GENERAL INFORMATION

This site shows village life in Tanzania .It show how the villages in Tanzania differ from other villages abroad . It views all aspects about peoples lives, and explains how the people earn their living . I would like to explain about my village called Olgilai.

Olgilai village in Arusha , Tanzania .This village is located in the north part of Tanzania ,it is near to mount Meru. Olgilai village Is located three kilometres from Arusha town, our village is part of Arumeru District Council. You can find the distance from Arusha town and Arumeru District Council Office Is about three kilometres, this was the end of the road to be covered with tarmac. So from there our village is located another three kilometres up the hill .During the dry seasons the road are passable by all types of cars but during the rainy seasons four wheel drives are preferable . This is due to the steepness of the village on the hill and the geography of the Arusha region.

Olgilai village is surrounded on all sides by hills ,it has a tropical mountain climate .The hills are covered with lush vegetation and are very beautiful all year round .

In Olgilai village ,villagers practice the following activities like agriculture ,animal keeping ,trading ,and there are small scale industries like work shops , mills, sewing industries and a local brewery . In our village we practice small scale farming as the type of agriculture . Cultivation of crops was made purposely for human consumption. We grow maize, beans ,bananas ,sugar cane and vegetables like spinach , cabbage and tomatoes. We grow cash crop like coffee. Not only that but also there are fruits crops in our village, these are like oranges, lemons, peaches and mangoes. This is possible due to the climate. This climate favours the following condition: enough rainfall, higher evaporation and cool seasons around the whole year .Olgilai village has become a major supplier of water to the places in Arusha town which lack strong water supplies. This is among the things that makes our village differ from other places in Arusha. Good water, well distributed to the villagers is something that makes Olgilai a special place.

Animals that are kept in Olgilai village are cows, goats, pigs, chickens, and sheep. The type of cows that are available in our village are Fresian, Ayrshire, Jersey, Zebu and Ankole. Grasses for feeding are available all the time so keeping animals become relatively easy. Villagers keep animals in order to get milk, manure, meat, and skin/leather. Although villagers are trying to keep animals scientifically, they face a lot of difficulties: lack of capital and the lack of means to value their production. Due to these points, low capital, causes low income due to the sale of their products as raw materials rather than as high value processed goods. eg. It is hard to afford cheesemaking equipment, so Milk is usually sold unprocessed and at less value.

Industries that are available in our village are small industries like works shops ( capenters, brickmakers etc ) mills, sewing machines, and the local brewery. A trade that is conducted by villagers in my village is selling of produce and goods produced by local industry. There are shops that are selling staple household goods like flour, sugar, cooking oil and sodas. The medium of exchange in trade activities is Tanzanian Shillings (Tsh).

There are about three thousand people who living in Olgilai village. It including both women and men of all ages . In our country , and in my village, all men above 18 years old are included in the government daily public works programmes. Students are not included because they are still learning how to build their country. The programmes are including tax collection and to participate in the public works like roadbuilding and the building of schools etc.

In Arusha region there are four major tribes :Masai , Meru, Mbulu, and Mangáti tribes. The Masai tribe dominates the large area in Arusha Tanzania and Masai area in Kenya .Olgilai village is dominated by Masai .Here in Arusha region the Masai tribe is dived into two branches :Wamasai and Waarusha .Wamasai are good in keeping cattle in large scale, they practice a nomadic type of life .Usually Wamasai they don’t make permanent settlements. Mostly they are found in the places where population density is low . Waarusha are found mostly in highland areas. They practises small scale farming of cattle and crops. Olgilai is dominated by Waarusha.

Still now in our village Olgilai we try to keep our traditional customs that we inherited from our forefathers. We have a system known as the ‘age set system‘. People are classified due to their born ages. The measurement that is taken to bring people into clans are boys circumcision, which happens at around the age of 12 years. These events take place on a seven year cycle. After those years this action will stop for seven years again to give a chance for the clan to grow and learn the rituals of the tribe. Those boys that have passed into this stage had the difficult period to learn a lot of things from the elders of the village. Elders are those grand parents they know more things about the way the tribe is run. They are great seers, they predicts a lot of things and bring resolutions to local disputes. They are respected by all people in the tribe because they play a great role in the development of the village.

There are another group known as morani. These are like the soldiers of the tribe, they have able bodies so they play a great part in the tribes development. This is including both girls and boys who have matured enough. In time past the Masai tribe believed that all cattle in the world are the rightful property of the Masai. It was the task of the morani to steal cattle from other tribes.

Due to the engagement of western culture in Africa you can find most of the tribes in Africa are becoming affected. In Olgilai you can find that is not too much affected, due to the economic situation of the village and the country , many people simply cannot afford many of the western goods and services. Electricity is not widespread in my village, so many aspects of western culture are not available. We don’t have computers in our village so I am typing this on the computer of my friend. The influence of western culture makes people concentrate on more economic or money making activities. Western religions bring the tribe to be faced with two spiritual sides, western christian rituals and traditional african ritual aspects. For my vision I concluded that Masai traditions are still strong and not affected much by western cultures.