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OBITUARIES

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MARIUS DEMETRRIUS GHIKAS, Greek adventurer and coffee farmer, died in Moshi on June 10. He was buried at Korfovoun, the farm he owned for many years near Oldonyo Sambu. He attended the then Greek School in Moshi before going to Oxford for his higher education. His extraordinary life was described in Shelby Tucker’s book, ‘The last Banana’ published in 2011 and reviewed at the time in TA (highly recommended – Editor.). The book describes him as follows: ‘With his fierce hazel eyes and Yul Brunner dome that he boasted was his best feature, he belonged to an elite minority at Oxford who came from ‘the colonies’ and dressed better than most undergraduates… their English, manifesting the peculiar veneration they felt in ‘the colonies’ for the ‘home country,’ was more precise grammatically , cleaner and more poised that that spoken by most of their British contemporaries’. He ran the family coffee estate and the family financed the construction of the Moshi Hotel, the largest privately-owned hotel in East Africa at the time. Ghikas became quite rich. But all this wealth evaporated when foreign- owned properties in Tanzania were nationalised in the sixties and early seventies. Ghikas lost everything and became what is described in Swahili as fukara hohehohe (destitute beggar). Almost all the other 150 Greeks in Moshi left the country as did the many other Greeks who were prominent in the very successful sisal industry at the time. In his final years he led a penurious, hand to mouth existence. (Thank you Shelby Tucker for letting us know about this – Editor).

CAMPBELL WHALLEY, who was born in 1937 in Peru, became a Game Warden when Tanzania was Tanganyika. At the age of 22 he had been the first man to follow on foot the epic trek by John Hanning Speke which established to the outside world that Lake Victoria was the source of the White Nile. He later pointed out to the young Jane Goodall the use by chimpanzees of tools, an observation which she developed to win eventually a reputation as the world’s greatest expert on the primates. After working in the deepest gold mine in South Africa, Whalley joined a team of geologists employed by the Canadian millionaire Jack Williamson, who was challenging the De Beers monopoly in diamond mining. He later established the Mwadui Mine which still produces diamonds today. He gained such a reputation as a wildlife expert that he later escorted many celebrated visitors around Tanganyika’s game reserves, including Ernest Hemingway, John Wayne, James Stewart and Elsa Martinelli. He came to know George and Joy Adamson when they came to the Serengeti, amidst much publicity, to release into the wild the three orphaned cubs of Elsa the famous lioness. On arrival Joy had started to shoot game just before the young lions were released. Whalley pointed out to her that this was no way to teach the young lion cubs to fend for themselves and confiscated her gun. He was rewarded by her reference to him in her best selling book ‘Living Free’ as ‘an obnoxious game warden’ – From the Daily Telegraph via the ASAUK Newsletter.

IAN BUIST, who died on 27 October 2012, spent most of his career working for the economic and social development of the Third World, with a particular emphasis on East Africa. Born in 1930, he joined the East African Department of the Colonial Office in 1952 and remained in that department for nine years, with a two-year gap in 1954-6 when he was seconded to pre-independent Kenya. There he served as deputy secretary to the first multi-racial Cabinet, before being posted to Kitui as a district officer, where he acquired a life-long love of Africa. In 1961 he transferred to the newly-formed Department of Technical Cooperation and in 1962 was posted to Dar as First Secretary (Technical Cooperation) in the British High Commission. Tanganyika had become independent a few months previously and one of Buist’s tasks was to help organise the transition from the former British administrators to their African successors. He was in Dar during the army mutiny and recalled the critical moment when the then Prime Minister, Rashidi Kawawa, delivered a hand-written note to the High Commission requesting British military intervention.

Buist was involved in the talks with Kenya and Uganda about the future of the East African Common Services Authority and in 1964 was posted to Nairobi again, to help negotiate the treaty which established the East African Community in 1967. He returned to London in 1969 and was Under Secretary at the Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development) from 1976 until his retirement in 1990, when he was awarded a CB (instead of the more usual CMG or CBE). (Thank you to John Sankey for this – Editor).

ANTON TURNER (38) a former Army Captain, died instantly when he was charged by a bull elephant as he led an expedition in Tanzania three years ago. On November 9 2012 his father collected his Queens Gallantry Medal at Buckingham Palace from the Queen. It had been awarded in recognition of his heroism in saving the lives of a film crew which included three children. His father recounted how his son had refused to move out of the elephant’s path. He shouted to try to drive it away but the elephant did not give up. Because Turner stood there, it gave the others the opportunity to get away and hide or take cover. He had been working for the CBBC series ‘Serious Explorers’ in which was recreating Dr David Livingstone’s journey across Africa – London Evening Standard.

REVIEWS

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Edited by John Cooper-Poole

THE CULTURE OF COLONIALISM. THE CULTURAL SUBJECTION OF UKAGURU, by T.O.Beidelman, Indiana University Press 2012. ISBN 978 0 253 00215 0 (h/b) £59.00, or p/b £20.99.

Some 35 years ago I read Beidelman’s Colonial Evangelism, a sardonic account of the Church Missionary Sociery in Tanganyika. (In this new book Beidelman describes how a good friend of his responded to the intrusion of a missionary into the club by urinating on the man’s trousers and Beidelman’s earlier book was written in much the same spirit). Since then I had read nothing by Beidelman and the appearance of this new book took me by surprise. I had assumed Beidelman was retired or dead but this book reveals him as very much alive. In fact it is surprising that I never met Beidelman. We both arrived in Africa in 1957, he to Ukaguru and I to Southern Rhodesia. We were both working on doctorates for Oxford. When I was deported from Rhodesia and came to the University College of Dar es Salaam in 1963 Beidelman was still out in the central Tanganyikan bush. Had he then met me on one of his infrequent visits to Dar es Salaam he would certainly have been as justifiably rude to me as he was to large numbers of dignitaries in Oxford and Tanganyika. In those early Tanzanian years I represented perfectly the sort of person about whom he is most scornful – intellectuals who believed that history was being made from the centre by the enlightened socialism of Julius Nyerere and who knew nothing of local realities. Beidelman is unsparing about Nyerere. His ‘Fabian Socialism’ was bogus and irrelevant; his sham rhetoric concealed an absence of constructive ideas; his forced villagisation policy had disastrous effects on local societies; he ruthlessly repressed all criticism, giving the ‘thugs’ of the TANU Youth League a free hand.

Yet this is a book about colonialism rather than post colonialism and its real indictment is of British colonialism in Tanganyika. Beidelman comes over as a natural rebel. He was wonderfully cheeky to authority. In Oxford he was splendidly impertinent to the majestic Dame Margery Perham, telling her in a seminar that her ideas about Indirect Rule were a dangerous distortion. He was rude to the arrogant District Commissioner in Ukaguru, and equally disobliging to a more sympathetic official who wanted to draw upon his anthropological knowledge. He made very few white friends until he had obtained his Oxford doctorate and had acquired an array of collegiate suits and ties and a strained Belfast accent. He quarreled with a paranoiac Tanganyikan local administrator. His affection and admiration were reserved for the Kaguru themselves, a lovable if fractious people living in beautiful country. They have always been the victims of history. His deepest wish – though not a lively expectation – is that they should enjoy a happier future.

The Kaguru were victims of slave raiding in the nineteenth century. German rule was brutal; the first world war destructive. The British portrayed themselves as more sympathetic rulers, gradually civilizing the ‘natives’ through the use of their own institutions in the policy of Indirect Rule. The core of Beidelman’s book is an exposure of the fraud of Indirect Rule. In a comparative chapter he reviews the very extensive literature on colonialism, usefully avoiding jargon. He admits that many others have exposed the illusions and self-delusions of Indirect Rule, with its invention of tribes and its self-deceiving smokescreen around the realities of force and exploitation. But he reasonably claims to provide the most thorough study of the functioning – or malfunctioning – of Indirect Rule in one district. Beidelman is scathing in his portrayal of the heroes of Indirect Rule. He sees Perham’s idol, Lord Lugard, as a man with neither knowledge nor ideas, transformed into a sage whom all colonial officers had to read. He sees the hero of Tanganyikan Indirect Rule, Sir Donald Cameron, as a desk-bound bureaucrat, ignorant of realities on the ground. Governor Twining was an inflated disaster. Beidelman’s rare compliments are reserved for critics of the system, like Dundas, or the last Governor, Turnbull, who wound colonialism up in Tanganyika with tact and common-sense.

In Ukaguru the imposition of the Indirect Rule system was made more difficult by the existence of matrilineality which the British did not understand or admire. (The new rulers after Tanganyikan independence just abolished it altogether). There were no ‘big men’ with hosts of dependants or dozens of slaves. Authority in the local Indirect Rule system was up for grabs and Beidelman has excellent chapters on how men emerged as headmen and some as chiefs. They were illiterate and uneducated men and no attempt was made to train up a group of literate younger Kaguru. Education was left to the disliked CMS missionaries who themselves were determined not to produce African intellectuals and made no effort to understand Kaguru ritual or religion. The core of Indirect Rule in Ukaguru was the system of headmen’s and chiefs’ courts. These could not try serious crimes and witchcraft was not recognized as a reality by the British. They were mostly concerned with civil cases. Soon after independence, Beidelman was given the surviving court records by a British official who told him that with the abolition of both chiefs and matrilineality no-one would ever be interested in them again. The core of his book is a discussion of these court records from which he reconstructs a vanished world. These chapters will be of inestimable comparative value to historians working on colonial legal systems.

Kaguru disliked and resented colonialism and Beidelman made friends just by virtue of not being British. But they did not fit into a conventional anti-colonial narrative. They did not participate in Maji-Maji. They did not resist either the Germans or the British. When it arose the nationalist party, TANU, was unpopular in Ukaguru. Instead, local disaffection with Indirect Rule was expressed by purely local associations which Beidelman valuably describes. In short, the Kaguru were totally unprepared for independence. TANU owed them no debts. Their culture and that of the other ethnic groups in Ukaguru was despised and often attacked by the ‘thugs’ of the TANU Youth League. They could not contribute informed and educated men to the new administration. British colonialism had not been brutal or racist but it had done nothing to prepare the Kaguru for modernity. Beidelman is glad that he left before the imposition of forced villagisation which finally destroyed the Ukaguru he knew. It is a sad story. It is also a very well told one.

Terence Ranger
Professor Terence Ranger was the first Professor of History at University College, DSM, 1963-1969. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford and has been a member of the Britain-Tanzania Society for over thirty years.

RADIO CONGO – SIGNALS OF HOPE FROM AFRICA’S DEADLIEST WAR by Ben Rawlence. Published by One World. ISBN 978-1-85168-927-9

This is a readable and attractive paperback. The author is an intrepid 30-ish researcher at Human Rights Watch who studied at SOAS and the University of Dar es Salaam. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of BTS. If you steam up or down Lake Tanganyika the Eastern Congo hills are not so distant; ‘ports’ like Kabimba and Kalemie might just about be discernible from the deck of the SS Liemba. Once scuttled by the Germans, it took the British over five years to raise Liemba which is now destined to become a maritime museum.
The clear Victorian-type map at the front is essential to following this journey. He flies in and out of Kivu, then uses jeep, motorbike, back of bike, boat, canoe and foot to reach his destinations in Eastern Congo, mainly Katanga. Ben Rawlence wears his Swahili skills and learning lightly to illustrate the way the language has spread so far into the Congo, brought there by the coastal slave traders. The beauty and horror of the Congo and its suffering inhabitants are all too apparent on this journey, each part of which had to be separately planned as the economy has virtually collapsed since 1960. Thus a hundredweight of silver ore from Manono, his destination, is the load for one bicycle, ploughing through the bush of overgrown roads. His currency is dollars and cigarettes usually.

Even in Congo, Catholic missions are still functioning in a residual way with quite imposing buildings often ruined. And so we come to his mecca, the once celebrated Manono, centre of silver mining for the Congo and elsewhere. He describes the gaunt, but enormous, buildings still hanging there, in the style of Lord of the Rings. Rawlence, at the beginning of this book, is eager to get down to the south-east of Congo where this book takes us. By contrast, after he has been at Manono for a while, he feels more like a prisoner, following the radio communications from other parts of Congo (his ‘Signals of Hope’) and cannot wait to hitch a flight back to Kivu.

I was gripped by Rawlence’s narrated conversations with different villagers and local notables; and by the fact that humans seem to need hierarchy even in anar­chy. The potential for commerce from Eastern Congo across Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma seems enormous, if only the Tanzania end of the arrangements could be realised when things settle down and Tanzanians cease to fear Katangan competition.
His good book list could have included Helen Roseveare’s two late nineteen-sixties paperbacks on North East Congo which still draw a tear today.
Simon Hardwick
Simon Hardwick was an Administrative Officer in Tanzania 1957-1968 and Chairman of BTS Executive Committee 1995-2001.

TAIFA: MAKING NATION AND RACE IN URBAN TANZANIA by James R Brennan Ohio University Press, 2012. ISBN 9780821420010 p/b 304pp. £29.50.

“In this work, we will embark on a tour of identity categories …” (p.1). It is a mixed blessing that so much (rather good) modern African history is the work of American academics. On the plus side, it is meticulously researched and documented – witness Brennan’s 81 pages of notes and references; on the other hand, there seems to be an obligation to overlay the history with an intellectual gloss, in this case the language of identity.

That said, the story Brennan tells us is an interesting and important one, which continues to have troubling echoes to the present day. It concerns the relation­ship between Africans and the Indian community in Dar es Salaam, both before and after independence in 1961 – the period covered is roughly 1916 to 1976. And, of course, the pattern of relationships between communities established by the British administration set the tone. As Brennan observes, “Examined closely, East African ‘Indians’ splinter into a dizzying array of regional, religious, and caste-based communities” but “If considered as a microcosm, [they] appear to be a privileged community that, by and large, had profited from their participation in systems of colonial rule.” (p.3).
Chapter 1 brings out how, in the inter-war period, the need to distinguish between ‘native’ people (to be protected from exploitation by outsiders) and ‘non-natives’ posed difficult problems for the administration, particularly on the coast and in the capital, given the dominance of the latter in government, business and (in the case of the Indian community) in retail and wholesale trade. In Dar es Salaam, this resulted in the ostensibly non-racial division of the town into Zone I (high standard residential), Zone II (commercial) and Zone III (reserved for natives). Zone II was predominantly Indian and it was “Indians, not Europeans, [who] interacted with Africans on a daily basis and bore the brunt of African frustrations with the cruel vicissitudes of market economics.” (p. 34). However, as Brennan skillfully points out, there were contradictions inherent in these arrangements, particularly as regards housing, trade and land laws, aggravated by the relocation of the main market from Zone II to Kariakoo in Zone III.

Chapter 2 develops these themes as they affected racial identities in Dar, giving impetus to the consolidation of an Indian identity (at least in the eyes of Africans), notwithstanding internal differences in that community. At the same time, a similar consolidation of African identity was taking place, over-riding previous distinctions, such as those between Shomvi (Arab-descended) and Zaramo, or between Wenyeji (original residents) and watu wa kuja (newcomers).

WWII pushed these tendencies further (Chapter 3) as the authorities sought to maintain an orderly urban environment in the face of rising living costs, food shortages and growing militancy on the part of organized African labour. The responses included price controls, and creation of minimum entitlements to food, textiles and housing for recognized residents, which “dramatically raised the political and economic value of urban space” (p.117). This in turn led to attempts to curb in-migration, with limited effect, extending even to repatriation of wahuni (young, unemployed ‘hooligans’) – a policy revived subsequently, both before and after independence, indeed right up to the present day.

Chapter 4 charts how, in the post-war period, the Swahili term taifa (nation) came to eclipse kabila (tribe) and other sub-categories, helping to weld together the diverse groups making up the African population into a Swahili-speaking nation. Lively debate ensued as to whether Indians or people of mixed descent could properly belong to the taifa. In this discussion, Nyerere’s vision of a relatively colour-blind nation sat uneasily with TANU’s (pre-independence) African only recruitment policy and the growing demonisation of Indians as exploiters (unyonyaji).

By Chapter 5 these trends culminate in, on the one hand, the abolition soon after independence of the office of chief, part of a general suppression of tribalism (and hence of indirect rule); and, on the other hand, in the 1971 nationalisation of all buildings worth more than 100,000 shillings and not entirely occupied by the owner. “Everyone knew this to mean the expropriation of what was overwhelmingly Indian-owned residential and business property.” (p.191). While this was less harsh than Amin’s expulsion of Indians from Uganda, or Banda’s incitements against Indians in Malawi, it was nevertheless a severe blow, leading to a substantial exodus and, one imagines, not inconsiderable damage to the urban economy.

Economists may glumly note the contribution of misguided urban policies to this outcome. As Brennan puts it, “In urban areas like Dar es Salaam, the postcolonial state chose to continue its predecessor’s urban policies of relying on price regulation and movement restrictions rather than committing the necessary investments to manage urban growth.” (p.194). In particular, the shortage of accommodation and the pressure of in-migration combined to raise rents to very high levels, not offset by effective taxation of property to fund improvement, lending weight to accusations of unyonyaji against the (mainly) Indian landlords. (Nor did it help that the city council was disbanded in 1974, a development branded as “an unmitigated disaster” by Brennan “directly resulting in the collapse of basic urban services, such as garbage and cesspit disposal.” (p.198).)

One may ask how far invoking the language of identity adds to our understanding of the events described. Brennan is not a heavy theorist and charting the evolution of the way in which key words were used and understood does throw light on changing attitudes. But, to a large extent, the story tells itself – and a gripping story it is, particularly in the hands of someone as scrupulous as Brennan. One is left hoping that equally engaged researchers may now take the story forward to more recent times, moving away from unearthing overlooked details from colonial era records (fascinating as that is) to, for example, exploring the implications of the emerging gap between the urban haves (the naizi) and the have-nots (the kabwela or urban poor), tantalizingly mentioned towards the end of the book; or, more ambitiously, helping us to better understand the reasons why the process of urbanization in Tanzania (and many other African countries) is not delivering the benefits that it should.
Hugh Wenban-Smith
Dr Hugh Wenban-Smith was born in Chunya and went to Mbeya School. His career was as a government economist – mainly in Britain but with periods in Zambia and India. He is now an independent researcher, with particular interest in infrastructure, urbanisation and transport.

ORCHIDS AND WILDFLOWERS OF KITULO PLATEAU by Rosalind
F. Salter and Tim R.B. Davenport. Princeton University Press 2011 ISBN 978 1903657348. £14.95.

This attractive small book produced by WILDguides Ltd, is a convenient A5 size, with soft covers and numerous coloured photographs. Profits from its sale go towards the conservation of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania and support the people who live there.

The introduction gives a broad picture of the uniqueness of the plateau’s natural history – mainly the thousands of brightly coloured flowers many of which are restricted to this area, but also mentioning the rare lizards, frogs, birds, antelopes and Africa’s rarest monkey, the kipunji, only discovered on nearby Mount Rungwe in 2003. The reasons for its urgent designation as a national park – a growing trade in orchid tubers as a delicacy- are also given.

Brief descriptions and photographs of the main habitats give an idea of the extent of the plateau. 112 species are described, giving distinguishing features together with points of interest such as distribution, abundance and flowering time. Each one is illustrated by an excellent photograph. In addition there is a glossary to aid identification, a list of contents and a bibliography.
This would be an excellent guide for anyone who was visiting Kitulo Plateau especially in the wet season (November to April) when most of the flowers are at their best.
Rachel Nicholson
Rachel Nicholson, accompanying her husband, lived in Tanzania and Nigeria for twenty eight years, fifteen of which were in Mbeya. Walks in the Southern Highlands with Phil Leedal gave her, like many others, a special interest in the plants of that lovely area.

THE EVOLUTION OF AN AFRICAN MINISTRY IN THE WORK OF THE UNIVERSITIES’ MISSION TO CENTRALAFRICA IN TANZANIA 1864 – 1909.

London PhD Thesis 1984 by Jerome Tomokazu Moriyama, Re-published by Issui-sha Co. Ltd, Japan, 2011. ISBN 978-4-900482-39-5

Dr Moriyama was a lecturer at St Mark’s Theological College, Dar es Salaam from 1973 to 78. His research covers the first 45 years of UMCA work. It reveals how the original vision for Christian ministry was steadily lost – “that an African Church must be founded, spread and worked by Africans them­selves. The business of its European members is to do their best to start them on this career, help as they may, and then pass out of sight.”

UMCA was founded in 1861. Its Cathedral was built on the site of the slave market in Zanzibar. Early work in Zanzibar involved caring for and schooling children rescued from slavery, and establishing a settlement for released slaves to live in. It was hoped this work might produce the first generation of Christian leaders to be sent back to the mainland.
From the earliest days each bishop affirmed the essential need for well-educated African leadership in the new churches, but there was little effective strategy to achieve it. Tozer in his eight years as bishop ordained no one. Whereas Tozer used only English in education and public worship, his successor, Bishop Steere soon produced a Swahili Grammar, New Testament, Liturgy and Hymns. A college was started to train young men either as teachers or for church ministry. Mainland missions were established at Magila near Korogwe and at Masasi in the south.

UMCA differed from the majority of Anglican missions, with its emphatic commitment to Anglo-Catholic priesthood, teaching and spirituality. Authority was devolved to the bishop in the field rather than a home committee. Each bishop adopted his own strategy, some in favour of entrusting pioneering work to its first ordained clergy and evangelists, others placing them under the local supervision of missionaries. Freed-slave clergy on the whole found it impossible to gain the respect of the Arabs who controlled the main centres and routes; and being strangers, sometimes failed to win the support of the local chiefs.

These problems notwithstanding, this study details the success of many such clergy. They were physically fit, could cope with harsh climates, accepted local standards of living, learned local languages, and comprehended and respected local cultures. One example is highlighted: the ministry of the Rev Cecil Majaliwa, the first deacon, then priest, to be ordained, who worked in the Masasi area 1886-1896. (He was Archbishop Ramadhani’s grandfather) Totally committed to the local people, with the goodwill of the chief, he was an example of Christian faith and behaviour. Churches grew under his ministry, but to the envy of the missionary in charge, who observed his success and rapport with the local people. Majaliwa lost the vital backing of a new chief, and coupled with the indecisiveness of Bishop Richardson over his request for leave, he returned independently to Zanzibar, never to be sent out again to the mainland.

His experience reveals the key failure of UMCA to support the clergy they trained, and their insistence on missionary supervisors. Yet even in the Masasi area in the 1905 -7 Maji-Maji uprising, when the missionary workforce withdrew, the church continued to grow strongly under its African clergy – as happened also during the 1914-18 War.

In UMCA, the highest one could aspire to was rural parish work, following a long diaconate and a good level of theological training. Too late, Bishop Frank Weston 1908 -1924 realized his mistake. Capable clergy had been dismissed over disputes with inexperienced missionary priests. UMCA made little effort to examine such cases. Paternalism prevailed. No clergyman was appointed archdeacon or bishop in the entire colonial period and none was sent to England for further training following Cecil Majaliwa.

All this makes salutary reading for any who have been involved in clergy training in Africa in more recent years. It is a story of a wonderful vision which somehow was never attained.
Christopher Carey
The Rev Christopher Carey worked with CMS, the Church Mission Society, in Kenya and London, where he was Regional Secretary for East and Central Africa. Following parish work in Lincolnshire he retired in 2004.

TWILIGHT OF THE BWANAS by Gordon Dyus. Published by Xlibris Publishing 2011. Order from www.amazon.co.uk. Price £13.99 p&p free UK, £4.99 Europe, £5.49 ROW pb 196 pages ISBN 978 1 4653 6653 5

The parents of the author of this study kept their young son with them in East Africa throughout the Second World War, rather than (as happened to many of our contemporaries) leaving him in what was expected to be the temporary care of relatives in Britain, only to be separated altogether for five formative years. Gordon Dyus’ father worked successively for the port authorities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, and from a very young age Gordon shared your reviewer’s experience of being sent off to attend boarding school in Nairobi.

Although informed and animated by numerous personal memories, Twilight of the Bwanas is not so much a biographical memoir as an individual’s observation of colonial life at that time and during the postwar period. In this, it is inevitably restricted to some extent by the direct observations of the writer: but there are many perceptive comments and observations — not least about the colonial “memsahibs” to whom so very many “bwanas” and their children owed so much. Dyus notes, for example, that apart from some sections of the Kenya settlers there was in East Africa very little racism, as it is understood it today. Each group — Europeans, Asians and Africans — tended to accord full respect to the others, whilst not seeking to intrude upon them, nor to interfere with their habits and customs. Rivalries and “class distinctions”, as he points out, were very much more apparent within the various groups. My own father recalled a civil service dinner party at which the host barked: “Seat yourselves according to your salaries!” and relished the fact that it was the wives of the various officers who all knew exactly where to go!

This first half of the book, describing colonial life during and after the war, is evocative and rewarding, even though the author tends occasionally to assume too readily that his readers will share his familiarity with what he is describing: the layout of streets in Mombasa or Dar es Salaam, for example. Moreover, the vivid descriptions in the book cry out for illustrations; and it is odd that someone who became a surveyor with Tanganyika’s admirable Department of Lands and Surveys should not have helped his readers by including a few simple maps and plans.

The book’s sub-title claims to describe life in East Africa before independence. And, as remarked, the first half does that admirably — principally as regards Tanganyika. The ensuing chapter about the actual attainment of self-rule is likewise well observed. But sadly in most of the rest of the book, besides describing excellently several more episodes of expatriate life, Dyus devotes too many pages to bewailing what he believes might have taken place if the process of transition had been less rushed. Many of us who were there would agree that these countries suffered — and continue to suffer — as a consequence of the unexpectedly abrupt termination of British rule. But any belief that this could have been avoided suggests a failure to understand what was going on at the time in the rest of the world, where Macmillan and McLeod were constrained both by domestic economic pressures and by the knee-jerk hostility to imperial­ism of their most powerful Cold War ally.

What is more, Tanganyika in particular was not a colony, but a former German territory entrusted to Britain by the League of Nations to be prepared for eventual independence. Once the majority of members of the United Nations, the League’s successor body, had come to the conclusion — however unrealistic – that the time for that independence had come, it became very difficult for Britain to argue convincingly that the country should nevertheless continue as a Trust Territory.

Some of us would also challenge Gordon Dyus’ portrait of Julius Nyerere. Certainly “Mwalimu” felt constrained to posture from time to time as a power-hungry demagogue; but the monster described in these pages is very different from the soft-spoken scholar who occasionally took refuge from politics in my parents’ home to discuss how best to recast Shakespeare in traditional classical Swahili verse forms. Again, it is easy with hindsight to ridicule Nyerere’s socialist economics. But this was the era of Harold Wilson’s Britain and François Mitterand’s France, when various forms of socialism were all the rage; and very many European and American scholars applauded ujamaa as a model for the entire African continent. Similarly, it is easy to mock the follies of the TanZam railway. But — again with hindsight — perhaps it may prove to have been quite a shrewd move to be the first African nation to make friends with the superpower that will almost certainly dominate the 21st century. Last but not least, Nyerere set a precedent — sadly rare in Africa — by stepping down from power before he was pushed.

Twilight of the Bwanas, then, is a book of two halves — one impressively and vividly evocative of the period of colonial rule, the other disappointingly prejudiced about the postcolonial period.
Hubert Allen (Uganda 1955-62)

This review first appeared in The Overseas Pensioner, No.104 of October 2012, the journal of the Overseas Service Pensioners’ Association. It is printed here with permission, which is gratefully acknowledged.

LIVE FROM DAR ES SALAAM: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy. By Alex Perullo. Indiana University Press, March 2012. p/b ISBN 9788 0 253 22292 3 £18.99.

One day in June 2007, looking for Tanzanian music to buy, I found myself in Dar es Salaam Music and Sport. The owner told me the shop had been the leading outlet for pop records when sales of recorded music were at their height. Apart from the fact that they were now empty, the glass fronted cases had not changed since the 1960s. The only music available, however, was a handful of doubtful-looking cassettes, some of which I bought. Considering, as Alex Perullo shows, music is central to Tanzanian life, avidly consumed whether as radio broadcast or live performance, this was both puzzling and disappointing.

I mention this incident for three reasons. One is that this same shop appears, in a section on Asian musical entrepreneurship, in Perullo’s admirably researched account of the ups and downs of Tanzanian music over the last fifty-odd years. It exemplifies the thickness of ethnographic detail in a study which must be one of the most exhaustive of its kind. And lastly, this is the way Perullo himself proceeds: with a personal anecdote which functions like an establishing shot, before pulling out to give us the wide-angle view on different aspects of his subject. The frequency of openings such as: ‘One afternoon, I sat…’, ‘I spent a great deal of time with’, ‘I worked closely with’, ‘I sat and watched entire recording sessions’, ‘I conducted a survey among’, etc, brings home the sheer extent of Perullo’s involvement with what he calls the Tanzanian music economy in all its many facets – history, ideology, performance, education and training, broadcasting, recording, sales and distribution, copyright and contracts – and the music itself in all eight of its genres as described in a useful appendix and illustrated in online links to a musical archive.

Of the sixteen years since deregulation in 1994 – the period the study covers in most detail – Perullo’s research coincided with twelve: 1998-2010. The result, as he says, is a longitudinal study, not only of the ‘dynamic interplay’ of multiple influences which have shaped Tanzanian music, but of the creative ways urban Tanzanians have adapted to social, political and economic change. He takes as his premise that ‘more attention should be directed at finding and exploring narratives that evidence achievement in African contexts,’ rather than the default outlook on Africa as impoverished and therefore unable to help itself (xix). The case he makes for Tanzania’s music economy as one of the most thriving in Africa (in a context where the notion of an ‘industry’, with its connotations of infrastructural support, does not apply), and an example of Africans making things happen for themselves, is well demonstrated and convincing. ‘Music economy’, he argues, signifies processes of commercialization and commodification by which musicians, record producers and distributors make a living, and audiences are connected to each other and to the wider world.

The means by which this is accomplished Perullo calls ‘creative practices’, self-generated schemes and strategies including ‘networking, positioning, branding, payola, bribery and belief in the occult’ (xii). Under this sign, even apparently negative practices like piracy and sabotage are recuperated as creative responses to lived material conditions. Piracy, for example, is shown to be ‘the simplest and most effective creative strategy in the music economy’, and central to its success (339). Always looking, as one of the chapter titles has it, at ‘the submerged body’ rather than surface appearance, Perullo deploys local terminology to show how such practices are socially determined and culturally understood by participants. He shows, for example, how the outrage of visiting foreign rappers at the apparent chaos at a recording studio was a reaction to surface appearance; going deeper, he uncovers the Swahili concept of hujuma, the ‘purposeful act of destroying or damaging something in order to hinder it from being successful’ (276) – in this case a subversive strategy by a producer to undermine a project from which he had been sidelined.

Such creative strategies are part of a ‘bongo mentality’ which enables people to survive and thrive in the competitive atmosphere of Dar es Salaam – Bongoland itself. What gives Perullo’s argument its impact and authority is his making the ‘autochthonous philosophies’ of ‘bongo (wisdom/ingenuity)’ (8) and kujitegemea (self-reliance, in both its socialist and neo-liberal manifestions) (10) the informing principle of his idea of ‘creative practices’. By the final chapter, ‘Everything is Life’, in which he looks at transitions taking place and their possible future implications, he has fully justified his approach. This chapter is a philosophical meditation on Tanzanian society as it is evolving in the face of increased insecurity, urban competitiveness and consumerism, and the breakdown of earlier forms of family and community. Ultimately, he argues, creative practices are a way of cheating death and an expression of desire. He takes issue with President Mkapa’s reading of the term bongo as over-reliance on government, seeing it instead as ‘the dynamic use of resources that people employ to better their lives’ (361). Through Perullo, we are given a unique insight into the manifold uses of art and artifice by which people shape their own lives in an African city today.
Jane Bryce
Jane Bryce was born and brought up in Tanzania, and educated there, the U.K. and Nigeria. She is Professor of African Literature and Cinema at the University of the West Indies, and the author of Chameleon and Other Stories reviewed in TA No. 88 (Peepal Tree Press).

TA ISSUE 103

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TA 103 cover featured a Shambaa woman at market, Usambara Region – photo Briony Campbell www.brionycampbell.com

Six Ministers Fall in Drive against Corruption
Malawi-Tanzania Border Dispute
The Mpemba Effect
Doctors Strike
Election Appeal Verdicts

A pdf of the issue can be downloaded here

SIX MINISTERS FALL IN BIG DRIVE AGAINST CORRUPTION AND POOR PERFORMANCE

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Selection of local newspaper headlines following the sacking of ministers

The last issue of TA (No 102) detailed the growing tension in Tanzania following revelations in the reports of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) about widespread corruption in institutions all over the country and the perception that the government was not doing much about it. The reports had highlighted cases of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, financial mismanagement and bureaucratic ineptitude.

Rapid action
As soon as President Kikwete returned from Brazil, an urgent meeting of the country’s top policy making body – the 30 member Central Committee of the ruling CCM party – was convened, and quickly authorised the President to take appropriate action.

A debate in Parliament had featured angry MPs from the CCM and the opposition parties, demanding the resignation of the ministers implicated in the irregularities, failing which they should be forced out of office. At the parliamentary sitting and subsequent CCM caucus meeting in Dodoma, the leaders went on to name eight ministers they wanted out immediately. At the same time, another group of MPs led by Chadema’s Zitto Kabwe MP filed a private members’ motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda because, as head of govern­ment business in Parliament, he had failed to rein in the non-performing ministers (see TA 102).

Matters were not eased as the public and various groups joined the fray, piling pressure on President Kikwete to crack the whip. There were also calls for the Speaker to convene an emergency session within 14 days to discuss Mr Kabwe’s motion.

On May 5 the President reshuffled his cabinet and this went a long way towards appeasing the critics. He dropped six ministers – Mustapha Mkulo (Finance), William Ngeleja (Energy & Minerals), Hadji Mponda (Health and Social Welfare), Dr Cyril Chami (Industry & Trade), Ezekiel Maige (Tourism & Natural Resources) and Omar Nundu (Transport).

He then appointed three new ministers – Dr William Mgimwa (Finance), Prof Sospeter Muhongo (Energy & Minerals) and Dr Abdallah Omar Kigoda (Industry & Trade), who were considered by most people to be very well qualified. Ten new deputy ministers were also appointed. Finance and Energy & Minerals were given two deputy ministers.

Big purge in local government
In June, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda sacked twelve local government district executive directors, warned eleven and suspended three others pending investigations into allegations that some councils were failing to fulfil their obligations with swindling and misappropriation of public funds. Some of these were taken to court.

30 senior people charged
The President has indicated that some 30 persons in senior positions in government have been charged with corruption in the last few years. Their cases are slowly moving through the legal process. After the cabinet reshuffle, many more corruption cases have been revealed and several prominent people have been charged. In fact, so numerous are the cases now under examination by various authorities, that it would take up the whole of this issue of TA to give the full story. What follows is a very brief summary of the bold steps being taken in Tanzania to put a brake on corruption.

Former President Mkapa testifies in the Mahalu case

Former President Benjamin Mkapa leaves the court room after testifying – photo Francis Dande

Former President Dr Mkapa made history on May 8 by becoming the first retired Head of State in the country to appear in person before a court and testify. He was a defence witness in the alleged TShs 2.5 billion theft case facing former Tanzanian Ambassador to Italy, Prof Costa Mahalu, which has been going on for over five years. The Ambassador has been accused of forging documents relating to the purchase of an embassy building in Rome, by using two separate contracts in the deal.

In his testimony, Mr Mkapa told the court that he was aware that the building was purchased at more than Euros 3 million and had approved the whole process. Paying the money through two contracts had been requested by the owner of the property. He said: “We had a big problem to agree to these conditions in order to make sure that we got the building.” When asked if there were other buildings where owners required the payment to be through two separate accounts, Mr Mkapa said that he was aware of some but could not divulge the information as doing so might hurt the relations between the two countries.

In his testimony, Mr Mkapa praised Prof. Mahalu: “I have known him as a person with a strong character, who is sincere, honest, obedient and a hard worker,” The court acquitted Mahalu on August 9, although the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has expressed an intention to lodge an appeal.

TPDF
For the first time senior officers in the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) have been arraigned in a civilian court and charged with abuse of office. A group of seven, including the National Service Executive Director, several Lt. Colonels, two majors and a sergeant were charged. According to the Citizen, the matter revolved around procurement of used motor vehicles and heavy construction equipment, allegedly without following the relevant procurement laws. The accused were released on bail.

TANESCO
The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco), which is repeatedly in trouble of one kind or another, now has new problems. The main one concerns its long-standing dispute with Dowans (fully reported over the years in TA) concerning a decision in November 2010 by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to award Dowans Holdings SA (Costa Rica) and Dowans (Tanzania) Ltd $65 million for wrongful termination of a power generation contract in 2008. The ICC made the award in favour of Dowans after it was satisfied that Tanesco unlawfully terminated an emergency generating contract with Dowans.

Tanesco petitioned the court to block this order. But it seems that Tanesco might finally be forced pay the money due to its failure to appeal within the time set by the law. Dowans said: “No action has been taken by Tanesco in lodging the appeal or to follow up the matter, or take any other necessary steps to further the progress of the appeal, and more than 60 days have passed since the decision was pronounced.” If the High Court agrees with Dowans, it would be a double blow for Tanesco which would automatically lose $30 million it deposited at the London- based tribunal as security for costs as it struggled to block another application for execution of the ICC award.

In its defence, Tanesco alleged that public procurement rules were grossly flawed in 2006 when the government directed Tanesco to award the contract to the American Richmond Development Company, which later passed on the contract to Dowans. According to Tanesco, the ICC deliberately disregarded evidence that the procurement of the power agreement was carried out in the absence of a valid tender after Tanesco’s tender board cancelled the initial award.

Tanesco’s second problem is that in the 2009/2010 financial year it is alleged to have spent more than the sum set aside for revamping one of the facilities at the Mtera dam.

The new Minister for Energy, Prof. Muhongo, revealed the startling information that Tanesco employees had been sabotaging the company. Some electricity poles originating in Iringa had been transported to Mombasa before being brought back to Tanzania with documents stating that they originated in South Africa. Boxes of spare parts being imported from UK had contained only nails. The Minister revealed several other similar cases to Parliament.

The Police
The Citizen reported in August that, in a bid to fight corruption within the Police Force, any police officer who was caught asking for and receiving bribes would be named in public before appropriate legal measures were brought against him/her. The new Minister for Home Affairs, Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, told MPs that his ministry was working hard to eradicate corruption from the Police Force.

MP in court on graft charge
The CCM MP for Bahi, Dodoma Region, who is also a member of the parliamentary Local Authorities Accounts Committee, was arrested in early June and charged with soliciting and receiving a bribe. His arraignment came two days after officials of the PCCB arrested and questioned him over allegations of being bribed TSh1 million by a senior government official. He was arrested at the Peacock Hotel in Dar es Salaam as he was reportedly receiving the amount from the Mkuranga District Executive Director. He was said to have asked for TShs 8 million to induce him to approve the district council’s 2011/12 financial report. The MP denied the charge, and was released on bail.

MP charged with forgery and abuse of office
On May 29 the Citizen reported that the Shirika la Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA) Board Chairman, a former cabinet minister, had been charged with eight counts of forgery and abuse of office, allegedly causing the public transport firm a TShs 2.4 billion loss. Two other UDA senior officials were also charged. The three denied the charges and were released on bail.

In one of the counts read by a prosecutor from the PCCB, the accused were said to have obtained for their own benefit TSh320 million intended to be an advance commitment and part payment for UDA shares. It was further alleged that in February 2011 the officials abused their positions by disposing of 7,880,330 unissued shares of UDA, a company owned jointly by the central government and the Dar es Salaam City Council. without conducting competitive tendering and in violation of the relevant regulations.

New minster exercises his power
The Citizen reported that on May 29 the newly appointed Minister for Industry & Trade, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, had suspended the Director of the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), whose alleged poor performance was said to have contributed to the sacking of his (Kigoda’s) predecessor, Dr Cyril Chami. The Minister ordered investigations to be made into TShs 23 billion in fees that went allegedly to ‘ghost agents’ subcontracted to inspect Tanzanian imports. The scam was said to have led to the importation into Tanzania of thousands of substandard vehicles.

The EPA case
During the long standing External Payments Arrears (EPA) case, a businessman confessed on July 25 that 50 per cent of the money deposited in his company from the EPA had been transferred abroad. He was being charged with other two businessmen and Bank of Tanzania (BoT) employees. The hearing came two days after he was convicted in another EPA case and sentenced to three years in prison.

Ministry of Natural Resources & Tourism
According to the Citizen, among those allegedly involved in doubtful activities in this ministry were the Director of the Forestry and Beekeeping Division and the former Minister himself (Mr Ezekiel Maige), who was reported as failing to prevent illegal exports of live wildlife. The National Parks (Tanapa) Director General was believed to have allowed excessive expenditure on normal maintenance and installation of communication devices and other equipment in the Ministry’s library. Allegations were made in the CAG reports that this division of government had also failed to account for TShs 874 million royalty for forest products.

On August 12 the new Minister, Mr Khamis Kagasheki, sacked three officials and demoted and gave warnings to several others in connection with the smuggling of live animals. 116 animals and 16 birds were allegedly smuggled out of the country in November 2010 using a Qatar cargo plane. The sacked officials included the Director of Wildlife and the Assistant Director of Wildlife Promotion.

Obsolete Aircraft
According to the East African, a major Chinese investment firm had procured two obsolete aircraft for Air Tanzania, one of which crashed in April at Kigoma airport injuring 35 passengers. The Controller and Auditor General recommended that the government officials who participated in the deal to buy the aircraft from a Lebanese company be taken to court.

Swiss bank accounts
In June Zitto Kabwe MP called on the government to determine who owned huge sums of money deposited in Swiss accounts believed to be from the gas industry. Apparently the Swiss National Bank released a story that some TSh303 billion had been stashed away by some Tanzanians in Swiss banks.

MALAWI-TANZANIA BORDER DISPUTE

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President Kikwete with Malawian President Joyce Mbanda at State House

The long dormant border dispute between Malawi and Tanzania has been reignited in recent months by the issuing of a licence by the Malawi government to UK company Surestream to explore for oil in the north-eastern part of Lake Nyasa. Malawi is hoping to find oil reserves of similar magnitude to those currently being exploited in Lake Albert (Uganda), estimated at 2.5 billion barrels.

Diagram of the disputed Malawi-Tanzania border

Malawi claims the whole of the surface of the lake that is not in Mozambique, and their claim is supported by the Anglo-German Heligoland Agreement of 1 July 1890 which defines the border as run­ning along the Tanzanian shore. When the British colonial government captured Tanganyika from Germany, it placed all of the water under the jurisdiction of the terri­tory of Nyasaland, without a separate administration for the Tanganyikan portion of the surface.

In the early 1960s, Malawi’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, claimed that Lake Nyasa was part of Malawi and this was reaffirmed at the 1963 Organisation of African Unity summit, where it was accepted reluctantly by Tanzania although the dispute re-ignited in 1967-8. The Tanzanian case is based on international law which stipulates that when two countries are separated by a body of water, the border is at the middle of that body.

After meeting in August with the new Malawi President, Joyce Mbanda, President Kikwete downplayed any rumours of war over the conflict, saying that Tanzania has over the years enjoyed a good relationship with Malawi and it has no intention to strain it in any way. Technical experts from the two countries met in August at the northern Malawian town of Mzuzu to discuss possible solutions to the dispute.

However, Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Minister, Mr Bernard Membe, was quoted as saying that “After frank and spirited discussions between the two countries, we have concluded that our differences still remain,” adding “Neighbours must endure, neighbours must always remain neighbours, and we are here because of differences in positions.” Mr Membe confirmed that the parties have agreed to cease oil exploration in the disputed areas to allow space for negotiations to take place, and that there will be a fresh round of talks in Tanzania from September 10-14. If this does not lead to an agreement, the matter may be referred to the UN International Court of Justice.

MPEMBA EFFECT – £1,000 REWARD

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UK schoolchildren try to reproduce the Mpemba Effect (lab13network)

Long standing TA readers will probably recall one of the more memora­ble articles published in TA in 1997 (No 57) on the Mpemba Effect and the Tanzanian boy Erasto Mpemba at its centre.

Now, years later The London Times has updated us on this fascinating story (Thank you John Sankey for alerting us to this – Editor). Extracts: ‘The problem, in its modern form, began life in 1968 when Physics Professor Denis Osbourne visited a Tanzania school near Lake Victoria. After his address, a student named Erasto Mpemba asked how can a cup of boiling water at 100C freeze faster than a cup of water at 35C? The next year the two published a joint paper on the phenomenon since known as the ‘Mpemba Effect’.

“Amid the things we know and the things we don’t yet know, there is the unknowable” – The Times, Leading Article 27/6/12

A whole plethora of articles have been published in scientific journals. Recent examples:

Physics World casts doubt on the story: “Even if the Mpemba effect is real — if hot water can sometimes freeze more quickly than cold — it is not clear whether the explanation would be trivial or illuminating.” Investigations of the phenomenon need to control a large number of initial parameters (including type and initial temperature of the water, dissolved gas and other impurities; the size, shape and material of the container;, and the temperature of the refrigerator) and need to settle on a particular method of establishing the time of freezing, all of which might affect the presence or absence of the Mpemba effect. The required vast multidimensional array of experiments might explain why the effect is not yet understood.

New Scientist recommends starting the experiment with containers at 35°C (95°F) and 5°C (41°F) to maximize the effect.

‘It’s True: Hot Water Really Can Freeze Faster than Cold Water … Mpemba has joined a distinguished group of people who had also noticed the effect: Aristotle, Francis Bacon and René Descartes had all made the same claim’ – Laura Sanders in Science News. This article confirms that James Brownridge of State University of New York at Binghamton has managed to reproduce the effect consistently, but only when comparing cold distilled water against hot tap water.

Now, the Royal Society of Chemistry in London is looking for ‘outside the box, inventive submissions to help explain one of the great chemistry conundrums’. Submissions to: www.hermes2012.org/ice. Reward £1,000 for anyone who can explain why hot water freezes faster than cold.

Question – in 1997 Mr Erasto Mpembe was working as a Game Office for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism – does anyone know where he is now? We would love to hear from him or about him – Editor.

PRESIDENT AT G8 SUMMIT

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The participation of President Kikwete at the G8 Summit in the USA in May gave the Citizen the opportunity to both praise and criticise his performance as Head of State.

Describing him as the ‘Darling of the West’ and as highly regarded in international circles, the writers said that this was in fairly sharp contrast with how he was viewed back home. (This is not exactly unusual! – Editor) The Tanzanian leader, they went on, has cause to believe that invitations to high-profile forums represent an acknowledgement by the world’s political and economic movers and shakers that his administration has delivered and deserves praise within the country and abroad.

Further extracts from the analysis: ‘President Kikwete is one of the few leaders in the African continent, as well as in the broader developing world, who catches the eye of those wielders of influence, the likes of whom he rubbed shoulders with at the Camp David gathering in Maryland., USA……

‘This latest trip also serves to consolidate the record of ….. Tanzania’s most travelled president – but a record that some quarters dismiss as a disgrace rather than as something praiseworthy…. Critics attribute Tanzania’s current economic and welfare woes to his frequent highly costly foreign trips, in spite of the shaky state of the economy, the growing rate of unemployment, occasional political uncertainties and social upheavals…. an inability by the Treasury to pay civil servants’ salaries on time, and the constant budgetary constraints. The usually big presidential entourages also raise eyebrows over whether they yield tangible benefits….

‘To this school of thought, Mr Kikwete has so far been a let-down and there is little hope of him turning into reality his much-touted election campaign slogan ‘prosperity for all’ within the remaining three years of his second and final tenure at State House. On an extreme note, the group has reached a point of dubbing him the ‘tourist head of state’…. they fail to understand why donors rate him so highly when many people in the country can hardly afford two decent meals in a day, despite the country possessing abundant natural resources. And despite Tanzania being the second top recipient of aid, the country is yet to mark the credible economic growth rates that are required to uplift the majority of people from abject poverty.’

‘Mr Kikwete became president through a popular vote in 2005 after he scooped a landslide victory of 80.2% but …. his popularity has since slipped. Going by the results of the 2010 General Election, that could be true since he won the presidential race by 60.2%, which is a huge percentage point slide.’

OTHER POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

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The Citizen and other media continue to provide Tanzanians with full coverage of political developments.

Ructions in parliament
It was drama after drama in Parliament on June 18, according to the Citizen, when Chadema MP John Mnyika was thrown out of the House after he refused to withdraw a statement that President Kikwete was a weak leader. Mnyika had said that the budget, which had been criticised by many MPs, was the result of President Kikwete’s weakness, Parliament’s laxity and the CCM’s “stupidity”.

At this point, Government Chief Whip William Lukuvi shot up and asked Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai to order Mnyika to withdraw his remarks. He added: “According to section 64 of our Standing Orders, it is forbidden to use abusive or unpalatable language, especially when referring to the President. And, to make things worse, Mr Mnyika has personally referred to President Kikwete, not the presidency. This is unacceptable.” Mr Ndugai concurred with Mr Lukuvi and asked Mr Mnyika to withdraw the statement, but the youthful MP refused to comply. “Mr Deputy Speaker, if you would listen to what I meant, you would see my point,” Mnyika retorted. But Ndugai intervened, saying: “Mr Mnyika, this is an order. You should withdraw the statement because you didn’t use decent language.” Mnyika responded that he would stand by his statement since he had not meant any harm.

The Deputy Speaker stood up, holding a copy of the Parliamentary Standing Orders, and said: “According to section 73(2) of our Standing Orders, if a member uses abusive, attacking or unpalatable language and he refuses to withdraw his statement after being ordered by the chair, the Speaker may order the Sergeant at Arms to send him out and he may remain outside for the remainder of the session on that day..I am taking that decision now. Sergeant at Arms, please escort Mr Mnyika out and make sure that he does not return until tomorrow at 9am.” But, having sensed what was coming, Mr Mnyika had already collected his documents and left the debating chamber.

The sniping along party lines started earlier when Tundu Lissu MP, (Singida East – Chadema) had dismissed the government and ruling party as useless and a group of silly people.

The President’s earlier comments
President Kikwete earlier saluted the seventh sitting of Parliament, saying that the fearless frankness with which MPs had discussed embezzlement of public funds was doubly advantageous. Firstly, it jolted him as Head of State into thinking how to set things right; secondly, it enhanced amongst the wananchi respect and confidence for MPs as genuine servants who seriously strove to promote the public interest.

Mr Kikwete dismissed the notion that he was angered by the discussions on the subject in the House, stressing that on the contrary, they excited him, since they demonstrated the resolve by the people’s representatives to press the government to book looters of public wealth.“ I found the frank and fearless discussions on sensitive issues that have a critical impact on the livelihood of wananchi most pleasant; this is the best way of practicing good governance.” He went on to assure his audience that the government would not be indifferent to the issues raised by MPs, remarking “I congratulate them for pushing the government to act on important issues….”. He was pleased that his efforts to strengthen the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and his call for discussions on its reports to be more transparent, were beginning to bear fruit. When he had received the first CAG report in 2007, he was deeply shocked by the way public servants were embezzling public funds and he had vowed to make changes.

Kikwete picks Mbatia as an MP

New MP James Mbatia (State House)

President Kikwete has named the chairman of the small opposition NCCR-Mageuzi Party, James Mbatia, to be a nominated MP. Mbatia joins four elected NCCR-Mageuzi MPs in Parliament. He failed to win the Kawe seat in Dar es Salaam in the 2010 elections (Chadema won the seat). Others nominated as MPs are Prof Sospeter Muhongo and Ms Janeth Mbene.

This nomination takes to six the number of MPs nominated by President Kikwete since the 2010 elections. The constitution allows him to pick a maximum of ten nominated MPs. Earlier nominees were Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, Prof. Makame Mbarawa and former Finance Minister Ms Zakia Meghji. Mr Nahodha and Prof Mbarawa were later appointed Home Affairs Minister and Minister for Communications, Science and Technology.

Retired University of Dar es Salaam lecturer Dr Azaveli Lwaitama said that, while the nomination of a politician from the opposing camp as an MP was bound to raise eyebrows, “I think this is the first time the President has nominated the national chairman of an opposition party as an MP… Prof Muhongo, a respected expert in mining, would add value to parliament, especially at this time when there are efforts to ensure that the country benefits more from its mineral resources.”

Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament Zitto Kabwe MP (Chadema), echoed Dr Lwaitama’s views, saying Mr Mbatia’s nomination was not unusual. Praising these nominations he said that nominated MPs would not have to worry about voters and constituencies. They would have enough time to deal with national problems without unnecessary distractions.

Tanzania gazettes new regions and districts
The Tanzania government has officially announced the establish­ment of four new regions – Geita, Katavi, Njombe and Simiyu – and 19 districts – Buhingwe, Busega, Butiama, Chemba, Gairo, Ikungi, Itilima, Kakonko, Kalambo, Kaliua, Kyerwa, Mbogwe, Mkalama, Mlele, Momba, Nyang’hwale, Nyasa, Uvinza and Wanging’ombe.

Election Appeal Verdicts

Supporters welcome Dr Mahanga following his court victory – Francis Dande

It seems a long time since the last parliamentary elections in 2010. At the end of those elections, several candidates appealed to the courts to rectify what they considered to have been incorrectly conducted vote counting or other infringements of the electoral laws. Finally the courts have begun to give the verdicts on the electoral petitions and both main parties have had reason for satisfaction and disappointment, as generally the election results have been upheld.

The High Court in Dar es Salaam threw overboard with costs a petition which sought to nullify the results in Segerea constituency in which the ruling CCM candidate, Dr. Makongoro Mahanga, had won. The results had been as follows: CCM 43,839 votes and Chadema 39,639.

In the verdict, which took almost four hours to read, Judge Ibrahimu Juma rejected arguments presented by the petitioner in the case, Fred Mpendazoe (Chadema), and upheld Mahanga’s victory. The judge said that the petitioner had failed to bring in reliable witnesses who would have given correct information on what had really transpired during the elections. The judgement was delivered amid tight security with huge crowds of Chadema and CCM supporters outside. The MP was escorted by jubilant CCM supporters past protesting opposition Chadema backers. The Guardian reported that Dr Mahanga could barely hold back tears after the court dismissed the petition. The court ruled that the entire election exercise in Segerea had been free, fair and in line with the law regulating general elections. The judge ordered the petitioner to pay the costs of the case.

In Mbeya, Chadema’s incumbent – Mbozi West MP David Silinde – triumphed over CCM’s Dr Luka Siyame. A three-judge bench dealt Dr Siyame a second legal blow by declining his request to overturn a high court ruling which had dismissed his election petition. Justice Msofe dismissed the section of law which the advocate had used to move the withdrawal intention, saying it had many legal defects. The bench ordered Siyame to foot the costs of the case.

In Dar the High Court upheld the election of Chadema’s John Mnyika as the Ubungo MP. Lady Justice Upendo Msuya dismissed the petition filed by the losing CCM candidate, Ms Hawa Ng’humbi, for lack of sufficient grounds to overturn the result.

In Biharamulo the judge accepted that the elected CCM MP had been elected in free and fair elections.

DOCTORS STRIKE

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A number of doctors have been involved for several months in an on/off strike in Tanzania demanding improvements in the health service in the country and in their remuneration. The media, in what may have been an exaggeration, wrote that the strike had ‘paralysed health sector operations in all major public hospitals.’ From the beginning the government has taken a hard line. It is believed to have sacked some doctors, brought in doctors from outside the country and firmly rejected the strikers’ demands.

There was considerable shock when Dr Steven Ulimboka, chairman of the Interim Doctors Committee and spokesperson for the doctors, was abducted, tortured and left for dead at the Pande forest in the northern precincts of Dar es Salaam. His injuries were so serious that he had to be moved to South Africa for six weeks to recover and did not return to Tanzania until August 12. He was reported in the media to have ‘failed to hold back tears’ when relatives, friends, activists and hundreds of other people welcomed him back at Dar Airport.

There is some mystery as to who kidnapped and tortured Dr Ulimboka. The Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) Secretary General, Dr Rodrick Kabangila, said the Association was pleased with the recovery and return of one of their members. “His homecoming might also shed light on what actually happened and the persons who did what they did to him… we might know the truth eventually, regardless of the police reports on the arrest and charging of one man in connection with his tribulations.”

On July 7 religious leaders held prayers for Dr Ulimboka and asked President Kikwete to form an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the abduction and torture. They also called for the immediate resumption of negotiations between the government and striking doctors to end the standoff. The clerics urged the government to drop the case it had filed at the High Court against the doctors before talks could resume.

TROUBLE IN ZANZIBAR

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At the end of May, as discussions on the proposed new constitution continued around the country, a segment of Zanzibar’s young people turned to violence to press their views. In what the Citizen described as skirmishes, a number of churches were burnt by unruly youths demon­strating under the banner of a religious group that is pressing for a referendum on the Union between Zanzibar and the Tanzanian mainland.

President of Zanzibar, Dr Ali Mohammed Shein had a tough message for those behind the actions. “Nothing will be spared in the drive to ensure they do not create chaos again in the community. Government agencies have also been directed to closely monitor the activities of all religious groups in the Isles in order to ensure that they do not break the law and interfere with the right of worship of other people.”

In his speech, Dr Shein referred to religious groups that have “deviated from their main objectives” and warned that his government would not tolerate violence under the guise of freedom of expression. “Every free­dom has its limitations,” he added. “The destiny of our country is facing a political test right now… the root cause of all of this is, of course, the new constitution. But we all agreed to have a new constitution… in our meeting with religious leaders on April 25th we asked them to avoid violence and participate fully in the process when it starts.” He added: “We shall protect our peace at any cost, but the government will not interfere with genuine religious activities. Those who have issues with the constitution should follow the procedures. The Constitution Review Act has been passed by Parliament and it has nothing to do with what happened here… No demonstrations will be allowed unless they have the blessings of the government..

‘Peace has made a tremendous contribution to our economy – 80% of our foreign exchange comes from the tourism sector and there is no way we will allow some people to play with peace….. Christianity is not new here… the then chief of Zanzibar allowed the first church, which was built in 1844 on land offered by a Muslim chief… The first church in the Isles was the Anglican Church at Mkunazini. It was followed by the Roman Catholic twin towers…. There has been a high level of religious tolerance in Zanzibar”. The president assured all religious groups in the Isles that they could carry on their activities safely.

The president expressed surprise that the groups demanding a referendum on the Union decided to raid and burn churches, which have nothing to do with Union issues. “The Zanzibar and the Union gov­ernments have been dealing with Union matters in accordance with laid- down procedures and there was no need for anyone to take the law in their own hands and try to force the issue. The two governments have been discussing oil and gas with the aim of enabling each side of the Union to own the resources independently.” All people were free to debate anything of importance to them, but they should follow the right procedures.