Feza schools celebrate language and culture

It is 10 in the morning and Mlimami City Hall is alive with the bustling movement of parents, children, cars, and motorcycles. Everyone is gathered here to celebrate a very special day, not only to invitees, but also to parents, students and their teachers as well.

As one of the audience members I arrived at 9 am to secure my seat amongst the excited proud parents setting up their cameras and pointing to their children as they rushed to the stage. This is not my first time to be in the hall, although this event is completely different from all the others I have attended. Gone were the various glamorous props and set designs for the Miss Tanzania, this day is solely devoted to the commemoration of cultural and linguistic diversity amongst students of various schools in the country. The stage is adorned with a banner with the slogan: ‘Tamasha la lugha na utamaduni’ with another reading ‘Mioyo yetu pamoja’; another banner is printed with ‘Tanzania Feza schools’. There are also two flags, one Tanzanian and the other is Turkish. The official language of the day is Kiswahili; “Mabibi na mabwana na wapendwa wanafunzi wote wa shule za Feza, waandishi wa habari karibuni katika tukio hili maalum na la kipekee. Ni tamasha la lugha na utamaduni,” the host alerts the audience.

Tanzania Feza schools language and cultural Festival is the first of its kind that is not only for Feza schools but also for other Tanzanian schools.

The event showcases all Feza schools in Tanzania and Zanzibar and the invited school of Shamsiye.

Among them are Feza Nursery, Feza Primary, Feza International, Feza Boys Secondary and High School, Feza Girls Secondary and High School.

Performances

About 272 students participate in this competition to compete in five categories. Which are: cultural dance, poem, songs, stage acting, and Ngonjera.

It is the Feza boys who open the special day; they are in gray T-shirts with vibwaya on waists. Dancing mkinda from Wazaramo of Coast Region.

After them different activities proceed as scheduled. The day is truly a celebration of cultural diversity and the audience stands up to clap for the Turkish pupils from Feza Primary School dancing the sindimba of the Makonde tribe. These young boys demonstrate their singing and dancing prowess as they entertain the crowd in their black uniform.

After this is a dramatic performance by another group of Feza primary students. The play begins with a scene from everyday Tazanaian life of public transport (daladala). The students act out the interaction between the bus conductors, drivers and passengers with cunning accuracy and humour.

While they are on their journey, a traffic police appears and asks the driver for his licence and other paper work to make sure that the passengers are in safe hands. Adults in the audience particularly enjoy this depiction of everyday Tanzanian life and laugh throughout the play.

After the thoroughly entertaining performance the Feza girls come with a special song dedicated to the fight against cancer. Their words and melody really reflect the pain and agony of those affected by the disease. The special day also includes spoken word poetry recitals. A group of boys from Shamsia Secondary School share their poems and Ngonjera.

Daudi Bwire recites a Kiswahili poem, which encourages Tanzanians to be proud of their language and use it to share their cultural heritage with others.

“Tukilinde Kiswahili, Pambo lililozidi ua

Kibantu yake asili na wala si Kizigua

Rangi tusikibadili, hata muwe mwazijua

Mwenye sifa kem kem ndege gani nauliza,” he shares.

He urges Tanzanians to use Kiswahili to build unity amongst themselves.

Talking about the importance of the event, the Ishik Foundation chairman and director of Feza schools, Mr Turgay Serik said the aim of the festival was to make students fall in love with Kiswahili language and understand it better and generate the relationship between Tanzanians and Turkish people. “Also we support the Tanzanian government’s effort to develop Kiswahili as a language within and outside the country and the only way to fulfil this is to involve children in festival events like this one,” he says to the audience.

He states that his organization aims to make the event an annual celebration which will hopefully include more Tanzanian schools in the future.

More performance arts in schools

The event was a unique one showcasing the diverse talents of many students. More importantly, the day calls for more initiatives which focus on building performance arts and cultural education amongst Tanzanian schools. The students were confident and lively on stage; the personal growth and confidence building aspect of performance arts cannot therefore be ignored; more students in the country deserve to share such an experiences.

I got the chance to talk with Kiswahili teachers, who in one way or another have contributed much in designing the festival. Madam Hamisa Omary Juma, Kiswahili teacher from Feza Girls says “every child has got their own talent. And in order to know that you should have a chance to be close to them and encourage them to live out their creative potentials.” She stresses the importance of encouraging and supervising children in developing their talents. “As teachers, after getting that, we converse with them and ask them which things especially in arts and culture they can be comfortable in doing?”

Most children know what they would like to explore and are eager to tell their teachers and parents that; “me, I can sing,” while others know that; “I can dance,” says the teacher.

“So from there, we generate the team and assist them to practice until their performances are of a high standard; that is what we have been doing,” she explains

Talking during the closing of the event, Director of Sports, from the Sports Council of Tanzania (BMT), Leonard Tadeo, says the idea of the event is a very good one for all the parties involved. He stresses that besides teaching and entertaining parents and guests, events like this give students a chance to interact with each other thus building partnership.

Since drama, language, poetry and other arts are part of our culture, this kind of festival is a good place to learn the importance of culture.

“Personally I’m very happy to see what these children have done. I would never have imagined Turkish children performing Tanzanian cultural dances so well… but they did!” he insists

“Not only that, but the play performed by these children in cooperation with other students left me with so many questions. Since they show such high level in acting skills, they did it like professionals. Congratulations to you of all,” he finished. The Tanzanian government supports all efforts of improving Kiswahili language. He encouraged them to continue with the festival as they plan to do it annually.

After the performances Feza schools Tanzania leadership joined the director of sports from BMT, Mr Tadeo in awarding the students. 72 students showed the best performance out of 272 and won medals.

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