Water Brings No Harm. Matthew V. Bender
water had been procured, it was used for a wide range of purposes. Within the domestic sphere, women used water most often to prepare food. Boiling was the most common method, with bananas and yams prepared into stews. People also drank water, but much of this occurred away from the kihamba and did not figure into the household allocation. Other domestic uses included washing and cleaning. According to Abbott, the peoples of Kilimanjaro were “comparatively clean, actually washing themselves occasionally. The wives are compelled to perform their ablutions daily and soap is in great demand.”47 Raum observed that mothers usually washed babies daily.48 While most washing took place in rivers, some also took place at home using water from pots. It is difficult to estimate the quantity of domestic water that a family consumed daily in the late nineteenth century, as it differed depending on location, proximity to sources, and time of year. Using interview data from Kilema, I estimate that an average family consumed two to three pots (roughly 40–80 liters) per day when water was readily available.49 Based on the patterns of water use inherent in the canals, it is safe to assume that rates of consumption were similar in other areas of the south and were lower in Rombo.
Procurement of domestic water was considered the work of women and children (fig. 1.3), and the process of collecting it could be arduous and time-consuming. In Rombo, the longer distances to water sources made the rigors especially trying. For both safety and companionship, women often traveled in groups. While doing so, they conversed and sometimes sang songs to help pass the time. One woman remembered a song that she sang frequently with friends:
We have been back from taking water. (x2)
Here we are our husbands we are pleased to arrive safely.
Here is the water our husbands, now we have water for cooking, and bathing.
Let me enter to my home my husband.
I come very tired my husband. (x2)
Don’t punish me please if I am late because I bring water to our family and our animals.
I am tired, I am tired.50
Water was also important in constructing buildings and enclosures. The basic form of house architecture was a conic structure constructed of thatched banana stems, bound together by horizontal stays of wattle and reaching as high and wide as 7–8 meters.51 People used water from nearby canals and streams to produce mud blocks and adhesive for these as well as other types of enclosures. Water was also necessary to bless newly constructed homes. As Dundas notes, on completion of a hut, the father of the one who built it would boil grass and banana stems—symbols of nourishment to people and animals—and all those present would wash their hands in the warm water, saying “May this house give warmth.”52 Thus water served a key role in preparing the home and ensuring good fortune for those who occupied it.
FIGURE 1.3. Women collecting water from a river (Arch.photo.cssp)
Another use of domestic water was for brewing mbege. This alcoholic beverage, made from bananas, eleusine, the bark of msesewe trees (which contains quinine and acts as a bittering agent), and water, served a number of purposes. As a ritual brew, it was an integral element of virtually all ceremonies, from celebrating the birth of children and sending the deceased into the spirit world to marriage rites and initiation into adulthood.53 Here it served as a means of offering tribute to the spirits, Ruwa, the wamangi, and elders. The brew could be used as a currency to pay fines or bridewealth, as a proxy for corvée labor, or as an offering for the use of canal water. In the early twentieth century, a market for nonritual brew developed as well. Either men or women could prepare mbege, depending on its intended purpose. Knowledge of how to brew was carefully controlled within the household and only given to children after they had achieved maturity.54 For mbege meant for ritual consumption, brewers procured ingredients from places of significance to the clan, the water coming from springs considered to be favored by the spirits. Brewing required on average 25 percent more liquid than what would become brew.55 If a family needed to produce two pots of beer to celebrate an initiation, two and a half pots of water were required.
Agriculture required the biggest volume of water. Some of this water was needed for tending livestock: goats, cows, and later chickens. Since families kept their animals in stalls, this water had to be carried to the kihamba in pots. Water could also be used to kill rodents that threatened crops. If an area of the kihamba showed signs of rodent activity, men flooded the area using water from a canal or using stream water carried by pots. Of all agricultural uses, irrigation was the largest for most families. Men irrigated their crops in the kihamba and shamba by opening up a branch of a canal and flooding their field for a specified amount of time. Irrigation patterns depended on the location and the time of year. During the rains, men irrigated only if necessary. During the dry seasons, and especially during droughts, men applied water frequently in support of kihamba crops. For shamba, irrigation enabled dry-season cultivation of eleusine and other grains.
Mifongo were managed on a day-to-day basis by the meni mfongo and a society comprising all the men who held the right to use its waters. By the nineteenth century, the position of meni mfongo had become a position for life, either passed from father to son or selected by the committee of users.56 They held responsibility for organizing all the management tasks including routine maintenance, emergency repairs, the setting of irrigation schedules, policing the canal to prevent pollution or misuse, and leading the rituals necessary to appease the spirits. The committee supported the meni mfongo by providing labor for the canal in exchange for the right to use water.
Successful management of mifongo depended on the completion of numerous tasks. Some of the most vital related to the spirit realm. People believed that the waters originated as a gift from Ruwa and that the spirits, particularly that of the founder, continued to influence the workings of the canal. The continued success of the canal depended on not only maintaining it physically but also maintaining the favor of the spirit. The meni mfongo held responsibility for organizing these offerings. Periodically, he would call together the committee and key elders to hold a ceremony near the canal intake. The ceremony began with an invocation to the spirit of the founder, such as the following: “Owner of this canal, I come to you because it is you who gave me this canal. I therefore beg you to give me water from this canal. May Ruwa bless us.”57 Those gathered then slaughtered a goat and threw the skin and intestines into the river.58 They took the meat back to the vihamba and then roasted and ate it. The ceremony served to pacify the founder and bring prosperity to the canal, while reinforcing the position of the meni mfongo and the importance of the knowledge he possessed.
Another key responsibility of the meni mfongo was organizing routine and emergency maintenance of the canal. Because of mifongo’s earthen construction and use of natural materials, they could be damaged by the increased water flows of the rainy seasons. These waters also deposited silt that filled the intake and the primary canal. These problems demanded that all users mobilize, sometimes with very little notice. Routine maintenance took place at the end of the kisiye and fuli.59 Once the rivers had crested, the meni mfongo organized the users to perform maintenance. Each family with rights to the canal provided at least one man for labor. Households that could not manage this, such as widowed women, made an offer of mbege instead.60 Older men often accepted this responsibility, however, leaving younger men to more physically demanding work such as clearing forests or participating in warfare. The first step was to remove grasses and eroded soil from the primary canal, restoring its width and depth. The group performed this work with the intake closed so that running water would not interfere. This stage of maintenance required the most time, and it took place in the mornings over the course of a few days. Next, the workers restored the canal’s intake. This involved removing the excess silt built up from the rains, reconstructing the weir, and ensuring that an adequate amount of water again flowed into the canal. Rehabilitating the intake took less time and effort than cleaning the primary channel, and