The typical Tanzanian house is very different from that of an average American’s. Of course, there are many different types and styles of houses here, as anywhere, but for this article I’m going to take on a tour of a stereotypical upper-middle-class Tanzanian home.
Houses are built of cinderblocks and cement and are not insulated or heated. Windows are often covered by steel bars and may or may not have screens. The typical floor-layout, which shows up over and over, is of a central hallway with rooms off to either side. A surprisingly large percentage of the rooms in Tanzania are perfectly square. Carpet is non-existent and floors are often left bare or covered in fake plastic tiling. When someone is home, doors are often left open.
If you are welcomed into a Tanzanian home, you will be first taken into the living room. Every Tanzanian living room I’ve been in has a matching couch, loveseat, and one or two chairs. These furniture sets are always matching and are usually of a pattern that reminds one of the 70s. The cushions are always overstuffed and feel more like rocks than cushions. Matching lace doilies are often spread over the backs of the chairs and couches. Coffee-tables and table-ends are also common and usually very wobbly. If the family is prospering financially, you may see televisions, DVD players and other electronics. If there is a television, it is undoubtedly on. Even if a family has friends over to talk, the TV will still be on in the corner and the Tanzanians will watch it from time to time during the conversation. Another different thing is that you can usually find a refrigerator in the living room that may contain a few drinks and other things.
Walls are often painted a pastel yellow, blue, green or off-white. Sometimes, the bottom few feet are painted a different colour. Tanzanians don’t decorate their walls with art the way Americans do. Paintings are very rare, though posters are sometimes found. If anything, there will be a picture or two of a family member. The strangest thing is that any picture that is hung on the wall is hung at the very top near the ceiling instead of at eye level.
Tanzanians don’t show off their houses by leading guests on tours of all the rooms like Americans do. Once you leave the living room, any decorations or other things immediately disappear.
The kitchen is often scarce of things. Most Tanzanians cook outside on charcoal stoves. Dinning rooms often have a sink for washing hands before a meal, a table with chairs and a cabinet with plates and silverware.
A Tanzanian bathroom is often small. It probably won’t have a sit-down toilet but only a porcelain hole in the floor. Showers are rarely separated from the rest of the bathroom and may be just a showerhead attached to one of the walls with a drain below it. More often, there will just be a drain and a bucket of water. Very rarely will you see a mirror.
Bedrooms are often plain and simple with just a bed and maybe a shelving-unit for clothes.
In many ways our house here is very un-Tanzanian. We have a shower with a tub, a sitting toilet, closets, a cooker, paintings and other things. And it’s not just what we’ve added that’s different. Even the lay-out of the house is and the fact that we have panel siding on the outside is different.
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