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REVIEWS

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BOOKS

SELECTED STUDIES OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN TANZANIA. Eds. Waheeda Shariff Samji and Alana Albee. Dar es Salaam: Department for International Development, 2000. 103 pages.

TANZANIA WITHOUT POVERTY. Arusha: HakiKazi Catalyst, 2001. 36 pages.

These two booklets are funded by the British ‘aid’ department DFID, but the editors and writers are Tanzania based and the focus of both publications is the poverty reduction programme in Tanzania. ‘Selected Studies’ is an academic treatment of several aspects of the current approach to civil society, while ‘Tanzania without Poverty’ is a popularising version of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which emanates from the Vice President’s Office (it also exists in a Kiswahili text). Both are enhanced by ‘Masoud’s hard hitting and sometimes agreeably cynical cartoons.

In Selected Studies the overview of civil society in Tanzania by Stefan Kossoff is the most accessible article for a non specialist reader. The author writes with the confidence that comes from a staff post under a major donor, and states the downside as well as the favourable aspects; typically for Tanzania, the picture is a mixed one between pluralism and authoritarianism. He discusses the numerous categories of civil society organisations: human rights and legal aid, democracy and political empowerment, the churches and the media, anti corruption, independent research organisations and the political parties. The dominance of donor strategies in the field is clearly established, and the risky area of donor involvement in ‘political empowerment’ is touched upon. The second chapter (Dangor and Nadison) is written from a South African base, and draws interesting experience from there to illuminate the Tanzanian problem. It is perhaps a little optimistic about the results achieved, and emphasises the special areas of gender and disability which are subsumed in Tanzania by the general term ‘vulnerability’. Other chapters deal with the means of supporting village groups and organisations (Hobbs) and the field experience of SAW AT A (Saidia Wazee Tanzania) working with the elderly in Kagera District (O’Donoghue).

Tanzania without Poverty is more clearly a government based policy document, though infinitely more open to public opinion than were earlier ‘official handouts’. Political reform is touched; upon, but regarded as outside the core interest of poverty reduction. The language of the booklet is modest, and it amounts to a serious attempt to set out the whole government approach to development and poverty reduction, in simple language. Targets, activities and indicators are explained, together with a section on the sources of funding.

Civil society has been ‘flavour of the month’ in the development field for some 10 or 15 years now. As Hyden analyses it, earlier thinking was about development -for the people, then with the people, until it became development by the people with the thinking was about development -for the people, then with the people, until it became development by the people with the support of governments and donors. This was not so much a change in ideology, but rather a pragmatic response to the failure of the former’ aid’ efforts to achieve useful objectives. It slowly became apparent to donors that bureaucracy and inefficiency in government prevented any cost effective results. By the 1980s this conclusion was reinforced by general financial breakdown, which made even governments anxious to hand down responsibility to other groups in the society. Community inputs were required if any progress was to be achieved towards the aim of poverty reduction but could they be obtained if the state itself was centralising and clientilist?

The problem is that civil society organisations are not equipped for the essential tasks of questioning state officials and defending individual freedoms; having no defined position in the state they easily become coopted by the rich and powerful elements in their community. By their nature they are not competent to practise legitimate, inclusive and accountable decision making over public resources. This is the role which local government is designed to play, yet donor agencies have currently left local government on the back burner while they pursue development through non-state organisations. In this reviewer’s opinion it is a dangerous choice. Popular energies will be released, if at all, through political decentralisation: voting by electors, budgeting and service administration and development planning by councillors. If poverty reduction programmes are to be self sustaining, they need to give more attention to the political. To quote Markovitz, state and society do not stand apart in Africa, (on the contrary) all interests seek the support of the state. In the final assessment it will be local democracy, in whatever form, that alone can give lasting results.
Philip Mawhood

REASON FOR HOPE. AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. Jane Goodall and Philip Berman. Thorsons 2000.282 pages. £8.99.

Jane Goodall’s autobiography (structured by Philip Berman) is a ‘book and a half packed with so many interesting stories, thoughts, happenings that I dare not miss a paragraph but had to read the whole book before venturing to review it. lane is probably known to most of us as the lady who went to live among the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. Her interest in all living things began early; at 18 months taking a handful of earthworms to bed, she hurriedly returned them to the garden on being told they would die in bed. At four years old she hid in a hen house for four hours in order to discover how hens laid eggs.

Her dream of going to Africa was realised in 1957 when she was invited by friends to Kenya. This led to a meeting with Dr Loius Leakey and she became his personal assistant, accompanying him to Olduvai Gorge. Louis was interested in research into chimpanzees who are man’s nearest relative. He wanted someone with a ‘mind unbiased with scientific theory’ but with a love of animals and ‘monumental patience’. Jane filled the bill and went to Gombe, near Kigoma, in 1960 aged 26 and accompanied by her remarkable mother for the first five months, as required by the British government.

During these early days Jane made the amazing discovery that chimps used and ‘made’ tools; that is to say they selected and modified twigs or grasses to extract termites from their earth; mounds. Hitherto it was thought that only man was a toolmaker. Now Louis was able to obtain a grant from the National Geographic Society for Jane to continue her research.

In the book Jane describes her observations and her growing empathy with the chimps, pointing out that personalisation of animals was rather frowned upon in scientific circles at that time.

Between 1964 and 1974 lane obtained her PhD in Ethology (Animal Behaviour) from Cambridge and later became an adjunct professor at Stanford University. She married Hugo van Lawick, Wildlife photographer, and they had a son, commonly known as Grub. Together they built up the research station at Gombe which was to become ‘one of the most dynamic interdisciplinary field stations for the study of animal behaviour in the world’.

Jane’s second marriage was to Derek Bryceson, whose story she tells briefly. He was then a much respected Tanzanian MP and Director of National Parks. Very sadly, Derek died after four years of marriage. Jane found healing in the forests of Gombe, in the wonderful diversity and resilience of nature, and in the spiritual power she feels so strongly is around us. The book contains a lot of philosophical thought about life and death, good and evil. Jane has a tremendous ability to recall and relive her very full life. Personal encounters with many interesting people make fascinating reading and indeed help us to put life into perspective. The back cover of the book calls Jane ‘one of the most extraordinary and inspiring women of the 20th century’. I think I agree.
Christine Lawrence

NOTE: the Jane Goodall Institute, with branches in several countries, comprises a) the Gombe Research Centre; b) TACARE (Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education) established in 1994 with funding from the European Union; it addresses the inter-related problems of poverty and unsustainable land use in 30 villages; c) Sanctuaries for Orphan Chimps in Congo Brazzaville, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania; it rescues chimps illegally taken from the wild and d) ‘Roots and Shoots’ -programmes for young people started in Tanzania in 1991 and now in over 20 countries.

The Jane Goodall Institute-UK is a registered charity number 327858, and is open for membership. Jane’s books may be bought from it -15 Clarendon Park, Lymington, Hants S041 8AX

GUNS AND GHANDI IN AFRICA. PAN AFRICAN INSIGHTS ON NON-VIOLENCE, ARMED STRUGGLE AND LIBERATION IN AFRICA. Bill Sutherland and Matt Meyer. Africa World Press. £14.99 (Paper).

Bill Sutherland became well known in Tanzania from 1953 when, among other things he was a special assistant to the Sixth Pan African Congress in Tanzania. This book includes contributions from many leaders in the fight against colonialism including Julius Nyerere and Salim Ahmed and examines the strategies and tactics they used in their struggles.

INTERSECTING PLACES, EMANCIPATORY SPACES, WOMEN JOURNALISTS IN TANZANIA. Melinda Robins. This book is said to ‘take a critical feminist approach in an effort to recognise the complex relationships among economic and political systems, the media industries and those who produce its content. .. male and female journalists speak candidly about their experiences … we are taken home with the researcher (who lectures at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts) as she struggles with the ethnographic tradition and the realities of her day to day experiences.’

GENDER, F AMIL Y AND WORK IN TANZANIA. C Creighton and C K Omari. Ashgate. 2000 308pp. £50.

ZANZIBAR: THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE. 4TH EDITION. 2000. 296 pages. £12.95. Obtainable from the Africa Book Centre, Covent Garden. Tel:020 7240 6649.

POLITICAL CULTURE OF LANGUAGE. SWAHILI, SOCIETY AND THE STATE. A new edition. Ali and Alamin Mazrui. USA. Institute of Global Cultural Studies. 305 pp. £12.95. From Africa Book Centre. Comprises essays on Swahili and its uses in markets, mosques and politics in East Africa.

SWAHILI-ENGLISH; ENGLISH-SWAHILI DICTIONARY. Nicholas Awde. Hippocrene Books Inc. New York, 2000. 586 pp. Large pocket size. $19.95; in London it can be obtained at prices varying from £13.99 to £17.50. It claims it has over 35,000 entries.

The second edition of the TUKI ENGLISH SWAHILI DICTIONARY. Institute of Kiswahili Research, University of Dar es Salaam. 924 pages compared to the first edition’s 882 pages. London price of £30. (Thank you Peter White for letting us know about these two dictionaries -Editor).

TANZANIAN ARTS DIRECTORY. UK. Visiting Arts. 1999. £10.00.
A PLAGUE OF PARADOXES: AIDS, CULTURE AND DEMOGRAPHY IN NORTHERN TANZANIA. Philip Setel. Chicago University Press. 2000. 308pp. £13.50 (paperback).

BY THE SEA. Abdulrazak Gurnah. Bloomsbury. This well known Tanzanian novelist’s latest novel tells the story of a journey. Of necessity Saleh Omar has fled Zanzibar to seek asylum by the grey waves of the English Channel and this is the story of his experiences.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

EXPANSION OF PRIVATE SECONDARY EDUCATION: LESSONS FROM RECENT EXPERIENCE IN TANZANIA. Gerard Lassibille, Jee-Peng Tan and Suleman Sumra. Comparative Education Review, February 2000.

The education scene in Tanzania is depressing. The post­independence attempt to link enrolment in schools with manpower projections, at a time when manpower planning was in a crude handicraft condition, has been disastrous. ‘Tanzanian children’ the paper states, ‘have amongst the lowest probability of attending secondary school of all children in the developing world.’ The enrolment rate has increased from 3 per cent to about 5 per cent! And the ones who get there have often been robbed of their opportunity of making adequate progress by the low quality of the primary schools they attended. The children are already so handicapped when they arrive at their secondary schools that they cannot make rapid progress there, without remedial attention.

This is not surprising. In common with many African countries, the share of the budget spent on education has been in steady decline. Since the brave days of the 60s and 70s, the amount of the budget spent on education has declined from 17 per cent to about 11 per cent between 1985 and 1994. The assumption is that it has continued to decline from the 66 per cent enrolment figure of 1996. Universal primary education seems to be further away every year, however many statements of intent to provide education for all are enthusiastically signed.

Private education is usually available for one or more of three reasons. The first is that there is not enough public education to go round. Since virtually all parents worldwide would like their children to have a better education than they have had themselves, they are ready to make any sacrifice to send their children to school. The second reason, which applies in countries where there is already adequate provision, is to provide an education of a higher quality than is to be found within the public school sector. This is usually done by attracting the best teachers by paying higher salaries, teaching in smaller classes and providing superior facilities. The third reason is to provide an education which gives access to the higher social classes in society. Where the fees are very high, only the rich will have access to the schools, and the next government and commercial ruling elite can be formed in schools to provide the next generation of rulers.

The third type can be found in most cities and large towns in Africa, as in other countries, by seeing which schools have the largest number of expensive cars parked outside, when children leave at the end of the school day. Nor are these schools necessarily private, though they generally are. It would be surprising if these schools do not exist in Tanzania.

For the most part, however, private schools in Tanzania are in the first category. They are simply filling a gap, making available a number of school places, which would not otherwise be available, ensuring that some children are going to school, who would otherwise not be able to do so. Unsurprisingly, the quality of education they provide is not always superior to that provided in the public schools.

They are governed by government regulations which are as restrictive as those which apply to public schools. They depend almost exclusively on school fees and private contributions to defray both recurrent and capital costs. While they pay slightly more to their teachers than public schools, most of them find it -impossible to give permanent contracts; the 39 per cent holding such a contract in the private schools compares poorly with the 95 per cent in the public schools. Consequently they depend very largely on new teachers, who are not faced with the necessity of sacrificing an existing contract. Consequently most heads in public schools are better qualified than those in the private schools, most of whom have no other experience of being head of a school.

Nevertheless the private schools are fulfilling their purpose in creating opportunities for many more children to go to school than would otherwise be possible, and while their results are not on the whole as good as those in the public schools, the difference is marginal. ‘In terms of examination results, students in both sectors perform equally poorly, with students averaging no more that one-third correct on the Form 4 examinations.’

The authors of the paper have the usual difficulty in accessing statistics that are really up to date, and in making adequate comparisons between the two systems they are studying. But they make a valiant attempt, and their paper provides a good deal of information which is highly suggestive for future decision making, while their final section provides some important proposals. Let us hope that they will be read not just by those who read journals like Comparative Education, but by policy makers who can actually provide change.
John Turner

LETTERS

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TOO MUCH ON POLITICS
I enclose my cheque to renew my subscription to Tanzanian Affairs for two years. The time I spent in Tanganyika from 1950 to 1962 was perhaps the happiest and certainly the most interesting part of my working life and I value greatly the link that Tanzanian Affairs represents with that time. I’m sorry to say, however, that the space devoted by TA to politics seems to me to be excessive. Politics is after all largely concerned with sharing out the economic cake and I am personally more concerned with the wealth generation that the economic cake represents rather than with its division. When there is plenty of wealth, all citizens benefit, but if there is not enough wealth the citizens are impoverished. Mentions of economic activity in TA are very broad brush -how, for example, are the old economic staples of cotton, coffee, cashew nuts and sisal faring nowadays? My particular interest lies in transportation, which is rarely mentioned although economic activity can only take place effectively in the presence of properly functioning transportation systems. One of my fondest memories is of the train from Dar es Salaam arriving punctually at Kigoma station in the early morning; I wonder if it still does so. TA sometimes mentions aid money being provided for some road or other, but rarely deals with the tiresome business of road maintenance. Is a road project added to the transportation capital by aid valued properly and cared for, or is it neglected and allowed to deteriorate until another lot of aid capital is needed to refurbish it? I found the review of ‘Complimentary Water Systems in Dar es Salaam: the case of water vending’ absolutely fascinating. But I should very much like to know the reasons for ‘the inability of public utilities to provide secure water provision to Dar es Salaam households’ .
Stephen Bowman

I am indebted to you for this constructive criticism which has been noted. A questionnaire sent to readers of TA some time ago indicated that political development was the subject readers were most interested in. You will be pleased to note that our Subscriptions Manager, Mary Punt, has persuaded Janet Horsman (many thanks to her) to write a piece for us on the roads of Tanzania as they appeared to her in July this year. As this article arrived just as we were going to press we have had to squeeze into two places. Meanwhile in Parliament much praise was bestowed by opposition MP’s on Minister for Works John Magufuli for striking off the register 859 out of2,210 road and other construction contractors for failure to abide by the conditions of their registration. The Minister told parliament that his budget allocation for this year of Shs 167,508,471,600 would cover, inter alia, rehabilitation and maintenance of the central corridor and Mtwara road projects, the 508km Dar-Kibiti-Lindi-Mingoyo road and major bridges -Editor.

POLITICAL LOBBYING
Thank you for another excellent bulletin. The item on p.24 [TA 69] is seriously dismaying and indicates that political lobbying is still needed -any expert comment you can include on this matter will be appreciated. Archbishop Mtetemela is concerned about current education in Tanzania -perhaps the Christian Council of Tanzania should challenge the government over it. May I add a note to the obituary of Eliewaha (NB spelling) Mshana (p.31)? He was the first Tanzanian to write an original work for the Swahili theological textbooks programme. It was a commentary on Ga1atians entitled ‘Tumewekwa Huru’, Completed in 1975, it included his own translation from the Greek text and was based on his lectures delivered at The Baptist Theological College, Arusha. His desire was that African culture should be properly recognised and that Christians should work out culturally appropriate ethics and lifestyles for contemporary Africa. I received much personal encouragement from Eliewaha in our endeavours to develop the theological book programme in Swahili.
Roger Bowen

PRESIDENT MKAPA TIGHTENS HIS GRIP

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THE JANUARY EVENTS
Following his overwhelming victory in the October 2000 elections President Mkapa and his ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party have made it clear that they are not prepared to tolerate any infringement of the law by members of an aggrieved political opposition unwilling to accept the results of the flawed election in Zanzibar last year (Tanzanian Affairs No 68). After apparently authorising his security forces to use tough measures against opposition Civic United Front (CUF) supporters protesting against the results of the elections, several of these supporters were killed and some hundreds, eventually building up to more than 2,000, including 14 MP’s, fled from Pemba to neighbouring Kenya as refugees. The result has been, as the President has himself admitted, considerable damage to Tanzania’s long standing reputation as a haven of peace, tolerance and unity.

34 MP’s OPPOSITION EXPELLED FROM PARLIAMENT
The trouble began with the October 29 elections in Zanzibar which many who witnessed them consider to have been rigged by the ruling CCM party. The elections were also accompanied by police violence against opposition supporters. CUF refused to recognise the new Presidents of Tanzania and Zanzibar and boycotted the Zanzibar House of Representatives and the Tanzanian National Assembly. After they had boycotted three sessions, the Speakers of the two houses, using powers granted to them under the constitutions, expelled CUF’s 15 MP’s in the National Assembly and the 19 CUF members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. This reduced the number of opposition MP’s in the National Assembly to 15 compared with 238 for CCM (the opposition parties had gained 28% of the total vote in the 2,000 presidential elections).

Two days before the expulsions, the government had rushed through the National Assembly an amendment to the election law, under a certificate of urgency, which stated that where a seat in parliament became vacant for any reason, a by-election could not be held until two years later. The remaining non-CUF opposition MP’s walked out of the Assembly in protest. The reason for the amendment was said to be the need for the government to have time to organise funding for the 34 byelections – these would normally have taken place within 50 days of the vacancies being created. This meant that a major part of the Zanzibar electorate were effectively disfranchised for two years. An opposition leader has challenged the new amendment in court.

However, an indication that the dramatic events of the last three months may not have disturbed the tranquillity of the mainland electorate in its choice of CCM to lead the country, came in five by-elections following the general election all of which were won by CCM.

ZANZIBAR ELECTIONS – THE AFTERMATH

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The unhappy series of events had begun with the Zanzibar elections in October/November 2000.

The government’s view that the elections had been free and fair was defended in the Dar es Salaam Guardian (January 25-26) by Prof. Ernest Njau of the University of Dar es Salaam. He argued that CUF’s refusal to recognise the previous Zanzibar President had created tensions which called for the setting up of a strictly secure atmosphere before the elections; there was not enough time to implement an agreement signed between the parties and brokered by the Commonwealth; if there were some accidental excesses during the enforcement of security measures they should not be used as a basis for baptising the whole exercise as a reign of terror and should be dealt with separately; no party had objected to the electoral roll or withdrawn from the elections; none had taken any legal action; the increase in the electoral roll from 349,000 in the 1995 elections to 455,000 in 2000 could only be faulted if the 1995 roll had itself been 100% correct but this was not certain; it was unfair to consider local headmen, who had been given responsibility to draw up the registers, unreliable, because they were appointed by CCM; crude statements allegedly made by CUF that (the new) President of Zanzibar was President Mkapa’s ‘Governor’ of Zanzibar and that the islands were under military occupation showed the true character of the party; after the elections there had been a bombing campaign and threats by CUF to use violence; the truth of the matter was that the election had been a continuation of a historical conflict dating back to before the 1964 revolution between those who believed in democracy and those who didn’t. The rest of the article summarised what it described as the long struggle of the people of Zanzibar against oppression since the arrival of the first Arab settlers in the year 950.

The opposition had strongly contested the conduct of and results of the elections as explained in Tanzanian Affairs No. 68.

THE SUBSEQUENT SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

OCTOBER 30. The day after the elections. Eighteen CUF leaders held in jail for three years on charges of treason were released. Three Tanzanian Appeal Court judges ruled that treason could not be committed against Zanzibar as it was not a sovereign state.

DECEMBER. The CUF opposition party called for peaceful rallies in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar for 27th January to protest against the Zanzibar election results. The government banned the protests but the CUF leadership decided to continue with them.

EARLY JANUARY. Former CCM Prime Minister Judge Joseph Warioba, acting for the Nyerere Foundation, began a one-man initiative to forestall the development of a crisis in Zanzibar. But CCM Vice-Chairman John Malecela was quoted in the Guardian as wondering what the Judge was trying to mediate as ‘there was no contention worth his attention’. He indicated that CCM would distance itself from the initiative.

Opening a new police station in Zanzibar on JANUARY 11 President Mkapa said that citizens should not fear more police stations because the stations were not meant to harass or victimise people; they were meant to protect them and their property so that they could take an active part in development. He castigated those who blamed the police for doing their duty. “This is not fair. We are discouraging our police. We should not blame the whole force because of one errant policeman. Actually we should congratulate and thank them” he said.

JANUARY 25. Ahead of the main rally, CUF organised a small meeting at Mbagala in Dar es Salaam. CUF stated its demands clearly – new elections in Zanzibar, the reform of both the mainland and Zanzibar Electoral Commissions and some changes to the constitutions. Police broke up the meeting with force declaring it to be illegal. CUF National Chairman, Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, a CUF MP and several CUF supporters were arrested and several were roughed up.

JANUARY 26. The day before the serious disturbances. Prof Lipumba, whose right arm was bandaged, and 16 others were in court on a charge of taking part in an unlawful assembly. Police shot dead two people and injured many others as they left a mosque amidst very tight security in Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar. Tanzanian Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye said that terrorist elements in the CUF ranks were bent on causing destruction of property and harming innocent Tanzanians for political expediency.

JANUARY 27. In Dar es Salaam riot police battled with demonstrators, gun shots were fired into the air and tear gas canisters were fired. Some 100 people were arrested. Serious disturbances took place in the CUF stronghold of Pemba. That the police were responsible for killing many civilians on that day and that hundreds of refugees subsequently fled to Kenya was accepted by all, but precisely what happened in Pemba, the centre of the disturbances, is a matter of dispute. The government’s statement on the events was as follows: 23 people had been killed including one policeman. CUF was responsible because it had disobeyed lawful government orders. Ten deaths had occurred when armed young people had invaded police stations in Micheweni and Wete intending to steal firearms. Police were forced to fire live ammunition in self defence when they were cornered. The police only fired after tear gas and rubber bullets had failed to disperse people. CUF claimed that some 60 people had been killed and that the police had used excessive violence against a peaceful series of protests.

The Tanzanian media quoted many angry reactions to the police violence: Examples: “Why do police carry on bludgeoning suspects/victims when they are lying passive and inert on the ground”; “The sickening terror and violence unleashed on unarmed demonstrators by the supposed guardians of the law reminded me of the dark days of apartheid”.

JANUARY 29. Forty CUF members (out of 140 arrested) appeared in court in Dar es Salaam charged with forming an illegal procession.

JANUARY 30. President Mkapa promoted 14 senior police officers including the head of the Field Force in Dar es Salaam and the Zanzibar CID Director.

LATE JANUARY. The previously disparate main opposition parties started working closely together with CUF for the first time to ‘draw up a strategy to create true democracy in the country’.

FEBRUARY 9. Tanzanians were surprised to learn that four prominent figures, all born in Tanzania, had been suddenly declared to be foreigners. They included former Tanzanian High Commissioner in Nigeria, Timothy Bandora and Sports Council head and former member of the CCM National Executive Committee, Jenerali Ulimwengu (he had presided over the TV programme on the earlier violence – see TA No 68 – which had shocked the people of Dar es Salaam by showing the extent of the police’s brutality in Zanzibar Town on October 30th). Both were said to be Rwandans.

FEBRUARY 16. The Guardian reported that unknown people had hacked to death the Chake Chake (Pemba) District Chairman of CCM.

MARCH 7. Zanzibar refugees at Shimoni on Kenya’s coast started a hunger strike to protest against proposals to transfer them to a permanent refugee camp at Daadab in north eastern Kenya’. President Mkapa called upon the refugees to return to Pemba but, according to ‘Africa Analysis’ (MARCH 23) a UNHCR visiting team had left the country unable to agree with the government that it was yet safe for them to return.

APRIL 7. Tanzania’s opposition party leaders led what ‘The East African’ estimated to be 50,000 people in a protest march in Dar es Salaam – it said it was one of the largest demonstrations in the history of Tanzania.

APRIL 11. The government said it would not yield to international and domestic pressure to investigate January’s violent clashes in Zanzibar. The opposition had demanded an independent enquiry. “I do not see the need to hold an independent enquiry” Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye told a news conference. “If the government was disputing the event and saying nobody died, then we would investigate. But we agree there were clashes and 23 people died” he said.

According to Majira, MAY 6 was scheduled for the trial of Seif Sharif Hamad and 19 other CUF leaders who had been charged with assaulting a police officer and stealing a gun in April 2000.

PRESIDENT MKAPA INTERVIEWED
In early February President Mkapa admitted that the killings in Zanzibar had soiled Tanzania’s good image. However, responding angrily to questions in a BBC interview, he attacked the media for exaggerating reports of the troubles, some foreign embassies for being biased in favour of the opposition CUF and foreign election observers for not having been in the country long enough to appreciate that the elections in Zanzibar had been free and fair. He added that if foreign donors wished to withhold aid they could do so – it was their choice.

IN FURTHER DEFENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT
‘Opposition parties in Tanzania need to realise the magnitude of their task in bringing about full democracy as their poor performance (in the elections) has been due to lack of vision, strategic programmes and poor mobilisation’. So said Professor Samwel Mushi of the University of Dar Salaam’s Department of Political Science in an interview with the Guardian. He gave credit to Tanzania’s previous single-party system arguing that CCM MP’s who could then challenge the government were now forced to remain silent as they could not speak against their own party. One of the problems with Tanzanian political parties was that they relied on personalities.

A stout defence of CCM and condemnation of CUF was published by the Dar es Salaam Sunday Observer on January 21. Extracts: ‘Those of us who know this country’s politics have been extremely disenchanted by the readiness of the international community to be hoodwinked by the foul cries of parties in the opposition particularly CUF. Since the 1995 elections CUF refused to recognise the President of Zanzibar. Why was the international community hoodwinked by CUF. Intellectuals, particularly university academia everywhere, are opinion leaders. Historically, intellectuals and particularly dons at the University of Dar es Salaam have always been opposed to the ruling party. In Zanzibar our intellectuals had no choice but CUF. Aware of CUF Secretary General Seif Sharif Hamad’s brief political history, having been raised from the dead by the late Mwalimu Nyerere, he has been a victim of self destruction through immeasurable greed and political ambition. It is no wonder that our most subjective social researcher supported Seif Sharif s claim that he had won Zanzibar’s elections although he did not participate in vote-counting. The 1995 and 2000 elections had demonstrated the lowest level of objectivity amongst journalists. Subjectivity has pervaded some intellectuals and journalists in support of very weak parties and politicians in most cases unknown to the people and had persuaded the international community not to recognise the previous President Dr Amour ….. Seif Sharif was a very clever fellow. . . .. His drive for the acquisition and maintenance of power was unrivalled. Criticisms against CCM by intellectuals and misguided news media were often wild and subjective …. CCM stands to be blamed for ignoring the empty attacks by the opposition. CCM could have helped the international community by exposing the shortcomings of leaders of the opposition ….. No time had been spent on appreciating CCM’s strength, historical credibility, and organisational network of members, leaders and cadres which began at the 1 a-cell level, had leaders trained in party colleges, a credible record in governance and human rights. It was the only party capable of maintaining peace, security, national harmony and cohesion in a region torn apart by tribal/religious inspired wars ….

DIVISIONS WITHIN THE PARTIES
Both main parties, CCM and CUF, have shown signs of division since the events of January.

CCM. President Mkapa said on March 13 that a number of different factions had emerged in the CCM party during the elections. He said that they should be disbanded. ‘Africa Analysis’ in an examination of the circumstances under which President Mkapa had hardened his position in his dealings with Zanzibar, wrote that the President had only a weak power base within the CCM and was heavily reliant on his principal adviser and veteran politician Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru and army and police chiefs. It also considered that there was a split within the CCM between the old guard led by the controversial former prime ministers John Malecela and Cleopa Msuya and younger self-styled ‘reformers’ including Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete and MP Edward Lowassa. Others were said to be coalescing around former Prime Minister Joseph Warioba who were disappointed by the President’s actions in Zanzibar, his alleged lack of direction in fighting corruption and his zeal in paying off the country’s debts. There was also a rift said to be arising from the way in which mainland CCM leaders had prevented former President Amour from standing for a third term in Zanzibar and replacing him as presidential candidate by Amani Karume. This had affected the latter’s authority now that he had become President of Zanzibar. In an earlier article AFRICA ANALYSIS said that President Mkapa was now ‘wobbly’ within his CCM power base because of his ‘inept handling’ of the Zanzibar crisis. It spoke of his ‘dictatorial tendencies’.

CUF. With tension still high in Zanzibar, the Secretaries General of CCM and CUF suddenly announced in March that they had signed an agreement designed to reduce the tension – see below. This caused considerable consternation amongst Seif Hamad’s CUF supporters but Hamad explained that he was not calling off the boycott of parliament. A number of dissidents broke away to form a new party which they called the ‘National Alliance Party’. On April 19 it was reported in Mtanzania that the dissident CUF members had started a party to be called ‘Forum for the Restoration of Democracy’. Hamad accused the dissidents of being set up by CCM.

‘Africa Analysis’ explained the situation as follows: ‘Like any other party CUF is an alliance of different persuasions. The majority moderate centre group has been advocating peaceful change for five years but now warns that this has had no effect. CUF promised to share power with CCM if it won the 2000 elections but there is pressure from more extreme elements in the party, concentrated in Pemba, who would like to break up the union and restore the Sultanate which was overthrown in the 1964 revolution. There is even talk of the possible introduction of Sharia law… This faction will increase in influence unless there is some progress towards reform’.

LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONCERN
The list of people and organisations expressing concern or shock at what happened around January 27th (as explained in the Guardian), included the EU, the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Japanese representatives in Dar es Salaam, the Secretary General of the OAU, Human Rights Watch, the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Group Article 19, Professor Haroub Othman, Chairman of the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre who said that force was not the answer to the problems of Zanzibar, the Tanzania Law Society, which said that there should be a judicial commission of enquiry, the University of Dar es Salaam’s Academic Staff Assembly and Students Organisation and the Legal Aid Committee who called for an end to the ‘culture of violence’. The Commission for Human Rights and Justice, after visiting the refugees in Kenya spoke of the ‘eternal shame for Tanzania’ and the need to bring the violence to an end.

On March 2 the Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office was quoted in ‘The East African’ as having accused ‘Amnesty International’ of sneaking into the country and issuing an exaggerated report on the political stalemate in Zanzibar. Amnesty had called for an independent enquiry into the troubles.

OTHER COMMENTS
Tanzania had a bad press internationally following the events in Zanzibar. Both parties in the dispute were criticised for their actions but the general conclusion was that the government had used excessive force following Zanzibar elections which most commentators had believed were rigged.

Reflecting on what it described as the ‘Nyerere legacy’, Africa Today’ (March) wrote that the 37 year old union between the mainland and Zanzibar seemed to have run its course. Now that Zanzibar President Karume (who was assassinated in 1972) and Mwalimu Nyerere (who died last year), the authors of the Union, were no more, there was no glue to hold it together. The article (by Jackson Malulu) went on to say that therein lay one of the harshest commentaries on Mwalimu’s legacy. After imposing a union on a reluctant nation, he failed to institutionalise it and failed to notice when the country had grown tired of it. Now the chickens were coming home to roost.. … In the early 1980s when Tanzanians had been given the chance to debate the Tanzania they wanted, the Zanzibaris overwhelmingly went for a three-government (Tanganyika, Zanzibar and the Union) structure while mainlanders identified human rights abuses as the most fundamental issue. The same issues still divided the country down the middle. President Mkapa was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was a political orphan of Mwalimu and could not afford to be seen to be in a hurry to do away with his mentor’s pet project. Yet objective conditions demanded that he did exactly that. Public opinion in the wake of the Zanzibar chaos was firmly for a national dialogue on Tanzania’s future. This is what respected law scholar Issa Shivji had called the ‘silver lining in the cloud’ that had settled on Tanzania after 27th January.

The absence of parliamentarians from the opposition camp in the National Assembly and House of Representatives was a blow to democracy as the ruling CCM MPs could not freely criticise their governments in the two houses of parliament. The former Minister for Home Affairs, Ali Ameir Mohamed, was quoted in the Guardian on April 9 as saying that opposition MPs were in a better position than CCM MPs to question and criticise the governments. He was commenting on the sacking of the 15 CUF MPs from the National Assembly and 19 CUF representatives from the House of Representatives for failing to attend three consecutive House sessions without giving acceptable reasons. Mohamed, former CCM Deputy Secretary General (Zanzibar) and a current member of the CCM National Executive Committee, criticised CUF decisions, arrived at because of poor advisers, which pushed democracy to the brink of an abyss. He said the expulsion of the 34 CUF legislators from the Houses was necessitated by their neglect to abide by the constitution and that they even failed to notify relevant authorities of their absence. A political party cannot just wake up and expect to come to power without having long-term plans to acquire political power, he said. Although one of the major demands of the opposition was for the reform of electoral institutions, they forgot that one of their roles in the House was to urge for a change of laws which they thought were undemocratic. However, Mohamed suggested a review of the legislation that made the CUF legislators lose their seats. This should be done to build democracy. He contended that CUF failed to be effective politically because its leaders yearned to go to the State House before they were due. CUF failed to come up with strategies which could enable the party to win the elections and occupy the State House legally instead of boycotting House sessions. “It is an open secret that CUF is a powerful party, but it fails to achieve its objective without preparing the means,” he said.

In early April the London-based press freedom watchdog ‘Article 19’ published a detailed report entitled ‘Freedom of Association and Assembly – Unions, NGO’s and political freedom in sub Saharan Africa’ in which Tanzania was one of the case studies. The report warned that there was not yet democracy in Africa. Ruling parties still had too much control. In Tanzania, it noted that under the Political Parties Act the conditions imposed on the registration of new parties were cumbersome and that the Act effectively compelled all parties to support the policy of keeping the Union. In commenting on the report ‘The East African’ wrote that recent political manoeuvring by CCM pointed towards the country’s backsliding towards a one-party state with only 15 opposition MP’s left in parliament.


INDICATIONS OF RECONCILIATION
On March 9 CCM’s Secretary General Philip Mangula and his CUF opposite number Seif Shariff Hamad had caused some surprise when they announced that they had signed an agreement which called upon the two parties to put past hatreds behind them and restore normal political life. Between April 9 and 23 CCM and CUF technical committees continued to meet on reducing political tensions but reached agreement on only one of the four items on the agenda. Discussions were to continue.

As this issue of TA went to press the Swahili paper Nipashe, under the banner headline ‘CUF compromises on refugees’ wrote that Zanzibar refugees in Kenya might be prepared to return home following an assurance from Minister for Home Affairs Mohamed Seif Khatib, that all but four, who would be charged, could now return home without risk of prosecution. However, on April 28 the Guardian wrote that 700 mostly young refugees had agreed to move to the UNHCR-supported camp at Daadab in Kenya and had said that they would not return to Pemba until the release of CUF members said to be held in police stations and there was an independent commission of enquiry.

CCM SUCCESS
CCM received a great boost and the opposition a severe blow in the by-election in Busega (Mwanza Region) when candidate Raphael Chegeni (CCM) obtained 22,512 votes against the recent presidential candidate, former deputy leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and leader of the United Democratic party (UDP) John Cheyo, who got only 18,044. The loss was all the greater because, for the first time, all the opposition parties had stood together in support of Cheyo. These results and four other CCM by-election results indicated that there had been virtually no change in popular opinion in the country since the October general elections.

“TANZANIA WILL BE THIRD IN AFRICA NEXT YEAR”

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Tanzania is set to become Africa’s third largest gold producer (after South Africa and Ghana) next year, producing over one million ounces following the opening of a third modern large scale gold mine later this year, says Tanzania Chamber of Mines Chairman Samuel Lwakatare, quoted in the Guardian. With two modem mines already in operation, revenues from gold production skyrocketed to 184 million dollars (about Shs 147,888m) last year compared with 3.3 million dollars in 1998. Canada’s Barrick Gold is set to open the country’s first underground gold mine in July in the northwestern Bulyanhulu, Kahama District, with annual production forecast at 400,000 ounces. The mine, sitting on gold reserves of 10 million ounces, will operate alongside Australian Resolute’s Golden Pride Mine whose annual production is around 202,000 ounces, and the Geita gold mine – a joint venture between Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields and South Africa’s Anglogold. The Geita mine which began official production last August is Africa’s second largest gold mine with annual production estimated to total 500,000 ounces.

Lwakatare explained that Tanzania’s mining development stalled after the country adopted socialism soon after independence in 1961. Production declined to an all time low of 84 ounces in 1975 against a peak of 100,000 ounces in 1938 under British rule. But a new mining act in 1998 opened the sector up to foreign investment and that policy is now bearing fruit, with Tanzania attracting many investors. Some 300 licences have been issued to mining companies while investment in gold exploration since 1998 is estimated at $870 million. The government aims for mining to contribute 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025 compared with 2% in 1998. Another gold mine operated by Afrika Mashariki with annual production estimated at 140,000 ounces is expected to open in 2000 Lwakatare said. “Other prospects in Geita, around the Lake Victoria greenstone belt are promising,” he added. Lwakatare said an evaluation project for nickel, cobalt and copper deposits in northwestern Kabanga district by Barrick Gold had proved successful. “There’s every possibility that if things remain correct, there’s potential for a big base metal mine opening soon,” he said, adding that exploration for copper and lead was also going on in the south near Lake Malawi.

EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY LAUNCHED – AFRICAN UNION TREATY RATIFIED

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At a ceremony in Arusha attended by thousands of people on 16th January Presidents Mkapa, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda formally inaugurated the East African Community (EAC) comprising 74 million people. President Mkapa said that he was optimistic that the EAC would bring together labour and natural resources and expand regional markets for a strong economy. He called on the new community to learn from other regional groupings such as SADC, ECOWAS and the European Union to see how best the community could be nursed. The Economist Michela Wrong was quoted in the Guardian as saying that if East African cooperation were to succeed no one would be able to claim more credit than President Mkapa who, immediately after the 1995 elections, had set out on a whirlwind tour of East Africa and managed to bring together the Presidents of Uganda and Kenya who had many differences at the time.

Tanzania ratified on April 3 the Consultative Act of the African Union becoming the 34th OAU member state to do so. 36 members are required for the treaty to come into force. Among other things the Union will have a continental parliament and a court and has the power to intervene militarily where there is a fundamental breach of human rights.

MISCELLANY

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Amongst those given awards by the Queen recently are sister Maria Lia Schwarzmuller for services to leprosy relief (OBE) Catherine Joan Allen for services to education (MBE) and Dr Elizabeth Annie Hills for services to health care in Tanzania (MBE).

A modern Shs 13.6 billion office building to accommodate the British High Commission, the embassies of Germany and the Netherlands, the EC Delegation and Britain’s Department for International Development, is being built at the corner of Mirambo and Garden Avenue in Dar es Salaam. According to the British High Commission’s Ian Gleason, quoted in the Guardian, this would be the first time worldwide that the four partners had developed a shared building.

Certain US Scientists have come to the conclusion that the famous snows on top of Mount Kilimanjaro will completely vanish within two decades because of global warming, felling of trees, forest fires and overpopulation.

‘Panic hit the streets of Tabora yesterday as the tall, menacing figure of Idi Amin was seen marching down the main drag … he was accompanied by an entourage of fully armed semi-naked Kakwa warriors …. 37 of his children brought up the rear. .. ‘ – from the Guardian (April!).

BUSINESS NEWS

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IMF Deputy Director, African department, Anupam Basu, has commended the Tanzanian government for its remarkable macro-economic stability. It had managed to stabilise the inflation rate at five per cent, economic growth rate at four per cent and to have very strong foreign exchange reserves which had risen three times to over $900 million. “By maintaining these fundamental economic indicators, unlike other countries, Tanzania’s future stood to be very bright in a few years’ time” he said.

The Swahili daily Majira reported that for the last ten years Britain has been the leader in the number and value of investment projects in Tanzania. The paper quoted a report by the Investment Centre (TIC) saying that between 1990 and 2000 there were 255 British projects followed by Kenya (92), India (60), USA (59), Canada (54), Germany (54), Italy (50), China (47) and the Netherlands (41).

‘News Africa’ (9th April) reported that one of the largest ever foreign investments in Tanzania had been finalised in the telecoms sector. A consortium of MSI Cellular and the German telecoms services company Detecom had finalised a strategic investment agreement worth US dollars 120 million with Tanzania Telecommunications Ltd (TTCL). The commitment was to improve the fixed network and expand the cellular network to at least 800,000 lines. MSI cellular had been licensed by 14 governments in Africa.

In what he described as a remarkable development, Tanzania Investment Centre Director Emmanuel Ole Naiko told the Guardian in January that, during the year 2000, parastatal divestitures had been finalised in the cases of the Container Terminal of the Tanzania Harbours Authority and the Dar es Salaam Airport Cargo Handling Company. Others which had reached advanced stages included the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd and the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority. Other enterprises whose preparations for divestiture were well under way included the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, Air Tanzania Corporation, Tanzania Railways Corporation, the National Insurance Corporation and the National Microfinance Bank. He was concerned that investors had shown little interest in the energy sector even though Tanzania was facing an acute shortage of power. Manufacturing industry however had attracted 725 projects in recent years followed by tourism with 233 and agriculture with 117 projects. He said that strenuous efforts were being made to promote the information technology, human resources development and services sectors.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is introducing daily flights to Tanzania from Amsterdam from 28th May, making it the first international airline to do so. KLM’s regional manager in Tanzania said that passengers had increased from 891 to 1,582 per week during the last year – East African.

Recent grants of AID to Tanzania have included: JAPAN – Shs 4.8 billion for food, debt relief and rehabilitation of the Makuyuni-Ngorongoro Road and THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION through the AFRICAN YOUTH ALLIANCE – Shs 165 million for prevention of HIV amongst adolescents.

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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AFRICAN TIGER
OPPORTUNITY AFRICA (first quarter 2001) wrote that Tanzania had the potential to become one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Since the mid-1990s, strong pursuit of economic reform had enhanced Dar es Salaam’s status in the international financial community. Much of the credit for competent financial governance and the liberalisation of key economic sectors went to the Bank of Tanzania which acted as an adviser to the Government. The bank was one of the few independent central banks in Africa. Its main goals were preserving currency stability and low inflation. It had pursued a tight monetary policy which had underpinned positive real interest rates and thus provided incentives for savings. Prudent policies had also contributed to subdued inflation – this year it was projected at below 6% compared to 37% in 1994.

‘UNTIL DEATH DO US PART’
Under this heading TIME MAGAZINE (February 12th) told the story of the white woman in Botswana (Mariette Bosch) who was recently hanged for murder. It went on to state that there was another blonde white woman sitting in a cell in Arusha prison who, if convicted, could also be hanged. Kerstin Cameron, a 40 year-old German national had been charged with the murder of her estranged husband Cliff. She was initially told that she had no legal case to answer. On July 4th, 1998 her husband left an Arusha hotel where he had been staying and in which he had been drinking heavily and went to visit her and the children at their home. A few hours later, he was dead in the bedroom, a bullet in his head. The Tanzanian police twice investigated and twice concluded that Cameron, a 42-year old bush pilot, had committed suicide. But later, pressure from his husband’s New Zealand relatives had dramatically altered things and she had been arrested in May last year. The inquiry was said to be now bogged down in the Tanzanian legal system as a result of undue pressure from New Zealand politicians plus bureaucratic inefficiency, post-colonial sensitivities and murky suspicions. German officials were demanding a quick and fair resolution of the case (Thank you to several readers who sent this item and a similar story in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (February 24) under the heading ‘White mischief on an African night’ – Editor)

MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION
NEW AFRICAN (April 2001) devoted a page to what it described as Tanzania’s ‘mobile phone revolution’. This was said to be highly significant for a country where just five years ago a mobile phone was something that dreams were made of; now, Tanzania had as many mobile phone lines as fixed lines. Mobitel had 60% of the market and attributed its success to maximising consumer choice in the form of affordable handsets, extensive geographic coverage, pre-paid systems and flexible pricing structures.

CLOVEHONEY
The TROPICAL AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION’S
NEWSLETTER in December contained an article by Antony Ellman on clove honey production in Pemba. He explained how he had been recruited to undertake, with staff of the Evergreen Trust (a small NGO established in Pemba in 1995), a survey of agricultural production and marketing opportunities suitable for small scale producers. Prime emphasis was to be placed on beekeeping. He went on to explain that clove honey was one of the few commodities produced on Pemba for which demand exceeded supply (it had a high reputation in the Gulf) and that steps to raise the quantity and quality of clove honey production could not only generate increased rural incomes with relatively little investment but also gave farmers an incentive to improve neglected clove plantations by adding value to the products. He described the various types of hive, colony management and honey and wax processing and marketing.

The GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA (March) reported that Tanzania had lifted members’ spirits by increasing its legislated quota of women MP’s from 15 to 20 (in addition to those elected) with the result that the number of women in parliament had increased from 16% to 21%; the percentage of women in cabinet had increased from 13% to 15% (Thank you Joan Wicken for sending this item – Editor).

The EAST AFRICAN (12th February) devoted a page to the leading Tanzania Kiswahili scholar Professor Said Ahmed Mohammed from Bayreuth University in Germany. He was born in Zanzibar in 1947 and later studied and worked at the University of Dar es Salaam. He has authored or co-authored 16 titles in the linguistics and literature areas of Kiswahili. The article said that a critical look at his novels, plays and poems showed clearly that he was out to educate and expose the ills in society. He wondered why Kiswahili was not given the kind of status in East Africa that it had in the wider world. “Out there” he said, “Kiswahili is regarded highly; foreign students like studying it and speaking it grammatically”. In all foreign universities where he had taught he found Kiswahili extremely popular.

DECLINING SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
‘Tanzania is suffering a sharp decline in primary-school enrolment as a result of the ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Relief Programme (HIPC) sponsored by the World Bank/IMF which compels poor parents to contribute to the cost of their children’s education’ according to NEW AFRICAN (February). The article went on to explain how Tanzania, having adopted the third stage of the HIPC programme, was granted ‘nominal’ relief from its stifling debts. Part of the deal was the introduction of cost sharing in primary schools which meant that poor parents had to pay part of their children’s education; this immediately triggered a decline in school attendance. Tanzania expects to enjoy debt relief of $100 million when it ‘fully’ qualifies this year by moving to the ‘completion’ stage of the programme. The journal quoted debt campaigners as saying that in a real terms the HIPC ‘completion stage’ or ‘full qualification’ only meant that qualifying countries would ‘cough more funds’ from their dried-up treasuries for debt service. Tanzania’s annual debt service would be $167.5 million between 2002 and 2009 and would rise to $258 million between 2010 and 2018. At the moment, Tanzania spent 26 per cent of its total export earnings on debt servicing.

‘ELUSIVE, MAGICAL PARADISE BUT NOT GAY’
‘Zanzibar. It really is a place, not a cafe, bar, club or any other of the many other businesses that have used its name. No marketing firm could come up with a better word to evoke an elusive magical paradise. What is it about the word? If you were to blend the decayed grandeur of Lisbon, the commerce and religion of Morocco and the exotic spiciness of southern India and set it all on an island with Bounty-advert beaches, you might just get Zanzibar. It’s a zany place’. So wrote Paul Miles in GAY NEWS (February) whose visit to Zanzibar was arranged by the travel firm ‘Simply Tanzania’. The writer went on to say that if his readers were looking for a ‘happening gay scene’ Zanzibar was not the place. Homosexuality, as in all of Tanzania, was technically illegal. No-one in Zanzibar seemed to be working on anything connected with gay rights. Although there was a dearth of people willing to identify themselves as gay, everyone he spoke to seemed to think that it was not an issue. There was even a well known gay-run hotel in Stonetown.

NATIONAL PARKS
AFRICA TRAVEL (Spring 2001) devoted 46 pages of lavishly illustrated text to the national parks of Africa. The articles on Tanzania concentrated on walking around Loliondo with a Maasai guide (‘the kopjes – islands of tall granite rock and lush green foliage strung like an archipelago across the plains;) mountain cycling in the Tarangire National Park (‘the lodges are Tarzan and Jane style’) and diving in Mafia Island’s Marine Park (‘clouds of glassfish, groups of lionfish and violin sharks – we are illuminated within by what we see of Mafia’s beautiful, secret underworld’).

Another article in the same issue featured Fundu Lagoon on Pemba island. The article said that unlike its better-known neighbour, Pemba lacked the developed tourist infrastructure of Zanzibar which gave it a refreshing sense of naivety and a feeling of blissful isolation and tranquillity. The waters around Pemba were now regarded as one of the top diving locations in the world. Fundu Lagoon was the home of a fully qualified watersports centre. Prices were $275 per person per day which included snorkelling, discovery trips, mangrove canoe safaris, dhow sunset cruises and boat transfers.

ORGANIC COTTON WOOL
A brand new line in organic products, based on Tanzanian grown cotton and called ‘Simply Gentle Organic’ is being testmarketed through more than 1000 British Waitrose supermarkets by the manufacturer Macdonald and Taylor. Approximately 5% of the pack purchase price will be used to help Tanzanian farmers in development projects. The new organic range will include make-up removal pads, balls and loose packs. It is estimated that current cotton cultivation (nonorganic) results in 25% of worldwide insecticide use. Helped by environmental experts, organic cotton farmers in Tanzania attract beneficial insects to their cotton. The organic control methods include using trap plants (sunflower and pigeon pea), ox-driven weeding, crop rotation and the use of animal manure. Research has shown that organic cotton plots bordered by sunflowers have 10 times more beneficial ants which eat the eggs and larvae of the harmful cotton bollworm. (Thank you John Leonhardt for this item – Editor.)

COMING UP TOO FAST
“I am 23 ft under water and my heart is racing. I’m desperately trying to concentrate on my breathing, but everything feels unnatural. My mask has water in it and as I try to clear it, I keep moving my fins. Suddenly, I realise that I’ve reached the surface and start to panic. One of the things that I have learnt on this diving course is that coming up too fast could be fatal. I’m afraid that my lungs are expanding and that I am about to die in the middle of the Indian Ocean ….. Back in the boat I sit there shaking, wondering what on earth I’m doing here …. I decided to learn to dive when I became hooked on snorkelling a couple of years ago. It seemed like the logical next step. The words of the diving manuals should have rung warning bells. ‘If you live life on the edge or find pleasure in pure adrenaline, you should be a diver’. I’m no adrenaline junkie. Yet here I was at the diving school at Fundu Lagoon in Pemba. The Pemba Channel is reputed to be one of the best diving sites in the world and the resort was outstanding – pristine beaches dotted with mangroves and fabulous views of the blue, blue sea from every room – Clare Thomson writing in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH on January 7th. The same paper (March 10) reported even more glowingly about diving in MAFIA – ‘Two giant groupers, each at least 6 ft. long, pairs of huge spotted sweetlips, angelfish at least 3 ft. long and endless varieties of jumbo-sized butterfly fish, the largest black sting-ray I have ever encountered, a good 4ft.across … the diving site was Kinasi Pass (Thank you Donald Wright for this ~ Editor).

AN AFRICAN SUCCESS STORY
Under this heading the American CHRONICLE OF EDUCATION (6th April) published an article by Burton Bollag which included some very good news about the University of Dar es Salaam. Brief extracts: ‘The university’s air-conditioned internet cafe is usually packed with students checking their email, or searching the Web for scholarship information. Across the hilly, green campus, the law school is busy putting its course outlines and reading materials online. The university library is getting a new wing, and new buildings are going up to provide more classrooms and a faculty office. Dar is one of a handful of African universities winning praise — and increased financial support from the West — for their efforts to transform themselves ….. When four major foundations based in the United States announced a five-year, $100-million aid package for African higher education last year, they singled out three institutions (Mozambique, Makerere and Dar) whose own efforts made it likely that they would be able to benefit from assistance in strategic planning, curriculum development, and increasing financial autonomy. Dar es Salaam is also one of the first institutions receiving support through the program. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, one of the four foundations, has awarded the university a three-year, $3.5-million grant for new technology, for library improvements, and to study the effectiveness of the reforms adopted there ….. Dar has scored a number of significant successes since embarking on its Institutional Transformation Program, in the early 1990’s. It has begun creating new degree programs in response to Tanzania’s rapidly changing needs — for example, in public health, computer hardware and software, and transportation engineering. It has become probably the best-wired sub-Saharan university outside South Africa, with most campus buildings connected to the Internet via high-speed, fiber-optic cables. The university has cut costs by sharply reducing its non-academic staff, farming out such services as operating cafeterias and cleaning dormitories to private companies. It has generated new sources of income by offering evening degree programs in business administration for fee-paying students (all students theoretically pay tuition, but for many undergraduates that remains theory, not practice) providing consulting and training to companies and government agencies, and selling computer services and software. And on a continent with a glaring gender imbalance in higher education, Dar has instituted an affirmative action policy that has increased the enrolment of female students from 16% of the student body seven years ago to 29% today …. Courses in “African Socialism” have been eliminated, and research on such topics has been discouraged ….. (Thank you Peg Snyder for sending this article – Editor)

OLIVE BABOONS AND BLACK RHINOS
BBC WILDLIFE (December) reported that wild-caught olive baboons awaiting export from Tanzania for use in international biomedical research were being kept in the ‘worst conditions ever seen’ according to an undercover investigation carried out by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). Investigators had infiltrated two businesses in Arusha where baboons were often held for some weeks before being shipped to the USA. At one holding station, the Tanzanian Wildlife Corporation, they found an entire baboon family in one cage with the adult male desperately trying to protect his family despite the confines of his captivity. BUAV is calling on the Tanzanian authorities to place an embargo on the export of baboons.

In January the same magazine reported that the black rhino, once the most successful member of its family, was now listed as critically endangered; there were thought to be only 60 to 70 left in Tanzania compared with the estimated 10,000 30 years ago. 70% of those remaining were believed to live in the Selous Game Reserve; those which were left constituted about 6% of the world population. They had survived mainly due to their inaccessibility and remoteness. The article want went on to describe the work of the Selous Rhino Project. Tanzania’s Wildlife Division had assigned six scouts to the project in January 1996 but their task was difficult because, unlike their larger, less fierce ‘white’ rhino cousins, which were happy to eat grass in wide open spaces, black rhinos favoured very thick bush and could not be seen easily from the air. The Scouts had to walk until they found them and averaged 1000 kms for every rhino sighted. Protecting rhinos was reported to be an expensive business – some $32 per km with one ranger covering perhaps 150 kms. Future plans included the development of DNA fingerprinting from samples of dung. This non-invasive method used micro-satellite markers enabling the detection of genetic variability within the small, fragmented rhino groups. (Those wishing to support this project should contact ‘Save the Rhino International at 02073577474. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for sending these two items -Editor).

THE WORK OF SIXTY ARTISTS
THE EAST AFRICAN (15th January) featured the ‘Art in Tanzania 2000’ exhibition which was held in Dar es Salaam in December. It was described as more successful than the previous exhibitions with about half the displayed works being sold. It featured works by almost 60 artists living in Tanzania and comprised sculptures, paintings, cartoons and photographs. Prices ranged between $187 and $500. More than 1,000 art lovers attended the exhibition over the three weeks that it was on. Probably the most striking work was said to have come from Damian Msagula from Mtwara. His paintings were said to have a touch of Ethiopian art while retaining a strong individuality that set them apart from the swarm of tingatinga paintings on display. Msagula has had his work exhibited in Belgium, Finland, Ethiopia, South Africa and Germany.

GENETIC FINGERPRINTS OF ELEPHANTS
Tanzanian, Kenyan and US scientists have been collecting samples from across the African continent to establish whether there are sufficient variations in elephant DNA to identify a piece of ivory from a particular region. Mapping the genetic fingerprints of elephants (each elephant has a unique fingerprint) could provide conservation authorities with sufficient scientific evidence to secure court convictions against traffickers after seizure of illegal shipments of Ivory – The TIMES – February 24. (Thank you Simon Hardwick for sending this – Editor).