Cashews: Mtwara's one basket...

As I've mentioned many times before, Mtwara is one of the Tanzania's poorest and least-developed regions. The region's education scores are among the worst in the country, it has (like the rest of the country) a desperately high population of unemployed youth, and it's relatively isolated from the rest of the country due to a lackluster transportation infrastructure (i.e., there's only one paved road in and out of the region and it's still not complete after a half-century of construction). BUT...

We do have cashews.

Cashews are the region's cash crop and Mtwara's claim to fame in Tanzania. Mention that you're from Mtwara anywhere in the country and someone's bound to bring up cashews.

Just about every Mtwaran has cashew trees growing on or near their property; prominent members of the community (like my clinical officer) can have hundreds of trees on their land. Cashew trees dominate the landscape - they're everywhere; for every orange tree there are ten mango trees, and for every mango tree there are ten cashew trees. (I'm obviously generalizing, but that estimate is probably not too far-fetched.)

Taking pictures of cashew trees in Mtwara is like taking pictures of corn stalks in Ohio.

The earliest fruits begin to appear in late August, but the bulk of the harvest takes place between October and January. The collection of cashews in the village is part of a practice called collectivization*, whereby villagers collect most of the cashews and place them in large sacks to be stored in the village's giant cashew barn (every village has a giant cashew barn - they're made of bati and they all look the same). The central government then pays the village by the kilo for the cashews, and the proceeds are distributed to community members. (The current going rate for a kilo of unprocessed cashews is about 1300-1600/-**; between 80 and 100 cents. Unfortunately, the amount the government is paying has declined in the last couple years, and some farmers complain that they haven't been compensated at all.) The government then either sends them to local processing plants or exports them to other countries (India, for example, is a major buyer of Tanzanian cashews).

I shot this early on to record a potential health concern. My village's cashew barn is in the background.

Some farmers, however, usually keep some cashews to themselves. Processing cashews is a tedious process (we witnessed it during site visits last year). Cashews are harvested as large yellow fruit that resemble bell peppers. The shell holding the nut, which looks like a large lima (or butter) bean, is removed. After a significant number have been collected, the shells are roasted; the acid in the shells heats up and the shell catches fire and literally explodes. Once all the shells have exploded, the now-cracked shells are collected and each individual cashew nut is removed - a painstaking process that is much easier said than done. (I now know why cashews are so expensive.)

The developing fruit of a cashew tree.

The fruit of the cashew is edible, however I have yet to try it (I hear it's dry). But rather than eat it, many locals prefer to use the fruit to (illegally) brew a strong alcohol that resembles moonshine. I've tried it, and I believe the only way to describe it involves a number of the following symbols: !@#$%&*

Hopefully you found this little tidbit interesting. Mtwarans live and die by their cashew harvest, and many of the frustrations and tensions that have built up over the years (well before I arrived in country) are directly influenced by the region's dependence on cashews.

Until next time.

* Collectivization was introduced as part of a socialist philosophy called 'Ujamaa' when the country became independent in 1961. While the philosophy is generally agreed to have been an economic failure, its influence is still evident in many local practices (such as Mtwara's cashew policy).

** EDIT: Not long after posting this, it was announced by the government that the price of cashews is dropping again; now a kilo of cashews will be bought for between 800/- and 1000/- (between 50 and 70 cents). This may not go well with locals.