This page has its origin in the collaboration between TERREDELSUD and the mission of Agrigento in Ismani, in Tanzania. In this page you will find some basic information necessary for understanding the issues that characterize this part of the world. The present files are useful for beginning to build a path of commitment for those people who believe they can give suggestions or contributions of whatever type. The activation of one project involving the mission is already in progress: the creation of a system that can create better conditions of life for the inhabitants of the place. The project will try to furnish all those elements of knowledge, contributions and interventions useful for applying social, cultural and environmental conditions which are sustainable in the long term. 

Whoever would like to have more information or to contribute in any way can write to nelmondo@terredelsud.org and receive all the necessary information.

Geography and politics 

United republic of Tanzania Jamhuri ya Mwungano wa Tanzania 

Surface: 943,049 Km²
Inhabitants: 29,461,000 
Density: 31 inhabitants/Km²

Form of government: Presidential federal republic 
Capital: Dar es Salam (1,747,000 inhabitants.) 
Other cities: Mwanza 250,000 inhabitants; Dodoma 200,000 inhabitants. 
Ethnic groups: Nyamwezi and Sukuma 21%, Swahili 9%, Hehe and Bena 7%, Makonde 6% 
Bordering countries: Kenya and Uganda in the North, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo in the West, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the South 

Principal mountains: Kilimanjaro 5895 m 
Principal rivers: Rovuma 800 Km (Tanzanian stretch, total 1000 Km) 
Principal lakes: Lake Victoria 35,000 Km² (Tanzanian side, total 68,100 Km²), Lake Tanganica 14,000 Km² (Tanzanian side, total 32,893 Km²), Lake Rukwa 3700 Km², Lake Eyasi 1200 Km²
Principal islands: Zanzibar 1660 Km², Pemba 984 Km²
Climate: Tropical 
Language: Swahili, English (both official) 
Religion: Moslem 33%, Christian 33%, Animist 33% 
Coin: Shilling of Tanzania 

The territory 

The Mission of Ismani is found in Tanzania, on a plateau in the region of Iringa, in the mid-south of the country. Dar Es Salaam is the principal city and site of the international airport. One arrives there by crossing around 650 Km of good road that passes through Morogoro, through the national Park of Mikumi, and through Iringa, (it then continues up to Zambia). After reaching Iringa, a further 45 km are crossed in a northerly direction along the road that leads to Dodoma. 
Ismani occupies a territory which is around 50 Km long and around 60 Km wide. It winds on a sloping plateau, bordered by the Rift Valley. On this territory, which has the typical characteristics of the savannah, live a lot of ethnic people distributed in 25 villages with a total number of 35,000 inhabitants. The territory of the mission is crossed in all its length by the "Panafrican", a characteristic route that connects the two extremities of the African continent: Cairo and Cape town. It is a mixed route, formed by railways, roads, rivers and lakes. The part that interests Ismani, and that connects Iringa to Dodoma, is a stretch in excavated earth, as are most of the internal lines of communication.

Residentiality 

Up until 1973, Tanzanian farmers lived above all in scattered settlements, isolated farms or little villages, cultivating fields, farming in an itinerant fashion, because the natural vegetation continually supplied the lands with humus. When the terrain grew impoverished, the settlements moved: after all, the houses, consisting of poles and mortar and covered with straw, do not last more than 8 or 10 years. 
Starting from 1973, however, the Government gave categorical orders for the population to be assembled in villages. The intention was that of concentrating the population in inhabited centres of a certain size, situated along the principal roads of communication, in order to supply power and services more easily: water mains, state schools, dispensaries and hospitals. 

However much this provision guaranteed various services to the population, it had at the same time some negative effects for the agricultural economy. Agriculture, which was no longer itinerant, required technology and expertise that the farmers did not possess; Furthermore, the fields assigned to every family could no longer border with the houses, which were now inside the village, but were found at a certain distance from the village and had to be reached on foot, just as the equipment necessary for work (and also harvesting) had to be carried considerable distances on foot, causing a great waste of effort and time.

If we look at the villages included in the territory of the mission more closely, we realize that they are all rural villages and the houses are not in direct contact one with the other, but separated by the little fields which surround them. The houses, whose foundations are 30-40 cm deep, are made of mud with straw roofs which are sometimes covered with a 10 cm layer of clay to protect the inhabitants both from the heat of the sun and from the rain.
In recent years, houses are increasingly being built using mud bricks (dried in the sun or baked in ovens) and steel sheeting for the roof. The sheeting does not fit in at all with the landscape; furthermore, when it rains, the noise of the rain is amplified inside the house and the changes in temperature become more marked. On the other hand, they do not force their dwellers to periodically buy straw to replace that part of the roof which the sun and the rain have rendered useless.

The furniture inside is almost nonexistent. It is difficult to find beds; many sleep on the ground, lying on a wicker mat. 

The economic system 

The economy of the area of Ismani is essentially still dependant on the cultivation of corn. Due to the lack of modern techniques of cultivation, and for the lack of machinery and fertilizers, the increase in agricultural production in the territory of Ismani has never been due to an increase of the output of the land, but due to the constant increase of the extension of the cultivated surface. The deforestation that all of this has required, and continues to require, has seriously altered the ecological equilibrium of the whole area, which is more and more subject to periods of extreme drought alternated by seasons of torrential rains, which are just as harmful for agriculture. The systematic deforestation and the permanent cultivation of corn have therefore literally dried up the land; moreover, the extension of a semi-arid climate towards the centre of Tanzania is leading to the concrete desertification of the area.

In the last thirty years, Ismani has been considered the "breadbasket of Tanzania". Already in 1965, the region of Iringa produced two thirds of all the corn produced in the State. 
Today, people are realising the errors that have been made and they understand that they have to alternate the production of corn with pulses. In the meantime, we can only note the bitter consequences: desertification advances; the quality of the food eaten by farmers, which before was more varied, has gone down; the fields yield less and less; it is becoming difficult to find wood for daily use and the replanting of forests fails to take off.

The population, also stimulated by the voluntary workers present in the territory, is trying to plant new alternative products: besides cultivating corn people are also developing sunflowers which, sold in towns for the production of oil, consents them to integrate their diet, based on corn, with their earnings.
As far as other forms of economic activity or subsistence are concerned, a separate consideration must be made for the breeding of livestock. Except for the Masai, who are nomadic shepherds and breeders of cattle, and thus consider this activity as very important for their cultural and tribal identity, even more than for its economic aspect, among the other ethnic groups living in the territory of Isimani, the culture of breeding medium and large-sized livestock is completely missing. As a result, the production of meat remains modest, and milk even scarcer, except for rare exceptions.

The commitment of missionaries and lay workers is increasingly directed towards the creation of alternative economic activities or the integration of the cultivation of corn. The diffusion of breeding, above all of small and medium-sized animals such as poultry or goats, which are easier for the families to raise, could constitute an important resource for integrating the diet of the farmers with meat and milk, supplying those proteins which are always lacking. 

The cultural level 

Tanzania has arrived very near to establishing primary schooling for everybody: in 1982, 87% of the school age population attended school. Tanzania started winning the challenge of giving everyone basic schooling in the 1970s. It obtained this success through significant political commitment and investments in the education sector, beginning with the Declaration of Arusha and continuing until the start of the economic crisis in 1979. The "universal education" programme is, however, still under way. Future goals are the building of more schools, an adequate training of teachers and also a modification of the syllabus, including topics in it which are more closely linked to village life. Experiences in manual labour are encouraged and students are urged to cultivate their fields.
By now, almost all the villages of the zone of Ismani have an elementary school. If we visit them we will realize that they are more or less solid, according to the resources of the village, even if it is useless to go and look for glass in the windows, well-made blackboards or books in the hands of pupils (there is one for every 4 or 5 pupils). But if the problem of the diffusion of the elementary schools seems by now resolved, the one regarding upper schools remains urgent. Among the regions of Tanzania, Iringa is one of those which have the least secondary schools. In fact, only one boy out of 2,000-2,500 continuous to study after compulsory school. The problems related to the training of young people are many, and not only economic. In fact, technicians and artisans who are able to teach the art of iron and wood, or professions such as construction, or the fabrication of farming equipment, are scarce. Moreover, besides the difficulty of acceding to secondary studies is the fact that, still today among those people who have completed the first or second cycle of studies, many do not succeed in finding a job with a salary. Not having been able to establish the right to education and the difficulty of absorbing qualified youths in the market of non-agricultural jobs are phenomena which are linked to the to continuing economic crisis. The increase in the rate of truancy or irregular attendance, or, in the best of cases, of a drastic reduction in the quality of school work, have to be linked on the one hand to the frequent need of the pupils to help their own families, and on the other, to widespread demotivation due to the lack of future prospects.

The project 

Some men have for some time already begun to help these territories in terms of alimentary subsidies, education, assistance and whatever else the population of this area need. 
Services in these places are either scarce or non-existent. 
We are beginning to give assistance for the choice of some agronomic techniques, the supply of seeds, the rotation of crops, and the study of the best solutions for the pedologic characteristics of the land. 
We also help to evaluate the opportunity of using some terrains, together with their water resources. 
Periodically, an analysis of water and soil samples will be made, with a record of the locations where the samples were taken, so as to begin to build a database for use in future projects. 
At the moment, we are supplying some information (it is too soon to speak of training) to those people who go to these places, in order to be able to subsequently hypothesize some more concrete projects which offer real technical support to the population. 
In short, the project tends to "re-fertilize" both the human conditions and the territorial ones in order to obtain long-term development. 
We are taking the first steps towards the application of a gradual method of involvement…. For further information or any suggestions, feel free to contact us.