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Issue 00419 |
May 13 - 19, 2006 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Off Topic |
| Of Toilets and Arusha by lute wa lutengano A very close friend of mine had a nasty shock several years ago when he visited Rufiji area to undertake some research work which had something to do with health. On arrival at one village he and his group sought accommodation at the only guest house available. There were several rooms, with two or three of them termed 'self contained'. That meant they had toilet facilities inside. My friend, being head of the group, was offered one of these special rooms. What a shock he had when he found that the so called toilet was actually a pit latrine inside the room. Needless to say, he slept in a 'normal' room. This episode came back to mind the other day. I had collected a friend from the United States who was transiting Arusha on a safari holiday. He wanted to visit a wash room or rather a place of convenience before proceeding with his safari. It was then that I realised there are no public toilets in the centre of Arusha. I was forced to take him to one of the tourist hotels where for courtesy sake I had to buy a drink first – not to be seen that we were only interested in the hotel's toilet - before my colleague could use the facility. Toilet is part of history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the history of human civilisation and which cannot be isolated to be accorded unimportant position in history. Toilet is a critical link between order and disorder and between good and bad environment. As long as man did not have an established abode, he did not have a toilet. He excreted wherever he felt like doing so. When he learnt to have a fixed house, he moved toilet to the courtyard and then within his home. Once this was done, it became a challenge to deal with smell and the need was felt to have a toilet which can intake human wastes and dispose these out of the house instantly and, thus, help maintain cleanliness. The history of toilets has it that man tried various ways to do so i.e. chamber pots, which were cleaned manually by servants or slaves, toilets protruding out of the top floor of the house or castle and disposal of wastes in the river below, or common toilets with holes on the top and flowing stream or river underneath or just enter the river or stream and dispose of the waste of the human body. While the rich used luxurious toilet chairs or close stools the poor defecated on the roads, in the jungle or straight into the river. Historical evidence exists that Greeks relieved themselves out of the houses. There was no shyness in use of toilet. It was frequent to see at dinner parties in Rome slaves bringing in urine pots made of silver; while members of the royalty used it but continued to play at the same time. In the course of history, the rich used wool or hemp for ablution while the poor used grass, stone or sand or water depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. The use of newspapers was also common. The final solution to the problem of ablution was found when in 1857, Joseph Cayetty invented the toilet paper in USA. This invention has enabled human beings to have a tissue paper, which is convenient to use, is absorbent, as well as compact and within easy reach while defecating. I have gone to great lengths to explain the history of toilets deliberately. As you can see, it is a very long history. But what worries me is that this history seems to have not yet reached Arusha. Otherwise why don't we have public toilets in the centre of the so-called Arusha City?
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