Category Archives: Issue Number

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Posted on by
Reply

THE FIRST OF THEIR KIND
AFRICAN BUSINESS featured a photograph in its October 1993 issue of one of two GT10 gas turbine engines being provided by SIDA and NORAD for delivery to the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company for its US$28 million power-plant project. The two turbines, each of 10 megawatts, will be the first of their kind to be installed outside Europe or the USA. They are to be sited at the Ubungo Power Station in Dar es Salaam and should be operational by February 1994.

GIVE DEMOCRACY A CHANCE
A Danish reader of NEW AFRICAN complained in its December issue about what he described as the superficial coverage being given to the introduction of democracy in Tanzania. ‘It takes time, peace and stability to build a proper multi-party environment … time to transform property ownership, trade regulations, the fora for open debate etc. Both the government and the opposition need to learn and adapt to the new rules of the game. A transitional period of four or five years is needed … What we are seeing in Tanzania is a collective learning process where new relations, ideas and policies will be formulated and put into practice. Some complain that the process is too slow, that the old guard (the CCM) is manoeuvring into positions in preparation for the elections. But how does anyone think a new political and democratic order can emerge if not based on tribe, religion or region. This is what the Tanzanian government is trying to avoid … this is not ‘sceptical’; I call it wise’.

THE WHISKY ROUTE
‘To avoid the crowds trudging up the tourist track and to bring an element of adventure into the ascent we settled for taking seven days and a route on the map that looked blissfully simple. After the Horombo hut we would contour around in a north westerly direction, then stroll up the Credner Glacier on to the northern icefields with a final traverse south to the actual summit’ So wrote Richard Else describing his struggle to climb Kilimanjaro in the GUARDIAN WEEKEND (September 25). The guide, a former Park Ranger summed up the trip – “others do the Coke trail; you are doing the Whisky route!”

A TRAGEDY
The fossil footprint trail that Mary Leakey and a group of archaeologists uncovered at Laetoli in Northern Tanzania in 1978-79 had been made by three individuals who walked across a patch of wet volcanic ash over 3.6 million years ago. “Those footprints are more precious than the pyramids” according to California University Professor Clark Howell quoted in THE GUARDIAN (December 2). But, between 30 and 50 per cent of the trail has been destroyed by neglect since it was discovered – just 14 years ago. “It is a tragedy” he said. The lengthy article went on to list a series of misunderstandings, personality clashes, budgetary and other problems which have brought this situation about. (Thank you Elsbeth Court for this contribution – Ed)

A GIANT MISTAKE
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was quoted in AFRICA EVENTS (October) as stating that the massive CIDA-assisted Tanzanian Wheat Project started two decades ago on Tanzania’s northern Savannah was a giant mistake. The much criticised project, which, nevertheless resulted in massive production of wheat, was said to have failed because CIDA tried to develop high-tech. farms on areas unsuited for such advanced agricultural practices. After spending $200 million Canada is now calling it a day. It is leaving behind huge social problems – a complicated land-tenure system and cases of human rights violations, including sexual abuse of Barabaig women and the burning down of Barabaig houses by staff of the National Agricultural and Food corporation (NAFCO). The article quotes reliable sources as stating that the wheat farms are to be recast for privatisation.

THE LIVINGSTONE TREK
One of the most surprising findings of the marathon three-month trek retracing David Livingstone’s last journey in Africa 120 years ago, which has just been completed (Bulletin No 46) was the potency of the Livingstone name reported THE TIMES on December 6th. Dr. David Livingstone Wilson, great grandson of the Scottish missionary was mobbed everywhere he went in Tanzania. “People rushed to shake his hand. Even the memorials were found to be still intact” the team leader said.

RADIO TUMAINI
The Italian monthly NIGRIZIA reported in its October issue that the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam was intending to inaugurate a new Radio station in November 1993 to be known as ‘Radio Tumaini’. Members of the diocese were requested to help with the operating costs of the station.

NO FEAR OF BECOMING AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Although the traditional ‘dhobie’ (washer-man) is seeing his market gradually disappear with the spread of modern electric washing machines, in the narrow streets of Zanzibar, according to AFRICA EVENTS ( September) they have little to fear. “Electricity goes off every other hour” says one “so my charcoal battleship (iron) still comes in handy”. Until they invent a dhobie that can do the ironing as well as the washing their job looks secure.

WALKING ON WATER
The BANGKOK POST (October 28, 1993) published a story from Dar es Salaam which stated that nine Tanzanian pupils and a Seventh Day Adventist priest who had tried to walk on water, like Jesus Christ, had drowned in Lake Victoria. They were said to have been travelling in a flotilla of canoes headed for a religious festival when they decided to make the watery walk as a test of faith.

THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO ARE MELTING
Only five per cent of Mount Kilimanjaro’s permanent ice cap is now left according to an article in the SUNDAY TIMES (October 10) and scientists now fear that changes in climate, triggered by pollution or by clouds of dust thrown up by cattle and the burning of forests, are removing the glaciers that have awed visitors for centuries. If Kilimanjaro’s snow and ice continue to melt at the current rate the ice will disappear within forty years, according to John Temple, a mountaineer. “Since 1972 I have seen entire glaciers disappear” he said.

THE SWAHILIS
Reviewing the book Swahili Origins by James de Vere Allen, the FINANCIAL TIMES (August 21) stated that there is a long-running argument about the Swahilis. ‘There have never been more than half a million of them but they had – have – a remarkably sophisticated culture (magnificent architecture, a beautiful and poetic language, complex folk traditions). So who are they? The argument lies in the mix, the tension between their African and Arabian roots …. Allen believed that the Swahilis can be traced back, well before the Battle of Hastings, to the imperial town of Shungwayo – one of the great enigmas of East African historiography. The snag is that Shungwayo has never been found. Until the archaeologists dig it up it will remain merely a legend and the critics will continue to scoff.

Allen believed in an African essence to the Swahili identity but this is disputed by other academics. ‘The book contains all sorts of incidental details. We shall not easily forget, for example, the Shungwayo ruler who fell from grace not because he deflowered the Coast virgins (which was his imperial right) but because he did so with his big toe ….. ‘

THE LOST TRIBE
Under this heading AFRICA EVENTS (July) presented the extraordinary story of a group of mainly Makua people being held in Zanzibar in 1873, waiting to be shipped off to slavery, who were rescued by the anti-slavery ship HMS Britain and taken as indentured labourers to Durban in South Africa. They were later joined by some 500 Zanzibaris. After the period of indenture in 1899 they bought, under a ‘Mohammedan Trust’, some 43 acres of land and became self-sufficient. They built their own mosque and prayed together. The coming of apartheid created problems of classification. First they were classified as Africans, then as Coloureds, then as Indians and finally as ‘other Asians’. They became known as the ‘Lost Tribe’ and now number some 10,000. They have lost control of their land, have become widely dispersed and the article expresses the fear that ‘this rich cultural heritage which has survived more than a century may die out altogether’.

SOUTH AFRICA GETS A TASTE FOR TANZANIAN BEER
It was under this heading that AFRICA ANALYSIS (November 26) reported the purchase by South African Breweries of a 50% stake in the state-owned Tanzanian Breweries which is being privatised. The US$28 million purchase was said to be only the latest in a stream of investments by South African in blackruled countries. The cash will help pay for the construction of a new brewery in Mwanza and the upgrading of plants in Dar es Salaam and Arusha.

TANZANIAN COUTURIER
32-year old Tanzanian costume designer Kassim Mikki was quoted in an illustrated article in THE TIMES MAGAZINE (September 4, 1993) as planning to ‘paint the Paris catwalk every African tone under the sun, from saffron to boa blue when the sultry, spicy tones of Zanzibar come alive at his debut collections for spring-summer 1994’. Mikki is based in a studio in Dar es Salaam and considers that he has at least one advantage over other designers. He does not have to spend weeks agonising over which weight of silk organza to use. He has only one fabric – cotton. “We use a high quality raw material which we then dye and weave to get different textures”. His clothes ‘flatter and cocoon a woman’s body, just as effortlessly as Azzedine Alaia or Gianni Versace, but at a realistic price’.

GLOOMY JOURNEY
‘There is not much left of Bagamoyo these days. It has become what it was in the beginning, a somnolent backwater lost on a low coast at the end of a bad road. Campaign charts of a lost battle, maps of mould and lichen grow large on the walls of imperial buildings in ruin. Wooden stick ribs protrude from the sides of crumbling mud huts. Green bush and tropical lethargy encroach everywhere. Even chickens peck languidly in Bagamoyo’. So began a gloomy account by The FINANCIAL TIMES’s Nicholas Woodsworth (September 1) of a journey to the ‘Heart of an Anguished Continent’. The train from Morogoro to Tabora was no better ‘carriages overcrowded, conductors bullying, toilets smelly, dining car less than epicurean … ‘ Tabora itself was ‘foundering’ – ‘mudbrown water and wriggling insect larvae dribbled out of the tap in the dilapidated Railway Hotel ….. ‘ (Thank you Barbara Halliburton for this item – Ed).

CHEAP FOOD AND DRINKS
As part of its regular series comparing Costs of Living around the world BUSINESS TRAVELLER (October 1993) reported that buying an alcoholic drink remains much cheaper in Tanzania than in most countries. Out of 36 countries listed, Tanzania, with an average cost per drink of US$2. 87 comes 28th. The price of the same drink in Japan would be US$16 and in Britain US$4.82. In another survey (November 1993) the journal noted that the cost of a business dinner at US$31.25 in Tanzania compares well with average prices of $69.98 in the UK and $142.22 in Russia.

THE ELEPHANT SHREW
The work of one of the 92 research teams sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society in 1992 – a team which went to the Ruvu South Forest Reserve – was mentioned in the GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE (July 1993). It reported that the Black and Rufous Elephant Shrew (Rhyncochocyon petersi) had never been photographed before the Oxford University Njule expedition unearthed it from its den in the forest and that this was the first occasion in which one had been captured. The shrew is a diurnal, insectivorous creature which can grow to 50 centimetres in length and is concentrated in primary, undisturbed forest. ‘The data collected will be invaluable to the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania in furthering its efforts to protect the coastal forests from further destruction.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS
In an article full of nostalgia about air travel in Africa in the ‘good, old days’, BUSINESS TRAVELLER (November 1993) recalled a Journey by flying boat in the 1930’s which included a collision with a fishing smack off Italy, descent into the swamps south of Khartoum followed by a a canoe trip to the Nile and a forced landing in Tanganyika where ‘a fleet of Model T’s ferried the passengers to the nearest airfield to continue their journey’. By 1937 British-built Empire flying boats, capable of 200 mph, had cut the flying time from London to Capetown to only four days and passengers were treated to an excursion via Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Lourenco Marques and Durban. Nowadays it takes 11 hours 35 minutes.

NOT AS FORBIDDING AS INDIA’S BUREAUCRACY
TRADING POST (Issue No 11) has been reporting on the trading experience of Traidcraft Exchange’s Overseas Business Development Services (OBDS) which has developed strong linkages with the Tabora Beekeepers Cooperative, the instant coffee factory in Bukoba, and Handico, which markets traditional crafts such as Maasai bookends. ~anager Murdoch Gatward has said that Traidcraft is known 1n more senior levels of the state in Tanzania than anywhere else in the world ‘due to the relatively easy access to the senior civil service, in comparison with something as forbidding as India’s bureaucracy’. “We are looking towards a promising future in Tanzania” he said. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for this item – Ed).

JAMBO TANZANIA!
This was the heading of a colourful page in a recent issue of THE YOUNG TELEGRAPH which mentioned the visit to Tanzania of the Duchess of Kent in her capacity as patron of UNICEF UK. Among UNICEF projects mentioned was the Kuleana (Swahili for helping each other) Street Kids’ Centre in Mwanza. Street kids can call into the centre at any time, take a shower, learn to read or just paint and make models from bits of garbage. Most importantly they can be safe, make friends and feel they are part of a family. (Thank you Paul Marchant for this item).

COMMUNITY RADIO
As part of its October 1993 cover story on the ‘Media in Africa’ AFRICA EVENTS’ Ahmed Rajab referred to various efforts made in Tanzania over the years to provide community radio. He mentioned a number of 1970’s campaigns such as Uchaguzi ni Wako (the Choice is Yours – on the general election), Wakati wa Furaha (Time for Rejoicing – about the tenth anniversary of independence) and the highly successful Mtu ni Afya (Man is Health education campaign of 1973). ‘However’, he wrote, ‘the Tanzanian experiment was hampered by the constraint of control. The initiative had always come from the top. This went in tandem with the reluctance of those who directed the initiatives to give freedom to the consumers of radio messages to be able to originate their own messages.’

NYERERE AND NKRUMAH
Analysing the issues facing the Pan-African movement prior to its recent 7th Conference in Uganda, AFRICA EVENTS compared the Nyerere and Nkrumah approaches to African unity. It stated that they were both right and they were both wrong. The more radical Nkrumah was right about the need for African unity but wrong in his proposal for an instant union government. Nyerere (‘perhaps the only living senior African leader who actively participated in the great and acrimonious debate between the two in Cairo in 1964’) and who believed in gradualism and regional cooperation, was correct in recognising the practical problematics of African unity but time was to prove him wrong in his conviction that nationalism could be relied on to build African unity. Nationalism and the residual pull of the metropolitan countries proved to be real obstacles.

THE F L K KARONGO
Reporting the recent death at 92 of the second Mrs (Frida) Leakey the GUARDIAN (October 14) reported that, while working with the famous Dr. Leakey at the Olduvai Gorge, she became an expert in the drawing of hand tools. Among her important finds was a fossil site in a side gully which was later named the FLK – Frida Leakey Karongo (meaning gully).

THE DOWNING STREET YEARS
Margaret Thatcher’s international best selling book THE DOWNING STREET YEARS includes at least two references to Tanzania. She first recalls how she had to rush back from her country residence at Chequers to deal with the crisis caused one Sunday in the early eighties when an aircraft was hijacked from Tanzania to Stanstead airport near London.

Lady Thatcher also mentions briefly a meeting with Mwalimu Nyerere at a summit gathering at Cancun in Mexico. “Julius Nyerere was, as ever, charmingly persuasive, but equally misguided and unrealistic about what was wrong with his own country and, by extension, much of black Africa. He told me how unfair the IMF conditions for extending credit to him were: they had told him to bring Tanzania’ s public finances into order, cut protection and devalue his currency. Perhaps at this time the IMF’s demands were somewhat too rigorous: but he did not see that changes in this direction were necessary at all and in his own country’s long-term interests. He also complained of the effect of droughts and the collapse of his country’s agriculture – none of which he seemed to connect with the pursuit of misguided socialist policies, including collectivizing the farms”.

WHY THE FOOTBALL VANISHED
It was a first division football match in Moshi between Pamba from Mwanza and Ushirika from Moshi. According to NEW AFRICAN (October) a few minutes before the final whistle, with Ushirika in the lead, Pamba’s star player, Alphonse Modest, kicked the ball out of the ground. And then the ball ‘went missing’. After 20 minutes of searching the referee blew his whistle and the match was over. But some time later a passerby found the deflated ball just where everybody had been looking for it. Even more mysterious was the fact that no-one in Moshi seemed to have a spare. ‘No satisfactory explanation has been forthcoming except the theory that juju once again played its part in African football. Ushirika players said that Pamba comes from a region famed for its juju – “old ladies have been killed simply because they have red eyes”. Ushirika, on the other hand, came from a region which had lost most of its traditional arts including juju’. What about the lack of a spare ball? “That is because at the time everyone was hypnotised to forget about the spare ball” one of the Ushirika players said.

This note was accompanied by a cartoon by a well-known Tanzanian cartoonist in which a group of players were shown saying “I’m telling you, one of these days they are going to make the referee disappear … “!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TANZANIA AND GOLDMAN SACHS?
The GUARDIAN asked this question on December 10th. The answer: ‘One is an African country that makes $2.2 billion a year and shares it among 25 million people. Goldman Sachs is an investment bank that makes $2.6 billion and shares most of it between 161 people ….. ‘

MISCELLANY

Posted on by
Reply

MASSIVE INFLUX OF REFUGEES
Tanzania is having to cope with another major crisis with the arrival in recent weeks of some 170,000 refugees escaping from the slaughter in Burundi following the recent coup. However, there is better news from the other end of the country. Plans are now well ahead for the repatriation of 18,000 Mozambique refugees from the Likuyu refugee camp in Ruvuma Region. Their return home is scheduled for 1994.

A NEW EAST AFRICAN PACT
The Heads of state of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania met in Arusha on November 30, 1993 and signed protocols for East African Cooperation. The proposed permanent Commission of Cooperation will emphasise initially joint projects in transport, communications, trade, agriculture, energy, industry, tourism, the environment and health – Daily News.

TANZANIAN TROOPS FOR LIBERIA
President Mwinyi has announced that Tanzania is to send troops to Liberia to participate in peace-keeping activities. Tanzania was one of the countries which had been requested by the Organisation of African Unity, the USA and the conflicting factions in Liberia to provide troops – Daily News.

BOOK REVIEWS

Posted on by
Reply

GUIDE TO TANZANIA. Philip Briggs. Bradt Publications. 304 pages. £9.95.

This new guide is eminently practical. The first part tells how to deal with red tape, which airlines you can use, how to travel by road from all neighbouring countries, what to wear, how to avoid diarrhoea and also casual theft and so on. The constant reference to current costs (with the cheapest solution in each case) is particularly useful but the guide will need to be updated regularly. Tanzania’s history is dealt with perhaps too concisely in 14 pages.

Part two goes into more detail by city, town or region (including 17 pages on Zanzibar) under such headings as ‘Where to stay’, ‘Where to eat’ and ‘What to do’.

Invaluable to anyone visiting the country for the first time and wishing to keep expenses to the minimum – DRB

GUIDE TO ZANZIBAR. H.S.P. Publications (7 Highgate High st. London N6 5JR> £5.95.

The appearance of a guidebook devoted exclusively to Zanzibar is an unusual event. The Director of National Archives (Mr Hamad Omar) and his colleagues of the Zanzibar Task Force are to be congratulated on their achievement. The Guide is attractively produced, with a striking cover photograph of a dhow seen through an Arab archway, and very reasonably priced for a booklet of 114 pages, eight in full colour.

There has never been any doubt about Zanzibar’s potential as a tourist resort, with its pleasant beaches and fascinating history; but visitors have been deterred by difficulty of access, absence of good hotels and lack of practical information. The last official guide book was published as long ago as 1949. Long out of print, some of its useful historical facts have been incorporated in the new publication.

It is good to read once again the story of the gilded ring on the domed roof of the Law Courts, which is traditionally said to be there to enable the Archangel Gabriel to carry the building to heaven on the last day.

A visitor to Zanzibar in the 1990’s will be interested in more mundane matters such as where to stay. Fourteen hotels are listed and some idea of the in facilities can be gauged from the fact that six these opened in the last three years. The Zanzibar Tourist Board might consider the introduction of some form of grading system for the guidance of visitors, with an indication of facilities available e.g. swimming pool or rooms with private bathrooms. It would also be interesting to know how many of the 23 ‘guest houses’ listed are really up to international tourist standards.

The English text is excellent and includes amongst many other things a cheerful advertisement for Holiday Bungalows on the inside front cover; the reader is invited to ‘Come and fall apart in our back yard’ – as in the Jungle Book!.

One particularly welcome feature of the Guide is the Index; this compensates for the fact that the order of the various sections is rather haphazard. However, the two maps, of Zanzibar Island and stone Town, are a disaster. Although based on the excellent maps produced by the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys for the Zanzibar Tourist Bureau in 1983, they are illegible when printed in black and white in small type. Perhaps the publishers, who in other respects have done a good job, could work with DOS to produce better versions for the next addition – or even charge a little more for the Guide and include the DOS map in a pocket at the back.
John Sankey

A GENDER PERSPECTIVE ON ADULT LITERACY PROGRAMMES IN TANZANIA: SOME LESSONS FROM DODOMA REGION. L Buchert. African Adult Education and Literacy (AALAE). Vo1 7. No 1. 17 pages. 1993.

This paper attempts some measurement of the achievement of adult literacy programmes in the Dodoma region. In the late 50’s, with the aid of UNICEF, this was a core area for such programmes; and by 1961 the two regions of the then Central Province had more registered adult literacy learners than all the country’s other nine provinces combined.

From 1967 the Government sought to make education a major component in transforming Tanzania economically, politically and socially. Literacy programmes were linked with political, community and agricultural education. Officially, illiteracy rates nationally are said to have fallen from 90% to 10% during 1961-86. But illiteracy rates may have been increasing again since 1986, as dropouts from primary schools have increased and government has lessened its attention to adult literacy.

In Dodoma, education officials indicate that adult education has deteriorated since 1985, when responsibility for it was transferred to regions and districts. Less money is available, and, at village level, leadership support is patchy. The enthusiasm, efficiency and performance of the 1970’s has markedly declined. The author says that some of the statistics may have been constructed at lower level to ‘look good’.

The conclusion is that if adult education is to act as a ‘tool of transformation’ it must be given higher priority again at national level. For women, in particular, it needs to be tied to their being given control of the income from cash-crop production.
David Semers

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AS A POLICY PROCESS: THE CASE OF TANZANIA. Goran Hyden, University of Florida and Bo Karlstrom, Centre for Business and Policy Studies, Stockholm. World Development. Vol 21. No 9. 9 pages.

‘It may well be unique in economic history that an already poor country, without suffering from prolonged drought, war or climatic deterioration, experiences such a dramatic reduction in living standards’ write the authors in this graphic description of the recent economic history of Tanzania. They point out that between 1965 and 1985 Tanzania had an average annual decline in real GDP per capita of 0.5% and that analysis of household surveys suggests that real income might have fallen over the 15 year period to 1985 by as much as 50%.

The paper traces the long conflict between the World Bank and IMF on the one hand and Julius Nyerere on the other. Many missions were sent from Washington to press the case for adjustment of economic policies – adjustment of the exchange rate, adjustment of interest rates, adjustment of agricultural producer prices. But Nyerere resisted – he insisted that the conditions attached to IMF prescriptions were an infringement on Tanzania’s national sovereignty, devaluation would mean political suicide, and that a major devaluation would lead to riots in the streets. The Government called upon academic advisors who were ready to take a position contrary to that of the IMF. The authors state that Reginald Green from Sussex University and Prof. Ajit Singh from Cambridge argued sternly for not giving in to the Fund’s pressures for devaluation and the Scandinavian countries and ILO took Tanzania’s side. For Nyerere, structural adjustment was entirely a question of policy and ideology.

As the debate continued the economic decline worsened and, as the authors point out, those people Nyerere wished to protect from a fall in living standards – the urban population – became the prime victims of his policies.

‘Beginning in 1983 and following the ill-conceived campaign to lock up “economic saboteurs” – literally anybody with above average private capital – opposition to Nyerere emerged first in Zanzibar and later on the mainland’. The paper then goes on to describe how the Economic Recovery Programme began under President Mwinyi and how this brought encouraging results.

The main message of the paper is the importance of grounding structural reform on political reality – ‘the policy context as an explicit and independent variable … the notions of “ambiguity” and “conflict” in policy situations help us better to understand the opportunities and constraints for action on structural adjustment issues’ – DRB.

SIGNAL ON THE MOUNTAIN. Elizabeth Knox. Obtainable from M E Punt, 11 Wolsey Court, London Road, Bromley I Kent BRl 3ST. £8.50. 276 pages.

In this book the author records the courage and devotion of missionaries and Tanzanians who first took Christianity to the Uplands of Central Tanzania. She covers in meticulous detail the forty years from 1876 to the outbreak of the First World War, obtaining her material from careful research in England and Africa. She shows how the church took root in spite of limited missionary personnel and limited finance, situations which often meant that the early Christians themselves became evangelists. She has given us a valuable history of the roots of the church in central Tanzania and insight into the methods and people used by God to plant this church which even today continues to grow vigorously.
Mary E Punt


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

INNOVATION IN ADULT EDUCATION: THE CHANGING PERSPECTIVES OF POST-LITERACY CURRICULUM IN TANZANIA. Philemon A K Mushi.
AALAE Vol 7 No 1. 1993. 4 pages. This paper describes the efforts made to develop a post-literacy curriculum designed to empower people and to create the conditions for life-long education. The author criticises the ‘top-down’ approach used.

A FANFARE OF TRUMPETS. John Lewis-Barned. Obtainable from The Rectory Farmhouse, Church Hanborough, Wi tney ,Oxon OX8 8AB. 1993. 120 pages. This is another in the increasing flow of memoirs of administrative officers who served in Tanganyika in the 1950’s and 60’s. It has been described as ‘full of people and all about people’.

A MEDIUM TERM FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSING THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE, WITH APPLICATIONS TO THE PHILIPPINES AND TANZANIA. Kathie L Krum. The World Bank Economic Review. vol 7 No 2. 36 pages. May 1993. This presents a methodology for estimating the appropriate real rate and helps to work out the extent to which the prevailing rate is misaligned.

INTELLECTUALS AT THE HILL: ESSAYS AND TALKS 1969-1993. Issa Shivji. Dar es Salaam University Press. Professor Shivji describes his ideas during the 25 years from his early days as a student of law. The book covers such areas as economics, education, sociology, politics and history.

FUELLING CHANGE. Clive Sowden. Geographical. September 1993. 3 pages. In this review of energy resources in sub-Saharan Africa using Tanzania as an example the author states that the most striking feature of energy demand in Tanzania is that 90% of the demand is met from biomass – fuelwood and charcoal.
This is above the average figure of 66% for the sub-Saharan Africa region as a whole. The country is fortunate in that 66% is covered by forest and woodland. The author indicates the unsustainablity of consumption in the long term and mentions measures being taken to alleviate the problem.

REFLECTIONS ON DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA. Richard Dowden. African Affairs. Vol 92. No 369. October 1993. 4 pages. In pointing out that in Britain only the Financial Times and the Independent have full-time Africa correspondents for the 40 sub-Saharan countries excluding South Africa the author rightly suggests that academics could produce a much needed guide to the constitutional theory and practice of democracy in Africa. It should describe not what Marx or Lenin, who had never been to Africa, thought about the place but what such people as Mandela and Savimbi think about it. Writing about democracy in Tanzania the author refers to the rogues amongst the leaders of Africa Shaka Zulu, Kabaka Mutesa, Kwame Nkrumah, Hastings Banda, Bokassa, Idi Amin, but notes that Nyerere, one of the serious leaders , argued that Africa could not afford multi-party democracy. It needed unity above all else. But his one-party model failed. The people did not ‘own’ the concept. ‘Nyerere could still summon thousands of cheering people to national day rallies but there is little evidence that the people ever understood Ujamaa or picked up the idea of self-help. The system was imposed from above …. ‘

SHORT-TERM RESOURCE MOBILIZATION FOR RECURRENT FINANCING OF RURAL LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN TANZANIA. Ole Therkildsen and Joseph Semboja. World Development. Vol 20 No 8. August 1992. 12 pages.

MARKET REFORMS AND PARASTATAL RESTRUCTURING IN TANZANIA. M S D Bagachwa and others. 7th National Economic Policy Workshop. University of Dar es Salaam. December 1992.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LITERACY IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: ACTORS’ VIEWS FROM ONE VILLAGE IN TANZANIA. V Mlekwa. AALAE. Vol 7. No 1. 1993. 16 pages.

THE TANZANIAN ECONOMY. INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. E S Bukuku. univ. of Dar es Salaam. Praeger Publishers. 240 pages. 1992. The author shows how changes in industry, agriculture, income, taxation and education impacted growth and distribution from 1967 to 1990. State policies disrupted markets, destroyed incentives and hurt growth and distribution. Bukuku recommends growth oriented policies favouring small farmers.

TRANSFORMING SOUTHERN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE. Editors: A Seidman, Kamima Wa Chimika, N Simelane and D Weiner. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press. 266 pages. 1992. Highlights structural changes needed and includes a case study from Tanzania.

MODELLING THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF AIDS, WITH AN APPLICATION TO TANZANIA. John T Cuddington. World Bank Economic Review. Vol 7. No 2. May 1993. 16 pages.

USE BY THE CHAGGA ON KILIMANJARO. Alison Grove. African Affairs. Vol 92. No 368. July 1993. 17 pages. A lot has been written on what the author describes as one of the most impressive systems of water management in Africa. This paper describes the original system and brings us up-to-date on the effects on it of population growth, the arrival of piped water supplies and the continued importance of the furrows especially in the lower regions.

ANGELS IN AFRICA. A MEMOIR OF NURSING WITH THE COLONIAL SERVICE. Bridget M Robertson. Radcliffe Press. £17.95. Describes the life and work of a nursing sister in Queen Elizabeth’s Overseas Nursing Service between 1947 and 1964. Part of the author’s service was in Zanzibar.

BEING MAASAI: ETHNICITY AND IDENTITY IN EAST AFRICA. James Currey. 336 pages. £35 (cloth) and £12.95.

AFRICA MISUNDERSTOOD OR WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE RURAL-URBAN GAP? V Jamal and J Weeks. Macmillan Series of ILO Studies. 1993. 180 pages. The book looks at ten African countries including Tanzania and asks whether a ‘labour aristocracy’ has ever existed in Africa.

NKRUMAH’S GHANA AND EAST AFRICA. 0 Agyeman. Associated University Presses. 1992. 234 pages. £32.00. This book describes in considerable detail the great influence brought to bear on East African, including Tanzanian, political development by Kwame Nkrumah and his frequent disagreements with Julius Nyerere.

PRIMARY TECHNICAL DICTIONARY ENGLISH-SWAHILI. R Ohly. Institute of Production Innovation, University of Dar es Salaam and GTZ. 246 pages. This unique dictionary contains some 10,000 English technical terms and phrases which translate, because they are based on various technical publications I into some 30,000 Swahili technical terms. The book is particularly useful for scientists, technical personnel and students.

PARTNERS AND COMPETITORS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME: THE CASE OF SUNGUSUNGU, THE VIGILANTE GROUPS, AMONG THE SUKUMA AND NYAMWEZI OF TANZANIA. Sufian Bukururua. Paper presented at the Symposium on Youth and Authority, SOAS, December 11, 1993. Sungusungu groups came into existence in the early 1980’s at the initiative of male elders and they rely on rituals and divination for the performance of most of their acti vi ties. The rural community gives them credit for the restoration of borderland security. The youths do the work – tracking stolen cattle, arresting cattle rustlers, transmitting messages but they have recently expressed concern over the basis for election to leadership and the safety of the funds collected through fines.

THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL IN NORTHEASTERN TANZANIA, 1840-1940. J L Giblin. 232 pages. 1993.

OBITUARY

Posted on by
Reply

The Rev. Canon R G P Lamburn.

Canon Roger George Patrick Lamburn, known as Robin, died at Kindwiti Leprosy Village in the Rufiji District of Southern Tanzania on 26 October 1993 at the age of 89. He spent 63 years of his long life as an Anglican missionary and died as he lived, in great simplicity and at peace.

Robin was born in England in 1904 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied Natural Science. After a period as a curate in England he joined the Universities Mission to Central Africa and worked first in the Diocese of Masasi and then as Warden of St. Cyprian’s Theological College, Tunduru. During this period he became Education Secretary responsible for the administration of schools in the Masasi Diocese, as well as Archdeacon. Through these many positions, he became very well known and greatly loved among church people throughout Tanzania.

At the age of 57 he moved to become probably the first Christian missionary to the unhealthy and solidly Muslim Rufiji Delta about 100 miles south of Dar es Salaam. He established himself in the leprosy village of Kindwiti, near Utete, and started to dispense high church Anglicanism, medicine (with which he had much skill as a result of his scientific training) and Christian joy. He made little progress in evangelisation which he stated was his first and foremost concern, his few converts being from other districts. The breakthrough came in a remarkable way. As he was greatly concerned to invigorate the leprosy village with a spirit of self-help, people used to confide their problems in him. One day a young man came who was greatly shamed because, as a Muslim, he should have been circumcised at birth and, for some reason, this had not been done. Robin assured him that he had nothing to worry about and that he should go to the Sheikh in Utete to ask for the operation to be carried out and he, Robin, would bear the cost. The Moslem authorities were so touched at this act of charity that the whole attitude to the mission at Kindwiti changed from that time; a spirit of bitter antagonism developed into one of at least acceptance, if not of some measure of brotherliness.

Robin was awarded the MBE and the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanities and also received a medal from Pope John Paul II.

He possessed great personal charm and was an able raconteur. Right until the end his letters were entertaining, moving but frequently funny. His great sense of humour made him a warm companion. His particular hope was that the scourge of leprosy would be expunged from Rufiji by the end of the 20th century, a hope which science has made quite possible. He would have been very appreciative of anyone wishing to honour his memory with a donation to the Rufiji Leprosy Trust, set up to support this work. The Treasurer’s address is: Horton House, Horton, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9RL.
David Gooday

(Geoff and Jenny O’Donoghue have written as follows: ‘On Tuesday morning (October 26) at 7am the British High Commissioner in Tanzania, Mr Roger Westbrook, who had arrived in Kindwiti to visit Father Lamburn the previous day, called on him. Later Father got up, had a little breakfast and then sat in his armchair to read. Later in the morning he went back to bed. At 2.30 he died quietly and peacefully while holding the hand of Father Athumani, a one-time student of his. The following day the men and youths of the village began to dig Father’s grave beneath a large tree in the garden…. Local people settled down to pray, sing and sleep beside the grave … On the Thursday the mass was held in the simple chapel next to Father Robin’s house, although the presence of over 750 people meant that the majority had to gather round outside. Then the coffin, dressed with tissue-paper garlands, bouqainvillea blossoms and a simple wooden cross, was taken and lowered into his grave).

LETTERS

Posted on by
Reply

HOME-GROWN SUCCESSES
Two brief comments on the Bulletin. It now reads fine in its new big print glossy-papered format. Was Mary Boyd’s protest in the last issue written tongue in cheek? However, am I alone in my feeling that endless accounts of political strife and of projects charitably funded and operated by international bodies are overwhelming other items more likely to enhance the standing of Tanzanians on the world stage? I cannot believe that the many talented and highly qualified people of that country outside politics, are without home-grown successes worthy of record in the fields of business, research, invention and creativity. Could you please consider redressing the balance.
P Hooper

(Fair point! As a first step in redressing the balance please see the article by Cuthbert Kimambo on page 5 – Editor)

THE ALL-TIME BEST
Your issue No 45 was as good as any I can remember, if not indeed the all-time best. I would like to mention a few points.

Firstly, I was taken aback by the coincidence of the obituaries of Dunstan Omari and Lucy Lameck, because when I arrived in Dar es Salaam in 1953, having travelled from London by sea with Dunstan, he lost no time in introducing me to Lucy Lameck. We all went to a dance together and I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear of their engagement!

The reference to War graves on page 22 reminds me that the Commonwealth War Graves commission provides information about named individuals; it also has lists a) of those who died in World War I and are buried at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, Bagamoyo Road and b) for World War 11, all cemeteries in Tanganyika. The lists are alphabetical. It occurs to me that you might wish to get someone in Dar es Salaam to report on the matter.

On ‘This Maddest of Pursuits’ on page 24, who on earth is Martin Cropper? What is ‘cyclothermic’ (Livingstone) and ‘melanothobe’ (Burton)? And what is meant by ‘Livingstone himself never made a single permanent conversion’? Or is it all a joke?
Paul Marchant

THE WITHERING AWAY OF THE UNION?

Posted on by
Reply

This was the title of a talk (and the question posed) on July 29th at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London by Haroub Othman, Professor of Development Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. It was a well-timed address as, only two weeks later, the matter reached the top of the agenda in Tanzania’s National Assembly when 57 MP’s signed a motion demanding the establishment of a Government of Tanganyika.

For quite some time there have been significant groups in Zanzibar questioning whether it is in the best interests of the Isles to remain in Union with the mainland of Tanzania in a United republic. A new development in recent weeks has been the sudden expression by mainlanders of their serious reservations also about the Union.

Zanzibar’s unilateral act in joining the ‘organisation of Islamic Conference’ (OIC), apparently without any objection from the Union Government, plus the subsequent Union Parliamentary (Marmo) Enquiry were described in the May 1993 Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs.

ZANZIBAR PULLS OUT OF THE OIC – IMMEDIATE REACTIONS
Under apparently massive pressure from the mainland and with considerable reluctance on the part of Zanzibar it was eventually announced on August 13 1993 that Zanzibar would withdraw from the OIC. Prime Minister and First Vice-President John Malecela stated however that the Union Government was doing research on whether the OIC engaged purely in economic cooperation and social welfare (as had been claimed by Zanzibar) or whether it was primarily a religious organisation. There was a possibility of the Union joining the OIC at a later date if it was secular in nature.

When the estimates for the 1993/94 budget of the Office of the Second Vice-President (who is also President of Zanzibar) came up for debate in the National Assembly, MP’s were clearly disturbed and also divided in their reactions to the withdrawal. The debate was tense. Speakers received sporadic applause from crowds listening outside the Parliament Chambers.

Some MP’s commended the Zanzibar Government for the decision to withdraw saying it was a demonstration of political maturity. They called for a compromise on ‘matters which were likely to divide the 29-year-old political marriage between the then Tanganyika and Zanzibar’.

One MP suggested that the setting up of a single government could end the ‘undue bickering’.

The MP for Njombe said he believed that Zanzibar had been rejected by the OIC Secretariat, that it had never become a member, that there was no need to praise it for withdrawing and that it had been a case of cheap political propaganda. His speech was interrupted by Government Ministers on points of order.

The MP for Kongwa, proposing a cut of one shilling in the Second-Vicc-President’s budget, said that Zanzibar President Salmin Amour should apologise to the House over his request earlier in the year for MP’s to stop questioning Zanzibar’s entry into the OIC.

Prime Minister John Malecela pleaded with MP’s to start healing the wounds “Let us take confidence building measures … we have already caused a lot of wounds; let’s start dressing them now”.

MP’s eventually agreed to restore the shilling and passed the budget estimates.

NYERERE WARNS THE NATION
For some time before this, the press in Dar es Salaam had been reporting a succession of visits by President Mwinyi, President Amour and several other leaders to Mwalimu Nyerere’s Butiama retirement home for urgent discussions on Union matters. And on August 17th readers of the Daily News were greeted with a huge front page headline – ‘NATION WARNED. NYERERE IN DEFENCE OF TANZANIA’.

The retired President addressed first the members of Parliament and then a press conference. He said that the nation was bound to disintegrate if those in authority continued to violate the Constitution. Lawlessness would throw the nation into anarchy.

Mwalimu Nyerere said that he had been disturbed by the way the Government had handled the controversial Zanzibar entry into the OIC. The move was an outright violation of the Union Constitution and he was pleased that Zanzibar had now decided to withdraw.

“What is more puzzling” he said “is the way the Government was behaving before and after Zanzibar’s entry. The news was reported for the first time by the BBC and was later picked up by the local press. But the Government was reluctant to admit that Zanzibar had joined until the press produced more information”. Mwalimu said that such a violation of the Constitution was a difficult subject to talk about. He said however that he found it even more difficult to keep quiet.

“To all Cabinet Ministers, some of whom have now concentrated their efforts on the demolition of pork shops, I have a question. What has happened these days? Do you these days take an oath to protect pork shops? In our day we took an oath to defend the Constitution” he went on. The CCM National Executive Committee and the Central Committee, through shelving important national issues …. had contributed to Zanzibar’s unconstitutional entry into the OIC. “If there is a lack of consensus on a principle, some (people) resign. Oh Yes! And they openly explain why they’ve done so”.

ONE, TWO OR THREE GOVERNMENTS?
Mwalimu went on to say that the OIC controversy had fanned the sentiments of those demanding a different structure for the Union. Some were calling for three governments (Union, Mainland and Zanzibar) while others demanded one central Union government only.

He made it clear that he was in favour of the present two-government system (the Union and Zanzibar governments). He said that matters of national interest should not be regarded as ‘sensitive’ and should not be handled secretly. such practices would be regarded as ‘cunning tactics I which were contrary to good governance.

GOVERNMENT ADMITS ITS ERROR
This was the first time that Mwalimu Nyerere had openly criticised the government which succeeded his. Some commentators linked the Mwinyi government’s mixed signals when the OIC controversy first emerged to the fact that President Mwinyi is himself from Zanzibar and probably had divided loyalties.

Former Union Prime Minister Joseph Warioba has been among the MP’s who have consistently pressed the government to come out clearly on the OIC issue. In the tense Parliamentary debate in August he asked “Was the constitution violated or not?”

At this stage, and before replying, Minister of Legal and constitutional Affairs Samuel Sitta took a glass of water. The House burst into laughter. “The constitution was violated” he admitted at last. But he added that, although Tanzania was one united sovereign state it had two constitutions one for Zanzibar and one for the Union. This was an anomaly. There was no constitutional court to resolve issues between these constitutions. He pleaded with legislators to leave the arc issue alone before it caused further damage to the Union.

THE BACKGROUND AND THE FUTURE
Professor Othman, in his London address, threw some new light on the earliest stages of the Union. He said that the then Zanzibar President (Karume) wanted to have a total union with one government – it was Nyerere who had insisted that Zanzibar’s identity should be preserved. Zanzibari’s initially showed great enthusiasm for the Union but this was primarily because they wanted to be rescued from their own (very tough) revolutionary regime at the time.

The Professor was in favour of continuation of the Union which had brought stability and peace; a three-part Federation would mean its dismemberment. He recommended that the following measures should be taken to avoid the withering away of the Union:
– a reduction in the number of items (23) in the constitution which are now Union matters;
– the drafting of new laws by the two Attorney-Generals working together;
– Zanzibar to be free to enter into international contracts on non-Union matters and to have representatives in Tanzanian embassies abroad.

TANGANYIKA
A significant change in recent constitutional discussions is that the word ‘Tanganyika,’ long since out of use in the United Republic, was now being freely employed.

An editorial in the Business Times on August 20,1993 had this to say: ‘Every dark cloud has its silver lining …. despite Nyerere’s admirable attempts to save the present structure (of the Union) it is obvious that two governments for Tanganyika and Zanzibar will never work satisfactorily. Nyerere is probably right that a Federal three-government structure will lead to the collapse of the United Republic and that a single central government is a nonstarter … in the circumstances, the only realistic and lasting solution is to have two separate and sovereign states working in close collaboration. The end of the Union would not be a progressive step but it would also not be the disaster it is made out to be by some people …. economic necessity and geography, apart from a shared history, culture and defence needs, would all dictate close cooperation between the two countries’.

STOP PRESS
As this Bulletin goes to press the constitutional situation remained fluid. The Government announced that a report on the state of the Union would be made in Dodoma in October 1993. At a full CCM Party meeting agreement was reached on a consultation exercise in which people would be able to express their views on the future of the Union and the possibility of the creation of a Tanganyika Government within it. The 57 MP’s who had earlier demanded the setting up of such a government revised their motion in favour of a referendum on the matter for mainlanders.

In an effort to remove a long-standing bone of contention the Zanzibar Government agreed to allow mainlanders to visit Zanzibar without passports. The opposition Civic United Front promptly objected. Others complained about ‘the selling of Zanzibar to Tanganyika’ and ‘the auctioning of its statehood’.

POLITICS

Posted on by
Reply

ELECTION OF A VICE-PRESIDENT
Prime Minister Malecela has announced that the two governments had agreed on a solution to another controversial matter which had led to a heated debate in Parliament in February and on which the Government had requested more time for study. In future there would be only one Vice-President instead of two. He/she would be the running mate of the successful Presidential candidate.

THE UNION
The Union remains an issue dividing the new political parties which are outside Parliament. The Rev Christopher Mtikila, Chairman of the as yet unrecognised Democratic Party is in favour of the splitting up of the Union and letting Zanzibar go its own way. CHADEMA is in favour of continuing the Union and possibly adopting the three-government approach as the best way to save it. The leading party in Zanzibar the CUF is also in favour of a continuation of the Union.

The National Electoral Commission has responded to representations from opposition parties and postponed the local government elections scheduled for 1993 to 1994 to give more time for preparations.

Mwalimu Nyerere commented that when he took stock of the political state of affairs in Tanzania “I don’t see any other party (than the CCM)”. The CCM publicity Secretary said that the party’s rising membership now totals 3.5 million. Prime Minister Malecela, at a meeting with representatives of CHADEMA, said that the government would seriously investigate allegations of CCM harassment of opposition parties.

CHADEMA leader Edwin Mtei has said that his party stands for the capitalist road of development, the conversion of National Service camps into vocational training centres, a radical reduction in the size of the army and abandonment of the project to move the capital to Dodoma.

On July 27th the Government issued a statement saying that former Cabinet Minister Oscar Kambona, the leader of TADEA, had finally had his Tanzanian citizenship confirmed ‘on historical, circumstantial and humanitarian grounds’. As Mr Kambona had indicated that he wished for reconciliation with the government, CCM and other national leaders the past should be forgotten and a new chapter opened.

Hilary Mapunda’s Liberal Democratic Party has been dissolved.

Representatives of eight opposition parties walked out of the Arusha International Conference Centre hall when Zanzibar President Salmin Amour started his opening speech. They claimed that they had no quarrel with the CCM but that the Zanzibar President was dictator and was suppressing the CUP opposition. On his return to Zanzibar the President attended a large CCM welcome home rally.

According to ‘Baraza’ (April 1993) Moslems in Tanzania would form a political party if the Rev. Mtikila’s Democratic Party were to be granted full registration.

THE THOUGHTS OF CHAIRMAN MTIKILA

Posted on by
Reply

The Bulletin understands that even in far away Singida (and presumably everywhere else in Tanzania) when you are thirsty and want a strong drink you no longer ask for a ‘Safari’ beer. You ask for an ‘Mtikila’!

The growing popularity of the Chairman of the Democratic Party, has been giving cause for concern to people within and outside Tanzania. German TV journalist Iris Karlovits interviewed him recently for the Dar es Salaam ‘Express’. The following are extracts from the interview:

ON RELIGION AND THE SECULAR STATE: I believe that those in power try to separate politics from religion because they want to be free to do evil against mankind; as a Pastor and evangelist, politics has never been separated from my ministry especially when it deals with people’s rights and with the resources which keep them happy. Politics and religion are one and the same because they both deal with people’s rights.

ON TANZANIA’S GREATEST PROBLEMS: 1. The moral decay of our society; 2. mental anaesthesia (Julius Nyerere deliberately administered some political anaesthesia into the brains of the people of this country in order to subdue them; we were reduced to the level of livestock who just lived for the wishes of the master); 3.the total decay of health services; 4. the economic ruin.

ON EDUCATION: We need intensive education for democracy. The subject should be called ‘civics’ as in the colonial days. It was so nice. It taught us all to be proud of our country. We were taught to try and do our best. We strived to lead, to be the best in our studies, in our work. But all this spirit is dead. Most of the education used to be provided by missionaries. Many of the teachers came from outside. The missionaries taught good discipline and patriotism. Now these guys deliberately nationalised those schools and crushed them down. We need to restore those schools to the missionaries because by taking them away we have ruined our education system.

ON HOW TO RAISE MORE MONEY TO PAY FOR BETTER EDUCATION: 1.Cut the intelligence service which spends billions of shillings. Its major work was to prevent the emergence of opposition and to suppress democracy. But now opposition is legal; 2.Stop the extravagance on creating new ministries; 3. There are too many tax exemptions for influential persons; 4. Huge amounts of money are being taken out of the country.

ON THE ‘MAFIA SYNDICATES’: Our party has a list of 160 people who are responsible for all this. They are businessmen, top men in the CCM, high ranking officials, some foreigners and diplomats. There are the ‘Gabacholis’ who are of Asian origin. They are Arabs, Zanzibaris from Pemba, Somalis and a few Westerners. They are importing containers full of drugs and re-exporting to Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Those people who say that we are going to fail in business if we chase away the ‘Gabacholis’ are only insulting the Tanganyika people. They think that God put beans in the heads of Tanganyikans and brains in the heads of the thieves from other countries who come to loot our country.

ON INDIGENISATION: Indigenisation is education and change of the regulations for commerce. Our business people here have been denied opportunities. Foreigners have their own motherlands. They’ve come here to get rich. A Tanganyikan is a person of Tanganyikan origin not only born here. Being born anywhere is meaningless. If I were staying in Switzerland and my wife delivered a baby there, this does not change her Tanganyikan origin. We do not have to go into archaeology to dig up bones to see who was here before whom.

ON THE ‘SELLING OF THE COUNTRY’: The country is on sale! They are selling the land. What about Loliondo, the game parks, everything? So they say I am an instigator and what have you. They are sick. All the diamonds are going. We had 300,000 elephants at independence. No one should point a finger at the British, because they left us with everything intact. Now we have got about 8,000 left. If the Germans are compensating the Jews for having killed them and if the Americans are to pay the West Africans for the slaves they took, we have got to start discussing compensation from the Arabs.

ON ZANZIBARIS: They have a different identity (from Tanganyikans). They are Zanzibaris.

RELIGION

Posted on by
Reply

The latest developments in the religious differences reported in Bulletin No 45 are as follows:

– followers of the Mount Meru Lutheran Diocese in Arusha have finally agreed with the Government’s decision to disband the rebel Diocese in order to sustain peace in the area;

– the trial of 16 Muslim fundamentalists allegedly involved in the destruction of pork shops (Bulletin 45) continues.

– addressing crowds at the unveiling of a cross to commemorate the 125 years since the first Roman Catholic missionaries stepped ashore at Bagamoyo, Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema said he gave ‘religious divisive elements’ (Muslim fundamentalists) seven days to stop or the police would deal with them.

– ‘Africa Events’ protested (June 1993) that such government actions sidestepped the underlying issue. Muslims claimed that they had been marginalised. A 1983 study had stated that 78% of secondary school students were Christians. At the University another study indicated that from 1986 to 1990 only 13% of students had been Muslims compared with 86% Christians. The present Cabinet had only 8 Muslim Ministers out of 24. The article did not mention that the head of state is a Muslim. It went on to point out that twenty out of 24 Principal Secretaries were Christians.

The rearing of pigs and selling of pork in residential areas was unheard of in the past. Nowadays pigs moved about freely in mixed residential areas. Why had the Government not taken to court persons involved in the Mount Meru Lutheran religious crisis where people had been killed? The Government was wrong to use the big stick of witch-hunting, court actions, restrictions on (Muslim) clerics I freedom of speech …… (The above information comes form a variety of media sources and individuals in Tanzania and Britain Editor).