Culture: Mix them, Gather them
My hometown is cosmopolitan, the perfect mix of all tribes and cultures. The beauty of these combos is that in a country so clouded and crowded with tribalism, the integration of various traditional systems, languages, practices, and ways of living encourages learning every day. Also, the famous slogan ‘we are not going anywhere’ opens up people to tolerance, which makes all of us become part of us. The diversity of culture manifests in social gatherings, social spaces, marketplaces, work places and every other container of life-work-play-hide.
Culture has played a key role in shaping social security and safety especially in our neighborhood. We are each brother’s keeper mostly looking out for one’s property and any stranger within the neighborhood is always easy to point out. The blend of many tribes is a contributing factor that has enhanced social cohesion given that most of the communication is done in Swahili language for everyone to understand. This encourages people to show up to community events and meetings, knowing each other and relating and forming social groups that encourage a sense of belonging.
The essence of culture has been mostly evident in the lives of children, their play spaces are filled with so much joy as each brings a piece of their ancestry into shaping up their spaces while maintaining a one language ‘Swahili’ communication. This can also be seen in the social and market places where women instead of clustering as people from the same tribe, they cluster based on common interests such as goal saving women ‘chamas’ and the commodities they sell respectively. This boosts the local economy of the hometown while also encouraging creativity and innovation as mostly these saving groups grow bigger taking in more women and businesses expand as more women team up together to buy assets and begin other viable business ventures. All around the neighborhood, it is very easy to point out the diversity and boom that culture has brought- there is so much beauty in culture, it is more like nature.
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