Ensi News

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Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Ensi children express their gratitude

Thanks to so many of you, Ensi received support for a record 38 children which will enable them to continue going to school. Some 20 girls and 18 boys, many of them orphans, and all from poor families expressed their deep gratitude for the chance of an education. The knowledge that people from so far away are willing to help them has given the children new motivation to work harder to achieve better results. Ensi would like to say a BIG thank you to our kind benefactors from The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Kenya and Uganda. Our very special thanks Hans Homan and Adyeri of ASK for bringing so many helpers on board

Page 2 the Kanga

Elly Nyaika

Kansiime Racheal

Atukunda Derrick Murungi

Kawino Rashid

How did Ensi children perform?

Komuntale Christine

Namara Joan

Some of the top performers

Child Elly Nyaika Kansiime Racheal Kayesu Scovia Atukunda Derrick Murungi Kawino Rashid Komuntale Christine Tugumye Grace Murungi Anthony Birungi Irene Namara Joan

Class Primary 4 Primary 1 Primary 2 Primary 6 Primary 6 Primary 4 Primary 6 Primary 7 Primary 2 Primary 3

Sex Points Position in Class Boy 87% 1 out 115 Girl 86% 2 out of 50 Girl 85% N/A Boy 78% 3 out of 42 Boy 74% 1 out of 54 Girl 73% 6 out of 143 Girl 72% 1 out of 143 Boy 71% N/A Girl 71% 11 out of 78 Girl 69% N/A

The table shows the top ten performers in the term ending August 2011. Class sizes tend to be high as this table showswith as many as 143 children in a class. The average mark across all the children was 66%. Girls and boys performed equally well.

2 | Ensi News

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Kanga: an all-time favourite cloth of East African women by Wandia

The kanga is a common type of cloth traditionally used by women on the east coast of Africa. This brightly coloured printed cotton cloth is rectangular in shape and measures approximately 1x1.5 meters. Kangas have a border on all four sides and a central panel with a design that may be completely different or related to the design on the border. The vast majority of kangas also have a slogan running along one side of the length. piece or the double piece doti. The Kangas is also widely used for wrapping a baby for warmth or strapping the baby on mothers back. Traditionally, women also used them as savings, selling off a few in times of great need. Sometimes, women from one family buy the same design for a specific occasion. The Sare (kanga bought for a specific occasion) outlives the event and becomes part of the collective memory of the event. Needless to say, the woman who has many kanga is more able to preserve her sare long after the event. This commemorative aspect has evolved in modern times to include special editions of kanga printed specifically for large gift of kangas. Similarly, within the privacy of the home, the way a woman wears her kanga can signify that she is romantically available or otherwise. The slogans on kangas are as varied as the designs. They include wise sayings, supplication to God, resignation to fate, celebration of life and many more. They may also be used as silent messages to husbands or lovers, rivals in love and life or to the society in general. Some of my favourite sayings include: Dunia ni maarifa = the world is knowledge [the world is your teacher]; Mapenzi ni vitendo siyo maneno = love is action, not words; Mama ni bingwa na hana mpinzani = mother is a champion and she has no contender [to the title] and Jogoo wa shamba hawiki mjini = the rooster from the countryside does not crow in the city. My friend from Morogoro, Tanzania, tells me his childimportant social, cultural, religious or political events. In modern-day Kenya, the kanga has become popular as part of the gifts that women from the brides family receive as part of the marriage negotiations. The cloth is also used to make a carpet on which the bride walks when she exits her parents home on her wedding day. The women from the grooms family provide this carpet and may take it back with them or leave it for the brides family (a sign of their generosity or lack of!). The colours, slogans and ways of wearing the kanga constitute coded messages with deep cultural significance. A girls passage to womanhood is marked by a

Kagondu Seaforth

into the central courtyard with a look at me spring in her step. It now becomes imperative that every other adult female in the compound acquires similar. Those who cannot get the new fashion must endure the feeling of deprivation and inferiority. Some will go to great lengths to make sure their husbands facilitate their purchase of the new kanga. I end with a story from my visit to Bahia in Brazil, a few years ago. Bahia has a large African ex-slave population, many of them originating from present-day Angola and Mozambique. Visiting the seaside with friends, I needed a wrap to wear over my beach apparel. Seeing some reasonablypriced plaincoloured ones in one of the kiosks and not having the Portuguese language to explain what I wanted, I pointed one out. Imagine my surprise when the woman vendor asked me Ah kanga? Yes, that was exactly what I wanted. Despite the absence of the colours and patterns, the name of the cloth had made its way across the Atlantic. Today the cloth has also found its way into the fashion houses of Europe.

The name of the cloth refers to the guinea fowl, known as kanga in Kiswahili and several of the Bantu languages along the east coast of Africa. Originally, the cloth often had a spotted or speckled design reminiscent of the guinea fowl, hence the name. As kangas has evolved over the years, they have incorporated other designs such as stripes and floral patterns. Common designs for the central panel include flowers as well as geometric or abstract shapes. A timeless favourite is the cashew nut shape - associated with fertility. Kangas are commonly presented and purchased in identical pairs; one pair is known as doti. There are numerous ways to use a kanga such as full dress or outfit, as a skirt, apron, as wrap over a short dress for modesty, or even as a cover for the head where religion or tradition demands it. Depending on the use, a woman may need a single

hood memories of the central role of the kanga in the lives of Swahili women. Forty or so years ago, the only fashion cloth for this group of women was the kanga. Like fashion everywhere, new designs come out every so often. Then as now, for the kanga new fashion was about patterns and messages and each fashion had a name. Picture an extended Swahili family in a big household built around a central courtyard. The woman who has the latest kanga steps out

At the same time, East African women now make a variety of modern clothes from the kanga while maintaining its more traditional uses.