“…That’s how you directly counter rural poverty”: Reflections on rural poverty and the ‘untapped power’ of rural populations to fight poverty.

Since the beginning of last week I have been in Morogoro at the CCT Women Training Centre to facilitate a workshop on Household Economic Planning and Management. The workshop participants’ are 40 including 26 women and 14 men. Most women participants are from the rural areas in different regions including Shinyanga, Mwanza, Geita, Kigoma, and Morogoro. Other participants are from Arusha and Dodoma.  The training participants have different socio-economic backgrounds. Education levels, for example, range from a degree level to standard 7.  With such a group, Mama Mkwizu (the lead facilitator) and I decided to deploy adult learning methodologies such as participatory approach, sharing of real-life experiences among other adult learning pedagogical techniques.

In respect to the above, we allowed long discussions on issues and encouraged participants to share their experiences. We ended up learning more than we taught. These people especially the women from rural areas have rich experiences, knowledge and ways to deal with daily challenges that life in rural Tanzania can bring.  I cannot be grateful enough for this wonderful experience to learn in a way that I’d never imagined. From 2008 to 2012 I had an opportunity to teach various modules at one of the best Universities in the world – the University of Nottingham, which attracts best students in the UK and from all over the world. Before any class at Nottingham, I used to put several hours of preparation that involved reading and critical analysis of all the readings and the lecturers. I carefully planned and organized my seminars to ensure that I cover the planned lesson of 50 minutes. It was an enriching academic experience in a perfect environment. I thank the School of Politics and International Relations for giving such a great opportunity. I used to learn a lot from extremely bright and exposed students of Nottingham. However, the experience of facilitating a workshop to rural women of Tanzania with standard seven-education level has been so fulfilling to a no comparison level.  I have discovered problems patterning rural populations and in particular women. There is so much exploitation to poor people. The system does not allow them to keep even the little they have. Can you imagine some “microfinance” companies that give loans to women in rural areas take about 48% interest? By any standard that is the highest level of exploitation as these women basically slave for those companies as they end up selling everything they have to serve their “masters”. To cut the stories short, I can only that the insights I gain from listening and talking to these women is something that I can never get in any development literature. These are the issues that you don’t find anywhere. The only way to find them is to listen to the poor.

 At one session I spoke to participants about the importance of storing enough food for the whole year and food security. I had carried with me a letter that my dad had written to people of Hai District on the importance of storing enough food for the whole year. The letter included calculations on how much food is needed for each member of the family for the whole year. So I used the information from the letter and encouraged discussions on the matter. I loved that discussion because the participants were very critical to the amounts of food estimated and thought that due to cultural differences and consequent eating behaviors the amount in the letter won’t be enough for all tribes. Well, the discussion continued and I told them about the story of Ruth in the Bible. This was to encourage those with no land and very poor to gather the remains after harvests. One of the women stood up and testified that’s what she does every year and she gets three to four bags of maize every time she does it. The story of Ruth in the Bible became so vivid to me…interesting enough this woman is a widow just like the way Ruth was. We have to love widows and take care of them.

 Well, since I finished my PhD and started working at BUMACO Ltd, I have had grace to visit many places in Tanzania. Due to the nature of my work, most of these places I visit are rural and poor. The poverty is devastating. As a result I have been worried and disturbed by high poverty levels in the villages of Tanzania. I share my concerns with friends and my co-workers. But mostly I do talk to my dad about it. He is really my hero. He is always there to listen to my complaints, concerns, and ideas about how to deal with rural poverty. I trust him more than any other man under the sun and so I follow his advice and always convinced by his thinking line. Well, so the other day as we were talking over the phone and as usual I was pouring out all my excitements, lows and ups and update him about the workshop, telling him how the women and men in the workshop are actively participating and how we worked with each participant to develop their family vision and mission statements. My dad, who is a champion of vision, mission, and goals (he loves those and when we were young he encouraged us to develop them every new year) was very excited and knew exactly where to hit me saying “…that way you are directly countering rural poverty”…wow!! Indeed, that’s was the best complement I have had this year.

 By that, I am in no way saying that I am wiping rural poverty in Tanzania. I’d be mad to utter such a statement…but I believe in doing the little that I can because of my belief that the little things will incrementally sum up to a significant change. The late Prof. Wangare Mathai favorite tale of the ‘hummingbird’ should encourage us all to do the little that we can towards changing the shameful poverty situation in rural Tanzania.

 Having said that, we have to be careful on our motives and methods of doing it. Often we think that “we know a lot” and that “we are ‘saving’ the poor people” but actually we don’t know anything, they are the experts of poverty and they know how to solve it. What rural people need is empowerment and an ear to listen to their ideas. These people are the power and resources we need in the fight against poverty. They have lived in it and survived so they know it more than us. After having many unsuccessful interventions, the World Bank got wiser and went one step further to listen to the poor people. The Bank then commissioned a study known as the ‘Voices of the Poor’ that interviewed poor people in 66 developing countries. This study has helped the Bank in designing new projects especially by bringing faith groups closer as most interviewees told them that they trust faith leaders and institutions more than governments or other institutions. Now, it’s really annoying seeing young Tanzanian “elites” discussing issues to do with rural poverty in Tanzania from cities without a thorough understanding and critical analysis of the rural poverty.  They think or are convinced that they know. This is ‘urban bias’ as my friend Emmanuel Tayari would call it. I would rather someone keep quiet than speaking about rural poverty from cities without any tangible effort to interact with and learn from the rural population who feel poverty in their daily life. We need to ask poor poor for their opinion and not guess solutions. Due to lack of proper understanding and honest/objective interactions with poor people, the ‘urban bias’ discussion is often superficial and do not lead to any sustainable change.

 The recent #SimTax issue in Tanzania is a classic example of  ‘urban bias’ voices. To begin with I must admit that I was impressed and grateful for all Tanzanians who strongly voiced out their opposition against the tax. This was an excellent civil action. It was done mostly through social media. An online forum known as ChangeTanzania put forth a petition against the tax and it accumulated thousands of signatures. I myself signed the petition as I believed that the tax is unfair and a double-taxation. I attempted to critically analyze the tax by trying to understand the thinking behind such a decision but couldn’t find any convincing answer. So I signed the petition. However, throughout the debates, which I mostly followed on twitter, one thought kept hitting my brain- the superficiality of the debate. The forum’s twitter account and other Tanzanians ‘twitterstars’ were busy opposing the tax using rural poverty as justification…probably that was because the supporters of the tax argued that the revenue that will be earned will go to develop rural areas. Whether that is true or not, I am not going to that debate. But what I want to show here is the superficiality of ‘urban bias’ through this example. Most of the debates were in English, which is not our first language. That on itself was a sufficient factor to exclude the very people the debaters were using to justify their arguments. Second I don’t think people went to the rural Tanzania to get the data of the percentage of rural population with mobile phones? (at least I didn’t see that), third, did we bother to hear what the rural people’s view were? forth, fifth etc etc…. In fact, the introduction of SimTax in the budget was a manifestation of structural weaknesses that are sustaining poverty in rural Tanzania. If we fight SimTax only is like cutting a leaf of a poisonous tree while leaving its roots alive. The whole budget making process in Tanzania needs to be revisited. Citizens should be encouraged to participate in the process. This can be done through the local authorities structures and other forums such as civil societies and faith institutions. Rural people should be incorporated in the making of budgets if we want to change their situations. I kept thinking that we had better put similar efforts in discussing the draft constitution (Rasimu), a document that is most likely going to inform our national institutions and systems in the next 50 years or so. But we often go and do what is easy… we don’t want our hands dirty! Or do we?

 Well, development partners have formulated different approaches to ensure inclusion in development interventions. Such include Rural Participatory Approach, Participatory Learning Approach, O&OD (Opportunity and Obstacles in Development), and Political Economy Analysis among others. These are a big step towards involving rural populations in designing development intervention, but they are often too technical, political, and expensive to carry out that they often do not work.

 This entry is a call for us all to get bold and …directly tackle rural poverty in Tanzania together with the very people we want to ‘help’.

6 thoughts on ““…That’s how you directly counter rural poverty”: Reflections on rural poverty and the ‘untapped power’ of rural populations to fight poverty.

  1. Alilya Emmanuelle

    Again such a reflecting entry, the poverty rates in our country is still so high. Apart from rural, even urban areas are poverty stricken. Last week , I had a privilege to visit some urban areas in Dar es Salaam, the capital city, and passed by one of the Primary School, I saw some students sitting on the ground writing, and I asked my Uncle what are they doing? and he replied “They are taking exams”. One can imagine! that environment itself is so hard to focus, think even write. Truly, whoever reads this just know that we still have so much work to do as a nation. To improve ourselves not only economically but socially as well. Let us be voice to the voiceless.

    Reply
    1. Yasmim

      Oh Kate, these photos take my btaerh away. YOu are so sweet and special to us. God had you there at HIS appointed time. You are sooooooooooooooooooo talented. Words cannot express my appreciation to you for capturing these precious once in a lifetime moments that would have been lost, never to be relived. They were exactly what I had hoped would be captured to tell the story. You are so amazing. Please do not ever take your talent lightly, you bless people with your eye through that lense. I was there and I can’t believe you got all of this. You are such a gift!!!!!! You know you are loved by our family but these photos bonded us to a knew level. You can see in the photos that you know us and love us what a precious pure intimacey. Bless you sweet Kate.

      Reply
    2. Jamile

      Sam. I wanted to tell you how much I ejnyoed your book For Fukui’s Sake . I lived in Yokosuka for 2 different tours to Japan. My hubby was in the Navy. I had 2 small girls so didn’t get to travel as much as I wanted but did go and see a few things. I could see in my mind how Fukui was like then saw your favorite picture from there and it was just like I thought it would be . I really miss not being there now and it has been 20 years since we left. You have many great memories and brought up many of mine while I read the book. Now thoes black rubber centipedes was not one of my favorite subjects. Had one crawl across my neck one night sleeping at home. still shutter. LOL Thank you so very much for writing about my favorite subject. I even shed a couple of tears when I got to the end. Again; thank you, thank you, thank you for writing such a good book. I did go and give a review for the kindle version. I only read books 1 time as there are too many in this world to read but this one will be with me forever and when I want to go back to Japan I will reread it, Over and Over again.

      Reply
  2. Marcelo

    It is the best in Accademic performance, best in srptos and well-cleaned compus. Again well-stocked library, portable science lab, computer lab and de rest. Eeeii why T.K why? Cos u’re the best among the rest of the schools in ghana.

    Reply
  3. Nomvula

    Hi SamI happened to come acsros your book while browsing Amazon by my brand new kindle, and I purchased your book instantly because Fukui is the place I was born, raised, and educated.Amazingly, among several cities in Fukui prefecture, I am from the city of Ono. When you were in Ono, I also had some big events there. I got married and my wife gave birth to our daughter. I still remember that Fukui was hit by a big typhoon along with horrible flood. Yes, a lot of bears had been witnessed afterward.Now I live in Bangkok as a Japanese expat, and am amazed with locals’ life like you were several years ago in my home.It seems like you enjoyed your life in Ono more than most of locals do. And, I miss “tonchan “ and “oden at konbini” so much now after finishing your book.Kenichi

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Series 5 #ElectionsInTanzania2015: Are #CCM Presidential Nomination Candidates failing #Kinana’s successful politics of Image? | Aikande Kwayu

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