Bibi

Bibi is Swahili for Grandmother and I came to know many grandmothers whom I remember with great affection. There are many who come to mind and they will appear in my writings from time to time.

This Bibi lived with Mama Veronica, our close neighbor. They were a poor family and struggled to find sustenance. This old Bibi (whose name I never knew) came regularly to Mama Baraka who would help with food and be a negotiator to ask us for assistance. We would take tea together and she would struggle to communicate because her Swahili was limited and she was from a distant tribe, so I could not understand her. But we had fun together and she enjoyed music and old as she was, she still had that African Rhythm. On occasion I would dance with her in my hobnailed boot way. She shyly joined in.

The above picture shows her lifting the trunk of a banana 'tree'. Once the bananas are harvested the plant carrying it dies and another shoot sprouts from the root. The trunk is heavy as it is full of water, but Bibi cut it to manageable size (no actually she would ask me to do the cutting with a panga - bush knife). She would make a pad for her head and carry it off on her head. On occasion she would proudly show her well-kept milking cow to me in its well-kept banda.

This is the life many elderly people have in Tanzania - continuing to contribute as they age; and I must say, in general Tanzanians age gracefully and with dignity.