The London Times has reported on the results of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s offer of £1,000 to anyone who can explain the counterintuitive Mpemba effect on freezing hot water (described in TA 103). But the paper said that there was still no real solution. The Society had been swamped by the number of responses it received and had had to take on extra staff to cope with the rush. They received more than 200 responses from Croatia alone; 7,000 from the US; 800 from Britain; 880 from China and four from Afghanistan!

One reply said poetically:
‘To consider Mpemba, you’ve got to remember,
no matter our clever, well seasoned capers,
we’re still plum outmatched about liquids and vapours.’

The Society has decided to ask people to vote on which of the solutions offered they consider to have been the best. Times readers were recommended to visit the Society’s website for details.

On the 13th anniversary of Mwalimu Nyerere’s death on October 13, the Citizen published an article by Saumo Mwalimu commemorating the first President’s time living in Magomeni Usalama in Dar es Salaam and later in Butiama, Mara region.

Extracts from the article:
‘In a not-so-secluded alcove right in the middle of the city is a building whose walls could speak volumes about the founding of this nation. Located a mere four kilometres from the heartland of Dar es Salaam, an ancient structure stands tall, its national flag pulsating to the beat of a gentle city breeze. When visitors descend on this whitewashed building they are left without any doubt that it is an important landmark. The national livery, in splendid yellows and greens and blues and blacks stands ready to welcome guests. There is also the giant placard outside the property which reads in Kiswahili: “Makumbusho ya Kumbukizi ya Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere”… This rather verbose description lets visitors know the site is a tribute to the life of the founding father of Tanzania.

As monuments go, it is a rather humble abode. It is however perhaps a fitting memorial to the legendary statesman, who is remembered for championing egalitarian causes that saw the promotion of Ujamaa, a mode of African socialism that sought to put economic and social power in the hands of the masses…. However, the building has never been good at attracting guests despite its ties to a man whose life is intrinsically linked to the history of the nation. Passersby often cast sidelong glances over the gate as they go on their way; as if to try and sneak a peek inside without having to actually go in.

Mwalimu Nyerere lived in this house after he quit his teaching post at St Francis College (what is now known as Pugu Secondary) to take up full time the cause of Tanganyika’s independence, according to curator Ms Victoria Bache. “In this house Mwl Nyerere hosted meetings of the Tanganyika African Association and (its successor) the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU),” she said, pointing out that the build­ing is testament to the history of the struggle for independence in Tanganyika.

After he had left his job at St Francis, Mwl Nyerere moved in with other political activists but these new dwellings were deemed perilous for a man of his stature. He subsequently moved to Maduka Sita in Magomeni, where he resided in “Shop Number Four” according to Ms Bache. He was given the Usalama plot by one Sheikh Abeid Karuta, where he built from scratch and moved into his new home in January 1959, two years before independence in 1961. Mwalimu stayed at the complex for only eight months. He was moved to Sea View after he became the chairman of TANU.
Despite its rich history, the Usalama museum has had a tough time drawing in foot traffic since it officially began operations early in 2012. according to its curator. “It’s hard to blame anyone for this,” she said, adding that very little had been done to promote the site. From March to November 2012 the monument and museum brought in a total of TShs 93,700 from just 163 visitors. Entry costs TShs500 per person. The curator admits that there is not much to see in the museum. The few items on display include several family beds that Mwl Nyerere owned at some point, cookers, a radio, some medals, sofa sets and bathroom fixtures.
Very few of the original fixtures have survived the years of neglect. Most have been sold off and some are in the hands of Mwalimu Nyerere’s family. “I’m doing my bit to keep this place going but I can not do it alone” she said.

In Butiama
As the Dar museum struggles, business is brisk at its twin in Butiama, Mara region. The number of visitors there is picking up according to Curator Emmanuel Kyondo. Established in 1999, the centre receives around 9,000 visitors every year, all this despite the fact that it is located 48 kms from Musoma and a full 180 kms from the city of Mwanza. Visitor numbers might be on the rise but many more potential tourists are put off by the lack of suitable lodging facilities in Butiama, Kyondo said. “That’s a big hassle; the lack of proper hotels and lodges. Many visitors would have to drive in, then drive back out to Musoma where there are nicer and more reliable hotels and guesthouses” Kyondo added.

This edited version of an article serves as an introduction to an MSc in African Studies (University of Oxford) dissertation entitled “Meaning in Miscellanea: The Social Value of Books in Stone Town, Zanzibar” that was submitted in June 2012. For further discussion and enquiry please contact Jono Jackson via the editor

Nearly half a century since the English Club closed its doors, remnants of its library can be found in the same room of the same building that once housed this bastion of English society abroad.

During the era in which Zanzibar was a British Protectorate, its library was central to its members’ leisure and learning; but within the building’s current incarnation as the Africa House Hotel, the remaining books stand in cabinets inaccessible behind a locked door. The numerous cardboard boxes within reveal that the once-active library has become a storeroom, and it is through glass panes the books’ spines relate their titles and authors. Once bright, thorough, and visited daily, its current state is that of a neglected and mildewed miscellany.

Evelyn Waugh stayed at the English Club in the 1930s, and mentioned in Remote People how he went up to the library daily to read and make notes on local history. He wrote that ‘the ink runs in little puddles of sweat that fall on to the page; I leave hot thumb-prints on the history-book. The plates have all come loose and the fan scatters them about the library.’

This study is rooted in the notion that the same object can be admired or rejected, and the objects in question are English-language books that exist in various forms and locations throughout Stone Town, Zanzibar. The ways in which people respond to and use meanings have material, social, and cultural consequences for themselves and those meanings. It is proposed that books can inhabit numerous nuances of meaning and value depending upon the web of wider social relations that surround their location in time and space.

Three categories of English-language books are identified for the purpose of this study: Artifactual; Second-hand; and New.

The Artifactual are those of the English Club library that still exist within the Africa House Hotel. Remnants of this library are also found in curio shops in Stone Town and offer a fascinating insight into the reading habits and interests of those who are long-gone yet evidence of their presence remains.

Second-hand books are worthy of consideration as significant objects within the landscape and social fabric of Stone Town. Their origin and destination are largely the Western consumer, whilst their circulation is facilitated by Zanzibari booksellers. Notions of value and meaning can be extrapolated as a result of the encounter between local practices and ideas with Western forms.

New books sold in Stone Town are predominantly priced above the financial capabilities of most Zanzibaris. Whilst reading is not as essential to the human system as eating or sleeping, the interplay between the concept of reading as nourishment for the mind and yet not essential to survival suggests that perceptions of books as valuable commodities are blurred.

If books are pre-eminent as vehicles for information and education, and a source of culture and recreation, then a discussion of the presence of such a large number of books that serve transient tourists contributes to the stereotypical and outdated, yet created and maintained, societal differences between the Western, literate and wealthy world, and the Third, illiterate and poor world.

Perhaps the Swahili proverb ‘Elimu ni maisha, si vitabu’ (‘Education is life, not books’) informs a difference in social mores, as Zanzibaris might not consider books a means to an end and are not imbedded in the notion of lifelong learning or reading for pleasure. The impact of books donated from Western agencies is also questioned insofar as their effects contrast with their intended purpose.

Books are shown to be potent objects of analysis, especially as Zanzibar possesses a complex history of cultural exchange. Exploring the book as an object that possesses a cultural biography enables the reconstruction of human interactions and variants of meaning and value that can inhabit the same object as perceived by different people, all the while entangled within the history and society of Stone Town.

Jono Jackson recently graduated with an MSc in African Studies from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He also studied Swahili & History at SOAS which included a term on Zanzibar. He has travelled extensively throughout Tanzania, and was a contributor to the 2nd Edition (2009) of the Footprint Travel Guide to Tanzania.

Miss Tanzania 2012

Glitz and glamour were reported to have filled the Blue Pearl Hotel recently as Brigitte Alfred from Sinza was crowned the new Miss Tanzania for 2012 in a hotly contested final.

Brigitte (centre) beat 28 other contestants to win a Toyota Noah and TShs 8 million. Eugene Fabian (left) from the Lake Zone emerged as the first runner up, and received TShs 6 million while the third place went to Edda Sylvester (right) from Temeke, who got TShs 4 million.

“I’m so happy and excited for the award, I promise not to let Tanzanians down in the Miss World event,” said the happy new queen as she stood in front of her grand prize. Brigitte is the eighteenth contestant to take the Miss Tanzania crown since its re-inception in 1994.

Elders in Mara Region have embarked on a campaign to convince boys to boycott circumcision as a protest against global condemnation of female genital mutilation (FGM). The season was due to start in December. The elders hope that their move to prevent boys from getting the cut will evoke anger among practitioners who will then enforce a revival of both female and male circumcision on the pretence that it is an order from the ancestors to cleanse the community, failure of which would lead to punitive measures.

A survey by The Citizen in Serengeti, Tarime and Rorya districts found that campaigns for the revival of FGM appealed to clan elders and most of them would gladly support the practice. “Some of the boys have threatened to boycott the initiation rite unless girls are also involved. They claim that during initiation boys and girls walk together as couples, a situation they believe makes the process colourful”, said an anti-FGM parent.