Kaseko
You have a point but its somehow far fetched. Getting all or majority of Tanzania is a daunting and may frustrate other folks like you. This objective lacks a clear goal and working mechanism. As Tanzanians living you are disjointed on many factors and interests and would always bring mistrust until you develop a common ground to operate on.
Start as a seed around areas of your neighbourhood; DC Area get few friends and decide what are purposes you want to achieve, once you decide that , you may to create a modality or a system to achieve that. A vision that can be communicated and attract others, a big dream.
Start small and slowly those guys who at best at wait and see surely will be attracted. Then those social gatherings you have mentioned may be used as one of the means to introduce and get more Tanzanians.
Good luck.
--I live in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. Falls Church is a part of the metropolitan DMV area, meaning the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
The DMV has no fewer than 700 immigrants from Tanzania. I know a lot of my fellow Tanzanians in the Washington area, and it's really wonderful to be able to speak Swahili once in a while with people coming from the same country. We meet on different occasions, we talk, we laugh, and we keep reminding ourselves where we come from.
When you meet Tanzanians for the first time in the United States, things always look normal and perfect. You get excited to meet people with whom you share the same background, culture, and sometimes beliefs. Let's be honest: being away from home can be tough and lonely at times, as much as you have friends from all over the world in the Washington area. You still need to be close to people who understand your language, your culture, and share a lot in common with you. However, when you come to know a lot of Tanzanians here and their mentality, then you start to realize that there is a big problem. This is a problem that common sense won't be able to fix, because it's an unknown problem, and you can't fix an unknown problem. Your only solution is to pray and hope things will get better with time.
Tanzanians back home are improving, looking for solutions, and moving forward. This doesn't mean that they have no problems – they do, they have a lot of issues facing them. But I believe that somehow they expect those of us who live abroad in a place like Washington, DC to do better in terms of our understanding and thinking. They don't underestimate the exposure that comes from living in the first world. In a place like DC, which has a very high population of educated people from all over the world, it's unbelievable that we are still stuck in our own zone. This is a dark zone of conflicts, misunderstanding, and chaos. It's sad, because how we got to this point no one knows or understands.
We have Tanzanian doctors, we have Tanzanian engineers, we have Tanzanian nurses, and we have Tanzanian professors, among other professionals. Yes, we have educated people here with a lot of expertise. The issue is that when you put these people in one room to solve the problems that we face here, you end up with a lot of arguing and no solutions.
Tanzanians used to have gatherings where Tanzanians from all over the United States would come together for food and music and to connect with each other. The problems with these gatherings were poor organization and lack of respect for time, because everyone would show up very late. If you went, then you would most likely leave the gathering with the sense that there was no purpose to it. To drive from Washington, DC to Columbus, Ohio to face these kinds of issues makes you not even want to try the next time they announce another gathering.
Another issue with these gatherings is that there is no structured way in which people can find out what other people do here in the United States, for purposes of supporting each other professionally. We have Tanzanians who run companies here, and maybe they have a chance to hire someone new. Or maybe you could end up meeting that graphic designer who you have been looking for. But how can you know that if the gathering is just about dancing to loud music, and you can't even talk to anyone unless you raise your voice? These gatherings seem to be designed for teenagers and young people, and they're not community gatherings anymore. You go to have "nyama choma" in the park, and it's the same issue, unless you struggle to introduce yourself to everyone and fight to get to know people. There is no system in place where people can at least put their business cards somewhere, so that you connect with them on a professional level.
I have also seen how people get into fights just to get into power to run the Tanzanian DMV community association. This is what makes people back home think we are not serious, and you can't argue with that. During the campaign, every candidate gave us their views and told us what they can do to improve the Tanzanian community here. One thing which stuck in my mind is how everyone kept insisting that they will unite Tanzanians in the DMV area. What all of them didn't say is how? What will they do to unite people? What are their strategies? The election is over now and still there is a fight going on. I heard that there is even a court case. We are a total joke, aren't we?
I saw a speech from the President of Tanzania, and he made a valid point that we are always writing on social media and online forums, but we have no organized way of speaking about our issues. He was right; we have no place where we meet and have continuous dialogue and discussions about our problems both here and back home. I was expecting to see at least a place where we can meet regularly and discuss important issues like the writing of the new constitution back home, dual citizenship, etc. Here everything is connected to personal politics within the community; that's how bad this situation is. Some Tanzanians even laugh when they see someone doesn't have a job, and they love to see people struggling. This is because we are in constant competition among ourselves. And if you ask what we are competing for, no one has any answers.
This situation has caused some people – those who can push us forward – to decide to stay away from any Tanzanian gatherings or events here. I cannot blame them, because getting involved with the never-ending drama doesn't get you far. Fighting on social media, saying bad things about other people: this is something we love to do, and we do it best. Some people who have started businesses here cannot even get their fellow Tanzanians to be their customers, because other Tanzanians see them as competitors and they don't want to see the businesses succeed. That's how we do it here.
We need solutions for these issues, otherwise we will keep looking up at all of the successful Ethiopians and Nigerians who have successful businesses here and create job opportunities for their people. We can change our mentality; we can come together and repair our damaged reputation. In this day and age, when it's so hard for anyone new coming to the United States, we can prepare an environment where our people don't need to face the institutional racism that we faced when we came here. We need to focus on creating business and professional opportunities and creating employment for our fellow Tanzanians here. We do have the ability to do that. For the sake of everyone, let's get our act together.
Respectful replies are allowed,
Omar Kaseko
Kali TV Founder/Producer
http://www.kalitv.com
240-374-2192
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