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No. 00293 |
October 25-31, 2003 |
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Becoming ‘Ol Morwo-Kitok’By lute wa lutengano I have been in Arusha for years. In a nutshell I am an Arushan. Actually when I initially arrived in Arusha several years ago, I was welcome as a ‘landisi’ a Maasai male teenager. As years went by I was promoted just like other Maasai youths into a ‘makaa’ a middle aged Maasai male. I have been a ‘makaa’ for a number of years, which is until last year when I was again promoted. I do not know whether the promotions, or for that matter all these previous promotions, were genuine, because the recent promotion includes a lot of other foreign elements. For example there is one Mengi, a Chagga, who has also been promoted. Notwithstanding, I have now been promoted into someone called ‘ol morwo kitok.’ I am told that is one of highest ranks in the community. I do not know, but according to very reliable sources, one can only be ‘baptised’ as ‘ol-muruo kitok’ at only one location and that is on top of one Maasai mountain called ‘ol-donyo lo imorwa.’ It so happens that I have never been on top of any such mountain. I am now beginning to doubt my status and including the previous ones. All of a sudden I am beginning to discover myself and my environment. In the first place I do not know the Maasai language apart from the obvious natural words like ‘aanyor naleng’ I love you. But I am also vertically challenged, which is very un-Maasai. I have now resolved to begin learning proper Maasai language and secondly appreciating my visible environment. Naturally, I can not do much about my vertically challenged structure. Now that I have begun this learning process, it is inevitable that I read all literature and learn as much as possible about Arusha in the first place. Normally there are certain aspects which when you get used to them you take them for granted. I must have been taking Arusha for granted. And it takes an outsider to point some salient features about your immediate environment. Read this piece from a Ugandan journalist, Agnes Asiimwe, who visited Arusha the other day; "The daladalas or taxis (in Arusha) are the first that one will encounter. If you thought the taxi drivers in Kampala are nuts, you better think twice. In Arusha you will be knocked and left for dead. All the taxi drivers seem to care about is picking the next passenger, bundling them in the van and dashing off to the next point all the while shouting at the top of their voices. For some reason that escaped me, it was the women who were always packed at the doors of the taxis, which move with their doors open because they leave no space to get closed. Women’s behinds are seen protruding from the car as it speeds to snatch yet another traveler. The daladalas are open-roofed so one will see heads of people out of a taxi roof like VIPs on a promotional tour. It is fashionable too for a taxi to have a message behind it, such messages read: ‘Mr. Bombastic’, ‘ToTo Madness’ ‘Blood Eagle’ and ‘No Objection’. Indeed to enter that daladala you must have no objection." On a positive note however, the Ugandan writer commends some aspects of Arusha, saying, for example that the town is cleaner than Kampala. I would say she did not stay long to visit some of our popular suburbs, which you and I know are literally rubbish heaps. On Arusha nightlife, the lady journalist has among others this to say; "Arusha like any other city has girls of night. One Ugandan managed to get a girl with whom they agreed on Tshs 5000/- for the night. When they were done, the girl complained that she had lost her money. The man gave her a full body search to make sure that she wasn’t playing any tricks and he found nothing. He gave her another Tshs 5000/-." Now I am beginning to know my environment the first stages to become a full ‘ Morwo Kitok.’
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Last modified:
October 23, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
