Matudzi

©  2009  Rose George

I recently spent a week in Mozambique looking at the progress of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) projects there. It was impressive. And memorable: I won’t forget an entire village recoiling with laughter when one of the esteemed visitors suddenly said “matudzi.” Matudzi means “shit” in Sana, one of Mozambique’s local languages. It is deliberately used because, in the words of Kamal Kar, the godfather of CLTS, “in CLTS, the crude local word for shit is always used, cutting through the deadly silence around open defecation.” It must work; I saw some fine and clean latrines, though they are still works in progress: the practice of leaving used toilet paper or corn cobs (which are used for wiping) in open containers by the latrine is not a good idea. It turns out villagers were nervous about putting paper in because they thought the pit would fill more quickly. It also turns out that the estimable animators of CLTS hadn’t realized that. Anyway the CLTS website has an international glossary of shit, so if you ever wanted to know how to say shit in Maasai, Creole or Wolaita, now you can.