Tanzanians Do Not Steal

Over dinner at Joyus’ house, we had a discussion about doing business in TanZANia. (That’s how it’s pronounced).  Joyus is considering getting into business and I have told you before D-Bear moves with cell phones to trade for merchandise. D-Bear told us that Tanzanians will trust you with millions of Kwacha to do business on loan because everyone knows that you are not to mess with a Tanzanian. Many are gifted in witchcraft and they put curses on thieves. If you are greedy, they might make you get sick at the sight of money for the rest of your life, or if you steal a fridge, it might get stuck to your back and you will never be able to put it down, for example. That’s why when people do steal in Tanzania and if they do, the spoils are often returned.

If you want to be rich and powerful or if you want someone to fall madly in love with you, you may contract someone to do witchcraft on your behalf. But don’t be surprised if you are asked to collect people’s private parts or the limbs of an albino person for the brew (probably for you to eat!). Haunting for human parts is a disturbing but not uncommon fact of life here, which results in death and disability. The offenders are seldom brought to justice as they are often connected to the rich and powerful. There are some more ‘sophisticated’ criminal organizations who do not see the need to murder in order to harvest human parts and prefer to work with the morgues.

Interesting fact: In Zambia, it was difficult to mainstream commercial hair salons because people were fearful someone would collect their hair and put a curse on them. So take a lesson from me, when you are in Africa always flush the hair that you shave or cut down the toilet, or that may be the end of you!