Classroom lesson 路 Festival馃嚬馃嚳 Tanzania

Saba Saba - the Seven-Seven festival

Tanzania's big midyear celebration, named after a date

The flag of Tanzania

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons 路 Flag of Tanzania

What is it?

Saba Saba is a public holiday in Tanzania held every year on 7 July. The name is Swahili: saba means 'seven', and the holiday falls on the seventh day of the seventh month (07/07). It is one of the country's biggest celebrations and includes a giant trade fair in Dar es Salaam.

Tell me more

On Saba Saba, the city of Dar es Salaam hosts the Saba Saba International Trade Fair. Companies, farmers, craftspeople and inventors from all over Tanzania - and other countries too - bring their products to show off. There are tents full of fruit, fabric, machinery, books, foods to taste and crafts to buy. Schools sometimes take pupils on trips to see it.

All over the country, people use Saba Saba as a day for parades, music, sports matches and family meals. Many Tanzanians wear clothes in their national colours: green, yellow, blue and black, the four colours of the Tanzanian flag. Kids often get a day off school and go with families to eat together.

Tanzania also has another big national day called Mwaka Kogwa, celebrated in Zanzibar around July or August. 'Mwaka Kogwa' means 'washing the year' in Swahili. Villagers light a fire from old grass to symbolise burning away any bad luck from the past year. After the fire, there is feasting, music and dancing late into the night.

Holidays like Saba Saba and Mwaka Kogwa are how Tanzania makes time to look at itself in the mirror and celebrate. It is a country with many languages, many traditions and many landscapes, and shared festivals are one of the ways it all feels like one big family.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Saba Saba is named after a date (7/7). Are there any holidays you celebrate that are named after their date?
  2. 02Why might a country want a day where its inventors and farmers all show their work in one place?
  3. 03Mwaka Kogwa lights a fire to 'burn away' the old year. What do other cultures do to start fresh?
Try this

Classroom activity

As a class, design Tanzania's next Saba Saba poster. Use the flag colours (green, yellow, blue, black). Include something Tanzanian (Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, Zanzibar, a wildebeest, ugali). Put up everyone's posters and vote on the favourite.