Pole Samaki

Women in Tanzania like to wear two types of fabric: Kanga and Vitenge. If the large piece of cloth is simply a large sheet of patterned fabric it is called a kitenge (vitenge is plural). However, if the pattern of the fabric is meant to be a rectangular sheet and has a small fortune-cookie style saying on the bottom, it is a kanga. When I first went to the market to purchase kangas as gifts for friends and family, I was attracted to their beautiful colors. Unfortunately, Victoria told me that you are supposed to buy kangas for what they say and not what the pattern is, and all of the ones I liked had bad sayings written on them.

For a few examples, the kanga that I wear says that “God won’t stand in the way of what you are trying to achieve.” My sister’s says “Kiss Me.” My mom’s says, “Mama is mama until the end of time.” My friend’s says “The secret of live is love.” And my favorite is a blue kanga I saw yesterday at a store that says “Pole Samaki” with a picture of a big fish on it, which means “Sorry Fish.” Victoria and I got a good laugh out of that one but thought it looked a lot better on display than to actually be worn by anyone. Although I do have some vegetarian friends at home….

Many women of Tanzania wear kangas and vitenges. Kangas are extremely versatile because they can be wrapped around your waste as a skirt, they can be used to hold babies on your back, they can be wrapped around your head if you are Muslim or want protection from the sun, or they can serve as a towel or a blanket.

Vitenges can be used for all of the same purposes, but are also used by tailors to be made into clothes: skirts, dresses, and shirts for men and women. The cost of the fabric is usually 5 or 6 dollars and the cost of tailoring ranges between 7 and 20 dollars depending on how fancy you want your item to be made.

I was at first hesitant to wear the kanga that Victoria gave me upon my arrival to Tanzania because I wasn’t exactly clear what its function was. Tanga is a very hot place, and yet everyone seems to wear pants or skirts underneath their kanga or kitenge. Victoria mainly wears them in the kitchen to keep her clothes clean or uses them as a picnic blanket when she takes an afternoon snooze on the living room floor. The house girl uses them to tie her baby to her back so she can do work around the house and have both of her hands free and as a dress for her daughter when she gets out of the bath. The Muslim women in the community wear them for religious purposes. For myself, I just wear them whenI don’t get my clothes dirty in the kitchen or to cover my legs around the house when I am wearing pajama shorts for bed.

I finally asked Victoria about it, and it turns out most of my observations are correct. The only thing I missed is that if a Tanzanian women passes in front of her relatives, especially male relatives, she should be wearing either a kanga or kitenge. She would never pass in front of them wearing only trousers.

As for working women, many of them wear suits and other more Western style clothes. This is acceptable because if you see a woman wearing them you know that she is coming from work. However, once she gets home, I am told that she will most likely change immediately into her traditional clothes. Some women, however, will wear the traditional clothes to their work, or at least wear only skirts and dresses since their husbands do not like it when their wives wear pants.

I have not spent a lot of time in the Muslim community here, although it is very large. The attire of Muslim women ranges from complete covering from head to toe, sometimes without even a slit for the eye, to no special attire at all.

As for men, there is no special attire that they wear with the exception of a hat, which they call a head square. This is mainly worn by Muslim men, but can apparently be worn by anyone who wants to wear a hat. T-shirts, pants, suits, and everything else looks very similar to Western-style clothing, with the exception of some Muslim men who wear long, white dress-like outfits called a kanzu, especially when they go to pray.

As far as what I’ve been wearing goes, I prefer to wear clothes that cover at least my knees, but tend to feel more comfortable the longer the item. I can wear pants to school if I wish, although female teachers working there are not allowed to do so. I would have thought that covering up so much of my body in this heat would be a problem, but I appreciate the sun protection and feeling covered up when all eyes are on me.