Tanzania: Mwegamba’s Endless Struggle in Darkness

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Iman Mani

15 July 2011

ELEVEN years ago when Anthony Joseph Mwegamba came to Dar es Salaam from Morogoro region, he was given 200,000/- by the social welfare. The money was to help him lay the foundations of a new beginning in Dar es Salaam, which is exactly what he did.

He used it to have a kiosk built along Zanaki Street and buy a few things to sell from it. Apart from being a small shop to provide for his daily up-keep, this booth also served as a “house” for Mwegamba, who is physical disabled, to sleep at night. Then it seemed his life had taken a turn for the better and he felt he had finally accomplished something worth having.

This is what he had been striving for since he left his home village in Kilosa district in Morogoro region, 15 years ago. Then the now 39-year-old was living with his mother in Luemba Village, but due to him not being able to help her with the farming, he felt he was too much of a burden on her, so left for Morogoro town with the hope of fending for himself.

After some years he realised things were not working out in the way he expected. With advice he got from people around, he decided it was best he moved to Dar es Salaam. Mwegamba, who seems to be wearing an always smile, was able to get a free train ticket from the Central

line company to the commercial capital and went straight to the social welfare. When he reached there things changed for the worst several years later, when he least expected it.

“I used to have my shed for business along Zanaki Street but then in December of 2006, the city militia workers came and broke it down. I had stayed there for six years, selling my small

things like water, soda, matches and mobile phone vouchers,” he told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ during the week. In a monotonous bitter tone he spoke of how things were not working out for him in Morogoro town but when he got to Dar es Salaam and the social services gave him assistance, he was elated because things started to look promising.

“Sometimes I wonder if those people responsible for making the decision to clear the city streets of sheds like mine really know the consequences of their actions,” Mwegamba wondered, partly under his breath as if talking to himself. This was one of the few moments during the conversation that the smile on his face disappeared for a few minutes. According to him, from that time in 2006, his life turned around from being one that gave him hope to one of complete disaster.

Now he lives in Kigamboni, where a relative has given him a place he can sleep. He spends his days roaming the city streets on his tri-cycle looking for whatever help he can get from those he encounter through his travels. Although he dose not have a wife or children to care for, there are still many nights that he has to go to sleep on an empty stomach. It’s a good thing he does not have to pay to board the ferry to cross over from and back to Kigamboni.

He only has to travel for around 10 to 15 minutes on his tri-cycle from where he stays, in the

mornings and on the return home, in the evenings. When asked as to how he sees his future, Mwegamba quickly replied, “I see only darkness in front of me. It’s better when I look behind,

for I can see how things were but in front of me I see darkness because I don’t know how things are going to be. That is why I’ve put everything in God’s hands.”

From facts concerning his history it seems his nonfunctional limbs’ problems started when he was five years old. He told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ that from the explanation his mother

gave him; he was born with both his legs in tact. “But when I was approaching six years I got

malaria. Now she (his mother) took me to the hospital, where I was given some injections, which made my entire body numb,” Mwegamba explained. This numbness lasted for three days, in which time he could not eat, drink nor speak.

After this he regained normality in the rest of his body but both of his legs were left paralysed. From then on, there was very little he could do for himself without his mother’s assistance.

Now this is why he decided to move to Morogoro town to find a way of helping himself. That way she would get some release from the responsibility of looking after him. It troubled him to think that she also had his two younger sisters and a brother to cater for.

This situation prevails with his mother even today, so he has no other choice but to stay and brace the difficulties he encounters daily here in Dar es Salaam. After all last October, when he visited his home village, he was not pleased with the lack of development he saw there. In fact he expected to find some visible progressive differences from his previous visit seven years

before, when he was experimenting with life in Morogoro Town. Then he had stayed two weeks. He had got a free ride from the railway corporation to the nearest station to his village and some friends there took him by bicycle to the village.

“To speak the truth, I found the situation at home to be very bad. People were collecting money to build a hospital because there is none there or a dispensary. You know when someone is sick and cannot walk they either have to be carried on a bicycle, if they are able, or

literally carried on a traditionally- made stretcher over four hours to the station, where they have to wait for a train,” he explained with a tone of bitterness.

If the train is in Dodoma, he explained, they just had to wait, which might take a long time. That is why in some cases patients die while in route to the hospital. This he says brings an ironic twist to his life in Dar es Salaam; where there are a number of places within close reach

that he can get medical treatment from when sick. Mwegamba said the way he found things in the village last October reminded him of when he was living there before breaking out on his own.

There was a time he had a boil and had gone to the nearest place he could get medical treatment. Now it was a good thing he checked the medicine that was going to be used in the

injection, for it had expired. The answer to rid society of such situations, he contends, is education. This is the thing that will bring the people to know their rights.

The need for education, he continued to suggest, goes across the board; for it’s only when the people are educated that they will be able to challenge the system for their rights and get it.

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