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WHAT DID JOHN OKELLO ACTUALLY DO?

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The first person heard on Zanzibar radio after the bloody revolution of January 12th 1964 was virtually unknown. His name was John Okello. He soon became very well known indeed in Zanzibar and around the world. But, after a short period in the limelight, he disappeared back into obscurity.

The Dar es Salaam ‘Express’s Samwillu Mwaffisi has been asking whether John Okello was the hero of the Zanzibar revolution or the villain. According to his article this is what happened.

John Okello was born in Uganda and travelled via Mombasa to Pemba to look for work on June 22, 1959. He worked first as a bricklayer and, later, in Zanzibar, as a carpenter. He joined the Afro-Shirazi Party and became an activist in opposing the government still headed at that time by an Arab sultan. The extent to which Okello planned the revolution is still not clear. He claimed that, 14 days before the revolution, he had picked 450 freedom fighters and had taken them in groups of 150 at a time to a forest where he trained them to shoot. The Zanzibar authorities have always maintained that he took no part in the planning of the revolution and that this was done by a 14-man revolutionary committee of the Afro- Shirazi party under the chairmanship of the Late Sheikh Abeid Karume who subsequently became President of Zanzibar. It was decided that for security reasons the Sheikh should be outside Zanzibar when the revolution took place and he went to Dar es Salaam. So it was Okello who announced on Zanzibar radio that the revolution had taken place. Okello also took part in the storming of the Ziwani armoury which provided the arms used in the revolution.

According to this account the Afro-Shirazi party had faced a problem. If Sheikh Karume was to be outside the country, who would announce the revolution? The revolutionary committee decided that, for the people to believe that a revolution had taken place, it was necessary to have someone with a deep, authoritative voice to announce it. A voice with a Zanzibar accent should be avoided as people would not believe it. Thus Okello became the spokesman of the revolution.

The revolutionary committee assumed that, after the announcement had been made and Sheikh Karume had returned, Okello would step aside. But he did not want to do so and made it clear that he himself was the leader of the revolution in several more radio broadcasts.

After his return Sheikh Karume summoned Okello and, among other things, discussed the possibility of some ‘bakhshish’ for his assistance. Okello is reported to have said that his lifelong ambition had been to build a house for his mother in Uganda. The Sheikh gave him Shs 80,000 and he went back to Uganda. The revolutionary authorities then declared him a prohibited immigrant and Sheikh Karume asked President Nyerere to talk to his friend President Obote of Uganda to make sure that Okello never returned to the isles. But Okello did return. When his plane landed in Zanzibar he found most of the senior members of the new revolutionary government at the airport and was told to return back to Dar es Salaam immediately. He was not allowed to speak to anyone else in Zanzibar and never returned again.

The writer of the article concludes that Okello must have played some part in the planning of the revolution. Had he stopped after doing what he was asked to do – announcing the revolution – he would most probably have been allowed to stay in the island and might have become one of its heroes. As it was, he became the villain.

BOOK REVIEWS

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ADJUSTMENT IN AFRICA: REFORMS, RESULTS AND THE ROAD AHEAD.
Part of a Series of World Bank Research Reports. Oxford University Press. 1994

This recently published report has put Tanzania among the best performing adjusting economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 26 countries which the study ranked by macroeconomic policy performance, Tanzania was among the six which had shown a significant improvement in policies. The others are Ghana, the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. These countries also had the largest improvement in per capita GDP growth. The study points out that countries which suffered a deterioration in macroeconomic policies also had the poorest growth record.

The report, which is designed to lead to a better understanding of the relationship between policies and growth in Africa, found that the extent of policy reform varied widely. On the whole, countries did better in improving macroeconomic than financial sector reform or the reform of public enterprises. Almost two-thirds of countries managed to improve their macroeconomic policies between the beginning and end of the 1980’s. The economies that have liberalised their pricing and marketing of agriculture and, in general reduced taxation and discrimination against agriculture (Tanzania is one of these) have experienced a resurgence in domestic production of both food and export crops. The adoption of more realistic exchange rates has also helped to provide incentives for domestic activities and discouraged excessive dependence on imported goods. The study also demonstrates that devaluation does not necessarily result in higher rates of inflation where correct measures accompany such devaluation. The countries which followed devaluation with complementing policies of wage, fiscal and monetary restraint did not experience inflationary pressures. Tanzania, for example, has managed to reduce its inflation from over 40% in the mid- 1980’s to just over 20% currently. This is a significant achievement but is still far below what is expected of those economies which are performing well.

The study shows that where policies have improved, renewed economic growth has taken place. In particular, improvements in exchange rate policies were strongly associated with faster growth. It points cut that 14 countries have shown improvement in macroeconomic policies and a positive change in per capita income growth rates. The six countries that improved their policies the most (Tanzania included) had the biggest improvements in the rate of GDP growth per capita – an increase of about two percentage points per annum in the period 1081-86 and 1987-91. During the same period, countries which did not improve their policies experienced falls in per capita growth rates of over two percentage points per annum.

One of the main conclusions of the study is the responsiveness of exports to policy reform; despite declining terms of trade, the study indicates that there has been a substantial increase in export volumes in most adjusting economies that have combined exchange rate and agriculture price and marketing liberalisation policies.

Although the study paints the picture that sub-Saharan Africa’s economic decline may have been arrested, and in most cases modestly reversed, the performance of the many adjusting economies still poses cause for concern. Apart from the fragile social and political environment which is likely to adversely affect the sustainability of the adjustment process in the long term, current growth rates among the best performers are ‘still too low to reduce poverty much in the next two to three decades1. Also, although inflation rates have generally declined, they are still by far too high compared with the best performing economies in other regions of the world. There is an urgent need to implement policies that consistently bear down on inflation and to bring it to single figures, if sustainable growth is to be maintained.

The report indicates that, with today’s policies it will take 40 years before sub-Saharan Africa returns to its income per capita in the mid-1970’s. This is a very bleak scenario indeed.

For Tanzania, which embarked on the adjustment process in 1986, after the failure of the socialist policies enshrined in the Arusha Declaration, the task which lies ahead is formidable. Many low-income earners have suffered from the escalating prices which have accompanied the price and exchange liberalisation. For long-term benefits to be derived, it will be necessary for the government to press ahead with the policy reforms and, in particular, keep on board the IMF and the World Bank. Recent slippage in policy reform and the criticisms that have been expressed by the IMF and some donors, is a matter of serious concern for the future sustainabilty of Tanzania’s reform programme.
E J Kisanga

THE UKIMWI ROAD: FROM KENYA TO ZIMBABWE. Dervla Murphy. John Murray Publishers. 1993. 265 pages. £16.99.

Imagine pedalling 3,000 miles on a bicycle, alone up and down the hills and across the savannah from Kenya through Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Add that you are a sixty-year-old Irish woman who never visited the area before. Then enjoy the fresh, perceptive and sensitive impressions of travel writer Dervla Murphy, and her vivid descriptions of the countryside – lush, barren or drenched with torrential rains. Query her judgements.

Murphy intersperses her travel tales with vignettes of history and conversations with local residents at village hotels and bars where she ends the day. In Bukoba, for example, the costly Tanzanian war with Uganda comes to life as the author ponders relationships between socialism, selfreliance, personal reserve and ‘economic disaster’.

The narrative returns time and again to ‘ukimwi’ the slim disease – AIDS. The author faithfully reports a diversity of beliefs about its causes – Europeans, women, witchcraft? She admires people like Janet, whom she met in Mbeya, as the source of hope: ,Those exceptional African women whose response to AIDS is imaginative and courageous, who know that their feminist hour has comer.

Criticism is apportioned equitably. At one moment the blame for conditions of poverty is put on colonialists, at another on the independent government and yet another on the International Monetary Fund. ‘Malfunctioning western imports’ such as phones that don’t work, banks that have no currency left, schools without textbooks and hospitals without medicines are despised, as are ‘hundreds of vehicles carrying one or two expatriates’ that ‘zoom around rural areas’ (197). She hears educated Tanzanians questioning the appropriateness of a current western import: multi-party democracy. African governments fail to put priority on food production over the cash crops grown by western consortia, she says, because they ‘seem befuddled by the miasma rising from the swamp of IMF and World Bank calculations and arguments (175). Yet, ‘parallel to this world of pretence, the ordinary people survive somehow (183).

Murphy’s conclusion is devastating: that the west ought to ‘quit Africa’ (263). She partly explains that abrupt proposal by saying ‘we still treat Africa as our forebears did in the 1890rs, operating behind a different screen with the same (or worse) greed’. The donors1 approach, she says, ‘denies African civilisation its own dignity and integrity’.

In that scenario of abandonment by the West, MS Murphy, what shall Africa do about an international debt that in 1992 equalled 93% of its GDP – a debt that was accrued by leaders, many now displaced or dead? Do you really think it possible –
or desirable – today to insulate Africa and the West from one another environmentally or economically? Might another scenario be envisioned, with justice and respect on both sides?
Margaret Snyder

GUIDE TO ZANZIBAR AND PEMBA. D Else. Bradt Publications, 1993
164 pages. £8.95.

The Daily Telegraph (February 19th 1994) wrote about this book ‘The publication coincides with a more welcoming approach to visitors to this island off the coast of Tanzania’. It is, of course, more than one island – the book mentions the two largest, Unguja and Pemba and several smaller ones. The Telegraph goes on to write that ‘the Pemba Channel offers perhaps the finest deep-sea fishing along the whole East African coast’. As in the case of the parallel book ‘A Guide to Tanzania’ by the same publishers, which was reviewed in Bulletin No 47, this is an eminently practical, up-to date, ‘how-to’ guide which is surely essential reading for visitors to what it describes as this ‘unspoilt’ place. Zanzibar is described as a good example of tourism as it should be – low-key, not too obtrusive and providing some benefits for the local people without destroying their culture or environment. Visitors are advised to see the island as a community and not as a theme park – DRB.

NEWS FROM MASASI. J Russell and N C Pollock.
Veroffentlichungen der Institute fur Afrikanistik und Agyptologie der Universitat, Vienna. 1993. l60 pages. A few copies are available from Joan Russell, 18 West Bank, York Y02 4ES at £10.20 (including p&p).

At first sight the proposition in the title of this book may appear to be misplaced but the reader soon realises that it has been chosen deliberately. The preface tells us that the motivation for writing it came from twenty-one letters written at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries by an African woman living near Masasi. ‘They are one of the earliest surviving bodies of prose texts written in Swahili, in the roman script, by a woman’. Extracts from them (with English translations) are quoted extensively and illustrate how ordinary people in that part of Africa reacted to some of the outside influences affecting them at the turn of the century.

Ajanjeuli was born into a pagan family in 1883 and baptised Agnes in 1897. She was an intelligent and observant girl who came in contact with Anglican missionaries and through them with the congregation of St. Agnes’ Church, Kensington Park. London, who were the recipients of her letters. The correspondence continued over several years: the earliest one quoted is dated October 1898 and the latest September 1912. Fortunately they have been preserved in the archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and fortunately too they came to the notice of Russell and Pollock. Agnes grew up to be one of the first teachers in what would now be called a village primary school. She married another teacher, Francis Sapuli, who later became an Anglican priest and a highly respected canon of Masasi cathedral. Agnes died shortly before the end of World War I in 1918.
The book has not been written for specialists in any particular branch of learning, although the authors do express the hope that it will interest students of the Swahili language. They might remember that for Agnes too Swahili was a second language and they will gain encouragement from comparing the Swahili of her letter of February 1905, which appears as a frontispiece to ‘News from Masasi’ with that of her later letters and discerns a noticeable progress. Mention of some of the subjects discussed must include: life in East Africa under the German occupation; trading in slaves and ivory which was rampant in the second half of the nineteenth century; witchcraft; frequent droughts and food shortages; the arrival and reception of the early missionaries; the first schools and the use of the Swahili language leading to its adoption as the national language of Tanzania in the 1960’s; the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905. The last chapter is a bonus, being a careful record (with map) of World War I as regards its impact on Southern Tanzania and Mozambique.

The authors acknowledge their debt to earlier writers, with a list of more than fifty titles (German and English) to which they have referred. The great value of ‘News from Masasi’, as one person sees it, is its lucid and very instructive coverage of so much ground in 160 pages. It would be an ideal handbook for students and others who are hoping to work in the Mtwara/Lindi regions. Almost inevitably, they will find themselves impelled to pursue their studies in some of the books listed in the bibliography and former residents will find much to refresh and delight their memories. Copies would surely be useful and welcome gifts to the libraries of local secondary schools
George Briggs


TOWARDS A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LITERACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. K. Mundy. Comparative Education Review. November 1993. 22 pages.

This is a very valuable review of developments in the field of literacy in three countries of the region: Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Mundy makes clear that the evaluation of literacy efforts in sub-Saharan Africa has relied mainly on ,an ideological belief in literacy as an absolute value (a basic human need and right) combined with the faith that literacy is a causal agent in economic expansion and political modernization.’

Mundy suggests, however, a very different framework for evaluation – ‘one that situates literacy in the context of Africa’s unequal and worsening position within the world system and that relates literacy policies and their outcomes to shifting patterns of resistance, reaction, compliance and accommodation…at the national, local and individual level’. His comments on Tanzania are especially instructive and well argued. He emphasizes, of course, that the Tanzanian programme was specially geared to adults, following Nyerere’s highlighting of the importance of adult literacy in the First Five Year Development Plan. One consequence of this was that Tanzania did not try to make great strides in primary education that many other countries of the region attempted.

It is extremely interesting to discover that despite Tanzania’s path of social development, ‘learning continues to be viewed instrumentally by the majority of Tanzanians as preparation for success in a hierarchical and competitive market system’. Recent studies have shown fairly conclusively that in Tanzanian villages, literacy is achieved and maintained in those communities that are economically prosperous. People interviewed from the two most impoverished villages in which research was conducted, could quote the government official line about the great importance of literacy, but when the discussion was opened up on what hopes they had and what problems they faced, it became very clear that their literacy skills were simply not put into practice. In short the people felt that literacy skills in general could do nothing to change their present circumstances.

Mundy concludes that ‘the Tanzanian case in particular illustrates the fact that, when national literacy efforts are viewed in a historical and world system framework, few general rules of a positive linear nature about the impact of literacy or the most efficient ways of achieving it can be deduced. Illiteracy is a fundamental manifestation of the unequal relationships integral to capitalism, and no amount of social engineering can alter this’. I believe Mundy has argued well, has few blinkers on the subject, and his conclusions, though politically unpopular in some quarters, seem to me to be very sound.
Noel K. Thomas

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL IN NORTH-EASTERN TANZANIA 1840-1940. J L Giblin. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1992. 209 pages. USS24.95. £21 hardback. In a critical review in the Journal of the Royal African Society, Jan Kees Van Donge of Chancellor College, Malawi questions one of the main elements in this book which was based on recent oral evidence – a belief in a golden age in agriculture amongst the Wazigua of Handeni District which was subsequently destroyed by colonialism. He writes: ‘This (golden age) is probably factually wrong and may also be harmful as it can lead to scapegoating and diverting attention from pressing contemporary problems like deforestation and soil exhaustion’.

LANDMINES IN MOZAMBIQUE. Human Rights Watch. 104 pages. £5.99 from 90 Borough High Street, London SE 1. This book contains only one paragraph on Tanzania but this paragraph is significant in view of the seriousness of the problem Mozambique is facing at present in clearing landmines left during the liberation war all over the country. The paragraph reads: ‘A force of some 5 – 7,000 Tanzanian soldiers assisted the Mozambican government in the fight against Renamo. They laid defensive minefields around their bases in Zambezia Province. ……… no maps of these minefields were left behind when the Tanzanian forces returned home in December 1988’.

TECHNICAL COOPERATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER; SOME EVIDENCE FROM TANZANIA. S Rugamamu. European Journal of Development Research. 4 (1) 1992. 15 pages.

PRIVATISATION IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT: THE CASE OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA. J S Henley and G B Assaf. Industry and Development 32 (1) January 1993. 16 pages.

THE CREATION OF IDENTITY: COLONIAL SOCIETY IN BOLIVIA AND TANZANIA. R H Jackson and G Maddox. Comparative Studies in Society and History 35 (2) April 1993. 21 pages.

FURTHER RESULTS ON THE MACRO-ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF AIDS; THE DUALISTIC, LABOUR SURPLUS ECONOMY. J T Cuddington. World Bank Economic Review, 7 (3). 14 pages. September 1993. Tanzanian data suggest that the macroeconomic consequences of the epidemic are about the same as those obtained using a singlesector, full-employment model; GDP is 15-25% smaller by 2010 than it would have been without AIDS and per capita GDP is O- 10% smaller.

AVANT LES PAYSANS: AGRICULTURE ET ECOLOGY DANS UNE SOCIETE AGRAIRE: L8EXA?4PLE DES WALUGURU (TANZANIE). J-L Paul. Tiers Monde 34 (134) April-June 1993. 27 pages.

TANZANIA: THE LIMITS OF DEVELOPMENT FROM ABOVE. K J Havnevik. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies 1993.

DISABILITY, LIBERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. P Coleridge. 1993. 160 pages. £6.95. This book makes the case for regarding disabled people as partners in development. It is based on interviews with disabled people in five countries including Zanzibar,

THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN ENVIRONMENT. PROFILES OF THE SADC COUNTRIES. P O’Keefe, M Sill and S Moyo. Earthscan. 416 pages. 1993. £35. This book is drafted by local environmental experts and includes an up-to-date description of Tanzania’s geography, environmental problems, institutional structures and issues.

LETTERS

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‘I BEGAN TO WRITE A NOVEL….’
I would like to thank you for renewing my subscription to the Bulletin. In my opinion it is improving with each issue. I would hardly call it ‘glossy’! (But then again, nor would I call it big-print).
I was especially impressed by the obituary of the Rev. Canon R G P Lamburn whom I met – like many others – on a brief trip to Kindwitwi in 1987. So impressed was I with the place, the people and the man, that upon my arrival in Spain in the summer of 1989, I began to write a novel set in Tanzania with Canon Lamburn and his two young British assistants as major characters! Upon reading of Robin’s death, it was obvious to me that a great soul had passed away.
Paul Isbell Munch
Madrid, Spain.

THE NAME OF A MOUNTAIN
I am a staunch Tanzania-phile and I thought that you might be interested to hear about climbs I made last year of the Mguru Mountain which lies 10 miles North of Morogoro. During a first attempt at Easter three of us succeeded in climbing about two thirds of the way up the northern end. The terrain was harsh; many thorns, biting flies, inconspicuous rock faces and loose boulders. In August we tried again. We walked along the Southwestern ridge of the horseshoe to where (from the West at least) appears to be the highest point. At first a woodcutter’s trail eased our path, nevertheless, towards the top there was very dense bush and a steep gradient.

We tried to uncover more information about the origin of the mountain’s name – in KiUluguru ‘the foot of the bird’. We learnt a number of intriguing hypotheses from our Uluguru friends. These revolve around three central themes. First, that the large rock faces resemble the digits or talons of a bird’s foot. Second, according to legend, a very large bird sent by God is said to have landed on this mountain. Third, from behind this mountain the first aeroplane to be seen in Morogoro was said to have come. Could this plane, as was suggested to us, have been involved in the fierce fighting in the Morogoro region during the First World War? We wonder whether anybody can throw light upon the name of this mountain and we should be interested to hear tales of other people’s adventures on her slopes.
Maxwell Cooper
Volcano Veterinary Centre
B.P. 105, Ruhengeri, Rwanda.

BLACKSMITHS AND BLACKSMITHING
I read with much interest the report – sent out to members of the Britain-Tanzania Society with the January Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs – of the seminar ‘Down to Earth With Appropriate Technology’. I am sure that such technology is not only far more cost effective and less wasteful than large and grandiose projects, but is of more benefit to ordinary people. I would however like to question a point made in the discussion suggesting that during the German and British Colonial periods blacksmithing was made illegal in order to protect the market for imported factory-made tools.

I served as a district officer from 1950 to 1952 in several districts and never heard of any laws or restrictions on blacksmiths who, as I recall, operated in small numbers in many areas. Indeed district officers were keen to promote any economic activity which would increase people’s wealth. With the encouragement of the district administration an attempt was made in 1956 to revive the traditional skills of Wafipa iron-smelters and blacksmiths at Sumbawanga. The hoe produced was said to last at least twice as long as factory made hoes. I remember hearing that the whole process was so labour and time consuming that it could not be made at a price people could afford to pay, or in sufficient quantity. If, at any time, there were restrictions on blacksmiths, I think it more likely that their intent was to prevent the repairing of weapons e.g. muzzle loaders. However, in the mid- 1950’s there were more than 3,000 muzzle loaders in Mpanda district.
Michael Dorey
Hexham, Northumberland


CHANGES IN THE WEATHER
The following is part of a letter from Dr. Esther Mwaikango dated April 25, 1994 which explains vividly the vagaries of the Tanzanian climate; earlier drought in many parts of the country has been followed by violent storms in Dar es Salaam: ‘We are a bit tired of the torrential rains. We pray for rain, and then we pray for it to end. Saturday, on the bus, one man complained bitterly at getting wet from cold rain blowing in the window which couldn’t be closed. A woman answered him smartly – “This rain is a blessing from God. Shame on you for fussing about a small thing. No lives have been lost. That would have been a disaster”. Looking at the roadside, water pouring over the verge as if a cataract, one could wonder at this blessing. And yesterday, a small cyclone blew roofs off in Kariakoo (the centre of the town) and killed at least two people, one a small boy. Over a thousand people have no homes now. It seems like a very comfortable and homely trouble compared with what is going on in Rwanda and Burundi – and one which commonsense and kindness can take care of. Kindness for now and commonsense in city planning in the future……’

TA ISSUE 47

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TA 47 cover

AIDS – A NEW BOOK TELLS THE FULL STORY
NYERERE INTERVENES IN CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE
INNOVATION IN TANZANIA
BUSINESS NEWS
STRONG WORDS FROM CATHOLIC BISHOPS
SUMBAWANGA BOOM TOWN
TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

NYERERE INTERVENES FORCEFULLY IN CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE

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Recent newspaper headlines

Tanzania’s constitutional dilemma continues and Father of the Nation Julius Nyerere has expressed his views very forcefully and with some success. As explained in previous issues of this Bulletin, Tanzania faces three alternatives:

– Continuation of the present constitutional system (with some necessary amendments) under which there is a central government for the whole of the United Republic in which Zanzibar is represented far more strongly than is justified by its size or importance and in which there is a separate government for Zanzibar with considerable devolved powers; this system of government has been widely accepted for many years by the majority of the people on the mainland (although with some grumbling about the extent of the favouritism shown to Zanzibar) and probably by a majority in the Isles although a move to break away from the Union has attracted increasing support during recent years;

– The establishment of a strong central government for the two parts of the country with no separate government for Zanzibar; this solution has a number of advocates on the mainland but is assumed to be totally unacceptable in Zanzibar.

– The establishment of an additional government – a Government of Tanganyika; this is the proposal that is at the centre of the intense current debate as can be seen from the selection of recent media headlines shown opposite.

In early 1993 Zanzibar’s decision to join the ‘organisation of Islamic Conference’ (OIC) roused hostility in the Union Parliament and a Commission of Enquiry was set up which strongly condemned the action.

In August 1993, under strong pressure from the mainland, Zanzibar withdrew from the OIC. But the gesture was too late.

Opposition to what was considered Zanzibar’s privileged position in the Union had grown. 55 Members of Parliament, in a decision described in ‘New African’ as ‘the first rebellion in 16 years of the rubber-stamp CCM Parliament’, signed a motion demanding the setting up of a separate government for Tanganyika. Several senior members of government including the Speaker of the House expressed their agreement and the motion was eventually accepted unanimously by Parliament. The Government was required to ‘make provision for the establishment of a separate government for Tanganyika by 1995’. It was agreed that the government would facilitate country-wide consultations. Mwalimu Nyerere made clear his opposition to this move and indicated that he thought it would lead to the break-up of the Union and encourage division amongst different elements in the country.

ONE-MAN SHOW
On October 14, 1993 the National Executive Committee (NEC)of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party met in Dodoma.

Mwalimu Nyerere apparently requested that he be invited to the meeting, and, according to ‘Africa Events’ virtually turned it into a one-man show. ‘He dressed down the senior leadership of the Government and Party and reduced them to a mere gang of greenhorns and blunderers. He accused them of bad faith and for being too weak in defending the age-long CCM policy of the two-government Union and for allowing anti-Union forces to commandeer the Tanganyika issue and raise it in Parliament before even the Party policy making organs had discussed it and reached a decision. “I am ready to resign from this Party or from any other party that introduces a Tanganyika Government” Nyerere threatened the assembled delegates amid intermittent applause from the Zanzibar delegates’ .

The ‘Africa Events’ article went on: ‘Nyerere said that the nation’s present ills, such as embezzlement, thefts of public funds and high level corruption, could not be eradicated in a Tanganyika Government and the Union was now on the rocks because “some of you have committed blunders and refuse to be answerable”.

Nyerere’s outburst was said to have had an instant effect on an attentive President Mwinyi, who, in response, stunned pro-Tanganyika delegates by confessing that a mistake had indeed been made.

President Mwinyi was quoted in ‘Uhuru’ as expressing surprise that some CCM leaders had decided to propose policy changes without following correct procedures. He said that old age can be like a medicine and represent a treasury of experience. It was wise to accept criticism. If one was told one’s mistakes the best thing to do was to go back and follow the proper procedures. His speech was punctuated by applause. In finally adjourning the meeting he directed that the debate should be taken further and follow the correct procedures. There were loud cries from the hall “CCM …. CCM … CCM …”.

COORDINATING THE PEOPLE’S VIEWS
In its official press release at the end of the meeting the NEC stated that:

WHILE IT IS CCM POLICY TO HAVE A UNION WITH TWO GOVERNMENTS, THE NEC, TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE REQUIREMENTS OF BROADER DEMOCRACY, HAS RECOMMENDED THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC SHOULD APPOINT A COMMITTEE TO REGISTER AND COORDINATE THE PEOPLE’S VIEWS. SINCE THE PARLIAMENTARY RESOLUTION AFFECTS THE LIFE OF OUR UNION, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE EXERCISE TO AIR VIEWS IS GIVEN AMPLE TIME AND SHOULD NOT BE DONE HURRIEDLY. THE NEC DIRECTS THAT THE PERIOD BETWEEN NOW AND 1995 BE UTILISED BY THE WANANCHI TO AIR THEIR VIEWS AND FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL COORDINATION COMMITTEE TO SCRUTINISE THE PEOPLE’S VIEWS AND SUBMIT ITS REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT … THE FINAL DECISION ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNION WILL BE MADE BY THE PARLIAMENT AND GOVERNMENT.

The whole issue was raised again at a joint NEC-Member of Parliament ‘consultative’ meeting in Dodoma which began on November 12th and was designed to facilitate consensus and a common stand. The 400 delegates agreed that all the organs of the Party would be consulted on the issue.

It appears that Mwalimu Nyerere became even more outspoken this time. According to the ‘Business Times’ he made an unprecedented attack on his successors whom he described as ‘wolves in sheeps clothing’. His attack was said to have been partially in the form of a 200-verse Swahili poem called ‘Tanzania, Tanzania’ and also in a two-hour address to the meeting. He was said to have accused those supporting a Tanganyika Government of either being driven by ignorance or outright malice. The poem castigated government leaders for not accepting the idea of a referendum on the constitution as had been proposed by some MP’s.

Opposition parties were highly critical of Mwalimu and the Government and pointed out that in view of the trend of events the formation of a Tanganyika Government was inevitable. The leader of one party said that the government was confused and was not respecting the decision of Parliament. CHADEMA asked why CCM should consider itself the sole player in every matter happening in the country. Another party leader said that the resolution to form a Tanganyika Government within the Union was legal and had been in compliance with all the laid down procedures.

At the end of the meeting President Mwinyi called for vision, cooperation and solidarity. Emotions, haste, suspicion and witch-hunting should be avoided.

THE NEXT LEADER?
Meanwhile, the Swahili press has been indulging in speculation as to who might be the next leader of Tanzania. ‘Kiongozi’ reported that all sorts of names were being floated including that of the Vice-Chancellor of the Open university, Professor Geoffrey Mmari; ‘Heko’ said that its poll had favoured the Rev. Christopher Mtikila as the future leader.

INNOVATION IN TANZANIA

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Tanzania is active in using new technology as a result of the activities of the University of Dar es Salaam’s INSTITUTE OF PRODUCTION INNOVATION (IPI).

Tanzania’s sugar production from four large factories is not enough to satisfy local demand (current production is about a quarter of demand) and the factories need a large supply of sugar cane from near at hand to operate efficiently. But sugar-cane can be grown all over the country. IPI has therefore designed, manufactured and put into operation a couple of dozen small-scale crystalline sugar producing plants which are simple, easy to operate, affordable and can handle up to 15 tonnes of sugar-cane per day and produce up to about a ton of CRYSTALLINE SUGAR of good quality. This highly successful innovation won a national award (Tanzania Award for Scientific and Technological Achievement – TASTA) in 1991 and an international award (EEC-ACP Award for the Best innovation in 1989.

Sparked by the acute shortage of EDIBLE OIL in Tanzania during the late 1970’s, IPI developed and has successfully disseminated over a hundred sets of equipment for processing the oil on village level. A few of these have even penetrated the market in some other countries in the region. The original work was aimed at developing manually operated equipment for extracting edible oil from sunflower seeds to satisfy the needs of a typical Tanzanian village. This resulted in a set of equipment comprising a sunflower seed decorticator, winnower, roller/crusher, scorcher, manual scissor-jack type press and a boiling stand. The equipment is capable of producing 40kg of sunflower oil from 210kg, of sunflower seed during one shift. Subsequently, due to enquiries for similar equipment to process other oil seed crops like coconut, palm oil, groundnuts and simsim, development work was extended to include additional processing equipment like palm kernel nut cracker, palm kernel nut shredder, a palm fruit digester, palm oil clarification tank, copra chopper and copra shredder. Equipment designs in earlier years emphasized manual operation, but requests for power drivers equipment led to adaptations to run with electric motors and diesel engines, particularly for sunflower decorticators and winnowers and palm kernel nut crackers.

Another highly successful innovation, from which over fifty projects/groups have directly benefited so far, EQUIPMENT FOR PROCESSING ANIMAL FEED was initiated in 1986 when chicken feed was very scarce especially in Dar es Salaam. The equipment consists of a hammer type mill and a central augur type vertical mixer. The mill has a capacity of 1.5 tonnes per hour and the mixer is available in two sizes capable of mixing 0.6 and 1.2 tonnes of feed per batch in half an hour.

Practically everyone in Tanzania needs to be able to mill maize and IPI’S locally manufactured hullers and hammer mills have proved very popular indeed. Hundreds of units have so far been produced and are operational all over the country. They are superior in their performance, strength, reliability and also versatility.

Other technologies which IPI has worked on and is presently in the process of developing include ethanol distillation equipment, use of ethanol as a fuel for engines, water pumps including hydraulic rams, wind water pumping, solar energy, including water heating and refrigeration, and domestic coal stoves, to mention a few. Also included in the present focus of IPI developments are processes and equipment for small-scale mining and mineral processing, in particular gold and equipment related to the construction industry such as vibrating block making machines.
Cuthbert Kimambo

SUMBAWANGA – BOOM TOWN

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Three years ago I was engaged as a social anthropologist in field research into the Lungu ethnic group, a people who by an accident of history are divided between southwest Tanzania’s Rukwa Region and the Northern Province of Zambia. I had last visited Sumbawanga, the regional capital, in 1977 while working on the history and culture of another local people, the Fipa. Sumbawanga was then not much more than a large village with a population of about 3,000. Great was my astonishment to find in 1990 a thriving urban centre of some 60,000 inhabitants.

How to account for this extraordinary twentyfold increase in the size of this remote settlement in one of the poorest parts of Tanzania? One notable clue, it seemed to me, lay in the vast open market which had mushroomed in the area and which in the 60’s and 70’s had been fallow land dotted with the characteristic compost-mound plots of the Fipa. Most of this new market was taken up with stalls selling clothing of all kinds. I learned from local officials that most of these goods originated as shipments from charitable organisations in the United states and Germany and were intended for free distribution among the poor. These goods were said to have mysteriously found their way into the private sector. Whatever the truth of the matter, it was evident that business was flourishing.

During my eight months of field research among Lungu on both sides of the border I was to acquire further insights into the dynamics of the so called ‘second’ or ‘ informal’ economy (now said to represent 30% of economic activity in Tanzania) and the transformation of the once sleepy settlement of Sumbawanga into the populous ‘boom town’ of southwest Tanzania. Near the border with Zambia I observed Tanzanian Lungu women heading across the frontier with Zambia with loads of beans and groundnuts. These were destined for sale to trading partners, usually relatives living in Zambia. That transaction concluded, these women then walked another 15 miles to Mbala, the local administrative and commercial centre. Here they bought sugar, which they carried back into Tanzania and sold.

But these were just the minor operators in the thriving cross-border trade I which is driven by price differentials between the two neighbouring countries. A few years ago, before the nationally imposed campaign for the growing of hybrid maize, this part of Tanzania produced a substantial surplus of finger millet (Eleusine corocana), much of which was traded across the Zambian border. In 1990, near the major Lake Tanganyika port of Mpulungu in Zambia, I was able to observe the daily departure from Ngwena (Crocodile) Beach, known locally as ‘Smugglers’ Beach’, of boatloads of small traders carrying such items as sugar, petrol and kerosine to Tanzania. Much of this material certainly ended up in Sumbawanga market.

While in Zambia I was able to interview one of the bigger operators. This enterprising young woman told me that she ran a weekly ‘service’ of contraband sugar (export of this scarce commodity is banned under Zambian law). Her practice was to buy it in bulk in Kasama and deliver it by boat to a kinswoman near the Tanzanian lakeside port of Kasanga, whence it was taken by lorry to Sumbawanga. other sources told of lorryloads of illicit goods driven across the border along bush tracks which avoided the customs and immigration posts at Zombe and Katete.

I encountered the informal economy again while travelling to Dar es Salaam on the Tazara railway. One of our fellow travellers was a personable young Tanzanian who told us he was shepherding a cargo of chicks acquired in Zambia. His intention was to sell them in Dar, where they were much in demand. From the proceeds he would buy a load of shirts, which he would take to sell in Lusaka. He told me he had been operating this profitable ‘shuttle service’, incidentally travelling first-class all the while, for many months.
Roy Willis

References:
Maliyamkono T Land Bagachwa M S D. The Informal Economy in Tanzania. James Currey 1990.

Pottier J. Migrants No More: Settlement and Survival in Mambwe Villages, Zambia. Indiana University Press 1988.

AIDS – A NEW BOOK TELLS THE FULL STORY

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In the late 1980’s the Government of Tanzania, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank undertook a ‘TANZANIA – AIDS ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING STUDY’ designed to assess the current status of AIDS in the country, likely future developments and prospective demographic, economic and other impacts of the epidemic and to examine the options available for doing something about it.

More than twelve consultants took part and a series of desk and field studies were followed by a mission to Tanzania in April-May 1991. The results have been published as a book (161 pages) by the World Bank and represent one of the most comprehensive and fact-filled contributions yet produced on the menace which AIDS represents. We asked a doctor to review and summarise its main features:

ORIGIN
In 1983 the first suspected case of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was diagnosed in the Kagera Region. Extensive spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was taking place in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. By the end of 1990 a cumulative total of 21,175 AIDS cases had been reported in the country. However, it was believed that due to under reporting the true figure to end 1990 was 100,000.

In the 1980’s malaria was the major cause of death – about 10,000 annually. Malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhoeal disease accounted for over half the diagnosed health problems, a pattern typical of Africa due to widespread poverty and lack of proper water supply and sanitation. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) were among the top ten causes of morbidity. Gonorrhoea was rated the sixth most frequently reported disease. 13-15% of children died before their fifth birthday. Adult life expectancy was about 48 years. Adult mortality rate prior to AIDS was 7 per thousand.

FACTS AND FIGURES FROM THE BOOK
– At the end of 1990 21,175 AIDS cases had been reported but the true figure was more likely to be about 100,000 because of under-reporting:
– life expectancy after AIDS diagnosis is about one year;
– about 800,000 Tanzanians are now HIV infected; the worst affected areas are Kagera, Mwanza and Mbeya regions and Dar es Salaam;
– by the year 2010 up to 1,500,000 people might be infected; population growth is likely to slow because of AIDS but the growth rate will remain positive;
– 20% of sexually active men and 15% of women in Tanzania have sexual partners other than their spouses; even greater proportions engage in commercial sex;
– 10% of Tanzania’s budget goes on health but this amounts to the equivalent of only US$2.00 per person.

When the AIDS epidemic was officially confirmed in 1985 an AIDS Task Force was set up by the Government with the help of the World Health organisation (WHO). In 1988 a National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) was inaugurated with a budget of US$11 million. This focused on three major areas: a) monitoring and research; b) prevention of HIV and STD infections; and, c)coping with AIDS patients and their dependants.

MEN AND WOMEN EQUALLY INFECTED
Men and women in Sub-Saharan Africa are equally HIV infected. However, there are large disparities among subgroups of the population. For example, in Kagera Region 17% of the urban population but only 5% of the rural population were HIV sero-positive. In half of mainland Tanzania 2.5% of the urban population and 1% of the rural population were seropositive.

80% of all sub-Saharan HIV infections are believed to result from heterosexual contacts. 10% are due to blood transfusions and perinatal infection. Contaminated needles may be responsible for 1% of HIV infections.

NO SURVIVAL BEYOND TWO YEARS
The conversion from HIV sero-positivity to full-blown AIDS takes from several months to 20 years. Current belief is that all infected persons will eventually die of AIDS unless an effective cure is discovered. The disease progresses rapidly among infants. 25% of perinatally infected infants develop AIDS before their first birthday and 80% by five years old, whereas only 15-20% of adults progress to AIDS in the first five years after infection. Once AIDS has developed, 80% of adults and 90% of children will be dead in one year. No AIDS victim is expected to survive more than two years. During the illness there are many episodes of painful and debilitating sickness – an average of 17 for adults and 6 for children.

CONTROLLING THE EPIDEMIC
The study recommends that the NACP should give the highest priority towards reducing heterosexual transmission of the virus – principally by prevention of STD’s, encouraging the use of condoms and the promotion of safe and responsible sexual practices through improvements in the associated Information, Education and Communication Programme (IEC).

The importance of preventing and controlling STD’s in the fight against AIDS has been recognised in Tanzania since 1984, yet by the end of 1990 no government or WHO money had been spent on an STD programme. Unfortunate indeed when one considers that genital ulcers, which enhance the spread of HIV, may well be the principal factor producing the heterosexual pattern of AIDS as seen in Africa. At the time of writing the report there were plans to establish STD clinics with funding from the EC, ODA and USAID. It was felt that these would not, however, represent a comprehensive national programme.

50 MILLION CONDOMS
A recent survey in Tanzania concluded that 20% of sexually active men and 15% of women had sexual partners other than their spouses. By the end of 1991 Tanzania had received 50 million condoms and had distributed 37 million.

KONYAGI AND CHARCOAL INSTEAD OF CONDOMS
Edna Ndejembi writing in the Dar es Salaam ‘Family Mirror’ brought a more down to earth approach to the problem after talking to long-distance lorry drivers and their lady friends in Dodoma. “Truck drivers are fantastic lovers, they offer good money and lovely presents, they are just the best” one lady was quoted as saying. To avoid AIDS she normally takes a solution of charcoal powder every morning. A truck driver also had his own remedy. “For my permanent lovers that I trust I do not bother about preventive measures. I do not like condoms because they reduce sexual sensitivity. But for hit and run partners I always use cognac (Konyagi)”. He explained that he applied Konyagi to his organ before and after sex. Research conducted by the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREFO) in 1992 indicated that in Dar es Salaam 31% of long-distance truck drivers and 55.7% of their partners are HIV positive.

97% AWARE OF AIDS
The report criticises the IEC Programme as being less effective than it should have been – partly due to under funding. However, the preliminary report of a large survey showed that 97% of people were aware of AIDS and its most salient features. But only 39% knew that one could be infected with the virus but not have any symptoms. The report recommends that ‘the IEC programme should be given new life’.

FUTURE PROJECTIONS
The Chin-Sonnenberg projection model has estimated that there will be 125,000 AIDS cases by 1992 (80,000 adults and 45,000 children) with 10% HIV seroprevalence among urban adults and 6% among rural adults. A 10% seroprevalence implies doubling the death rate in the 15-49 age group. Longer term projections take into account the possible effect of preventive programmes. The Bulato models (15% and 45% sexual monogamy) anticipate results as follows (in millions):

…………………………………..15% monogamy, 45% monogamy
Cumulative AIDS cases Year 2000: 1.99, 0.55
Cumulative AIDS cases Year 2010: 6.40, 1.99
Cumulative AIDS deaths Year 2000: 1.60, 0.45
Cumulative AIDS deaths Year 2010: 5.60, 1.70

COSTS AND ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS
The treatment costs (1991) per AIDS case were US$290 for an adult and US$195 for a child. Each adult AIDS case required on average 280 days of care including home care. In the year 1991 estimated total AIDS health care costs were $27.26 million. In that year the government allocated $58.29 million (10.9% of the national recurrent budget) towards total health care. Clearly the full treatment of AIDS patients, would have had an alarming effect on other aspects of health care, that is on the 80-90% of the population not infected with HIV. Added to the cost of treating and caring for AIDS patients are the costs of caring for orphan survivors. The government will have hard budgetary decisions to make. The government recently reported that the estimated cost of the NAP programme for the period 1992 to 1997 would be $63 million of which external pledges for $43 million had been registered.

The AIDS epidemic, producing an alarming decline in the health of the population and a geometrically growing increase in the mortality of sexually active adults will undoubtedly have major effects on the economy reduced labour productivity , increased health care expenditure and a reduction in human investment.

Now that AIDS has reached pandemic proportions in Africa there is need for a special WHO service in the region to co- ordinate the AIDS prevention and control programme. As catering for surviving dependants could be considered a basic humanitarian act it would be appropriate for this to be financed by NGO’s. Though care should be taken not to select out AIDS family survivors while neglecting other orphans – in the Kagera district more than 5,600 children are thought to have been orphaned by 1991 due to AIDS; yet for every AIDS orphan there were eight who had lost one or both parents due to other causes.

At a time of world recession African countries are facing a great crisis – and there is worse to come! African countries, International agencies and donor countries must make greater efforts to prevent a catastrophe.
Oliver Murphy

(More up-to date data has been given in ‘World Bank News’ dated November 24,1993. 816 households in Kagera Region were sampled during a recent Bank research project. 16% reported having lost an adult member during the past year of whom more than half were thought to have died from AIDS. Economic effects included children less likely to be in school, affected families more likely to be headed by a woman with more ‘dependants’ or children per adult to take care of. On average, households spent US$60 on medical and funeral expenses for each death – roughly the average annual income in the area. Of 2,250 children under 15 in the sampled families, 130 had lost both parents, 185 had lost their mother and 368 had lost their father. The author pointed out that this Tanzanian study might overstate the effects of AIDS because the families sampled were generally at a higher risk of losing adult members to fatal illnesses – a point made in another view of AIDS in Tanzania which is described below – Editor)

BUT OTHERS DISSENT
Not everyone agrees with the widely accepted interpretation of the AIDS epidemic in Tanzania outlined above and during recent weeks massive international publicity has been given to an entirely different point of view. In March there was a British TV programme based on the situation in parts of Uganda and Tanzania and then, the Sunday Times (October 3, 1993) devoted part of its front page and two inside pages to articles by Neville Hodgkinson under the headings ‘AFRICAN AIDS PLAGUE A MYTH’ and ‘THE PLAGUE THAT NEVER WAS’.

The evidence was said to have come from two French charity workers Philippe (50) a former pilot, and Evelyne (42) Krynen, a teacher working in what was described as the ‘epicentre’ of the disease – Kagera Region in Tanzania.

After a first visit to Bukoba and its surrounding area they prepared an illustrated report which was to prove a catalyst for French and Belgian interest in the social impact of AIDS in Africa. They wrote of children alone in houses emptied of adults, a football team destroyed by the disease, old people sitting alone with their dead, black crosses painted at the entrances of AIDS-stricken homes.

The Krynen/s then abandoned their previous careers to train as nurses specialising in tropical medicine and came back to Tanzania to head the first and largest AIDS organisation for children in Tanzania – ‘Partage’. Today this charity has 230 full-time employees helping 7,000 children in 15 of Kagera’s villages.

“THERE IS NO AIDS”
Among the startling conclusions the Krynen’s have come to as a result of four years work in the area are the following: – one positive test cannot be relied upon for HIV diagnosis; a wide variety of parasitical and other infections can trigger a false positive result;
– there is no connection between HIV-positivity and risk of illness; 54 villagers were ill with complaints such as pneumonia and fungal infections that might have contributed to an AIDS diagnosis but just as many of these were HIV-negative as positive; when they were given appropriate treatment, most recovered;
– there is not a trace of evidence of the disease being sexually transmitted;
– the HIV test has nothing to do with AIDS;
– there is no AIDS; it is something that has been invented:

WHERE HAVE ALL THE ORPHANS COME FROM?
The Sunday Times article then asked, if Kagera is not in the grip of ‘HIV disease’, where have the thousands of orphans come from? The answer say the Krynens, is that most of the children are not orphans at all. “The raising of children by their grandparents is a long standing feature of the culture of the region, Parents move away from the region, sending back a little money and returning occasionally or never: other children are born to prostitutes. When parents are absent it is fashionable to say that they have died of AIDS because this brings money and support. Everybody claims to be a victim of AIDS nowadays. Local people working for AIDS agencies have become rich … the children usually thrive once they are properly fed and cared for though some are so poorly from birth that they remain vulnerable to infections. In all the children we have lost there was a very good reason – heart failure, TB treated too late, cerebral malaria, acute hepatitis – you have no right to call any of these deaths AIDS … there are now some 17 organisations reportedly doing something about AIDS in Kagera … today as the ferry arrives from Mwanza the port seizes up with donor agency Landrovers and Toyotas … Africa is a ‘good conscience’ ground for many charities”.

(In the light of the above we asked a specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to comment – Editor)

‘NAIVE VIEWS’
When the science correspondent of a serious newspaper decides to write a two page article on AIDS in Africa, one would expect that he would interview a wide variety of experts in the field, and publish a balanced account of what they tell him. Neville Hodgkinson, has not adopted this approach.

It is true that he has interviewed a number of scientists and doctors working on AIDS in Africa, but he has chosen not to report their views, confining his article to the opinions of a former French army pilot and teacher. This couple went to work in Bukoba after receiving one year’s training in nursing, and tested about 800 local residents for HIV infection.

They told Mr. Hodgkinson that their tests had not proved reliable, apparently on the grounds that a number of those with positive tests were in good health, and a number of patients whom they saw with “pneumonia and fungal infections” had negative tests. They therefore decided “to put all they had been told about the disease (AIDS) in the garbage can, and tried to reconsider”. They admitted that they had seen patients dying of an unusual wasting disease, but concluded that it could not be sexually transmitted, since the sexual partners of these patients did not have the disease. Mr. Hodgkinson reported that his lady informant had told him: “I will spend a night with an HIV positive person, if he’s handsome enough.”

It is not surprising that there are people in Africa who hold the naive views expressed by this French couple. It is difficult for those without scientific training to grasp the concept of a disease with an incubation period which may extend to ten years or more. What is surprising is that the science correspondent of what was once a respected newspaper should report such nonsense when he knows it not to be true.

In June of this year Mr. Hodgkinson attended a press conference at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, at which results were presented from a community study in Masaka District of Uganda conducted by the Uganda Virus Research Institute and the British Medical Research Council. This study, in which some 10,000 people were followed up for several years, found that the risk of death was 87 times higher in HIV positive than in HIV negative individuals.

Mr. Hodgkinson’s reasons for failing to report these and many similar findings of which he must be aware can only be guessed at. I find his article an insult to the many dedicated health workers in Africa who are trying to care for an increasing number of AIDS patients and to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of people who have died of HIV related diseases in Africa in the past decade; an impediment to research into ways of controlling this devastating epidemic; and a dangerous source of misinformation which may lead those who read it to put themselves needlessly at risk of disease and death.
David Mabey

SAIDI GETS MARRIED

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I had not been living long in Nzega and as yet I had few friends there. One friend however was an Arab called Saidi. He was a younger member of an extremely wealthy and important family; everyone knew his family and, subsequently, virtually everyone knew Saidi. We shared two particular interests – my motorcycle and my music collection.

This particular story begins one weekend after I had been down to Tabora. By the time I returned Saidi had gotten himself married, been severely beaten by his father and subsequently divorced! All of this was completely out of the blue. Of course, this being Tanzania, the story was far more complicated than that. Not only had Saidi been desperate enough to have stolen the money for the required dowry from his father, but the woman Saidi had married had something of a reputation as a rather vicious social climber. She also had a reputation for witchcraft.

Saidi’s ex-wife had in fact been married into the family before to a direct uncle of Saidi, his father’s true brother, who had also divorced her. Not only that. She had then subsequently been the mistress of another of Saidi’s uncles before this uncle too had tired of her. This was her third attempt to break into this important Nzega family.

By now it was mid-week. Saidi had been divorced for two or three days when I began to hear some strange rumours. He had apparently lost the use of his legs and everyone swore that it was not due to the beating that his father had given him.

I went to see him at his house – a typical Arab dwelling hidden off the dusty main road by a small twisting alley way. It had open courtyards where the household chores would be performed and the various rooms of the house surrounded these.

When I found Saidi, sure enough he was incapable of using his legs. There was no obvious damage but he simply could not bear to put any weight on them and could not walk. His family took him to the local district hospital but the doctors there could not find anything wrong. They took him to the nearest Swedish mission hospital (of spotless reputation) but they too could find nothing wrong.

By now the general consensus was that he was under the spell of a curse, obviously perpetrated by his ex-wife as an act of revenge. The family therefore took the best course of action available – they went to Bagamoyo on the coast and brought back a couple of powerful Muslim holy men.

Soon after that I went again to visit Saidi. His room was dark and dingy with various members of the family and friends squatting around his bed with the holy men. Saidi sat with his legs hanging over the side of the bed and complained to me about his situation. As my eyes gradually became accustomed to the dark I realized that there was something unusual about those two limbs. I peered closer and, to my surprise, I found that they were entirely encircled and inscribed from toe to upper thigh with extremely fine Islamic script drawn in black ink. The inking was perfect in all respects.

I turned to stare at one of the Muslim Imams, who returned my stare with shy interest, seemingly completely oblivious to the alien feelings that I was then experiencing. By now I had expressed my condolences to Saidi and his mother and since I was feeling so out of place I felt that I should leave.

A few days later I was hailed in the street. I turned and saw Saidi and his usual gang all striding confidently towards me. “So you’re better” says I. “Of course” replies he and he stamped around and around in the dust of the road by way of demonstration.
Michael Ball

BUSINESS NEWS

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Exchange Rates (December 1 1993):
US$ = 475 – 490 Shillings
£ Sterling = 680 – 730 Shs.

IMPORT AND EXPORT LICENCES NO LONGER NEEDED. The Government has revoked the system which required licences for the import of all goods except for a few related to health and safety and also eight luxury items. Importers will now have to fill in forms available at banks and foreign currency shops but these will be needed only for statistical purposes and will not involve permits. The Customs Department will not in future be able to delay or halt the transport of goods outside the country – Radio Tanzania.

TRAVELLING ALLOWANCE INCREASED. citizens travelling to neighbouring countries will in future be able to take up to US$5,000 instead of US$500. Those travelling longer distances will be entitled to have up to US$10, 000 compared with US$ 3,000 – Radio Tanzania.

LICENSING REMOVED. All licences for the export of goods have been removed. Reporting to the National Assembly on the Government’s intention to raise the country’s tourism potential the Minister, Mr Juma Hamad Omar, said that 43 out of the 63 applications for tourist development received by the Investment Promotion Centre in 1992/93 had been accepted. Some 23 international airlines had applied for commercial service. There had been an increase in the number of tourists from 186,800 in 1991/92 to 201,744 in 1992/93 and this had earned the nation US$120 million compared with US$94 million in the previous year – Daily News.

TANZANIA ALIGNS CURRENCY. The Bank of Tanzania has announced a harmonisation of its exchange rates. The ‘official’ rate, previously used for a range of government imports, western aid and items such as oil will in future conform with market rates used by the private sector since last year – Financial Times.

SECURITIES MARKET. The Governor of the Bank of Tanzania has announced that capital and securities markets, designed ultimately to lead to the establishment of a Stock Exchange in Tanzania, will be established early in 1994 – Business Times.

COTTON MARKET LIBERALISED. The Government has waived price control on cotton; authorised marketing agents and other buyers are being encouraged to offer competitive prices to cotton producers – Sunday News.

ALL IMPORTS SUBJECT TO PRIOR INSPECTION. All imports, not just those of more than US$5,000 in value, as previously, will be subject to pre-shipment inspection in future, the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania has stated. The move is aimed at curbing tax evasion and foul play, he said – Daily News.

FROM QUITE GOOD TO VERY BAD. In a report on World Bank projects in Tanzania, which have cost US$ 1.5 billion between 1961 and 1987, the Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department has summarised the variable success rate which has been achieved. Major problems causing difficulties have included bad project design and preparation, lack of skills and deficient staffing in the Bank and on the Tanzanian side, inadequate government support, undue haste in launching follow-up projects, Tanzania’s inadequate absorptive capacity, and powerful pressures within the Bank to lend more – The Express.

SANCTIONS LIFTED. Tanzania lifted sanctions on trade with South Africa on November 11. 1993. They had been in force since 1963 – Daily News.

A VENTURE CAPITAL FUND LAUNCHED. At the launching of a new Tanzania capital Venture Fund (TVCF) the Chairman of the Parastatal Sector Reform announced that multilateral firms operating in Tanzania would, in future, be exempted from the requirement to pay uniform taxation. The new Fund will participate in equity and quasi-equity joint venture investments in local companies with high potential. Most of the TVCF investments will be in existing businesses seeking second-stage expansion capital. Maximum investment will be US$500,000 – Business Times.

179 UNDER INVESTIGATION. The Minister of Home Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, Augustine Mrema, has stated that 179 companies and individuals are under investigation for alleged misuse of donor funds. He said that his ministry had received numerous complaints from members of the public and Parliamentarians over rampant embezzlement and swindling of donor funds. He cited the funds as being the Open General Licence (OGL), Commodity Investment Support (CIS) and the Debt Conversion Programme (DCP). Dubious means had been employed to obtain precious foreign exchange. He listed the names of the individuals and firms involved – Daily News.

DE BEERS IN CONTROL. The South African firm Willcroft Ltd, a subsidiary of the De Beers corporation , now holds 75% of the ordinary shares of the Shinyanga-based Williamson Diamonds Limited. Its previous shareholding had been 50%. For the last twelve years Williamson Diamonds has been making losses on its annual production of 70,000 carrats of diamonds. Willcroft will pump in about US$3.5 million to rehabilitate the mine – Business Times.

PRICE CHANGES. The price of cement was reduced by 150 shillings per 50-kilo bag and the price of petrol and diesel increased by from 12 to 23 per cent at the beginning of October – Daily News.

FERTILISER SUBSIDY ASSURED. Prime Minister Malecela announced at the end of November that the government would import 185,000 tons of fertiliser for the forthcoming farming season and it would continue to be subsidised at 25%. He said that the national annual demand was 260,000 tons and that 60,000 tons had already arrived. He said that importation of fertiliser remained a headache to the Government because of fluctuating prices – Daily News.

MOBILE PHONES. Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and Millcom International have formed a joint venture company to implement and operate a cellular mobile telephone network in Tanzania – Business Times.

NEW INVESTMENT AREAS. The Government has released a new list of 82 areas for investment by local and foreign investors in a revised edition of the Investment and Promotion Act. A detailed list was published in the Business Times indicating that 16 areas were reserved for local investors, 12 were under the ‘ controlled and reserved’ category and 54 were in the general investment category – Business Times.

AVOID THE WORD ‘NDUGU’ IN OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Public servants should avoid addressing people with political pomposity like ‘Ndugu’ or ‘Comrade’ in official correspondence because this was against Standing Orders, declared Mr Robert Kisususu, an official in the Office of the Prime Minister and First Vice-President. Officially the style should be ‘Mr’ or ‘Bwana’.

A Member of Parliament should be addressed as ‘The Honourable’ and not ‘the Honourable Mr’, a judge of the High Court should be addressed as ‘The Honourable Mr Justice X’. Mr Kisusu said that terms like ‘capitalist’ and ‘imperialist’ had no room in official public service correspondence and should be reserved for political platforms.

STRONG WORDS FROM CATHOLIC BISHOPS
According to a news agency report at the end of November Catholic Bishops in Tanzania have issued an unprecedentedly critical letter under the title ‘Sincere Intention, the Compassion of Our Nation’ expressing concern about government accountability. They spoke of a nation bankrupt and squandering the public’s assets. This had been caused, the Prelates said, by the greed of a few people seeking to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

The bishops said that the government had ignored the public’s views on the squandering of public assets including land, minerals and wildlife. They called for legal action against those involved.

‘The nation has no orientation because the perception of socialism and self-reliance, which had the intention of guiding the nation towards cooperation, love, mutual respect, and mutual assistance in elevating development, has now been usurped by a community of people who have responsibility and ability with which they are biting off the assets of the nation between themselves’.