Tanzanian Affairs

In total agreement with the congratulatory message from President Kikwete introducing your 100th issue, I am glad to have the opportunity to write to thank you for your commitment and imagination concerning Tanzania both today and in the past. TA shows a great sense of history and in-depth contemporary issues from all your very professional writers.

….I personally am very excited every time TA arrives and fascinated by the detailed articles and news items. Despite being part of the Teachers for East Africa Scheme in 1962 and not returning home until 1986 I find all news of Tanzania, past and present, vitally important to me now….

Others of your readers will probably remember this Government scheme involving young graduates idealistic to do their best towards the development of newly independent East African countries…..it was during this period that I met and later married my dear late husband Charles the local agricultural officer and we moved to Kenya….
Mrs Veronica Ziegler, Dorset

I write to congratulate you on your number 100 … It gave me huge pleasure to read the synopsis by edition number describing all the other material – reminding us of many memories. The celebratory cover also deserves special mention….
Ms C Coppard, London

We have received many other letters about our edition No 100 but space constraints have made it necessary to abbreviate the ones we have published above and to omit others. Much the same applies to several of the other articles we have received for which we wish to say thank you – Editor.

Dear Editor, your latest issue reminds me that I have meant for some time to write to you and say how good it is that TA is now online. Thanks for all your work. I still wonder however why it is not possible for the hard copies to have a contents page. TA is such a useful resource, but tracking back through issues is not easy.
Prof. Pat Caplan, Department of Anthropology,
Goldsmiths College, London

Space is always limited, and we have decided to stay with the current format with the major articles listed on the front page, and titles at the top of each page to aid navigation. Searching is best done using the website, where you can search for any text, and also restrict your search to a particular issue number or a particular article type (eg “reviews” or “obituaries” etc). There is also a “historic index” page listing the major articles in each issue – On-line Editor

Dear Editor, I am a regular visitor of TZAffairs.org. A few months ago I requested that all copies of TZ Affairs be made available online in the belief that it is the only undiluted and unadulterated account of events in Tanzania during those years. I am writing to sincerely express my thanks to the editorial board of TZ Affairs for deciding to spend time to see that those who are hungry for that record get easy access to it.
I wonder if you guys have copies of state-monitored newspapers of that time: for example Uhuru, Daily News, Mfanyakazi, Mzalendo and Sunday News. Front pages and editorials of those newspapers would be good reading for those interested like me. As I said before, I will volunteer anything in my power to help this website to expand its mission on spreading information about Tanzania.
Majura F. Selekwa, PhD. Assoc Professor/Mech Engineering, North Dakota State University.

Message from President Kikwete

President Kikwete

David Brewin (editor of Tanzanian Affairs)

MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT KIKWETE
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE
I congratulate the Editor and staff of the “Tanzanian Affairs” Bulletin on publishing the 100th issue. This is not a small achievement at all. It is a big one, indeed, for which you deserve many compliments from me, all Tanzanians, friends of Tanzania and the many readers of this Bulletin.

For us in Tanzania, it is another moment to thank you for the good work you have been doing over many years of telling the Tanzanian story. The “Tanzanian Affairs” Bulletin has been writing reports about Tanzania that are well researched and presented “without mixing fact and opinion” as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, said in 1994. You have done justice to your readers in Britain, Tanzania and elsewhere by being analytical and objective in your work. I consider this to be critically important especially these days of plethora of media outlets, some of which leave much to be desired about what they write and the way they present developments in Tanzania.

I am sure I speak on behalf of many when I commend you for the decision to make available on line all past publications of the bulletin from 1985 to date. This will be of great value to historians and all people interested in Tanzanian affairs and the work of British-Tanzania Society. On 5th December, 1994 in his message on the occasion of the 50th issue, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said “please keep up the good work”. Today, I would like to say “please continue to do the good work”.

Jakaya Kikwete
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
September, 2011

A MESSAGE FROM BTS VICE-PRESIDENT
The production of Tanzanian Affairs is one of the most important and most successful activities of the Britain-Tanzania Society. For 100 issues now it has kept us all up to date on economic, political, social and other developments in Tanzania. More than that – it has helped to keep the world at large informed about Tanzania. In 1984 David Brewin took over as editor and he and his correspondents have maintained a consistently high standard issue by issue. Congratulations are in order.
Derek Ingram

A MESSAGE FROM THE FIRST EDITOR
I have been so long associated with the Britain Zimbabwe Society – as its publications editor, conference organiser, Chair and President – that it is hard to remember that I began by editing the Britain-Tanzania Society newsletter. But the connection is a direct one. The Britain Zimbabwe Society was modelled on BTS though it has never attained its size or been able to emulate its development activities. I have put so much work into it over 30 years that I soon became a sleeping member of BTS. But I value it enormously. I owe everything I know about Tanzania for the past decades to its publications. I have long admired the Society’s ability to adapt with consistent loyalty and objectivity to ideological and political change. It remains a model for all other friendly societies.
Terence Ranger

When a publication reaches 100 it is time to reflect about the past and the future.

In the case of Tanzanian Affairs, we hope to continue our policy of reporting facts and figures about developments in the country, as soon as possible after they happen. We do not want to preach to Tanzanians about what they should or should not do in their own country. We believe that our job is just to keep BTS members and other readers, who cannot find out what is happening in Tanzania elsewhere (in a concise form) informed about the latest developments there.

Maybe this policy is wrong. Perhaps we should take a more interventionist approach. Recent events in Britain (and Tanzania) including the scandal about the supply to Tanzania, by a British company, of inappropriate, out of date and over-priced radar equipment (with more than a touch of corruption on both sides) might, or might not, justify the expression of an editorial opinion. Especially when a British adjudication has ruled that the supplier should refund all the money to Tanzania, and then the supplier insists that it, the supplier, should determine how and when this money should be used by Tanzanians. Some might call this neo-colonialism!

What is the future of TA?
As editor I am often swamped with too much praise for my efforts. The work is shared amongst a team of volunteers, whose names are on the back cover of each issue. Jacob Knight, who edits the on-line edition and, for the main edition, selects the photographs and cartoons, writes quite a lot of the text, and, ‘puts the product to bed’ – or, more accurately, to the printer. He is especially deserving of thanks but the same applies to the whole team plus our numerous voluntary contributors.

There are some promising recent developments. The on-line edition of TA is attracting growing interest and the number of BTS members is also increasing.

However, there are also some danger signs about the long-term future.
Danger No 1 is that I, as editor, am not getting any younger. In fact there is plenty of evidence that I am getting much older! Yet, disappointingly, when an appeal was published in the BTS Newsletter for help in adding to our editorial team, there was no response. There are one thousand plus readers in our two editions!

If readers want TA to continue, and there is much evidence that they do, then someone who would like to be a volunteer reporter should please come to our aid. A phone call or e-mail from anyone interested and we will explain what we need in terms of editorial assistance.

Danger No 2. Letters to the editor no longer arrive. In the ‘old days’ we received many. Examples: A reader in No 38 was full of praise for a review by Alex Vines about the Swahili ruins in Zanzibar. Ronald Barton, in the same issue, corrected what he described as a ‘myth’, about responsibility for the establishment of the Rubondo Forest Reserve in Ukererewe. In No 46 there were two letters adding to an article we had published on the local manufacture of rifles in Tanzania. Paul Marchant, a regular writer in the nineties, was critical of many items he read in TA. In No 48 a Rwandan resident wrote about the naming of the Mjuru mountain in Morogoro region. The debate ‘English versus Swahili’ provoked many letters in the 1980s. In the nineties we had a letter from reader Ronald Munns in Australia questioning the genesis of the word ‘Mzungu.’ And so on.

Yet we have not had a single letter from a reader for almost two years! This is unfortunate as it must make our contributors wonder whether anyone reads the results of their efforts.

Why are there no letters nowadays? Perhaps letter writing is a dying art. People seem to prefer to Tweet or use Linkedin or Facebook. Maybe there is some fear about commenting on politics. Yet we have many Tanzanian readers who show no such fear in writing to Tanzania’s own remarkably free press.

So readers – give us a bit of encouragement to continue and if possible, give us a bit of help.
David Brewin (Editor)

We would like to receive more letters. Even critical ones like this one:

As you know, I am a strong supporter of Tanzanian Affairs and I hope you will not mind if I make some comments on the May-August 2011 issue. Gremlins seem to have struck in several places:. ‘Kilimanjaro’ is misspelt twice – on the cover and on page 38; Loliondo has nothing to do with the Serengeti road (page 14); and the apostrophe is wrong on MPs (p.4), CCM’s (p.6) and goverment’s (p.6).
Sorry to nitpick – can I help with the proof-reading?
John Sankey

(The contentious section of the Serengeti road is from Loliondo to Mugumu – see map in TA 97 – but we accept your criticisms and welcome your offer to assist with proof-reading).

New Director needed

I’m writing to let you know I have decided that the time is right to start looking for a new Director to take on the day to day management of READ International. My hope when I started READ way back in 2004 was that we’d create a charitable organisation that not only has a big vision, but one that actually achieves great things and is truly sustainable. Six years later and we have now sent over 850,000 books to East Africa, we have a great staff team, we have a network of thousands of volunteers and alumni, we have a solid financial foundation, we have ongoing relationships with funders, we have strong corporate partnerships, and we’ve been winning awards left, right and centre – as we shyly tell you about every few weeks at the moment!

We’re not planning on doing any of this in a hurry and most likely won’t have anyone in place for at least another 6 months. We shall start actively recruiting for the role shortly. Please spread the word:
http://www.readinternational.org.uk/about/read_vacancies/

Robert Wilson (Founding Director, READ International)

A Kirangi speaker needed

I am a PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies and
am doing a PhD in linguistics looking at the language Kirangi (Rangi/Langi) spoken in the Dodoma/Kondoa region. I have just returned from an 8-month field trip to Tanzania where I was conducting research. I am looking for a Kirangi-speaker living in the UK who may be able to assist me with some further research now I am back in the UK.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Hannah Gibson (contact editor for email address)

I have noted the astonishing news that Tanzania was the third largest recipient of international aid (official development assistance?) in 2007. I, for one, would like to think that what is driving the resurrection of the EAC to new heights, is precisely that kind of embarrassing and, I’m sorry to say, shameful news. Bar a hiccup involving the Royal Navy in 1964, and, while the OAU stood by, Nyerere’s honourable war to rid Uganda of Idi Amin in 1978, Tanzania has been at peace since internal self-government, half a century ago. Why should it still be needing so much demeaning outside support?
Tanzania is blessed with a coastline, is on a major shipping route, enjoys a large land mass with a variety of climatic zones and eco-systems, it harbours great existing and potential mineral resources, and its population is large, if ill-distributed, but not so large that the advantages of a sizeable market are outweighed overall by land-stress and pressure on resources. Yet it languishes in the arms of the aid gravy-train, for whom it is a veritable paradise – experts, official and NGO, on fabulous salaries crawling all over the place, aid funds sloshing about, too often diverted and secreted out of the public domain by the scurrilous and venal. The gap between rich and poor is, I suspect, greater today than at Tanganyika’s independence, and the purchasing power of the poorest, in real terms, lower than in 1961, certainly since the end of the 1960s.

Is Tanzania’s population still growing at a speed which means a GDP growth rate of 6-8% a year needs to be achieved? I think everyone is agreed on that, but it begs the question as to why the country can not achieve and, more important, sustain such growth rates. Is it still too small in global terms to be able to withstand outside economic shocks?
Aside from all the other well-documented, internal causes of under-development since the Independence era, the scandal of world terms of trade continue to dog the efforts of smaller states to consistently achieve higher growth rates; but to think that, even with a Doha Round resolution, those in economically-dominant positions globally are going to cede their dominance voluntarily to an extent acceptable to poorer nations, is wishful thinking.

With an internal common market the EAC is at last beginning to reach a stage where it can, like the EU, start building influence, and affect global decisions, in its own right, as a trading bloc, just as South Africa does now – remember, a century ago South Africa was four separate countries about to be amalgamated – having the size and economic muscle, if not yet to be quite a ‘ BRIC ‘ country. Following Nyerere’s vision of an East African state, Tanzania needs to hasten EAC integration towards eventual political federation or union, as its charter details. Is it a fond hope to think that an impetus towards irreversable political integration could bring to the fore a new generation of more altruistic, public-spirited politicians, sensible to a wider and more diverse population, and, through size, a more responsible standing in the world? President Kikwete is one of this younger breed of politicians, an ideal East African president?

A.D.H. Leishman

A nation in darkness
It does not need an advanced economic degree to understand, that no nation can ever claim economic progress where there is no reliable supply of energy, especially in this age. More than ninety percent of Tanzanians have been in darkness since the beginning of time, and little has been done to correct the chronic power rationing problem, while our leaders are taking advantage of the situation by continuing to line their pockets at the tax payer’s expense.

Our leaders are testing people’s will and resolve. Richmond, and Dowan masterminds have plunged the nation into darkness while themselves leading utopian lifestyles. They may never face justice for their criminal offenses.
The common man, the poor and the powerless, who can’t afford expensive generators, and do not reside in the affluent parts of the city where power is never off, have been left to dance to the tune of power rationing year after year. What a shame for a nation blessed with many rivers, abundant fossil and renewable sources of energy sufficient to power the entire nation yet leaving its people in despair, and constantly in darkness.

More than 90 percent of Tanzania’s population has no access to electricity. What plans do our politicians have in place to harness renewable sources of energy after most non-renewable sources are depleted?

It will be very dangerous and extremely expensive to pipe gas from Kilwa – Songo Songo to the Dar es Salaam, Ubungo power plant, a tiny facility surrounded by a huge population. Such undertakings can be done in Kilwa (at the source where space is unlimited ) and electricity could then be transported to wherever it is needed within the country, instead of exposing the population to danger, and burdening the nation with such a huge cost.

Research centers, communication facilities, factories and other businesses need constant and reliable energy supply to meet their production quotas, to retain the labor force; pay workers, and be able to compete in the domestic and international markets. The current environment of two to four working hours a day of a couple of days a month of electricity cannot foster economic progress. The country needs reliable electricity, full stop.

Tanzania is not lacking the financial ability to provide energy to her people. Billions are spent on expensive Land-Cruisers, unwanted and outdated Radar, the losses involving the EPA, the Richmond and Dowans fraudsters. This would be sufficient to bring to an end, the decades-old power problem.

The problem is simply the management; irresponsible, no vision, thinking of today and not the future.

I have never comprehended what the Minister of Energy does. Neither do I understand what TANESCO is for, because its leadership is still the same year after year. Commissions that have cost tax payers billions of shillings have been set up and their findings have never been implemented. The individuals implicated with fraud are still free, yet the petty criminals are paraded daily in the judicial system.

Our leaders must forgo their hefty sitting, training, and travel allowances. In other parts of the world, people pay to attend meetings, yet in our country our leaders must be paid to attend training which is very bizarre considering the fact that our economy is a donor dependant one.

The parliament must act swiftly to turn on the lights for all Tanzanians, otherwise the nation will continue to remain in the darkness with her economic future in limbo.

Unabated continuation of grand corruption will push the nation to a point of no return. Our politicians must read the signs on the wall, telling them clearly, that the nation is rapidly descending into the dark ages, as the voices of the tax payers finance their lucrative positions shouting ‘TURN ON THE LIGHTS’.
Hildebrand Shayo

Tanzanian Notes and Records
My mother Sheila Unwin has a large collection of Tanzania Notes and Records going back to 1934 which we need to dispose of. As they are of great historical interest can you advertise them free to a good home in the next newsletter. You may remember she recently published a book ‘The Arab Chest’.
Vicky Unwin. E-mail: < contact the editor for Vicky’s email>>

As we embark on another year, faced with growing dismal news about the economy and the prospects for employment, it may be worth reflecting on how universities like ours i.e. UDSM, SUA and the mushrooming private ones such as St. Augustine, Kairuki, Tumaini etc., can play their part in the forthcoming economic downturn which currently is terrorizing developed nations such as USA, France, Japan, Germany and UK. Are these shocks not going to affect Tanzania?

Indeed, President Kikwete’s end of the year speech, followed by recent remarks on current and future economic challenges by the Governor of the BOT, make one think critically on the role of higher education in the future economy of Tanzania.

Around the world universities are seen as agents of economic change and not simply providers of education and training. Inevitably, contrary views are beginning to emerge about the role of education in this state of affairs. In the circumstances we should be expecting our influential leaders to be talking about re-skilling for unexpected shock.

I would like to call for a shift of emphasis away from up-skilling towards re-skilling. In my view the difference between these two words is important; the former assumes that the real challenge is to raise skill levels as the current market warrants; the latter stresses the consequences of providing alternative skill sets for those who may be facing unemployment. Universities are engaged in both forms of skilling. Primarily, they help individuals to enhance their skills. But they also offer a wide range of courses or provide opportunities for individuals to change direction.

The irony is that if the reported decision to provide loans to individuals is correct, then this is the way forward. But if this isn’t correct then a bit of rethinking has to take place. Of course, I do understand that any policy takes time to take root and to deliver benefits.

In this situation where the right skills are needed for the right jobs, are the employers in the private sector in Tanzania prepared to engineer co-funding of courses? Or when are we going to have training commissioned by employers? I believe this can help to provide the kind of graduates the market needs.

Hildebrand Shayo

MIKINDANI
When I wrote enclosing the snippet of news about the gift towards a museum at Livingstone’s house at Mikindani, I said I was unaware that he had lived in that town. You probably knew that, but my curiosity was stirred, and, after some reading, I find that Livingstone commenced his last journey there (to explore the course of the Ruvuma as a route to Lake Nyasa) but following that disappointment he tried to find the source of the Nile at Mikindani Bay. Presumably he stayed in a house in the town which is now to be made into the museum. Having discovered this, my reading then made me doubtful if the Arab Tembe at Tabora is the one where he stayed or a reconstruction of it.
John Rollinson

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA
In the recent ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ you asked for contributions from your readers that mention Tanzania in the media. I regularly see articles about Tanzania on the BBC website www.BBCNews.com There are other websites that also include news from Tanzania including www.allafrica.com and www.africaonline.com. Some of these articles are very interesting, and at least could be mentioned in your magazine, even if not printed in full. Every few weeks I receive an e-mail claiming to be from the wife or family of a deposed African dictator or army leader, asking for my help to access millions of dollars that were placed in foreign bank accounts by their husband or father while they were running their country. The money they claim belongs to the family, but they need a foreigner to access it for them. I have no intention of helping these families access money presumably stolen or otherwise unjustly obtained while their husband or father was in power, despite the financial rewards they tell me I stand to gain if I help them. The only way they could have got my e-mail address is because I regularly correspond bye-mail with people in Tanzania. I must have received at least a dozen of these e-mails so far from countries as far apart as Nigeria and Sierra Leone to the Congo. Of course I just delete them from the computer. Do you have any better idea as to what I could do with them? Catherine Lee

‘AFRICA ON YOUR STREET’
Your readers may be interested to hear that BBC Radio 3 is introducing on January 1, 2004 a new website celebrating the African music scene across the UK at www.bbc.co.uk/radi03/africaonyourstreet. Our African hosts will offer tips on gigs, clips of their favourite CDs, news from the studio and gossip from the dance floor, covering styles from Afrobeat to zouk and from laid-back mbira to Tanzanian hip-hop. You’ll find profiles of the big international artists on tour and interviews with a wealth of African musicians based here in the UK. We hope to create a community of music-lovers, celebrating the UK’s rich heritage of African musical traditions, as well as the fresh energy of new styles and fusions being created here every day. It is expected that there will be some coverage of Tanzanian hip-hop, such as the X-Plastaz, but we would like to cover more traditional music as well. We were wondering if there would be some space in TA to request your readers to send their recommendations on Tanzanian music in Africa and the UK? We have had a meeting regarding music from the region and are very keen to develop knowledge and information for the website.
Meera Sengupta Mob: 07811 xx1 231

Apologies
It is regretted that there was a serious error in the Obituaries in the last issue. That for Mrs Josephine Rollinson should have been for Mrs Josephine Sharp.
The Obituary should have read as follows: Mrs Josephine Sharp, wife of the late former Commissioner for Town Planning in Tanganyika, Robert Sharp, who has died of cancer, directed or took part in more than 39 of the productions of The Dar es Salaam Players at the Little Theatre. Her proudest moment was when, in 1964, President Nyerere attended a production of ‘Twelfth Night’ which she directed. She was also sometime President of the Women’s Service League.

Thank you to the reader who has written as follows: ‘Concerning the article about HH the Sultan of Zanzibar in Tanzanian Affairs No. 76, the Zanzibar Revolution took place on 12 January 1964, i.e. rather more than ‘three years later’ than the Queen’s Coronation – Editor.

Christine Lawrence has pointed out that in the review “Out of the Box” in TA No. 75 Colin Hasting’s e-mail address should have been: colin_AT_kijijivision.com

I DISAGREE
I read the last issue of Tanzanian Affairs with great interest -as usual. And, also as usual, I found many comments with which I disagreed -e.g. Mr Musiba saying that he had never seen development arising from aid. Where has he been all his life? … where was he educated, and how, and would he have had the same opportunities if at that time aid had been scorned while we waited for private investment?…… I don’t claim too much for the first 25 years of independence but some of our greatest achievements -e.g. almost universal literacy and the system of basic education and health spreading almost everywhere and without religious or racial discrimination -would have not been possible without aid ….. .

But eventually I read my obituary of Judge Mustafa ….. I am now embarrassed by what I am sure is the kind of error which can easily be made when you have deadlines to meet. I wrote: ‘Judge Mustafa was dependent upon thrice-weekly dialysis for his last years, but continued to enjoy life with his wife Sophie. You wrote: ….. dialysis for his last years but continued to endure life with his wife Sophie….. Could some short acknowledgement of the error be published in the next issue?
Joan Wicken

I am even more embarrassed I can only blame too much use of modem technology especially dictation to the computer. Many apologies -Editor.

THE SERVING CLASS
I read with interest Professor Pat Caplan’s criticism of my review of “Serving Class” published in issue number 74 of Tanzanian Affairs (here). I feel that her response was overly protective of the book and its author Janet Bujra, and lacked any substantive point. Professor Caplan asserts that the book is an academic study by a well-known development sociologist whose work on both Tanzania and Kenya is widely respected both in those countries and internationally. This surely does not render the work impervious to criticism. Are well known and respected people in the world always right? Cannot they be criticised? That is surely unacceptable in the academic field. If all authors are not to be criticised, how are they going to improve their work?

In response to my argument that the author Bujra had borrowed western ideas to fit into her research, Professor Caplan notes that the author pays tribute to Issa Shivji, who has written on class struggle in Tanzania. Professor Caplan goes on to make the general point that the author has taken great care to be historically, socially and culturally specific. Professor Caplan suggests that my review didn’t take these aspects into account. I do not dispute that Bujra mentions social, cultural and historical aspects in her work. What I vehemently argue is that Bujra has not commented on the significance of these aspects on the emergence of domestic services in Tanzania. Merely stating that domestic servants were working for missionaries and colonialists or foreigners in general, does not link up the sources of domestic services in Tanzania with traditional, religious, slavery and colonial practices.

Similarly I do not dispute that Bujra mentions women who are sexually abused by their employers, and that child servants are not neglected in the book. My point is not that the author does not mention these subjects, but that no critical challenge is made of common practices like parading child domestic servants along roads to sell ice cream, bread or cake for the household they work in. Nor is there any analysis of the reactions of parents whose children were made victims of child labour and abuse. Professor Caplan is incorrect to say that Bujra’s page 2 has answered my arguments. Page two only notes the existence of sexual and class exploitation as well as nomenclature of dominance.

Moreover, I stand by my criticism of Bujra for dropping some details from the English version, which appear in Swahili, thus losing certain areas of meaning in the process. I also feel that it is regrettable that there is no translated version into Swahili to give a chance for people who were involved in the study to read this work, compare the correctness of the findings and eventually gauge their reactions in the light of the past and current status of domestic services in Tanzania.

Finally, I am very surprised that the learned Professor Caplan wants to know what I have done before she hears about my criticisms. Nobody was born a writer, a university lecturer or famous person. Everything has a beginning and then develops. I don’t think it is appropriate to try to frustrate, intimidate and bully young writers so that they become afraid to review work of high profile people simply because their qualifications, celebrity and experience do not match. Other readers who can analyse text and write must be encouraged to do so in forthcoming issues regardless of their level of education, experience or fame in the Society. Please read the book and exercise your right to criticise or support it.
Frederick Longino

ARE WE CRAZY?
That’s what our friends and family said when we told them we had committed ourselves to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. For some reason they seemed to find it amusing that we would swap hairdryers for mountain blizzards, vodka bottles for water bottles, kitten heeled mules for blistering walking boots and the famous Indian curry for re-hydrated mash. Perhaps we are crazy, but when you discover why we’re doing it you will understand. We have committed ourselves to raising £2,800 each to help VSO with its work in Tanzania. There are currently 74 VSO volunteers working in Tanzania representing 12 different nationalities and they are concentrating on four key areas: education and health care, income security through sustainable livelihoods and employment and promoting the use of natural resources. If any of your readers can contribute to this challenge could they please call us: Ben Langdon on 020 xxx0 7218 or e-mail us on ben.langdon_AT_vso_DOTorg.uk
Emily McEweb and Kate Backler

THE GROUNDNUT SCHEME
I refer to TA No. 74 and have to report that I received a response from one of your readers, Mr John Pike who was mainly employed in the southern province in the 1900′s and could be of help to Mr David Morgan of Alcester but I regret not to me. I am sure readers must be around who have photographs of Kongwa from 1946 to 1951. I do wish you could try again. I find explaining the Groundnut Scheme verbally is very hard going.
S G Carrington-Buck, 3 Glassenbury Drive, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN 40 2NY. Tel: 01424 -2xxxx11