In the latest measures taken against corruption, 14 members of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF) including four senior army officers were sacked following illegalities in recruitment procedures that had taken place last year. Some 12 National Insurance Corporation (NIC) employees were arrested and locked up in the Dar es Salaam Police Station when it was found that some of them were planning to destroy documentary evidence held in a local bank. According to the Daily News, some of the suspects had started consulting witch doctors and another was trying to leave the country. The NIC has recently sacked or suspended 30 of its staff and 40 of its agencies have had their services frozen. It is estimated that the NIC has lost some Shs 2 billion.

It is also reported that 120 policemen have been sacked for taking bribes between January 1998 and June 1999; 132 others have been transferred to other duties. The Police Officer commanding Rombo district was suspended in May. A TANESCO auditor has been suspended following his alleged failure to report irregularities in the issue of cards for the payment of electricity which caused losses amounting to millions of shillings.

On May 22 President Mkapa announced the appointment of new chairmen, general managers and directors general for seven agricultural parastatals. On May 22 ten medical personnel including six doctors were suspended. The Acting Director of the Tanzania News Agency was retired at the same time. On July 6 according to the Daily News, President Mkapa retired ‘in the public interest’ the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Zanzibar and the Chief Administrative Officers in the Vice-President’s and Prime Minister’s Offices. The Zanzibar Commissioner of Police was ‘given other duties’. No reasons were given for these latter actions.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch published on July 7 an informative but highly critical 36-page report under the title ‘Refugees in Tanzania Confined Unfairly’. The report said, inter alia, that tens of thousands of refugees, some of whom had lived in Tanzania for more than two decades, had been rounded up by the Tanzanian army and confined to camps for the past year in the western part of the country. ‘The army separated the refugees from their families and stripped them of their belongings in an indiscriminate response to security risks from outside the country’ the report said. The army conducted sweeps largely in late 1997 and early 1998 on the grounds that it was necessary to protect Tanzanian citizens living near the Burundian border. The Burundian government had alleged that Burundian Hutu rebels based in Tanzania were engaged in arms trafficking and cross-border incursions; it threatened to act if the Tanzanian government did not. With little or no notice the Tanzanian army then swept through villages close to the border apprehending thousands of refugees from the homes in which they had settled and developed new lives, and sent them to refugee camps. They had lost personal belongings and their schools and community institutions had been closed.

The government said that the Refugees Act stipulates that refugees must be taken care of in a particular area and not mixed with citizens. Those complaining of loss of property and separation from their families had been asked to submit their claims but none had done so.

By contrast, at the beginning of June a visiting French delegation praised the government for the care being given to refugees in Kigoma.

And on July 14 the Guardian revealed that Tanzania (and the Cote d’Ivoire) had been made the first recipients of the 1999 OAU Medal for ‘Outstanding Service to Refugees and Displaced Persons in Africa’.

At the budget session in parliament on July 9 Home Affairs Minister Ali Ameir Mohamed said that the 20,000 refugees remaining from the original 500,000 who came from Ruanda, most of whom went home in 1996, must now also return home. Many were still in Ngara pretending to be Burundians. Tanzania still had 800,000 refugees from eight countries, mostly from the Congo and Burundi.

Karibu sana katika Kisa ya Kisasa tunapo kabiliana na maneno mapya na vichekesho vya kilugha.
Welcome to the modern story where we confront new words and funny phrases.

Mgoso agundua ulimi hauna mfupa! -The white person (Mgoso) understood that the tongue has no bone.

Nilikuwa mgeni Mzizima. Nilikuwa na uzoefu wa sehemu mbalimbali Tanzania lakini Kiswahili changu wakati ule hakijakolea sawasawa. Basi nilikutana na mwanamke mmoja kwa mara ya kwanza. Tulikuwa tumeongea kwenye simu mara nyingi lakini siku hiyo ilikuwa mara ya kwanza kuonana naye ana kwa ana. Sikujua jinsi ya kueleza hivyo kwa Kiswahili. Nilikusudia kusema ‘in the flesh’ kwa kumwambia, “Nimefurahi kukutana na wewe kwa mara ya kwanza kimwili.”

My first time in Dar-es-Salaam (Mzizima). I thought my Swahili was pretty good. I had spoken to this woman several times on the phone but never met her face to-face (ana kwa ana). How to express to her that this was the first time we had met ‘in the flesh’? I proudly announce that I was pleased to meet her bodily (kimwili) for the first time; with all the implications that you would expect of such a phrase. I thus learnt a valuable lesson and a useful proverb: the tongue doesn’t have a bone (ulimi hauna mfupa; i.e. it is incontrollable). This is an acceptable phrase for excusing those numerous faux pas.

Jamaa agoma kuondoka kizimbani -the man refused to leave the dock (in court).

Jamaa mmoja alishitakiwa kwa kuiba vitu vyenye thamani ya kilo tatu. Alimwambia hakimu kuwa bora afungwe jela kuliko kuja mahakamani kila siku. Mtu huyu alichoka na ‘njoo kesho’ za mahakama kwa sababu mlalamikaji hafiki mahakamani. Baada ya kugoma kuondoka iliwabidi maafande wamtoe nje kwa nguvu, ndipo alipofunguliwa shitaka lingine la kufanya fujo mahakamani. Aidha hukumu ya kesi hiyo haitatolewa mpaka mwisho wa 1999!

The man who refused to leave the dock in court was charged with theft of goods to the value of 300,000 sh. (kilo tatu). He asked the judge if he could be imprisoned instead of the constant postponements of the court (njoo kesho, lit. come tomorrow). After striking out and refusing to leave, the police (maafande: cops) had to remove him by force. This led to the opening of a new case, that of ‘creating a disturbance’ (fujo) in court, the judgement of which will not be announced until December 1999!

Kilo has come to mean 100,000 shillings ie. the same as ‘laki’. Maafande is a common word for the police; it’s in the dictionary. ‘Njoo Kesho’ means come tomorrow, it is used here as a noun; postponings. Fujo is what English soccer fans are famous for; disturbance. It is used to describe strikes as well as violence.
Ben Rawlence

Contemporary African Art poster

Two recent, fine, contrastive exhibitions in London’s premier art district showcased work by three established artists from Tanzania: Robert Glen, Georges Lilanga and Sue Stolberger. The first was ‘Contemporary African Art from the Jean Pigozzi Collection’ at Sotheby’s; the front cover of the illustrated 132-page catalogue shown here is a reproduction by Tanzanian artist Georges Lilanga di Nyama at the exhibition entitled Uishi na jirani zako vizuri ili ukipatwana shida watakusaidia (maintain good relations with your neighbours so they will help you when you are in trouble) Acrylic on plywood 1992. The second was ‘Robert Glen and Sue Stolberger: Tusk Trust Exhibition’ at the Tyron & Swann Gallery in Cork Street in London. There was a 14-page illustrated catalogue.

With East African childhoods, the three artists describe themselves as self-taught, that is without an academic art education; nonetheless Glen and Lilanga have at times run their own workshops. It was a rare opportunity during one week to see familiar kinds of Tanzanian art -European wildlife naturalism and Makonde social imagery.

Tyron & Swann, a commercial gallery that specialises in natural life subject matter, showed some 50 objects comprising 14 bronze sculptures by Glen and 37 water-colour paintings by Stolberger. Their realistic art is inspired by the ‘uninhabited wilderness’ of Ruaha National Park, their home and studio for the past five years. Their works are complementary. Stolberger’s paintings express the changing scene –dry environment, big skies and also the small, designer details of animals and birds (often depicted together, like Robin A’s batiks from Nairobi). Glen’s sculptures fill out the space with the eternal gestures of animals; bronze is permanent and such objects exude a powerful presence. Glen’s mastery of subject and medium are superb; it makes me wonder about links to his original profession of taxidermy -in the 60’s.

The Sotheby’s exhibition, in contrast, was a group show of Contemporary African Art from the Collection of Jean Pigozzi and part of their first ever auction in this genre (Sotheby’s expertise is African ‘tribal’ art; Pigozzi’s Collection has been shown in the UK previously at prime Modernist white walled venues such as the Saatchi, Serpentine and Tate, Liverpool; ironically the gallery walls were painted mud brown). The show of 28 artists featured four paintings inclusive of the catalogue cover. Georges Lilanga di Nyama who was born in Masasi and is a practised Makonde carver, co-founded the Nyumba ya Sanaa (House of Art) in Dar es Salaam in the early 70’s. His major achievement is the transformation of Makonde shetani (spirit) imagery into two-dimensional forms for prints and paintings; a touch of nationalism is his insistence on Swahili titles. He acknowledges ‘Tinga Tinga’ (Eduardo Saidi 1937-72 at Morogoro Stores) who introduced him to painting with domestic paints on square, plywood boards. I find Lilanga’s imagery is more original, organised and dynamic than that found on most ‘square’ paintings.

The auction sales were successful beyond predictions; only one of 57 works did not ‘go’. Lilanga’s paintings fetched between £6,000 -£8,200 (3 to 4 times the asked price); the average was £4,000 and the highest price was £11,200.
For me, viewing these works was evocative, recalling work in and visits to Tanzania while also affirmative of the ongoing contribution of art to cultural identity, if not development. Indeed, for both venues, percentages of the proceeds are being shared; from the Tyron & Swann Gallery with the Tusk Trust and Friends of Ruaha Society and from the Sotheby’s Pigozzi auction with UNICEF and an artists’ fund. Maendeleo na Sanaa.
Elsbeth Court