Stambuli grew up on the streets of Arusha in northern Tanzania. From the age of eight he smoked marijuana and drank home brewed alcohol. To survive he became a thief, stealing papaya from neighbours trees when he was hungry; as he grew he moved on to stealing bicycles and even the odd spot of prostitution to get a good meal and a dry roof over his head for the night. When he had money he would play cards and gamble down by the village stream, and together with friends smoke and drink until the money was gone.



When money was needed again he would walk into town and steal a bicycle and as he got older and became a strong 15 year old standing 6 feeg1inch in his bare feet he became more adept and intimidating with his thievery. Eventually, at the age of 16 he began to work mornings at the bus terminal offering to carry bags and earn a few shillings for himself. He would sit in the dust at the side of the road, waiting with the other boys for the next bust to arrive; because of his size and growing up on the streets he managed to push his way to the front of the competition and get work.

Stambuli’s father had abandoned him whilst he was still in his mother womb. Stambuli would talk affectionately of his father who lived by the coast close to Tanga Bay. He had never seen his father but told his friends ‘one day I will travel and meet my father’.

Not all the money would go on drugs and booze. He would give to his mother who was a widow and was raising her granddaughter, Grace. Graces father was Stambuli’s brother. Graces father was a small time drug dealer. He had murdered a man and regularly beat his wife. This man was the main male role model in Stambuli’s life.

Stambuli’s brother was eventually arrested for the murder and put in prison. After a year in prison he committed suicide. Stambuli would visit his brother every week and remembers the day he arrived to be told his brother was dead and then given his brothers body. Grace the child to the marriage was then abandoned as the mother fled to Dar es Salaam.

Stambuli was left the contents of his brother’s house but he was not allowed to keep them. Elders of the village deemed Stambuli unfit to have anything of his own and they took the belongings from the house for themselves. All was taken from the house except for Grace; Stambuli took Grace to his Mother and she cared for the child and Stambuli went to work at the bus Station to earn money for food. There was no room for Stambuli and he would sleep next to the river or occasionally at a friend’s house.

On his seventeenth birthday disaster struck. Whilst at work at the busy bus terminal someone accused Stambuli of taking a passengers bag from a bus. He was arrested and sentenced to four months imprisonment.

Stambuli’s greatest fear was to go to prison where his brother had died.

As he started his sentence in the nearby prison he realised how alone he was. Abandoned by his friends his Mother visited him every two days. These visits were distressing for his mother plus as she couldn’t afford to take the bus; she must walk the eight miles every day. Stambuli told her, on her second visit, to please not visit and to save her money and strength to grow and sell spinach and to look after Grace.

Prison life is not easy in East Africa and here in this place Stambuli would reflect and face the future. The rest of this storey is told in the next article Stambuli’s Storey.