Air Tanzania, TWIGA issue 14

Issue 14 / July to September 2022

YO U R F R E E A I R TA N Z A N I A M AGA ZINE

T R AV E L / TA STE / TALEN T

Twiga A I R TA N Z A N I A Issue 14

The Great Meditation Mindful safaris

Wildlife winners The best images from Ngoteya Wild's photo competition

My time in Tanga

Author Melanie Finn's wild writing retreat

KIBUBU Pay for your flight in instalments Visit airtanzania.co.tz

contents 31

23

35

Regulars

Features

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8

CEO foreword

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16 Pori photo competition

Air Tanzania news

Showcasing the work of up and coming wildlife photographers

13 Twiga competition Win a return flight to Nairobi for you and a friend

20 The Royal Tour President Samia Sulu Hassan leads a guide to Tanzania's tourism riches

38 24 hours in… Mumbai 40 Cookery column

The prize-winning US author on the influence of East Africa in her writing

28 Rugby in Tanzania Why women are leading Tanzania’s rugby revolution

54 Faysal’s blog 54 Sound and vision

31 Noor Design Handmade fashion for a Tanzanian beach break

54 Arts column 57 Swahili story Mtaka Nyingi Nasaba…

Is published by: Land & Marine Publications (Tanzania) Ltd 4th floor, Josam House Block A, along Coca Cola Road Mikocheni Area, Dar es Salaam Tel: +255 686 118 816 www.landmarine.com Head Office: Land & Marine Publications Ltd 1 Kings Court, Newcomen Way Severalls Business Park, Colchester, Essex, UK, CO4 9RA Tel: +44 (0)1206 752902 Email: publishing@landmarine.com

35 Mindful safaris How to find your inner smile in the wild

Read Twiga online: qrs.ly/qdbooco

43 Business Beyond order: a customer centric approach

44 Airbnb in East Africa Meet the African Superhosts

46 Legal eye Tax planning: do you mitigate or avoid?

47 Chumbe Island

23 Melanie Finn

With Belinda Mkony

52 Happy Tech

Get happy in a heartbeat 30 quick fixes to improve your mood

Adding to our fleet and flights

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Garlanded nature reserve launches new season of attractions

Air Tanzania information 59 60 60 62 64

Twiga miles Travel information Air Tanzania fleet Air Tanzania destinations Air Tanzania contacts

On behalf of: Call toll free: 0800 110 045

Editor: Mark Edwards markedwards@landmarine.com Advertising sales: Catherine O’Callaghan Tel: +44 (0)7944 212063 (WhatsApp) Email: catherineocallaghan@landmarine.com Godfrey S. Urassa Tel: +255 (0) 686 118 816 (WhatsApp) Email: godfreyurassa@landmarine.com Printed by Jamana Printers Ltd, Dar es Salaam

@AirTanzania Air Tanzania Company Ltd (ACTL) Second floor, ATC House, Ohio Street Dar es Salaam. Email: info@airtanzania.co.tz Office (JNIA) Telephone: +255 222113248 Jerry Ngewe, Marketing Executive, Email: jerry.ngewe@airtanzania.co.tz

@airtanzania airtanzania_atcl For the latest flights, information and to book online, visit:

www.airtanzania.co.tz

The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor, or any other organisation associated with this publication. No liability can be accepted for any inaccuracies or omissions. ©2022 Land & Marine Publications Ltd.

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Photograph courtesy of Mindful Adventures

CEO foreword

EDITOR’S NOTE Finding your passion is integral to happiness and success in life.

In this issue of Twiga, you'll find plenty of examples of people who have thrown themselves into their favourite pursuits, whether it is the wildlife photographers showcased by Ngoteya Wild's Pori competition who are driven by their love of nature and conservation or rugby player Fatma El-Kindiy who is encouraging more Tanzanian women to get involved in a sport that changed her life. Then there's author Melanie Finn, who is reliving and reimagining her journalistic adventures in East Africa thropugh a series of dark and engrossing novels. If you still unsure as to what your passion is, get inspiration from our listicle '30 Ways To Improve Your Mood', which will give you plenty of ideas on bringing more happiness into your day. Who knows, it could even prove the stepping stone you've been looking for to find your passion. Happy reading! markedwards@landmarine.com

www.airtanzania.co.tz Follow us on:

Adding to our fleet and flights It is with great pleasure that I welcome you onboard your Air Tanzania flight today and to our inflight magazine, Twiga.

I’d like to take the chance to update you on some of the latest developments at our airline, Tanzania’s national carrier. As part of our network expansion plans in Africa we recently launched double daily flights to Nairobi operated by our newly delivered pair of Airbus A220-300s. We are also connecting other African countries with India through increasing the frequency of flights from Lubumbashi, Harare and Lusaka to Mumbai via our Julius Nyerere International Airport hub in Dar es Salaam.

We have also taken important steps towards securing the return of flights to Guangzhou, in China, with our government having put in place the latest Covid testing equipment to meet Chinese protocols.

With Air Tanzania’s long-term growth in mind, we have also consolidated our relationship with Boeing. We currently have 11 aircraft in our fleet. When you add the four aircraft ordered from Boeing that will be 15. Plus the one Q400 expected in 2023, the total tally will be 16 aircraft, making us the second largest carrier in East Africa. To show its appreciation for our longterm commitment, Boeing has agreed to train Air Tanzania’s senior staff on courses here and in the UK. Finally, we have kept expanding our unmatched network of destinations across Tanzania with latest additions including an increase in frequency of flights between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma.

It just remains for me to wish you a safe and comfortable flight and, on behalf of Air Tanzania, we look forward to sharing the skies with you again soon.

Eng. Ladislaus Matindi Managing Director and Chief Executive Air Tanzania

@AirTanzania @airtanzania airtanzania_atcl Air Tanzania ATCL airtanzania.co.tz / 5

Air Tanzania news

Accra, Ghana here we come

Felix Lipov / Shutterstock.com

Greetings Ghana, because before the year is out Air Tanzania will be including West Africa country’s capital, Accra, among its evergrowing network of destinations. Ahead of the commencement of direct flights between Accra and Dar es Salaam, the Executive Director of Air Tanzania met with key stakeholders in the tourism and trade industries at the Tanzania-Ghana Tourism, Investment and Trade Forum in the Ghanaian capital.

Also at the event was Dr Benson Alfred Bana, the Tanzania High Commissioner to Abuja, with oversight responsibility to Ghana, who said the new route would ease the movement of people, goods, services and capital between Ghana and Tanzania.

Look out for details on how to make the most of your Accra adventure in the next issue of Twiga.

Visit airtanzania.co.tz to book your trip or call free on 0800 110 045 for more information.

BOEING DEAL SECURES MORE AIRCRAFT AND TRAINING Air Tanzania has deepened its relationship with Deepens Relationship with Boeing – the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial transport jets – with the signing of a new MoU. The agreement will include Boeing training Air Tanzania staff. According to Boeing’s marketing director for Middle East and Africa Hamza Bunnya, the training will last “a couple of years” and will be split between the UK and Tanzania.

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Boeing sales director for Middle East and Africa Moore Ibekwe Jr said the training is reward for the airline’s trust in Boeing and will equip Air Tanzania with new leaders for a sustainable future.

Air Tanzania currently operates two Boeing 787 Dreamliners and is expected to take delivery of new aircraft from Boeing early next year.

A historic step towards flights to the US

MORE FLIGHTS TO MUMBAI From July 3, we are giving our customers even more opportunities to fly to India’s City of Dreams with four flights every week between Dar es Salaam and Mumbai. Flights will be every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The meeting was held at the at the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam and follows the recent visit to the US by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to open new markets for Air Tanzania.

The TSA representatives advised the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) on the security procedures for gaining

approval for direct flights to the US from the country’s Federal Administration.

This is an important, historic step in the relationship between Tanzania and the US.

CONTACT US contactcentre@airtanzania.co.tz

0800 110045 Toll Free (Tanzania only)

Tel: +255 022 212 5221 For the latest flights, information and to book online, visit:

Ericky Boniphace / Shutterstock.com

Air Tanzania is closer to scheduled flights to the US after the US Commercial Service and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) arrived in Tanzania for talks.

www.airtanzania.co.tz Follow us on:

@AirTanzania @airtanzania airtanzania_atcl Air Tanzania ATCL

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30 ways to improve your mood

GET HAPPY IN A HEARTBEAT 30 quick fixes to improve your mood Feeling down? There are several simple things that you can do to boost your mood and turn that frown upside down. From our tips below, just try the ones that you feel most comfortable with or that are easiest for you.

DESIGN YOUR WORKSPACE AS A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT

the lighting cool and white, as this is the closest tone to natural lighting. If there is space, a mirror can also be added as these brighten the room by reflecting light and make small spaces appear larger.

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HUG A DOG

Pets, especially dogs and cats, have been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and depression and ease loneliness in their owners. Dar es Salaam pet sanctuary Every Living Thing (ELT) rescues anywhere between 25 and 40 animals a month. You don’t even have to commit to owning a pet to support its amazing work with scheduled dog beach walks and hug a pet pop-up events to be a part of. ELT project manager says adopting a rescue pet is as therapeutic for the new owner as it is for the animal that gets a much-deserved loving home. She says: “Many people come into our shelter looking for a new companion but what they don’t realise is that the love and patience they extend to a rescue dog is actually in many ways changing their lives as much as the dogs. Both the dog and the human are experiencing a positive interaction which is a form of therapy. Dogs also provide a distraction from stress and they force us to exercise which is one of the best ways to manage stress. Not to mention that dogs can be silly and provide comic relief as well!” The dog beach walks take place every Saturday morning from 7.30am on Coco Beach. All are welcome.

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Sandra A Mushi, the founder and principal designer at Dar es Salaam interior design agency Creative Studios Limited, offers some tips: “Set up your home office in the quietest corner of your house so you are free from distractions. Human being have an innate desire to connect with nature so if your work space does not have an outdoor view, bring the outside in with a desk plant. It will create some visual variety from your screen and can also help improve the air quality of your space if you choose one that removes pollutants from the air. Lighting can also have a positive impact on your mood so keep your space well-lit to ensure your eyes do not get tired or strained while you’re working. Try to make

Cultivate a welcome working from home environment

WATCH SOME COMEDY 3

It’s true, laughter is the best medicine. Nothing works faster to relax your body and tackle stress. If you are in Dar, comedy club Punchline Africa TZ hosts weekly stand-up shows in Flames Restaurant in Masaki featuring upcoming and establishing acts from across the continent. Visit punchline.or.tz for details.

EAT SOME DARK CHOCOLATE 4

Desk plants can bring the outside in to your home office

Scientific studies have shown that chocolate with a high concentration of cacao can have positive effects on mood, memory and stress levels.

The bean to bar organic chocolate handmade by Tanzanian-run company Chocolate Mamas contains 100 per cent pure cacao.

Check out the range at their stall in the Slipway, Dar es Salaam, or visit their stall at the Oyster Bay Farmers’ Market on the last Saturday of every month.

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DRINK MORE WATER 5

Water is a great natural mood booster. Being even mildly dehydrated can contribute to low energy, anxiety, nervousness, depression and brain fog. Drinking a glass of water will soon have you feeling brighter.

VISIT AN ART GALLERY 6

Scientists have shown that when a person looks at a piece of art they see as beautiful, then there is an instantaneous release of dopamine, a chemical that is linked to feelings of love, in the brain. Here, Rebecca Mzengi Corey, director of Nafasi Arts Space in Dar es Salaam, shares some tips on how to get the most from your gallery visit. “According to scientific studies, looking at a piece of art can increase the blood flow to the brain by as much as 10 per cent – which is equivalent to the effect of looking at someone you love! Art has the ability to open both the heart and the mind. I would suggest it actually helps create a path between the two, where you can feel your thoughts and think about your feelings in ways that connect you more deeply to yourself as well as the world. When working with young artists, I always encourage them to take more time looking at each piece of art in an exhibition, rather than rushing through. An artist will

likely have spent dozens of hours or even weeks working on a single piece, so spending at least five to ten minutes to look at all of the details and choices the artist has made and the meanings they have poured into their work will be sure to reward the viewer.”

“I can have noodles in the morning for breakfast, lunch & dinner, hot or cold. I don’t need a reason to make something this easy and delicious.

Especially when my cravings kick in.”

COOK A NEW DISH 7

The sound of a bubbling sauce, the feel of slicing and dicing vegetables, the aromas filling your room and the rich colour of your ingredients.

Cooking is very grounding, attuning you to your senses and the moment.

No wonder then that it’s such a emotional pick-me-up and the feeling of satisfaction gained when seeing the end product – especially when it’s a dish you’ve never tried before – naturally enhances happiness. Here Twiga food columnist Belinda Mkony shares a quick and easy treat that is a real mood booster.

"My love for noodles started in University. I appreciated how diverse, quick and affordable they were for every student with a budget. So I learned how to experiment with them and make different sauces. It could be Asian , Italian , or whatever I can scrap from my fridge. They come in all sizes, Thin, wide, egg, rice or delicate Angel hair, I normally select whatever I have in my pantry to suit your hunger level.

Noodle lover Belinda Mkony

Swim for fitness and fun

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LEARN TO SWIM

With Tanzania’s lakes, stretch of Indian Ocean coastline and Zanzibar archipelago, there are so many opportunities for a mood-enhancing swim. Learn and you have a life-long skill that builds fitness and could end up saving your or someone else’s life.

On Unguja and Pemba – the largest Zanzibar islands where the majority of the population is still made up of non-swimmers – NGO The Panje Project runs swimming lessons for all ages. Its grant manager Muhammad Said says: “By the time the training ends, a person has the ability to swim at least 25 metres as well being able to roll from their front to their back and back to front. They will also be able to stay afloat for more than 60 seconds. We believe this gives them the means to survive around water.

These skills can be further developed after the training by any person who is interested.” airtanzania.co.tz

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EXPLORE YOUR OWN ENVIRONMENT 9

Sometimes we are too busy to even appreciate our own towns or cities.

So, why not try being a tourist in your own town and really explore what it has to offer. Tour guide Bernard Laulian is an expert in the hidden history of Dar es Salaam. Connect with him @bendarchtz on Instagram to find out more.

strain and experience an emotional release. It has even been proven that painting can improve problem solving and motor skills. From midday on Saturday and Sunday you can paint the afternoon away in the shady bamboo courtyard while soaking up the creative energy that the art gallery, artisan shops and bar bistro has on offer.” For bookings, call +255 (0)693 340 083 or connect @thedrumtz on Instagram.

Attract a red-billed firefinch to your outdoor space

PAINT YOUR NAILS 12 JOIN IN A GAME IN WILD COLOURS WITH STRANGERS 10

Getting your nails painted is an affordable, age-less way of cheering yourself up and unlike a new lipstick or eye colour you can see your nails all day. As for colours, the brighter the better. Dar salon Sukari Nail Bar and Shop, located in Mbezi Beach, has an expert team dedicated to your nail needs. Visit sukarinails.com

EXPRESS YOURSELF AND LEARN A NEW CRAFT 11

Art soothes the soul and community arts hub The Drum, in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam, is a great place to pursue its calming and creative effect. Founder Rebecca Young says: “Every weekend at The Drum there are blank canvases, brushes and paints ready for anyone who has the urge to get creative and paint. Painting is a great way for people to relax, relieve mental

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END YOUR WORKING DAY PROPERLY 14

In Tanzania, there are many opportunities to see pick-up games of football or volleyball on the beach.

It is often a case of the more, the merrier so don’t be afraid to ask to join in. If you are not the sporty type, a wander through many Tanzanian streets will reveal games of dominoes or the traditional East African board game of bao going on with plenty of coffee and chat thrown in. You’ll get a mind workout and catch up on some local gossip.

PUT UP A BIRD FEEDER

Signalling to yourself that you have clocked off for the day, especially if you are WFH, is important. So, leave your work at work and create an end-of-day-celebration such as a walk, a swim or a coffee with friends to usher in your ‘me’ time.

HAVE A SPA TREATMENT 15

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Tanzania is home to more than a thousand species of bird and you can watch some of them flock in to your garden or windowsill with a bird feeder. January Ching’enya, lead guide for Tanzanian tour company Kwazi Birding and Tours, says: “Red billed firefinch, blue

waxbill and pytilia are seed-eating birds found in East Africa. They are easy to attract with bird feeders since most of them are found within urban environments and coastal scrubs.” Visit kwazi.co.tz for more details on its birding tours.

Pamper yourself with a spa treatment

Pampering yourself with a spa treatment is a great way to promote relaxation and support a healthy lifestyle. Tanzania is home to a wealth of hotels and resorts with wellness treatments included in their portfolio of facilities. You’ll also find independent establishments, such as Mrembo Spa, in Stone Town, which offers a range of traditional Swahili treatments using locally sourced oils and spices for a truly Tanzanian treat.

Visit mrembospa.com

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Want to know how to unblock your kitchen sink, build a fire, rescue a burnt cake or even fight a shark?

YouTube is the home of almost limitless online tutorials. Tanzanian blogger and Twiga columnist Faysal is an avid YouTube learner. He says: “As a content creator I have always admired videos that feature cool transitions and YouTube really helped me learn how to make B-rolls and plays with masks and opacity. It has been an education.”

READ AN INSPIRATIONAL BOOK 17

Books can make you realise how powerful you can be in your life and that optimism for the future is a massive mood boost. Tanzanian lawyer Joy Alliy is the author of the inspiring memoir The Metamorphosis of a Butterfly, which chronicles her recovery from a life-changing stroke in her early 40s. here she recommends a book that inspired her. She says: “Safe People: How To Find Relationships That are Good for You by Dr Henry McCloud and Dr John Townsend made me reflect about friendships, relationships and family during my journey.

Many times in life we can across people who lack empathy and are irresponsible, untrustworthy, unstable and self-centered. Safe People helps you identify the traits of such people and learn how to be safe.”

INVENT A COCKTAIL

than the smell of freshly ground coffee to awaken your senses in the morning.”

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Making a cocktail is almost as satisfying as drinking one! The effort of turning a drink into a work of art is absorbing and if you really want to test your mixologist skills, why not invent your own cocktail.

WRITE A GRATITUDE JOURNAL 20

Upgrade your coffee experience Image: Osse Greca Sinare

GRIND YOUR COFFEE BEANS 19

We all know caffeine-packed coffee is a great pick-me up, but upgrading the experience by grinding your own coffee will prove a very rewarding ritual. Abbas Jaffer Ali, the founder of specialist coffee café Atom Coffee Hub, in Dar es Sallaam, says: “Freshly ground coffee beans preserve the flavour, acidity, aroma and sweetness that naturally exists in the coffee. Pre-ground coffee on the other hand has normally been sapped of these elements to the environment and the lack of carbon dioxide. Also, there’s nothing better

Focusing on the positive aspects of your life is good for your wellbeing.

Completing a daily gratitude journal – you may find it best to write before you go to bed so you can look back over your day – has been shown to result in raised optimism and will reveal however bad things get there is always plenty to be thankful for.

WASH WITH NATURAL SOAP 21

Full of antioxidants to soothe the skin and with the aromatherapeutic benefits of pure essential oils, natural soaps will get you feeling good.

For a range of Tanzanian handmade soaps filled with all-natural ingredients, check out inayazanzibar.com

SURPRISE A FRIEND WITH A GIFT 22

Osse Greca Sinare

LEARN A NEW SKILL ON YOUTUBE 16

Show a friend or family member how much you value them with an out-of-the-blue gift. Turn up at their door with a cake baked just for them and see them smile. For some unique cakes and pastries, take a look at the range from Arusha bakers @leean_cakes on Instagram

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TAKE A MINIBREAK

Explore a part of Tanzania you’ve never visited before. It’s a great way to add some adventure and novelty into your life. Travel company Unzip Tanzania is organises a series of funfilled trips to some of the country’s more off-the-beaten-track locations.

For more details, go to @unziptanzania on Facebook as parks and gardens to escape the urban hustle. Nature walks are great mental and physical therapy, calming worries, improving your flexibility and even revving up your metabolism.

EXPERIMENT WITH PHOTOGRAPHY 24

Taking photographs is a great way to chronicle your life, but it is also an art form and one in which through a little learning and experimentation you can get some surprisingly beautiful results. Tanzanian Imani Nsamila was once President Magafuli’s official photographer and his latest collection – highlighting the effects of climate change – is currently on exhibition at the Harbor Museum in Hamburg, Germany. Here he shares a couple of tips for beginners.

“Always shoot as much as possible.

Most of it will be no good, but there may be one bit of magic there. Also, don’t be afraid to look crazy. If the shot you want requires you to lie flat on the ground while people walk around you or to climb up on a wall, just do it. Don’t worry about what everyone else thinks. Focus on the shot,” he says.

GET SOME EARLY SUNSHINE 25

The sun loads your body with benefits such as immunity-boosting vitamin D. Get outside early and you’ll get that vitamin and hormone hit to carry you through the day. The sunshine also helps synchronise the body with its natural 24-hour circadian rhythm so when night falls you are ready to drift off into restful sleep – primed to attack the next day.

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TURN UP THE TUNES 29

LIGHT A SCENTED CANDLE 26

Be nice to your nose and light a scented candle

Our sense of smell is linked to memory and mood so be nice to your nose and light a scented candle.

Tanzanian company Melba Candles in the Slipway, Dar es Salaam, has a sweet-smelling range hand-crafted from soy wax. Visit @melbacandles_ on Instagram

MEDITATE FOR A MINUTE 30

PLANT ONE MANAGEABLE THING 27

Many studies back up that gardening can do wonders for your health and wellbeing. Not sure which plant to begin with, well how about one also considered to also have mood-boosting properties such as lemon balm, the fragrant leaves of which are traditionally used as a tonic to combat stress and nervous issues.

TAKE A WALK IN NATURE 28

Tanzania is blessed with abundant and diverse natural spaces, but even if you are stuck in a city you’ll find there are green spaces such

Pick some of your favourite music, crank up the volume and start dancing. One for the playlist? Try Anjella’s block-rocking new single ‘Toroka’, featuring Harmonize.

Bring a moment of calm to your day with meditation

Just 60 seconds is all it takes to calm your mind. Wherever you are, focus on taking slow, controlled breaths in and out through your nose. Four seconds on the inhale and four seconds on the exhale. Repeat throughout the day whenever you feel your stress levels rise.

competition

WIN

WIN A RETURN FLIGHT TO NAIROBI FOR YOU AND A FRIEND ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS To be in with a chance of winning, email your answers to the three questions below along with a photograph of yourself holding Twiga 14 on your Air Tanzania flight to competition@landmarine.org by 15th September 2022. Bahati njema!

1

What is the name of the village in Pemba where Tanzania’s President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was born?

2

What is the title of the Melanie Finn novel set in Tanga?

3

How many points do you score for a try in rugby union?

COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Prizes dependent on availability.

One entry per person. Entrants must be 18 years or over. The decision of the organisers will be final. The competition is not open to employees and their relatives of Air Tanzania or Land & Marine Publications Ltd. The prize does not include accomodation at the destination. Images are for representation only.

A

ir Tanzania is back flying every day from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi after a nearly two decade-long break. With this issue’s competition prize, we are making a stay in Kenya’s capital even easier with a free return ticket for one winner and a guest of their choice. To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, answer the three questions below and email the answers along with a picture of yourself holding your copy of Twiga on your Air Tanzania flight. Good luck!

Last issue’s

WINNER Congratulations to Jessica Silaa who wins a night for two at The Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam. Well done and thanks for flying Air Tanzania.

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Pori photo competition

'Photographers live for these moments' The Pori Photo competition was launched this year by wildlife and conservation-focused Tanzanian film company Ngoteya Wild. It aims to be a regular showcase of the best in nature photography from local content creators. The winner and two runners-up for the inaugural event have just been advanced and Ngoteya Wild has been kind enough to share the winning images with Twiga along with captions from the photographers themselves that have been lightly edited for style.

Winner Emmanuel Qamara Emmanuel has built up his skills as a wildlife photographer over the past seven years while working as a guide for Asilia Africa lodges and camps across Tanzania’s national parks. His passion for nature and conservation comes through in his beautiful shots.

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(Top) “One evening I was on a game drive from Ndutu [in the northern section of Ngorongoro Conservation Area] heading towards southern Serengeti and there were big herds of wildebeest running. We stopped and scanned and saw this mother cheetah with three cubs.

When I drove a bit close I could see she was running.

It was a bit confusing for me and my guest. We were surprised she was running from the vehicle, was it because of the young cubs? The answer came five minutes later. We saw two male lions behind us and she was trying to keep her distance from the male lions, not from us. You can see the serious look in the mother and the cubs look very curious and not relaxed at all.

Only the strongest survive. Nature can be beautiful and at the same time it can be brutal. © Emmanuel Qamara

(Above) For me, early morning game drives are very special. One morning I drove to a marsh area in Ndutu with my guests and we saw this dead elephant. At first I thought it had died from natural causes or through sickness and when we returned to the spot in the evening I expected to see hyenas, jackals and vultures feasting. Surprisingly, however, there was a leopard on top of the elephant carcass, struggling to get to its flesh. I was very excited to witness such a rare sight and took loads of photos. We drove back to camp, but then received the news that the elephant’s death was due to ingesting plastics. This unfortunately is the sad outcome of careless disposal of waste by people in the wild. I kept all the photos in memory of that elephant and to raise awareness about environmental and conservation issues.” © Emmanuel Qamara

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First runner-up Dany Samwel An experienced picture editor, Daniel now focuses on wildlife photography because it allows him to capture moments and beauty in their element.

(Top) “On a game drive in eastern Serengeti we caught sight of two cheetah mamas and one-year-old cub playing along the way. The light was almost gone and panning was the only option, but I wanted to capture a moment that will make the viewer pay attention to the details of why cheetahs are so important in our country. With their numbers decreasing tremendously we as the beneficiary need to protect them.” © Dany Samwel (Right) “This morning game drive was just glorious.

The sun had just come out and this lovely lady rocked up to find food with the perfect morning light and the grass framing her. Photographers live for these moments. They also remind us to protect our beautiful wildlife.” © Dany Samwel

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/ Pori photo competition

Second runner-up Kingston Mazee Kingston is an Arusha-based travel, lifestyle, nature and wildlife photographer. To him, photography is about capturing and documenting a distant place in a single frame, pulling the viewer into the shot and making them wish that they were there.

(Bottom right) “It was one of the luckiest days of my life and truly an extraordinary experience watching a leopard napping on a sausage tree while our group were enjoying the beauty of the Serengeti National Park. Ecotourism is so important in revealing the harmony in nature without disturbing a single part of the environment or the beautiful animals surrounding it.” © Kingston Mazee (Top right) “I will never forget the day I first saw a rhino and then to take a picture of two in one capture. I remember having a photographing session with the [filmmaking and photography mentorship programme] Afrisos team in the Serengeti and it was only the rhino missing from our Big Five sightings. So we decided to set out early for a session in the Moru area and we were lucky enough to see the most famous rhino of all, ‘Faru Rajabu’. The guider and my friends teased me about how similar my name, Rajabu H Mazee, was.

I was just happy to see a rhino for the first time. I am indebted to all those who give their efforts for conservation and protection, allowing me create beautiful memories with ‘Faru Rajabu’.” © Kingston Mazee

As the winner, Emmanuel will receive a free pass to enter all of Tanzania’s national parks, courtesy of Tanapa. He will also be given the opportunity to mentor emerging content creators on safari with the Tanzania Wildlife Media Association.

Ngoteya Wild has set up an online virtual exhibition to view all the submitted photographs for the competition. If you would like a print of any of the showcased images, email hello@ngoteyawild.co.tz For details on the application date for the next Pori Photo competition and information on how to enter, visit @ngoteya_wild on Instagram The competition is prepared by Ngoteya Wild in partnership with Nomad Tanzania, TANAPA, Land and Marine Publications, TAWIMA and WeNaturalists. airtanzania.co.tz

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The Royal Tour

President Samia leads

The Royal Tour of Tanzania Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan proved the ultimate guide when she showed Emmy award-winning journalist Peter Greenberg the diverse attractions of her country in the latest episode of US travel show The Royal Tour. Mama Samia’s selections showcase our history, culture, environment, food and music and also provide personal insights into her own story. Here we pick some of the show’s highlights that may guide your own tour of Tanzania.

Dar es Salaam: a modern metropolis

Swahili culture in Zanzibar

Greenberg first meets President Samia at her official residence, the palatial State House Ikulu. Then there is a montage of the city’s massive infrastructure projects such as the towering skyline, the new highway system, its suspension bridge, the country-wide modern railway line under construction and the state-of-the-art container port.

All evidence of a thriving commercial capital.

Once President Samia has instructed Greenberg to lose his stuffy jacket and tie, they head for the Zanzibar archipelago.

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First stop is Unesco World Heritage Site Stone Town, the historic port town of main island Unguja, where President Samia leads a walking tour and explains the island’s key role in maritime trade with the Arab world and the melting pot of countries that make up Swahili culture. The President says she never uses a map to navigate maze-like arrangement of winding streets in Stone Town, saying: “Getting lost here is part of the experience.” They eventually end up at coffee and conversation hub the Jaw’s Corner cafe, which President Samia says, is a great place to meet the locals and catch up with the stories of the day over a game of dominoes or bao.

A homecoming on Pemba Island-hopping to Pemba brings a moment of personal significance for the President as she was born and grew up on ‘the green island’. President Samia takes Greenberg to her hometown, the beach village of Kizimkazi, where they visit her modest childhood home and drop in on the local mosque and school she attended. Her father was the head teacher at the school and she says life in the village taught her a valuable early lesson about her rights as a woman, including her right to be educated (she would go on to achieve a postgraduate diploma in economics from the University of Manchester, in the UK). On the visit, she tells pupils that any of them can grow up to be president.

Greenberg also gets a glimpse of one of Pemba’s most exclusive experiences. The President of Zanzibar Dr Hussein Mwinyi accompanies him to visit the Manta Resort’s underwater hotel room, which has a bedroom window that looks out to a coral reef teeming with fish.

The snows of Kilimanjaro from above Next the pair get to see one of the world’s most iconic sights, the snowcrested peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.

/ The Royal Tour

Secret location reveals work to combat ivory poachers

The jewels in Tanzania’s crown

Before Greenberg gets to see Tanzania wealth of wildlife, President Samia is keen for him to see the scale of the task the government has in protecting its world-leading nature. It is, she warns, “not a pretty place”. They arrive at a secret location where there is a warehouse filled with more than 49,000 elephant tusks that have been confiscated by the government from poachers. Some 2,300 poachers have been arrested in the past six years, and, Hassan tells Greenberg poaching has been reduced by 90 per cent as a result of the government’s work.

Next, the team head to the Mererani Hills, in the Arusha region, which has become famous as the tiny mining region which is the only place in the world where the blue and violet gemstone Tanzanite is found. While the President is welcome anytime, the mines are not open to the public. However, there are plenty of opportunities to buy Tanzanite – rarer (though less expensive) than diamonds – at authorised dealers in Tanzania.

A special safari Greenberg and Hassan visited the hugely popular safari area of Ngorongoro Crater and the journalist was delighted to tick off all the Big Five – elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and Cape buffalo – in short time.

Such bountiful sightings are not unusual within the crater, which has the highest density of large predators on Earth. It’s home to 25,000 large animals and more than 500 bird species (including ostriches and flamingos).

Viewing the Great Migration from a hot-air balloon Hassan and Greenberg also witnessed one of Tanzania’s most awe-inspiring natural sights, the relentless migration of more than a million wildebeest in Serengeti. They were able to take in its full majesty from the air in a hot air balloon. On the ground, Greenberg joined in with a jumping dance with the Maasai on a village visit. He gets top marks for effort, but as for his performance… well, let’s just say that his version of a dance in which young Maasai men jump as high as they can to attract potential brides would be unlikely to get him many offers.

WATCH The Royal Tour Tanzania is a part of a series of travel documentaries made for US broadcaster PBS. You can watch it and all other episodes by visiting pbs.org

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Melanie Finn

SEARCHING FOR STORIES IN TANZANIA Tanzania has played a formative role in author and filmmaker Melanie Finn’s award-winning work. In an exclusive interview she talks to Mark Edwards about finding a writing haven in Tanga, filming flamingos in Lake Natron and why literature doesn’t need any more white African novels.

A

cclaimed author Melanie Finn was born and raised in Nairobi. However, as the daughter of an accountant, whose own father was among the first wave of British assigned to Dar es Salaam to strip remaining German landowners of their farms as part of the colonial takeover after the First World War, she had a cloistered upbringing among the white upper middle class of Kenya’s capital. It wasn’t until she graduated from New York University and embarked

on an early career as a freelance journalist that she got to explore the real Africa. Assignments took her across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and she relished “getting off the beaten track” and following her instinct for a story.

“It was a great excuse to travel and see countries I’d only seen as a privileged white child,” she tells me over the phone from London, where the writer, now settled into family life in Vermont in the north eastern US, is on a whistle-stop trip to visit

Melanie Finn shares healthcare advice with a Maasai community in Lake Natron

her in-laws and attend the wedding of her god-daughter. “I wrote about everything from elephant poaching to child soldiers in Uganda,” she says.

“It was all an excuse to get on a bus and go anywhere.”

She was often travelling alone and in politically sensitive environments, but for Finn heading out into the unknown had an allure that fed her innate journalistic curiosity.

Kay Ward, the protagonist of Finn’s third novel The Underneath is also an ex-journalist and is described

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/ Melanie Finn

by her husband, rather disparagingly – their relationship is already going south as the book begins – as someone who can’t pass a black bin bag on the street without checking what’s inside. “I’m like that too,” says Finn. “I see a bag by the side of the road and I start thinking, is it trash?

Is there a poor, trapped animal inside? I’m curious about people that don’t see that.”

“Journalism is an excuse for being nosy,” she adds. “Travelling in Africa you are bombarded by wildly intense experiences. Either you wind up the window or you put on your sneakers and walk out into it. Most of my writing has come from being a foot soldier. I walk everywhere.”

These African walks on the wild side ended up providing plenty of inspiration for the literary thrillers Finn would go on to write in a career second act that has met with widespread critical praise. She has now had four novels published, including 2021’s The Hare, an unsettling #Metoo thriller which is among the works in contention for this year’s Vermont Book Award and was also recently short-listed for the New England Book Award.

Independent spirit The Hare is set in the US but lead character Rosie – left to fend for herself in her new home in the Vermont woods by an increasingly abusive partner – draws on a resilience and independence Finn saw develop in herself during her African travels. “I’m almost pathologically self-sufficient,” she tells me later by email. Her three earlier novels have more overt African connections.

Much of her 2004 debut, Away From You, is set in Kenya and fictionalises Finn’s troubled relationship with her father and reaches its climax around Lake Natron. In The Underneath mother-of-two Kay is haunted by atrocities she witnessed as a journalist in Uganda. Finn spent a lot of time in Ulu, in the north of the country in the 1990s when the notorious Joseph Kony – she describes him as “a wicked Pied Piper” – was abducting

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thousands of children for his Lord’s Resistance Army. “Kay finds herself in my shoes,” Finn tells me. “Those memories of the blood-stained dress and the eerie, abandoned villages are also mine.”

But it is her second novel, The Gloaming – a New York Times Notable Book of 2016 and a finalist for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize – that is most steeped in Africa and, in particular, Tanzania.

Melanie Finn in Vermont

The north of the country – with its cheap accommodation and rich natural beauty – became Finn’s adopted home for a time. “In 2000 I began spending long periods in Arusha where I could live very cheaply. I had a tiny room in an overland truckers’ camp. I walked and took public transport and ate rice and beans.”

While exploring the Usambara Mountains, a friend told her about

/ Melanie Finn

the northern coastal city of Tanga. “I thought the name sounded amazing.

I got on a bus and checked in to a guest house. It became my writing retreat. I would go there for two weeks at a time. I biked everywhere and wrote in the sweltering, oppressive heat. I love the physicality of weather. Vermont gets bitterly cold in the winter and that also has a barometric power over you.”

Finn admits to a “wild phase” – her website mentions affairs with film and rock stars – so you’d think sleepy Tanga with its crumbling colonial ruins the only clues to its pivotal past as the administration centre of German East Africa and the heart of the once thriving sisal industry may have underwhelmed. However, Finn found it a fruitful place to stay in many ways, completing work on Away From You and another unpublished novel during regular stays.

“Tanga is the town that time forgot,” she says. “The heat, the drooping mango trees, the hard light and shadow of high noon, the glittering blue harbour and crumbling old colonial buildings, everyone riding bicycles: it remains one of my favourite places. As a writer I was drawn to slow pace and the quiet – these are both conducive to the practice of writing.

“My wild phase was in my twenties – it was thrilling to be on the edge.

But it wasn’t sustainable, and it wasn’t productive – although, yes, I got a lot of material from that time.”

That forgotten quality to Tanga also began to filter through Finn’s reliably macabre imagination – “I’m drawn to the dark. It’s the Scorpio in me,” she tells me – and an idea for a new story took shape.

Thriller set in Tanga It grew into The Gloaming, which she began writing later while living in New Mexico – Finn compares her books to ex-lovers that can only be fully processed with some distance from the source material. The plot centres on young wife Pilgrim Jones – the name, bestowed by hippie parents, suggest her impending

My wild phase was in my twenties – it was thrilling to be on the edge. But it wasn’t sustainable, and it wasn’t productive – although, yes, I got a lot of material from that time journey – who aims to get as far away as she can from her broken marriage and a tragic accident in Switzerland by travelling to Tanzania.

When her safari tour isn’t giving her the untrammelled escape she craves, she simply exits the 4x4 and starts walking alone to a small local village and then to the bus stop for Tanga.

Here she finds the forgotten town has attracted others who are keen to put troubled pasts behind them, including a barfly former pilot and an American woman who dreams of setting up an orphanage in the town, but also has a darker, far less charitable side to her.

“Tanga is a place you kind of place you might ‘end up’ when all other options have run out. It’s a kind of hideout,” says Finn.

The town’s strangeness seems to chime with Pilgrim’s disaffected state. One of the most gripping aspects of the book is the febrile intensity of her narrative voice. It is at times unclear whether Pilgrim’s observations are real or the product of some post-traumatic delirium. Has someone from her former life really tracked her down in Tanzania to make her pay for past wrongs or is it just paranoia playing tricks?

“I needed [Pilgrim] to be completely isolated, for everything to be strange and alien,” says Finn. “She had to be completely stripped down psychologically – that wavering quality of Tanga, is it real or not?

It’s so difficult for us to get to the bottom of ourselves, past ego and artifice: for Pilgrim to experience true redemption, she needed near obliteration. She’d been the construction of a domineering, charismatic man until the accident in

Switzerland. She had to start again to decide who she was going to be.”

Finn also blurs the boundaries of reality by incorporating local superstition and ritual into events.

Pilgrim is grimly fascinated by the tales of witchcraft she hears and often acts as though she is cursed herself, driven immutably to the fate that awaits her. The author remembers Tanga as a place full of superstition and magic and saw the good and bad in those beliefs.

“Every fig tree has offerings of halva, rosewater or something clustered around the base,” she says.

“I had the feeling of porousness between the visible, experienced world and something profoundly ineffable. I was drawn to the idea that shetani (ghosts/spirits) exist among us in the everyday – that people believe this with total confidence the way I know I’m sitting on a chair drinking a cup of tea. Shetani are not supernatural, it’s absolutely part of daily life.

Mysticism

Melanie's Finn's latest novel, The Hare

“Witchcraft is a single world for a wildly extensive, diverse practice, some of which is disgusting, such as the persecution of albino people and even human sacrifice. I see it serving a positive purpose in places where there are no therapists and almost no access to meaningful mental healthcare. I think it can genuinely give people relief from fear, from trauma. On the other hand a friend of my dying from cancer was taken by her family all the way from Natron to a witchdoctor in Tanga for a cure: he took all the family’s money – they’d sold their cow and now had nothing to eat – and declared her cured of her shetani. She died two days later.”

Finn has Pilgrim visit the Amboni Caves, the Tanga region’s prime tourist attraction and a place of huge spiritual significance, in the book.

The author visited the caves during her stay and shared her protagonist’s unease at its dark, unchartered depths, which, legend has it, wind their way as far as the Kenyan border.

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/ Melanie Finn

“You can feel the mystery there embedded in the rock,” Finn says.

“You go in with a guide and a candle, but you are constantly aware then it is pitch black in there. I often work with metaphor and with caves there’s that idea of burrowing into the earth – sort of a Jungian journey into the sub-conscious. Pilgrim enters a tunnel few of us get to go down.”

Beauty and cruelty Just as Amboni Caves manages to embody both beauty and menace, Pilgrim experiences great kindness during her time in Tanzania, but also plenty of examples of callousness.

She leaves Switzerland in the aftermath of one of the random, tragic turns life can take in a moment, but in Tanzania she finds human life can be far more fragile and cruel.

“In Africa, on any day you can experience the most incredible beauty and kindness and also see cruelty,” says Finn.

That contrast of hostility and beauty exists in stark relief in Lake Natron: another Tanzanian location Finn became familiar with. She first set eyes on it with wildlife photographer Matt Aeberhard. The pair had hit it off after meeting in Arusha and their first date was to scale Tanzania’s most active volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai, which offered incredible views of the broiling expanse of water from its 3,188-metre summit.

Finn’s earlier description of the lake in Away From You had been a feat of imagination, but she found the real thing was even more powerful. “The confluence of the furious volcano, the Rift and the weird reflective lake: it’s unfinished geology. Both of us knew we had to make a film there.”

Four years later the couple – who are now married and parents to twin daughters – began work on Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, an award-winning DisneyNature film about the three million-plus lesser flamingos that have adapted to life on the toxic lake (they even owe their rosy hue to their diet of brine shrimp in the water). Aeberhard

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was the cinematographer while Finn wrote the film’s script – for which she received a nomination at the Wildscreen Film Festival – which poetically examines the myths associated with the birds.

She says: “The Maasai around the lake don’t really think too much about the flamingos – although they notice their coming and going and appreciate their beauty. They told us the birds were made on the island in the middle of the lake. As no one can get to this island – we had to import a hovercraft – it seemed an entirely plausible creation story.

Because the birds’ breeding colonies are so inaccessible and they are so mysteriously nomadic there’s a real dearth of research. But you can go back to the Ancient Egyptians for an association of the flamingo with the myth of the Phoenix – the bird that lays its egg among the ashes where the sun lives and rises fully formed with the sunrise. Much of the island at Natron is composed of the same organic materials as the volcanic ash from Natron. Even in early European art, the phoenix – which we now think of as an eagle – appears more like a flamingo or the flamingo’s companion, the pelican.

Finn made herself useful among the lakeside Maasai. “As I had decent first aid kit and 80 hours of wilderness medicine training, I became the de facto medic for the local community."

Wildlife adventures “In the film, we wanted to get away from the dry didacticism of so many nature films that present animals as objects that we need to ‘learn’ about – instead of trying to see them as individual creatures of great complexity who see humans as purely incidental in the landscape.”

The flamingos thrive in this harsh environment, but life is tougher for the Maasai who have settled in Magadini on the remote eastern shore of Lake Natron. This is where Finn and Aeberhard lived during the two-year-plus shoot for the film.

During that time, Finn also had the privilege to have an “all access pass” accompanying Aeberhard while he filmed in the region. She says: “I’ve sat in a Land Rover hearing this strange, loud, dimensional roar – like an airplane engine – and then

Finn's early novels are heavily influenced by her time in East Africa

witnessed the source: hundreds of thousands of wildebeest teaming over the horizon, the collective sound of their hooves drumming the earth, the crazy symphony of their grunting.

We also had time to explore lesser-known places. We walked from up the Rift above Natron, from Malambo to Lemuta, in eastern Serengeti, and then back along the incredible Sanjan Gorge. We’ve explored the Engaresero River canyon – we filmed this in the Crimson Wing. It doesn’t take much but a trusted guide and a sense of adventure to get off the over-used game circuits and visit smaller parks, reserves, wildlife management areas.

You may not check the Big Five off your list, but your experience will be more immediate, more authentic.

And hey, I think a dung beetle is just as exciting as an elephant.”

Finn made herself useful among the lakeside Maasai. “As I had decent first aid kit and 80 hours of wilderness medicine training, I became the de facto medic for the local community,” she says. Though she is keen to point out that the Tanzanian government “has come an extraordinarily long way” in making recent improvements, including a new clinic in the village, at the time she was shocked at the paucity of healthcare in the region.

“People had to walk for days for a good doctor,” she says. “If they were too sick to walk they either got better or died. We suspect that maternal mortality in eastern Natron is about 1 in 40 – nearly ten times Tanzania’s 1 in 400 – which is already one of the world’s highest.”

One of the most heart-breaking

/ Melanie Finn

Tanzania soon to move Natron Healthcare forward, she does not see the country or its continent providing the setting for any of her future novels. Though her work has received praise for avoiding all potential clichés surrounding first versus developing world problems and she has been scrupulous in “threading the needle” of the complexity of life in Tanzania, she admits: “To be a white person writing about Africa is different and more difficult than it was 20 years ago.”

She is excited that a new wave of young black African writers has been coming through in the past decade – namechecking David Diop, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Nadifa Mohamed and Stanley Gazemba – and includes herself among the anachronistic authors of the white African gaze who should be making way for them.

Time for a change

scenes in The Gloaming involves a young woman dying from obstructed labour who is brought into a rural health clinic that has neither the facilities to save her or the transport to take her somewhere that can. Finn says it is based on true events.

“I was in a small, very remote town called Merigoi talking to a very young healthcare worker who had just been posted there. It was his first assignment. A group of men had brought a young woman to him on a bicycle who was having an obstructed labour. The healthcare worker ran all over town trying to find a vehicle. No one had one that was working. He then tried to phone the District Medical Office, but they didn’t have a working vehicle either. This poor young man could do nothing to help the girl. He just watched her die. He was completely traumatised and burst into tears telling me about it.”

Together with Matt’s mother, Penny, a GP who has worked in public health education in India and Nepal,

Finn was moved to set up Natron Healthcare to strengthen local access to medical help.

“We embarked on an education initiative in two communities, Magadini and Wosiwosi, so that people could better understand their health issues. We also support a school lunch programme in Magadini, where chronic hunger is the root of most childhood morbidity and mortality. And we’re now in our second year of supporting girl students from Magadini in their secondary school education.”

Natron Healthcare The pandemic has prevented recent visits to the region for Finn, but Natron Healthcare is still active. She and Penny have pooled their limited financial resources for its work so far but plans to educate communities about cervical cancer and increase access to the HPV vaccine are dependent on further funding. “We are at a pivotal point now,” Finn says.

While Finn hopes to be back in

Finn treats a burn suffered by a Maasai child at Natron Healthcare

“It’s beyond midnight for the literary world to recognize and support African writers. Their lack of profile is indicative of a system that has favoured white African writers like me, writing about the incredibly narrow white experience of “Africa” for a white audience still in thrall to the whole White Mischief/Out of Africa mythology. Honestly, it’s why I’ve given up writing about eastern Africa – enough has been said by white people.”

Still, she says, those years in Africa had an unforgettable effect on her and will continue to leave their traces on the page.

“Everything I learned about myself and my perspective on life garnered during my years there, and my continued work through with Natron Healthcare, still informs my writing whatever the setting might be.”

Melanie Finn’s novels are published

by Two Dollar Radio and available to buy at twodollarradio.com and on Amazon in paperback or Kindle formats.

To learn more about Natron Healthcare, visit natronhealthcare.org

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Rugby in Tanzania

WHY WOMEN ARE LEADING

TANZANIA’S RUGBY REVOLUTION Africa is at the forefront of a growing global interest in rugby union and there are moves to channel that momentum into establishing the women’s game here in Tanzania. Rugby player and ambassador Fatma El-Kindiy tells Mark Edwards that girls here are relishing the chance to embrace such a physical sport.

W

e all hope our children grow up with integrity, passion, discipline and respect and these qualities, according to Tanzanian Fatma El-Kindiy, are all brought out amid the scuffle and scurry of a game of rugby union.

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El-Kindiy is passionate about the sport. She learnt to play in 2015 in Botswana and proved good enough to sign for the Gaborone Rugby Football Club, one of six professional teams in the country’s women’s league. Now back in Tanzania, she has become an ambassador for the women’s game here as the country looks to put together its first national team and get more girls involved in the sport from school age and upwards.

Once the preserve of just a handful of traditional nations, rugby is quickly becoming a global game. as evidenced by it being made an Olympic sport in 2016 the 2021 World Cup being hosted for the first time by emerging rugby force Japan and the 2031 event in all likelihood to he

held in the US. However, it is Africa that is leading this growth spurt.

Rugby is the continent’s fastest growing sport with 38 out of 54 African nations now recognised as ‘rugby playing’ countries by the sport’s governing body, the International Rugby Board. Tanzania is one of them with the men’s game now including a league of competing professional clubs – “We have teams in Moshi, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Tanga,” says El-Kindiy.

There is also a Castel Cup-winning national team known as ‘The Twigas’ (great name!), who play their home games at the Friedkin Recreation Ground in Arusha.

The rise of rugby The rise in the men’s game in Africa has been met with a similar surge of interest among women. In 2017, as survey by the continent’s administrative body for the sport, Rugby Africa, found that more than 20 per cent of rugby players in Africa are women and girls.

El-Kindiy hopes to channel this momentum in Tanzania and spread

/ Rugby in Tanzania

the love for a sport she believes has so much to offer women. She is helping to put in a place a strategic plan to attract young female players to the grassroots game.

“I have become very passionate about the sport,” she tells me.

“In 2019, I become one of the Unstoppable Rugby Africa ambassadors for Botswana, then after coming back home I joined the Tanzania Rugby Union [to assist] in the development of women in rugby. I am currently working to get Tanzania its first women’s national team and to have rugby outreach in schools and communities at large.

“At the moment, not many schools have rugby as part of their sports curriculum. We are developing programs and going to the outskirts of town to start grassroots rugby. These will be eight-week programmes with coaches travelling and getting the community involved in rugby.”

Already, El-Kindiy – who is also a level one coach and assists training sessions with men’s team the Dar Cubs – is finding girls are open to

Many young Tanzanian women are embracing the full-blooded nature of the true rugby experience and, in doing so, changing the face of female sport here the new sport. The rise of the men’s game means the sport has become more visible in Tanzania and seeing rugby matches going on at sports grounds around the country has got a lot of people wanting to find out more.

“The interest for rugby has most definitely increased because of the number of games that are taking place here,” she says. “The sport is becoming common enough that you’ll find a game of touch rugby in Iringa and a tens game in Moshi happening on the same day. This gets people more involved in the game and inquisitive to know how the game is played.”

Touch rugby – a version of the game where the focus is on speed

and agility rather crunching tackles and an opposing player’s progress is stopped by touching them – is seen as the ideal way in to the sport for many girls.

“We are working on having them play touch rugby so that they could get a feel of the sport before getting into contact rugby. Touch rugby is more of a social event and many prefer it. We are using it to get the girls involved but they do know that it is more like a teaser before going into contact rugby. It is good for learning the basic drills.”

Not just a man's game Some may choose to stick with touch rugby and, El-Kindiy says, there are tournaments for them, but many young Tanzanian women are embracing the full-blooded nature of the true rugby experience and, in doing so, changing the face of female sport here. “Rugby has been perceived as a man’s sport for the longest time,” says El-Kindiy. “Many people think of it as a violent game and many girls are sceptical about it but that is only if they have not been

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/ Rugby in Tanzania

Rugby the basics • No rugby experience is necessary to start playing • An oval-shaped ball is used • Everyone plays offense and defense and handles the ball.

• Players move the ball down the field supporting one another with lateral or backward passes.

Rugby teaches integrity, solidarity, discipline, passion and respect. These are values that any young teenager carries out from the field to the day-to-day activities exposed to the game. It is our duty as leaders to talk more about rugby for women and the important aspects that it has on us in our daily lives.

Being brave is one of them.”

Along with bravery, El-Kindiy says the game teaches other core values that are important part of someone’s moral toolkit off the pitch as well as on. “Rugby teaches integrity, solidarity, discipline, passion and respect.

These are values that any young teenager carries out from the field to the day-to-day activities. Whether it is at school level, university or even at work,” she says.

young women to take up the sport will be the establishment of a national women’s team. El-Kindiy says that is not far away with the squad set to play their first tournament before they are unveiled as the national team. “We are spreading the word through social media for people to come watch the girls play. We are gearing them up for a touch tournament in July. This will be a phenomenal start for women in rugby and a positive growth of the game for Tanzania.”

• Only the player with the ball can be tackled.

• A try (five points) is scored when a player carries it over the opponent’s goal line and forces it to the ground.

After scoring a try, that team can attempt to add two further points by kicking the ball over the crossbar and between the posts from a place in line with where the try was scored.

• Three points can also be scored from a penalty kick or a drop-volley (when a player drops the ball onto the ground and kicks it on the half-volley) over the crossbar.

A sport for all Rugby is also a physically inclusive sport with roles in the game for all body types. Bigger, heavier and stronger players tend to be the forwards who make up the scrum, while lighter, faster players make use of the agility and speeds as the backs. “Rugby is for everyone. It has no gender, religion, colour and played by all shapes and sizes,” says El-Kindiy.

A major step in inspiring more

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GET INVOLVED Rugby dates for your diary Ladies touch rugby tournament mid-July in Dar es Salaam Dar beach rugby September 24

Noor Design

‘I’VE DESIGNED THE KIND OF KITENGA YOU’D WEAR IN LONDON’ Dar es Salaam-based fashion brand Noor Design creates exclusive men and women’s clothing, beachwear and accessories all handcrafted by Tanzanian artisans and with a style that embodies a laidback coastal life. You can shop the range at the brand’s retail outlets at café and cocktail lounge Spinella and the HW Gallery, both in Dar. Here the company’s Italian founder and designer, Guia Martinotti, talks to Ingrid Kim @africaislands2021 about her haute couture fashion journey and her plans to expand her brand across East Africa.

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/ Noor Design

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All images courtesy of Kerage Kamuli @keragekamul

Q: Tell us a little about your fashion background.

A: I’ve been in the luxury fashion business for around 20 years. I began doing the public relations for [Italian dressmaker] Alberta Feretti.

I also worked with [Italian fashion designer] Gianfranco Ferré for 10 years and was part of the promotions team for [US fashion designer and filmmaker] Tom Ford. I drew on this experience in becoming a designer.

Q: Your beach towels are a favourite with customers. What do you love about them?

A: I like to create beautiful towels from kikoi [woven cloth favoured by the Maasai]. They were very popular when I was running my own fashion company in Kenya around 20 years ago, but I stopped production to begin working with Feretti. Now, though, I have reintroduced them for my followers.

Q: When did you decide to become a designer here in Tanzania?

A: I was freelancing here and some friends asked me to create some dresses for them. I was also invited to be a part of Tanzanian fashion festival last year and I was interviewed by national TV. Word was spreading on my designs here so I decided to open my Tanzanian brand here. Also at that time The French School in Dar es Salaam invited me to run a fashion show in support of pupils and an NGO called Fight For Your Dreams.

It was an incredible experience for me and the children, who were able to participate in creating fashion.

It showed me how fashion could support society and that has become an important part of my work with Noor Design.

Q: What is the most difficult aspect of creating a collection?

A: The process of turning your initial idea for an outfit from preliminary sketches to the actual outfit is challenging. There is a lot of technical

/ Noor Design

skill involved – from the design to the stitching and sewing.

Q: Why Tanzania?

A: I love the Maasai culture and the tribal heritage. The fabrics they use and the craftmanship that goes into each item is wonderful. My designs combine these Tanzanian fabrics and techniques with a more European look. I create something different – like a kitenga you would wear in London.

Q: What are your hopes for Noor Design?

A: I believe in the empowerment of women and by using local female artisans I am giving them the opportunity to grow as professionals.

All the women who work in my team are paid a salary that enables them to feed their families. The brand also supports the sustainability of traditional art forms by keeping local techniques alive. I aim to establish my brand across the whole of East Africa. Already, I do bespoke designs for clients in countries such as Rwanda and Ghana. I hope in time that Tanzania will become a centre for emerging tailors. To help get the country there I will be promoting other brands, teaching tailors and stylists and revealing how European markets work.

Q: Who is your typical Noor Design customer?

A: Every woman should wear what they like, but I suppose my clients are quite well off and have great taste, of course. My prices are higher than many other designers around here as I take of every detail, even packaging. Customers should also be aware that I use the much of the proceeds of my business to support local women and orphanages in Tanzania.

To keep up to date with the latest Noor Design products and events, visit @noordesigntz on Instagram or NoorDesignTz on Facebook.

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Mindful safaris

HOW TO FIND YOUR INNER SMILE IN THE WILD Fancy a safari in which your off-the-beaten-track adventure into the wilds of Tanzania is coupled with an exploration of the unchartered regions of your own mind? The time is now for mindful safaris.

A

lina de Vilder worked for 25 years as a psychologist, therapist, naturopathy teacher, high school counsellor and meditation teacher in her native Netherlands, before relocating to Tanzania in 2016.

Here, she fell in love with the country’s expanses of wild nature and the instinctive, fret-free

character of the locals. Basing herself in Mwanza, she established her spiritual travel agency Mindful Adventures, which curates trips that help people unplug from the relentless pace of modern life and which combine the features of both a wildlife safari and a meditation retreat.

“Nature and mindfulness are

Meditation can open the mind to new experiences

strongly related,” she says. “The western mind is totally hyper.

Most of us are trapped in a cycle of continuous thought and think that is normal.

“However, the moment people arrive on our tours, there is suddenly no influence from the outside world and there is no need to constantly be thinking. Through our practices airtanzania.co.tz

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/ Mindful safaris

Mindful Adventures keeps the wonder factor high with tours that explore off-grid to some of the country’s most pristine landscapes and rarest wildlife

we show them they can just stop.

I try to use our safaris as a way of bringing people consciously back to their senses and to give them a new perspective on their lives. They gain an inner smile.”

Those mindfulness practices include daily morning meditation sessions, yoga, breathwork and treks in silence where you learn to attune to your senses and the wonder of your experience in the moment.

Mindful Adventures keeps the wonder factor high with tours that explore off-grid to some of the country’s most pristine landscapes and rarest wildlife while sleeping mostly in bush camps. One 15-day adventure takes you through the Ngorongoro Crater highlands – a region de Vilder says is blessed with “a breath-taking, unique landscape of vast grass plains, volcanic craters and dense mountain

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forests where every day is different” – while another involves a three-day trek in the Usambara Mountains before exploring Tanzania’s often overooked northern coast with stops in Tanga and Ushongo Bay. Other services include women-only and men-only excursions, business coaching and intensive solo retreats.

meaningfulness. It is my mission to bring them in touch with the adventure that life is supposed to be,” de Vilder says.

On the facing page de Vilder shares five reasons why a mindful approach should be a safari staple.

Meaningfulness mission De Vilder admits to some challenges in getting Mindful Adventures up and running, but now says she has assembled “a golden team” – including Mwanzan host, guide and driver Rama Ama along with a Maasai guide and a “wizard” travelling cook – and the safaris are proving very popular with international tourists keen to undertake an inner and outer journey into Tanzania.

“My clients want more

Relax and soak up your wildlife experience

To find out more about the range of tours organised by Mindful Adventures, visit retreatstanzania.com The next trip to take place is the 15-day Hear the Voice of Silence mindfulness nature safari from Ngorongoro Crater to Lake Natron. It takes place from Saturday July 30 to Saturday August 13 with the optional extension of a hike Usambara Mountains from August 14 to 17. Price US$ 3,205 (plus US$ 706 for Usambara Mountains if required).

/ Mindful safaris

The Big Five: how mindfulness can help you make the most of your safari 1. It awakens your senses to your new environment “If you talk all the time, you don’t get to see much. So, we arrange a lot of silent time. In meditation we sit in silence with eyes closed so we become attuned to the sounds of the wild, the breeze on our face, the smell of a recent rainstorm.

“Even some of our treks, we do in silence. It’s a fertile state to stay so quiet and it means you don’t miss even the slightest sound of the wildlife around you.”

2. Animals will respond in kind to your aura of calm “I remember once we were camping in the Serengeti. Myself and one of the group woke up early and decided to sit away from our tent in meditation while our guide kept watch. Soon a whole herd of impala started to gather around us. They were running and playing right by us. It was like we didn’t even exist to them. I am sure we were treated to such a spectacle because we were so calm and quiet. It was a very special experience.”

3. It enables you to appreciate the present moment and not waste time worrying about the past or future

“We find that a lot of our clients’ minds our busy with worry when they arrive, whether it is for the future or obsessing over what happened in the past. The secret of mindfulness in life is there is only one moment that is real and that is present. To connect with it is to feel truly alive. I find it amazing how our minds will resist reality, because the past and future is all dead energy.

There can be no guarantee that events will unfold as planned, but you will learn with Mindful Adventures to accept what the present gives you. In fact, when things can go awry, it is perfect for mindful situations. Whether we are gathered around the campfire on a long trek, we will often invite people to confront their fears with the questions: what is the worst that can happen right now? If all is fine in the present, then what is the point of worrying? This can apply to the stressful lives people have left behind for this trip to their concerns about the trip itself.”

4. It slows your mind from the rush of everyday thought to gain a spiritual clarity Coupling being in remote nature with meditation practices is a wonderful way to calm yourself and feel connected to the world. I find that many Tanzanians

have an innate quietness and connection with life. They are calm, yet strong and alert to dangers. These are qualities we try to nurture among our group through circular breathing [a process of breathing deeply and evenly from your abdomen through your nostrils] and our meditation and yoga sessions.

I also organise visits to a Maasai community in Endonyowas, in Ngorongoro, which I have been sponsoring since I set up Mindful Adventures. The strong community is an excellent example of people orientated to their senses and alert to dangers. I am also grateful that one of the community, Iva Berix, has proved a talented and trusted guide for our safaris.

5. Keeps you fit in mind and body Our trips are a physical and spiritual adventure and we always work to connect body and mind with our exercises.

They complement each other with the meditation creating a positive state of mind to take on the demanding three- or four-day treks while the yoga corrects muscle imbalances and reduces your chances of getting injured. Staying mindful means you will be energised to take on the physical exertions and you will feel the full cathartic effect of your time in the wild.

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Mumbai

24 hours in…

MUMBAI

From watching the sun rise over the Arabian Sea to dancing the night away in the coolest clubs, here’s our guide to making the most of your day in the City of Dreams.

MORNING It pays to be up with the birds in Mumbai. The streets are quieter and cooler and you can soak up the sights in tranquillity. In these early hours you’ll find The Gateway of India without its usual accompanying throng of locals, tourists and street vendors. Instead, the city’s iconic waterfront monument will be framed by a stunning sunset over the Arabian Sea. The 26-metre-high triumphal arch was built in 1924 to commemorate the arrival of King George V, the first British monarch to visit India, and it became the ceremonial entrance to India for important colonial personnel as well as the last landmark British troops would see on leaving the country when independence was declared in 1948.

While you are in south Mumbai – known to locals as ‘SoBo’ from South Bombay – it is worth exploring the nearby breakfast options. The district is renowned for its wealth of cafes serving Parsi cuisine. Parsis are of Iranian descent, having fled their country in the early 19th Century after being persecuted for their non-Muslim Zoroastrian beliefs.

Many of this food-loving community set up cafés in their adopted home and a good number are still around today, passed on through the generations. Among them is the Kala Ghoda Café, which was established in 1933 and has remained a favourite for its fresh-baked pastries,

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delicious masala chai or coffee and Parsi favourites such as akuri (spiced scrambled eggs) and sali boti (mutton curry). It is open from daybreak and during those early hours you may just be lucky enough to find a seat in its cosy mezzanine where you can take in the local art on the walls, bask in the café’s old-world charm and fuel yourself for the day with some delicious food.

Suitably refreshed, take a walk into the Worli neighbourhood, passing through its plush residential areas and beachfront promenade before reaching the historic fishing village at the tip of the peninsula where you’ll find Worli Fort. You can walk around the ramparts of this well-preserved landmark – it was built by the British in 1675 to guard against intruders – and enjoy views out across the calm waters of Mahim Bay and back to the towering skyline of Mumbai.

AFTERNOON Head back into Kala Ghoda’s financial district to join the crowds of businesspeople on their lunch break grabbing a table at the Khyber.

This award-winning restaurant with its ornate stone walls and murals depicting Mughal royalty is famed for its Mughlai (a combination of Indian and Persian) cuisine with a mouth-watering selection of curries, kebabs and tandoori favourites.

You should just have time to head back to the Gateway of India and catch the ferry to Elephanta Island

Take a break at the Khyber restaurant in Kala Ghoda

The Hindu Temple, Elephanta Island caves

/ Mumbai

In these early hours you’ll find The Gateway of India without its usual accompanying throng of locals, tourists and street vendors

– the last one departs at 2pm. Enjoy the cool breeze on the hour-long crossing and away from the tumult of the city you can explore Unesco World Heritage Site Elephanta Caves, a collection of temples built into the rocks between the fifth and eighth centuries and filled with exquisite carvings.

The main temple is dedicated to Shiva and features an imperious looking six-metre-high statue of the Hindu god’s highest manifestation, Sadhashiva, with eyes closed in eternal contemplation.

EVENING Back on the mainland, take an evening stroll along the three

km-long promenade Marine Drive.

At this time, it is crowded with Mumbaikers hanging out after work and enjoying the magnificent sunsets. As the natural light fades, the whole crescent-shaped coastline is illuminated with sparkling streetlights, leading to its nickname, the ‘Queen’s necklace.’

For dinner, there are many restaurants here that maximise the wondrous views. Among them is gastro-bar Long and the Short at the InterContinental hotel, which has a sofa-strewn terrace overlooking the bay. The view is priceless and your bill here will ensure you don’t forget it, but if you are happy to splash out this is the place.

The Metro Cinema and (top right) a view of Marine Drive AnilD / Shutterstock.com

Marine Drive offers options for entertainment later into the evening.

Mumbai, the home of Bollywood, is packed with lovely Art Deco cinemas and Marine Drive has one of the finest examples in the Metro Inox Cinema, which was built in 1938 for MGM. It is an atmospheric place to round off your evening by catching one of the latest Hollywood or Bollywood releases.

If cinema is too sedentary and you prefer to dance away your nights, Mumbai has a vibrant nightclub culture to cater for you. It is worth taking a taxi to the bustling Bandra neighbourhood to experience the epicentre of the city’s party scene. Basement club Drop with its chandeliers and champagne lounge is a hip place to hang out while Vortex offers rooftop dining, a hydroponic garden as well as a series of pulsating club nights to see you well into the early hours.

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Cooking with Belinda Mkony

Hey pesto!

An Italian classic with a Tanzanian twist

Stop with the store-bought pesto! Twiga cookery columnist Belinda Mkony shows you how to make a Tanzanian cashewfilled homemade pasta sauce from scratch.

T

anzanian cashew nuts are renowned the world over for their premium quality and it has proved the country’s biggest cash crop for export over the years. As for basil, well that I love the herb and I always have a plentiful supply in my garden as it loves the Dar es Salaam soil.

This recipe makes a deliciously slick vegetarian cashew pesto sauce and is a great life hack to rely on when you need a tasty recipe in a hurry. You can have the dish ready in less than 20 minutes from start to finish.

A traditional pesto is made with fresh garlic and parmesan cheese, but here I am substituting cashew nuts for pine nuts due to their abundance here.

At this point, allow me to let a secret out of the bag – to make your sauce super slick while using minimum oil, use pasta water as it emulsifies with the oil in the pesto making it cling to every strand of pasta. This is a technique familiar to most Italian households and was taught to me by one of my best friends, Biko Molteni. Thank you, Biko.

So stop with the store bought pesto and make this great-tasting homemade, savoury pesto instead. You’ll be glad you did!

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/ Cooking with Belinda Mkony

Ingredients : 6 450g pasta (any shape, but my preference is spaghetti) 6 1 bunch (130g) of fresh basil (save some leaves for the garnish) 6 96g cashews raw or roasted 6 32g olive oil 6 2 cloves garlic 6 64g parmesan cheese store-bought shredded or 96g of freshly grated parmesan 6 2 tablespoons lemon juice or red wine vinegar.

6 1⁄4 teaspoon salt (or to taste) 6 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

Method: 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then cook the pasta according to the package directions.

All images courtesy of Belinda Mkony

2. Add the basil, cashews, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper into a food processor. Pulse until everything is ground into a paste, but it still has a bit of texture, stopping to scrape the sides as needed.

3. Add the pesto to the pot with the pasta and toss until well combined. Save your pasta water to emulsify the sauce to become luscious pesto spaghetti. Serve hot with a few leaves of basil for garnish, top it with more parmesan cheese, because why not!

FOLLOW BELINDA To keep up with her latest recipes and events, visit Fork.Ur.Munchies on Instagram

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Business column

Beyond order: a customer centric approach Charles Joseph Nyahucho shares life lessons gleaned from his many years of experience in supporting business undertakings as a trained accountant and business analyst. Here he reveals his guidelines to above-and-beyond customer service.

C

ovid-19 disrupted business undertakings in many ways with travel and tourism among the sectors most affected due to international travel bans and restrictions.

I work in a country far away from Mariana, my best friend. When Mariana arranged to visit Tanzania she got a three-month visa. Before the expiration of the visa the airline Mariana flew with suspended its operations and we had to buy another flight ticket for her to return before her visa expired. Eighteen months later she visited again. Mariana and I visited the first operator for a ticket refund. The response we got from one of airline reservation agent was: “our ticket has expired and cannot be refunded.”

Rhobi: Welcome. What is the issue?

Who suspended the operations and where could I get help on this situation?

I asked for a meeting with the supervisor for further assistance. His name was Rhobi and the conversation went like this:

Fifteen minutes later ….

Rhobi: I looked at your first ticket and let me explain, each ticket has a class of travel validity from 14 days to one year, after a year ticket expires. It’s true that your ticket expired, but also I noticed that you purchased another ticket which I confirmed to be a valid one. Upon looking at your case, I will waive the ban on your ticket, and it can be refunded or be reused on a future date.

Me: We purchased a ticket for Mariana, who was supposed to travel back within three months, but you suspended your operations. In a dilemma, I had no choice other than purchasing another ticket.

She has now returned to Tanzania, and I visited for a ticket refund or reissue, but was told the ticket had expired and cannot be refunded. I was shocked by such a response.

Rhobi: Please show me the first ticket and the new ticket so I can verify them. Take a seat. Do you take water or tea?

Me: No, thanks

We finalised our conversation and both of us were happy with such a resolution.

Dear esteemed readers, the incident prompted me to delineate a six-step model to going above and beyond in customer service.

1. Listen, Listen, Listen A keen understanding of a customer’s explanations is vital.

Give ample time to listen to all customers.

2. Establish facts and evidence Take time and look at all evidence submitted.

3. What is the stipulated order?

Read, understand all stipulated terms and conditions on each case.

4. Beyond Order- Pros and Cons Look at each case separately, look at the pros and cons of taking that case beyond laiddown orders. If pros outweigh cons, if it will be beneficial to customers and worth pursuing.

5. Document the argument Put step four in writing and make sure you sign and date it.

6. Execute Technological advancements such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) may save time and costs, but it can’t go beyond order or inbuilt algorithms. You can’t underestimate the human understanding of this six-step model for most offices and service industries.

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Airbnb in East Africa

MEET THE AFRICAN

SUPERHOSTS

Africa has emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets for online accommodation marketplace Airbnb with more than 100,000 listings across the continent. Here Josh Poyser talks to five superhosts – the best rated owners opening their homes to Airbnb’s global network of travellers – about how the experience has been for them.

John Nairobi, Kenya

Rita and Sebastian Vumba Mountains, Zimbabwe

Q: How did you get started?

A: I started in mid-2017. When I got into the furnished apartments space, sourcing clientele was difficult since the market was predominantly driven by the corporate sector. This meant one had to go and pitch your product in several offices.

I got into Airbnb since at the time it was just kicking off in the country and it was an easier way of sourcing clientele since their potential market was global.

Q: How did you get started?

A: My husband and I run a speciality arabica coffee farm called Zimunda Estate. The farm sits in the Eastern Highlands, with mountains towering overhead and the valleys of Mozambique below. We initially wanted to start hosting family and friends so we transformed an old greenhouse into a modern farmhouse cottage. The space we created is like no other accommodation in the area, so we decided to launch the Ruby-Hornbill Cottage on Airbnb in August 2019.

Q: How has your business taken off?

A: The initial start was tough due to the electioneering period. In 2017 Kenya had two presidential elections, the main one and a rerun that was ordered by the Supreme Court. This created a lot of anxiety and depressed the tourism and travel industry which Airbnb relies upon.

After the political stalemate was diffused in early 2018, the business environment improved drastically.

Q: What do you offer in the way of accommodation?

A: I offer 3 bedroom furnished units.

Q: Have you started any international friendships with tenants?

A: I have formed several friendships and networks over the years. I have made friends with people from all over Europe and a lot of Kenyans in the diaspora.

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Q: How has your business taken off?

A: We achieved the status of superhost in the first two months of operating and to date we have hosted over 130 stays. Our guests appreciate escaping to the mountains and the unique experience and hospitality we offer. Hosting on Airbnb has also boosted our farm’s social media visibility and our direct coffee sales.

Q: What do you offer in the way of accommodation?

A: The cottage has been converted into a bright, open-plan space that blurs indoor/outdoor living. Guests can stargaze in the upstairs sleeping loft, enjoy the Vumba mists from a private outdoor shower or relax on the wraparound veranda with family and friends.

Q: Have you started any international friendships with tenants?

A: We’ve certainly made friends and hosted some amazing guests from across borders. Some of our guests have been agri-preneurs, social media influencers, photographers, diplomats and CEOs. Our guests give us great ideas and inspire new directions for our farm stay and other agritourism activities.

Worawee Meepian / Shutterstock.com

/ Airbnb in East Africa

Abdallah Zanzibar, Tanzania

Mary Kigali, Rwanda

Helen Lusaka, Zambia

Q: How did you get started?

A: Earlier on I worked for [modern residential development in the south west of Zanzibar’s main island, Unguja] Fumba Town's management unit dealing with rental management. However, a family friend who had difficulties renting out his beach property informed me of how he had managed to utilise Airbnb to run his property himself and with reasonable returns. It motivated me to restore our old apartments and to begin with Airbnb.

Q: How did you get started?

A: I have been in hospitality for over 10 years. My parents enjoy hosting people and making them feel very welcome, and I enjoy that too. Meeting other people from different parts of the world is a blessing, hence it is only natural for me to want to host pleasant people wherever I find myself.

Q: How did you get started?

A: I first learnt of Airbnb from a business television channel. I thought it was a pretty brilliant way of making my rental unit available, particularly to potential guests that I would not have had a chance to market to.

Q: How has your business taken off?

A: I started with our old apartment in May 2021. In the beginning it was quite challenging, but I configured our business to be service-oriented to cater to guest comfort and quick service. This has been a dominant factor in our business sustainability.

Q: What do you offer in the way of accommodation?

A: We offer our fully equipped apartments, with free utility services in addition to our client care assistants who help with our guests' inquiries.

Q: Have you started any international friendships with tenants?

A: I have made some good friends through our small business venture, but I’m sure my assistant has made more friends with a stronger bond as he gets to spend more time with our guests. I have minimised my work to manage bookings.

Q: How has your business taken off?

A: For me, it is not a business. As the saying by Confucius goes: do what you love and you won’t work a day in your life. I have been lucky to host awesome individuals, and for that, I am happy.

Q: What do you offer in the way of accommodation?

A: It is my home, so whatever is available to me is available to my guests. I am an ardent Airbnb fan, I also stay in Airbnbs when I can, some houses are cold, others are warm. I hope mine feels like home to all my guests.

Q: Have you started any international friendships with tenants?

A: Quite a number of those. It is honestly a blessing being able to connect with people from different parts of the world, no matter how briefly.

Q: How has your business taken off?

A: It is now four years since my first guest in my first listing. My business has taken off fairly well. I initially listed only one apartment with Airbnb and over the years I have had a total of five units listed.

I have currently dropped this to only three as some of my units were no longer available for short stay listings.

Q: What do you offer in the way of accommodation?

A: I offer whole residential units for the sole use entirely by the booking guest.

Some of my units come with a shared pool and gym on the premises.

Q: Have you started any international friendships with tenants?

A: I have made a few friends over the years with some guests. I have been happy to welcome back one guest on multiple stays.

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Legal eye

Intro

Tax planning: do you mitigate or avoid?

Nobody wants to pay more tax than they have to, but it is our moral duty to contribute.

Here Dar es Salaam legal firm Victory Attorneys shares advice on effective tax planning for your business.

T

here is plenty of truth in the saying that that nobody likes paying taxes. For companies, corporate tax is considered as a material cost which should be minimised or completely avoided. To achieve that end, tax planning comes into play. But the bad thing is, there is no clear boundary between bona fide tax planning and aggressive tax planning.

An aggressive tax planning gives rise to what is called “aggressive tax avoidance”. Aggressive tax avoidance involves the aggressive exploitation of loopholes in the tax legislation, as well as aggressive interpretation of the tax legislation to take advantage of the provisions of the law. The ultimate objective of tax avoidance is to avoid or minimise the tax burden.

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Although tax avoidance is not illegal, it is considered as immoral. Therefore most governments, including ours in Tanzania, are taking progressive measures to eliminate loopholes in the legislation in a bid to curb aggressive tax avoidance. These measures include, but are not limited to, adoption of the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) and other administrative measures such as investigations and inquiries. In Tanzania, this is evident from the recent past incidents.

Tax avoidance may have repercussions not only to society but also to the company. When aggressive tax avoidance schemes are unveiled, the company usually lands in trouble. It may land in trouble with the taxation authorities and court of public opinion.

To avoid trouble with the taxation authorities and maintain a good corporate image, there is a need to strike a balance between the legitimate right to adopt tax-reduction measures and ethics. The result of such a balance would require adoption of tax-mitigation measures instead of aggressive tax-avoidance schemes. Tax mitigation is encouraged while tax avoidance is not. It goes without saying that a company needs good and effective tax planning to steer it in the direction of the right course of business.

If you feel tax planning is an issue for you and you would like to discuss this further, call Victory Attorneys & Consultants on +255 752 089 685 or email info@victoryattorneys.co.tz. Our tax department in collaboration with our accounting partners would be glad to assist you.

Chumbe Island

CHUMBE ISLAND

launches new season of attractions

Chumbe Island Coral Park – an award-winning nature reserve in the Zanzibar archipelago – is open again to the public after its annual two-months of maintenance work. The relaunch comes with exciting new attractions that showcase and support the island’s protected population of rare wildlife on land and sea. Here, Chumbe’s sustainable tourism consultant, Diana Körner, reveals the treats in store for guests.

All images courtesy of Chumbe Island Coral Park

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/ Chumbe Island

C

humbe Island Marine Island reopened at the beginning of June after two months of annual maintenance work, which this year involved the upgrading and servicing of the island’s eco architecture such as composting toilets, solar panels and the makuti roofing of the locally made eco bungalows. We have also introduced new educational information boards and citizen science projects, actively engaging visitors in ongoing species research.

Citizen science projects Counting coconut crabs In co-operation with British coconut crab scientist Tim Caro, the island’s head ranger Omari and our team of volunteers are collecting data on the size of our coconut crab population. Overnight guests will be updated on these findings during the nightly crab walks we organize in the forest.

Smooth ride from Unguja to Chumbe Chumbe’s Big Five The island is also rolling out a new online survey to collect observational data on our resident and visiting marine megafauna such as turtles, reef sharks, stingrays, large groupers and dolphins. In this way, visitors can actively participate in our marine conservation efforts by contributing sighting information, including date, time, species and location. So, when you are here, grab your snorkel and get spotting!

Thanks to the support of the German government funding programme develoPPP, we have a new eight-metre fibreglass boat to transport guests between Unguja and Chumbe Island. The boat offers a faster and more comfortable ride, so guests have even more quality time to spend on the island.

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/ Chumbe Island

Shark study With the involvement of several marine biologists in our team and our committed rangers and volunteers, we are rolling out an observation project to gather data on our local reef shark species – the black tip reef shark and the nurse shark – which can be seen from a specific viewpoint on the island almost every day. Guests can engage in the project and their sightings will be included in a systematic study on our shark population.

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/ Chumbe Island

Find out forest facts on island walks To help our visitors learn more about the rare flora and fauna we support on Chumbe Island, we have been working with a team from the United States Forest Service. This has resulted in the creation of a large, carved forest information board outlining key features to look out for on the trail and additional plant labels along the trail itself. (image – photo plant ID forest walk)

Witness EE trips As of September, guests will also be able to witness the environmental education trips to the island that we organise each week. The trips are provided free of charge to the local fishing community, school children, teachers, community members and government officials and are an excellent way of raising awareness of our marine conversation and sustainable management practices.

Endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Chumbe Island Coral Park operates an extensive environmental education programme. Initiatives take place on land and sea with the island having its own education centre with a classroom where Chumbe staff provide hands-on learning in marine and forest ecology, sustainable coastal management and ecotourism. A highlight is the opportunity for a monitored snorkel along the Chumbe reef.

For many of the schoolchildren it is their

first time in the water and constitutes a life-changing experience. The programme also supports a teacher training scheme and awareness raising as well as training events for local communities, fishers, local tourism businesses and NGOs, with over 13,000 participants to date. (photo trip participants on World Ocean Day with Tanzanian singer Ben Pol).

For more details on the conservation and education programmes run on the island and how to book your overnight stay, visit chumbeisland.com

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Tech

HAPPY TECH

The past couple of years of uncertainty and isolation has proved a challenge for many people’s mental health. If you’ve been struggling to find your happy side recently, there are some ingenious gadgets out there to help you turn that frown upside down. Here’s our pick.

Flow Neuroscience Headset

The Pip This tiny device puts stress management at your fingertips – literally. It contains sensors that monitor the state of the pores in your finger, which are claimed to be highly sensitive to changing stress levels. The sensor pairs with a range of engaging apps, which detect your stress levels in real time. For example, one will create the image of a tree on the screen of your phone or tablet as you press on the sensor, with its branches beginning to bloom with blossoms or become ever more wintry and skeletal depending on the readings. You’ll get to see a detailed breakdown of your results and be able to track them over time. The idea is you will become better able to retrain your attention and gain control over stressful situations.

Where to buy: thepip.com Price: The Pip is available in a choice of either black or white design for US$ 170 PIP

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Everyone feels down occasionally, but if your low mood is sticking around and activities you used to enjoy now hold little interest, you could be suffering from depression. The Flow Neuroscience headset is a medication-free, at-home treatment designed to help those with the condition. The medically certified device delivers a low electric current to stimulate cells in the brain’s frontal lobe. Depression is associated with lowered activity here and Flow Neuroscience says five 30-minute sessions each week for the first three weeks should be enough to notice a significant easing of symptoms. There are options to purchase the device or just rent it until the depression is no longer an issue. The device also links to an app, which offers a complementary recovery plan put together by licensed psychologists.

Where to buy: flowneuroscience.com Price: US$ 488 to buy or US$ 96 a month to rent Flow Neuroscience AB

/ Tech

Therapy Lamp

Feelzing Energy Patch This ingenious patch – which you attach just behind your ear (where important nervous connections are located) – uses neurostimulation to give the wearer energy and focus.

During the seven-minute stimulation patterned electric waveform are sent to the nerves of the autonomic nervous system in your brain. This should give you the jump start you need whether you are playing sports, working, studying, or are just feeling listless as a result of stress or low mood. Unlike caffeine or sugary snacks, this energy boost won’t be closely followed by a crash and you won’t find your sleep quality affected.

There’s no shortage of sunlight in Tanzania but working long hours in a job that keeps you inside most of the day could mean your body suffer a drop in serotonin – a chemical that plays a key role on mood levels. In which case, this therapy lamp for your office or home could be ideal. It mimics the missing sunlight, encouraging your brain to increase the production of serotonin as well as inhibiting the production of melatonin (a chemical that makes you sleepy). This glare and flickerfree light filters out all harmful UV rays while providing the recommended 10,000 Lux light intensity to help boost your mood and energy levels.

Where to buy: amazon.com Price: US$ 157

The Feel Wristband This high-tech bracelet from US-based tech company Sentio tracks the wearer’s emotions – whether you are joyful, sad, or stressed – using their heart rate and skin temperature. This data is then relayed to the Feel app, where its algorithms get to work to provide real-time responses to manage your mental state. You’ll be provided with advice, exercise and online educational resources that help you tackle negative emotions.

The 16-week holistic Feel care programme also includes weekly 15-minute sessions with a dedicated mental health expert to check on your progress. The programme is intended for businesses looking to monitor employee wellbeing, but there is also a four-week, wristbandless programme available for individuals to buy.

Where to buy: feelzing.com Price: Four-pack (eight uses) US$ 84, 24pack (48 uses) US$ 168

Where to buy: myfeel.co Price: Contact myfeel.co for details on 16-week programme. Four-week Feel Relief programme is available at US$ 50 a week.

Thync Global Inc

Feel Therapeutics Inc

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Sound and vision

Faysal’s blog

After a long and tiring day at work, I took an amble to Pangani – a part of Arusha famous for its street food.

The street is at the heart of the city, surrounded by everything from the main public bus station to institutions like financial services, religious centres, shopping complexes, health care facilities, recreation and sports facilities.

Being born and raised in Tanzania, I have adopted to a tradition of having a cup of hot tea in the evenings and I thought: “Why not go and socialise with a few people and get to learn something new while enjoying my cup of tea?” It was a chilly evening and the street was extremely busy with vendors lined up selling a variety of local dishes. Everybody seemed to be requesting sambusa as a snack to go with their cups of hot tea.

These local favourites are triangles of fried or baked pastry with savoury fillings such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, minced meat. They are significantly influenced by the samosa in Indian cuisine and the generations of South-East Asians who settled in Tanzania. The snack has gone on to become on of the most popular Swahili fast foods.

That evening I had a chance to ask around as to why so many people were buying the snack and how it is being made. An old man in his early 70s has been eating sambusa since he was just a child. He said: “My family owned a small cafeteria and every evening we would just be sitting there chatting and folding samosas, and you would just see the piles of triangles grow and grow and grow.” He told me his house always smelled of fried onions because they would go in the beef samosas. He said making the sambusa not only forged connections with their clients it also brought them joy and unity in his family. This made me realise life teaches us in so many ways.

54 / Twiga

FILM REVIEWS

Faysal Alao is a vlogger and tour operator from Tanzania living in Arusha. He uploads regular videos about his experiences and everyday lifestyle on his YouTube channel, ‘Lifestyle of Faysal’. You can also keep up with him on Snapchat @faysal_alao and Instagram @callmefays

BOOK REVIEWS

Hearing the stories of sambusa

MUSIC REVIEWS

Mark Edwards rounds up the latest releases to stream, screen and read

PHEELZ / Finesse Pheelz is one of Nigeria’s leading music producers and has contributed to the sound of recent work by artists such as Tiwa Savage and Fireboy DML, but his hit ‘Feelz’ sees him grab the spotlight. Over a slinky beat, he swaps vocals with Nigerian singer Bnxn as the pair sing about the joy of no-strings relationships. It’s already proving a huge hit across Africa and in the Caribbean.

MAVERICK / Director: Joseph Kosinski It is closing in on 40 years since the film Top Gun was released and sent the career of Tom Cruise supersonic. Now Cruise is reprising his iconic role of flying ace Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in this long-anticipated sequel. The daredevil rookie of the original now returns – older and wilder, rather than wiser – as a teacher to instruct a new influx of naval aviators, all of whom are keen to show him they are Top Gun now. Based on the recent cinematic trailer, the new film’s flight sequences are absolutely incredible and nostalgia lovers will enjoy that Maverick’s imperious flying rival, ‘Iceman’, is back, again played by Val Kilmer.

VAGABONDS! / Eloghosa Osunde This hugely anticipated debut novel from Nigerian author Osunde is a celebration of ‘vagabonds’, the misfits and dreamers on the fringes of life in the country’s capital, Lagos. Our guide to this underworld of individualism is Eko, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal servant Tatafo. Together they unearth all kinds of characters from the shadows, such as a driver for a debauched politician and a mother transformed after attending. Their lives coalesce among the clubs and markets of after-hours Lagos and it seems there is some mysterious force bringing them together – but to what end?

Arts column

BABA LEVO / Singeli Amapiano There have been a number of Tanzanian artists who have appropriated the rising house music genre of Amapiano in their recent releases – Diamond Platnumz – but few have embraced the sounds of South Africa more wholeheartedly than Baba Levo with dance-driven hits such as ‘Hellow’, ‘Yes, No’ and, of course, ‘Amapiano’. That last track has now been given a singeli supercharge with the frenetic beats of the Dar es Salaam street music scene and a rap from one of its rising stars, Kidene, joining the party. Baba Levo marshalls all the pandemonium, commanding the stop before bringing them back for a series of false endings to the track that ramp up the track’s energy to a fever pitch.

FATHER’S DAY / Director: Kivu Ruhorahoza This sensitive film directed by Rwandan Kivu Ruhorahoza weaves together three stories with the interconnecting thread of failing fatherhood. The first strand centres on a woman dealing with the death of her son and a waning love for her ineffectual husband, the second revolves around a grownup daughter who must donate an organ to save the life of a father she never loved while the third follows a young boy becoming increasingly wary of his bully of a father. The stories collectively undercut traditional assumptions of manhood and patriarchy, while spotlighting strong women left to resolve the manmade trouble. This is Ruhorahoza’s fifth film and with little in the way of a budget to work with he has crafted a beautiful and affecting piece of work. It proved a huge hit on its world premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and should go on to get an international release.

THINGS THEY LOST / Okwiri Oduor Nairobi-born author Oduor won the Cain Prize for African Writing in 2014 for her short story ‘My Father’s Head’.

‘Things They Lost’, her debut novel, shifts the family dynamic to mother-daughter as it explores the life of 12-year-old Ayosa, who is abandoned by her fearsome mother and left to fend for herself in the crumbling family home in East Africa. Not that Ayosa is alone. It soon becomes apparent that she is a magical spirit and able to commune with the ghosts of generations past that have lived in the home. However, the arrival of a real friend, Mbiu, offers her an alternative life and she must decide whether to desert or rescue her troubled mother. Set between the spirit world and the human one, this book is a wonderful example of African magical realism and Oduor’s elegiac prose brings the reader in to savour every word.

Move to the movies with film-inspired dance

By Rebecca Mzengi Corey, the director of Nafasi Arts Space in Dar es Salaam and Twiga’s arts columnist. You can visit Nafasi Art Space online at www.nafasiartspace.org and instagram @nafasiartspace.

In June the Zanzibar International Film Festival will host its milestone 25th edition and the team at Nafasi Art Space is delighted we will be a part of celebrating the first quarter-century of Zanzibar’s oldest festival.

We are collaborating on a special multi-disciplinary programme, Tukutane ZIFF, which will feature contemporary dance, pop-up screenings, and live singeli’ music.

The programme forms part of a year-long initiative called Sanaa Pamoja, which means “the arts together”, set up to explore creative ways to bring artists from different disciplines and backgrounds together as well as building wider appreciation for the arts across Tanzania and Zanzibar.

One of the special events will be a contemporary dance piece commissioned by Nafasi and ZIFF and choreographed and performed

by Girls Power Dance Group, an all-female dance company made up of graduates of the MuDa Africa Dance School in Dar es Salaam. The piece, called Sarafina, marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie of the same name, which left an indelible mark on an entire generation of young people – especially girls – who came of age to the inspiring South African story of struggle and triumph.

One of the choreographers, Irene Themistocles, had this to say about the piece: “In the dance, we not only commemorate Sarafina the film, but also remember the events that took place during the Soweto uprising, using dance and theatre.”

Producer Germaine Sigonda worked closely with the group to create a piece that incorporates music as well as audio and visuals from the original film within a completely new dance performance.

She says: “This performance is all about strength and hope in oneself, the community, and our leaders. It shows how hope for a better future, instilled in the people, can expand into something beautiful. Girls Power bring drama, emotion, and power to the story through dance.”

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Swahili story

Mtaka Nyingi Nasaba…

The more relatives you seek…

Our series of short stories by Swahili authors is presented by Tanzanian writers’ collective Uwaridi and this time it is the collective’s co-founder, Hussein Tuwa, who presents a new work, exclusive to Twiga. It is the tale of a former international footballer who begins to regret passing off the fellow orphans he grew up with as his own family. Read on...

J

aafar Abebe aliingia sebuileni kwake akitokea chumbani kwake na kuketi kwenye kiti chake pendwa.

“Shikamoo kaka!”

“Shikamoo shemeji” “Ba’ mkubwa sh’kamoo!”

Salamu kutoka kwa watu aliowakuta wakimsubiri pale sebuleni zilimmiminikia.

“Oh…Marahaba…karibuni.” Aliwaitikia, na kuwakaribisha bila bashasha sana. Aliwatazama mmoja baada ya mwingine, wakati wakiuitika ukaribisho aliowapa.

Baada ya kusikiliza shida ya kila mmoja kati yao, alijiegemeza kitini kwake na kutafakari.

Mmoja, aliyemwita yeye “kaka” alikuwa ameenda kumkumbushia hela ya mtaji wa kuanzisha biashara aliyomwomba siku kadhaa nyuma walipokutana kwenye moja ya shughuli za kifamilia.

Mwingine, aliyemwita “shemeji”, aliyekuwa amepakata mtoto mdogo mapajani, alikuwa ameenda kumpa taarifa ya msiba huko kijijini ambako alipaswa kwenda lakini hakuwa sio tu na nauli wala hela ya mchango huko msibani bali pia hata hela ya “kula njiani”.

Yule aliyemwita “ba. mdogo” alikuwa ameenda kumtaarifu kuwa amesimamishwa shule kutokana na ada, na hivyo baba yake amemwambia aende pale “kwa Ba. Mdogo Jaafar” kuchukua hela ya ada.

Jaafar alishusha pumzi ndefu huku akitamani kutikisa kichwa kwa masikitiko.

“Sawa… nimewasikia. Er, hebu nipeni muda basi kidogo niangalie hali kwanza.” Aliwajibu na kurudi chumbani kwake.

Akiwa peke yake chumbani, kumbukumbu yake ikamrudisha mwaka mmoja na nusu uliopita, lakini zaidi alimkumbuka rafiki yake wa karibu, Maulidi. ****** Mwaka mmoja na nusu uliopita, alikuwa ameketi kwenye kiti kile kile pale sebuleni kwake akiwatazama watu waliojumuika naye kwenye jumba lake la kifahari. Wakati ule, alijihisi fahari kubwa moyoni,hadi akatabasamu.

Hakika hii ilikuwa ni ndoto yake maishani, na siku ile alijiona kuwa ni mtu aliyetimiza sehemu kubwa ya ndoto yake.

Ingawa na yeye alikuwa ni miongoni mwa wanaotajika kuwa ni matajiri, lakini moyoni mwake, amekuwa masikini mkubwa sana kwa muda mrefu sana. Mpaka siku ile, mwaka na nusu uliopita.

Kwani kuna umasikini mkubwa kuliko kukosa mwana? Ndugu? Jamaa?

Kwa maoni yake, hakuna. Ingawa sio kwa maoni ya rafikiye kipenzi, Maulidi.

Alimtazama Maulid muda ule. Akaona jinsi alivyokuwa akiwatupia macho ya upekuzi wale watu waliokuwa pamoja nao wakati ule. Kana kwamba angeweza kuona kila kilichokuwa kimefichwa ndani ya mioyo yao. Akatabasamu tena.

Kwa miaka mingi amekuwa akiishi peke yake.

Yatima asiye na mbele wala nyuma. Asiye na ndugu wala jamaa. Asiye na rafiki wala swahiba. Utoto na ujana wake amekuwa wa kuishi akiwatamania wenzake waliokuwa wakiongozana na ndugu, jamaa au wazazi wao kwenye jambo hili au lile, naye amekuwa wa kutazama kutokea pembezoni tu.

Mpaka alipokutana na Maulid. Wakati huo yeye akiwa kwenye kituo cha kulelea watoto yatima, na Maulidi alikuwa miongoni mwa wafanyakazi wa shirika moja la misaada lililoandaa tamasha la vipaji mbalimbali vya watoto yatima. Kwa kuwa yeye alikuwa akipenda kucheza mpira, akashiriki kwenye mchezo wa kabumbu.

Ndipo uwezo wake mkubwa wa kusakata soka ulipoonekana. Historia ilimbadilikia hadi akafikia kucheza soka la kulipwa nje ya nchi na kupata fedha nyingi. Aliporudi nchini akaamua kuwachukua baadhi ya watu aliokuwa nao kwenye uyatima na kufanya nao undugu wa yamini.

Maulidi, ambaye alikuwa mkubwa kwake kiumri, alimpinga sana dhidi ya hilo, lakini yeye hakumfuatilia. ****** Akiwa chumbani kwake Jaafar alitikisa kichwa na kuliendea kabati la nguo ambamo huwa anaweka pesa. Chozi lilimvuja wakati akiyakumbuka maneno ya marehemu rafiki yake aliyemzidi umri, Maulidi.

“Ama kweli, Mtaka nyingi nasaba, humfika mingi misiba!” Aliyatamka maneno aliyoambiwa na rafiki yake aliyetanglia mbele ya haki huku akihesabu hela za kuwapelekea “ndugu zake” kule sebuleni.

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Sign up to Twiga Miles now and get 1,000 free points!

And that’s just the beginning of your savings as every subsequent flight you take will earn you more points, which can all be redeemed towards future free flights across Air Tanzania’s domestic and international network of destinations. The amount of points you will earn depends on your ticket type, fare class and destination.

As a Twiga Miles member each flight you take will also help you climb through the ranks of our tier system. With each tier upgrade, you’ll get access to even more varied and valuable benefits.

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up at www.airtanzania.co.tz now.

Member Benefits

There’s never been a better time to take advantage of Twiga Miles, Air Tanzania’s loyalty programme, with all new members who sign up before May 19 this year getting a welcome pack of 1,000 points as soon as they take their first flight.

BLUE

SILVER SELOUS

GOLD SERENGETI

Start earning points towards a free flight with Air Tanzania.

Members will earn 25% more points than Blue members on each flight they take.

Members will earn 50% more points than Blue members on each flight they take.

Free extra 5kg baggage allowance on domestic flights

Free extra 10kg baggage allowance on domestic flights

Priority check-in at Dar, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar airports

Priority check-in at Dar, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar airports

Priority membership baggage tags that ensure your bags are first on conveyor belt at your destination

Priority membership baggage tags that ensure your bags are first on conveyor belt at your destination

FAQS How do I enrol?

Visit airtanzania.co.tz or contact our call centre on 0800 110 045.

Will I get a membership card?

Cards will be issued to Silver Selous and Gold Serengeti members.

How long does it take for my points to be transferred to my account?

Your points will have been transferred

to your account no later than 72 hours following your flight.

How long do my points remain valid?

Until the end of the third calendar year following the date you earned them.

For example, points earned in June 2021 remain valid till the end of 2024.

How can I spend my points?

You can spend your points by clicking

on “Use My Points to Buy” section under the payment options tab for the tickets you are going to buy on our website at www.airtanzania.co.tz Twiga Miles is only for passengers aged 18 and above. The scheme applies to all Air Tanzania destinations. Air Tanzania reserves the right to amend the terms and conditions of the campaign. All users participating in the campaign are deemed to have read and accepted these rules.

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Travel information

Before take-off Taking your first flight is certainly exciting, but can also become a source of stress for those who are unfamiliar with the rules, procedures and customs of flying. To prepare yourself for your first flight, it is therefore important to get information on everything you need to do before and during your journey. Here is a useful pre-departure checklist.

1

Before departing, it is important to check the airline’s website for its hand luggage rules: weight, sizes and types of objects you can take on board. For example, as regards liquids, you are advised to carry these in your hand luggage, only in transparent, reseal able, plastic containers, not exceeding 100 ml. In this section, you will find information regarding the hand luggage permitted on your flights; if you have connection flights, we advise that you also check the websites of other airlines.

2

Arriving at the airport in advance (at least two hours for domestic flights and three hours for international flights)

will enable you to check in and board your flight calmly, without anxiety and without unexpected last-minute issues.

3

Check in online, if possible.

If travelling with hand luggage alone, you can check in online and print or download your boarding pass which you must take with you directly to security checks. This will enable you to save precious time once at the airport and to go to the gate calmly. For further information, please visit the dedicated page.

4

Set your mobile to flight mode, as well as other devices connected to the internet that you are taking on board.

Cabin crew will remind you of this step before take-off. With flight mode set, you can still take photos of your unforgettable journey and you can also enjoy the in-flight entertainment system! To find out more, please visit the dedicated section.

5

If you suffer from motion sickness… you will only find out about it during your first flight! To prevent sickness from ruining your first flight on a plane, we advise you to take natural remedies, such as, for example, ginger tablets or gum to chew. Ginger is believed to have a anti-nausea properties. Otherwise, ask your doctor to prescribe you antihistamines with a sedative effect.

6

Enjoy the view! By choosing a seat near the window, you will see breath-taking landscapes and you can take photos of the exquisite white clouds you will be flying above.

Try to take a nap. Sleeping on the plane will make time pass faster and you will arrive at your destination calm and rested.

7

8

Lastly, especially during take-off and landing, the change in pressure inside the cabin may cause discomfort in your ears. To prevent this discomfort, you are advised to stay awake during these manoeuvres and to chew gum or wear earplugs.

AIR TANZANIA FLEET National carrier Air Tanzania is justifiably proud of its revamped six-strong fleet. Here we take a close-up look at our aircraft with technical data and specifications.

BOMBARDIER DASH 8-Q400 Number of aircraft available: 5 Bombardier Seat capacity: (3 Bombardier) Business Class 6, Economy 70 (1 Bombardier) Business class 10, Economy 68 Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 2,063 km (1,362 Nm) Typical cruising speed: up to 360 knots (414 mph or 667 km/hr) Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (28.4 m) Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.8 m)

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AIRBUS 220-300 (CS300) Number of aircraft available: 4 Seat capacity: Business Class 12 and 120 Economy Class Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 6,112 km (3,300 Nm) Typical cruising speed: 470 knots (541 mph or 871 km/hr) Thrust per engine at sea level: 23,300 lbf / 103.6 kN Wingspan: 115 ft 1 in (35.1 m) Length: 127 ft (38.7 m) Interior cabin width: 129 inches (3.28 m)

BOEING 787-8 DREAMLINER Number of aircraft available: 2 Seat capacity: Business Class 22 and 240 Economy Class Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 13,621 km (7,355 Nm) Typical cruising speed: 488 knots (561 mph or 903 km/hr) Thrust per engine at sea level: 64,000 lbf / 280 kN Wingspan: 197 ft 3 in (60.12 m) Length: 186 ft 1 in (56.72 m) Interior cabin width: 18 ft 0 inch (5.49 m)

Flying between COMOROS - AFRICA TANZANIA - TANZANIA AFRICA - INDIA AFRICA - AFRICA

hours ahead of your flight time for domestic flights and three hours for international flights.

Family travel

Passports and visas A valid passport or travel document that is valid for at least six months is required to enter the United Republic of Tanzania.

Visitors will also require a valid visa upon arrival. There are a range of visas available depending on the nature and frequency of your visits, but a single entry visa can be obtained on arrival in Tanzania subject to the fulfilment of all immigration requirements. There is a US$ 50 charge for the visa.

For a full list of visas available and for countries for which special terms exist, visit the Air Tanzania website.

Check-in Check in online, if possible. If travelling with hand luggage alone, you can check in online and print or download your boarding pass, which you must take with you directly to security checks. You should check in two

Fares for infants and children As a general rule, children up to two years old are not required to have their own seat and are allowed to travel on parents’ lap.

An infant tickets costs 10 per cent of the regular fare. Depending on the destination, taxes and fees may apply. Please note that only 1 baby per adult is accepted. You can choose to buy a seat for your baby at the reduced rates for children if any children’s rate is applicable.

If your child is older than two years or turns two while you are travelling, you will have to book a separate seat for him or her and book the children fare for the entire journey. If a child travels with an accompanying adult in the same class of cabin, the child should be seated in the same seat row as the accompanying adult. Where this is not possible, the child should be seated no more than one seat row or aisle away. Reduced rates apply for children aged two to 11 on most routes, depending on the travel class. Children turning 12 years en route need to be booked as adults for the entire journey.

Expectant mothers Our priority is always your safety and that of your unborn child.

To avoid unnecessary risks to you and your baby, we recommend

Free allowance

30 kg 23 kg 2PC @ 23 kg 2PC @ 23 kg

that all expectant mothers consult a doctor before booking their ticket and inquire about their fitness to fly the length of the trip they intend to take.

Depending on the stage and circumstances of your pregnancy, you may be required to present certain medical forms before flying. For your own safety and the well-being of your child, Air Tanzania will not accept expectant mothers who are pregnant from their 34th week or beyond.

UMNR (children travelling alone) If you’re planning for your child to travel alone, we’re here to make sure they enjoy their trip and that they are well taken care of throughout their journey.

When you book our unaccompanied minor service, your child will be received at the originating airport, taken care of during transit and while on board the aircraft. He or she will be handed over to the person designated by the parents/ guardians upon arrival at the final destination.

Cost To avail the unaccompanied minor service, an adult fare needs to be purchased for the child. Please contact us to book the flight and the service.

Infant fare checked baggage allowance Infants travelling on an infant fare are allowed 10 kg as baggage allowance.

BUSINESS

Air Tanzania has a free allowance for passengers’ baggage across economy and business class. For full details and rates please see our website www.airtanzania.co.tz or contact booking enquiries 0800 110045

ECONOMY

FREE BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE

Free allowance

40 kg 30 kg 3PC @ 23 kg 3PC @ 23 kg

Child fare baggage allowance Children and infants travelling on a child fare are eligible for the same baggage allowance as adults.

Wheelchairs If you need wheelchair assistance at the airport, you must advise Air Tanzania of this at the time of booking. You can request wheelchair assistance through our Call Centre or at Air Tanzania Sales offices.

Inflight Wi-Fi On board Wi-Fi Enable Wi-Fi on your laptop, tablet or smartphone, and select AirTanzaniaWifi You will need to launch your web browser, which will display the log-in web portal. From the portal, simply select your preferred price plan.

Portable electronic devices (PEDs) You can use your e-readers, tablets and smartphones from gate to gate – including taxiing, take-off and landing – without a risk to safety.

Note that on-board Wi-Fi is only available on certain aircraft. Please follow cabin crew instructions at all times.

For Booking & Enquiries: 0800 110045 www.airtanzania.co.tz

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Air Tanzania destinations

DISCOVER

Domestic and international routes Bukoba Mwanza Geita

Arusha

Kilimanjaro

Tabora

Kigoma

Zanzibar Dodoma

Dar es Salaam

Katavi

Mbeya

Songea

For Booking & Enquiries: 0800 110045 | www.airtanzania.co.tz

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UK

London

CHINA

Guangzhou Mumbai

INDIA

Bangkok

THAILAND

NIGERIA

Lagos UGANDA

Entebbe

KENYA

Nairobi

RWANDA

Kigali BURUNDI Bujumbura

TANZANIA

Dar es Salaam

DRC

Lubumbashi Ndola Lusaka

ZAMBIA

Comoros

ZIMBABWE

Harare

Active routes Upcoming routes

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Air Tanzania contacts

WHERE TO CONTACT US E-COMMERCE Location: ATC House, Ohio Street.

Email: tce-commerce@airtanzania.co.tz

CONTACT CENTRE Location: ATC House, Ohio Street.

Email: contactcentre@airtanzania.co.tz

0800 110045 Toll Free (Tanzania only) Tel: +255 022 212 5221

For the latest flights, information and to book online, visit:

www.airtanzania.co.tz

Follow us on:

@AirTanzania

@airtanzania

airtanzania_atcl

Air Tanzania ATCL

AIR TANZANIA CONTACTS DAR ES SALAAM (HQ)

TABORA

KAMPALA

Location: ATC House, Ohio Street PO Box 543 Office (JNIA) Tel: +255 222 117 500 Email: darairport.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Email: tabora.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Location: Park Royal Mall, Room 208, Buganda Road.

Email: uganda.station@airtanzania.co.tz Email: bbesalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +256 414 289 474 / +256 393 517 145

ARUSHA Location: Old Moshi Road, NSSF Mafao House Email: arusha.station@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: + 255 272 520 177/ +255 739 787 500

MBEYA

SONGEA Location: African Benedict Office Hanga- opposite TRA Songea Email: songea.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 712 796 421

KIGOMA

Location: Mbeya Mjini Email: godfrey.Samanyi@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: 0714 800 080 / 0737 800 090

Location: Lumumba Road, opp. Mambo Leo Pharmacy Email: kigoma.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 742 580 580

COMOROS

IRINGA

Location: Immeuble MATELEC Moroni, Grande Comores Email: com’airgsaatc@gmail.com Tel: +269 3312570 / +269 3322058

BUKOBA

Location: Asas House, Dodoma Road, opp. TCC. Email: Iringa.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 753 574 986

ZANZIBAR

Location: Jamhuri Road, NSSF Building Email: airtanzaniasalesbukoba@gmail.com Tel: 0767351336 /0735351336

Location: Postal Building, Kijangwani Email: zanzibar.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 785 452 585

KILIMANJARO

ZIMBABWE

Location: KIA Email: arusha.station@airtanzania.co.tz

DODOMA Location: Hatibu Road, Tofiki Street, CDTF Building Tel: + 255 262 322 272/ 0735 787 241 (mobile)/ 0683 776 744 (mobile) Email: dodoma.station@airtanzania.co.tz

MWANZA

Tel: +255 735 787 239/ +255 28 2501059 Email: mwanza.station@airtanzania.co.tz

64 / Twiga

Location: 24 Shamwari Complex, 157 Sam Nujoma Street, Ext Belgravia, Harare Email: hresalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +263 424 796 286/7 Mob: +263 773 119 462 ZAMBIA Barnetts Building, Shop 3, Hailie Selasie Avenue, Longacres, Lusaka.

Mob: +260 956 610 250 Email: support.lusaka@airtanzania.co.tz

ENTEBBE Location: Entebbe International Airport, Room no 095.

Email: uganda.station@airtanzania.co.tz Email: bbesalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +256 716 680 250

BURUNDI Location: Bujumbura-Mairie, Boulevard de la Liberté, Galerie Alexander, No 10 Email: fantasticvoyage1@gmail.com Tel: +257 610 139 48.

INDIA Location: Ajanta Travels PVT Ltd, VN Road, Mumbai.

Email: Res.bom@airtanzania.co.in Tel: +91 224 979 0108/09/ +91 98200 61232 (cargo)/ +91 98193 65286 (reservations)/ +91 740 0084680 (staff airport supervisors)

JOHANNESBURG Location: West Tower, 2nd Floor, Nelson Mandela Square, Maude Street, Sandown, Gauteng, South Africa 2146 Email: southernafrica@airlinepros.com Tel: +27 11 881 5945 Tel: +27 11 881 5945

Issue 14 / July to September 2022

YO U R F R E E A I R TA N Z A N I A M AGA ZINE

T R AV E L / TA STE / TALEN T

Twiga A I R TA N Z A N I A Issue 14

The Great Meditation Mindful safaris

Wildlife winners The best images from Ngoteya Wild's photo competition

My time in Tanga

Author Melanie Finn's wild writing retreat

KIBUBU Pay for your flight in instalments Visit airtanzania.co.tz