Subira Athuman breaks glass ceiling in Tanzanian tourism

“They looked at me and said because I am a woman, I can’t be able to change a flat tyre, so I can’t be a tour guide,” she recalled the painful experience.

The very experience she used as fuel to rise to the rank of a tour guide; female safari guides are still a rarity in Tanzania, considering its flourishing tourism industry.

With millions of international and domestic female tourists spending their money on vacation and going on safari in the national parks, it is disheartening to know that people of their gender are still facing hurdles in the same sector.

She started her own tour company called ‘Ungana’ and is a proud owner of a safari truck, which she drives herself.

Subira confidently said she changes her own flat tyre if the need arises, among other mechanical issues that she can handle without anyone’s help. “I chose the name Ungana, which means ‘come together, because tourism brings us together,” she explained.

Her love for animals goes all the way back to her childhood, when she would take the family’s livestock for grazing in the wilderness.

As the animals were eating grass, her fascination was on the small wild animals that kept running around; she wanted to know what kind of species they were.

She looked for books and started studying these animals even before she finished secondary school. She went on to join a tourism college and prospered in her studies.

Excited to have mastered her passion and with certificates to prove it, in 2014, she went to look for employment, but doors were shut on her face. “They told me they don’t hire women as safari guides,” she said.

The painful experience was an eye-opening moment for her, finally seeing what women in the tourism industry are going through.

Regardless of the disappointment, she still worked climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and because she studied French and is certified, she pivoted to doing a safari as a French interpreter.

Her linguistic ability provided her with a unique edge over others. So even though she didn’t get the job she studied for, she said: “I vowed to hire fellow women when I get my own company.”

Fate would have it that, one day, as she was taking a tourist on a safari, they started conversing and inadvertently pitched her idea.

The tourist agreed to partner with her, and that’s when the Ungana tour company was created. It’s that kind of tenacity and go-getter attitude that has built her and strengthened her resolve.

What started as disapproval from men who turned her down simply because of her gender created an opportunity for her to start her own safari company.

“I have a long way to go, but it’s a good start, and patiently we will get there,” she said.

The perception of female safari guides is improving, attributed to her and other female guides who have shattered all misconceptions of what women can do in the tourism industry.

They are feverishly fighting against the notion that women should only be at the restaurants with pretty smiles and serving drinks or at the reception welcoming guests.

“When two or three of us started, we inspired other women to join in, and even some tour companies started hiring women as guides,” she explained.

Additionally, some tourists specifically demanded female guides; the request for inclusion was a catalyst for change and an entry point for women into these roles presumably reserved for men.

Now the phones cannot stop ringing; her services are in high demand, not because she is a woman, but because of the service she rendered.

The biggest challenge she faced was getting people to trust that she could do a good or even better service than her male counterparts.

That trust was earned by proving herself over and over again. She is a skilled mechanic now.

From chasing oil, checking the engine, or getting the truck started again if it breaks down in the wilderness, she has mastered it all.

The tourism industry still has a lot of improvement to do; out of more than 3000 tour guides, very few are women.

It’s not an overstatement to say that women are severely at a disadvantage when it comes to roles like safari guides.

For her to have made it, it impressed even her doubters, who watched her proving her worth in the face of adversity.

But Subira has always been strategic, even when she was taking up the French language, when everyone else was wondering why she chose it. But she had observed that French tourists are constant travellers, even during the low season.

When most Western tourists are scarce, you will always find French travellers. She recalls receiving French guests who want to go for a safari, even during the Covid lockdown.

“Statistically, the French are among the most travelled individuals,” she observed. Subira insists on loving from your heart what you are doing as the key to success. The passion will triumph over any adversity life will bring your way.

“One has to study with a purpose, not from seeing how someone else has become rich from that particular profession, when you decide to enrol,” she added.

The tourism industry is not fully adapting to having women as safari guides. The hospitality industry is the slowest to change, she pointed out.

  Hotels are yet to fully accept and accommodate female guides. Usually, guides avoid their rooms when they take clients to these luxurious hotels. These rooms are more for staff accommodation with just basic necessities.

But she has, on many occasions, had to share a room with male guides, because there are no rooms for women. “You have no privacy, and you feel vulnerable,” she complained. She has on many occasions raised her concern, but it has fallen on deaf ears.

“I don’t want to name these establishments, but some of these are big and well-known hotels, and their management has completely refused to accommodate female guides,” she said.

On the government and the ministry level, she wishes they would do more to create room for women in tourism.

For guides who speak international languages, they should be used for the promotional videos to entice tourists from these countries.

It helps to market our country as a nation of inclusivity to the world that champions women’s empowerment and equality. It’s time Tanzania markets itself as that.

Subura prides herself on being a competent and experienced guide, notwithstanding her gender. “I love doing this job, and I do it to the best of my ability,” she said.

A woman’s elevation is not just for her benefit, but for the whole society. With the little she has been blessed with, she has on numerous occasions given back to orphanages in her community. “I believe some of the blessings I receive come from their prayers,” she said.