Historical circumstances
The Unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964 resulted in the United Republic of Tanzania. It is the largest country in East Africa. Tanganyika became independent 9 December 1961 with Julius K. Nyerere as president, while Zanzibar gained independence 10 December 1963. Tanganyika was colonised by Germany from 1890-1919 and by Great Britain from 1919-1961. The country is divided into 26 regions: 21 on the mainland and 5 on Zanzibar. In 2007 the population was estimated to be ca. 41 million and today it is estimated to be 55,451,000 by CIA The World Factbook (2019). Dodoma is the capital, but Dar es Salaam is considered the commercial capital. There are 123 ethnic groups in Tanzania. Each group has at least one language of its own, but many groups have several vernaculars, or dialects within a vernacular. For instance a Chagga can speak Kimachame (a dialect of Chagga) as mother tongue, Swahili as a second language and English as third language. In the cities, the majorities have Swahili as their mother tongue. This was also the case for my informants.
Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro is the majestic mountain known as the roof of Africa. The etymology is debated, but one explanation is «Hill that cannot be climbed» in Kichagga. In 2002 the population of the Kilimanjaro region was 1,381,149 (Tanzania Government 2008a). Kilimanjaro region is number three in population density after Dar es Salaam and Mwanza. Chagga and Pare are the dominant ethnic groups. Kilimanjaro has fertile soil and spectacular sceneries, which make the region attractive. Incomes from taxing coffee farmers were used on public institutions. This made Kilimanjaro a progressive region compared to the rest of Tanganyika (Moore 1986: 118). Kilimanjaro’s coffee became an object of national interest, as a source for foreign currency.
There’s a concentration of the population in the highlands. The female population is the largest in all six districts. In 1988, there were 205,972 households with an average of 5.3 persons. The six districts are: Rombo, Mwanga, Same, Hai, Moshi Rural and Moshi City. Furthermore, the districts are divided into 26 divisions, 114 administrative units and 402 villages (KSEP 1998). There are two rainy seasons: The major in April-May, and a minor in September-November. The warmest of the two dry seasons is in December-January, and the other in July-August. There has been communications between Kilimanjaro and the rest of the world for thousands of years (Moore 1986).
The region has full primary education, and is known to be one of the best educated regions of Tanzania. The headmaster of Mtaa Secondary School thought this was so, because Kilimanjaro was the first destination of the missionaries. An acceptance of the new religion gave the local population access to education administered by German missionaries.
Chagga
The Chagga are the major ethnic group of Kilimanjaro. They are known to be well educated and business minded people. The Chagga have a Western educated elite and a «strong connection to the international economy, to which they sell terrific Arabica Coffee» (Moore 1986: 11).
You can find Chagga members in various locations in Tanzania. «The Chagga are maybe the most mobile ethnic group of the country, living in all regions because of work, education or business» (KSEP 1998). Many of them have found their way to the administration in the commercial centre, Dar es Salaam. A teacher at Mtaa could proudly state: «You will find Chagga people everywhere in the world. Even in your country. If you meet Tanzanians there, they will turn out to be Chagga.» The Finnish anthropologist Päivi Hasu (1999) has claimed that for the Chagga, accepting Christianity was instrumental to acquiring material wealth.
The migration of Bantu people to Kilimanjaro started 500-600 year ago (Moore 1995). Thus, Chagga is a group consisting of a mix of Bantu peoples. There are no particular origin of the word «Chagga» to be found, but a guide at Chagga Live Museum in Marangu, explained to me that it means a formation of many tribes. The most came from Kenya, like Kamba, Taita and Kikuyu. Morover, Sambaa-people came from southeast, as well as Meru and Masaii from Arusha. The guide continued: «Chagga is from our friends, the Pare, as an amusing nickname. In Kipare, Chagga means «kill.» In Chagga Pare means to «beat.» We call eachother names and crack jokes, like a family» (Edward 2008 [interview]).
A former teacher I met, had another story about the origin of Chagga. He claimed people would say «cha! cha!» to explain that they are busy and wanted to be left alone (Haikamen 2007 [interview]). Put in the stereotypical framing of Chagga as a business minded entrepreneurs, it somehow makes sense.
Some of the chiefdoms were more powerful than others, but there were no central government over Chagga land. The consolidation of these chiefdoms was reached only after the German colonizing power forced it upon them. In mid-19th century the Chagga domesticated cattle and and horticulture. They were relatively wealthy and divided into ca. 30 chiefdoms (Moore 1986). Bruno Gutmann (1926), a missionary and chronicler for the Chagga, estimated the population of the chiefdom Moshi to be 7000 (ibid.). The total population of chiefdoms in Kilimanjaro region was estimated to be ca 100.000. Each chiefdom was divided into districts (mtaa, mitaa (pl.)). The demographic pattern was virilocal: «After the wedding the woman would move from her home to the location her husband’s lineage was settled» (ibid: 18).
The German missionary Johannes Rebmann was in 1848 the first European to visit Kilimanjaro. By then, the Chagga had well established trading networks. The native population assumed Rebmann’s agenda also was commercial. The fixed trading routes went east towards the Indian Ocean, inland and north and south to the lakes Victoria and Tanganyika. There were markets in Kilimanjaro long before the colonial times. Every chiefdom had at least one market (ibid.).
Parenting
The central focus in this thesis is on the use of power, and now I will briefly consider discipline at home. The ethnographer Otto Raum has documented how children were punished if they didn’t obey orders. In his book Chagga Childhood (1940) he states that corporal punishment were common among the Chagga. He based his book partly on the works of Bruno Gutmann. Shepherds who came with cattle for water too late in the morning, or came home too early in the evening «get yelled at or beaten» (Raum 1940: 201). If a cow dies or gets lost, the common punishment would be 15 blows with a stick.
Raum describes punishment as either deserved, formative, or as retaliation. «A more correct interpretation would be to consider these motives as aspects of one phenomenon» (ibid: 225). He claims that the mother beats the child if it refuses to eat, and if it eats soil or dung. The father is responsible to punish older children, but rarely girls. The punishment is performed with the hand or a stick. To make it more painful, salt and fat could be put on the children’s buttocks. Another form of torture Raum writes of, is to place children in a net full of nettle while rubbing them. According to him, this punishment also was common among other ethnic groups nearby.
After punishment, the child is nurtured gently. According to Raum, this proves that the parents are acting affectively while punishing the child. Furthermore, he claims that the effect of corporal punishment depends on how surprising it is (ibid: 227). A child could be tied up and put in the attic if caught stealing. Another punishment could be to ground the child in a cabin with no food for a night or day, if the child irritates them enough. A broker can, however, help the children escape such punishments. For a girl, the mother’s brother or father’s sister could be broker. For a boy, he would maybe ask a well renown man to assist reconciling with the father. In chapter 4, we will discuss the strict role of fathers in relation to the mother’s brother.
Raum explains that the Chagga adjust the punishments according to the age of the children. Generally speaking, the punishments become more severe, but less frequent, with age. Youth are rarely punished after turning 15 years old. There are restrictions on which kind of punishment is advisable. Violence against the head is prohibited. So as using a club. A more suitable method, is to use a stick or a part of a banana leaf, or giving a slap or to pinch the skin. The father punishes more than the mother, who is milder. Raum conludes:
«The educating function of punishment, is to control the child’s interference of paternal or maternal authority, and reinforce a subordinate status of the child. It corrects the relations between successive generations within the family» (ibid: 231).
Punishments such as these, are also legitimated in proverbs. Raum distinguishes parental from judicial punishments. Parental punishments reinstate harmony between the stakeholders in the family, and has reconciliation as an end. With this in mind, I now would like to present my host family.
The African home
In January 2007, I came to Tanzania. I learned some Swahili from a course, but communicated mostly in English with my informants. Via a teacher I got to know the headmaster of Mtaa Secondary School, the central arena of my «field.» This was in Moshi, which had approximately 145 000 inhabitants at the time. Via a Norwegian family I got acquainted with my hosts in Moshi. A family of seven with three adults and four children. Originating from the Usambara mountains they were muslims like the majority population of that region. Two children, Nabilah (12) and Haleef (9) went to a public primary school, while Naadir (10) attended a private primary school. I observed the children i classroom situations, and got to know them in different contexts. Naadi’s mom, Zareenah, ran her own hairdressing saloon, which I also visited. The parents of Haleef and Nabilah were also welcoming and including at home. As mentioned, Mtaa Secondary School was the main arena for this study. Zareenah’s cousin, Nathifa, was a student there and thus became my first acquaintance there. Her friends later became a group of central informants. The teacher, Godfrey, who introduced me to the headmaster at Mtaa, also introduced me to his brother, Aaron, who became my interpreter. He assisted me throughout the fieldwork.
The educational system
Tanzania was on its way to reach one of the Millennium goals of the UN, to have free universal primary school within 2015. Still, only nine percent of students from primary school, continue with secondary education. The educational system of Tanzania is based on the British. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has decided that the progression should be 2-7-4-2-3+. That means two years of preschool, seven years of primary school (Standard 1-7), secondary school contains four years Ordinary level (O-level, Form I-IV), and then two years of Advanced level (A-level, Form V-VI) which qualifies to further university studies of three years or more.
Swahili became official language of instruction after the Arusha declaration from 1967. According to Birgit Brock-Utne (2000) the plan was to introduce Swahili as language of instruction in the whole educational system. All subjects in Form I and II were supposed to be taught in Swahili, but this reform was stopped. Still, there is a debate about language of instruction in the secondary school. In chapter 3, I will elaborate this debate and hopefully contribute with some ethnographic data and information.
The grade scale is from A to F, and the students are divided in divisions according to the results. Division I is best, and Division IV is lowest. National tests in different levels are the basis for qualification to higher levels. Participation in O-level is determined by a certain threshold of points from the closing exam of primary school (Vuzo 2007). The average from closing exams from Form IV during the decade of 1996-2005 showed that 11.6 % of the students were in Division I or II; 19.5 % in Division III; 51 % qualified for Division IV, while 17.9 % failed (Mwinsheikhe 2007). The students in secondary school are thus not performing well. Several scholars (i.e. Brock-Utne 2000; Vuzo 2007; Mwinsheikhe 2007; Roy-Campbell & Qorro 1997) have blamed these low results on the educational policy, something I will describe closer in the next chapter.
Mtaa Secondary School
Mtaa Secondary School’s motto is Self-discipline and academic excellence. It is a private secondary school established in 1985. It is owned by Moshi diocese and run by a Catholic organisation with offices in 25 countries worldwide. The headmaster must be a member of this organisation. The school’s vision is «to raise the students with the knowledge necessary to meet the future challenges with integrity, honesty and honour.»
There were 2010 students at the time of my fieldwork. The number of students had increased lately. At the starting point it had just 160 students. Enrollment to the school was independent of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic affiliation, but the majority were Chagga and Christian of one or the other denomination. My focus was in Form V when I came, and in Form VI, where my main informants were attending at the time of my departure. Mtaa is known to be among the best schools of Moshi. The headmaster claimed they had the means necessary to run a school well.
«We have classrooms, laboratories, enough teachers, library, and we ensure ourselves that the teachers do their jobs. These are a few reasons that make this a good school. The other is the results, the national results from Form V and VI. In Form VI they perform very well. 75 % of the students who fulfill A-level, qualify for university studies. This fact attracts parents. The same goes for those who finish Form IV and qualify for A-level. […] 85 % are qualified for A-level after O-level. Parents who bring their child here, know most of the students pass and move on to A-level, and thus they have a chance to attend university. That is why this school is attractive for parents.«
Even though Mtaa is a popular school, the number of students in each class was quite high. The national standard ration is 45 students per teacher, but at Mtaa most classes I observed contained more than 60 students. Kilimanjaro as a region had the lowest average student/teacher ratio in 1996 (KSEP 1998).
The classrooms of Mtaa were rather dark and warm. With bars in front of the windows, they prevented burglary. Two guards watched the gate and wore uniforms in green. Somehow the school reminded me of a prison, but only in the beginning. These associations were strengthened by the strict practice of disciplining students. Students who arrived after 7:30, got punished in one or the other way. On type of punish was that students had to do was to jump like a frog through the gate and into the school yard. Another punishment was to line up all late-comers along the school road, and then they had to do squats on the command of the headmaster. These forms of punishment are corporal. When I spoke to students of punishment, the interpreted the word as meaning solely corporal punishment. In this setting I differed from them by understanding punishment also as something else than just physical types of penalties. With a pedagogical training in advance of this fieldwork, corporal punishment seemed as an archaic form of pedagogy. Still, it is normal in Tanzania. In chapter 4 my aim is to understand why.
A-level at Mtaa has 12 different programs. Nathifa attended the program History, Swahili and English (HKL) and History, Geography and English (HGL). In addition to these programs I observed lessons in ECA, EGM and PCB.
Secondary school in Tanzania
After gaining independence in 1961, the building of secondary schools was limited. Universal primary education was the main goal. The government didn’t want to educate large populations of secondary school candidates who couldn’t get employed (Brock-Utne 2000). Many boarding schools were built. Some studies have shown that students in boarding schools perform better than students in day schools (ibid.). Students would tell me that they preferred boarding schools, because they got more time for homework, free electricity, board and lodging. Moreover, they would escape domestic duties.
Two secondary school I visited in the Kilimanjaro region were boarding schools. They were both in the top ranking based on national exams. A ranking from 1983 showed that among 164 schools, the 41 best were all boarding schools (ibid.).
Most of the lessons I observed were concentrated on the teacher, and could be rubricated as lectures. The teachers are the centers of knowledge and conductors of the learning process (Vuzo 2007). Now and again the students had to repeat what the teacher said. This type of pedagogy, focusing on repetition and rote learning, is what Paolo Freire (1993) calls banking. The students are seen as empty containers to be filled with knowledge. Within this concept, «knowledge is a gift given by those who consider themselves knowledgeable, to those who they consider novices» (Freire 1993: 53). Does English as a language of instruction contribute to this kind of pedagogy? Gregory Bateson (1972) wrote that learning means a form of change. Rote learning is for Bateson the simplest form of learning, together with so-called «zero learning: When you show a minimal rate of change in responding on repeated impulses of the senses» (ibid.: 283). By learning the syllabus by heart, the students also learn that the strategy of rote learning, with certain consequences. In the following, I will address how learning and teaching takes place with English and Swahili as languages of instruction.