Twitter: @CarolAnande Instagram: @CarolAnande Facebook: @CarolAnande
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| Work by Said Michael in the exhibition 'Domo Cartoon' |
“Our
national debt is increasing every day… yet our leaders with sweet voices say;
our country is capable of paying it back, in effect that our natural resources
can sustain the debt in case we fail to pay.”- Alphonce Albert Stima at the
7th ‘Kigoda cha Mwl Nyerere’ Intellectual Festival- in April’15;
back then he was a third year student taking a BA in Political Science &
Public Administration
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Artwork by Nadir Tharani
in his latest exhibition 'Sentinel' |
It’s not news that our national debt has
been burgeoning, reaching a pitch high of 15365 USD million in Oct last year.
Perhaps thankful to this new government; it’s now a few dollars lower standing
at 15261 USD million last reported by the Central Bank of Tanzania.
At an exhibition at ‘Vipaji Gallery’ in Dar es
Salaam, under the title ‘Domo-Cartoon’ with curator Gadi Ramathan; who in this
exhibition picked works by over 5 illustrators, from all over the country. It was
an illustration by Said Michael here, that found me relating to Alphonce’s sentiment. It
depicts a foreign Mining Agent, hacking away at the bottom strata of a cliff. With
bags of precious stones to his side, all awhile on top of the now perilous cliff,
are natives in their traditional humble dwellings.
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| Mama Kooya Timan from Loliondo giving her testimony at the last annual Mwl Nyerere Intellectural Festival in UDSM |
“When we were born we found the graves of our
grandfathers, grandmothers, our fathers buried here…There are two companies
which have caused serious grievances to our community in Loliondo. Namely the
OBC-(Ortello Business Company-the United Arab Emirates Firm) & Thomson
Safaris (a US-based tourism safari company); we have our villages in the middle
of the land that OBC is given. They aggressively chase us away from the grazing
land.
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| Nadir Tharani (white shirt doesn't like to be photographed) at the launch of his latest exhibition 'Sentinel' at Black Tomato |
We ask ourselves if they want
wild animals, where is the problem. We don’t kill our wildlife, first off in
our Maasai tradition, we see aimless killing of wildlife as a sin, in fact our
norms dictate. When these animals are in the procreating season, we don’t graze
our animals in the same area; because we believe then, the grass isn’t good for
our animals. We then leave that area for a time, till their young are grown.
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| Work by illustrator Malick Boaz at the 'Domo Cartoon' exhibition, to now be featured in a book sponsored by the French Embassy |
Now
it goes these two companies want our ancestral land entirely for themselves,
notwithstanding. Thomson Safaris which is on the other side, also surrounded by
villages. When our people from there try to let their animals out to graze,
they shoot to kill. We’ve lost lives to this company, we are thus at a loss.
Wondering where should we go? As we’re Tanzanians, we were born in Tanzania;
don’t we deserve to enjoy the fruits of our land?”- Mama Kooya Timan from Loliondo.
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| Hon Judge Joseph Warioba & former first Lady Mama Maria Nyerere gracing the last Mwl Nyerere Intellectual Festival- By Sherehe Blog |
Mama Kooya, was brought as a witness at the 7th
Kigoda cha Mwl Nyerere Intellectual festival, to testify of live cases of land
grabbing in our country. She further went on to tell of a brave story, of how
she together with 400+ women of the Loliondo region. In seeing themselves
constantly harassed by these companies, threatened the local authorities to
burn away their CCM membership cards. It was here that they managed to get the
audience of the then Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda.
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| Work by Eman Fisima at the 'Domo Cartoon' exhbition held at Vipaji Gallery Foundation in DSM |
It was the 17th of September a little
before the elections last year when I visited the ‘Domo Cartoon’ exhibition at
Vipaji Gallery. Consequently on the same night, I also attended another launch
of an exhibition titled ‘Sentinel’ by fine artist Nadir Tharani, this at the Black
Tomato restaurant in city centre, DSM. It’s a winning factor that Mr. Tharani
is also an architect (his firm has won several prizes by the Architects &
Quantity Surveyors Registration Board in Tanzania).
As in this exhibition with works of acrylic on
canvas, which go on to showcase in nostalgic silhouettes, the native tropical
palm (‘Mnazi’- Cocos nucifera); found amorously on the East African coastal
strip. He expertly sheds light on a pressing issue, that of the fast
disappearing of our native East African coastal plants.
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| Works by Nadir Tharani in his latest exhbition 'Sentinel' displayed at the Black Tomato restaurant in city centre DSM |
“The East
African Coastal Forests Eco-region…the biodiversity values of the forests are
recognized as being of global importance. Although the last decade has seen an
increase in conservation efforts in this region, threats, problems and
pressures still persist and are even increasing, including overexploitation of
natural resources, lack of coordinated activities, lack of implementing and
integrating policies, and a decline of fundamental resources for the
responsible government sectors.”-Protecting East Africa’s Coastal
forests-WWF global website
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| Work by Eman Fisima at the 'Domo Cartoon' exhbition held at Vipaji Gallery Foundation in DSM |
Talking to Nadir it was to learn that he didn’t
consciously orchestrate the works in this exhibition, to highlight the
disappearance of native plants in the east African coastal strip. “..I wanted to capture their beauty like the
piece ‘gust’, you know suddenly they go like that, then they move, always
making little noises…I have palm trees near my house, they’re always moving
slight, sharp breaths of air.”
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| Work by Jacob Maganga at the exhbition 'Domo Cartoon' to now be featured in a book sponsored by the french embassy in TZ |
Indeed that sharp breath of fresh air in our
humid coast, is better provided by native trees of the area. Like the-Acacia
nilotica (Mkunga), Afzelia quanzensis
(Mkongo), Albizia amara (Mujogolo), Baphia Kirkii (Mkuruti), Brachystigia
spiciformis (Mtundu), Khaya anthotheca (Mkanganzi), Lannea schweinfurthi (Mpwipwi),
Milicia excels (Mvule), Salvadora persica (Mswaki), Sclerocarya caffra
(Morula), Sterculia Africana (Mluze), Tamarindus Indicus (Mkwaju), Adansonia
digitata (Mbuyu)-and or the Ficus sycamorus (Mkuyu-Mkungu tree). Which now in
the local landscape of the city of Dar es Salaam, can barely be spotted.
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| Work by Jacob Maganga at the exhibition 'Domo Cartoon' to now be featured in a book sponsored by the french embassy in TZ |
“The
ecosystem of coastal East Africa is highly unusual in that about 1,750 plants
are found in these forests many of which are endemic…Satellite data shows that
these forests are more than 90%
destroyed and the pieces that still exist are fragmented and many are highly
degraded. Many of the plants that live in them are therefore rare and highly
vulnerable to extinction.” -Dr. Anne H Outwater (Environmental Columnist
with the Daily News-‘Nature Notebook’). She is currently authoring a book with
Ilana Locker and Roy Gereau of the Missouri Botanic Garden titled, ‘Plants of
Coastal East Africa: A guide to protection & planning’. To be published in
both Kiswahili & English with Mkuki na Nyota publishers in Tanzania.
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| Work by Meddy Jummane at the exhibition 'Domo Cartoon' to now be featured in a book sponsored by the French Embassy in TZ |
So art can be aesthetically pleasing like in the
case of ‘sentinel’ or funny as in the case of the ‘Domo Cartoon’; still it’s
ever more poignant when it’s highlighting a cause. While I was at the Mwl
Nyerere Intellectual Festival, there were more witnesses who shed light on real
cases of land grabbing in the country. Like the case of the Rice Farm in
Kapunga Village, Mbarali District in the Mbeya region where the government in
2006, sold this land to Export Trading Company Ltd, which previously was co
owned by the government and the residents of the area.
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| Work by Meddy Jummane at the exhibition 'Domo Cartoon' to now be featured in a book sponsored by the French Embassy in TZ |
“ "History
tells us Mwl Julius K. Nyerere, came to the village of Kapunga in 1965…In the
70’s the government started to research on commercial rice farming in Kapunga.
Ultimately on the 25th of Oct in 1985, the food organization in
Tanzania NAFCO, wrote a letter to the village of Kapunga, asking them for land
of the size of 5,500 hectares. I have the copy of that letter here, if anyone
wants to see it.”-Feint Mwashikumbulu.
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| An admirer of Nadir Tharani's works at exhbition 'Sentinel' |
It fares the exhibition Domo Cartoon which well
highlights plights of communities like Kapunga Village. On its inauguration saw
the French ambassador to Tanzania Mme Malika Berak, very impressed. So it fares
according to the curator of this exhibition Gadi- “By April this year Mme Berak, has promised to have the works of the
participants of this exhibition published in a pictorial book, already we have
worked on the manuscript sent it to them...”
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| Work by Nadir Tharani in his latest exhbition 'Sentinel' displayed at the Black Tomato restaurant in city centre DSM |
‘Domo Cartoon’ highlights critical issues with
our governance and our state of mind as citizens in this country. Likewise the
eerie beauty of the ‘mnazi’ in the exhibition ‘Sentinel’, gives a searing
warning on the ridiculous of depleting the East African natural flora; which
stretches from Mozambique to Southern Somalia.
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| Work by Said Michael in the exhbition 'Domo Cartoon' to now be featured in a book sponsored by the French Embassy in TZ |
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