TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

CIVIL ENGINEERS ARE NOT BORING
NEW CIVIL ENGINEER (May 13) reported on the meeting held at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London on May 4 when the authors of a new book on Livingstone (see the Reviews Section) described to a packed audience (all 250 seats sold) their trip by bicycle, largely in Tanzania, to retrace Livingstone’s last journey. One of the authors, Colum Wilson (the other is his wife) is an engineer employed by Gibb and he described how he had managed to keep within 15 miles of Livingstone’s own route by using data from a satellite global positioning system device which “was safer than the night skies and sextant used by Livingstone”. Wilson described how they took with them a machete, a walletful of dollars (but they were frequently desperately short of money) and bicycles with four paniers into one of which a tent was stuffed. The authors were burnt, bitten and came home two stones lighter. The audience, through its loud applause, expressed its agreement with the Chairman of the evening event, Professor George Fleming, when he said “Don’t let anyone tell you that civil engineers are boring” (Thank you Dick Wailer for sending this item -Editor).

‘THE GOLDEN OLDIES’
The VSO publication ORBIT in its Third Quarter 1999 issue featured Shikamoo Jazz which it described as the ‘Golden Oldies’. The band comprises 10 Tanzanian musicians in their fifties and sixties who dance and sing everything from rumba, chacha, samba and twist to traditional Swahili music and Taarabu. Their most famous song, which was first performed at the launch of the ‘International Year of Older People’ is Wazee Tuwatunzee (Let us care for older people). The article concluded ‘It’s message is strong and simple and best encapsulates the band’s lasting legacy’ .

‘STUNNING BIOGRAPHY’
The TIMES OF SWAZILAND in a full page article by Dr Joshua Mzizi praised what was described as the ‘stunning biography’ of the late Father Trevor Huddleston, former President of the Britain-Tanzania Society. The writer was particularly pleased by the decision of the publishers, Macmillans, to launch the book in Swaziland -even though they could not expect big sales there. ‘I think the publishers are asking Swazis to take a deep and long look at a Christian Minister who made a difference in his lifetime …… Father Huddleston was a man of prayer -someone who withdrew from the crowds, like any disciplined monk, to meditate and talk with God … ‘

ZANZIBAR AND THE ‘DARK AGES’ IN EUROPE

Fascinating excavations in Zanzibar by Bristol University archaeologist Mark Horton described in THE TIMES (June 8) reveal that the popularity of carved ivory might have triggered the Dark Ages in Europe. A plague which ushered in the Dark Ages and spread across the Mediterranean during the six years from AD 541 was said to have been traced to rats brought to Europe aboard ships carrying ivory for the Romans. Dr Horton’s excavations show that the Port of Unguja Ukuu dates back to the 6th Century AD. The dig has produced typical 6th Century Mediterranean pottery together with the bones of the black rat Rattus rattus which is not indigenous to Africa and must have arrived in ships. The local rodents had become immune to the plague but may have acted as a reservoir of infected fleas and passed them on to Europe-bound ships’ rats travelling with the ivory.

MUFTI DAY
The DAILY TELEGRAPH reported on June 5 that Eton College had held a ‘charity mufti day’. The boys contributed £1 each (which went to the Mvumi Secondary School in Tanzania) and were then allowed to ditch for one day the formal tails they normally have to wear. One group dressed in drag and some wore just jock straps or bin liners. Prince William was wearing face paint and a sort of Lawrence of Arabia outfit.

HUNTER GATHERERS
In a study of the plight of hunter gatherers around the world by James Woodburn in NATURAL RESOURCE PERSPECTIVES (June 1999), a series published by the Overseas Development Institute, the problems of the Hazda people of Northern Tanzania were discussed. Their language was not related to any other in the world and they had resisted settlement over many years. During the colonial period there had been two attempts to settle them, both of which ended with measles epidemics and high mortality. Further efforts at sedentarising them involving armed police in 1964 and 1980 had caused embarrassment to the government. Meanwhile, land encroachment on their traditional hunting grounds had proceeded apace and wildlife resources had been depleted by urban hunters. There had been NGO efforts to help the Hazda with schools and clinics but these had been diverted to the dominant political groups in the area, the Iraq and Datooga.

DIABLE D’HIPPOPOTAME
AIR FRANCE’S MAGAZINE recounted in May the fascinating story of Tanzanian photographer John Kiyaya of Kasanga village in Sumbawanga. Weaved into the story was the fact that Kasanga was once called Bismarckburg; it had a fortress with crenellated walls, and a ‘strangely medieval appearance’; it is not far from where the ‘Liemba’ (which has a long story of its own) docks in Lake Tanganyika. The article went on to describe how the German army stopped in Kasanga in 1918 just before it surrendered, how the local fishing industry has declined and how Kasanga is also known as the local hub of witchcraft. As for John Kiyaya, it appears that he was returning home through a rice padi one day when he was attacked by surprise by a ‘devil of a hippopotamus’ -something he cannot forget. John had originally intended to become a priest but he met a French journalist on the Liemba who, after a long correspondence, sent him a camera. He began to take colour pictures of everything -his professors and fellow students, lovers, families, sewing machines, marriages, circumcisions, . … In 1992 ‘Arret sur Image’, a French photographic association, organised an exhibition of his photographs. He met famous photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, and was amazed to find how photography was treated with such respect in France (Thank you Roy Wilson for sending this item -­Editor).

HIGH COMMISSION NEWSLETTER
The first edition of TANZANEWS, a beautifully produced and illustrated 12-page newsletter published by Dr Abdul Shareef, Tanzanian High Commissioner in London, emphasised investment and trade opportunities in the country. It quoted from a recent speech by President Mkapa: “Two days ago I was reading ‘Business Africa’, a respected publication of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which stated that after three years of free market reforms economic growth was finally beginning to have real impact, inspiring growing interest among foreign investors …… ‘. Another article described the activities of the Tanzania-UK Business Group which was established in London in 1993.

“WHEN WE GREW UP HERE IN THIS LAND THE ANIMALS WERE AS NUMEROUS AS THESE TREES”
So said a Maasai elder quoted in a recent issue of SURVIVAL NEWSLETTER. The article said that, when the Maasai were moved from what is now the Serengeti National Park in 1958, they were promised compensation and the right to live in perpetuity in what then became the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. But this promise had been broken. A study by a human rights lawyer found that the Conservation Area Authority was acting far beyond its mandate and should be reformed. Survival had translated the study into Swahili for the benefit of the Maasai and it might help to prepare a law for presentation to the Tanzanian parliament so that the Maasai can regain control over their own land and lives (Thank you Wendy Ellis for sending this item Editor).

The South African SUNDAY INDEPENDENT reported recently that journalists in Tanzania had been calling on the government to introduce a Freedom of Information Act which would compel it to release information of interest to the public. They were critical of government for banning three newspapers for publishing articles and cartoons judged ‘immoral’. Gervas Moshiro the Head of the National School of Journalism was quoted as deploring the lack of guarantees of press freedom. (Thank you David Leishman for sending this item -Editor).

‘TANZANIA: STILL OPTIMISTIC AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?’
This is the title of a lengthy article in THE LANCET (Vol 353, May 1999) by Professor John Yudkin of University College London about his fourth visit to Tanzania -he has made one visit in each of the past four decades. It is a sad story of decline in the provision of medical services contrasting with the continued sense of optimism of the people involved in such provision. ‘The problems my Tanzanian colleagues faced were far beyond anything I could have coped with’ he wrote. ‘But the people got on with it and believed that things were going to improve’. He went into some detail on the situation in Pemba -which had suffered economically far more than the mainland during the last 20 years. The island had just two doctors for 400,000 people; of the 51 primary health care units (PHCU’s) none had a medical assistant; the nine assistants were serving doctor-type functions in the three hospitals and over half had been lost to the private sector in the past four years. The US$ 0.50 per person of pharmaceutical supplies supplied each year was insufficient to provide more than 1,000 chloroquine tablets, 1,000 paracetamol tablets and five vials of procaine penicillin. The author went on: ‘There seems to be something intrinsically wrong when powerful governments or international organisations can demand that health care spending is cut and debt repayment prioritised, especially when many of those governments have themselves benefited from international loans and debt rescheduling’. He recommended all caring health professionals to add their support to the Jubilee 2,000 debt campaign.

STREET CHILDREN
Melanie Clark Pullen, a star (Mary) in the BBC’s soap opera ‘EastEnders’ has been in Tanzania to publicise ‘Christian Aid Week’ according to CHRISTIAN AID NEWS (April-July). She wrote about the lack of respect given to street children who surround cars trying to sell nuts and bottled water. But, she went on: ‘one place they are respected is the Christian Aid­backed ‘Youth, Cultural and Information Centre’ in Dar es Salaam where they are made welcome and offered classes in reading, writing and the arts.

MISSION TODAY (Vol 8 No 1) reported on the problems faced by the St Charles Lwanga Seminary, Segerea which was opened in 1979 to cope with the overflow of vocations from the Kipalapala Seminary. Twenty-one diocesan Bishops now send their seminarians to Segerea (168 each year) but, although the seminary operates self-reliant projects with pigs, poultry, cattle and a garden, there are serious shorfalls in funding and a particular need for books and for a water pump –Thank you John Sankey for sending these items -Editor).

NEW MALARIA DRUG
The TIMES reported recently that the drug Malarone (a combination of atovaquone and progunil) which is used to treat attacks of malaria is now being considered as a preventative also. It was already licensed to do this in Denmark and might have a role akin to that of Larium which has been found to give severe side effects to one in 160 people who use it. British Airways in Regent Street, London is carrying out trials on Malarone and is offering would be travellers to Tanzania and other affected countries free material cover to those prepared to have a blood test before they leave and after they come back. In its major front page article on July 24 the OBSERVER featured what it described as the promising work in perfecting an anti­malaria vaccine (with a chemical rather than a biological base) being carried out by Colombian Scientist Manuel Patarroyo which includes testing in Tanzania. Meanwhile scientists attending a workshop at Bagamoyo in June described chloroquine as ineffective (failure rate 42%) and said that even Fansidar was showing failure rates of between 10 and 34%.

DRAMATIC CHURCH SERVICE
They were at church while visiting friends working on regeneration projects for the Salvation Army at a village in Tanzania called Rungaboro when suddenly it started to rain. “At first, people were delighted because water is short but then it became so noisy that the service had to stop. A friend joked that the roof might fall in. Minutes later there was this terrible noise and the wall I was standing next to was caving in towards me. I just ducked and ran. The next thing I remember is crawling out and thinking -I am alive!” The scene was of total devastation. “I started digging out the many people buried in the rubble”. One child died and 20 were injured. This nightmare experience of Karen Price, a staff nurse at Hillingdon Hospital and a friend, was revealed in the UXBRIDGE GAZETTE on June 30. When she came back Karen determined to raise money to build a new church for the village. The first step was a sponsored walk. Other donations would be welcome -to Jo Francis at the Gazette (Thank you Liz Fennel! for sending this -Editor).

BUSINESS NEWS & BUDGET

EXCHANGE RATES (August 11): £1 = TShs 1270. $1 = TShs 789

Negotiations for the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA) to take a majority shareholding in the National Bank of Commerce (NBC) have been completed but signature is held up following a court injunction obtained by employees -Daily News.

China Human International Economic and Technical Cooperation has acquired 62% (leaving 38% with the government) of the shares in the Mbeya-based Kiwira Coal Mine. A large number of the 1,500 workers will be made redundant; coal production is expected to increase from 100,000 to 300,000 tons per year -Guardian.

The long-standing dispute between TANESCO and the Malaysian-financed IPTL over the power plant that has been built in Dar es Salaam but not yet started operations, looks like continuing for some time. The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has fixed a hearing date for the case in June 2000. Meanwhile the government has successfully fought off a case in the Court of Appeal which would have forced TANESCO to start paying $3.62 million per month to the Malaysian company. This could have plunged TANESCO into serious losses.

The National Employment Promotion Bill of 1999 rules that no employer will employ a foreigner in any class of employment the appropriate Minister may declare to be employment in which citizens only may be employed. No foreigner will be employed unless he has a work permit. Government officers have started visiting places employing foreigners to ensure compliance with the new law. Over 5,000 expatriates applied for work permits since January 1997 and 2,900 others applied for extensions of their work permits. Some 7,000 now held such permits -Daily News.

The Tanzania Telecommunications Commission has increased the number of firms licensed to offer mobile phone services. In addition to TRITEL and MOBITEL which have already started, the new companies are the Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL) -which plans to have 500,000 lines by the year 2004 -plus Planetel and Zantel -Guardian.


THE 1999/2000 BUDGET

The main features of the 1999/2000 budget introduced in Parliament by Finance Minister Daniel Yona on June 10 were as follows:

-To help investment -from July 1 rates of duty to be based on the degree of processing with the lowest rate for investment goods and the highest for consumer goods. Strategic and investment goods -zero %; raw materials, capital goods and replacement parts -5%; semi-processed goods and spare parts -10%; fully processed goods and motor vehicle spare parts 20%; and, consumer goods 25%.
-To help the low paid -minimum taxable income raised from Shs 20,000 to Shs 45,000. Minimum wage was later increased from Shs 17,500 to Shs 30,000 per month.
-To encourage tourism -air charters and aircraft to be exempted from VAT.
-To help civil servants -pension and health insurance funds to be introduced; monthly pensions for retired officers to be increased from Shs 2,000 to Shs 10,000.
-To encourage greater use -customs duty on computers to be reduced from 20% to 5%;
-To help local government -receipts from a number of cesses and taxes now levied for central government use to be transferred to local governments.

The latest economic data:

Estimated GROWTH RATE -4.9%; it was 4% in 1998-1999 (Zanzibar was -0.4%). Total FOREIGN DEBT -$8.29 billion (Shs 5.5 trillion); Shs 488 billion to be repaid in the 199912000 fiscal year compared with Shs 101 billion in the previous year. Total LOCAL DEBT -Shs 850 billion. Shs $70 million was received last year from seven donors plus $25 million in Structural Adjustment Credits.

Anticipated EXPENDITURE: Shs 1.16 billion -Shs 921 million recurrent (Shs 240 million for civil service salaries and Shs 681 million miscellaneous expenditures) plus Shs 243 million for development. Shs 822 billion would be from internal sources including Shs 762 billion from taxes

REVENUE collected by budget day (May 21) Shs 531 million.

EXPORTS: $672 million in 1998-99 compared with $717 million in the
previous year because of lower quantities and lower prices, the financial
crisis in Asia and the EI-Nino rains.

IMPORTS: $1,246 million; 9% up on the previous year due to the growing
demand for transportation and construction goods and equipment.

FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR EXPENDITURE: health, education and water.

There will be NO BORROWING from banks.

INFLATION RATE planned to drop to 5% compared with 8.8% last year.

THIRD WORLD DEBT

On 18-20 June 1999 the Finance Ministers of the Group of Seven industrial nations met to consider modifications to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in the light of criticisms from a number of quarters, including the United Kingdom Government. The outcome was a statement entitled the Cologne Debt Initiative and was welcomed and endorsed by the Heads of Mission. In essence the report supported ‘faster, deeper and broader debt relief for the poorest countries that demonstrate a commitment to reform and poverty alleviation’. Thus for the first time an explicit link was created between debt relief and the relief of poverty. With this end in view the Ministers asked for modifications in existing programmes of support by the World Bank and the IMF, in particular the IMF’s Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, adhesion to which had been a condition of entry into the HIPC process. The Bank and the Fund were asked to help qualified poor countries to formulate plans for the use of savings derived from debt relief for the reduction of poverty.

The suggested role of the Bank and the Fund in the formulation and implementation of plans for the reduction of poverty might be seen as intervention in matters of domestic responsibility. It is important, therefore, that the International Financial Institutions proceed with sensitivity and restraint in seeking the co-operation of the governments of the highly indebted countries involved. The Ministers called upon the Bank and the Fund to develop plans for poverty reduction in time for the Annual Meetings of these bodies in September.

The Ministers were concerned about the slow pace of the HIPC programme. While retaining the programme’s two stage structure, they recommended that the debtor countries should be allowed to bring forward the ‘completion point’ through improved performance. The second stage could thus be shortened significantly in the case of countries meeting ambitious policy targets.

The amount of debt relief granted is intended to bring the remaining debt burden down to a level that can be sustained without further international intervention. The debt relief calculation depends on a variety of factors, including the ratio of debt to exports. The Ministers suggest that the present target ratio should be brought down from 200 -250 percent to 150 percent. Combined with other adjustments, this reform will lead to a deeper level of debt relief. The Ministers also propose that greater attention should be given to the serious budgetary consequences of debt servicing.

It is not easy to specify with certainty the benefits that Tanzania will enjoy as a result of the Cologne Debt Initiative, but it is hoped that the Tanzanian Government will be in a position to press for earlier access to the completion point of the HIPC process and that there will be benefits resulting from other changes in the HIPC Initiative. Finally, it is understood that Tanzania is benefiting from technical assistance with respect to the monitoring and management of external debt. It is plainly of first rate importance that machinery should exist to avoid a new debt overload once the burden of debt has been brought down to sustainable levels.
J Roger Carter

MISCELLANY

Tanzania has been awarded a gold shield in Accra for its outstanding leadership within the Africa Travel Association following its hosting of the associations’ annual congress last year. The New York-based Executive Director said that the congress was the best ever since ATA’s establishment 24 years ago -Daily News.

The famous bearded tourist guide in Bagamoyo, Honorary Professor Samahani Kejeli, locally known as a walking encyclopaedia and who extracts visiting cards from tourists to whom he shows the historic sites, claims that he now has 12,889 pen friends in various countries. He gets some 500 letters or postcards each year and tries to reply to them all. He has just been employed by the Roman Catholic Museum in Bagamoyo to continue to help visitors -Daily News.

Following some 15 years of dispute during which he had been told to stop his unorthodox ‘fundamentalist’ teachings, the Rev Felician Nkwera (and his wanamaombi followers) have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for causing confusion and division. He was accused of conducting devotions of a ‘dubious nature’ and unauthorised exorcisms and was said to have insulted Church leaders including the Pope and to have ‘disrespected the Holy Eucharist and caused conflicts in families -Guardian.

In a full page advertisement in the Guardian on July 22 the United States offered a reward of $5 million and the costs of relocation for persons providing information leading to the arrest of those it believes responsible for the bombing of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Pictures were shown of eight suspects headed by Usama Bin Laden.

The government had nothing to do with Zanzibaris seeking political asylum in Britain and no action would be taken against them. Most left for economic, not political reasons and they should not engage in a smear campaign to soil the image of Zanzibar -Minister of State in the Zanzibar Chief Minister’s Office answering a question in the House of Assembly.

A new ‘Copyright and Neighbouring Rights 1999’ Bill was passed into law on April 14. Any person violating the law, which is designed to protect the rights of authors, performers, sound recorders, broadcasters, lecturers, priests, musicians, and computer programmes, can be fined up to Shs 5 million or given imprisonment for up to three years or both for a first offence.

Tanzania’s thriving media now numbers 42 daily and weekly newspapers, 22 private radio stations, and 7 terrestrial and 17 cable TV stations. This was said by Foreign Minster Jakaya Kikwete when opening a regional conference of the Eastern Africa Media Institute in Dar es Salaam on May 3. He stressed that the government was committed to a free press. However, on the same day, at the launching of a new Journalists Association of Zanzibar (JAZ) complaints were heard about too much interference by the state. It was revealed in Dar es Salaam that a Zanzibar freelance journalist had been banned from practising his profession by the Zanzibar government -Daily News.

The national population census which should have been held in 1998 but had to be postponed for reasons including budgetary constraints, food shortages and roads devastated by El Nino rains, has been fixed for August 2002.

More than 1,000 kgs of trash was hauled off Mount Kilimanjaro by 110 volunteers with assistance from tour companies, the National Park and American donors in a ten-day clean up operation in April. The use of firewood for heating and cooking on the mountain has been banned -Daily News.

On the occasion of his 77th birthday Mwalimu Nyerere took over a new house at Butiama built for him through salary deductions from members of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF) over the years since he retired in 1985. The government is to pay for maintenance of the house. President Mkapa said that there was no due reward that Tanzanians could give to the founder president for his outstanding service except to wish him everlasting life -Guardian
Tanzania, which earned $431 million from tourism last year is now fifth in Africa in its tourism earnings -after South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritius -Kenya came sixth with $400 million.

Two Tanzanian hunters, Doug Scandroll and Peter Swanepoel, have received 1998 International Professional Hunter Awards from Safari Club International (USA). They hunt for ‘Game Frontiers Safari Club’ (in the Mbarang’undu Wildlife Management Area and in the Selous Game Reserve K3). The Club has been upgraded from 55th to 42nd among more than 530 hunting companies worldwide -Daily News.

Some 50 participants at the evaluation of the Tanga School Aids Education Programme on June 30 were astonished to hear from a health consultant that primary schoolboys had said that they were fed up with parent’s procrastination about the use of condoms and had demanded smaller sized ones. A sizeable number of primary schoolchildren, some as young as ten, were said to be sexually active. They had complained that they had to use props such as rubber bands and string to enable them to use adult condoms. The Daily Mail, which published this story on July 1, reported the next day that there had been widespread shock and indignation. Most people were totally against the issue of small condoms; they would accelerate moral decay in society. Some asked whether this demand arose from too much sex education in primary schools. One journalist said the story should never have been printed.

Four Acts are to be amended to ensure that Tanzanian culture is not distorted. One would ensure that film actors and actresses would wear clothing commensurate with the country’s culture; the country’s coat of arms was not to be used in trademarks; torn national flags should not be hoisted; and, those artists appropriating songs from people in rural areas should be dealt with under the new Copyright Act of 1999 -The Guardian.

A stray buffalo, believed to have come from the Saadani game reserve North of Bagamoyo injured several people near the Bahari Beach Hotel in Dar es Salaam on April 11 before it was shot dead by local residents. A German resident called in to help was knocked down twice having heard that there was a nyani (Baboon) in the area whereas in fact the stranger was the much more formidable nyati (buffalo) -Daily News.

It is estimated that around 1,000 tourists will be climbing Kilimanjaro on the Millennium date -December 31 1999. The National Park is doubling the fees on this occasion -Daily News.

Robert Otani writing in the May issue of NEW AFRICAN compared retirement benefits for retired leaders in East Africa. Recent legislation in Tanzania was said to be particularly generous and to be aimed at luring leaders to accept retirement as President Nyerere did some years ago. President Mkapa was said to be entitled to a gratuity equal to the total of all the salaries he had received while in office plus 24 months salary as a winding up allowance plus a generous monthly pension. This compared with President Mandela who will receive 75% of his current monthly salary plus an allowance of $16,000.

Several foreign experts claimed at a recent seminar on managing water resources in the Usangu Plains, Mbeya Region, (which feed the hydro-power stations at Mtera and Kidatu which produce 80% of Tanzania’s electricity) that too many trees were ‘drinking up the water’ and that livestock were not to blame for the drying up of the plains. But, according to the Daily News, Tanzanian water managers were amused by this and many expressed either utter disbelief or outright contempt. One said that this was ‘voodoo philosophy’ and another said there had been too many studies already and that the experts should read these first before speaking.

In a ceremony at the Sea Cliff Hotel on May 8 the Tanzania Sports Writers Association (TASWA) made various awards for sporting prowess in 1998. Winners included Rashid Matumla, the World Boxing Union’s light middleweight champion as ‘national hero’ (he defended his title again successfully in Italy on June 5); Michael Yombayomba, Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, as the best amateur boxer; Xebedayo Bayo, Los Angeles marathon winner as best athlete; Renatus Njohole of Simba Sports Club as best footballer.

OBITUARIES

DOROTHY BARLOW (88) died on February 16. She had come to Tanzania in ca. 1950, and after the untimely death of her husband William (PWD) in 1959, stayed on in Dar working for TDFL and other companies. She became a Tanzanian citizen in ca. 1970. Her voluntary activities included the St. Albans Church choir, administrative work at the Missions to Seamen and being a trustee of the Tanzania Society for the deaf.

REV’D CANON DAVID B. BARTLETT, MA (74) of the UMCA/USPG died on August 15 1998. In Tanzania from 1954-90 and 1995-97 he served in many capacities including Warden of the Theological College, Rondo; priest-in charge St Albans, Dar es Salaam; setting up a new parish of Muheza and building Muheza Designated District Hospital with his doctor wife, Marion: and, similar work at Kwa Mkono and, finally Zanzibar Cathedral. He was made Chancellor and Vicar-General of the Diocese of Zanzibar and Tanga in 1973. At his funeral the recently resigned Archbishop John Ramadhani was able to preach as he was in Britain for the Lambeth Conference.

KATE BERTRAM
(86), the former President of Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge, who died recently, carried out pioneering research into the freshwater fish of East Africa starting in 1934. Among a series of scientific papers she wrote was ‘The Fisheries of Lake Rukwa’ (1939) a classic work on the fauna and ecology of the lake -Daily Telegraph.

GERVAS ISHENGOMA (70) a prominent figure in the co-operative movement in Kagera Region and former Commissioner for Cooperatives died on May 27.

Chief ADAM SAPI MKW A W A (79), described in the Daily News as ‘the country’s most decorated legislator, politician and leader’, died of high blood pressure on June 25. He was Speaker of the National Assembly from independence except for the period from 1973 to 1975, when he was appointed Minister of State for Capital Development. He was installed Chief of the Wahehe in 1975 and held this position until 1962, when the chiefdom was abolished. He was the first Hehe chief to have only one wife even though his religion allowed him to have more than one. Also known as Mtwa Mkwawa, Chief Adam Sapi was the first African to be made an honorary Captain of the King’s African Rifles. Mwalimu Nyerere and President Mkapa (who described the Chief as ‘clean, committed, dedicated, diligent and as having no enemies’) were among thousands who attended the elaborate funeral at Kalenga, 16 kms from lringa. As the body was being laid to rest, the Chiefs elder brother recited Hehe rituals heard only at the burial of chiefs. He said “Adam Sapi is not dead, according to Hehe traditions. He has just broken his leg and is now resting amongst his ancestors”. Chief Adam Sapi is succeeded by his third child (first son) who will be known as Mtwa Mfwimi (Hunter) Mkwawa II. The new Chief declared amidst cheers and ululations that he would strive to restore Hehe traditions and customs. At this remark people looked towards Mwalimu Nyerere, who was sitting in the audience and who had abolished chieftainships in Tanzania in the 1960’s, but, according to the Guardian, ‘he remained calm’ .

The famous blind master drummer MORRIS NYUNYUSA (81) who was born in Tunduru district and performed in many countries -on as many as ten drums at a time -died on May 9. He will be remembered amongst other things for his signature tune heralding the news bulletins on Radio Tanzania, Dar es Salaam -Daily News.

REV’D DAVID POWELL (88) served in a number of parishes in the Diocese of Masasi under the UMCA from 1946 to 1965. He was appointed in charge of music under Bishop Trevor Huddleston in order to introduce indigenous music into services.

FRANCIS JOHN RIDDELL who died on June 26 served as a District Officer mainly in the Central and Lake provinces and in Dar es Salaam from 1946 to 1967.

REVIEWS

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ABDULWAHID SYKES (1924-1968). THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MUSLIM STRUGGLE AGAINST BRITISH COLONIALISM IN TANGANYIKA. Mohamed Said. Minerva Press. 1998. 358pp.

The key to this complex fascinating and at times infuriating book lies in the first paragraph of the author’s introduction.

‘This work is a product of my own experience and exposure to the memories and recollections of many people, and to events which took place in Dar es Salaam. Being born in Dar es Salaam where the modem politics of Tanganyika, as mainland Tanzania was then known, had its strongest bas~, I have many recollections of personalities and events which took place at that time. Word of mouth from people who saw events take place before their very eyes enriched my knowledge. When I was a student of Political Science at the University of Dar es Salaam where the research for this book actually began, I found out that what was taught about nationalist politics in Tanganyika did not tally with what I knew. Gradually I came to conclude that there was a deliberate attempt to down play the role of certain personalities in the nation’s political history.’

The ‘personalities’ referred to are revealed in the book to be the Muslim leaders in general, and his hero and subject Abdulwahid Sykes in particular. Note that the author, born in Dar es Salaam in 1952, was a two year old toddler when T ANU was formed, only 9 years old at the time of UHURU, and a 16 year old teenager when his subject died. He had perforce to rely largely on his father, his family and their friends for information, reinforced later by his own extensive and scholarly academic research.

His filial piety is to be commended as is his transparent loyalty to Islam which illuminates his book. The problem for the reader however is that the result of this blend of reminiscence repetition hearsay experience and scholarship is an extraordinary literary maze with paths leading in all directions through time and space, hundreds of characters appearing and re­appearing in bewildering succession, until one hardly knows which way to turn. Although I have the advantage of having known personally many of the leading figures, albeit some 40 years ago, including Abdulwahid Sykes himself and his brothers Ally and Abbas; Ally in particular having been a close friend. The illustrations include an enchanting photograph of the Sykes boys in the 1930s, the youngest Abbas clutching a bunch of flowers and Ally wearing a white pith-helmet! Their father Kleist, a legendary character, died in 1949 before I came to Dar es Salaam, but I knew his kinsman and fellow Zulu Machado Plantan, editor of ZUHRA, quite well. They brought the courage energy and intelligence of the Zulu to the drowsy denizens of Gerezani, ensuring for themselves a secure place in the Muslim elite so often referred to by the author.

Kleist Sykes enlisted in the German Army at the age of 12 and fought in World War I. His eldest son Abdulwahid was conscripted into the K.A.R. aged 17; inspired by this Ally ran away from home aged 15 to volunteer for the War. They served together in Ceylon and Burma, where on Christmas Eve 1945, they made a pact to found a political party after the War. Its’ name was to be ‘Tanganyika African National Union’ (TANU). Ally remembers that Abdulwahid wrote the name of the proposed party in his diary. Later Ally personally designed the TANU membership card (similar to his Tanganyika Legion Card) and chose the national colours. (Black for [text missing in original]

The reader is rewarded for his pains however when he finds some of the precious pearls which Mohamed Said has uncovered in the depths of his research, referred to in Dryden’s couplet at the start of the book:

‘Errors like straws, upon the surface flow.
He who would search for pearls must dive below.’

They include: a tribute to the liberal Governor Sir Donald Cameron who encouraged the founding of the African Association in New Street in 1930; the fact that the colours of the Young Africans’ Football Club, green and black, were the same as TANU’s and their supporters identified with the new party; the strange tale of the banishment by the British of Sheikh Abdallah, the Liwali of Mikindani, the centre of Islamic knowledge, after ‘declining to perform duties not conforming with his status, dignity and respect to Islam .. .’ What were they?! the revelation that there were only 630 registered voters in Muslim Bagamoyo District from a population of 89,000 in the 1958 election; and, in lighter vein, Trevor Griffith-Jones is referred to as the Chief Secretary on page l39 where the then Attorney-General, the late Sir Arthur Grattan-Bellew, is also delightfully described as Gratten Below! Finally, the author’s claim that Nyerere, having been supported for the leadership of TANU in 1954 by Abdulwahid Sykes, then Chairman of the Tanganyika African Association, and the Muslim elite on whose support he also initially relied to gain independence from the British, quietly chose to ‘forget them …’; he goes further still citing a catalogue of alleged arrests, detentions, vote rigging and even cooking the Census and bribery by the independent Government of Tanzania in order to ensure the downgrading of Islam.

Mohamed Said recalls the fact that Muslims had lived on the coast since the 8th Century, whilst the 19th Century Christian Missionaries were relatively recent arrivals in the wake of the Colonial rulers. Eight Christian Ministers of Education held office in succession until the appointment of Professor Kighoma Ali Malima as the first Muslim Minister in 1987. ‘In Islam politics and religion are inseparable … in 1955 we saw how Muslims managed to establish a secularist -nationalist ideology as a means of forging national unity. Separation of religion and politics was therefore one of the sacred and cherished ideals of TANU. It is from this background that we can now understand the contradictions which came to engulf Tanzanian politics soon after Independence.’

Here I must leave it to the readers to make up their own minds since I was not there after 1973. In any event the author, whilst striving to maintain academic detachment, has seen to it that the Muslim case has not gone by default.

I can only close by saying that throughout my own service in East Africa and Tanzania (1943-1973) I never noticed any anti-Muslim bias by the British or the Tanzanian Governments. If anything rather the reverse since the great local rulers revered by the British like the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Liwalis of the Coast, Chief Adam Sapi, Chief Abdallah Fundikira and the merchant princes H.H. The Aga Khan, Abdulkarim Karimjee and V.M. Nazerali were all Muslim. After all, Nyerere’s successor was a Muslim; ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating.’ CASE NOT PROVEN.
Randal Sadleir

IN QUEST OF LIVINGSTONE. A journey to the Four Fountains. Colum Wilson and Aisling Irwin. House of Lochar. 1999.242 pages. £13.99.

In this quite exceptional travel book a man and wife, each with distinctive reactions and intuitions, describe a cycling odyssey through south-western Tanzania, while endeavouring incidentally to inject some meaning into the three most fundamental influences on the lives of African people -colonisation, Christianity and the slave trade.

Considering the immensity of such a task it is unsurprising that the issues are not as comprehensively examined as they obviously need to be, but the findings and observations of the writers provide many fresh insights into them. Unusual also is the fact that sometimes contradictory interpretations of the same scenes and events are freely and candidly expressed by two accomplished writers with excellent powers of description.

Both, like Livingstone, are brave and determined. Whereas most travel writers tend to journey in comparative comfort and spend a lot of time on research and passive observation, Colum and Aisling are under constant attack from the elements and other natural obstacles such as mud and sand as well as occasionally suffering from the limitations of mechanical transport. While expressing astonishment at Livingstone’s stoical fortitude and endurance they unwittingly reveal their own steadfastness and courage, for they were not constantly accompanied, as he was, by a train of devoted servants. Aisling, it would appear, suffered more than her husband.

Explaining the choice of transport Aisling writes: ‘Authenticity is all­important … We had to be free to pass into the depths of the land, not knowing when we would return to a road. Bicycles were the answer; they would be our pack-animals.’
While Colum was intrigued by Livingstone’s exploratory obsession, Aisling was more interested in the seemingly irreconcilable aspects of his character, including the psychological effects of his upbringing in Blantyre, Scotland, as a child worker in a cotton mill, accentuated by his religious convictions and his ‘ascetism’. She writes: “In a sense he sought pain. His was a conscious and deliberate endurance. ”

She compared his impatience with his fellow whites with his sensitive and sympathetic attitude towards Africans, even understanding their resistance to Christianity. Livingstone wrote ‘Africans are not by any means unreasonable. I think unreasonableness is more a hereditary disease in Europe than in this land.’ This seems illogical when one considers Livingstone’s behaviour to his long-suffering wife who died on a previous Zambesi expedition, and his children, for which he later suffered remorse.

There are intriguing accounts of meetings with missionaries, including the White Fathers and the Benedictine monks at Mwimva. Simon and Celia, of the African Inland Mission, told them: “The life of an African fanner is very similar to the life described in the Bible. Their food, their clothes, their houses -it’s much closer to the Bible than our lives in the West. They understand spirituality here.”

On the question of cultural interference, Colum refers to ‘the cold intransigence’ of the missionary movements and believes that many African churches ‘became a vehicle for those attempting to realise a nationalist dream’, leading to the ‘African socialism’ of President Nyerere and the problems of ujamaa and villagisation, with which he deals sympathetically.

About another aspect of Tanzanian life Colum has this to say: ‘As I returned from the market the rain began. Fierce stuff, it thrummed on the dusty ground around me and formed rivulets down the road. I remembered that Livingstone’s equipment for dealing with the rain had included a small segmental boat and paddles. We were bringing nothing but waterproof groundsheets. To succeed in following Livingstone would depend on a long series of triumphs over broken bicycles, swollen rivers, pathless mountains and endless swamps. How could we possibly triumph over such odds?’

Succeed they did, and the story of their pilgrimage through many Tanzanian villages into Zambia, including a number of fascinating photographs, is a riveting one.

John Budge THE BOERS IN EAST AFRICA. ETHNICITY AND IDENTITY. Brian M. du Toit, University of Florida. Bergin and Garvey. 1998.209 pages.

This book provides a fascinating account of Boer Settlement in East Africa. My interests in the Afrikaner began when as a boy in Holland I was gripped by books about the Boer war detailing Boer victories. The book briefly discusses the scramble for Africa, the Boer war, and its aftermath and looks in greater detail into the role ethnicity played in the Boer settlement into East Africa and in its final demise in the early sixties.

The Boer defeat in the Anglo -Boer war in 1902 and the destruction, bitterness, and divisions which it caused among the Afrikaners was the root cause for the Boers arrival in East Africa. Today Field Marshall Lord Kitchener, the British War Hero and victor, would possibly sit in the cells of the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. After my own childhood years in Japanese concentration camps I fully understand Boer feelings. My mother cursed the Japanese until the day she died.

The period of active settlement in East Africa was short -1905 to 1908. Neither the British (in Kenya) nor the Germans (in Tanganyika) enjoyed or encouraged the arrival of the Afrikaners, a troublesome lot of suspect loyalty. Their story is one of adventure, hardship, suffering, tenacity, and a brief period of triumph and economic success after World War II, but in the final analysis, one of failure as the Afrikaner returned to his roots in the South and abandoned the land of which he had never become a part.

The scramble for Africa is a story of Europe’s unbridled audacity and arrogance during which it grabbed a continent much larger than itself. A couple of enterprising young Germans and a gunboat off Zanzibar yielded up Tanganyika. By 1913, 79 German officials supported by black Zulu, Sudanese and Somali mercenaries controlled 7.6 million Africans. There was resistance but it was quickly overcome at a time when the country suffered from disastrous rinderpest and an outbreak of smallpox; locust attacks inflicted famine. Afrikaners did not like the German administration in Tanganyika. It was strict and bureaucratic and Germans tended to think of African interests as being paramount. Many settlers soon moved on into the Belgian Congo or into British East Africa. They found life under the Germans too restrictive. One German woman married to an Afrikaner is quoted as having discouraged and warned the Afrikaners on the ship bound for German East Africa, that in German territory the unfettered lifestyle of the Boers would clash with strict German laws. The Afrikaner wanted space and solitude. He was not going to get it.

Du Toit traces Boer ethnicity back to factors, such as race, language, culture and especially to religion and education. I was fascinated to read that in 1873 an Afrikaner had argued that Afrikaners included people of Dutch, French, German, English, Danish, Portuguese, Mozambican and Hottentot extraction. The Afrikaner moved away from this broad concept of Afrikanerdom and turned to the ill-fated concept of pure white, protestant, Afrikaners.

Du Toit discusses what he describes as the Boers ‘trekgees’, a spiritual inability to remain long in one place and the ‘treklus’, the desire for novelty and adventure as part of the Boer spirit. Long before the Boer war, Boers had fanned out far into the African interior, but conditions after the Boer war, rather than “trekgees”, triggered off the exodus to East Africa. Boers moving to Kenya had often stood with the British and were regarded as traitors in the South. Those moving initially to German East Africa, were the so called “Bitter einders” who had fought the British to the bitter end. The journeys of the Boer settlers to East Africa, by ship from Lourenco Marques, to Tanga or Mombasa, from there by train and ox wagon into the interior, are rather sad stories of incredible tenacity, hardship and suffering. Both the British and the Germans found the Afrikaners stubborn, resenting and resisting assimilation, quarrelsome, and suspected them of disloyalty towards their colonial masters.

Du Toit talks about the grinding poverty of the Boer settlers, but at the same time he writes about them as chartering German ships to take them and their oxwagons to Tanga and Mombasa and of buying cattle from the natives, so there must have been some fairly wealthy men among them.

Boer settlement in German East Africa was a failure and by 1964 most Tanganyika Afrikaners had left.

Maintaining church and educational ties with the South the Boer settler never cut the umbilical cords with the fatherland. The enormous influence of Church leaders coming in from South Africa, according to Du Toit, reinforced the isolation of the Afrikaner in the larger community and, although they did much good they can also be largely blamed for the Afrikaner failure to assimilate into East Africa.

Boer -Black relations are briefly touched upon in the book, but I would have loved to see more about them. Du Toit’s statement that changes in attitude that occurred among most East African Afrikaners contrasted with their contemporaries who remained in South Africa, is not backed up with examples.
Willem Bakker

HEROES OF THE FAITH IN TANZANIA. Seven Witnesses from the Central African Mission 1880-1993. Dr Leader Dominic Sterling. Benedictine Publications, Ndanda, Peramiho. 1997. 33 pages. Copies available in UK @ £2.50 from Christine Lawrence, 26 Wordsworth Place, Southampton Road, London NW5 4HG (Tel: 0171 4822088).

Although only a very small book it is good to have this latest ‘story telling’ from Leader Stirling who, according to my calculations, has written it at age 90! His other books known to me: Bush Doctors (1947), Tanzanian Doctor (1977) and Africa My Surgery (1987) have all made compulsive and informative reading. The recent one is not autobiographical as the others are but written as a tribute to record details of the lives of certain UMCA/SPCK missionaries of whom he has some knowledge. He does point out that there were others equally zealous and dedicated but he has no personal knowledge of some and others have been written up elsewhere.

The important introduction is written with Stirling’s characteristic wry humour and I found it (perhaps being a Methodist) really delightful. I quote about the Central African Mission: ‘Born of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England, but brought to birth oddly enough by a dour Presbyterian, David Livingstone, it professed to be bringing the Catholic Faith to Africa, yet had definitely no connection with or submission to the Holy See of Rome. It just went its own unique way, with its own theology in which, admittedly, no major heresy could be demonstrated and in the end subsided rather lamely into the arms of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, where it quietly lost its identity and its own peculiar ecclesiastical position, but left an extensive African church based on the same’. Needless to say Stirling transferred to the Roman Catholic Church in 1949, after going to Tanganyika in 1935 under the CAM (UMCA).

The ‘Heroes’ he writes about are: William C Porter, Frederick W Stokes, Clara Munro, Edith Shelley, Donald Parsons, Robert Neil Russell and Robin Lamburn. All of them died and are buried in Tanzania. Two, at least, are ‘saints’; one a martyr and two pioneers in the treatment of leprosy. ‘Lived very simply and worked tirelessly’ can describe them all but their stories are individual and remarkable.

Stirling is known to us, of course, for his many, many achievements in the medical field in Tanzania from 1935 onwards. In 1958 he became an MP and from 1975-80 was Minister of Health. He was responsible for introducing Scouting to Southern Tanzania and became Chief Scout in 1962. All this can be read about in the books mentioned earlier. After retirement he continued with voluntary activities in the cause of health. But he says, at the end of his 1987 autobiography , You see I am still a missionary after all this’ and that, I guess, is why, ten years later, he has written the latest small valuable book.
Christine Lawrence

CHINESE AID AND AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT. Deborah Brautigam. St. Martins Press, New York. 1998.256 pages. $69.95.

EAST AFRICAN DOCTORS, A HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. John Iliffe.
Cambridge University Press. 1998. 336 pages. £40. 00 (hardback).
This book was rather critically reviewed by Eldryd Parry of the Tropical Health and Education Trust in ‘African Affairs’ Vo!. 98. No. 391. April 1999. Extracts from his review:
‘It is a ….. pity that in this absorbing and remarkably researched review of the rise of the medical profession in East Africa, whose pioneers endured cold injustice and antagonistic attitudes, the author should not give reasonable credit to those who were totally committed to training their students and colleagues with disinterested service, as did many of the staff at Makerere …. Professor Iliffe chronicles much that was wrong in the past and describes breathtaking white racial arrogance, notably in Kenya, but his pursuit of his theme, to concentrate solely on indigenous doctors, sometimes presents an unbalanced picture ……… .

As the author contributed so much to Tanzania, it must have been difficult for him to write, as he has certainly succeeded in doing, fairly and objectively, about that country and the impact of ‘villagisation’ on health care. The stampede of its rural dispossessed was catastrophic, so that all indicators of health in Dar es Salaam got worse and there was a sad decline in the medical profession. This alarmed the Minister of Health; he blamed their poor working conditions and salaries, intellectual laziness and a lack of leadership from senior doctors. As a result he could only reverse the socialist health policy; ujamaa was impracticable. He began to reform the service but did not last and was replaced on account of the unfettered corruption in his Ministry, for which he was responsible but to which he was not party.’


THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN TANZANIA
. Robert V Makarimba. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 1998. Printed by AMREF Tanzania.

This book, written by a law lecturer at Dar es Salaam University, critically examines the legal and constitutional rights of children in Tanzania and the administration of juvenile justice. The author finds much room for improvement in the laws affecting children, the lack of specialised juvenile courts and the child labour regulations and condemns the importation of child pornography.

CULTURE, TRANSNATIONALISM AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Aga Khan Social Service Initiatives in Tanzania. CT: Praeger. 1997. 152 pages. £43.95. COASTAL RESOURCES OF BAGAMOYO DISTRICT. Ed: M Howell and AK Semesi. Faculty of Science. University ofDar es Salaam. 156 pages.

‘What ails Bagamoyo?’ asks Emmanuel Mwera in reviewing this book in the Dar es Salaam ‘Sunday Observer’ on May 9. He points out that 100 years ago Bagamoyo was politically and commercially far superior to Dar es Salaam. The book lists Bagamoyo’s natural resources; the authors are critical about sea weed being a largely untapped source and the mangrove forests not being properly managed; they are concerned about dynamite fishing, and the inability of traditional fishermen to exploit areas away from the shore. They recommend much greater monitoring of the crustacean resource; management of sea cucumber and mollusc shells on a sustainable basis and better facilities for tourists. The book contains a wealth of well researched and well presented data.

GENDER, FAMILY AND WORK IN TANZANIA.
Editors: C Creighton, and C K Omari. 1999.310 pages. £42.50.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND URBANISATION: ZANZIBAR’S CONTRUCTION INDUSTRY. Garth Myers (University of Kansas). Journal of Modern African Studies. 37. 1. 1999.25 pages.
Any comment or discussion on Zanzibar usually focuses on the political conflicts or the constitutional set-up for the isles within the United Republic. However this article gives readers an insight into some of the things that have been happening on the ground there in recent years.

The author covers particularly the period since the Revolution of 1964 and has studied the effects of the development of Zanzibar town, with consequent building of housing, and other projects. He says ‘the current intersection of neo-liberal economic growthmanship, political change, environmental sustainability discourse and the marginalised area of the city, are examined’ (p.94). He sees how this development has led, in particular, to substantial demands for supplies of building materials. He surveys the political background, and the local ecology, especially of Zanzibar island (Unguja). He notes that many of the materials needed for construction work must be imported, but shows how large amounts of local stone, gravel, and sand are now being procured from local sources, often very near the town. The suppliers of the materials are typically small-scale operators of the informal sector, most being immigrants to Unguja from the mainland or Pemba. He comments on the conflict of interest between, on the one hand, the suppliers and their customers, and, on the other hand, the national and local government officials and leaders and other elites who are often the customers too.

The reviewer finds the author’s understanding of the political and environmental situation in Unguja to be generally accurate and perceptive. The subject may seem to be obscure and technical, but if a reader can plough through the heavy academic language, he or she can learn much of interest about what has been really happening in Zanzibar since the Revolution.
Canon Paul R Hardy

POWER, SOVEREIGNTY, AND INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVERS. THE CASE OF ZANZIBAR. Paul J Kaiser. Africa Today. Vol 46. No i. 1999. 17 pages. This concise account of the controversial 1995 elections in Zanzibar will not be news to readers of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ but it does place the matter in the context of the whole international observer process. The author examines the degree to which host nations are dependent on donor countries and hence the freedom which they feel they have to give to observers (something usually welcomed by opposition parties) even though there might be some infringement on their sovereignty.

POPULAR VERSUS LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN NICARAGUA AND TANZANIA
. Robin Luckham. Democratization. Vol5 No. 3. Autumn 1998. 34 pages -An interesting two part analysis -the first part ‘contrasting the narratives of popular and of liberal democracy’ and the second, described as a ‘requiem for the apparent failure of the popular democratic experiments’ ­Nyerere’s African Socialism and the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

LETTERS

I am currently working on a research project looking at the role of medical missionaries in colonial Tanganyika. I am attempting to write a history of the medical missionaries -how and why they joined, their interaction with both Tanzanians and the colonial government and experiences of ‘indigenous medicine’ amongst other things. I would love to hear from any ex-missionaries who had any experiences of working in the medical field and any other medical workers who had dealings with medical missionaries. If you feel that you may be able to help me in my research please get in touch with me.
Dr. Michael Jennings, TheWellcome Unit for the History of Medicine,
45-47 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE

PUBLISHING

I was pleased to see the review of ‘East African Expressions of Christianity’ in the last issue of Tanzanian Affairs but very disappointed that you failed to include the fact that it is published in Dar es Salaam by ‘Mkuki wa Nyota’. Could you please note in the next issue that, thanks to the University of Wisconsin, the price in Tanzanian shillings will be surprisingly accessible.
James Currey

JAMBO
I was most interested to read Ben Rawlence (TA No 63) saying hujambo is a contraction of huna jambo; I always thought it was the 2nd person singular, negative verb prefix, or is huna another form of it? Hence, having said Hujambo?, the other replies Sijambo!, or, if replying (also on behalf of others, Hatujambo!. If you are greeting more than one person you say Hamjambo? The 3rd person greetings would be Hajambo? (sing.) and Hawajambo? (plural), with the same answers, but these forms I have found to be rare in conversation, with people more likely to say Habari ya Mzee Saidi? or whatever, rather than Mama Ngina, hajambo?

I suppose all the above could be styled in the plural, ego Humambo?, though I’ve never heard the plural form used, except on its own -Mambo?

I was glad Rawlence gave the correct translation of the word jambo. It has gone down in history as meaning “hello”. I wonder how many magazines and such-like around the globe, given the title or part-title Jambo, would have been so-named had the producers realised the word’s true meaning.
A D H Leishman, Westdene, South Africa.