched  Earth and serves as the Director of E&D Vision Publishing.


Elieshi glowingly shares the character of Sara; an unconventional girl who we meet in the first page doing a boy’s work; climbing a hill burdened with the head of a slaughtered cow. Small rivulets of blood from the dead animal were dripping and drying on her face; so unconventional! With her young eye eaten up by Cataract and all other impending worries, Sara was flawed in looks but not in character. It is this charisma that followed her through her days in the street with other children, there she lived like a butterfly, freely flying and perching to enjoy life’s sweetness despite the pains.
Leaving Elieshi’s office, I continued reading through how Sara met Prospa, but I dropped the book when Sara changes her clothing in her mother’s death room, leaving an emphatic message for her grandmother before setting out to begin a life on the streets of Dar es salaam. I dropped the book with the assumption that I know what the rest of the stories will be, but practically, we do not know the reality of street children. Two days after meeting with Elieshi, I was attacked by a gang of robbers led by a street child in Kampala,Uganda. With the painful loss of my mobile phone; I was provoked to learn more about this child who was party to those that robbed me.
Vagabond! Waif! Bastards! Urchin! Hooligans! Destitute! Ragamuffin! Guttersnipe!      
IMG_5093 Their names are so many, but yet we know very little about them. The pain and trauma I felt for my lost phone gave me the energy to further research on this isolated group of children whom despite our ignorance has remained an integral part of our world. Voraciously, I now read through all the pages of In the Belly of Dar es salaam to soothe my grief. I followed the story of Sara as she progressed on the streets of Dar es salaam, her paths meeting and parting with other street-children Mansa, Caleb, Ali among other gang members whom she became Maza; a mother to. For all the children, life in the street was triggered by the need to survive and not adventure. The novel expounded on the triggers of migrant street-children from the rural areas to the urban city. Under pressure from a society that does not appreciate that the hoe and the pen are miles apart, most young children believe that their answers lies in the belly of the urban city.In their hearts, the grass was greener in the city because those who left for the city never came back.  So as schools, teachers and families pour them out like a river lets water go, then like tributaries; they flow into the belly of the city. The city thus embraces and nestles them into its rumbling belly.
img_04881

Photo by Akansha Yadav


Life in the streets of a city called the haven of peace is not what they expected. Here, their plight seems unchanging; they become more voiceless and vulnerable. Over time, their young hearts begins to know the city geography. They walk about, each with a stomach to feed, yet leftovers will remain their buffet. Holding their possession in cellophane bags, street-children often find shelter in abandoned cars, dilapidated rooms, and uncompleted houses. For them, anywhere their body can be stretched until daylight dispels the night is home. And ‘if they felt too tired during the day time, they lay somewhere on the side-walk or in the public gardens… their possessions beside their tired bodies’. Hardship tints their age and hard work hardens their hands. For the tainted ones who have lost patience like the character of Ali, the night is their mask; when the city sleeps, they prowl in its darkness looking for what to steal. The street has finally groomed their hearts tobe ruthless.
According to my colleague Akansha Yadav, street kids are those ‘children out of school, working in horrible conditions with no bargaining power, underpaid and malnourished. Some of us see them as cheap labour and some see them as not our responsibilities but a product of failed parenting, social structures and poor public education system. Admittedly, we have grown immune to the image of them given how pervasive they are and despite the shocking nature of this reality; it does not seem to assault our senses anymore.’ These street-children, do they really strike us? Can we hold them in honour? In the thought lines of Uwem Akpan’s An Ex-mas gift, can you dare say you are one of them? Can we dare say they are one of us?
In the Belly of Dar es salaam, the character of Safina and Belinda whom were born in the street and fathered by nameless men established the fact that street children reproduce themselves making their street life become trans-generational. Over centuries now, street-children have existed in fiction novels also. Horatio Alger, a 19th century prolific author was famous for his novels following the grass to grace adventures of impoverished children. His novel Tattered Tom; or, The Story of a Street Arab (1871) remarkably projects this age long phenomenon and even now, it raises the question of the possibility of extinction of children from the streets.
Photo by Trace Uganda. Trace Uganda empowers slum and street children, providing alternatives to street life.

Photo by Trace Uganda. Trace Uganda empowers slum and street children, providing alternatives to street life.


Yet while they grace the streets, these children continue to question their realities, they are not dumb. The character of Caleb reflects on the disparity in urban and rural development; ‘my father has been growing cashew nuts all his life, he does not know the kibaha cashew factory or who decides the price, why was the factory not built in my village where I could seek employment’? Sara asked, ‘was Kigogo immune to beauty…do you think poverty can be completely eliminated?’ Through their banter, they explore intra-household dynamics, the gaps between them and the rich minister’s children. And what answers do we think there is for these questions? Ramifications of iniquity seldom are resolved with  violence, will their answers rupture them and result in an unruly political revolution?
Perhaps development organisations understand that nature’s providence is certainly a chameleon, hence what is good for the goose; the gander might one day have too. Better than the clean-up squads most governments set up to violate street-children, much more has been done to manage them around the world but little is done to eliminate the phenomenon. The International day for Street Children celebrated in over 130 countries brings a global dimension to reminding the world that street children are also covered by the widely ratified United Nation’s Convention on the Right of the Child. Such progressive activities do not go to waste for Indeed street children have ambition to leave the street someday. Elieshi symbolizes this in the gift of a Pushcart Mansa gets from an adopted father, this triggered him to quit the streets and live more responsibly.
I remember living a day on the street in the city of Lagos as a 16year old girl; I was hungry, frightened and visibly lonely. I had a hateful frown for the world around me. Night came and with a fear for the dark, I was desperate for protection. Helplessly I crept into an abandoned car until morning came. I tasted the street for one night and it was clear I could never survive there. Harrowing as it is, this experience I had is but a tip of what street children like Sara and the one that stole from me knows. Perpetually they tumble into the swift current of the city, swinging on the back of its waves. With many rivers to cross for their survival, day after day, they try to tell us they are not invisible, that they too are one of us.  ‘I am somebody’ they say. Do we hear them clear?
IMG_5099

Rahab Mbise is the Communications Officer at Helvetas Swiss Inter-cooperation, Tanzania.


In the Belly of Dar es salaam written in simple language has successfully contextualised the pervasive phenomenon of the street-children, situating it in the gap between us and them. Between the street kid and us all there remains a social divide, they live on the fringes of our lives and thoughts. It is therefore with compassion at individual and communal level that we must connect with these children.I dare us to begin to think we are part of them; I dare us to say they are one of us…
To Elieshi, I say Asante; thank you for this simple but well written novel that aptly places the street-child phenomenon within the African context. To Rahab, Juliana and Innocent, I am grateful for the gift of this book.
 
 
Written by ~ Adaobi Nkeokelonye

Previous

The Season of Kongi’s Harvest.

Next

JULY'S PEOPLE

9 Comments

  1. Ada, great read. There are some profound thoughts that come from observations and analysis that go beyond merely looking at a phenomena and skimming the surface. Wonder if you read this: http://livestheylive.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/kinshasas-street-kids/
    Keep it up.

    • Dear Akansha, thank you for the comment. Ah! Yes I read the post on the Kinshasa kid. These things make me very concerned. I think the worse sin of Mankind is the sin against Children… it goes for years unforgiven. Thanks again for being resourceful.

  2. This is such a moving and thought provoking review…it makes us (or at least me) rethink of our attitude towards street children! Have we become so indifferent? Unfortunately one of my vivid memories of studying in Nairobi is the presence of street children in the vibrant modern Nairobi. After reading this review, I feel aware and guilty of my subconscious conception of them as a group of human beings who tarnishes the image of Nairobi. I am sorry for that. If anything, the review has just waken up my soul to be more merciful and compassionate to these kids, hopefully this will steer a passion for action towards resolving this issues. Every child has equal rights to life, education, and social amenities. We need to work tirelessly towards realisation of those rights for every child no matter who bore them.
    With regards to the author of the book, Elieshi Lema, am always impressed by her efforts together with other women in Tanzania such as Mama Demere Kitunga who work tirelessly to improve literacy and reading culture for kids in Tanzania. They are inspirational. see also http://aikandekwayu.com/hope-rejuvenatedreflections-on-the-launch-of-childrens-booksfestival-mpekilamtotokitabu-by-soma-book-cafe-dar-es-salaam/
    Well, thanks Ada and it’s my hope and prayer that next time you will be visiting Tanzania, I’ll be there…Karibu sana!
    Much love,
    Aikande.

    • Dearest Aikande, I will say ASANTE! I agree with you… I share your guilt, we all should share this guilt. I hope we can do something. Elieshi is an inspiration and I do hope to meet her again. I lost all the recordings of my over one hour discussions with her to the thieves. That was a big loss! Anyway, my next visit will be to Zanzibar and I hope you will be there to teach me more. Thanks for reading and commenting.

  3. Uche Anyanwagu

    Wowwww. This moved me through all phases and depths of emotions. I was lost, I found myself, but was lost again in the uncommon blend of stark realities with fiction.
    I could see those characters in the street I trod to the train station. I could see myself as a conspicuous part of this unconcerned cruel society. Sitting on the train to Aldgate, I was glued to the perfect connection between the story Ada reviewed, interspersed with her life experiences in East Africa and the events all around my daily routine.
    Well written Ada. You remain my inspiration. Thanks for writing so fluidly again

    • Thanks for posting here Dear Uche… yes we see them always on the roadside but we indeed became immune to them because of their pervasive nature. I appreciate that you read it all and took time to comment.

  4. Victoria Nwogu

    Ada, thank you for this deeply reflective piece that calls us all to reflect with you. The guilt of ignoring street children or managing them but not eliminating the issues that drive them can be shared by many. I have also had many varied encounters with street children in different places I have lived. Including the one that ran after my car (my own fed, clothed and assured children sitting in it) through heavy Nairobi traffic for a few blocks forced me to stop and before I could hand him a note and hurry off asked me my name, told me his and informed me that I could always find him on the particular street corner where he started the chase. I have never found him since but his eyes haunt me. I do not even know what I will do if I find him. I may give him another few shillings but that would not change his situation.
    Yes, they often appear as a blight on the landscape of our ‘beautiful’ cities and organized response to them can often leave a whole lot to be desired. There are some good efforts worthy of emulation. The fact is that the factors that give rise to street children are so many, so diverse and yet irrevocably intertwined with the failings of society. Gender inequalities, failed marriages, discrimination of various shades and character, conflicts, poverty, corruption to name a few. You’re right the quest is never for adventure. The end to the phenomenon will require societies to take a closer look at themselves and fix the holes that are leaking our children onto the streets. Those holes do not start with the children.

    • Hmnnn… I had nostalgic feeling reading about the little boy of Nairobi traffic. As expected, we rarely ever know their real names. I am wishing you find him but can share your helplessness on what you intend to do when you find him. You are very correct in all you have shared; we leak the children out of the streets. When a child is given birth to just because a mother got pregnant, there is rarely a planned life for them. I feel helpless thinking that perhaps this is a huge hole where most of our social problem creeps in from. An unhappy child is most likely going to be an unhappy adult…

  5. Nice review that was, Adaobi. I’m Victoria and I want to work in street children in contemporary African novels for my PhD thesis. It’s really been difficult getting and knowing about a contemporary novel that focuses on street children in Northern Africa. Your interest in literary reviews compelled me to initiate a conversation with you. If you know of any novel from the northern region of Africa that lends a voice to street or street connected children, I would appreciate your contributions and feedback.
    Email address: funtovictoria@gmail.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

%d bloggers like this: