Cultural Tourism in Longido, Tanzania

Here is Namanga, a town straddling the border between Kenya and Tanzania. As you pass the gate and enter Tanzania, you see a mountain in the distance. That is Longido mountain. At the foot of it, on the other side, lies the little town of Longido. I have crossed this border many times, over the years, on my way to and from Kenya. I have visited it with groups of American students, such as the one seen jogging above.

Mount Longido is one of the many volcanic features in Tanzania. Its name comes from the Maasai word "oloonkito," which means the place of the stone for sharpening knives. Indeed, Longido mountain abounds with rocks, including the kind the Maasai use for sharpening knives. Longido has also some memorable history. For example, on November 4, 1914, during World War I, a British force coming in from Namanga attacked the Germans at Longido. The Germans defeated the British.

Small as it is, Longido is now the seat of the district of Longido, with schools and other facilities. It is also the center of a vibrant cultural tourism program, known around the world.

I have taken students to Longido as part of a course on Hemingway in East Africa. I have found the Longido Cultural Tourism program a wonderful way to introduce my students to Maasai culture. Under Ally Ahmadou, its director, this program is run by the local Maasai, for the benefit of their community. As you go around the town and its vicinity, you get the distinct feeling that the local people support the program and they talk about its significant benefits in their community, including schools and water projects.

Above is the guest house owned by the Longido Cultural Tourism program.














Above, Professor Bill Davis from Colorado College, who co-taught the Hemingway course with me, learns to throw a spear, from a Maasai guide, to the amusement of all present. In his Under Kilimanjaro, Hemingway writes about the challenge of throwing a Maasai spear. I have also seen photos of Hemingway learning from a Maasai man how to throw a spear. I have tried it; it is not as easy as it seems.














This is the Maasai women's market on the edge of Longido town. Here the women sell different products they make, from bracelets to utensils.














Students from Colorado College admire a lamb during a visit to a Maasai boma, May 2008.














Here are Maasai women and children in their home. The Maasai of Longido welcome visitors into their homes, eager to teach them about their lives and culture. I have enjoyed all my visits to this community.














A Maasai guide explains to my Colorado College group the uses of a particular tree, on our way to the Longido mountain, May 2008.














The Longido Maasai school children are used to visitors. Their parents want them to go to school and are happy that their cultural tourism program is making this possible.














Mr. Ahmadou gives a briefing to our Colorado College group, before our trek up the Longido mountain, May 2007.














Our guides explaining the uses of various medicinal plants, on our way to the Longido mountain, May 2008.














Here I am with our guides, May 2008. I am lucky to have these friends and to be learning much about their culture. Interacting with the Maasai not only frees me from misconceptions about the Maasai, which are rampant among non-Maasai people, whether in Tanzania or elsewhere, but also gives me a sense of what Hemingway is describing in his works, especially Green Hills of Africa and Under Kilimanjaro.














Above is the dining hall, close to the guest house.

It is very nice to be here in the center of Longido, beside the highway linking Tanzania and Kenya. It is wonderful, knowing that on December 20, 1933, Hemingway and his party passed here, on their way to Arusha and beyond. I have learned something else this year, while reading a book I bought last year, Barua za Shaaban Robert 1931-1958, published by the Institute of Kiswahili Research, University of Dar es Salaam. This is a collection of letters Shaaban Robert, Tanzania's most famous writer, wrote to Yusuf Ulenge, his younger brother, over a period of a quarter century. I knew for many years that Shaaban Robert had lived and worked in different parts of Tanzania. However, now I have noted with much excitement that Shaaban Robert stayed here in Longido, in September 1931, working in the Customs Office. He came again the first week of June, 1936, to work in the same office. This time, he intended to stay 56 days. As it turned out, however, he stayed over a year, up to about mid-July 1937. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of this vital connection between Longido and Shaaban Robert, the founding father of modern Swahili literature.

Studying Hemingway in Tanzania

Ernest Hemingway is one
of the most well known writers in the world. Not many people, however, know about his lifelong fascination with Africa. For years I knew about Hemingway, having read some of his works, but in the summer of 2002, I fell under Hemingway's spell. That summer, I helped lead a large group of American students, their parents, and teachers on safari in some of the game parks of northern Tanzania: Ngorongoro, Serengeti, and Tarangire. The safari was organized by Thomson Safaris, http://www.thomsonsafaris.com, and my role was to incorporate folklore into the experience.

As I prepared for this trip, I decided to take Hemingway's African stories with me. I could not have made a better choice, as I wrote in a Tanzanian newspaper afterwards:

I had with me the African writings of Ernest Hemingway, the famous American writer who had visited these areas many years ago. I had read some of Hemingway's writings and I knew what a skillful and insightful writer he was. But being in the Serengeti, and reading his stories about hunting there, and about the animals, made this trip even more exciting. Hemingway's descriptions of the landscape, the fauna and the flora ring so true that I could almost see the warthogs running across his pages ("The African," September 14, 2002, p. 8).














With such an experience, it was natural that I began thinking about creating a course on Hemingway in East Africa. Eventually, I created such a course, for Colorado College. In the summer of 2007, twelve students, with Professor Bill Davis, came to Tanzania for the three-week course. Other trips have followed. Hemingway traveled extensively in East Africa, in 1933-34 and in 1953-54. Hemingway was an avid traveler and we cannot, in only three weeks, go everywhere he went. Still, teaching this course has been most satisfying to me. It offers an opportunity to challenge popular misconceptions and stereotypes about Hemingway, on such topics as hunting, writing and the macho image. I have learned to respect Hemingway more and more, as a writer whose mastery of the craft of writing is both intriguing and enchanting, whose insights into human nature are sharp and original, and who genuinely respected and liked the peoples and cultures he encountered.














Students on a trek up to Longido Mountain, with a Maasai guide.














A student meeting local women at Namanga, on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. Hemingway passed here.














A student meeting local women at Namanga. Hemingway wrote some fascinating observations about the local customs, including the piercing of ears.














A class outside a hilltop hotel, above Lake Manyara, near Mto wa Mbu. Hemingway hunted in this area.














A view of the Ngorongoro Crater. Hemingway hunted here.














Students in the Ngorongoro crater.














In front of a baobab tree in the Tarangire National Park. Hemingway hunted in this area.














There are many lodges and hotels in and around the national parks. Above is Ndutu Safari Lodge, in the Serengeti. Hemingway hunted in the Serengeti.














Discussing Hemingway's writings, at the Bougainvillea Lodge in Karatu.













On the edge of Lake Manyara, three giraffes walk in single file, while countless pink flamingoes are busy in the Lake. In his Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway talks about this Lake and various features of the area, including its famous hot springs.














The Arusha airport. Hemingway flew from this airport to a hospital in Nairobi after he became ill with dysentry in the Serengeti.














Students meet local Maasai school children in Longido. Hemingway passed through Longido, on his way to Arusha.














A class on Hemingway's writings, at the Trinidad Lodge in Babati. Hemingway passed through Babati, on his way to Kondoa, Handeni, and Tanga.














Students celebrating the end of the course, in Arusha.














On the way to Kilimanjaro International Airport, after the end of the course, it seems perfect to take one more photo, against the background of Mount Kilimanjaro. What a way to end a course in which one of the readings is Hemingway's unforgettable classic "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."