ONE WHITE MAN IN BLACK AFRICA. From Kilimanjaro to the Kalahari 1951 – 1991. John Cooke. Tynron Press. Obtainable from Gazelle Book Services Ltd. Lancaster. £9.95 (paperback).
Although I did not think the title of this book particularly apt or attractive on first hearing about it, when I read it I found most of the chapters quite absorbing. Unlike other recent books by expatriates who served in the previous administration, this one is well produced, is singularly free of printing errors and contains some excellent colour photographs.
As the author himself writes in the Preface, this is ‘not a heavyweight commentary but a simple straightforward tale by one who was there’. It is a thoughtful and honest book covering a vast amount of ground geographically, exploiting a wealth of experience.
In the first chapter Cooke demolishes the line often taken by hostile critics of the British system that the generalist class of administrative officers ‘came from the English aristocracy and felt that they had a mission to rule the rest of the world’. Neither Cooke, nor any of our former colleagues with whom I served ever remotely fitted this image.
The author was a District Commissioner at the time of independence but then, his doubts dispelled by a letter from Julius Nyerere urging expatriates to stay on in such roles as magistrates and teachers, he decided to switch to the Education Department and served as a teacher in different schools in Tanzania for eight more years. He was awarded a PhD by Dar es Salaam University for his scientific study of the outcrop Of Tanga limestone, until then totally unexplored. After leaving Tanzania Cooke spent 20 years in Botswana where he became Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana.
In the Tanzanian part of the book there are accurate accounts of important regions like Bukoba depicting very clearly the complicated land tenure arrangements and the effects of strong local government system. There is a feast of information on the problems, frustrations and delights of climbing all the well known East African mountains – often following routes never before taken. The chapters are interspersed with telling thumb-nail sketches such as that of the Masai herdsman explaining to the author the dignity and simplicity of his life-style.
The book has an Epilogue in which the author has courageously set out a number of his own conclusions, free from dogma and ideology, after trying to assess the progress, or lack of it, made since independence in the context of enhancing the welfare and real freedom of the African population at large. Cooke uses harsh words to describe the activities of modern aid workers while adamant that Africa needs aid desperately. And no one will challenge the disgust he feels about the expensive armaments fed in ‘to stoke the fires of internecine African struggle and warfare’.
I believe this book was worth all the effort and thought given to it by the author. It can be thoroughly recommended.
R. W. Neath
HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA. Chris Maina Peter. Studies in Human Rights, No. 10 . Greenwood Press, Connecticut. 1990. 94pp. + (Appendices and Index) 51 pp . £35.95.
THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA. Issa G. Shlvji. CODESRIA Book Series, London. 1989. 110 pp + ( Appendix and Index) 16pp. £15.00 (hardback), £8.50 (paperback).
The steady flow of books on human rights in Africa through the 1980s was in inverse ratio to the actual realisation of such rights in a continent which still provides more examples of human wrongs. These two short works, totally different from each other in content and approach, are valuable, new and complementary contributions by law teachers at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Dr. Peter sub-titles his book: “A comparative study of the African Human and People’s Rights Charter and the new Tanzanian Bill of Rights”. Both instruments came into force in the 1980s and he summarises their history: the African (Banjul) Charter, adopted at the OAU meeting in Nairobi in 1981, took effect from 1986; the Tanzanian Bill of Rights, enacted as a constitutional amendment in 1984-, came into force in 1988. The full texts of both instruments are usefully provided in Appendices. Of course, they are very different in character. This is perhaps most obvious with regard to their respective enforcement: the Charter, as an international instrument, is enforceable ultimately by the OAU Heads of State and Government but it established the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to investigate allegations and pursue settlements; the Bill of Rights is enforceable directly by the High Court of Tanzania.
Comparing the protection of individual rights 1n these two instruments, Dr. Peter critically appraises the Tanzanian human rights record in the pest, recalling a number of notorious episodes like the torture of James Nagoti (1976), forced marriages in Zanzibar (1970), the Kilombero affair (1980) etc. He also notes that more specific obligations are now imposed on individuals in Tanzania (ie, the duty to work, to obey the laws, to protect public property and to preserve national security) than under the Charter.
The most distinctive feature of the African Charter is the protection of “People’s Rights”: the rights to equality of peoples, to self-determination, to free disposal of natural resources, to development, to peace and security and to a satisfactory environment. Analysing these, Dr. Peter also contemplates how far such rights have been respected in Tanzania, in the absence of express guarantees. He concludes that peace and support for self-determination have generally been assured and sees the emergence of a coherent national policy of environmental protection since the National Environmental Management Council was set up in 1984. He is dubious about the Tanzanian record on the other People’s Rights, seeing in recent economic policies trends away from equality and from the people’s control of natural resources achieved by the nationalisations of the 1960′ s. On the controversial right to development he welcomes, as part of democratisation, the debate in Tanzania as to the meaning of development; but surely this debate started in the 1960’s.
The book is highly informative, with ample references to diverse sources in copious footnotes (Chapter 3, on “People’s Rights”, has 22 pages of text and 15 pages of footnotes) and a 12 page Bibliography; but it is very expensive. Environmental protection prompts an interesting but somewhat disproportionate study of toxic waste disposal in Africa, occupying more than 8pages. The author might have compared the Tanzanian Bill of Rights with the somewhat different Bills of Rights, in neighbouring states (Kenya, Zambia etc.), especially as they resemble the Zanzibar Bill of Rights, the restoration of which in 1985 he surprisingly ignores.
Dr. Peter cites no cases in which Tanzanian judges applied the new Bill of Rights; presumably he wrote before such cases were available. Judgments now given show the Judges ready to defend the fundamental rights guaranteed to Tanzanians, even against the will of Parliament. A recent Act of Parliament restricting the right to bail in certain criminal cases was held by Mr. Justice Mwalusanya to be invalid because it denied the right to personal liberty; his decision was upheld in the first judgment given by the Court of Appeal on the Bill of Rights, Chief Justice Nyalali emphasised that the original Swahili version of the Bill of Rights is authoritative, not the English translation (given in Peter’s book), in which he detected significant divergences. In another case Mr. Justice Mwalusanya gave an eloquent judgement of great importance to Tanzanian women: he held that a rule of Haya customary law which prohibited a woman, but not a man, from selling inherited land is now invalid as a form of sex discrimination (which the Bill of Rights forbids by implication, though not expressly).
While Dr. Peter gives a practical, legal analysis, Professor Shivji’s book is entirely theoretical. He reviews and dismisses other contributions to the “human rights discourse” of recent years: not merely are they intellectually backward but “Human rights talk constitutes one of the main elements in the ideological armoury of imperialism.” Human rights concepts come value-laden and were always part of a struggle and identified selectively (e.g. bourgeois society emphasised property rights). In an Africa still beset by oppression and exploitation, where the one-party state is merely a “fig-leaf” to cover authoritarianism (rationalised by “the ideology of developmentalism”), new priorities must be recognised. To revolutionise the human rights framework Professor Shivji urges recognition of two traditional rights as being central (though not exclusive): the collective right of all peoples and nations to political, cultural and economic self-determination and the right to organise, up to and including the right to revolution.
It follows that Professor Shivji has little faith in Bills of Rights or even in the African Charter (“woefully deficient” in enforcement provisions – under-stating the role of individual petitions of complaint, which Dr. Peter completely ignores); he prefers the Algiers Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, 1976 (reproduced in an Appendix), a political manifesto rather than an international instrument. His stimulating book bears many signs of hurried preparation.
James S. Read
DEVELOPMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION INNOVATIONS IN TANZANIA. P. Mushi. International Review of Education. 37 (3) 1991.
The Adult Education initiatives promoted in Tanzania during the late 1960′ sand 70′ s pioneered new techniques and placed Tanzania in the forefront of mass adult education. Adult education was targeted at the majority of the population with little or no formal education; a series of campaigns were intended to produce rapid and widespread increase in the abU1 ty of people to combat their poverty. The implementation of the campaigns has been well documented but little has been published on their long term effectiveness. This study is therefore very welcome.
Mushi studied three programmes. The first, functional literacy, was aimed at peasant farmers and was intended to give them the ability to read the instructions which would accompany forms of new investment in agriculture. The example most frequently quoted being advice on use, printed on packets of fertiliser.
The programme experienced difficulties in sustaining motivation among farmers when they found that the teaching was centred on farming inputs that they could not afford. All Government institutions were expected to provide tutors but, in practice, the work was done mainly by primary school teachers and leavers who had little training in adult education methods or agriculture. The tutors were also discouraged by delays or even non-payment of the small honorarium.
Despite these difficulties the programme managed a reduction in the level of illiteracy to under 10% by the mid-1980’s. Mushi does not discuss the criteria used for measuring literacy but he does refer to the difficulty of maintaining the improvement in the face of the rapid expansion of the school age population.
The second programme, Workers Education, was intended to provide not only functional literacy but also skills and participation in decision making in industrial democracy although Mushi does not use this term. There are indications that Workers Education did not have the political support given to the other’ programmes. It started slowly with managements assuming it meant professional training for managers. Even after redefinition by Kawawa in 1974 under which the emphasis was placed on literacy and general education there were no clear directives on implementation. Programmes varied between enterprises and some management s which organised proper programmes often found it not to their advantage; workers, discovering that attending classes did not lead to promotion, moved to other employment Mushi concludes that, although there has been a reduction in industrial disputes, this cannot be attributed to Workers’ Education.
Thirdly, Folk Development Colleges (FDC’s) were initiated in response to the perceived failures of Rural Training Centres. FDC’s were to teach skills that Village Councils considered they required. In practice, centrally planned courses were offered to Villages; people were sent for training without adequate plans to make use of them when they returned. Village Councils came under pressure to use FDC’s as a second chance for primary school leavers who had not obtained secondary school places. The Government’s policy of no formal grading in [‘DC’s was eroded by examination pressures.
Mushi concludes that none of these programmes fully met their original objectives but this does not mean that the programmes did not have significant achievements. He argues that the policy intention was desirable but that the problems of implementation and failures to achieve objectives resulted from a misunderstanding of adult education, the chosen instrument. Adult education was given low status and little training was provided in adult education skills. There is no explanation of the apparent contradiction between this conclusion and Mushi’s opening statement of the Nyerere inspired national political decision to use adult education initiatives as a key to rapid social and economic Change. There is a hint that the established professions were not fully committed to the adult education initiatives and that the resources required were underestimated.
Mushi concludes that successful adult education programmes require a network of trained agricultural education facilitators. Enthusiastic participation depends on careful identification of training needs and courses designed to meet local demands.
These proposals will increase costs and there is the implied conclusion that adult education initiatives are not a low cost option nor likely to produce specific results.
Mushi also suggests a more profound cause of the difficulties experienced by Tanzania’s adult education programmes. There was an inevitable tension inherent in the attempt to use for very specific objectives a method of education which relies on voluntary consent and which is intended to empower the learners.
John Arnold
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. Thomas Pakenham. Wiedenfeld. £20.
This is a splendid book roughly covering the last quarter of the 19th century and the very early years of the 20th. Pakenham’s canvas 1 s vast. The eventual colonial powers – Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany – carved up by black Africa in about a generation and this 750 page book details almost every aspect of this unedifying scramble. North, South, East and West Africa are covered in separate chapters and an excellent chronology at the back gives details of the timetable. This whole scene unfolds like a Bayeux tapestry.
The East African segments, and in particular the German East Africa and Tanganyika sections are well documented. The role of the missionaries in early days and the focal part played by Zanzibar as the most prosperous port between the Suez Canal and Durban are clearly outlined. For example, the Abushiri Revolt in 1888, mainly centred on Pangani, was as much against the Sultan of Zanzibar as against the high-handed actions of the agents of German imperialism.
The Maji-Maji rebellion in 1905/6 mainly occuring in the Southern part of what is now Tanzania, is also dealt with in detail. Pakenham’s description of Kinjikitile as “not a true nationalist or even a revolutionary” wil1 not be agreed to by everybody. The Germans as colonialists come in for a fair amount of criticism, especially Car1 Peters, and to balance the report it might have been fairer also to emphasise many of their other activities in German East Africa – the build-up of Dar es Salaam as a port, the construction of the Central and Tanga line railways and the research station at Amani come to mind – the latter was years ahead of any equivalent in Kenya and Uganda.
The book rather peters out with an “epilogue” scrambling-out 1957- 68. There is scope here for another albeit shorter book but we shall probably have to await final developments in South Africa before Thomas Pakenham can address himself to this period.
To anyone with a deep purse or access to a really large public library end some time to spare, I can thoroughly recommend this book.
Hugh Leslie
ROBIN LAMBURN – FROM A MISSIONARY’S NOTEBOOK: THE YAO OF TUNDURU AND OTHER ESSAYS. Noel Q. King and Klaus Fiedler with Gavin White (eds). Saarbucken; Verlag Brietenbach Publishers 1991. C240pp). ObtaInable for £10 in banknotes and £2 in British stamps from Dr K Fiedler, Virchowstr 15. D – W 4030 Ratlngen 8, Germany.
This is a much awaited publication of essays by Canon Lamburn. Nowadays, he 1s well known for his work at Kindwitwi Leprosy Village in Rufiji District. However, Lamburn spent over thirty years as a priest in Masasi Diocese in southeast Tanzania, where he arrived in 1930 as a young missionary with the Universities Mission to Central Africa. It is with this period of his life that the book is primarily concerned.
Most of this publication is taken up by Lamburn’s book “The Yao of Tunduru”, which was written in the 1960′ s and previously unpublished in English. There is also a substantial essay on Islam in East Africa and two shorter essays, one on witchcraft in Rufiji District and the other on the Church and medical work. A transcript of Lamburn’s short address on receiving the Albert Schweitzer prize in 1985 is also included.
The primary importance of this book is as a historical document of a unique missionary-African encounter that took place in the Diocese of Masasi in the first half of this century. Lamburn himself played a Significant part in this. It is here that Bishop Vincent Lucas encouraged the successful establishment of Christianised versions of Traditional African initiation rites. Lucas wanted to establish a Church rooted in rural African life in which the Church offered its own Christianised versions of traditional rituals. Lamburn himself served closely under Lucas and was deeply influenced by his views. This is reflected in these essays. In fact, Lucas’s papers and notes form a Basis for much of the ”Yao of Tunduru”.
The “Yao of Tunduru” itself provides much ethnological and historical material on the Yao, especially on their traditional rituals and beliefs. This material is not analysed in any systematic way, but it will be a useful supplement to the studies of Yao society and history by Clyde-Mitchel, Alpers and others. However, it is not intended for an academic audience, but rather for other missionaries and African Christians grappling with problems of how to approach traditional African religion and Islam. The dialogue between his respect for African culture on the one hand and his Christian commitment for evangelism on the other is reflected in all the essays. While Lamburn has a deep respect for traditional Yao society he does not romanticise it to the same extent as Lucas was prone to. In his essay on Islam, Lamburn advocates that missionaries should show much Greater respect for Islam. However, he is very critical of the impact that Islam has had on the peoples of Southern Tanzania.
Noel King, one of the editors, has written a useful introduction to the book, providing a short 1ife history of Lamburn and a brief discussion on the theogica1 background to the policies of Lucas and Lamburn. Klaus Fiedler, the other editor, has written a concluding paper comparing the different attitudes to African culture found among other missionaries in East Africa but this is too brief for an adequate comparison to be made. A comprehensive bibliography is included at the end of the publication.
This is a very readable book that 101111 be of great interest to those studying both mission history in East Africa and the ethnography and history of the Yao and their neighbours. It will also, of course, be welcomed by the many people who have come to know and respect Lamburn through his work at Kindwitwi.
Andrew Clayton
DISARTICULATION AND POOR INCENTIVE PROGRAMMES IN AFRICAN ECONOMIES. THE CASE OF THE SISAL INDUSTRY. Hassan Omari Kaya. Verlag Schreiber Publishers. Berlin 1989. About £5.00.
Dr Kaya has written the sort of booklet (76 pages, including many tables) which one would expect from an academic studying the history and problems of the sis8l industry from the comfort of a University chair, rather than from the driving seat of a tractor.
The historical chapter at the beginning, stressing aS it does the reasons for the development of colonial agricultural products such as sisal, cotton, cocoa etc. at the behest of the erstwhile colonial powers is well illustrated and documented.
It is when Dr. Kaya attempts to explain away the severe decline of the sisal industry in Tanzania, after independence and nationalization, that his views become more controversial. Many of the facts he produces are selective: for example there is no mention of the private sector Amboni Spinning Mill at Pongwe, the best managed mill in East Africa, although the book was published in 1989. Furthermore it would have been interesting to have compared the development of peasant ‘Lake Sisal’ in Tanzania with the equivalent in Kenya – UHDS. At one point the rural economy of Tanzania was in such a parlous state that Tanzanian fibre was being smuggled across the border to Kenya to be brushed and bailed before being exported for U. S. Dollars, to the latter country’s financial and foreign exchange benefit.
A further example of this bias is the absence of any mention of the fact that during the sisal price boom in 1973 he Tanzania authorities arbitrarily reneged on low priced contracts and insisted on renegotiating at the higher market price. This single action, as much as anything, persuaded many European and American spinners of the long term advantages of turning to polypropylene twine using a locally available and stable priced raw material. The expensive attempt in the early 60′ s to develop ‘Nucleus’ peasant growing estates, alongside plantation estates is dismissed in one line probably because the disastrous results do not f1 t in with Dr’. Kaya’s views.
Recruitment is another area where more research would have lead Dr. Kaya to appreciate the benefit of the TSGA organization “Silabu” – disbanded as being too’ colonial’ soon after independence, but attempts were made by the TSA to revive it some 20 years later.
Even in a booklet of this short length, one would have expected to see a mention of the Tanzania developed sisal hybrid 11648, without which many plantations would have been unable to have maintained production in view of rising costs.
This is obviously a booklet written before Perestroika and Glasnost in the Soviet Union opened the eyes of socialists worldwide to the failures of over central planning. I can however certainly recommend it to those with a background and interest in the sisal industry but it would be more worthwhile if the second edition included more up to date statistics.
Hugh Leslie
‘AND SO THEY CALLED A KIVA’: HISTORIES OF A WAR by Justin Willis, Azania (British Institute in Eastern Africa). Vol XXV. 1990.
This article describes oral histories about the Kilindi ruling family’s loss in the 1860’s of the Shambaa kingdom in a uprising known as the’ Kiva’. Justin Wil11s has recently conducted fieldwork in the area between the eastern Usambara mountains and the coast, collecting more oral accounts of the Kiva war. He was told by his sources that the basis of the dispute which led to the uprising was essentially over the nature of ethnic identity. He found three widely known differing accounts of these events in the oral histories. Although one of them was already written down, this does not seem to have influenced his informants, who ignored it in the accounts they gave him.
The survey’s real interest is less in what it tells us about the Kiva rebellion but more about the nature of oral history. Willis’ informants were selective, giving accounts supporting their own Viewpoints on the rebellion. The conclusion is that the researcher’s initial task is not the unquestioning acceptance of some real historical truth in oral testimonies but the identification of self- interest which will influence the presentation by the informants.
Alex Vines.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN TANZANIA AND SOUTH AFRICA, A FIRST WORLD INTERPRETATION. Per Frostin, Studia Theologiea Lundensia 42 Lund University Press 1988. Pp.283. ISBN 91-7966-040-1.
Africa has become one of the most dynamic centres of Christianity during the latter half of the 20th century. Western Systematic theologians have however, on the whole, been unaware of the high level of theological contextualization which has been taking place. In choosing the South African and Tanzanian quests for a Christian theological identity, the author has highlighted but two important strands of these dynamic developments ie. a theology grown out of the experience of oppression on the one hand and that which has grown out of the search for a new social order. In both cases these developments have been determined by African as much as biblical values. The author, by using the term Liberation Theology, which in most minds has come to be identified with Latin American theological developments, has had to justify the use of the term and evolve what he calls a “new paradigm”, This he sees as a process which has evolved from local experiences, and social analyses to theological reformulations. In determining this process the author has explored the meaning of such concepts as Life-in- Community and wholeness of Life. He emphasizes that, in order for Western systematic theologians to arrive at a more appropriate understanding of “Liberation Theology” in the African context, general rules of textual analysis are of primary importance since much of Western theological work has been blighted by ethnocentricity. He emphasizes that the evolving theologies represent a new holistic paradigm in which faith in God, human liberation, economic justice and epistemology cannot be separated, but must be analyzed in relation to each other.
After an introductory chapter on the methodology of intercultural studies, the author takes up the analysis of “Theology in the Context of Ujamaa”. He begins by looking at “Ujamaa as Theological Context” where he first spells out Ujamaa as a philosophy of liberation, before noting its role within the process of liberation. This brings him to consider Ujamaa in relation to African Socialism, neo-colonialism and Marxism. In his section on “Community versus Selfishness” the author refers to the work of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and, in particular, the writings of Charles Nyamiti, Laurenti Magesa, and Christopher Mwoleka. Of particular interest is his justification of and constant reference to Julius Nyerere’s writings. It is this “political” dimension of contextual theology which is symptomatic of Africa, for it is holistic, and not, as so often in Western theology, dualistic. Communal participation lies at the heart of this theology. It is not an anthropocentric, but an all inclusive theocentric theology expressed in Ireneus dictum, Gloria Deo, vivens homo (The glory of God is s human person fully alive). Theologically this is seen as a trinitarian model for human life in which solidarity, totality and participation reflect the triune God understood as a community, sharing in such a way that it is not a question of three gods, but One (John 17: 21), hence a humanity which is one community not divided by artificial barriers, particularly religious ones. The criterion for such a community is the common good It is in that kind of context the Church has to rethink its identity, recognize the value and strength of the small communities within the wider one, particularly in relation to the state.
The author, approaching the study from a Western perspective, by using western theogical tools, has succeeded in his aim to interpret some aspects of two Third World theologies to First World theologians. He has shown that it is impossible to understand the internal logic of the new theologies without interpreting them in relation to their overall experiential base. He has pointed out that these theologies integrate anthropology, economy, epistemology, poll tics and theology into a holistic approach. Through his work he has conscientized First World theologians to new dimensions of theology and should prove a help to Third World theologians as they continue to struggle theologically with their contexts.
The book is thoroughly documented, contains a thorough bibliography and a helpful index.
S. von Sicard
THE LARGER GRAIN BORER CONTROL PROJECT. September 1989 – Septemeber 1991. Hugh Frost. Unpub. 1992.
CONTROLLING THE LARGER GRAIN BORER. AN EXTENSION OFFICER’S EXPERIENCE AT GRASS ROOTS LEVEL. Oliver Puginier. Agriculture International 43. 7. July 1991.
These articles, both by VSO Crop Protection Officers, provide interesting new insights into what happened in the field during one of the longer term and more interesting of VSO’s contributions to Tanzanian development. Much has already been written about the Larger Grain Borer Beetle (Prostephdnus truncatus) or ‘Dumuzi’ as it is called in Kiswahili, and which has, through the benefit of human assistance in grain transport, become a devastating pest outside its endemic region in Central America.
Puginier describes how, even though pest control activities began immediately after the arrival of the pest in Africa, it remains a serious menace. He describes the research conducted to develop a variety of insecticide ‘cocktails’, their chemical composition, the hazard involved in using them, the introduction of the ‘Dumuzi Law’ in 1986 and the way in which VSO agricultural extension personnel operated in the Biharamulo district. He states that the main objective – the reduction of the status of the pest to an economically acceptable level has been achieved there.
Frost, in his final report to the authorities, describes in considerable detail the day to day extension work in Shinyanga District – the 31 village seminars which formed the backbone of the work, the demonstration of an improved version of the traditional storage structure (Kihenge cha Kisasa), the problems of insecticide distribution, the staff end farmer training and the costs (but not the cost benefit). He writes about the ‘Prevent Dumuzi’ T-shirts, the home-made posters, the transport of insecticide on the back of motorbikes, and the problems faced in distribution of credit. He stresses the importance of continuing to capitalise in the future on the work already done – DRB.
(There are 102 VSO volunteers working in Tanzania at present and, through VSO’s Sponsorship Scheme, individuals, organisations, trusts, companies etc can be linked directly with a serving volunteer. For further details please contact Anne Harrisson, VSO, 317 Putney Bridge Road. London SW15 2PN. Tel: 081 780 2266 Ext 266 – Editor)
AGRICULTURAL DECLINE IN TANZANIA. THE CASE OF THE ULUGURU MOUNTAINS.
Jan Kees van Donge. African Affairs. Vol 91, No. 362. January 1992. The author is a social scientist at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands and writes about the Mgeta Division on the western sid of the Uluguru Mountains above Morogoro. The main theme in the paper is that such distinctive areas (there are comparisons with Bukobe, Kilimenjaro and the Usambaras) do not fit in with the various explanations given in the literature for Tanzania’s agricultural decline based, as they are, on macro-economic planning and state policies. The Ulugurus are different. We learn about the disappearance of clear positions of authority, the fact that the Government’s villagisation policy hardly touched the area, the surplus of females, the decline in marriage, and that people ‘don’t grow old so quickly’ as they do in the cities.
In the last paragraph of a 1 and a half page Appendix on agronomy we learn that people in the area have accepted important agronomic changes since the 1950’s (pig keeping, compost making, irrigation and the cultivation of cooking bananas) but readers interested in the subject of the article ie: agricultural decline, need to look elsewhere – DRB.
CONTRIBUTORS
Mr JOHN ARNOLD served os on Administrative Officer in Tanganyika from 1959 to 1964. He later worked in the Adult Education Department of Southampton University and also took four study tours to Tanzania between 1975 and 1990.
Mr A. CLAYTON worked as a volunteer with the Anglican Church in Dar es Saloom and Kindwiti in 1981/82 and in anthropological fieldwork on the Makonde Plateau in 1988/89.
Miss CHRISTINE LAWRENCE worked as a Bursar of the Mahiwa Farm School in Tanganyika from 1965 to 1971. She is Treasurer of the Britain-Tanzania Society.
Mr HUGH LESLIE, whose father was a Member of the Legislative Council of Tanganyika, has spent 12 years in East Africa. He retired two years ago from the posts of Company Secretary and Managing Director of Wigglesworth, the fibre merchants.
Mr R. W. NEATH served in the Tanganyika administration from 1949 to 1962 and later moved to New York and Geneva where he was the Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
PROFESSOR J. S. READ is the Professor of Comparative Public Law with special reference to Africa in the University of London. He was a Senior Lecturer in Law in Tanzania from 1963 to 1966.
Mr ALEX VINES is the Africa Analyst for an international political risk consultancy. He has also worked as an archaeologist in Tanzania. Dr S von SI CARD is a Lecturer in the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham. He served in the Lutheran Church in Dar es Salaam from 1955 to 1968.