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TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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by Donovan McGrath

‘I stumbled across it’: the push to help Tanzania’s untapped football talent
(Guardian UK – online) Michael Noone went to Africa looking for a change and now has an academy for boys and girls in one of Tanzania’s poorest areas. Extract continues: When Michael Noone set off on his solo walk from Old Trafford to Wembley Stadium … to raise money for his football academy in Tanzania, it wasn’t the first time he had taken a journey into the unknown. A youth coach with experience of working in schools in Manchester, the United States and Canada, the 37-year-old was “looking for a change in my life” when he arrived in east Africa in March 2020. “I just kind of stumbled across it,” he says. “I came over with just a backpack and had nothing organised so I sort of just wandered around. I started volunteering in this orphanage, joined in a few games and found the football culture unbelievable. I’ve been coaching for many years and I’d played with some guys from east Africa before and they told me that there was so much hugely untapped talent here… Noone started coaching a group of players in Mivumoni, a small town about 300km north of Dar es Salaam in one of Tanzania’s poorest regions. He was so impressed with the standard that he set up the Route One Academy, which caters for 150 boys and girls from under-eights to under-18s. “Every week there were more and more who kept joining our group,” he says. “What started off as something casual has ended up with me wanting to stay and help.” … Noone adds: “My aim is now to try and improve that environment and showcase the ability that these players have. The skill levels here are really high… Mbwana Samatta’s short spell at Aston Villa in 2020 made him the first Tanzanian to play in the Premier League but Noone believes there is every chance plenty more could come if local players are given the right opportunities… (23 June 2022)

Meet Tanzania’s Lion Defenders: the hunters-turned-conservationists of the Barabaig tribe

Stephano Asecheka (second from left) and other “Lion Defenders” (photo CNN)

(CNN USA – online) Extract: There are 18 Lion Defenders in Ruaha. They monitor local lion populations and help to implement safe herding practices and fortify livestock enclosures. Lion Landscapes also provides technology to improve the safety of tribal communities as lion populations recover… Tracking and monitoring big cats through smartphones helps the lion populations to grow without increased risk to tribespeople… According to Lion Landscapes, since it began its work the killing of lions has decreased by more than 70% in the area of Ruaha National Park in which it operates. The Barabaig tribe in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania traditionally hunted lions that endangered their community – but with populations of the big cat dwindling, Barabaig warriors have become their protectors. Tanzania is home to roughly 50% of the lion population in sub-Saharan Africa, and around 800 of those lions live in Ruaha National Park. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa live in conflict with lions… In Ruaha National Park, warriors working with Lion Landscapes are known as “Lion Defenders.” The role is usually given to young hunters with good knowledge of the area and a comprehensive understanding of lion behaviour and how to track them… They monitor local lion populations and help to implement safe herding practices and fortify livestock enclosures… “The challenges Lion Defenders face is with some people in the community who are not in support of the project,” … says [Stephano Asecheka, who is from the Barabaig tribe]… According to Asecheka, taking tribespeople on tours in Ruaha National Park endears the community to the lions and helps them understand the value of the animals as a tourist draw that can boost the local economy. “They feel a sense of ownership and get to understand the right reasons to why we are protecting the lions,” he explains… (21 April 2022)

Rats to the rescue: Rodents are being trained to go into earthquake debris wearing backpacks with microphones so rescue teams can talk to survivors
(Daily Mail UK – online) Extract: Scientists are training rats to find earthquake survivors while wearing tiny backpacks with inbuilt microphones so rescue teams can locate and speak with them. Research scientist Dr Donna Kean, 33, from Glasgow, has been working in Morogoro, Tanzania over the past year for non-profit organisation APOPO on the project titled ‘Hero Rats’… Kean said: ‘Rats would be able to get into small spaces to get to victims buried in rubble… The rodents are trained to respond to a beep, which calls them back to the base… ‘We have the potential to speak to victims through the rat,’ Kean added… So far seven rats have been trained… (3 June 2022)

Greener pastures: Can ancient ecoengineering help fix our degraded landscapes?
(CNN USA – online) Extract: By removing trees and installing cell bunding – which creates water-tight pockets – Northern Ireland Water tried to determine if bunding could restore peatland, which naturally filters the country’s drinking water… Northern Ireland Water is already implementing cell bunding elsewhere… Bunds are simple structures that have been used for thousands of years to keep liquid in or out… The most basic consists of mounded earth. In terms of geoengineering, they’re about as low-tech as it comes, but when built strategically, their impact on the environment can be profound. Separate programs in as disparate climates as Tanzania and Northern Ireland are demonstrating bunding’s regenerative power – and the results could benefit both humans and nature. In Tanzania, a collaboration between non-profits Justdiggit and the LEAD Foundation is working with local communities to dig tens of thousands of bunds on arid land to harvest rainwater, as part of a massive regenerative effort backed by the UN. Angelina Tarimo, a coordinator at the LEAD Foundation, has been working with local communities in places such as Pembamoto, village in the Dodoma region, where desertification is a growing threat… Semi-circular shaped bunds trap water running off the ground and allow it to penetrate the earth. Grass seed sown inside the bunds grows, and over time greenery extends beyond the bund. Agriculture has had a negative impact on land in Tanzania, Tarimo says, with farmers clearing trees and native plants in order to grow crops, or allowing grassland to become overgrazed. This damages the soil structure and makes it more prone to erosion. As the ground is drier, when rain falls it is more likely water will run off the surface instead of infiltrating the ground, washing away fertile soil and perpetuating a drying cycle… Between sites in Tanzania and southern Kenya, over 200,000 bunds have been dug to date… (18 July 2022)

British hotelier locked up in Zanzibar ‘hell hole’ prison and his wife are freed after judge throws out money laundering charges
(Daily Mail UK – online) Extract: … The couple [Simon Woods and Francesca Scalfari], who run the four-star Sharazad Boutique Hotel in Zanzibar, faced 20 years in jail over money laundering charges after they fell out with two investors who had invested in their hotel. Police shaved Simon’s head when he was taken into custody before putting him in a cell with 200 other dangerous inmates, including murderers, at the Kilimani Prison, Wood’s family said… They also said the couple, who have lived on the island for 20 years, were denied basic needs – including access to water – and relatives weren’t allowed into the jail to see them on several occasions… (23 June 2022)

Tanzania identifies deadly outbreak of mystery disease as leptospirosis
(ABC News USA – online) Extract: A deadly outbreak of an unknown disease in Tanzania has been identified as leptospirosis, health officials said. More than 20 cases, including three deaths, have been reported in the southern Lindi region, with patients exhibiting symptoms similar to Ebola or Marburg virus diseases – fever, headache, fatigue and bleeding, especially from the nose, according to health officials. Preliminary results from laboratory testing … ruled out Ebola and Marburg viruses as well as COVID-19, making the illness a mystery – until now. Tanzanian Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu announced at a press conference … that samples from patients tested positive for leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease that affects both animals and humans. “I would like to inform the public that sample testing from patients has confirmed the outbreak is leptospirosis field fever or ‘homa ya Mgunda’ as it is known in Swahili,” Mwalimu said… Leptospirosis is transmitted directly or indirectly from animals to humans, mainly when people come into contact with the urine of infected animals or a urine-contaminated environment… Human-to-human transmission is rare, according to the WHO… (20 July 2022)

Why women in Tanzania face jail when their naked pictures are leaked to social media
(ITV UK – online) Extract: Mobile phone use in Tanzania has rocketed over the past 10 years, mostly due to the availability of cheaper smartphones. Millions in the East African nation have grown used to socialising, banking and learning wherever they want – but Asha Abinallah feels “lucky” she came of age before the smartphone boom. As connectivity increases, so does the amount of people seeking help from Ms Abinallah’s organisation, complaining they’ve had naked pictures leaked without their consent. The subjects are overwhelmingly young, female, “naïve and in love”, Ms Abinallah, head of digital empowerment organisation Women at Web explains. “But the perpetrators are usually people they love.” For victims of non-consensual intimate image abuse, consequences can include isolation, suicide and even a criminal conviction. Strict anti-pornography laws introduced in 2016 mean publishing pornography online, or “causing” it to be published, is punishable by a fine of not less than 20 million Tanzanian shillings (around £6,900) or at least three years in jail. Thanks to the liberal interpretation of the law, there’s a trend of [the women] being punished, rather than the person who leaked [the images]… (26 May 2022)

In Tanzania, karate classes imbues vigour in people with albinism
(Al Jazeera Qatar/UK/USA – online) Extract: Now that he’s learned to fight, Hassan Farahani doesn’t feel the need to do so anymore. “When people make jokes or harass me in the street, now I just leave. I have the confidence of martial arts—my strength is here,” he says, gesturing towards his chest. Farahani, 29, is part of a group of Tanzanians with albinism learning karate in Dar es Salaam, their country’s largest city… Their goal is not just to learn self-defence, but to one day become karate instructors themselves, teaching future generations of Tanzanians with albinism about karate, discipline, and self-confidence… In Tanzania, an estimated 1 in 1,400 people in the country have albinism, compared to a rate of about 1 in 20,000 in the United States. So people with the condition there are subject of daily discrimination with their light skin instantly setting them apart as targets. Myths and superstitions surrounding Tanzanians with albinism: that they are immortal, that they aren’t human but instead ghosts, or that they are cursed by a deity. Many have been attacked, mutilated and even killed for their body parts, which are believed to hold magical powers. Witchdoctors use these body parts for potions and spells meant to heal sickness, grant political power or bestow wealth and success… The training programme was founded by Jerome Mgahama, a karate instructor for over 20 years and founder of the Japanese Karate Association club in Dar es Salaam… He was inspired to start it after demonstrating martial arts for children with albinism at summer camps organized by NGOs and religious groups in Tanzania… (8 July 2022)


Visiting Dignitary: Mission Creep
(The New Yorker – USA) Extract: Mission: Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, the sixth President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and its first female head of state, desires a stroll through Central Park. Objective: To correct certain impressions advanced by Hassan’s predecessor, John Magufuli (nickname: the Bulldozer), who largely closed off Tanzania to the rest of the world and whose COVID strategy centered on three days of national prayer, after which he proclaimed, “The Corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God.” … Hassan, who was vaccinated publicly, is on a good-will tour of the United States, declaring Tanzania again open to visitors, investors, and science. … [S]he attended a summit with Kamala Harris. In New York, she will appear at the premiere of “The Royal Tour,” a PBS program in which Hassan guides the host, Peter Greenberg, around her country for nine days—Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro. She hopes to attract American tourists… (16 May 2022) – Editor: Thanks to Elsbeth Court for this item.

Award given to UN Biodiversity Chief

Alexandre Antonelli, Kew’s Director of Science and Chair of the Trustees, Dame Amelia Fawcett, awarding Elizabeth Maruma Mrema with the Kew International Medal – RBG Kew


(Kew Magazine – UK) Extract: Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has been awarded the 15th Kew International Medal for her vital work in championing the importance of biodiversity conservation… For over two decades, Elizabeth, a Tanzanian biodiversity leader and lawyer, has held various positions at the UN Environment Program (UNEP) focusing on environmental laws. She will be leading efforts to secure ambition and agreement on a critical new framework for halting biodiversity loss and promoting sustainable development at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, later this year. In a keynote lecture at Kew to accept the award, she highlighted the importance of plant science in finding solutions to urgent crises in nature. ‘Biodiversity loss is our shared burden. It’s also our shared responsibility,’ said Elizabeth. (Summer 2022) Thanks to Elsbeth Court for this item – Editor

Record-breaking Tanzanian ruby exposed in Dubai
(Africa News Republic of Congo/France – online) Extract: The magnificent gemstone which weighs 2.8 kilograms was presented to the public for the first time … in Dubai…. According to mineral experts, the greenish and purplish stone could be auctioned for 120 million dollars. In Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania are one of the main ruby producing countries… (17 April 2022)

REVIEWS

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by Martin Walsh

EVENTUFUL YEARS IN EAST AFRICA: 1981-1986. Roger M. Nellist. Privately printed (Book Printing UK, Peterborough), 2021. ix + 338 pp. (No ISBN no.) (paperback). Copies available from the author rogermnellist@ hotmail.com

Avid readers of Tanzanian Affairs will know Roger Nellist as a regular contributor who covered the Energy & Minerals brief for many years until he stepped aside in 2021 to spend more time on his own projects. The first fruits of this have now been published in the form a memoir of his five years in Tanzania working as an economic adviser to the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals (as it was called for a time) in Dar es Salaam. He arrived in July 1981 as a keen 29-year-old with seven years’ experience in Whitehall, and left in July 1986 to take up a London-based job with his employer, the Commonwealth Secretariat.

With the economy in dire straits, this was an extraordinarily challenging time for the country and its citizens. The prosperity promised by independence and then state socialism had clearly failed to materialise for the majority of people, who often struggled to obtain basic goods and services without mobilising personal networks, resorting to the black market, or engaging in other forms of corruption. This was the Tanzania I encountered myself when I flew into Dar for the first time (I had to bribe my way in), and the grim backdrop to Roger Nellist’s memoir, evident in many of the anecdotes that he tells.

Tanzania’s parlous economic state and the government’s pressing need to turn this around was also the reason for his presence. The core of his book describes his close work with the minister, Al Noor (‘Nick’) Kassum, and other colleagues to ensure that Tanzania gained as much benefit as it could from agreements with international companies to exploit its natural gas and other resources. This laid the groundwork for the development of the energy sector in the years of economic liberalisation to come, and is work that the author is rightly proud of and was subsequently honoured for.

As an autobiographical account written primarily for family and friends, this is far from being an academic text, and there is a lot more in it than an outline of the work that its author evidently excelled at. We learn a lot about his friendships and activities outside the office and about expatriate life in general, as well as his travels and the later development of his career. The five thematic parts and similarly thematic chapters make it easy to follow different topics (I began with the chapters about Zanzibar in Part Two), as does a detailed index (which is not included in the page count given above).

This is one of the most interesting memoirs of its kind that I’ve read, full of striking detail drawn from the diaries and other records that the author diligently kept, and illustrated by numerous colour photographs that bring the text to life. For me it provided insights into a social and cultural world that I only caught passing glimpses of when living in a village more than a day’s journey from Dar. It also reminded me of my own subsequent experiences as an expat, including the sights and sounds and smells of the city that I got to know in later decades, when those bare shelves, oddly empty streets and furtive transactions were becoming a distant memory.

Eventful Years in East Africa is a very welcome contribution to its genre and to our understanding of a little-studied period and developments in Tanzania’s modern history. When future monographs and papers are written about expatriate advisers and their impacts in postcolonial Tanzania, this book will surely be prominent among their sources. It deserves to be more widely read and I hope that plans to make it more readily available to a larger audience come to pass.

Martin Walsh Martin Walsh is the Book Reviews Editor of Tanzanian Affairs. He first went to live in Tanzania in 1980, when he was 22.

LETTERS FROM THE NEW AFRICA 1961-1966: SIXTY YEARS ON. Tim Brooke. Privately printed (Buy My Print, Coventry), 2021. 150 pp. (paperback). (No ISBN no.). Copies available from the author timb968@gmail. com and pdf free to download at https://timothybrooke.wordpress.com/

Twenty-three-year-old Tim Brooke arrived in Tanganyika in December 1961 to teach at St Joseph’s College, Chidya, a secondary boarding school run by the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) in Masasi Diocese. He stayed there for four years, leaving Tanzania (as it had become) in March 1966. This memoir is based on his letters home from Chidya and elsewhere (though not the New Africa Hotel in Dar, which was my first reading of the title!). Here is the author’s summary:

“In this book I have chosen extracts from my letters particularly to illustrate what it was like to be part of that wave of young people in the 1960s going to Africa from Britain and North America to volunteer. We found ourselves mainly in the rapidly expanding secondary school systems because insufficient local people had been trained to fill all the roles required by a post-colonial society. These young people – with a mixture of idealism, a sense of adventure and a desire that independence should really work – were responding to this time-limited need. There was a sense of Wordsworth’s ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive’.

“The selection aims to give a feel of everyday life at that moment in an African boarding school. They record too attitudes to the growing power of China, my involvement in the East African army mutinies, the legacy of Britain’s Groundnut Scheme and two extraordinary phenomena seen in the night sky. They also bring to life two internationally known Europeans living in the south of the country – Bishop Trevor Huddleston, who by his book ‘Naught for your Comfort’ (Collins 1956) had drawn the world’s attention to the injustices of apartheid, and C.J.P. Ionides, the snake collector. They look above all at what it was like to be living as a European in Tanganyika at the crossover point between colonial status and independence, an amazing time of political and social transition as Tanganyika began to establish itself as a sovereign country in the eyes of both its own people and the rest of the world.”

Decolonisation and its challenges loom large in Tim Brooke’s letters: the stuttering progress towards Africanisation in the school and church(es); the powerful example of Trevor Huddleston and his influence on the author and others around him; and the political and other events at national and international level that were happening at the same time. It is fascinating to read of the different ways in which all this impacts on the young letter-writer and his family (he had a younger brother in Southern Rhodesia). It becomes intensely personal when he is wrongly arrested for embezzlement – thanks to an erratic headmaster who is later found to have been opening his teachers’ mail before hiding it in a bedroom cupboard. The tension in this episode is palpable, until a swarm of angry bees provides Tim with a get-out-of-gaol-free card, following which the Bishop and others come to his rescue.

In addition to ‘Bishop Trevor’ and ‘Iodine’, whose snake-catching operation is described in detail, the letters introduce us to a large cast of colourful characters in the school, diocese, and further afield. Many went on to have long and distinguished careers, as we learn from thumbnail sketches at the end of the book. Readers may be familiar with some of them, includes the likes of Tim Yeo, the future Conservative MP, reclining on the grass in a group photograph, and the still-active Cambridge historians John Iliffe and John Lonsdale, helping to shake up the study of history at the University of Dar es Salaam, where the author was attending a course run by Terence Ranger – who also appears in a photograph with Louis Leakey.

Teaching at Chidya and all it entailed was evidently a formative experience for the author, and we can see his worldview evolving as the correspondence progresses. The letters have been skilfully selected and edited, with just the right amount of explanation added. Researchers interested in the full collection of unedited missives can find them in the USPG archive (‘Papers of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel’) in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. If this readily accessible volume of extracts is anything to go by, they’ll be well worth the read.

Martin Walsh

A STONE IN THE ROAD: TWO YEARS IN SOUTHERN TANZANIA.
James French. Privately printed (Tellwell Talent, Victoria, British Columbia), 2017. 212 pp. (paperback). ISBN 978-1-77370-251-3. £15.21 (pbk); £5.30 (e-book).
Jim French and his then-wife Marlyn pitched up at St Joseph’s College in Chidya in September 1967, one and a half years after Tim Brooke (see the previous review) had left this UMCA-supported secondary boarding school in Masasi Diocese. They were relatively experienced Canadian volunteers, having already trained as teachers and taught in Canada, while Jim had just completed an M.A. in English at the University of Sussex. Their contract with the Canadian Voluntary Service Overseas (CUSO) was for a two-year stint: Marlyn left a little early for family reasons, Jim in July 1969, when the national programme of Africanisation finally saw all the remaining non-Tanzanian staff replaced.

A Stone in the Road is a well-crafted memoir of their time in Chidya and occasional travels away from the school. It is nicely illustrated with photographs and maps and informed by letters written at the time, in particular regular aerogrammes sent by Marlyn to her parents in Canada. Jim French has woven a fine narrative out of these materials and his and others’ recollections, moving seamlessly back and forth in time as its major themes unfold. The result is a compelling account of their experiences and especially life at Chidya, with all of its ups and downs. The stone of the book’s title is a buried rock that frequently catches vehicles negotiating the 18-mile track between Masasi and Chidya. The school is quite literally at the end of the road, sometimes cut-off altogether by heavy seasonal rains.

The relative isolation of Chidya pervades this memoir and the mood of its writer. It seems to magnify the minutiae of life on the school compound, not least the medical and other hazards that horrify the author and the social frictions that trouble him at work. At least they can afford to get away from time to time. Even so, on their road trips they encounter obstacles of the kind that many budget travellers will be all too familiar with, especially those who can recall the less well-connected world of the past. It’s a testimony to the author’s skill in evoking their travails that I was swept along and struggled to contain the anxiety that his writing induced, amply supplemented by memories of my own bad trips.

Back in Chidya, things appear to get worse as the end of the two years approaches. One of their next-door neighbours, a teacher from India, stops communicating with Jim and Marlyn because they had forgotten to invite him to a lively party. Jim suspects that some students resent him because he’s the only teacher who confiscates the forbidden open-flame tin lamps that they smuggle in to read by (and cram for exams) when they’re supposed to be asleep. One of these students misinterprets something he says in class and spreads the word that he’s a racist, later calling him “Mzungu” (“Whitey”) as he walks past. Jim is shocked and mortified. Marlyn has to rush back to Canada because her father is ill. Left alone for the last few months, Jim eventually takes to the bottle. I might have the order of these events wrong, or be exaggerating, but you get the picture.

Of course, the author knows what he’s doing. Referring to his hangovers, he confesses “I was enacting my own version of Somerset Maugham’s story, “An Outpost of Progress,” in which the two colonials in an isolated post end up in a hopeless fist fight. I was fighting with Jim French.” As well as references to Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene, we are also treated to a reconstructed dialogue with students about Macbeth, and are told that their “enthusiasm for Shakespeare was challenged only by their admiration of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, adopted as the novel for study in January 1969.” Things aren’t always falling apart in this book; there are many moments of happiness and hope, including the removal of that symbolic stone in the road. I very much enjoyed Jim French’s memoir, especially when it drew me into his sometime uneasy world.

Also noticed:
CHINA AND EAST AFRICA: ANCIENT TIES, CONTEMPORARY FLOWS. Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Tiequan Zhu, and Purity Wakabari Kiura (editors). Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 2020. xx + 277 pp. (hardback). ISBN 978-1-4985-7614-7. £81.00.
From the publishers’ website: “China and East Africa: Ancient Ties and Contemporary Flows marks the culmination of a new round of archaeological and historical research on the relations between China and Africa, from the origins to the present. Africa and Asia have always been in constant contact, through land and seas. The contributors to this volume debate and present the results of their research on the very complex and intricate networks of connections that crisscrossed the Indian Ocean and surrounding lands linking Africa to East Asia. A growing number of speakers of Austronesian languages returned to Africa, reaching Madagascar in the early centuries of the Common Era. The diffusion of domesticated plants, like bananas, from New Guinea to South Asia and Africa where phytoliths are dated to the mid-fourth millennium in Uganda and mid-first millennium BCE in southern Cameroon, provide additional evidence on early interactions between Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia have always been in constant contact, through land and seas. Edited by Chapurukha Kusimba, Tiequan Zhu, and Purity Wakabari Kiura, this collection explores different facets of the interaction between China and Africa, from their earliest manifestations to the present and with an eye to the future.”

The focus of this book is on Kenya, but there’s much that will interest students of Tanzanian history, including a chapter by Elgidius Ichumbaki, ‘Unraveling the links between Tanzania’s coast and ancient China’.

OBITUARIES

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by Ben Taylor

Augustine Mrema


Former Minister of Home Affairs and leading opposition Presidential candidate, Augustine Mrema, died in August at the age of 77.

Mrema played a prominent role in national politics for several decades. As Minister of the Interior (Home Affairs) under President Ali Hassan Mwinyi from 1990 to 1994, he campaigned against corruption, waste and tax evasion in a manner that shared much in common with the later efforts of President Magufuli. This eventually led Mrema into disagreement with the President, and he left the ruling party, CCM, six months before the general election in 1995 in order to join the new opposition party, NCCR Mageuzi, and run as the party’s presidential candidate. He ended up losing the election to Benjamin Mkapa of CCM, but winning a greater percentage of the vote (27.8%) than any other opposition candidate until Edward Lowassa in 2015.

During the campaign, Mrema spoke on corruption within CCM, building on his previous attacks while serving as a cabinet minister. He used anti-foreigner rhetoric and castigated the government for siding with foreign investors over citizens, and branded himself as a candidate of the “Walalahoi” (poor and downtrodden), rhetoric that was again echoed later by President John Magufuli.

Through this, Mrema managed to pull massive crowds while campaigning in 1995, appealing to urban youth and those in the informal sector. It is said that his popularity scared Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who had publicly backed Mkapa. Nyerere warned that Mrema was not fit to be President, and that the country would be “thrown into the dogs” with Mrema in the role.
Prior to entering formal politics, Mrema had taught civics and served as a (Bulgarian-trained) intelligence officer. His political career started in 1985 when he tried to run for MP in his home district of Kilimanjaro. His candidacy was blocked by the High Court, and in 1987 he was officially announced as the winner after a lengthy appeals process. He retained his seat in 1990 without much difficulty.

He ran again for President in 2000 (representing NCCR) and 2005 (representing TLP), but found that voters had either decided to stick with CCM or switch their allegiances to other opposition parties, primarily CUF and Chadema. He received just 8% of the vote in 2000 and 1% in 2005. In 2010, he contested the seat of Vunjo, representing TLP, and won, serving as the MP for a single five-year term.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan was among those who mourned Mrema. “I will remember him for his contribution to political reforms, patriotism and his love for Tanzanians. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and all TLP members. May God rest his soul in eternal peace,” she said in a tweet.

ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe said Mrema had left behind a living legacy of fighting vices, adding that this was what made it impossible for him to continue to remain in CCM. “He significantly contributed to Opposition politics during the formative years of political pluralism. We have a lot to learn from him,” he said.

Li Jinglan with Mwalimu Nyerere in Mbeya 1977

Li Jinglan, popularly known as “Mama Li”, Chinese interpreter to President Julius Nyerere, has died at a Dar es Salaam hospital at the age of 75.
Mama Li made many friends in Tanzania. She had been among the Chinese nationals who were brought to Tanzania in 1975 to offer their expertise during the implementation of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara) project. At this point, already she was an expert in Kiswahili language, working as a producer of Kiswahili programs in Radio Beijing, China. She later became a naturalised citizen of Tanzania.

“I was taken to Mbeya as an interpreter of Chinese nationals who were teaching Tanzanians how to drive trains,” she explained. She also helped in training locals on effective management of train stations.

She stayed in Mbeya for around a year before she was shifted to Dar es Salaam to start working on other projects being run by the Chinese government in Tanzania after the completion of Tazara. This brought her into regular contact with President Nyerere, and later President Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

Mama Li made her name in Tanzania as someone who was not ready to be oppressed or to tolerate other people being oppressed, at the same time remained humble. She used to travel on public transport, and didn’t hesitate to scold a daladala conductor if she saw them preventing school children from boarding the buses.

Since 2003, Mama Li found herself in deep frustration in a court battle that dragged on for almost two decades, remaining unresolved at the time of her death. She was evicted from her National Housing Corporation (NHC) house in Dar es Salaam by the NHC. After ten years of fighting the case, the High Court declared her the legal tenant of the property, but the NHC had never relented and on twenty separate occasions convinced the High Court to stay execution of the court order. Over 19 years, her case was heard by a total of 51 different judges, among them ten from the High Court and 41 others of the Court of Appeal, without ever achieving final resolution.

British conservationist, Tony Fitzjohn, OBE, a driving force in the rescue and rehabilitation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania, died in May at the age of 76 of a brain tumour.

Having worked with George Adamson at the Kora national reserve in Kenya for 18 years, in 1989 Tony was invited by the government of Tanzania to rehabilitate Mkomazi Game Reserve, an area covering 1,350 square miles. Under Tony’s leadership, the previously neglected reserve was transformed into a much-heralded conservation success in East Africa (though not without its critics), resulting in its designation as a National Park in 2006.

For many conservationists, Mkomazi is a success story. A reserve which was threatened by people and grazing has been restored to good health. The compounds for African wild dog, and the extensive, patrolled sanctuary for the black rhinoceros (which are breeding) have giving the reserve international recognition. For Mkomazi’s critics, however, this is not the whole story. They highlight the eviction, pre-dating Tony’s time there, of former residents who had long-held associations with the land, pointing out that thousands of herders were forced off the land with inadequate compensation for a few and for most none.

When he arrived at Mkomazi, the challenge facing Tony required determination, ingenuity and myriad skills – wildlife management, engineering, mechanics, Swahili and the diplomatic skills to negotiate the bureaucracy. Tony had all this, as well as a commitment to constructing and repairing schools, helping with medical dispensaries and maintaining positive relations with the communities in the villages in the vicinity of the reserve.

In recognition of his service to wildlife conservation, Fitzjohn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006.

ONE YEAR OF PRESIDENT HASSAN

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by Ben Taylor

President Hassan at a dinner held in her honour in Washington DC, April 2022 (Ikulu)

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As Tanzania saw the first anniversary of Samia Suluhu Hassan becoming President in March, the government and the ruling CCM party celebrated the economic and political changes her presidency has brought about.

Highlights of the year include the President’s championing of women’s rights. Nine of her cabinet ministers are women, which represents 36% of the cabinet, and she has brought a series of highly qualified women in to fill strategically important roles within State House. The government has also reversed the heavily criticised policy of banning pregnant schoolgirls from attending school.

Business environment and economic diplomacy
Just days after taking office a year earlier, President Hassan had outlined a raft of measures her government would take to stimulate economic growth, and to recover from the adverse effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic. In her maiden speech to Parliament she articulated the need for the government to regain investors’ confidence by creating a friendly business environment.

A year later, CCM Secretary-General Daniel Chongolo said the President’s efforts in this field have resulted in significant improvements in the business and investment environment. “In one year, we have seen a positive economic growth in our country as a result of increased investment in strategic projects: electricity, water, health, education, road construction, railways and airports,” he said.

Mr Chongolo noted that results that could already be seen including an increase in the circulation of cash, an increase in loans to the private sector, a reduction in bank’s bad credit, an increase in foreign currency reserves and increased tax collection to record levels.

Economists described the period as a course correction. Dr Abel Kinyondo of the University of Dar es Salaam said President Hassan was putting economic diplomacy into practice. She has done this, he explained, by undertaking crucial visits and meetings to repair ties with the outside world and influence Tanzania’s trading relationship with the rest of the globe. She has met with key players in the international economy – for example hosting visits by the former British prime minister Tony Blair, World Bank managing director Mari Pangestu and African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina, and by undertaking visits to Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, France, Belgium, the UK and the USA.

Prof Haji Semboja of the State University of Zanzibar’s Economics Department commended the President for understanding that Tanzania could not work as an island. “She has been believing in global connectivity and that is why she keeps on redefining policies, laws and policies to cope with this modern world,” he noted.

A second trip to the USA, in mid-April 2022, continued this strategy. President Hassan met with US Vice President Kamala Harris, holding talks that mainly centered on Tanzania’s economic growth. The trip reportedly generated close to a billion dollars in investments from various companies in the US.

“We welcome, of course the attention you are giving to that and the focus of this trip including the focus of investment opportunities in relation to the economy in the area of tourism,” said Vice President Harris.

The visit to the USA came exactly 60 years since Tanzania’s founding Father Julius Nyerere visited President John F Kennedy in 1962. In noting the anniversary, President Hassan said that “the United States and Tanzania have enjoyed relations for the last 60 years, my government would like to see the relations grow further and strengthened to greater heights.” She also expressed her government’s appreciation to the US government “for invaluable development assistance and great work the USAID has been doing in Tanzania over the years particularly on the social and economic development.”

Political freedoms
CCM Secretary General Daniel Chongolo also remarked that President Hassan has been committed to stabilising the political environment and bringing national unity through good governance based on the rule of law. He noted that she had met with opposition leaders, listening to their concerns and consulting with them on how best to protect democracy and freedom of expression.

He said during this one year, freedom of expression has improved. This is one of the key principles in promoting and building democracy and the classes of the people in self-government in the implementation of the 2020 election manifesto.

The President herself, speaking in mid-March, signalled further reforms would be forthcoming. She issued a series of directives to a special task force formed to propose reforms that would set the stage for “clean politics” and raising democratic standards. In addition to examining the possible need for constitutional reforms, she asked the task force to make recommendations on how best to handle subsidies to political parties, a general code of conduct for political parties, ending corruption during elections and finding a way to enhance women participation in politics.

“We need concrete recommendations that will be shared with the public so that people can understand where we want to go,” she said.

Dr Phidelis Rutayunga, a political analyst and lawyer based in Dar es Salaam, said President Hassan has showed genuine commitment to improving the political environment in the country. “I saw one quote that said she was ready to pay the cost in the 2025 General Election, but she is determined to create a level playing ground when it comes to politics,” he said.

“Speaking that way in a country like the United States shows that she is ready to be held responsible not only by politicians and pro-democracy activists in Tanzania but also abroad if there is no implementation,” he added.

Early 2022 saw three moments that signal a clear change of direction on political matters: the release of one opposition leader, Freeman Mbowe [see next article], a visit to another (Tundu Lissu) in his exile in Belgium in February 2022, and a willingness to discuss possible changes to political processes in Tanzania with opposition parties [see article on the Constitution]. The government has also recently ended bans on several newspapers, signalling a positive turn in media freedom.

Opposition leaders, however, see significant room for further changes. Two leading opposition parties – Chadema and NCCR – recently refused to participate in dialogue, arguing that the process made little sense if the government would not accept the need for a new constitution.

Further, beyond formal politics, civil society groups and the media continue to find that the operating environment remains challenging. While significant changes have been made, there remain strong elements within the government that are either unsure of the extent to which civil society and the media should be allowed to operate free from government control, or unwilling to allow this.

Changes within CCM
Early April also saw the President, in her role as CCM chairperson, introduce reforms to the CCM party rulebook. “Without building a quality and resilient political party, we will fail to keep up with the changes. So we are forced to make revisions within the party’s constitution to keep pace with the changes,” she explained.

The number of National Executive Council (NEC) and Central Committee (CC) members was slashed from 388 to 154, and 34 to 24, respectively. The party also halved the frequency of its annual internal meetings from the grassroots to national levels in what was said to be a decision meant to increase efficiency, and reduce the number of inactive leaders in various positions.

“We have returned regional secretaries to the National Executive Committee (NEC), who will receive direct instructions from the party organ instead of waiting directives from other committee members,” said the President.

Some of the new revisions to CCM’s constitution reversed changes which were made in 2017 under Magufuli, and were explained as being about improving the party’s efficiency.

University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) lecturer, Dr Richard Mbunda, said the 2017 reforms were prompted by the austere philosophy of the Fifth Phase government. “Probably, the philosophy has been found to be unsustainable for the party, therefore triggering the new reforms,” he said.

A senior lecturer from the University of Iringa, Dr Stephen Kimondo, said despite references to the reforms as normal, the move to reinstate things dropped in 2017 implies that something was wrong within CCM. “It could be said that the amendments had been influenced by an individual,” he said, rather than what is best for the party.

At the same meeting of the party General Assembly, delegates unanimously voted in favour of the new party Vice Chairperson, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana. He replaces the outgoing Philip Mangula, who opted for retirement at the age of 81, after serving the party for many decades in many roles.

MBOWE CHARGES DROPPED

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by Ben Taylor

TA132 cover shows Mr Mbowe being welcomed to State House on 4th March 2022 for a meeting with President Samia Suluhu Hassan

In perhaps the clearest sign yet of President Hassan’s more open approach to governance, early March saw the release of Freeman Mbowe, chairperson of the opposition party Chadema, from prison and charges against him being dropped. He had spent more than eight months behind bars on terrorism charges that critics had described as politically motivated.

In February, the High Court’s Corruption and Economic Crimes Division had found that Mbowe and his three co-accused had a case to answer. However, just over two weeks later prosecutors dropped the case.

“The Court is informed that the Director of Public Prosecution on behalf of the Republic will not further prosecute Halfan Bwire Hassan, Adam Hassan Kasekwa, Mohammed Abdillahi Ling’wenya and Freeman Aikaeli Mbowe,” reads part of the Nolle Prosequi notice signed on March 4 by Senior State attorney Robert Kidando.

Mere hours after his release, Mr Mbowe was welcomed to State House for a meeting with President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Video clips released afterwards by both parties informed the public of their agreement to conduct constructive, trustful, respectful and unification politics for the interest of the country.

Mbowe said later that meeting with President Samia Suluhu Hassan shortly after being freed from remand prison was the opportunity the party had been looking for since the fifth phase government [of Presidents Magufuli and Hassan]. He said Chadema submitted three letters requesting to meet former President Magufuli, but in vain.

“Our meeting focused on building principles that would enable our people to build the nation peacefully, something on which she has really shown political will,” he said. Mr Mbowe added that both sides agreed that there was a need to build understanding and consensus by preaching sustainable justice instead of hangings, planting fake cases and shooting each other.

Mbowe’s release came a few days after a group of senior religious leaders made representations to President Hassan, calling for the appropriate authorities to use their discretion to end the case against Chadema chairman.

“We don’t want to interfere with the rule of law,” said Anglican Church of Tanzania Bishop Jackson Sosthenes, upon submitting the request to the President. “We would therefore like to ask for the government’s wisdom to see how the matter could be dealt with in order to bring more health for broad interests of the nation. Authorities should see how the matter can be concluded,” he said.

Political analyst Kasera Nick Oyoo, writing in The Citizen, described the whole case as a farce. He argued that Mbowe’s time in prison put Tanzania on the list of banana republics. “It still beggars belief that a country that always wishes to mirror itself as the paragon of civility and conviviality felt it necessary to bring terrorism charges against Mr Mbowe,” he wrote. “For some reason, at some point, someone felt that it was not enough to use police to disperse crowds, or deny Mr Mbowe and his colleagues the right enshrined in the Constitution to assemble and conduct political activities peacefully. The powers that be came up with what they must have thought was a brilliant plan – arrest Mr Mbowe and a few acolytes, and charge them with terrorism.”

However, he argued, the trial became a fiasco after it became apparent that the State had “an embarrassingly feeble case” against him and his co-accused. “It seems prosecution witnesses were hurriedly prepared, the case was incoherent, and even laymen could see that prosecution had no concrete case. Testimonies by prosecution witnesses were a complete farce, and that is putting it mildly.”

“In the process, it was not Mr Mbowe who suffered serious damage,” he concluded. “It is the reputation of the United Republic of Tanzania that was drugged through the mud, and a country’s reputation, as we know, is not easily repaired after being tarnished the way it was.”

CONSTITUTION

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by Ben Taylor

New Constitution briefly back on the table, then off again
Tanzanians may have to wait a little longer for constitutional changes, as a government-sanctioned task force formally proposed in its preliminary report, published in March, that the process should be postponed until after the 2025 General Election. President Samia Suluhu Hassan said she agreed with the idea of making “gradual improvements” rather than wholesale constitutional changes. “Perhaps a complete rewrite won’t be necessary, only in some areas,” she said. “And even if we do have to rewrite the whole document, much of the necessary amendment work will have already been done,” she added.

Task force chair Rwekaza Mukandala said they felt that there is not enough time to adopt a new Constitution within the current electoral cycle. “The process can start immediately after the election, and our proposals on the ways it can be achieved, when the time is right, will be part of our final report to be delivered at a later date,” he said.
Formation of the task force followed pressure from opposition parties, which began the new year by expressing their determination to press for Constitutional review process to be restarted in 2022.

Chadema vice-chairman Tundu Lissu led these calls, saying 2022 would be the start of a new movement to demand a new constitution. “The current Katiba will not solve our problems with the administrative and political system,” he noted.

Lissu explained that the party’s Central Committee met digitally on December 28, 2021 with the aim of shaping the party’s agenda. He said they evaluated the country’s history since the return of the multi-party political system in 1992 and 30 years after Judge Nyalali’s commission proposed the drafting of a new constitution. “We need a new Constitution now, not in 2025. Otherwise CCM will use this current Constitution to steal the election again just as it has always done since multiparty politics returned to Tanzania,” said Mr Lissu. He pledged to return to Tanzania from exile in the near future, so as to lead the movement in person.

Though most opposition parties agree on the need for a new constitution, they disagree on the order of the process. What should come first: A new Constitution addressing all aspects of the reforms agenda on a long-term basis, or “Tume Huru” (an independent electoral commission) ensuring a level playing field for all parties going into the 2025 poll.

Chadema say the Constitution should come first, as this will give the independent electoral commission true independence. ACT Wazalendo say a newly independent commission before 2025 is the priority, enabling better representation of different viewpoints in parliament, and thus also in the process to draft a new Constitution. “We hope that 2022 will be a year of national reconciliation that will achieve the success of finding an Independent Electoral Commission that will facilitate the achievement of a new Constitution acceptable to all,” said Zitto Kabwe, leader of ACT Wazalendo.

Tanzania started the process of writing a new constitution in 2012, after former President Jakaya Kikwete responded to strong opposition demands by appointing a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) headed by the highly respected former Prime Minister, Judge Joseph Warioba. The team was tasked to conduct extensive nationwide consultations on the new constitution.

However, the Draft Constitution tabled by Judge Warioba at the Constituent Assembly (CA) in February 2014 was radically overhauled by CCM MPs, resulting in a Proposed Constitution that lacked the support of opposition parties and many citizens. This prompted a boycott of CA sessions by the major opposition parties. The CA submitted the Proposed Constitution to the government in October 2014. However, the planned referendum to determine whether it should be formally adopted never happened. Upon coming to office in late 2015, President Magufuli showed no interest in reviving the process.

BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY

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by Dr Hildebrand Shayo

Banks’ lending rates to business, and the effect on economic growth in Tanzania
The issue of banks in Tanzania being advised to reduce loaning interest rates is on the lips of politicians, government officials, the President herself, borrowers and loan seekers, whether small or large, seeking loans to run their businesses. Despite these efforts and calls, interest rates charged by lending institutions remain high, something that in-turn affects the growth of productive economic activities, business especially for SMEs and start-up businesses that offer employment on one hand but also tax base for government revenue. Why are interest rates not declining in Tanzanian market? Is the approach used to reduce rates wrong or inappropriate? Or is there a problem in the financial system and interest rates setting system in Tanzania? These are the issues that need reflection with an economic eye to assess why the situation remains the same despite countless calls to reduce the rates. This assessment described concludes with hints as to why it will be thought-provoking to bring down lending rates and what can be done.

Gain access to loans, interest rates and business lending setting panorama
As clamour to lower lending rates continues, Tanzanian borrowers, small or large should not expert reduced loans interest rates soon, notwithstanding lowered policy instrument rates and regular government officials’ reminders that include other strict measures issued by the Bank of Tanzania.

The conventional approach stems from the fact that interest is the return for the productive use of principal. Since physical capital is purchased with monetary funds, then, the rate of interest is taken to be the rate of return over capital invested in physical capital assets. Whereas the demand for investable capital draws from investment decisions of the business sector, the supply of capital results from supplies of savings derived from households. Loanable funds are the sums of money supplied and demanded at any time in the money market, where: funds available for lending are inclined by the savings of the people and the additions to the money supply (normally through credit creation by banks), while demand for loanable funds is determined by the need for investment plus desire for hoarding.

Within this theoretical background, although BOT practises different measures such as reducing statutory reserves money (SRM) lowering Repos, lending to banks, and reducing yields for debt instruments, these efforts have not yet translated into effective lowered lending rates as anticipated.

Actual lending rates remain at around 16% by most banks, except one bank that recently announced the reduction of rates for personal loans targeting farmers. This makes it harder for borrowers to access loans, and indeed the cost of finance makes it challenging to make profit.

High rates are good for the banks and their shareholders but damaging to viable economic activities that are vital for county’s economic growth. High banks rates also discourage prospective borrowers from applying loans, as others have opted to borrow from individual private lenders or family members.

Presently, there are some banks which lend up to 21% – four times of the BOT policy rate – while maximum mortgage lending rates in Tanzania is 19%. Digital lenders issuing loans through mobile money services, which are assumed to be cheaper due to lower operating costs, lend at a fixed cost between 11% and 15% of the loan among. This is repaid within a much shorter time period: up to a month. When annualised, rates charged by telecoms are a killer, though many users do not realise on how is expensive the loan through mobile phones can be.

Research on informal lending market finds loans at rates that are higher than mobile lenders or banks, as the cost of funds are ranging from 30% to 50% per month. Here risk of non-payment is the key driver.

The main drivers of high lending rates in Tanzania’s lending market are high operating costs, non-performing loans, and cost of funds. Interest income is the major earning stream for all banks.

Tanzanian banks’ operating costs are related to employee salaries and benefits, which account for an average of 44% of the banking industry operating costs and have been increasing over time. Folks familiar with banking industry supposes that maximum monthly salary of large bank CEO is TSh 60m (around USD $25,000), very roughly equivalent to a profit of a bank branch. Likewise, monthly pay for CEO of other medium and small bank ranges between TSh 15-30m.

The implications of these, is simple that efforts should be directed at improving operation efficiencies aiming at reducing banks operating costs. The key areas of attention are with respect to employees’ salaries and how to improve bank’s productivity.

Another notable cost that is not often taken seriously is the cost of premises and equipment – rent, transport fleet, equipment and utilities – which together constitute another 16% of the banking industry operating costs. In this case, ICT advancement in the country in service provision could bring these costs down somewhat.

As far as non-performing loans (NPLs) are concerned, this has become a major problem for most banks. Factors affecting NPLs comprise global financial crises, credit screening weakness, a decrease in supply of loans partly, and capital enhancement measures. In Tanzania, banks are aiming to comply with the regulator’s benchmark of at most 5% of NPLs. Some banks have gone beyond this figure due to various genuine reasons, including economic uncertainty and instability of the labour market, as well as unethical practices among loan officers. Each of these drivers nonetheless are subject to discussion as each might have its own story.

Cost of funds is another factor that keeps banks’ lending rates high, banks cannot lend money at lower rates than they themselves pay. According to BOT, in Tanzania, the overall interbank cash rates which banks uses to lend each other, up to the period of seven-day ranges between 4.4% to 4.5% while overnight was at 3.72%. Here, some banks that have good relationship with each other usually outsource expensive funds outside the country when there is liquidity shortage locally and vice versa.

Regulator’s role and financial market dynamism in Tanzania
In recent years, the BOT has announced various policy measures to ease lending rules which include lowering the statutory minimum reserves requirement, lowering the discount rates as well as providing regulatory flexibility on restructuring of loans. For instance, in 2021, the central bank lowered its benchmark lending rates from 7% to 5% to cushion banks from Covid-19 impact. This together with the policy change aimed at to provide additional space for bank to borrow at a lower cost, hopes to encourage lower rates by banks. To spur liquidity, the regulator correspondingly resolved to lower statutory minimum reserve to 6% from 7% effective June 8, 2021.

Various initiatives as stated in this analysis are now being practiced by various financiers including commercial banks. Initiatives such as cluster marketing where employees of the government established parastatals and corporate establishment are able to enjoy good, lowered lending rates may inspire many to get loans at costs that are low compared to what banks charges, but for how long? These tactics exclude important economic groups such as traders, farmers and businesspeople. And importantly they do not target help at start-ups and SMEs viewed as riskier prospects, though these could benefit from lower rates.

Policy Implications
Attempts examined in this article to help deal with high lending rates alone on the other hand will not bear fruits without political will. As such, top government officials, including President Samia Suluhu Hassan on various occasions, have made an appeal to the banks to rethink and consider lowering lending rates telling them that they are part of the wider economy. Likewise other leaders also have from time to time have been calling for banks to reduce lending rate, but this is unworkable in real sense.

The implications of the analysis expressed in this article are that high interest rates signal banking sector inefficiency, and when that occurs it hampers not only financial development but also economic growth and potential productivity enhancement.

In June 2021, the President said, “financial institutions need to cut real interest rates in line with measures implemented by the BOT,” and suggested that rates for short term loans should be lowered to below 10%. Will banks in Tanzania heed the President’s call, or will they turn a deaf ear?

Hildebrand Shayo, BA (hons) MA, PhD, is currently a manager, responsible for Economic Research and Planning at TIB-DFI Development Bank, wholly 100% owned by the Government of Tanzania. TIB development bank is one of development financial institution responsible for financing long-term infrastructure and development projects with development impact.

EDUCATION

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by Angela Ilomo

More than 5000 girls dropout of school every year
Several stakeholders have called for more efforts to close the gap between girls’ and boys’ access to education regardless of many government efforts. This was during the one-day symposium that brought together high school students as a continuation of the Women’s Day celebrations. The event was organized by Tai Tanzania, an NGO, in collaboration with the Girl Effect and The Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania (YUNA Tanzania).

Director and co-founder of Tai Tanzania Mr Ian Tarimo said the World Bank’s figures show 5,500 girls drop out of school each year because of early pregnancies, indicating that there is a need to step up efforts by the community and not only the government to bridge the gap created between girls and boys.

The Director of Girl Effect Ms Rahma Bajun said that part of the reasons also include cultural practices and lack of support infrastructure. She said that they are looking forward to seeing a more equitable society. (The Citizen)

Over 1,000 out of school girls in Tanzania enroll for adult learning
At least 1,200 of the 3,000 girls targeted for enrollment in this year’s academic calendar through the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (Sequip) have already been enrolled with the Institute of Adult Education.

Institute of Adult Education director Michael Ng’umbi said the Sequip-AEP project aimed at reaching girls between the ages of 13 and 21 who dropped out of secondary education for various reasons including poor living conditions, early marriage and getting pregnant.

He noted that the project aims to reach 12,000 students across the country over a five-year period (2021-2026) of project life under the same institute. (The Citizen)

Leadership academy inaugurated, supported by Communist Party of China
All is set for upcoming political leaders from countries in southern Africa to start sharpening their skills from March this year, thanks to the inauguration of a newly-constructed Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School located at Kibaha. The ceremony was graced by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The idea was based on the Harare Resolution that involved six political parties from different countries on June 8, 2012, to serve southern Africa in honour of Tanzania’s founding President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

The TSh 100 billion institution was funded by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The involved liberation parties in attendance were ANC (South Africa), Swapo (Namibia), MPLA (Angola), Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe) and Frelimo (Mozambique).

“Establishment of the school is a strategic one that will address a number of issues, including strengthening our youth and our people who will work in our political parties and governments,” said President Hassan. She also said the presence of the academy would also train young people with a modern view of developing their countries from within their liberation parties.

Xi Jinping, the President of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, sent a congratulatory letter for the inauguration ceremony. He said the school will provide an important platform for the six parties to enhance their governance capacity and better lead their respective countries to achieve development and benefit their people.

He added that the school is an opportunity to strengthen the exchange of state governance experience with parties in Africa, support each other in pursuing development paths that suit their own national conditions, deepen pragmatic cooperation across the board, promote the building of a high-level community with a shared future between China and Africa, and contribute more to the building of a better world.(The Citizen; China News Service)

Tanzania, World Bank sign TSh 1.5 trillion credit pacts for education and land
The government and the World Bank have signed two concessional loan agreements worth $650 million (about TSh 1.501 trillion) for the improvement of education and land administration systems. The loans agreements will boost the existing World Bank’s portfolio for national Projects in Tanzania to $6.15 billion.

$500 million will be spent on the ‘Boost Primary Student Learning Project,’ while the remaining amount will go to the Land Tenure Improvement Project (LTIP), according to permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr Emmanuel Tutuba.

World Bank country director Mara Warwick said that the Boost Project would help to directly address constraints in the education sector by making Tanzania primary schools safer, more inclusive and child-friendly.

Over 12 million children in mainland Tanzania were expected to benefit from it. On the other hand, she said, the LTIP would increase tenure security for at least two million land holders, users, and their families.(The Citizen)

New Curricula for nursery, primary, secondary in offing
New curricula for nursery, primary, secondary and teacher education will start being used from January 2025, the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) has affirmed.

TIE Director-General, Dr Aneth Komba stated this yesterday in Dodoma when he made a presentation on the envisaged new curricula while receiving views from stakeholders during an annual meeting of the heads of education institutions under the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC).

“We can’t say that the current curricula is inappropriate, but we should look at issues which could be added so that the documents can become relevant to the current 21st century and be beneficial to young people for the next 50 years by making them employable and be able to create their own jobs,” she stated.

Dr Komba said the process to improve the current curricula is expected to take at least three years, where they are now at a stage of collecting views and needs from stakeholders to incorporate in the new document.

Several teachers contributed their views including, English language subject to be taught right from the first year of Primary School, vocational education for Standard Seven leavers, social studies to be taught in secondary schools and increase of pass marks for teachers in joining teacher education. (Daily News)

National Educational system dialogue kicks off
Preparations for a national dialogue on reviewing the curricula and education system that will meet the current needs has kicked off, said Minster for Education Science and Technology Prof Adolf Mkenda during the visit of President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Benjamin Mkapa Secondary school.

This decision was made after the recent suggestion from Religious leaders for the need for a national dialogue on education system which was aired during their meeting with President Hassan at the Dar es Salaam State House last week. The clerics noted that that education system should be reviewed for the sake of producing graduates who will be able to venture on self- employment without waiting for employment from the formal sector. (Daily News)

HEALTH

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by Ben Taylor

Tanzania concludes review of Covid response, aims to speed up vaccine rollout
The Ministry of Health in the United Republic of Tanzania, with technical support from WHO and other development partners including UNICEF, USAID, British Council, the Jon Snow Institute (JSI) and US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has concluded a second review of the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the previous review, conducted in October 2021, Tanzania had intensified immunisation activities, including expansion of outreach sessions and updated the existing National Vaccine Deployment Plan (NVDP).

Vaccine Deployment Manager, Dr Florian Tinuga, said the review was critical to assess the operational capacity of the system for a robust response to the pandemic. “The main purpose was to appraise the functional capacity of the Covid-19 response system at the national and sub-national levels following the introduction of additional vaccines (Sinopharm, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines),” he said. He added that the focus is to assist the country to identify best practices and challenges to further improve the vaccination roll-out.

The WHO focal person for Immunization and Vaccine Development (IVD), Dr William Mwengee reiterated WHO’s commitment to providing needed technical leadership of the Tanzanian response. “Although Tanzania had setbacks at the beginning of her response to COVID-19 pandemic, WHO will continue to provide needed technical leadership of the overall response to ensure that Tanzanians in Mainland and Zanzibar are largely protected from Covid-19 infections,” he said.

Best practices identified include intensified outreach services in Ruvuma region, characterised by the use of contextualised local slogans “Timua vumbi” that have enabled Ruvuma to reach the highest Covid-19 coverage of 12%, more than double the national average of 4%. In Dar es Salaam, the integration of Covid-19 vaccination in routine HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Clinics with the support of Management and Development for Health (MDH) increased the vaccination rate of People Living with HIV/AIDS from 2,000 to 5,000 per day. Engagement of vaccine champions in the communities have also helped to address misconceptions, rumours and misinformation.

Vaccination coverage in Tanzania remains significantly lower than the global and regional targets established for countries. At the time of writing (April 12, 2022), the latest official figures are that just under 4 million people in Tanzania have received one or more dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, representing 6.4% of the population. This compares to over 21% in Kenya and 32% in Uganda.

Key challenges responsible for low vaccination rates in Tanzania include delayed introduction the vaccine into the country, and low demand due to misinformation about Covid-19. Qualitative findings also indicate that many Tanzanians are unwilling to receive external Covid-19 vaccine due to uncertainties towards its effectiveness as deaths are still occurring in countries where people are vaccinated.

Going forward, the review highlighted the need for advocacy with high-level political, community and religious leaders and increased access to vaccines. In addition, a mass campaign to scale up vaccination activities with adequate resource mobilisation is needed in the coming months.

Separately, at a joint meeting of the Ministry of Health and development partnership, the WHO has called on development partners and agencies for a renewed commitment to strengthen the country’s effort to urgently interrupt ongoing transmission.

“Tanzania has an impressive routine immunization programme,” said Dr Tigest Ketsela Mengestu, the WHO Country Representative for Tanzania, “so I am confident that if partners and the government work harder together, Tanzania can surprise the world by scaling up Covid-19 vaccination coverage and be on track to achieving the targets”.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Professor Abel Makubi, reiterated the Tanzanian government’s commitment to scale up Covid-19 vaccination and ensure that her citizens are protected from the pandemic. He noted that Tanzania is still far from the national target of 60% of fully vaccinated population by June 2022. “The country is set to achieve the target but this requires the cooperation and support of the partners and donors”, he added.

Study on Covid-19 patients in Tanzania
The first study in Tanzania to examine the characteristics of Covid-19 patients and the outcomes of their treatment reveals about three-quarters of all patients were under the age of 60. Scientists studied the COVID-19 patients in the early months of the outbreak amid scarcity of data on the pandemic. Results of the study were published in IJID Regions, an official journal of the International Organization for Infectious Diseases (ISID).

Researchers tracked 112 patients at two referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam between April and May 2020. Of these, 93% were hospitalized, while 9 patients (7%) were out-patients.

According to findings of the study on characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Tanzania, the age of the studied patients reflects the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Africa. The average age of all patients was 41 years, while the average age of the patients who lost their lives was 58 years. Six out of 10 patients in the study were men. The average age is similar to that reported in South Africa but slightly lower than that reported in China, Libya, the United States (New York) and Italy in early stages of the pandemic, where the average age was higher, with patients being older compared to Tanzania and South Africa.

Headache was the commonest symptom reported among 55% of patients, followed by fever reported by 49%.

Professor Sayoki Mfinanga, a public health Specialist and researcher from the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) is the lead author of the study. He says that the symptoms found among patients during the study are similar to those reported worldwide. But he says, “…symptoms such as shortness of breath, altered consciousness, and neurological signs were significantly associated with mortality in the COVID-19 patients.”

“This is important because it is from Tanzania, the place where data was almost absent and the Covid story was only told by a political narrative,” said Mwidimi Ndosi, Associate Professor of Rheumatology Nursing at Bristol School of Health and Social Welfare in the UK.

“It calls into question all the previous government data and its interpretation that drove the policy, the implications of which are still affecting Tanzania now.” However, he adds: “This study opens the minds of some people who once believed that this is a disease that affects only the elderly,” says Ndosi.

Most Tanzanians use traditional medicines
The acting director of Healthcare Services at the Health Ministry, Dr Caroline Damiani, has said that over 60% of Tanzanians use traditional medicines to treat different diseases before or after trying ordinary health-care centres. Dr Damiani made the remark when opening a training seminar for traditional doctors. The seminar aimed at exchanging experiences among the herbalists and discussing various challenges and strategies of improving the profession of traditional and alternative medicine so that it can continue benefitting Tanzanians.

“Over 60% of Tanzanians, at one time or another, get treated by traditional medicine against various diseases before or after going to our health centres or hospitals providing modern health-care services,” said Dr Damiani. She said the main goal of the seminar was to ensure that traditional medicines were better from the stages of growing, harvesting, manufacturing, preserving to the stage of reaching the consumer so that there should not be side-effects.

According to Dr Damiani, the Health Ministry, through the Traditional and Alternative Health Practice Council, has registered 73 types of traditional medicine, out of which 20 had positive results during the period of fighting against the Covid-19 disease.

For his part, the representative of traditional and alternative medicine doctors, Mr Shaban Omary Shekilindi – who doubles as the Lushoto MP (CCM) – praised the ministry and its traditional and alternative medicine unit, for organising the seminar.