Hagati - it is not easy to get to

The picture is of the road to Hagati
Location: Hagati is in Mbinga district, Ruvuma region in Southern Tanzania. It is part of Mbinga East Constituent in the current Parliament Constituency division. Hagati lies on the high altitude parts (1400 – 1600m above sea level) of the district, about 45km West of Mbinga town. The area is notoriously bounded by hill ranges (see sketch map). To enter the area from whichever direction involves climbing and descending the hill ranges, and this is why it is commonly referred to as "Hagati Valley". Important ecogeographical features bounding the valley include the Lake Nyasa on the Western part, the Great Rift Valley on the North, Kitesa Forest Reserve in South-East and the Mbuji Rock on the East (not shown on map). The black dotted line along the hills marks the virtual border, separating Hagati Valley from the neighboring communities. If you are in Mbinga town and you want to reach Hagati, plan your trip as follows: You board mostly Land Rovers at around 12.00h to 14.00h. Know your entry point to the valley. The predominant entry point is Mawono. However, there are 3 subsidiary entry points, namely Ilela, Matekela and Mbuji (depending on where in Hagati you would like to ‘land’). It takes about one and a half hours to reach there. You should be prepared, the vehicles can encounter breakdown at any time, but this shouldn’t worry you much – the operators are both a driver and a mechanic and are very cooperative. A typical trip is shown on the photograph above captured at Matanga in Unyoni! While in Hagati, shuttling between one sub community and the other is apparently by bicycles or motorcycles.

Climate: Climatic conditions of Hagati are variable, from cool and humid on most of the Southern parts of the valley, with Ilela, Mikalanga and Kikuli experiencing the coolest conditions, possibly due to influence of the Kitesa Forest. The Northern part of Hagati Valley is fairy warm and dry. There are two weather seasons - the rainy season (November – May) and dry season during the other months. There are also variations depending on locality within the valley.

The Community: Hagati community is estimated to have 50,628 residents organized in about 10,548 households based on Population and Housing Census 2002. It is a naïve, predominantly farming community with the following cultural attributes: Language – Matengo, with peculiar intonation, quite different from the neighboring Matengo communities (see below); their food – stiff porridge, ugali either from cassava mealy meal (on the Western part) or maize mealy meal (on the Eastern part of the valley); Cassava meal prepared by peeling the tubers, fermenting or soaking for a few days, followed by drying and milling; Maize meal prepared by pulping mostly by mortar and pestle, soaking for a few days, drying and milling; Local brew – mostly made from maize and finger millet, the liquor referred to as komoni; pattern of farming – they mostly use pit system, ngoro for cassava, wheat, beans. Ngoro is stimated to have been in use in Matengo hills for at least 200 years! Plain ridges are also used in some few places.

Hagati residents are very religious people – all Roman Catholics with Parish churches at Mikalanga, Maguu and Mkoha; Off-season entertainment includes football and traditional dances mganda and chioda organized in a form of competition; Hagati people are non-trouble makers and non-violent, except when seriously offended. Serious offenses include stealing in which the offended would threaten to traditionally punish the culprits, by uttering bitter statements such as kuimba nyanga. As a consequence, there are just local courts of law but no police posts in the valley!; Gift exchange on special occasions – they are good at giving gifts popular as matola. The gifts are usually carried by women on characteristic woven baskets with lids called majamanda; They practice reciprocal labour exchange called ngokye during peak farming operations such as picking coffee, preparing fields, etc.; Some of the common surnames, with characteristic forms for women names in brackets are Ndunguru (Mwejela), Kapinga (Pilika), Hyera (ngongola), Nombo (Mwandu, Kihosi), Kinunda (Kinunda), Komba (Sobu, Kitunda), Mapunda (Ngindu, Lwanda), Msuha (Ndogota), Mbele (Kigano).

Neighboring communities (grouped according to strategies required to transform them) include the Wanyasa Community (all those on the Lake Nyasa shores) on Western part of the valley; the Manyoni Community (from Nyoni, Mpapa and Mbuji villages) on the East; and the Litembo Community (from Litembo, Lituru, Mbugu, etc) in North-East.

Economic Activity is mostly coffee farming; Social infrastructure (facilities) in Hagati includes primary and secondary schools, mostly co-education except St Luise-Mbinga. There is no High School (except yet again, St. Luise-Mbinga Girls' who are planning to start High school education soon) and no College; Electricity – non existent; Telephone – non existent; Roads – only weather roads, most of them not passable during rain season; Health – only Health Centers (at Mikalanga, Mapera, Maguu, Mkoha), with all referring patients to Litembo; Water supply – not piped. Most of the people use spring water. In some cases the source is tapped and led to the households by communally owned surface channels.

Community Transition: Just like other communities in Mbinga , Hagati community has undergone transition in culture and economy in response to forces of globalization (Structural Adjustment Programs in 1986, liberalized coffee market in 1993 leading to collapse of cooperative unions, including MBICU), climate change and population growth since 1950s. The result of this transition has mostly been shortage of land, environmental degradation, emergence of loan system magoma and poverty. The manifestation of these two problems have been: de-agrarianization (farming communities being less agrarian) characterized by reliance on credit facilities such as the Mbinga Community Bank; the disappearance of wild fruits; long distance migration (mostly to Lukarasi); emergence of intermediate sub communities on the hills (e.g. Kihutumbi, Undika, Mawono, e.t.c); settlement on hill slopes which were once only used for cultivation; and the disappearance of the off season entertainments and the gift exchange. Cassava tubers and pulped maize grains which were formerly soaked in springs outdoors are no longer done there but in-doors. In the coming years, relief of rural poverty will depend on support by civil society organizations like Hacodef
!