By Roy Lie Atjam
On the bright sunny day of 24 June 2023, the Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania in the Netherlands, H.E. Caroline K. Chipeta, hosted the first edition of Tanzania Cultural Day in The Hague.
The objective of the day is to present and create awareness of elements of the Tanzania culture as language, clothing and food to our Dutch friends and others. But it is more than that.
Ambassador Chipeta declared: “I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Tanzanian Community in the Netherlands and those from the neighbouring countries to express my appreciation for taking your time on this beautiful day and joining us in celebrating our culture.”
Ambassador Chipeta cordially welcomed her fellows Ambassadors and diplomats from Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sri Lanka, all delighted in the festivities.
“Balozi, Karibu sana. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to take a minute, to specifically welcome my dear colleague H.E. Ambassador Wiebe de Boer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Republic of Tanzania, who just arrived this morning from Dar es Salaam he is here with us now.
When I told Ambassador Wiebe what I was planning to do and invited him, he was happy to be here and encouraged me on my plans. Ambassador, your presence here today means a lot in terms of the relationship between our countries. Nakushukuru Sana. Ambassador De Boer, welcome home.”
Ambassador Wiebe de Boer lauded his colleague Ambassador Caroline Chipeta for her achievements in the short space of time since her arrival in the Netherlands. De Boer also praised the long-standing excellent relationship between Tanzania and the Netherlands.
Ambassador Wiebe de Boer declared; Honorable Ambassador Caroline Chipeta, I am happy to join you all today in this first Tanzania Cultural Day in the Hague. It was a happy coincidence that I am here in the Netherlands to attend another conference and when I heard of the ambassadors initiative I immediately volunteered to be with you this afternoon.
I am ambassador in Tanzania since August 2021. The Embassy is concentrating on working together on Agriculture, Logistics and Sustainable Tourism. But not in the traditional way with big Government to Government projects. The Embassy is now a platform to bring together government agencies, universities and companies from both countries together to facilitate knowledge transfers, exports and investments.
Next to hard work I enjoy Tanzania’s beautiful nature, beaches, food, its language, and its diverse culture. I love sailing and kayakking over the weekends in the Bay of Dar es Salaam and the islands.
I am happy to see you enjoying this cultural day by embracing local dances, variety of foods like ‘ugali’ and unique traditional clothes made out of Khanga and kitenge here in the Hague.
Mabibi na mabwana,
When I look at Tanzania, it has a lot to offer
The Swahili languange is quite unique. I congratulate the Tanzanian Embassy in The Hague for recently being recognized as the Center of Kiswahili and Culture by the Council of Kiswahili.
We are following with a lot of interest the democratization process headed by president Samia, as diaspora you will surely follow the ongoing political, legal and constitutional reforms happening back home.
We see a great future for Tanzania with the present economic policy. Tanzania will become the food basket for East Africa and important vegetable and fruit provider for the Middle East, Asia and Europe. In 8 years time you will have a bigger economy than Kenya ………and with the right choices on the port of Dar es Salaam the DAR corridor for Tanzania and the neighboring countries will grow tremendously.
In 2022, the Tanzanian diaspora sent over $1.5 billion in remittances to Tanzania. I see Tanzania Investment Center (TIC) and CRDB are here. We have worked with TIC over the last 18 months and I want to underline our very positive experiences with TIC.
Mabibi na mabwana,
The Netherlands is the leading EU country for FDI inflows to Tanzania with $753 million.
Mabibi na mabwana,
I would like to end by congratulating the organizers of this Cultural day, especially my friend Your Excellency Chipeta.
Today, you all get a taste of Tanzania but in The Hague. You may be far away from home but feel at home. ENJOY. ASANTE SANA“
Ambassador Chipeta went to say: “On behalf of the Diaspora, I would like to recognize the presence of special guests and express our appreciation for taking your time and join us in celebrating our culture. On a special note, we have representatives from the Tanzania Investment Center, who will have an opportunity to inform us of the investment opportunities in Tanzania. I’d like to call all those interested in investing in Tanzania to make time and meet the TIC representatives. CRDB is the Bank that listens.
I would also like to acknowledge the presence of the representatives of different Dutch Companies who are with us here today, we highly value the importance you have attached to this event by sparing some time to join us. Thank you so much!”
Kwa nini siku yua utamaduni wa mtanzania? – why Tanzania (cultural) day?
“The celebration of Tanzania Cultural Day is in conformity with the strategy of the Sixth Phase Government led by H.E. Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, to ensure that every Tanzanian, wherever he or she is, respects, promotes and develops Tanzania traditional values and culture.
First and foremost, we are going to taste Tanzanian cuisine. Though we do eat more or less the same type of food, in actual sense, as we say in Tanzania, “mapishi hutofautina” which literally means, the same food, with a twist of a recipe, brings out a completely different taste. We welcome you to get a taste of ours and who knows, you might leave with some recipes to try at home.
We will have Ugali, our main staple food, Pilau, wali mweupe, Green banana, kisamvu, vitumbua, mandazi, chapati, sambusa, name it.
All in all, the Tanzanian food corner cannot be complete if we do not have the famous nyama choma, which goes well with a glass of wine, beer or Konyagi.
I urge you not to leave before you have a taste of nyama choma, kuku choma, or even Samaki choma for that matter.
We can enjoy Tanzania Coffee and chai. Tanzanian wine and beer will be there to taste and Konyagi will be of plenty.
Today, 26 June, we are celebrating Tanzanian culture, which is diverse in nature as it is a combination of about 120 ethnic groups, with different languages and dialects but brought together by a common language, Kiswahili.
Language is part of any culture. Tanzania is so rich in languages. However, despite having more than 112 indigenous African languages in Tanzania, the majority of them (101 languages) belonging to the Bantu language group and 4 Nilotic languages included Maasai and Tatoga, 5 Cushitic languages such as Iraqw, and 2 Khoisan languages, Hatsa and Sandawe/Hadzabe, Kiswahili is the language of Tanzania. It is our national language, and one of our Official languages.
Kiswahili is spoken all over Tanzania it is our language of Unity. We will have the opportunity to hear the importance of Kiswahili in promoting culture and economic diplomacy.
Kiswahili is one of the main attributes in celebrating our culture, I will now switch and address the diaspora in Kiswahili, as it is only fair that we give you the flavour of the language so that you can tell how easy it is to learn and speak Kiswahili.”
Ambassador Chipeta further stated, “I believe it will not be difficult to understand what I am saying, especially as the diaspora speaks Dutch and a good number of our Dutch friends speak Kiswahili.”
The cultural item of clothing – Khanga was introduced.
“We will have the opportunity to see what is worn by some of the ethnic groups in and what is worn by ordinary men and women. I am sure you have witnessed several different clothing as Tanzanians go up and about around here.
However, in terms of what we wear, our focus today will be on khanga. The most important piece of cloth for a Tanzanian household, specifically a Tanzanian woman.
You will see different uses of khanga, and realize the value put on this simple cloth. As a Tanzanian woman myself, I never get enough of khangas.
In fact, Khanga is a piece of cloth introduced to the East African coast in the 19th century, and in Tanzania replaced most of the traditional costumes worn before then.
Khanga, the talking cloth of Tanzania-east Africa is a cultural jewel.
Khangas are colourful, and beautiful and have messages printed on them.
It could be romantic messages men can buy for their wives, faith messages and words of encouragement that are given and used in times of sorrow.
At political rallies, Khangas can be used to motivate voters. They can even be used by rival football clubs to send messages when mocking each other.
As said by some, khangas are never enough for a Tanzanian woman. There are women with more khangas than dresses.”
Ambassador Caroline Chipeta concluded her clothing presentation by observing that a Khanga compliments a woman. “As a Tanzanian woman I never get enough of khangas. No Tanzania woman can have enough khangas, manufactures always come with beautiful patterns that will lutre you back to the shop. That was Khanga, one of the most important cloth for Tanzania. I hope you enjoyed watching how different we use Khangas and hence its importance to Tanzania.
Dear friends and visitors, you can buy yourself a pair of khanga and experience how best you can use it. Khanga, the cultural jewel of Tanzania!
Music – entertainment.
We have with us today the Wanne Star Arts group, all the way from Tanzania to lead us in cultural dancing, the diaspora cultural group will be showing how different ethnic groups in Tanzania dance to different beats. We will be entertained and dance together to the Bongo flavas by Tanzanian DJs amongst the Diaspora.
Karibuni sana, feel and enjoy the Tanzanian ambiance! Nawashukuru sana.”
The attendees left the marvellous Tanzania Cultural Day 2023 in high spirits.
