Monthly Archives: January 1990

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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THE DISMANTLING OF UJAMAA
In the first words of a 17-page feature on Tanzania in the December issue of SOUTH magazine. Ahmed Rajab wrote that ‘The dismantling of Ujamma. Tanzania’s brand of socialism, seems to be well under way as President Ali Hassan Mwinyi slowly gains the upper hand in the ideological debate’. The originator and chief ideologue had been former President Julius Nyerere, Chairman of the only party. ‘Since the party holds most of the power, Nyerere is still the effective ruler and he uses his position as Chairman to direct a small group of highly vocal and influential Ujamaa diehards who oppose economic liberalisation …. last year the whole reform process was jeopardised by the ujamaa idealogues when a six-month debate within the party and government held up an IMF structural adjustment loan and donor funds worth nearly US$ 900 million. During the debate Nyerere publicly attacked the Government’s economic policies, describing liberalisation as a breeding ground for thieves and smugglers. He said it allowed importers to bring in goods which were too expensive for most Tanzanians. The World Bank, on the other hand, argued that the trade ‘GREEN’ TEA
In the same SOUTH feature Jane Greening reported that Tanzania has started exporting organic tea, free from artificial chemicals, to the UK and North America. ‘But the operation is not the small-scale farming exercise claimed by the London Herb and Spice Company, which sells the tea in the UK’ she wrote. ‘The Luponde tea estate in the Livingstone mountains is managed by the Mufindi Tea Company, a Joint venture between Lonhro (75%) and the Tanzanian Government. So far, however, only 500 of the 4,000 hectares on the estate are being used to produce tea. The project makes economic as well as ecological sense for the tea can be sold at a much higher price and savings are made on imported fertilisers and herbicides’. The disadvantage is the initial investment needed. It takes three to five years to rid the soil of all chemical traces before the plantation can qualify as organic.

FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY
A Christmas season story in THE TIMES
AWAKING FROM A LONG NIGHTMARE
Under this heading TIME magazine, in its September 18th issue wrote about ‘Ghosts and Goodwill on the Fabled Isle of Cloves’. The article described Zanzibar as having been known to sailors since Phoenician times and as having been, more recently, ‘a tiny citadel of Marxist doctrine and xenophobia’ – after its 1963 revolution in which at least 5,000 Arabs were killed.

‘In some respects, Zanzibar has changed little in the process. It still operates on Islamic time, with the day starting at 6 a.m. when the clock strikes twelve. And when the clock strikes six, it’s noon. It is said that two white horses fly around the town after midnight to protect the populace. It is also recounted that the screams of slaves can be heard before dawn, a myth perhaps perpetuated by the caterwaul of countless crows and cats. And finally, it is sometimes suggested that the phantoms of such historic figures as Henry Stanley, Richard Burton and David Livingstone, who used Zanzibar as a base for their exploration of Africa’s interior, still haunt the houses that they once occupied ….’

A frail man, Ali Mazud, one of the best known figures on the island, greets a visitor. “Yes” he muses, “Zanzibar was a paradise, a place where a religious man could heal his soul in peace. God willing, it will soon become this again”.

SEX REVERSAL WITH TESTOSTERONE
This is only one of the methods of ensuring that Tilapia in fish ponds in Masasi can be made to grow large and of uniform size according to VSO Volunteer Jonathan Robson who wrote about his experiences in a recent issue of AFRICAN FARMING. The article contained many more hints on how to fish farm effectively including the construction of ponds which can be drained to avoid the cost of nets and the transporting of fingerlings in buckets strapped to the back of motor-bikes rather than in the back of an overheated Landrover.

ZANZIBAR – THE DEBATE CONTINUES
AFRICA EVENTS published in its November issue a letter from a reader strongly criticising it for views expressed in an earlier issue (and reported on in Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs No 34) on the recent detention of Zanzibar’s former Chief Minister, Seif Sharif Hamad. The reader, Mr. Haji Hassan Haji, complained about the sympathy for the former Chief Minister’s plight expressed in the magazine and claimed that Mr Hamad had himself detained ‘so many people without trial and, worse still, transferred them to mainland Tanzania’. The reader then named seventeen persons who had been detained by Mr Hamad for periods varying from up to six months to two years. Included in the list were the former Attorney General of Zanzibar, Mr Wolfgang Dourado, who, he said, had been detained without trial and had been declared a traitor in public meetings by Mr Hamad. The reader wrote that ‘it is extremely illogical that what Hamad did to others …. should not be done to him’. In fact, in the recent case, all those who were detained had been sent to court to be legally remanded, unlike their predecessors, the reader said. He described Mr Hamad as an ambitious, frustrated and, above all, a selfish young man.

The debate continued in four further articles and letters in the December issue of AFRICA EVENTS.

Several items referred to a meeting of Zanzibaris which had been held in London in August 1989 which had demanded independence for Zanzibar, democracy, freedom of the press and human rights. Another reader of AFRICA EVENTS claimed that Mr Hamadi a ‘patriotic young man’ had been demanding these rights but had been illegally arrested and ‘a pack of lies’ had been concocted to keep him behind bars.

Another writer had different views. ‘At a time when African leaders are fostering stronger political and economic ties the conference had called for the dismantling of the Union to reduce Zanzibar to a small weak nation like the banana republics of the Caribbean. The conference had totally failed to address the real problems of Zanzibar, like the dangers posed by disunity in the country, the deteriorating economic situation, falling standards of health and education and the near bankruptcy of the Zanzibar Government. The government deserved the concerted efforts of all well-meaning Zanzibaris. ‘It is no longer a question of what the Government should do for the people but rather what the people should do for their government to help it to help them’ he wrote.

A half-page cartoon showed the two islands as boats being rowed away from mainland Tanzania towards some waiting sharks.

In the main article under the heading ‘Zanzibar on the Boil’ AFRICA EVENTS stated that Zanzibar Chief Minister Dr Omar Ali Juma, had, since his appointment (after the fall from grace of his predecessor, Mr. Hamad) almost single handedly used his office to fight those ‘whom he perceives to be anti–Union. But the Chief Minister is still a long way away from matching the political acumen displayed by the sophisticated political opposition he is facing’.

The article then went on to report that President Mwinyi had himself entered the fray on a recent visit to Pemba. He had warned agitators that they would be crushed. He likened them to ‘poodles pictured on old gramophones, which represented voices of their masters’. The President said that those seeking an end to the Union were puppets of exiled opponents of the Government. ‘The Government is powerful enough to crush them but we will give them enough rope to hang themselves’ he is reported to have said.

DAR ES SALAAM – TANGA ROAD LINK
DANIDA, the Danish aid agency, has awarded a contract for the first of the new roads in Tanzania to be built under the US$900 million integrated road project which is being co-ordinated by the World Bank, according to the September 18th issue of the AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST. The contract is for the Chalinze-Segera road. Financing for the Segera-Tanga stretch, 1ikely to cost around US$30 million, has not yet been finalised.

Meanwhile, the government has streamlined road construction management in Tanzania. Regional Engineers will be, in future, responsible for technical issues relating to all roads including trunk, regional and feeder roads.

TANZANIA ENTERS THE COMPUTER AGE
AFRICAN BUSINESS in its October 1989 issue wrote that Tanzania is rapidly entering the computer age and that computer agents for overseas multinational companies have embarked on an aggressive sales promotion for the machines.

The Kilimanjaro Hotel has hosted the first Computer Fair organised by the Computer Users Resources Exchange to popularise the use of computers by government, parastatals, private companies and individuals. Major customers are diplomatic missions and international organisations which benefit from duty-free facilities. Foreign exchange constraints limit the extent to which Tanzanian agencies can purchase machines.

NEW YORK’S MARATHON MAJOR
Under this heading the DAILY TELEGRAPH (November 6) featured a large picture, (next to another showing some of the 23,000 New York Marathon runners crossing a bridge), of the well known Tanzanian athlete, Major Juma Ikaanga, who crossed the finishing line having set a new course record of 2:18:01.

A ‘PAJERO’ A DAY
Under the heading ‘Full shops tell only part of the story ‘ AFRICAN BUSINESS (October 1989) reported that the effects of President Mwinyi’s Economic Recovery Programme are now being reflected in Dar es Salaam where brand new Mercedes Benz, BMW’s, Toyotas and other expensive vehicles clog the city’s rugged streets. Shops are stocked with imported clothes and electronic equipment but the price tags assure that they remain far beyond the reach of most Tanzanians.

When the government, towards the end of 1988, introduced a new TShs 500 note (US$ 3.50 at the official rate of exchange) Tanzanians were said to have quickly baptised the note ‘Pajero’ after the Japanese vehicle which can carry up to ten passengers. Now it is said that you need an average of one ‘Pajero’ a day to survive with inflation at 31.2%!

In the January 1990 edition of AFRICA EVENTS it is reported that the old practice under which Tanzanians living near the Kenya border used to have to slip across to do much of their shopping is changing. ‘All Kenya roads now lead to Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Tanga. Sugar. wheat, flour and shoes draw thousands of Kenyans into Tanzania every week.

ECONOMIC EXCLUSION ZONE
The AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST in its issue dated November 27th 1989 stated that the Tanzanian Government has enacted legislation establishing a 200-nautical mile economic exclusion zone including 12 miles of nautical sea. The Act covers exploration of marine resources and scientific research. It recognises the right of other states to freedom of overflight, navigation, the laying of cables and pipelines after prior approval from the Government. Foreigners infringing the law are liable to a maximum fine of US$250,OOO or five years imprisonment.

ZANZIBAR SPRUCES UP HOUSING AND TOURISM FACILITIES
In its October issue AFRICAN BUSINESS wrote that Zanzibar is poised for a multi-million shilling campaign to rehabilitate historic sites, demolish slums and build new houses. The article mentioned a US$399,OOO UNDP donation for Stone Town rehabilitation, another project in Stone Town being financed by the Aga Khan, US$318,OOO from the European Community for the 0ld Fort and other aid from France, Norway and Finland.

MWALIMU NYERERE IN CHINA
The INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE published a front page picture in its issue of November 24th 1989 showing a beaming Mwalimu Nyerere being greeted in Beijing by a smiling Mr Deng Xiaoping. The caption stated that Mr Deng ‘urged Third World nations to fight new colonialists’. On the same day the DAILY TELEGRAPH reported that Ethiopia and Eritrean rebels, holding peace talks in Nairobi, had agreed that Tanzania’s ex-President, Julius Nyerere, should co-chair future negotiations alongside former President Jimmy Carter of the United States.

LIKE A FOREST FIRE
URAFIKI TANZANIA the publication of ‘Amities Franco-Tanzaniennes’ the French equivalent of the Britain-Tanzania Society in its Number 42 reported on the fifth World Conference on AIDS held in June last year in Canada. Canadian Television Channel 2 had described the speed of spread of AIDS in Tanzania as ‘like a Forest fire’. A correspondent reported from the village of Kashenie some ‘terrible figures’ – a death every ten days; 100 adults out of a thousand affected; 270 orphans in the village’.

SANCTIONS YET AGAIN?
Under this heading one of the London EVENING STANDARD’s editorials of October 17th strongly attacked Tanzania. Referring to the debate at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kuala Lumpur on sanctions against South Africa it wrote that ‘With pointless inevitability the Heads of Government meeting was yet again dominated …. by the question of whether a pompous gaggle of black racialist states will succeed in making Mrs. Thatcher give them still more economic aid while she imposes yet further economic sanctions on a single white racialist state ……. South Africa, after all, is no longer in the Commonwealth, and its human rights record is certainly no worse than that of Tanzania, for instance, which permits demonstrations only in favour of the regime, forcibly relocates its citizens, uses conscript labour, tortures prisoners and detains people without trial’. Kenya and Nigeria also came under fire in the same article.
(The Britain Tanzania Society has addressed a complaint about this article to the Press Council and there has been an exchange of correspondence between the Society and the Evening News – Editor)..

The STANDARD published two letters on the subject in its issue of October 23rd, One was from a reader who protested at the inclusion of Kenya in the article. The other stated that ‘All autocracies try to stamp out opposition. However, in Rumania, Chile, Tanzania or wherever, everyone is treated equally badly, though some are treated worse than others for political reasons …. toe the line or offer a bribe and you’ll be alright … in South Africa, whatever your opinions or behaviour, if you’re black you’re a second class citizen and will stay so’.

TSETSE FLIES IN THE KAGERA BASIN
The German magazine AFRIKA in its November/December issue reported that a new agreement has been signed between Kenya and Tanzania for a joint project aimed at controlling the tsetse fly which transmits trypanosomiasis in man and livestock. The project’s first phase will involve three months of research on the types of tsetse fly prevalent in the Kagera River basin.

IN DAKAWA ANC EXILES TRAIN FOR THE DAY APARTHEID GOES
Under this heading Buchizya Mseteka, writing in the Johannesburg STAR’s October 11th issue described how the South African African National Congress (ANC) is running an ambitious project to teach its members useful skills for a post-apartheid South Africa. ‘The ANC has transformed the village of Dakawa, 250 miles west of Dar es Salaam, into a thriving settlement for 1,000 of its members. Gullies have given way to large fields of maize and there are 800 pigs, 400 cattle, 1,000 goats and 1,000 chickens. Dakawa is self-sufficient in food and produces enough to supply ANC members elsewhere in Tanzania. Nothing in the rural peace of Dakawa reminds the followers of South Africa’s largest guerilla movement of the violent unrest at home or the repeated detentions most of them suffered before fleeing into exile.

Manager Mr. Dennis Osborne and his labour force of ninety grow 90 tons of maize a year. They hope to double production this year. The camp is preparing to accommodate 7,000 new members in 1990 when 180 new homes now under construction are completed.

HUNDREDS DEAD IN BIRDS CARGO
According to the GUARDIAN on December 11th 1989 KLM is investigating why many hundreds of birds out of a cargo of 15,000, including flamingos, were found dead on arrival at Heathrow from Dar es Salaam en route to Miami. An RSPCA spokeswoman said that the society might prosecute.

MONEY FOR HEALTH
‘In a dusty township located in a wild expanse of northern Tanzania, Dr. E. Nashara runs a ninety-bed Government hospital, a health centre and fifteen dispensaries serving about 100,000 people with a budget of US$30,OOO a year. With that amount of money he has to buy medicine, provide meals to in-patients, run and service two antiquated vehicles and pay utility bills – all this for a full twelve months’.

Thus began an article in the May 1989 issue of WORLD HEALTH. The article, written by Sidney Ndeki, went on to explain how Dr Nashara has a staff of more than 100 who had to be paid every month. And that same budget also had to be used to support immunisation programmes, nutrition, maternal and child services, the control of common preventable diseases and the running of health education programmes. “At times I find myself in a dilemma” he says. “When the budget is in the red should I ask for extra funds to purchase fuel for vehicles to collect drugs or water from the spring or firewood for cooking meals for in-patients?”

The article pointed out the limited part of the medical curriculum at the University of Dar es Salaam devoted to economics and health management, the savings that could be made through careful planning of health care and the need for more information to permit a comparison of alternatives. For example, a study in Nzega District had indicated that a saving of 50% could be made in the costs of food by planning menus better.

HIVING UP A TREE
INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT in its July-August 1989 issue
published an article under this heading by Jeremy Herklots about bees in Tabora. It reported that Mr Juma Marifedha supports some 30 people at Malongwe in Tebore Region from beekeeping. But the article pointed out that the scale of this activity would not be possible without the organisational and marketing help of a 6,000 strong cooperative society. It estimated that about 400,000 square kilometres of Tanzania’s forest and woodland could be capable of supporting up to four million productive honey bee colonies. Around one and a half million traditional hives are thought to exist although not all are colonised or harvested on a regular basis. (Tabora honey can be bought from Traidcraft, Kingsway, Gateshead NE11 ONE – Editor)

THE MASAI’S FATE: FENCED IN AT LAST?
Under this heading the NEW YORK TIMES (October 6, 1989) discussed changes going on in Masailand. ‘A major catalyst for the changes is a recent reversal in policy of the Tanzanian Government which, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere, had been committed to collectivisation. In the last two years the Government of President Mwinyi has encouraged what had been discouraged before individual farming. As a result, Tanzanians and even some foreigners, are coveting the seemingly empty spaces of Masailand …. Conservationists also have designs on the land; for example, the Tanzanian National Parks Board has been urged by conservationists to declare a large tract of Masailand, bordering on the Tarangire National Park, as a conservation area, which would prohibit herding or agriculture, effectively barring the MasaL In response the graceful and militant Masai have gone on the defensive, acquiring title to their lands and beginning to grow crops and erect fences’.

The article went on to describe the case of a Mr Clements Rokonga (35) who sees big spending European tourists criss-crossing the Ngorongoro crater area in minivans viewing lions, rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo and pink flamingo on the land he used to consider his own. Fifteen years ago the Masai who lived on the Ngorongoro Crater floor were forcibly removed by the police. Mr Rokunga pointed to the spots on the crater floor where he and his sister were born. ‘To help feed his family he went back and planted a tiny patch of potatoes two years ago, which was against the law. Then he heard the police were coming. “I pulled out the potatoes and buried them before the police came” he said. More than 600 other Masai were not so lucky; they were fined and had their produce burned’.

Readers later commented on the article. One said he was horrified to learn that Tanzania was ‘encouraging subjugation of some of its oldest and noblest inhabitants’; another appealed for balance in development – ‘the situation that threatens to fence in the Masai calls for soul searching and imaginative thinking by Tanzanian policy makers’ he wrote.

A SLOWING IN POPULATION GROWTH
BRITISH OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT in a recent issue reviewed the
preliminary conclusions of the ODA supported national census conducted in 1988. The enumerated population on the mainland was 22.53 million; in Zanzibar the figure was 640,000. This indicated a slowing down in population growth from 3.2% per annum between 1967 and 1977 to 2.8% p.a. from 1977 to 1988. Further statistics will reveal trends in fertility and mortality and migration patterns.

THIS BULLETIN UNDER ATTACK
The editorial in the TROPICAL AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION’S NEWSLETTER (September 1989) took the Editor of this Bulletin to task because of the latter’s failure to publish a letter from a reader.

In Bulletin No 33 a Japanese contributor had given a rather frank personal account, under the heading ‘Tanzania and I’, of her reactions, on a first visit, several years ago, to Tanzania. She wrote critically about colonialism and also about the use of the English language in Tanzania. (We subsequently received a letter complaining about her views from the Editor of the Tropical Agriculture Association Newsletter. The letter was not published for a number of reasons, one of which was that much of the content referred to Japanese colonialism, a subject to which the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs does not believe it should devote any of its very limited space – Editor).

However, the editorial was not entirely critical. It referred to the Bulletin as ‘a remarkably well produced publication full of sound views’.

WASTE STABILIZATION PONDS IN TANZANIA
A three-page article in Vol 8 No 1 (July 1989) in WATERLINES by Michael Yhdego of the Ardhi Institute contained some interesting and disturbing factual information about what happens to Tanzania’s industrial waste.

According to the article the central business area of Dar es Salaam and the high and medium density residential areas are served by a sewerage system which reaches 12.8% of the city’s population. The sewerage is discharged through an ocean out fall which is defective and too short. This has resulted in reports of fungal infections caught by people bathing along the polluted beaches.

Of the people not served by a sewerage system 11% use septic tanks and soakage pits and the remaining 76% use pit latrines. However, 70 to 80% of Tanzania’s industries are concentrated in Dar es Salaam and the wastewater from industries such as breweries and textile plants is discharged without any form of on-site treatment.

Much of the article was devoted to a discussion on the reasons for the failure of many of the waste stabilization ponds which have been constructed in recent years. The writer is critical of the quality of the engineering at the time of construction and the siting. In Dar es Salaam it had been ‘somewhat haphazard’. The waste stabilization ponds of Mgulani, Msasani, Buguruni and Ubungo are located at 10m, 20m, and 5m respectively from the nearest houses. A minimum distance of 500 metres is recommended. All these ponds are said to be breeding places for mosquitoes; they produce foul smells and attract flies.

Maintenance has been poor because the responsibility for sewerage systems and ponds has been ‘shifting from the local city council to the regional government and back for the last twenty years’. The author regards the setting up in 1984 of the Dar es Salaam Sewerage and Sanitation Department as an important corrective step.

A STATE VISIT TO JAPAN
The Japanese press gave a lot of publicity to the impending arrival in Japan of President Mwinyi. The JAPAN TIMES (December 17, 1989) had a two-page supplement on Tanzania and the ASAHI EVENING NEWS (December 20) devoted one page to the news. Each published articles describing Tanzania with profiles of the President and welcoming statements. It was revealed that during the six-day visit Japan and Tanzania were expected to agree on US$14.0 million worth of non-project assistance for structural adjustment programmes, a contribution towards reducing the Tanzanian deficit and to upgrade telecommunications and broadcasting systems. There was a photograph of the Japanese Emperor visiting the Ngorongoro National Park and an article on tourism in Tanzania. Reference was made to a group of Japanese adventurers who had, last year, chosen to ‘soar over Mount Kilimanjaro in gliders’.

REVIEWS

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EDUCATION AND CULTURE OF TANZANIAN TEACHERS: RE-DEFINING EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL MILIEU. B. Lindsay. Comparative Education. Vol 25. No. 1. 1989.

This article is an outline review of the attempts by American educators to influence the Tanzanian system of education since independence. It pretends, in its introduction, to be a deep and searching investigation into all sorts of socio-cultural questions affecting education in Africa, but when the writer drops most of the sociological jargon (which really gets us nowhere very fast) her case is essentially fairly basic.

In 1968 Julius maintained that ‘the purpose of education is to transmit wisdom and knowledge of the society from one generation to the next, and to prepare young people for their future membership in the society by active participation in its maintenance and development’. From the early seventies therefore, the Americans were denied access to Tanzanian education. The national language, Kiswahili, was used within schools and tertiary education mainly to foster cultural and national identity and unification. In addition, Kiswahili became the only language of instruction for all primary schools. American Peace Corps teachers and various Agency for International Development programmes were dropped, because they did not seem to foster indigenous educational and cultural development.

In the nineteen-eighties, however, things changed fairly dramatically. Tanzanians recognised that secondary school students no longer had enough grasp of English to make sense of the various subjects (including technical subjects) they had to handle. One would not have thought this very surprising in view of the fact that they had received virtually no English at primary level. But the Americans, at the direct invitation of their Tanzanian hosts, set up courses for the training of staff from the Dar es Salaam College by educationalists from the Universit y of Massachussets, and indeed, some of the Dar staff took Masters degrees in Massachussets. Workshops followed, great success was encountered, and, the writer concludes, in very verbose and highsounding paragraphs (and at considerable length) that this proves that ‘if a sense of identity with specific policies is maintained, then external influences need not threaten the original cultural ideology’.

In fact the writer ducks the two absolutely basic educational points which stand out from the Tanzanian experience in the last twenty five years. The first is that the so-called Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange which the Americans set up in the sixties (the Fulbright-Hayes Act) quite unashamedly saw education and culture as directly related and looked upon American help for education as enhancing U. S. foreign policy. In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the Tanzanians turned i down and wanted none of it. Nor would any self-respecting nation.

But the second point of enormous importance is surely this. The whole concept of education at depth is that it is a sharing of ideas, a mingling of cultures, a constant borrowing from traditions in one’s own country and many other countries. The finest education systems in the world have never been afraid or ashamed to borrow from other countries.
The recent American programme in Tanzania has doubtless given much practical help to Tanzanians, but it is only the beginning of a road which Tanzanians should be encouraged to walk – with many other systems and nations, not just one, and as free as possible from all political dogma and dictation.
Noel K. Thomas

APARTHEID TERRORISM. The Destabilisation Report. A Report on the Devastation of the Front Line States prepared by Phyllis Johnson and David Martin for the Commonwealth Committee of Foreign Ministers on Southern Africa. James Currey Publishers. November 1989. Hardback £19.95. Paperback £5.95

This book of 163 pages contains only nine pages on the way in which Tanzania has been affected in recent years by what it describes as the ‘consistent and continuous economic and military pressure to which the Frontline States have been subjected’ by South Africa (and its regional surrogates) during the long anti-apartheid struggle.

But this limited coverage is of considerable historical interest. The authors recall that Mozambique’s liberation movement, Frelimo, was first established in Dar es Salaam on 25th June 1962 and that the actual liberation struggle began on 25th September 1964, So Tanzania became the first of the Frontline States to be subjected to destabilisation, albeit on a much lesser scale than the other Frontline Stales. For example, the Portuguese authorities set up in the 1960’s an intelligence network in Tanzania in which Major Vitor Alves, subsequently a key figure in the Portuguese coup d’etat, was involved together with a Portuguese lieutenant-colonel whose cover was assistant manager on a tea estate in southern Tanzania, not far from Frelimo’s main training base at Nachingwea.

The book also reports that Tanzania’s former Foreign Minister, Oscar Kambona, was at one time in Lisbon at the side of Jorge Jardim, a godson of the then Poduguese dictator, Antonio Salazar. In December 1971 and July 1972 pamphlets were dropped from a Portuguese aircraft over Dar es Salaam in support of Kambona, The Portuguese apparently also set up a military training base for Kambona in north-western Mozambique. On February 3rd 1969 Frelimo’s first President, Eduardo Mondlane was killed by a Portuguese book bomb at a beach house where he was working just outside Dar es Salaam.

Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) is described in the book as ‘of massive consequence for Tanzania’. Zambia became reliant on it for desperately needed lifelines to the sea. Most of the emerging liberation movements and the OAU’s Liberation Committee were based in Dar es Salaam, The cost of all this to Tanzania has never been quantified but has amounted to several million dollars a year for over 25 years – ‘a remarkable sum for a nation of such modest means’.

The authors go on to describe the effect on Tanzania of the more recent activities in Mozambique of the dissident movement MNR. Tanzania had sent 4,000 troops to help the Mozambican authorities to combat the MNR in 1986. They stayed until November 1988, The cost of this has been estimated at some US$120 million, but, more importantly, 60 of the 4,000 Tanzanian soldiers are now buried in Mozambique. Between late 1987 and April 1989 there have been five cross border MNR incursions into Tanzania in which one Tanzanian was killed, 68 were abducted and large amounts of property, food and money were stolen from poor border area villages.

The book finally quotes Mwalimu Nyerere – described as the chair and driving force of the informal grouping Frontline States – as having congratulated the people and governments of the victim states ‘who have kept the beacon of freedom alight by their endurance, their courage and their absolute commitment to Africa’s liberation’- DRB.


BARABAIG LAND TENURE; RISKS, RIGHTS AND WRITS, Review of talk given by Dr Charles Lane to the Royal African Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies on November 20th 1989,

Dr Lane has been a volunteer in VSO and also Director of OXFAM in Tanzania, He has lived with the Barabaig people for some eighteen months in total, Some 30,000 – 50,000 Barabaig people now live in Hanang district south of Arusha. They are a Nilotic race and a pastoral people living, for the most part, as nomads. They have some thirty herds of cattle in which the mortality rate is as much as 40% largely from tick-borne diseases. Local dips have not operated for ten years.

The Barabaig are a marginal group leading a tough life where cattle theft and ritual murder have been common. Infant mortality is as high as one in five – twice that pertaining in other communities. The rate of literacy is less than 2%,

Development has largely passed them by and Tanzanian agricultural policy has tended to emphasise crop production rather than pastoralism and dairy production for which the cattle are most suited. It is unfortunate that there has been a gradual invasion of Barabaig territory from the north resulting in there being driven out of some of the best grazing land. Crops such as wheat are now being grown in the area.

In 1970 the Canadian aid agency CIDA, encouraged by the Government, took over an area for wheat production which has now grown to 100,000 acres. This is a highly mechanised scheme involving much sophisticated machinery such as combine harvesters. It has gone a long way to satisfy the aim of the Tanzanian Government self-sufficiency in wheat production.

But the development of this programme has had very serious implications for the Barabaig people since the area under wheat cultivation probably represents as much as half of the total grazing land in the district. Tanzanian policy is not to provide compensation for non-cultivated land; payment has been made only for the house areas and no allowance has been made for the private land around the house, cattle compounds, wells, burial mounds etc. Sacred trees such as Acacia and Ficus species have been cut down to make way for further cultivation. Cattle have been confiscated and the Barabaig denied rights of way on areas which were previously theirs. Land has become increasingly eroded, fertility has declined and more productive grass species have been replaced by less productive types and weeds.

CIDA and the Government have now been challenged on the basis that the total of one hundred thousand acres is thirty thousand more than the originally agreed 70,000, However, the Prime Minister’s Office, has recently decreed that these areas are not held by customary rights. It has stated that it is now recognised that all customary rights to land should be extinguished.

The present situation is that this is being contested with the help of the Legal Aid Committee of the University of es Salaam.
Basil Hoare

URBAN PRIMACY IN TANZANIA. Larry Sawyers. Economic Development and Cultural Change. Vol 37. No 4. July 1989. Pages 841-859.

This article explains how Tanzania has been one of the few countries to take steps to resist the dominance (primacy) of its largest city. The article evaluates urban and regional planning aimed at reducing the dominance of Dar es Salaam. It begins with a historical survey of the extent and causes of primacy; next is a review of the components of Tanzania’s spatial programme. Various measures of urban primacy are used to judge the effectiveness of anti-primacy policies. The conclusion is that Tanzania has been largely unsuccessful in preventing or even slowing the growth of the city this for reasons not ostensibly spatial in nature but which have overwhelmed the Government’s efforts.

SMALL TOWNS AND DEVELOPMENT: A TALE FROM TWO COUNTRIES. Charles Choguill. Urban Studies. Vol 26. 1989. Pages 267-274.

This paper is summarised as follows: Urban centralisation within the developing world has created problems such as congestion, migration, poor housing, unemployment and environmental deterioration. Urban analysts have therefore directed attention to the development of small and intermediate cities as one means of providing the necessary counterbalance. This paper analyses the economic potential of small town development through a study of the regional development programmes in Malaysia and the Ujamaa village development programme in Tanzania. The study concludes that necessary ingredients for a small town development programme include an appropriate agricultural policy, adequate consideration of the economic base of the small town and some element of self-reliance in the provision of local urban services. Without these components such programmes are unlikely to have any significant effect on rural to urban migration flows.

POLICY REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE. L. Kleemeir. Public Administration and Development. Vol 9. No. 4. September-October 1989.

In this ten-page article the author explains that for a long time Tanzania refused to reform its economic policies along the lines recommended by the World Bank and the IMF. Eventually the foreign exchange crisis forced the Government to make changes. The reforms were necessary but not a panacea for all the problems which had plagued rural development programmes over the past decade ie: the limited capacity of the Government administration to manage or back-up programmes; shortage of funds; and, the failure of rural residents to compensate for these deficiencies through their own participation and contributions. The article looks at two basic-needs programmes in the rural water supply sector to illustrate how these long-standing problems continue to affect implementation. Both programmes are funded and implemented by donors. The conclusion is that donors have not been self-conscious and innovative in grappling with the more intractable problems facing rural programme assistance in Tanzania.

THE CRUNCH – A FABLE ABOUT THE DEBT CRISIS
The Tanzania ‘Theatre In Education’ Project (first referred to in Bulletin No. 34) is based on a play (“The Crunch”) specially devised by a cast of Tanzanian and British actors brought together by the Commonwealth Institute in London. It links strongly with GCSE and ‘ A’ level Drama and Humanities syllabuses. The play, which uses both fable and metaphor to get its message across, focuses on the situation facing developing countries today and the role of ‘developed’ countries, banks and international companies in the independence and governing of ex-colonies. Through the lives and experiences of four bridge builders and the people they encounter in their work, “The Crunch” explores the factors affecting development past present and future. The play subsequently toured nationally and for performances in schools and colleges there was an accompanying workshop.

The play’s script was formed during rehearsal and at the time of the first performance was unavailable in print.

The central character is Monya, a bridge builder who has been killed while making repairs to the all important bridge which links countries to the North across a wide river with his own poor country in the South. Monya’s three colleagues, also from the South, are desperate to keep the bridge open for trade in order that their country does not suffer substantial hardship. Monya’s ghost keeps interrupting proceedings and making comments about his own feelings – mostly feelings of joy at having been liberated from the arduous repair work which appears to him to be fruitless. The bridge really needs to be pulled down as, according to Monya’s work-mates, it is totally unsafe. The trouble is that the link with the North will be broken for some considerable time until a replacement is built. There have previously been plans for a replacement (the Uhuru Bridge) but this is only a quarter complete and now there is no money to sort out the mess. The three workers decide to continue repairing the unsafe bridge as best they can and hope for the best. Unfortunately the state of the bridge suddenly deteriorates when its foundations shift and the workers are faced yet again with an insuperable problem.

After much argument they agree to go to Mr Boyle, the banker in the North, to ask for a massive loan to start again and build a completely new bridge. Other than suggesting that they rely on the setting up of a disaster fund to get them out of their difficulties, Boyle does not offer any help, the workers having previously rejected his idea that they start from scratch with a few boats to maintain the lifeline.

Unknown to the bridge workers, Boyle himself has financial problems and needs a substantial loan to keep his own head above water. When Boyle is refused this loan, he is so eager to clinch a deal with the Southerners that he sets off for the bridge and the South with his vehicle laden with steel bottomed boats – but the bridge cannot support him and as he crosses it, encouraged by the mischievous, laughing ghost of Monya, bridge, boats, vehicle, Boyle and original old bridge take a tumble into the waters below – and everybody loses.

Credit has been seen to turn into debt, hope into despair and partial success into total failure. Monya is well out of it all.

The performance was imaginative and required little in the way of scenery and props. The change from narrative to reflection and the commentary by Monya was most effective with the characters of the narrative freezing while Monya made his comments. Perhaps the play could have produced more laughs (important for secondary schools) if the actors had been more confident in their roles but overall this was an enjoyable performance with much to recommend it to schools. Hugh Jones

As the play had been designed for schools we asked a school student to let us have an additional review from her point of view. Aldyth Thompson and her mother attended a ‘Focus on Tanzania’ day session designed for teachers (with others welcome to join them) at which the play was per formed and then discussed together with the actors. Aldyth Thompson wrote as follows – Editor

On October 27th my Mum and I went to see ‘The Crunch’ at the Commonwealth Institute in London. The play was introduced to us by the director who said that normally a workshop would take place before watching the play. This would be to see how much people already knew about Tanzania, its problems as well as its geography.

The actors put over a lot of points through the play that I hadn’t actually thought of before, such as the fact that everybody is in debt to someone higher up the scale.

We were given a handbook for teachers which gave a lot of very interesting background information both about the play and about Tanzania. In our discussion we covered a lot of points we had wanted to ask. We discussed how the play related to the real life situation in Tanzania today. The way in which the white people depend on the black, as well as the black people on the white is portrayed in the play as both South and North depending on each other. This discussion also brought out people’s views, such as “Well, people aren’t going to give up their profit are they?” – meaning that we all look after Number One. I was sorry that the role of non-government aid agencies was not brought out. I found the discussion very interesting and it made me think about the different views people have of all subjects. As a student I would like to get my school to see this play in the near future.

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THE GENESIS OF MZUNGU
I refer to the short article on this subject in Bulletin No. 34. For what it is worth I offer a copy of a Swahili story with the title’ Kwa Nini Watu Weupe Kuitwa Wazungu’ taken from the publication ‘Hekaya za Abunuwas na Hadithi Nyingine’ which throws a slightly different light on the subject, albeit in a somewhat facetious manner:

Zamani Wazungu walipoanza kuingia katika nchi ya Afrika watu wengi Hawakupenda. Basi ikawa mji wanaokaa Wazungu, watu hama, hutafuta mahali pasipo Wazungu.

Alikuwako mzee mmoja hapa Unguja alipoona bendera za Wazungu zinazidi, akaazimu kuondoka kwenda bara. Akaenda hata akafika mji mmoja mahali pazuri akataka kufanya maskani. Hata jioni akasikia kengele akauliza, nini hicho? akaambiwa, Nyumbani kwa Mzungu huko, pana Mzungu mwalimu anasomsha watu. Akasema, Haya ndiyo niliyoyakataa tangu kwetu. Akapumzika siku kidogo, akaondoka akaenda mbele.

Akafika mji mmoja, akakaribishwa, akakaa. Akauliza habari za Wazungu, akaambiwa, La, hapa hawapo, akafurahi sana. Akafanya maskani, akaanza kufanyiza biashara kidogo, akaanza kusitawi.

Hata baada ya miezi sita, siku moja wamekaa kitako wakasikia mganda unapigwa. Watu wakasema, Safari hiyo! Punde si punde wakaona safari inaingia, wakauliza, Safari ya nani? Wakaambiwa safari ya Mzungu, mwenyewe yuko nyuma anakuja. Alipofika akamwita jumbe wa mji akamwambia, nimetumwa na serikali yangu kuja kutia bendera hapa, maana hii nchi yake!

Yule mgeni akafahamu kuwa ndiyo mwanzo wa kufa kukaa pale. Akaondoka akaenda zake mpaka Nyasa. Alipofika huko akakuta Wazungu wa Serikali, wa biashara, walimu, wawindaji, wamekuwako tangu zamani. Akaona udhia mkubwa, kusimweke.

Akafanya safari akarudi Unguja. Aliporudi akawaeleza watu kisa chake. Lakini akanena, Mimi sijashindwa, maana Afrika kubwa. Sasa nitafanya safari nitakwenda ndani huko mpaka Uganda nikakae. Wenzake wakamwambia, Baba, Uganda kuna Wazungu kul iko huku kwetu.

Yule mzee akasema, Kweli, sasa najua hawa sio Wazungu lakini Wazungukeni. Hii Wazungu ni mkato wake tu, wamekwisha tuzunguka.

Ronald W. Munns
Adelaide, Australia.

THE GROUNDNUT SCHEME
I am publishing a study of the Queensland-British Food Corporation at Peak Downs – an activity of the Overseas Food Corporation which was also responsible for the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme. I would like to make a comparison between these two ventures. I wonder whether any of your readers could help me to answer a number of questions.

Firstly, why was Kongwa selected for the initial and principal project? It was not in the original Wakefield list but was added after a suggestion by Tom Bain, a settler near Kongwa, and a field inspection but despite contrary advice from the Governor, the Director of Agriculture and the Director of the East African Meteorological Department. Having been added to the list, how did it become first choice?

Secondly, what has happened to the area since the scheme was abandoned and what is happening there now? I understand that it was handed over to the Tanganyika/Tanzania Agricultural Corporation in 1955 and that this was subsequently amalgamated with the National Development Co-operation. How is it now managed? What is the farming ranching system and how successful is it?
I would be grateful for any help your readers may be able to provide.
Dr W.T.W. Morgan
Geography Department, University of Durham.
South Road, Durham DHl 3LE

NATURAL CRYSTAL FORMATIONS AT THE MUFINDI GOLF COURSE
I was interested to read the article by Colin Congdon in Bulletin no. 34. My memory of Mufindi golf course goes back to 1960 but, during 1961, I had a period there during which I hunted natural crystal formations. I was alerted to these through George Newton who was responsible for the upkeep of the golf course. I recall being driven in an Austin Devon at great speed down to the fourth green to check on the snakes. They came there for water even during the dry weather.

Later I came across black garnets at the fourth green instead. At the fifth green and on the slopes down into the forest there were red garnets of low value everywhere. But between the eight tee and green on the right hand rough there was a deposit which later proved to be a form of Zircon.

The finest formation was however on the lower edge of the bunker before the ninth green. This contained a group of clear and rose quartz crystal of large size, A magnificent find.

These all came to light while assisting with the reconstruction of the bunker at that time.

What is remarkable is that these memories returned only recently in the UK when I tried in vain to transfer an 8mm cine film of my family on the Mufindi golf all those years ago, onto video-tape. Having read Congdon’s article I really will have to try once again to preserve my family’s very fond memories of Mufindi and its golf course.

Colin Clinton-Carter, Sylhet, Bangladesh