ENERGY & MINERALS

by Roger Nellist

Statoil’s new discovery boosts Tanzania’s gas reserves
On 19 June Statoil announced its sixth gas discovery offshore Tanzania in Block 2, which it operates with ExxonMobil on behalf of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). Lying under 2,360 metres of water, this new gas find (named Piri-1) adds 2-3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas to the known volumes in-place in Block 2, which now total 20 tcf. In July, reporting second quarter corporate results, Statoil’s Norwegian HQ said that Piri-1 is the world’s largest gas discovery during 2014 to date. Statoil-ExxonMobil will be drilling several additional wells in their Block this year and next.

During the Second Tanzania Oil and Gas Suppliers Conference in June, TPDC confirmed that the country’s natural gas deposits are now estimated at 50 tcf. A total of 17 companies are operating 25 licences on behalf of TPDC under Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs).

Gas pipeline nearing completion
In July, marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Tanzania diplomatic relations, TPDC announced that construction of the 542 kilometre onshore and offshore gas pipeline from Mtwara via Songo Songo to Kinyerezi (Dar), as well as the associated facilities (two gas processing plants, 16 safety stations, staff housing, flood control, water wells), is more than 90% complete. The 36-inch diameter pipeline comprises 47,000 welded pipe sections.

The construction work is being undertaken by three Chinese companies and is financed by a US$ 1.25 billion loan to Tanzania from China’s EXIM Bank (carrying 33 year maturity and 2% interest rate). It is the EXIM Bank’s largest single contract in Africa. TPDC owns the pipeline, which should be completed by December; live testing is scheduled for January 2015 and commercial commissioning for June 2015.

This huge investment is expected to be “transformational” for Tanzania – delivering a more reliable electricity supply, relieving current power shortages and saving about US$ 800 million annually on oil imports. It will also lay a solid foundation for Tanzania’s energy sector restructuring and industrialisation, boosting GOT tax revenue and promoting wider social development. During the construction phase about 2,000 local jobs have been created. Once the gas reaches Dar, it is anticipated that in addition to large-scale power generation more than 30,000 houses, hotels, factories and other businesses in the city will be connected and supplied directly with gas, as well as 8,000 cars converted to run on CNG (compressed natural gas) under a project costing US$ 76 million over three years. In a pilot phase, 70 houses and 53 cars are already being supplied in the Mikocheni area.

Big challenges for LNG exports
In March British companies Ophir and British Gas (BG), along with the other gas discoverers Statoil and ExxonMobil, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Tanzanian government to construct an LNG plant in southern Tanzania. The plant will be fed by gas from the companies’ discoveries in Blocks 1, 2, 3, and 4 and is estimated to cost between US$ 30 and 40 billion.

Out of a possible 30 sites identified for the onshore LNG plant, the companies have opted for Likongo–Mchinga in Lindi. However, this location is likely to upset Mtwara region, where the long gas pipeline to Dar originates and where the government had promised earlier that the plant would be built to enhance the region’s development. Also, the plant and an associated industrial park requires a large area of land (a 6,800-acre site is suggested) over which there may be title disputes. Although the companies could still use Mtwara as the supply base, it is feared that these two problems could delay the project significantly. The MOU gives the government responsibility for securing the land and clarifies on compensation to affected local communities.

Independently, in an interview to Reuters in June, Royal Dutch Shell’s Director of Projects and Technology, Matthias Bichsel, cautioned that only a fraction of the world’s anticipated natural gas export projects will materialise – because of high and rising development costs, low profit margins and new producers flooding world markets with gas. Against this background some analysts believe that the Tanzanian and Mozambique LNG projects will struggle to find the necessary financing and that costly production delays are likely. Bichsel described the Tanzanian and Mozambique LNG development schedules as “somewhat ambitious since all infrastructure there has to be built from scratch”.

Two ongoing controversies
Petroleum and mining operations are often controversial, and those in Tanzania are no exception. Whilst the Statoil-ExxonMobil offshore drilling has been highly successful (with a 100% drilling success rate), there has been recent criticism by parliamentarians and commentators about some of the terms in the gas PSA that these companies concluded with the government and TPDC in February 2012. In June a copy of their signed contract was leaked and circulated in social media. The criticism – first aired in Parliament by Opposition MP Zitto Kabwe – focuses on the companies’ obligation to supply gas to the domestic market as well as on the (perceived low) share of the profit gas that will accrue to TPDC and government. It is suggested that if gas production becomes as large as some sources indicate, government revenues will be hundreds of millions of dollars lower annually than what might have been expected. In a press release TPDC denied these claims.

These concerns are bolstering calls for a much larger local Tanzanian engagement and content in the country’s incipient gas industry, as well as greater transparency in the extractive sectors – particularly for the government to make public the PSAs it signs with each foreign oil and mining company. Whilst many governments – like Tanzania – do not publish their extractives contracts, the Swala PSA terms were made public as part of its recent share offering (see below). Addressing these concerns, in April, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals published a Draft Local Content Policy document, for public consultation.

Other petroleum sector news
Tanzania’s 4th Deep Offshore Licensing Round closed in May. Bids were received from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation; Russian Gazprom; two UAE companies (including one for Lake Tanganyika North); and Statoil & ExxonMobil. The bids are being evaluated and successful bidders will be invited to negotiate with the government and TPDC on the basis of Tanzania’s 2013 Model PSA, which contains stronger terms including higher royalty rates, and signature and production bonuses. The British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Dianna Melrose, cautioned that this tougher PSA may make Tanzania uncompetitive in the oil and gas exploration business and scare away potential investors.

In June Australian explorer Swala Energy Ltd launched its first shares offer to Tanzanians, selling 9.6 million Ordinary Shares in its Tanzanian subsidiary in order to fund further exploration work in its Pangani and Kilosa-Kilombero license area and to enhance Tanzanians’ participation in the growing petroleum business. Priced at Tsh 500 each, and expecting to raise Tsh 4.8 billion, this was the first such offering in the oil and gas business in East Africa.

Troubles at African Barrick Gold
Meanwhile, serious allegations continue to be made against African Barrick Gold (ABG) for its alleged use of excessive force in handling the large numbers of local village intruders who enter its North Mara gold mine (Tanzania’s largest), reportedly to steal gold-bearing rocks and other property. Tanzanian police and security staff contracted by ABG are accused of shooting dead 16 trespassers and injuring another 11 over the last six years. ABG is the British subsidiary of Canadian Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold company, and is now facing a case in the UK High Court brought by 10 villagers. ABG vigorously refutes these claims. In July, after calls for the British government to intervene, three UK All-Party Parliamentary Groups (on Human Rights, Extractives and Tanzania) held a joint meeting to debate the issues. A number of responses were suggested, and the APPGs plan to hold a separate meeting with ABG.

Gold continues to be a major export. In the year ending March 2014 total gold exports from all Tanzanian mines amounted to US$1,750 million, constituting 37% of the value of the country’s total exports.

AGRICULTURE

by David Brewin

Land Tenure Support Programme
A new land tenure support programme is being helped financially by Britain’s DFID, Sweden’s SIDA and Denmark’s DANIDA. The project will help Tanzanian farmers to have better access to agricultural knowledge, technologies, marketing systems and infrastructure. It will also aim to make Tanzania’s agricultural economy become more productive and profitable.

Tanzania’s current land policy supports the recognition of existing land rights and security of tenure for all and this project is designed to establish a more effective economic and transparent system of land tenure. Under existing legislation, one of the key mechanisms for determining tenure is the division of lands into three categories: village land which is held by the villages and represents approximately 70% of the land mass; reserved land (28%); and, the remainder which is administered by the Minister for Lands.

The project aims to build a basis for resolving the issues that limit the contribution that the land sector can make to achieve the country’s broader development goals. The project will enhance the benefits from large-scale land deals and improve dispute settlement procedures. There will be two pilot districts.

Sugar surplus
At the beginning of this year a new financial problem hit Tanzania’s sugar industry. Large quantities of cheap and illegal sugar imports began to flood the country. The quantity was estimated to be some 100,000 tonnes and the local market was destabilised. By March, Tanzanian sugar producing factories were holding 68,000 tonnes of sugar that they could not sell. In April, Tanzania’s Revenue Authority seized 15 tonnes of contraband sugar from Brazil which had been imported through Bagamoyo.
The situation is complex as the Tanzanian Sugar Board has been quoted in the East African as stating that Tanzania now consumes 590,000 tonnes annually although the country’s four local plants are capable of supplying only 290,000 tonnes. The gap is filled by cheap imports but these appear to have been arriving in excessive quantities recently. President Kikwete has spoken of Tanzania’s plans to build 12 new sugar factories by 2030.

EDUCATION

by Ben Taylor

Form 6 exam results surprise
Form 6 (A-level) exam results for 2014 were released in July, showing record high pass rates. The pass rate for all candidates was 96%, up from 87% in 2013. Those who achieved the best passes – Division 1 – numbered 3,773, up ten-fold from 325 the previous year. 27% of candidates achieved Division 2 passes, up from 12%.

Representatives of the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) greeted the results with some scepticism. Ezekiah Oluoch, TTU Deputy Secretary General, called for the results to be investigated, arguing that the input was very different from the output. ‘I’m finding it very difficult to believe the results, majority of schools have no science laboratories, plus we are currently experiencing a shortage of over 5,000 science teachers for Form Five and Six level. We need to inquire a number of things, like the kind of standardisation used this year and the nature of the questions asked. Also was the marking system and grading “massaged”.’

The much-improved results are possibly linked to the introduction of a new grading system. The scores required for Grades A, B, etc. have been lowered. But students now need a better combination of grades in individual subjects in order to achieve Division 1, etc.

Previously, a score of 81% or higher on a particular exam was required to achieve Grade A in that subject, now a score of 75% is sufficient. In past years, a score of between 60% and 80% achieved a Grade B, while now a score between 50% and 75% achieves that grade. For an overall Division 1 pass, 9 points (Grade A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.) from three subjects used to be required.. This has now been reduced to a maximum of 7 points for Division 1. (The Citizen)

Low employability of university graduates
A survey of employers across East Africa has found widespread dis­satisfaction at the employability of university graduates. The study, by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), polled employers in five countries.

In Tanzania, the study found that 61% of graduates lacked basic job market skills, compared to 63% in Uganda, 55% in Burundi, 52% in Rwanda and 51% in Kenya.

The report claims that the quality of university education has fallen as student numbers have risen, blaming the lack of adequate teaching staff. (The East African)

HEALTH

by Ben Taylor

2012 census shows improvements in public health
The number of years the average Tanzanian can expect to live has risen to 61 years, up from 50 years in 1988 and 51 years in 2002, according to the latest release of data from the 2012 Census. The report also showed that similarly strong progress has been made in maternal and infant mortality rates. The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 578 per 100,000 live births in 2004/5 to 432 per 100,000 in 2012, and the infant mortality rate has declined from 115 per 1,000 live births in 1988 to 45 per 1,000 in 2012.

The fertility level declined from 6.5 in 1988 to 6.3 in 2002 and 5.2 in 2012. ‘It’s a positive trend accelerated by higher use of modern contraceptives and female education while the age at first marriage has been rising,’ commented Ms Albina Chuwa, director general of the National Bureau of Statistics.

The mean age for female first marriage rose from 21 in 2002 to 22 in 2012 while that of males remained steady at 26, according to the report. (The Citizen)

Dengue Fever Outbreak
There was widespread concern, particularly in Dar es Salaam, after an outbreak of Dengue Fever in May. Within a couple of weeks, the Ministry of Health announced that 400 cases had been reported, of which three patients had died.

There was a fear that popular awareness of malarial prevention and treatment could work against dengue control. Dengue is spread by a different species of mosquito, popular practice of self-diagnosis and treatment could create problems.

Worries rose briefly to panic, when a high profile doctor at Temeke Regional Hospital, Gilbert Buberwa, died. This prompted President Kikwete to take action, directing the Health and Finance Ministries to do whatever was necessary to bring the outbreak under control, and urging the public to take precautions.

By July, the rate of infections had dropped to such an extent that the National Institute for Medical Research could not find a single Dengue Fever patient in Dar hospitals.

TRANSPORT

by Ben Taylor

TAZARA trundles on
The troubled Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) continues to struggle and the governments of Tanzania and Zambia have agreed to inject USD $80m into the jointly-owned network to improve operations. Tanzania’s Transport minister, Harrison Mwakyembe, said: “We are delighted and greatly encouraged by the unprecedented commitment and support shown by our Zambian partners towards TAZARA. In line with the commitment shown by Zambia, I take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment as Tanzania and affirm that we are willing and ready to find resources in order to ensure that TAZARA’s operations are boosted to a level where we shall all be comfortable.”

In a related move, it was announced that henceforth, Tanzania would oversee the operations of the railway within Tanzania, and Zambia would do likewise within Zambia, rather than jointly as at present. This announcement was met with disappointment by the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, Lu Youqing, who said TAZARA was not only a symbol of friendship between his country and Tanzania and Zambia, but also an important economic infrastructure that should not be allowed to disintegrate. China was ready to provide financial and technical support, but on condition that the two countries come up with a comprehensive rehabilitation and management proposal that would see the railway effectively run jointly by Tanzania and Zambia, and not separately.
(Daily News, The Citizen, The Guardian)

World Bank finance for road and rail improvements

Map showing the Dar-Isaka line, with possible future links to Rwanda and Burundi.

Map showing the Dar-Isaka line, with possible future links to Rwanda and Burundi.

The World Bank has committed a USD $300m loan to support road and rail improvements in Central Tanzania. “We are excited to support the government’s efforts to rebuild its rail and intermodal transport system. The project will also indirectly help to boost agricultural trade, job creation and overall livelihoods for the country and neighbouring countries’ poorest people,” said Mr Philippe Dongier, the World Bank’s Country Director for Tanzania.

The work is focussed on the Dar es Salaam – Isaka line, and according to the managing director of Reli Assets Holding, Benhadard Tito, the money will be used for repairing and upgrading the track from Dar es Salaam to Munisagara (near Kilosa) and a short section from Igalula to Tabora, and to rehabilitate bridges and elevate axle load to 25 tons/axle. (The Citizen)

Dar-Chalinze Road Improvements
The government is encouraging investment proposals for a 100km six-lane highway connecting Dar es Salaam with Chalinze.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said to overcome bottlenecks for traffic entering and leaving the city, the government is working on various intervention measures including construction of the Kigamboni Bridge, Ubungo and Tazara flyovers and on some sections of trunk roads which connect the city to the regions. He noted that congestion in Dar es Salaam is fuelled by rapid population growth and the increased number of motor vehicles. While Dar had only 70,000 inhabitants in 1967, the population had grown to 843,000 by 1978 and to 1,360,850 by 1988. Now the city has nearly 4.4 million people, and is expected to reach 10m by 2050.

Expansion of Dar es Salaam airport
Construction of Terminal III at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam began in January 2014. The new terminal is designed for the anticipated growth of international air traffic, leaving Terminal II, which currently caters for international passengers, as a domestic flights terminal. The cost is estimated at Tsh518 billion ($322.4 million).

Tanzania Aviation Authority legal officer Ramadhani Maleta, said that the construction of the current building would be completed in 2017. Phase I is being funded by the Dutch Government, and a partner is currently being sought for Phase II. Completion of the new terminal will enable the airport to handle six million passengers annually. The airport, whose current capacity is 1.2 million passengers, now handles two million.

In 2012 Tanzania received one million visitors, earning the economy Tsh11.1 trillion ($7 billion), up from 867,000 visitors in 2011. (The East African)

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

by Donovan McGrath

Microwave link with Zanzibar upgraded
‘Tanzania has upgraded the microwave link connecting Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, a move expected to double the capacity of voice and improve data quality… The $1.6m project, agreed in 2012 between Japan and Tanzania, is in line with the government’s Vision 2025 to enhance use of communication as a tool for sustainable development.’

Mafikizolo live in Dar
‘In East Africa, among songs that have made Mafikizolo, the Afro-pop duo from South Africa, a household name, are Ndihamba Nawe and Emlanjeni. … In Dar es Salaam, Khona [from the duo’s latest album, Reunited] continues to top music charts. Not surprisingly, Mafikizolo’s recent concert at Mlimani City Hall was jam-packed… Unfortunately, the sound system was poor. The bass notes were so loud that the guy on trumpet didn’t get to perform… But judging from the reception Mafikizolo got, it seems the crowd chose to ignore the poor sound qual­ity…’ (East African 19-25 April)

Horror behind the smiles of Maasai girls

FGM campaigner Elizabeth Lesitey - photo from the Standard

FGM campaigner Elizabeth Lesitey – photo from the Standard

‘Almost all Maasai girls face the threat of female genital mutilation … Charity workers are trying to stamp out the procedure among the Maasai in Tanzania … They want to change the mistaken belief that it only happens to Muslim girls … 70% of Maasai girls are cut, having their clitoris and other external genitalia removed with a razor blade, compared with 18% in Tanzania as a whole – despite it being illegal in the country since 2007. The story of Ngaiseri Muteko shows change is happening. The elderly Maasai woman can’t remember when she began cutting girls… Until earlier this year, neighbours would bring their daughters and pay her 10,000 Tanzanian shillings (£3.50) for each child she cut… With someone helping to force the girls on to the ground, she would use a small razor blade then pour milk on the wound, followed by ash from the fire in her hut, which she said has healing properties. Girls spend three months in the hut recovering. But in February Ngaiseri threw away her razor blade and declared she would never use it again. The change came just nine months after meeting Elizabeth Lesitey, a 29-year-old worker for the charity World Vision. Elizabeth, herself a Maasai and a mother of three, has targeted 62 cutters and so far managed to persuade 33 to give up… Ngaiseri earned a good living from the practice, so Elizabeth gave her three goats and eight chickens, funded by World Vision, to provide an income. Many of the girls Ngaiseri cut were suffering from what the Maasai call “lawalawa”, a urinary tract infection caused by unhygienic conditions. For years Ngaiseri and oth­ers believed that the only cure for little girls was to cut off their external genitalia. But Elizabeth busted this myth by taking a girl suffering from “lawalawa” to hospital, where she was cured by doctors using medica­tion. This sent shockwaves through the community. On International Women’s Day in February, alongside 29 other cutters, Ngaiseri made a declaration in front of her community that she would never cut another girl…’ (London Evening Standard 18 July)

WHO: Aids now the number one killer of adolescents in Africa
‘According to the World Health Organisation report Health for the World’s Adolescents, East Africa is one of the regions where the disease kills more youths than road accidents, the number one global killer of 10-19 year-olds. On the global level, HIV is the second most com­mon cause of death among adolescents. Other leading causes of death are suicide, lower respiratory infections and interpersonal violence. According to the UN Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), in 2012, Tanzania had 230,000 children under 14 living with HIV, Uganda had 190,000, Kenya 200,000, Rwanda 27,000 and Burundi 17,000.’ (East African 31 May – 6 June)

Tanzanian artist’s journey through life
‘Robino Ntila has been painting since 1975. Born in 1954, he first went to Dar es Salaam in 1968. Ntila is a veteran of Nyumba ya Sanaa, an artist’s association founded in Tanzania by Sister Jean Pruitt from the USA. “Before I joined Nyumba ya Sanaa I was enthusiastic about art… In 1971, I used paints for the first time. I had just completed secondary school. I spend time with artists. There was a Congolese artist who was the first to commercially paint the savannah landscape with Mt Kilimanjaro in the background. I was also introduced to some batik techniques called ‘moderne’”… Ntila uses subtle techniques for his work, which range from realist to abstract, mixing cubism with aspects of African silhouettes… He worked at Nyumba ya Sanaa for 30 years.’ (East African 7-13 June)

New taxman appointed
‘Rished Bade has been appointed the new Commissioner General at the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), replacing Harry Kitilya, who retired last December. Prior to his new appointment, Bade was deputy commissioner general. Top priority for the new taxman will be to cut down on revenue leakages and widen the tax net to support the government’s growing spending needs.’ (Citizen and others)

Witch doctors arrested over albino killing
‘Albinos in Tanzania have become targets for body-snatchers seeking to sell them to witch doctors. Two witch doctors have been arrested after a woman with albinism was hacked to death, police say. Albinos have suffered widespread persecution in Tanzania, where witch doctors say magic potions made with albino body parts can bring good luck. Such killings have declined in recent years, but this latest attack has prompted a human rights group to call for all witch doctors to be banned. …the group, Under the Same Sun said the current regulation of witch doctors was clearly not working. The attack occurred in a village in Simiyu region (formerly part of Shinyanga) – a remote rural area where there have been killings of albinos before … According to Under the Same Sun, the last killing of an albino in Tanzania was in February 2013. The government has been trying to address the problem, and an albino MP was appointed several years ago.’ (BBC News Africa 14 May)

Mo-Cola: Tanzania’s new soft drinks war targets poor consumers
‘Cash-conscious consumers in Tanzania will soon have a new product to spend their hard-earned money on: Mo Cola. The fizzy drink is the latest home-grown offering to go into battle with established market leader Coca-Cola, which has been bottling its secret recipe in Tanzania for more than 60 years. That the market for such cut-price drinks is growing in Tanzania is an illustration of the financial realities faced by the country’s consumer class. Despite impressive 7% a year GDP growth, the number of poor people in Tanzania has not fallen in the past 15 years.
‘Mo Cola is named after Mohammed Dewji, chief executive of MeTL [see TA 108], a family conglomerate he says turned over $1bn last year, serving the needs of Tanzania’s largely poor population with everything from sugar and spaghetti to fuel and pens. Although Dewji is keeping the launch price of Mo Cola under wraps, it is likely to undercut Coca-Cola… It follows another local family corporation, Bakhresa Group, which brought out the Azam Cola in 2011 following a $30m invest­ment. Bakhresa estimates it has 15% of Tanzania’s soft drinks market… Entrepreneurs have long understood that, however little a family has, food and clothes will always be a priority. Developing new drinks ranges is part of an effort to capture a little bit more from the country’s poorer consumers. “There is money to spend even though people have limited value in their pocket,” said Dewji, who has put $48m into developing his drinks line – enough for 36m crates a year…’ (Financial Times online 18 April)

Zanzibar bombing leaves one dead
‘One person was killed and several others were wounded in a bomb attack near a mosque on Tanzania’s Ocean Island of Zanzibar … Police said the bomb went off in the commercial district of Stone Town … The attack coincided with the opening of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, which draws international visitors … There was no immediate claim for responsibility. Zanzibar has been the scene of sectarian and political tensions in recent years, although the island has been generally quiet for several months… There have also been wider tensions surrounding this year’s 50th anniversary of Zanzibar’s union with mainland Tanzania, with some opposition parties wanting to break ties and return to independence. The unrest had sparked fears of a tourist exodus…’ (Telegraph online 14 June)

SPORT

by Philip Richards

Glasgow Commonwealth Games
Team Tanzania sent 36 athletes to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, in the fields of athletics, table tennis, boxing, judo, cycling and swimming. Disappointingly, the team came home with no medals. With expectations of success set high prior to the Games and after failure at the 2012 Olympics, how will decision makers now respond in developing the natural talent that clearly exists in the country?

Football
Martin Ignatius, popularly known as Mart Nooij, has been appointed as the new head coach of Tanzania’s national team, Taifa Stars. The Dutchman takes over on a 2 year contract from sacked Danish coach Kim Poulsen. It is the second national team job for 59 year old Nooij, who spent four years as coach of Mozambique until 2011, helping them qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

Unfortunately, the team has crashed out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, failing to advance to the qualifying stage proper, after ironically losing to Nooij’s previous charge Mozambique. (BBC Sport website)

Hopes for a new sport
Tanzania will host the Rollball African tournament at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam in August. Rollball? If you didn’t know, the relatively new sport, in which Tanzania participated in the inaugural world cup in 2011, is played between two teams of 12 players on skates in a court of a similar size and shape to a basketball court. Tanzania Rollball Association President Noel Kibunsi described the sport as a combination of roller-skating, basketball, handball and athletics. (In2EastAfrica.net)

Anyone for chess?
To something more familiar, at the time of writing Tanzania’s national team was leaving for the International Chess Olympiads in Norway, which will be attended by over 200 countries. The National Sports Council is supporting the development and awareness of the game, which appears only to have been recently revived on a more formal basis, in that it can improve thinking especially on a strategic level. This follows a visit by the legendary player Gary Kasparov to Tanzania last January to promote the game as part of his Kasparov Chess Foundation initiative. (In2EastAfrica.net)

OBITUARIES

by Ben Taylor

Professor Nathan Shamuyarira, Zimbabwean academic and politician, died on June 4th, 2014, aged 85. From 1968 Prof. Shamuyarira taught at the University of Dar es Salaam, where he was instrumental in developing and teaching a course on “Imperialism and Liberation in Southern Africa”. At the same time, he was an influential player in the struggle for Zimbabwean independence and democracy. This later took him away from Tanzanian academia; in 1980 he became Zimbabwean Information Minister and then Foreign Minister between 1987 and 1995.

Shamuyarira was at times a controversial figure. In June 2006 he accused the International Crisis Group think tank of calling for a coup against President Robert Mugabe. Shamuyarira said the ICG had “sponsored violence” by the Movement for Democratic Change. Later that same year, he sparked outrage when he praised the Gukurahundi, a series of state-sponsored massacres in the 1980s. At his funeral, President Robert Mugabe said that Shamuyarira “died a poor man and this was Nathan, but rich of course in his views.” He was writing a biography of Mugabe at the time of his death.

Nkwabi Ng’wanakilala, media practitioner and scholar, has died in Mwanza, aged 69. Ng’wanakilala spent several years at the University of Manchester, UK, graduating first with an Advanced Diploma and then a Masters in Mass Communication, sandwiching time teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam. During his career in media practice, he served as Director of Information at the government Information Services Agency (MAELEZO), Director of Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD), and Director the Tanzanian news agency, SHIHATA. Later, he moved back into academia as Senior Lecturer at Saint Augustine’s University of Tanzania.

He authored several books on politics and the media, including “A Summary of Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa”, “Mass Communication and the Development of Socialism in Tanzania”, “Morons, Thugs and Journalism in Africa”, “The Dark Side of Power and Freedom Beyond Independence”, and “The Footsteps of Julius Nyerere”. President Kikwete sent a condolence message to the funeral: “This death has taken from our nation a very vibrant and courageous public servant. The media industry has lost a strong leader.”

Fides Chale, leading gender activist and founding chair of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), has died aged 64 in Dar es Salaam. In a statement, TGNP described Dada Fides as “a teacher and leader who touched the lives of many people in Tanzania, a strong advocate and defender of the rights of women, girls and others on the fringes of society. She was a people person who enjoyed a joke, who lived her life with love, humanity, empathy and a smile on her face.”

William Gibbons or “Bill Gibbons” (89) and father of David Gibbons a BTS and TDT committee member, passed on peacefully in his sleep in County Cork, Ireland.

Bill’s association with Tanzania began when from Ireland, he answered the advert for Agricultural Field Officers in 1952. He found himself travelling out to Tanganyika on the MV Dunnottar Castle to help in the aftermath of the Groundnut scheme. On arriving in Tanga he was diverted to go to Lushoto to work on the Usambara Development Scheme, and so began a long association with Tanzania and her people. He married June in Lushoto in 1953.

At independence in 1961, President Nyerere requested that Bill be kept on to help the country develop and by 1964 he was a Senior Agricultural Officer responsible for all agricultural matters in Mwanza, Musoma and Shinyanga regions, and for cotton in the 7 regions of Western Tanzania. He was proud of his achievements in helping build up the cotton industry to be one of the major export crops at this time. In 1968 Bill was made Assistant Director of Agriculture, and continued in this role until 1975, when he joined Louis Berger International as advisor and manager on the Water Master Plans in the Tri region around Lake Victoria and Tabora region up to 1981.

Bill enjoyed receiving his copy of Tanzania Affairs, devouring it from cover to cover, with many added comments and advice on different matters chipped in as he read it. He was known to be a hard worker, who had high standards. He served the country of Tanzania well over many years and spanned both pre- and post-independence years. Over so many years he built up a rich store of stories of his times in Tanzania, which he enjoyed sharing with his children in later life. (Thanks to David Gibbons for this – Editor)

John Crawford “Chon” Cairns passed away in May 2014, aged 93 and surrounded by family, poetry, and song. John was born in Galt, Ontario, to a family of Scottish immigrants and worked briefly as a bank teller before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in September of 1941. He served until 1945 in India and Burma, following which he attended the University of Western Ontario where he fell in love with the artistically talented Beverley Woolmer. They were married on October 25, 1951, sailing immediately to Tanganyika, East Africa, where John worked for six years as a District Officer and Commissioner, one of the few Canadians in the British Administrative Service, while Beverley organized the export of local carvings. Those days in East Africa were among the happiest in John and Beverley’s life, and saw the birth of daughters Sandra and Lisa, postings in Kilwa, Mikindani, Morogoro and Dar Es Salaam, and long safari journeys to remote tribal villages. John’s experiences in East Africa were distilled in his book Bush and Boma: The Life of a District Officer, illustrated by Beverley and published in 1958.

Following his time in Tanzania, John had a long and distinguished career working in the education sector, including on Canadian aid programmes in Nigeria and Cameroon, and notably as Director of UNESCO’s Experimental World Literacy program. In 1972 he was appointed Secretary General for the Third International Conference on Adult Education in Tokyo, Japan. (Thanks to Beverly Cairns for this – Editor)

REVIEWS

edited by John Cooper-Poole

RACE, NATION AND CITIZENSHIP IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA: THE CASE OF TANZANIA. Ronald Aminzade, Cambridge University Press, 2013. £65.00

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TANZANIA: DECLINE AND RECOVERY. Michael Lofchie, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. £39.00

TOXIC AID: ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY IN TANZANIA. Sebastian Edwards, Oxford University Press, 2014. £35.00 These books report in contrasting ways on Tanzania’s experiences since Independence in 1961. Aminzade’s book is as a study of race and nation-building, starting with the tensions between those who wanted immediate Africanisation before and after Independence and the ambiguous positions taken by Nyerere and other leaders towards Asians and expatriates, and ending with the grand corruption of the last 15 years or so, in which Africans worked closely with Asian businessmen. Lofchie describes his book as a political economy, in which he interprets much of what happened in the 1980s and later from the financial interests of the “political-economic oligarchy” who could gain from maintaining an overvalued exchange rate in the 1980s (and therefore were not committed to devaluation) but by the late 1990s discovered that they could gain even more from unrestricted trade and an open economy – they were making the transition to becoming a business class.

Edwards uses a study of the relationships between Tanzania and its aid donors to capture what was happening at the centres of economic power. It turns out that the “toxic aid” of his title refers to the period from the Arusha Declaration of 1967 up till the early 1980s when foreign aid, particularly from the Nordic countries and the World Bank, kept the country afloat. He castigates them for uncritically maintaining Nyerere’s brand of socialism, and uses words such as ‘irresponsible,’ ‘arrogant,’ ‘misguided,’ ‘gullible,’ ‘ineffective,’ and other equally tough terms to describe their behaviour. In contrast, he grades Tanzania’s current donors as B+, for having spoken out against corruption, and worked to increase transparency and democracy.

All three authors are academics in American universities, but from different backgrounds. Aminzade is a sociologist and historian who studied the emergence of nationalism in France for 20 years and first came to Tanzania in 1995. Lofchie, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is best known for his authoritative tract on the revolution in Zanzibar which led to the union with the mainland, published as long ago as 1965. He has written widely on development, especially in Africa. Edwards is a Chilean economist, trained at the University of Chicago, also at UCLA where he is professor of International Business Economics. He first went to Tanzania in 1991, when the country was at one of its lowest ebbs, employed by the World Bank and given a desk in the Bank of Tanzania, returning in 2009 and subsequently. His perspective is that of a Latin American specialist who has turned his hand to an African country.

Anyone writing about Tanzania has to take a view of Nyerere. Aminzade is the least clear-cut. He portrays Nyerere as an honest and intelligent leader constantly fending off demands for rapid Africanisation, but often only with compromises. Lofchie provides the most sympathetic interpretation of what Nyerere was trying to achieve in the 1960s. He sees him as a thoughtful, well intentioned, humanist, Fabian in terms of his uses of state power, but suggests that he got carried away after the banks and major industries were nationalised in 1967, and did not realise the dire consequences of the industrialisation strategies of the Second Five Year Plan and the attempts of the state to take over trade and the purchasing of maize and other food crops from farmers. Edwards, in contrast, sees Nyerere as a misguided but plausible ideologue, unwilling to listen when told there was no alternative to devaluation in the 1980s.

The core of both Edwards’ and Lofchie’s accounts is the structural adjustment that took place between 1979 and 1996, and the economic policies which have led to rapid growth since. Edwards interviewed many of those closest to Tanzanian economic policy-making: Cleopa Msuya, Gerry Helleiner, Sam Wangwe, Ibrahim Lipumba and Benno Ndulu. He draws on his experiences in the Bank of Tanzania and especially his friendship with Edwin Mtei, Governor of the Bank of Tanzania from its foundation in 1966 to 1974, Minister of Finance from 1977 till Nyerere sacked him in 1979, and chairman of the political party CHADEMA from its foundation in 1992 until 1998.

Both Edwards and Lofchie situate what happened in Tanzania in terms of developments in economic theory, drawing on the seminal work of Robert Bates, also from Los Angeles, who explored various ways in which surpluses may be drawn from agriculture and invested in industry. Both are particularly critical of so-called “development economists”, even though they were the mainstream at the time, advised governments all over the world, with many of them awarded Nobel Prizes for economics. They were part of the movement inspired by Keynes which maintained growth and stability in Europe and America for at least 20 years after the Second World War; it was not unreasonable for them to conclude that industrialisation was an essential part of development, given that all countries which up to that time had achieved rapid growth, starting with the industrial revolution in Britain, but including the USA, Germany and Japan, and in a very different way the Soviet Union, had done so on the basis of industrialisation. Edwards briefly mentions the influence of the “dependency theorists” such as Samir Amin and Andre Gunder Frank; but not the ideas which derived from socialist economists such as Maurice Dobb, who criticised import substitution because they recognised that it would lead to continued dependence on inputs of semi-manufactured goods. The “basic industries strategy” of Tanzania’s Third Five Year Plan was an attempt to create the integrated economies achieved by the pioneers from the USSR or Japan – though the attempts at implementation bore little relation to the theory.

All three books include blow by blow accounts of the attempts to mediate between the IMF, who were insistent that devaluation was necessary from 1979 onwards, and Nyerere, who was determined to resist it. Nyerere was supported by Kighoma Malima, who moved from Minister of Finance to Minister of Planning and back to Finance. He was one of the first Tanzanian economists to get a PhD (from Princeton), but he was not alone. Papers opposing devaluation were written by Ajit Singh, from Cambridge England and Reg Green, by then at the University of Sussex. Devaluation was widely discussed in the Economics Department of the University of Dar es Salaam; the argument was that if the Bank of Tanzania controlled all allocations of foreign exchange, the Ministry of Agriculture set the prices paid to farmers for their crops, and the Price Commission set the prices for manufactured goods, it was not necessary to devalue since the government could set prices to give whatever economic signals it wanted. However, while that might be correct for an exchange rate slightly out of line with black markets, if you can get 4 or 5 times as many shillings for a dollar unofficially as legally, any such system is bound to break down. The reality was devastating: a parallel economy, often illegal or semi-legal, was quickly created; corruption broke out almost everywhere; and more and more of Tanzania’s trade was not shown in the official accounts.

Edwards describes the Tanzania he found when arrived in 1991: “There was almost no public transportation—people of every social condition walked for miles to get to work and back home—every road was an infinite collection of potholes, school children had no textbooks, blackouts were recurrent, there were (almost) no spare parts for machines or vehicles, and shops were almost empty. It seemed to me that the only cars that circulated belonged either to expatriate aid officials—most of them drove very large, shiny, four-wheel drives—to well-placed civil servants, or to high officials of the ruling party. In spite of the fact that there were basically no cars, there were parking meters in a number of downtown streets. Some were bent, most were rusting, and not one was operating. When I asked about them I was told that they were part of a donor’s project to deal with urban gridlock. I argued that there were no cars or buses and, thus, no traffic, let alone bottlenecks. The Treasury official that was with me smiled and said that the aid agency in question had concluded that, when it came to traffic jams, it was important to be proactive, to take pre­emptive measures.”

In this situation, as Lofchie shows, almost all Tanzanians on government salaries were forced either to seek bribes or to engage in “parallel activities” (i.e. some other way of making money) to survive. He points out that an over-valued exchange rate is very attractive for anyone who can get hold of foreign exchange, who can import goods, sell them at the unofficial rate, and then convert the resulting shillings to dollars at the official rate, and repeat the process. He suggests that this was exactly what large numbers of Tanzanians in senior positions did, and that it explains why the Bank of Tanzania ran short of foreign currency. However, little detail on this is provided; it is not clear if almost the whole ruling elite was complicit in this, whereas it might just have been a few big fish doing it on a grand scale, or even (in line with some of Aminzade’s descriptions) a few Asian businessmen.

It could not continue, and massive devaluations occurred from 1986 on, after Nyerere stood down as President. Import restrictions were removed. The currency found its own level. Exports rose, especially of gold but also of some manufactured items. Tourism flourished. And from about 2000 Tanzania had one of the fastest reported growth rates in the world. Lofchie’s political economy suggests that at some “tipping point” the interests of the elite changed from supplementing their incomes from corruption to earning profits from economic activity; the elite which at first opposed the reforms, then accepted them.

That is, if we can believe the figures. But Edwards in particular doubts the veracity of Tanzania’s economic statistics, especially for the subsistence and informal sectors. For example, in 2006, following a year of drought, for which declines in production were reported for many crops, agriculture as a whole was reported as growing at 4%. It is however, a little odd that he places this section of his book immediately after he has reported in depth using the official statistics – thereby joining other good company who have criticised Tanzania’s statistics while continuing to base their conclusions on them. But even official figures suggest that poverty remains a major issue, especially in the countryside, and that the benefits of rapid growth are flowing to the towns and cities, and to an elite within them.

All three writers discuss the promises of successive Presidents to resolve the issue of corruption, and the failures of any of them to have much impact. Aminzade provides the most detail about individuals and the involvement of Asians who were MPs or close to the administration (pp.337-349). Lofchie quotes the economist Jagdish Bhagwati who has argued that corruption can be beneficial if it undermines the siphoning off of resources through protection and an over-valued exchange rate. None of these writers quotes the broader discussions of Mushtaq Khan who points out that corruption can sometimes allow a single producer to get established in a market and become globally competitive, which may not happen if markets are completely open – pointing out that most of the Asian tigers, not least China, have well-documented high levels of corruption. Looking, finally, at the contributions made by these three books, Aminzade has read widely and his bibliography will make his book of great value for many years to come, though it is regrettable that the index does not include references to much of the material in his footnotes. He reports the views of journalists and MPs who had racialist stereotypes of both Asians and expatriates, and campaigned for a very rapid Africanisation. But Lofchie provides more detail as to why this did not happen. With hindsight this was surely for the better, because a country that gains independence with around 100 graduates cannot run hospitals, schools, railways, factories and the rest of public administration without outside help – and if it had tried would almost certainly have become a failed state.

Lofchie’s early chapters, in which he sets out his theory of an over-valued exchange rate and how this can enable a well off elite to improve their position, invite further research. Edwards has the greatest insider detail; but his dichotomy between aid before 1980 as toxic, and aid in more recent years as relatively benign, lacks detail. He criticises the Nordic countries, especially the Swedes, for supporting Tanzania in the Nyerere years; but aid for small industries such as a paper mill, forestry, rural water supplies and grain silos did not provide explicit support for villagisation or the use of force. The World Bank’s programmes to support the main agricultural crops, through subsidised inputs such as fertilizers, can be criticised on technical grounds but they were not tied to villagisation. Edwards’ claim (p.88) that the number of people living in villages was 9 million by 1975 and 13 million (nearly the whole population) by 1977 is sloppy; people living in the coffee producing areas did not move, nor in the cities. Lofchie’s figure of 1.6 million by the end of 1974 is nearer the mark.

Edwards gets carried away by the slogan of his title. The aid itself was not toxic: his real complaint (and fair comment) is that in the late 1970s the donors did not use their aid to put more pressure on the Tanzanians to review their policies of villagisation and excessive nationalisation. In the more recent period, as he points out, the donors have been vehement in their criticisms of corruption; but that has not led to much action by the Tanzanian government, or a withdrawal of the aid.

All three books lack a sufficiently robust theoretical underpinning. Thus Aminzade’s “contentious politics” is not sufficient to give direction and meaning to the mass of information he presents. “Toxic aid” without detailed studies of what that aid involved leaves the author open to wild swings in which aid was toxic in a period in which he compares Tanzania to countries in Latin America which also attempted socialist paths, but rather beneficial in a period when he finds the politics more congenial (even though the country is in real danger of being overcome by endemic corruption). Lofchie is right to attempt to use the tools of political economy, but lacks the detailed information to be sure that what he asserts as facts are not in reality well-informed surmises.

None of them discusses what could be the most contentious issue of all. If Tanzania wanted industries, it did not have to invite multinational companies to establish them. There was another option. Industrialisation had accelerated in the years before and after Independence. Much of it is still visible in the Chang’ombe area of Dar es Salaam, where many Asian-owned businesses either processed locally produced raw materials or supplied consumer items. If the Tanzanian leadership had worked closely with this group, as it did with a few individuals, such as Andy Chande, it would not have had to find the capital or supply the protection demanded by multinational companies. Aminzade would no doubt argue that this would have been politically unthinkable. Lofchie might also argue, from his knowledge of race relations, that this would be a difficult policy to sell to the Tanzanian people. But joint work with this group could have led rapidly to the creation of a Tanzanian business class. Even now businesses such as these are contributing substantially to Tanzania’s rising exports of manufactured goods to neighbouring African countries. They should not be almost entirely written out of the story.
Andrew Coulson

Andrew Coulson worked in Tanzania first in the Ministry of Agriculture and later in the Department of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. Since 1984 he has worked at the University of Birmingham. A second edition of his book Tanzania: A Political Economy was recently published by Oxford University Press. He is Vice-Chair of the Britain Tanzania Society.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY IN NORTHERN TANZANIA: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE 1890-1916. Robert B. Munson. Lexington Books ISBN 978 0 7391 7780 8 h/b pp378. £70.00.
This book is an exploration of the introduction of new plant species by missionaries in German East Africa, and the effect this had on the spread of Christianity among people of Chagga, Meru and Arusha ethnicities around Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru, This is an area that attracted Protestant missionaries, such as the Leipzig Mission, as well as Catholics known as the Spiritans. The timeframe of the book is that of German colonialism, and the work makes extensive use of German archival sources. Indeed, one of the greatest values of a work such as this is making these sources available to an English-speaking audience.

The title is unfortunate and does not reflect the content, as it is not clear that it is a pun: “the nature of Christianity” refers to the nature (i.e. plants) introduced by Christian missions.

The new plants brought to the landscape, Munson argues, went hand-in­hand with Christianity . He calls this botanical proselytization, a term that “emphasizes the mutual dependence of the landscape, botanical and Christian changes”. His argument is based on a view of African religion that is all-inclusive, with no division between the sacred and secular; thus, the “landscape changes reinforced the Christian worldview and vice versa, strengthening and deepening each in turn.”

The origins of the work as a PhD thesis are clear, yet the writing style is engaging. Unfortunately, the dozen photographs are badly reproduced. The book places the evolution of the missions in the context of German imperial attitudes towards its colony, arguing that the Maji Maji rebellion in the south made the Germans more aware of the impact that their policies were having. The next chapters focus on three central themes – Places, Plants and People. In exploring place, the author examines the spatial transformation of landscape through surveying, producing maps and establishing forest reserves to divide “people” from “nature”. In one of the most interesting sections he also explores the establishment and development of Moshi and Arusha.

Turning to plants, the book examines the botanical introductions made by the missionaries, and how they were integrated into African society. He goes beyond the usual discussion of coffee to explore various species of tree and the potato. The chapter entitled “People: Christianity and Botanical Proselytization” explores how the introduction of Christianity led to social change.

A short final chapter briefly outlines the changes since the British took control of the region in 1916, but in effect this raises more questions than it answers. An inherent problem with the book is the abrupt end of German rule; the consequences and impact of the subsequent botanical and social changes fall outside of the timeframe of the work. The tight focus enables greater historical depth, but more direct engagement with a broader theoretical literature would have been welcome. A more detailed exploration of theories of appropriation, for example, would have given the work relevance beyond the region it covers. As it stands, the work is a valuable contribution to the history of northern Tanzania.
Tom Fisher

Tom Fisher has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh exploring politics and ethnicity in Kilimanjaro. Until recently he lectured in history at St Augustine University of Tanzania, Mwanza.

A FIELD GUIDE TO THE LARGER MAMMALS OF TANZANIA (PRINCETON FIELD GUIDE 2014). Charles and Lara Foley; Princeton University Press 2014 320pp £19.95 (pb).
After spending a good few years working in the field of African conservation and tourism, it is normally difficult to get excited about the release of a new field guide; after all, how different can it be? But not this time, as the new Field guide to the larger mammals of Tanzania is an excellent addition to the literature and is a ‘must buy’ for both seasoned safari-goer and first-timer.
The authors behind this edition are all practising ecologists with a great many years of experience working in the national parks and protected areas of Tanzania. What is evident is that they know what previous field guides were missing. This book has been structured in a way that makes it easy to use, both when grabbed quickly in the back of a Land rover or when consulted at leisure in the cool of your tent. Most importantly, the ongoing challenges and threats to the long-term conservation of the species included remain clear throughout.

The bulk of the book is made up of ‘Species Accounts’, each of which lists the common, scientific and Swahili names; a species description; notes on similar species: ecology and social behaviour; distribution in Tanzania ; population size and conservation status assessment; a distribution map and colour images. The images are particularly useful as they are a mixture of professional photographs and images produced by camera-traps, which display the animals as the safari­goer may have seen them.

The guide concludes with quick-reference species images complete with essential diagnostic data and an introduction to the major national parks and protected areas of Tanzania (complete with species list).

So whether you are into the big cats, primates or whales, this guide is for you. Finally, all author royalties received from the sale of this book will be donated to the Wildlife Conservation Society and used to support the Tanzania Carnivore Project or other wildlife conservation projects in Tanzania.
Mark Gillies

MANAGING TAX REGIMES IN TANZANIA: EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES AND LESSONS. Edited by Harry Kitillya, Tema Publishers, P O Box 63115, Dar es Salaam, 2014.

TANZANIA GOVERNANCE REVIEW 2012: TRANSPARENCY WITH IMPUNITY? Policy Forum, P O Box 38486, Dar es Salaam, 2013.

STATISTICS IN THE MEDIA: LEARNING FROM PRACTICE.
Karim Hirji. Media Council of Tanzania, 2012. These three publications from Dar-es-Salaam will be of interest to researchers. In the first, Harry Kitillya (Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority from 2003 to 2013) has commissioned a set of articles to provide a bible of information about all aspects of tax collection in Tanzania. Overall the authors are well informed and optimistic – though no doubt more could be said about tax avoidance and especially about corruption in the tax gathering regime. Transparency with Impunity surveys the state of governance and corruption in Tanzania. Almost all aspects of government activity are covered. The tables, charts – and the cartoons – draw on an exceptionally wide range of official and NGO publications. This report should be a major source for researching the Tanzanian economy.

Statistics in the Media is a study of the misuse of statistics written as teaching material for journalists and to provide them with an introductory text in basic statistics. Much of it is constructed around topical case studies of exam results, alternative medicine, deaths from malaria etc. The author suggests that the resulting bias is not random, but reflect or reinforce the interests of those who own the media.

DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

by Hugh Wenban-Smith

This compilation of articles on development research in Tanzania, culled from journals in the LSE library, covers the period January to June 2014. The abstract is based on that published by the author(s).

Julius Nyerere, Ujamaa and political morality in contemporary Tanzania:
Fouere M-A, African Studies Review Vol 57(1).
Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version of ujamaa as a set of moral principles embodied in the figure of the first President of Tanzania, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. The persisting traces of Nyerere and ujamaa are not so evident in actual political practices or economic policies, but rather in collective debates about politics and morality – in short in the contemporary imaginaries of the nation. Contributing to a long-standing discussion of the moral stature of Tanzania’s ‘Father of the Nation’, the article explores how and why a shared historical memory of Nyerere is being built or contested to define, mediate and construct Tanzanian conceptions of morality, belonging and citizenship in the polis today.

For richer, for poorer: Marriage and casualized sex in East African artisanal mining settlements: Bryceson DF, Jonsson JB &Verbrugge H, Development and Change Vol 45(1).
Migrants to Tanzania’s artisanal gold mining sites seek mineral wealth, which is accompanied by high risks of occupational hazards, economic failure, AIDS and social censure from their home communities. Male miners in these settlements compete to attract newly arrived young women, who are perceived to be diverting male material support from older women and children’s economic survival. This article explores the dynamics of monogamy, polygamy and promiscuity in the context of rapid occupational change. It shows how a wide spectrum of productive and welfare outcomes is generated through sexual experimentation, which calls into question conventional concepts of prostitution, marriage and gender power relations.

Financial crimes and the law: A critical analysis of the embezzlement of public funds in Tanzania: Kibamba K, Journal of African and International Law Vol 6(1).
The embezzlement of public funds and fraud in Tanzania are still large problems and there is a lot that needs to be done to deter such practices. Certain laws have been put in place to try and counter these financial crimes, but have not been effective enough due to the magnitude of the problems. Tanzania has two legislations which regulate collection and use of public funds: the Public Finances Act and the Local Government Finances Act. The main perpetrators are public officials and the penal code imposes a penalty of seven to fourteen years of imprisonment to public officers who are found guilty. The Public Finances Act empowers the Minister of Finance to impose a surcharge as a penalty for contravention of any provision of this Act, specifically where a public officer has caused loss or deficiency of public money entrusted. This further empowers the Minister to order the conversion of such a loss or deficit to a debt … The discrepancy between the penalties imposed by the penal code and penalties imposed by the Minister of Finance … is the major problem which contributes to the embezzlement of funds; this is because the penalty imposed on public officials who cause loss or deficiency is not enough to stir remorse among the perpetrators.

From millet to tomatoes: incremental intensification with high value crops in contemporary Meru: Hillbom E, Journal of Eastern African Studies V 8(3).
In Meru, Tanzania, changing land/labour ratios have, for over a century, been the main driving force in a farm intensification process. The construction and expansion of irrigation systems, increased use of farm inputs and transfer from low to high value agricultural crops have enabled smallholders to improve their land productivity. Technological change has been accompanied by institutional change, primarily in the form of changes to property right regimes and expanding markets. In the past few decades, increasing urban and rural demand has further enhanced smallholders’ production strategies. By applying induced innovation theory, this article captures and analyses the long-term incremental processes of change whereby endogenous technological and institutional innovations have led to farm intensification in the contemporary local system of agricultural smallholder production. Further it shows how this process has been reinforced by improved access to market opportunities.

Choices and changes of recruitment methods in a Tanzanian city:
Fischer G, Egbert H & Bredl S Journal of Eastern African Studies Vol 8(3). Labour market processes in Tanzania constitute an important but under-researched topic. This study investigates the recruitment methods of private companies in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city. It asks whether employ­ers make use of informal methods more often than formal methods, whether the skills required for a job relate to the choice of methods and whether the vacancy period of a position is linked to a specific approach. A survey consisting of 81 face-to-face interviews with hiring authorities shows that employers prefer informal to formal schemes but tend to rely on formal ones for filling high ranking positions … Additional insights are provided by 10 semi-structured follow-up interviews with respondents from the same group. They suggest an increase in solicited and unsolicited applications that might have caused some hiring authorities to avoid formal methods or modify informal methods. Moreover, it emerges that recruitment choices may be influenced by powerful actors outside or within companies.

Middle class construction: Domestic architecture, aesthetics and anxieties in Tanzania:
Mercer C Journal of Modern African Studies Vol 52(2). The paper examines the new styles of houses under construction in contemporary Tanzania and suggests that they can be understood as the material manifestation of middle class growth. Through an examination of the architecture, interior décor and compound space in a sample of these new houses in urban Dar es Salaam and rural Kilimanjaro, the paper identifies four domestic aesthetics: The respectable house, the locally aspirant house, the globally aspirant house and the minimalist house, each of which map onto ideas about ujamaa, liberalization and the consumption of global consumer goods in distinct ways. The paper argues that these different domestic aesthetics demonstrate intra­class differences, and in particular the emergence of a new middle class.

Gender perspectives on decentralization and services users’ participation in rural Tanzania: Masanyiwa ZS, Niehof A & Termeer CJAM Journal of Modern African Studies Vol 52 (1).
This paper examines the impact of decentralization reforms on service users’ participation for delivery of health and water services in rural Tanzania, using a gender perspective and principal-agent theory. The paper investigates how decentralization has fostered spaces for participation and how men and women use these spaces, and identifies factors that constrain or encourage women’s participation. It shows that decentralization has created spaces for service users’ participation at local level. Participation in these spaces however differs between men and women, and is influenced by socio-cultural norms within the household and community. Men have gained more leverage than women to exercise their agency as principals. Women’s participation is contributing to addressing practical gender needs but strategic gender needs have been largely untouched by the reforms.

Do micro-enterprises benefit from the ‘doing business’ reforms? The case of street-vending in Tanzania: Lyons M, Brown A & Msoka C Urban Studies Vol 51(8).
The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ reforms were originally expected to help the growth and formalisation of SMEs and micro-enterprises. The expectations that the reforms would support the growth and development of SMEs were challenged by scholars, but the reforms impact on the micro-enterprises of the poor has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a desk study and on field studies of street-vendors carried out in Tanzania in 2007 and 2011, this paper argues that the growth and formalization of micro-businesses are badly served by the ‘Doing Business’ reforms.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and empowered deliberative democracy: Learning from Tanzania: Mustalahti I & Rakotonarivo OS World Development Vol 59. This study was guided by the Empowered Deliberative Democracy (EDD) discourse. We analysed how the Tanzanian Community Carbon Enterprise (CCE) model could reinforce the representation of disadvantaged groups in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). The findings from Tanzania suggest unmet conditions with disadvantaged groups’ representation in local decision-making and project implementation. We argue that mechanisms to support horizontal accountability could include audits and monitoring carried out by disadvantaged groups.