MTO WA MBU: Beyond the Road

written by Katherine Millett

At Mto wa Mbu (OOM-tow-wa-OOM-boo), irrigation changed everything. The land no longer cracks into white gashes of dusty soda criss-crossing miles of dark, volcanic soil. Now, ditches meander through banana groves and past family farms, turning hundreds of acres green and fertile. In the 1950's, foreign aid funds were used to dam a swamp. Ever since, members of different Tanzanian tribes have farmed side-by-side at the northwestern edge of Manyara National Park, near the base of the Gregorian escarpment in the Great Rift Valley.

This is a settlement of scattered huts and peaceful coexistence. Maasai cattle herders live a stone's throw from Chagga farmers and angi basketmakers. Papyrus grows near rice and bananas. The Sandawe make bows and arrows to hunt small game. Kingoma farmers press palm kernels into oil and tend patches of beans and maize. Goats, chickens and cattle come and go.

On the road nearby, tourist vans stop so passengers can stretch their legs en route between Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. Those who stay on the main road, among ramshackle banana booths and souvenir stands, will probably get the wrong impression of Mto wa Mbu. They will see roadside hype, but not village life. The climax of their visit may be a sip of banana beer, a brew best appreciated in the abstract.

Those who leave the main road, however, can follow winding dirt paths through an exercise in modernization. Mto wa Mbu, named "River of Mosquitoes" during the old swamp days, became arable fifty years ago. People who were barely surviving at traditional pursuits like hunting and herding moved to the area. The settlement now has a district council to oversee water distribution and a small business run by Maasai women who make energy efficient stoves. The local papyrus is woven into mats and baskets for sale, and bananas grown on the farms are sold throughout Tanzania.

Mto wa Mbu stands as an example of economic self-determination. Foreign aid made arable land available, but no one forced the current residents to farm it. Those who chose to move to Mto wa Mbu built their own dwellings, plotted and planted their own fields and gardens. The result blurs the lines between tribes, and it subordinates old ways of life to small-scale farming. On the other hand, it has been far more successful than the Tanzanian government's "villagization" efforts, which have repeatedly tried to move Maasai pastoralists into pre-fab housing. A trip beyond the road at Mto wa Mbu offers a thought-provoking view of modern Tanzania.