Another piece of Tanzanian art by the artist known simply as "Mbata". It is made of hundreds of tiny pieces of torn magazine paper, glued together to form the picture. I’ve been meaning to do another post on Tanzanian art for some time now. The picture above is by the same Kenyan artist, Mbata, who did a previous one I posted about of a hand drawn “Kokaten” cart. (You can read that post over here).
This picture, like the other one, is made up of hundreds of tiny pieces of torn up paper taken from old magazines and glued together to form a picture, and it is then lightly varnished over the surface. This lovely piece hangs in our bedroom and just like the Kokaten cart piece I have, is a typical Tanzanian scene.
There was a time here when very few people could afford a car. The fastest & most efficient form of transport for getting around the cities or from village to village was therefore by bicycle. Also, the roads were terrible for normal ‘cars’ to drive on (not so much for 4 wheel drive vehicles though) and even as recently as 10 years ago, the cities and bigger towns still had dirt roads running through them and remnants of old tar roads, peppered with potholes.
All that has changed now though, as these have all since been tarred (I could kick myself for not having taken photo’s of some of these roads and potholes before the towns were tarred as I now have no record of what it used to be like !) Now many people can afford small “saloon” cars (“saloon” cars are what vehicles which do not have 4 wheel drive are called here) and the most popular choice is something like a small Toyota or Peugeot. Almost all the cars are old models though, every time I travel to e.g. South Africa, England etc I am struck on leaving the airport at how ‘new’ all the cars around me look & my daughter is amazed at all the different car colours and shapes etc you can get (also at how clean all the cars look compared to our dusty, muddy cars here !)
Anyway, I’ve veered off the subject here as I was talking about bicycles and how popular they still are here. Think of all our farm staff, house staff and the surrounding villages around our farm – totaling 100’s of people - only about 5 of them own a car. You often see 2 people on a bicycle (as in the picture above) – most often a child riding with a father to school, or a husband with a wife sitting “side saddle” on the back. You rarely – if ever – see women riding bicycles here, and I’m not sure why – probably because, (like driving a car) especially in the rural areas, this is deemed “a man’s job”.
Bicycles are also a very popular means of carrying anything from planks of wood, baskets of fruit & vegetables or live chickens and even a single goat (this I have seen many times), all strapped on the back – though not all at once, of course !
Whereas there was a time when owning a bicycle here was a huge status symbol (in the rural areas, they still are) nowadays, especially in the cities, the ‘new’ status symbol is owning a mobile ‘phone.
I can only but wonder what will happen when Ipods eventually hit our shelves here ?!
This picture, like the other one, is made up of hundreds of tiny pieces of torn up paper taken from old magazines and glued together to form a picture, and it is then lightly varnished over the surface. This lovely piece hangs in our bedroom and just like the Kokaten cart piece I have, is a typical Tanzanian scene.
There was a time here when very few people could afford a car. The fastest & most efficient form of transport for getting around the cities or from village to village was therefore by bicycle. Also, the roads were terrible for normal ‘cars’ to drive on (not so much for 4 wheel drive vehicles though) and even as recently as 10 years ago, the cities and bigger towns still had dirt roads running through them and remnants of old tar roads, peppered with potholes.
All that has changed now though, as these have all since been tarred (I could kick myself for not having taken photo’s of some of these roads and potholes before the towns were tarred as I now have no record of what it used to be like !) Now many people can afford small “saloon” cars (“saloon” cars are what vehicles which do not have 4 wheel drive are called here) and the most popular choice is something like a small Toyota or Peugeot. Almost all the cars are old models though, every time I travel to e.g. South Africa, England etc I am struck on leaving the airport at how ‘new’ all the cars around me look & my daughter is amazed at all the different car colours and shapes etc you can get (also at how clean all the cars look compared to our dusty, muddy cars here !)
Anyway, I’ve veered off the subject here as I was talking about bicycles and how popular they still are here. Think of all our farm staff, house staff and the surrounding villages around our farm – totaling 100’s of people - only about 5 of them own a car. You often see 2 people on a bicycle (as in the picture above) – most often a child riding with a father to school, or a husband with a wife sitting “side saddle” on the back. You rarely – if ever – see women riding bicycles here, and I’m not sure why – probably because, (like driving a car) especially in the rural areas, this is deemed “a man’s job”.
Bicycles are also a very popular means of carrying anything from planks of wood, baskets of fruit & vegetables or live chickens and even a single goat (this I have seen many times), all strapped on the back – though not all at once, of course !
Whereas there was a time when owning a bicycle here was a huge status symbol (in the rural areas, they still are) nowadays, especially in the cities, the ‘new’ status symbol is owning a mobile ‘phone.
I can only but wonder what will happen when Ipods eventually hit our shelves here ?!
