MZURI KAJA DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY

MZURI KAJA TOUR

 In size, Mzuri Kaja is a small village but on culture it is a big hub of Swahili culture and traditions. It is included in the itineraries of many cultural explorers who visit Zanzibar, resulting into a significant increase of tourists that visit the village each year.

 

In July, each year, the village hosts one of the spectacular traditional festivals locally known as Mwaka Kogwa. Tourists from different corners of the world flock to the village to watch a ritual combat involving villagers from the North against those from South, where Mzuri Kaja is located. Fighting takes place at Kae Kuu and is intended to let the locals vent their past year’s hatred and misunderstandings so that they would start a new year with a clean slate.

 

Strolling around the winding paths of the village you can meet the ex-Mwaka Kogwa combatants who in the past fought with sticks before these were later replaced by banana stems.

                       

Children at Tasani village 

Family & friends escorting new bride to Groom's residence at Mzuri

Their stories are fascinating and if you have time to listen to them, they will give you an insight into how village life was in the past. Some combatants may show you the fighting sticks that were passed to them by their forefathers. Others, if asked, can demonstrate a mock fighting using the sticks.

 

A story about a great fighter or hero of Mwaka Kogwa, Ame Kishoka is worth asking about from among the old people residing in the village. It will take you through the experience of a real ancient art of fighting that can be equated to that practised by Roman soldiers during the Roman Empire era.

 

                        

Old graves at Mzuri Kaja - Kusini 

Hasnu Makame maskan - Mzuri Kaja - Kusini

Another good thing that makes a trip to Mzuri Kaja recommendable is that you will learn a traditional method used by the locals to respond to calamities like severe drought and unknown dangerous disease .

 

When the village is hit by any calamity, the villagers perform a ritual of purification of the earth that is known as Shomoo in Swahili.  Shomoo is believed to invoke rain and wipe out diseases. The practice involves a visit to cult places and extraction of charmed objects buried in different parts of the village. In reality people bury charmed objects around their dwellings for purpose of protecting themselves against evil spirits or even sorcery. However, if these charmed objects stay in the womb of the earth for many years, they tend to undergo changes from being protective to destructive. As destructive objects, they are believed to halt rain from falling or cause the outbreak of the dangerous disease. Thus, they need to  be destroyed.

 

The extraction of charmed objects is done by using medicinal horns of cattle. With the power of medicine, the horns can easily detect a place where the charmed objects are buried. Then, the ritual of digging them up with the horns follows. The destructive charmed objects lose their powers when they come into contact with the medicinal horns.

 

Whenever shomoo is performed in Mzuri Kaja, it begins from Kae Kuu, the center of Makunduchi, and ends up at Kijipwe shomoo ('the big shomoo stone'), located in the southern tip of the village on the way to Majipeponi ('paradise water'), where protective spirits of the whole of Makunduchi village reside.

 

Shomoo is performed by a group of men numbering twenty or more. The leader is called Kidelema. He is equipped with the most powerful horns and keeps on singing throughout the performance of shomoo. The common song is: 'Pungwa watoto mnamwana na awishe' (exorcism is now taking place, whoever has a child should keep it away). It is possible to meet Kidelema in the village on request when you visit Mzuri Kaja.

 

A shomoo procession is an amusing sight. It involves a group of men with old torn clothes who sing and move cautiously from one buried charmed object to another like soldiers searching for enemies from their hideouts or burried explosives.

 

Before winding up your trip to the village, don’t forget to visit the 'big drum' at Tasani. It is the only remaining drum of its likeness in the village that represents the African traditional means of communication. The Tasani’s drum belongs to the Ngoni family and it is still used by the clan to communicate among themselves through the drumbeats on issues such as marriage and bereavement. The clan can differentiate between the drumbeats intended to inform people about a marriage and those about the demise of a person.

             

 

To facilitate this type of communication, the drum is put on top of a tall tree and beaten with two sticks. The drumbeats travel all over the village and beyond spreading the coded message.

 

There are certain beliefs associated with the drum. The Ngoni clan believes that drumming the 'big drum' facilitates an auspicious marriage.

 

The 'big drum' is not restricted and visitors to Tasani can learn how to use it. Perhaps you will have an auspicious marriage when you get a chance to drum it!

NB: Visitors to Mzuri Kaja will have the opportunity to be guided around the village by the following 2 official and well experienced MKDS Tour Guides. You can contact them in advance using their mobile phone numbers.


Mr. Hassan Mussa Haji  
Tel +255 777 492232

Mr. Muombwa Ali Muombwa
Tel +255 777 855980

 

Welcome to Mzuri Kaja and enjoy an unforgetable memoir!

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