Domesticity and Gender Roles as They Pertain to Beer and Housework

Written by Hunter Graham Keane and Olivia Hutto, 2016 Tanzania: Social Innovation

Hunter and Olivia each wrote about their unique experiences with gender roles during their homestays in Ngongongare, from opposite sides of the spectrum. Here they’ve reflected on how these experiences affected them, and what they’ve taken away.

The forty days I spent backpacking through Tanzania with Operation Groundswell provided me with a radically broadened awareness of my own privilege as a white, American male. Specifically in regards to gender, my privileged status as a man was made most evident during my experiences in the village of Ngongongare, where there was a predominant societal implementation of “traditional” gender roles.

During our stay in Ngongongare, we would spend the day volunteering with Jifundishe, a local non-government organization partnered with Operation Groundswell, and spend the nights participating in separated homestays with no more than one or two group members occupying a single home. Our OG team was composed of thirteen members, eleven females and two males including myself.

When we first arrived to Ngongongare, we were informed that the villagers had previously held discussions to determine how we would be split up into our homes, as some of the residents were specifically opposed to housing the two males. JP (the other male) and I were assigned to a single household, and the rest of our group was divided among different homes.

In preparation for these homestays, we had been told that we would spend our time assisting with household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Most of our group spent much of their time doing such tasks during their homestays; however, JP and I did not.

His friends would join us for dinner, and his wife would clean up afterwards. Although JP and I would often offer to help with the preparation and clean-up, we were always told to not worry about it and would continue conversing or playing card games instead. In fact, the only chore that JP and I were required to do for the duration of our homestay was to clean the dishes each morning from the previous supper.

We were able to observe how different our experience was from the experiences of the girls when we visited a neighboring home one night. Many of the men in the village were having a meeting at the home where Olivia, another OG member, was staying. JP and I were taken to this meeting and were instructed to sit with the rest of the men.

Meanwhile, Olivia was required to serve all the men, including JP and myself.  She washed our hands and served us food and drink. I’m assuming that after the meeting concluded, she was responsible for cleaning everything up; JP and I were taken to a bar after the meeting.

This realization has made me much more grateful for the fact that the men and women in North America generally have the opportunities to pursue more than roles placed on them solely because of their gender. Although there is still much work to be done, the progress that has been made towards gender equality in the West should not be underappreciated in the slightest, because there are so many other people around the world who have never and will never experience such opportunities.

Part Two: Olivia Hutto

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Determined to make the most out of one of my last days with my family, I eagerly offered to help. Ecstatic to work by my side and to show me her process, Mama put me to work milking the cows. This was followed by chasing chickens out of their coop to check for eggs that may have been overlooked that morning. Shortly after, neighbors appeared to buy the milk and I helped mama strain the milk fat litre by litre for 500 Tanzanian shillings each (roughly 25 cents USD).

As I entered the bedroom, I engaged in conversation with her in my minimal Swahili. She invited me closer to the bed to see her newborn baby boy swaddled in a kanga (a traditional piece of African cloth) patterned brightly with swirling black, white, blue, and orange designs.

I was taken aback by the familiarity of the kanga, as it was the same pattern that I had purchased in the market a few weeks before for myself. The sleeping baby woke without crying and held my finger through the mosquito net that the bed was shrouded in. He may not have cried, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a few tears in that moment.

Next, with a wash basin full of water that we had boiled, I was to go around the room and wash each of the 22 men’s hands, starting with my homestay baba. The 22 men included two of my friends from OG, Hunter and JP. It was an unusual and humorous situation to find myself washing and serving two of my peers. After this was complete, I distributed the peanuts we had roasted earlier. I had not known at the time that the peanuts were going to be for a gathering of men in my living room.

Then, my fellow dadas Zawadi and Noella distributed tea cups for the chai we had prepared. The chai was one part brewed black tea and one part milk from the cows we had prepared earlier. It was strained of milk fat and mixed together in large thermoses for pouring. I filled up each cup individually and was then instructed to sit in a nearby chair in case anyone from the meeting needed anything.

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Seeing firsthand how these women bind together and bend for the betterment of their children and their husbands is a memory I will cherish always and keep close as I continue to advocate for women’s rights at home and across the world.