Written by our Zanzibar intern Ceit Mackintosh
English and other topics of interest such as politics, environmental issues, health, agriculture and economics are taught in the afternoon to our women’s group, known to us as the “Kanga Ladies”. The Kanga Ladies group is named after the traditional material they use as headscarves and skirts. The women gather outside, sitting on mats, learning these topics and participating in a discussion afterwards. Some of them are so enthusiastic about the lessons, especially one of our older Kanga Ladies, Mama Ramla who claimed that she intended to study English with African Impact and The Happy Africa Foundation “until she died”.
As part of an income generation project, we’ve begun gardening sessions after lessons in our Beyond the Roots garden. This initiative has already proved successful, attracting lots of new women of all ages (ranging from twenty to sixty-seven) to the group. Having access to a variety of fruits and vegetables gives the women an opportunity to boost their incomes as they can sell the produce they harvest to the African Impact chefs and other community members or alternatively use it to supplement their diet. Mtumwa, one of the Kanga Ladies claims that the project will be beneficial as it will save them money. She says “we won’t have to leave Jambiani to buy fruit and vegetables anymore. It’s expensive here and not many people grow because they are too lazy! Usually we go to Makunduchi (a twenty minute bus journey) or Stonetown to buy (an 1 hour 30 minutes bus journey)”. Munira, another of our Kanga Ladies, added that it will be good for the community and will “bring people together”.
The garden, which was once overgrown, has been well maintained by the Kanga Ladies. They are dedicated to the garden, visiting every day to water and weed, even when lessons aren’t being taught. We already grow tomatoes, spinach, aubergine, passion fruit, papaya and bananas in the garden but they would love to plant okra, peppers and even more tomatoes since its most of the ladies favourite fruit, often used in sauces to be eaten with rice.
Our partnership with the Kanga Ladies has lasted three years already and we hope to continue our work with them well into the future.