Lessons from Mount Kilimanjaro

by Amy Stambach

Sambach brings together an ethnograhic study of a school and community in East Africa. Stambach focuses on the role school plays in the development of the children's identity and relationships to their parents and community, as well as in the development of the region. At issue here are the competing influences of Western modernity and the cultural traditions of East Africa-ideas about gender roles, sexuality, identity, and family and communal obligations are all at stake. Stambach looks at the controversial practice of female circumcision in the context of school and community teachings about girls' bodies and examines cultural signifiers like music, clothing and food to discuss the tensions in the region.

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2000

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the plus side, this was very readable for a generalist as well as a specialist. Stambach studies the intersections of gender, tradition and views of modernity among the Chagga people who live on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. She clearly developed close relationships with many women during her time both studying the culture and teaching at a local high school.
I feel a little bit like Stambach draws large conclusions from pretty limited information but I also feel like that's pretty much par for the course with anthropologists. She does a fair job of trying to point out her own biases, but sometimes I felt like her stance as a participant observer, working as a colleague with some of her subjects and assuming a particular role in the society conflicts with her goal of understanding exactly what is happening from an outside perspective. As an example, at one point Stambach observes her friend and male colleague teaching a class in which his verbal harassment of female students seems to me to verge on sexual intimidation. While Stambach alludes to this, she seems to me to be either being somewhat guarded in her observations or surprisingly obtuse about the level of physical intimidation happening in front of her.
In general, this book makes me wonder to what extent the Western gaze any longer has a useful role to play in discussing and describing other cultures
That said, Stambach certainly is conscientious and serious in her work and the book contains many interesting insights. I was fascinated by her discussion of the stated goals and actual outcomes of the home economics curriculum, for example.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a very good job painting a clear picture of this tension between the traditional ways of the Chagga people and the modern, Western culture that formal secondary schooling has introduced. The social shift that is the most difficult for the people of Mount Kilimanjaro to accept is the way that schooling has challenged the traditional patriarchal gender roles of their society.

This book is a fairly strong ethnography that seems to give a complete and varied look at a complex set of issues. I do wish that the author had spoken more with school-aged boys to gain their insights into the emergence of educated women as an empowered social group. However, I think that her analysis of the culture surrounding school before the description of the school itself put the educational system in context in a way that made it more wholly understandable and useful to the reader.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading this for my Comparative Education class. There is a great article written about this book. I did not write the article, but it can be found here: http://www.advance-africa.com/Schooli...