Category Archives: Issue 141

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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by Donovan McGrath
World Bank announces multimillion-dollar redress fund after killings and abuse claims at Tanzanian project

(Guardian online – UK) Extract: The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years. Allegations made by the pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa). The pastoralists say most of the incidents took place after the bank approved $150m (£166m) for the Resilient Natural Resources Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project September in 2017, aimed at developing tourism in four protected areas in southern Tanzania in a bid to take pressure off heavily touristed northern areas such as Ngorongoro and Serengeti. In 2023, two individuals wrote to the bank accusing some Tanapa employees of “extreme cruelty” during cattle seizures and having engaged in “extrajudicial killings” and the “disappearance” of community members… [The] bank published a 70-page report following its own investigation, which found “critical failures in the planning and supervision of this project and that these have resulted in serious harm”. The report … notes that “the project should have recognised that enhancing Tanapa’s capacity to manage the park could potentially increase the likelihood of conflict with communities trying to access the park.” … The report includes recommendations aimed at redressing harms done and details a $2.8m project that will support alternative livelihoods for communities inside and around the park… Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, said the “scathing” investigation “confirmed the bank’s grave wrongdoing which devastated the lives of communities. Pastoralists and farms who refused to be silenced amid widespread government repression, are now vindicated.” She added that the bank’s response was “beyond shameful”. “Suggesting that tens of thousands of people forced out of their land can survive with ‘alternative livelihoods’ such as clean cooking and microfinance is a slap in the face of the victims.” … The Oakland Institute said the affected communities reject the bank’s recommendations, and have delivered a list of demands that includes “reverting park boundaries to the 1998 borders … The bank has said any future community resettlement will be the government’s decision. (3 April 2025)

Labour government discussed Tanzania asylum camp plan in 2004, files show
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: Tony Blair’s government discussed diverting £2m earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa in order to fund a controversial pilot scheme to process and house asylum seekers in Tanzania, newly released government files show. Under the scheme, Britain would have offered Tanzania an extra £4m in aid if it opened an asylum camp to house people claiming to be Somalian refugees while their applications to live in Britain were assessed. Hilary Benn, the then international development secretary, wrote to the then home secretary, David Blunkett, in 2004 saying the migration partnership with Tanzania was “off the ground”, files released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, show… The then armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, however, wrote to Benn to say that while he agreed that the removal of refused asylum seekers should be addressed, he did not “consider it appropriate” to draw on the ACPP fund. Ingram wrote: “In the medium and longer terms improving stability in Africa is likely to be one of the more sustainable means of reducing the flow of economic and other migrants; that is what the ACPP exists to achieve… (31 December 2024)

Move over, Med diet – plantains and cassava can be as healthy as tomatoes and olive oil, say researchers
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people living in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region had a positive impact on the body’s immune system. Traditional foods enjoyed in rural villages also had a positive impact on markers of inflammation, the researchers found in a study published . . . in the journal Nature Medicine. Dr Quirijn de Mast, one of the paper’s authors, said they were now in a race against time to record and study the potential benefits of African heritage diets before they disappear as people move to cities and adopt western-style eating habits. “Time is ticking because you see that these heritage diets are being replaced more and more by western diets,” he said. “We will lose so much interesting information [from which] we can learn – and not only in Africa.” In previous research, the team had established that people following the traditional way of life in rural areas had a different immune-system profile to urban dwellers, with more anti-inflammatory proteins. Chronic inflammations is a key driver of many non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. The new study set out to establish whether diet played a role. For a fortnight, 77 young men in their 20s and 30s were switched from heritage to western-style diets, or the reverse – with blood samples taken at the start and end, and again four weeks later. Meals on the heritage diet menu included green plantain mixed with kidney beans, boiled chicken served with green vegetables and brown rice and beans. On the western-style menu, they included pizza, fried chicken and french fries and spaghetti served with beef stew. Those newly adopting a western-style diet saw inflammatory markers in their blood increase and tests suggested their immune systems did not respond as well to infections. They also gained weight. By contrast, switching from a western diet to a heritage diet had a largely anti-inflammatory effect, and blood markers linked to metabolic problems fell. In a third arm of the trial, participants following a western-style diet were asked to drink the local fermented banana beverage, known as mbege, for one week. That group also saw improvements in markers of inflammation. For Dr Godrey Temba, the first author of the paper and a lecturer at KCMC University in Moshi, Tanzania, the findings were not a surprise. “When we are in most of the villages, talking to elderly people [of] 80 or 90 years, they were very healthy. They don’t have any health complications [and] they tell you about consuming this type of diet and this beverage since they were 25.” However, the diet and its benefits have not been explored and documented – unlike the traditional diets of the Mediterranean and Nordic countries, which are promoted by the World Health Organization for their beneficial effects. Temba said: “We think this is the right time … so that [African heritage diets] can also be included in the global guidelines of diets, because they really have a health benefit … (17 April 2025)

Archaeologists uncovered a cache of 1.5 million-year-old bone tools. They’re trying to determine who made them
(CNN online – USA) Extract: Archaeologists have uncovered a collection of bone tools in northern Tanzania that were shaped by ancient human ancestors 1.5 million years ago, making them the oldest known bone tools by about 1 million years, according to new research. Researchers have unearthed stone tools that date back to at least 3.3 million years ago, but before this discovery, the oldest known bone tools were found at European sites believed to be 250,000 to 500,000 years old. The fragments of limb bones, most from hippopotamuses and elephants, show evidence of having been sharpened and shaped, likely with the aid of stone pieces. Some of the bones reach up to nearly 15 inches (38cm) long. The bone tools, which all appear to have been systematically produced in the same style as one another, were found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge. The site is also where archaeologists have previously unearthed artifacts related to some of the first stone tools crafted by early hominins, or who walked upright. The new findings, presented in a study published … in the journal Nature, suggest that our ancient human relatives applied the same techniques they used to make stone tools to specific bones they selected from large mammals. Researchers believe the tools are evidence that hominins long ago were capable of abstract reasoning, or the ability to think critically by identifying patterns and making connections. “This expansion of technological potential indicates advances in the cognitive abilities and mental structures of these hominins, who knew how to incorporate technical innovations by adapting their knowledge of stone work to the manipulation of bone remains,” said lead study author Dr. Ignacio de la Torre, scientist at the Spanish National Research Council’s Institute of History and codirector of the Olduvai Gorge Archaeology Project, in a statement… The Olduvai Gorge bone tools were first spotted in 2018 during excavations carried out between 2015 and 2022… (5 March 2025)

A forest the size of Mexico could store twice as much carbon as was thought. That makes its conservation even more valuable
(CNN online – USA) Extract: ... Stretching from the northern tips of Tanzania, through to coastal Angola in the west, and all the way down to southern Mozambique, the Miombo covers 1.9 million square kilometres (734,000 square miles): an area about the size of Mexico. It’s thought to provide livelihoods and essential resources for over 300 million people, as well as sustaining much of Africa’s most iconic megafauna, including some of the continent’s largest remaining elephant populations. Despite its importance, the Miombo saw a decline in forest cover of almost a third between 1980 and 2020. However, recent research shed light on its ability to store carbon, which could mean that restoring the woodland has more economic value that cutting it down. A first-of-its-kind study published in July 2024 found that Miombo may be locking up more than twice as much aboveground carbon as was previously thought. This difference equates to an additional 3.7 billion metric tons of carbon stored across the whole forest—more than that emitted into the atmosphere by China in 2023. Professor Mathias Disney, of University College London, who co-authored the paper, explains that the oversimplified relationship between trunk diameter and tree mass (of which carbon makes up a fixed proportion) use in prior estimates, “kind of underpins everything we know about carbon and forests worldwide.” Instead, this new study predicted the aboveground biomass in the Miombo using a much more advanced method: lidar (light detection and ranging). Much as sonar relies on sound pulses, and radar on radio pulses, lidar builds up a 3D-map by firing thousands of laser pulses per second at an object and recording the reflected signals. The team deployed the imaging technique from the ground, from drones and from helicopters, over a 500-square-kilometer region of the forest in Mozambique. They then used their data to build the most accurate 3D-representation of the woodland to date and extrapolated to estimate the amount of carbon locked up across the whole Miombo… As far as the Miombo is concerned, although “nothing has actually changed on the ground … if you double the amount of carbon that’s stored across these woodlands … you’ve essentially doubled their dollar value overnight,” says Disney. This means doubling the financial incentive for southern African nations to protect and restore the Miombo, but also doubling the financial cost of cutting it down… “In the carbon world, everything flows from policy, everything flows from regulation,” says Hannah Hauman, global head of carbon trading at Trafigura… Edwin Tambara, director of Global Leadership at the African Wildlife Foundation, says that compared to rainforests such as the Amazon and the Congo Basin, dry forests like the Miombo are systematically understudied, underappreciated and undervalued… (5 March 2025)

Massive, long-lived trees discovered in the Tanzanian rainforest are a new species

(Phys.org science news website – UK) Extract: The Udzungwa Mountains, part of [Tanzania’s] Eastern Arc Mountain Chain, are home to many wildlife preserves. Members of the team were hiking in the Uluti Village and the Boma la Mzinga Forest Reserves when they came upon a large tree back in 2019 that none of them recognized. Its flowers had thin white petals with tiny yellow bulbs on the tips. Intrigued by their find, they took pictures and collected leaf samples for study back in their lab. They have been able to confirm that the tree is a species that has not been recognized by the scientific community. The team named it Tessmannia princeps. In addition to its massive girth, the tree grows a little taller than others around it in the rainforest, which is why the team gave it the name “princeps”—a Latin word meaning “most eminent.” More recently, team members returned to the site and found approximately 100 of the trees, one of which had fallen due to natural causes. That allowed them to collect wood samples for testing. The results showed that some of the newly discovered trees could be up to 3,000 years old. They are also slow growing, taking up to 15 years to add 1cm of girth. The researchers note that there are many scarce species of plants and animals found only in the Udzungwa Mountains and Udzungwa’s Mngeta Valley. Because of that, the entire area has been designated a national park, which means trees cannot be cut down or harmed. That is good news for Tessmannia pinceps, the team notes, because of its slow-growing nature and low numbers mean it could very well disappear if disturbed by human activities. (21 March 2025)

The blind man coaching a Tanzanian football club

(BBC.com news website video clip – UK) Tanzania will co-host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027 alongside fellow East African countries Kenya and Uganda. It is hoped that the tournament will inspire a new generation of talent across the region. One football coach in Ruvumu in southern Tanzania is already helping players improve and has established himself as a role model in his community – despite being blind since birth. The BBC’s Alfred Lasteck visits Mfaranyaki City FC to attend one of Priver Ngonyani’s training sessions. Video transcription: Priver Ngonyani may be blind, but he still sees the game. [Ngonyani] “My ears are sharp and my senses are exceptionally strong. This allows me to recognize who is playing well and who is underperforming.” He has coached Mfaranyaki City FC in Tanzania for 10 years. His players believe in his abilities. [Rogatus Mbawala – Team captain] “We don’t use his disability to go against what the coach asks of us. When he gives instructions for the sessions, I act as a supervisor collaborating with my teammates.” [Ngonyani] “When I discipline a player one accepts it because they trust me. This trust has made us a family, both on and off the pitch.” The job is not lucrative but his passion keeps him on the pitch. Born blind, Ngonyani has to deal with societal stigma. [Ngonyani] “People assume I lack the ability to coach football. This makes it extremely difficult for me to secure opportunities and prove my skills with confidence.” It’s estimated there are 290,000 blind people in Tanzania. Ngonyani hopes to change attitudes towards them. [Ngonyani] “When given a chance, we can achieve a lot. I’m capable of helping many teams succeed.” (24 March 2025)

REVIEWS

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by Martin Walsh
IN THE NAME OF THE PRESIDENT: MEMOIRS OF A JAILED JOURNALIST. Erick Kabendera. Staging Post (Jacana Media), Johannesburg, 2024. 354 pp. ISBN 9781991220929 (paperback). £18.95; also available as a Kindle Edition.

In 2019, Erick Kabendera was one of the most prominent victims of President John Magufuli’s crackdown on critics. As one of Tanzania’s most respected investigative journalists, his work had appeared in leading national and international newspapers – including The Economist and The Guardian. Under President Magufuli he served seven months in prison on unconvincing charges, following his investigations into several matters that caused or promised considerable embarrassment to the President – his state of health, his family relationships and multiple cases of apparent corruption and mismanagement.

In this book, Kabendera tells his story. It has three interwoven strands: Kabendera’s personal experience,

Magufuli and his presidency, and Tanzania’s wider history. He tells the first of these in straightforward terms, never over-dramatising or self-pitying, though the experience was clearly harrowing. The dire state of Tanzania’s police service and prison estate and the extent of political manipulation of the police, justice system, immigration service and tax authorities are laid bare.

On the country’s wider history, Kabendera explores the background to President Magufuli’s rule, looking back as far as President Nyerere’s heavy-handed approach to critics, but devoting most attention to the corruption that was seen to thrive under President Kikwete and the efforts of CCM big-wigs to ensure that Edward Lowassa did not become the party’s presidential candidate in 2015. We get a deep dive into the IPTL corruption scandal and its consequences at the highest political levels. And the manoeuvring to push John Magufuli’s candidacy, despite the reservations of those who knew him best, is presented in some detail.

The book makes a strong implicit case that a Magufuli-like figure was bound to emerge at some point: the history of authoritarian tendencies, lack of strong democratic norms, and highly centralised power structure combined to create the opportunity for a strong-man to take charge. The particular dynamics of CCM in the first half of the 2010s then thrust Magufuli forward into the role, which he was only too happy to fill.

Kabendera does not pull his punches. The charges he lays at the President’s door are wide-ranging and serious in the extreme. He accuses Magufuli of incompetence and mismanagement, nepotism and extensive corruption in his role as President. He accuses him of extreme misogyny and spousal abuse – and hints at more – in his personal life. He avers that the late President suffered not just from serious heart disease, but also from schizophrenia and extreme superstition, which he claims at one time prompted “a fear of being ensnared by ghosts purportedly sent by his predecessor, Jakaya Kikwete and the CCM Secretary General Abdulrahman Kinana.”

Shockingly, Kabendera alleges that Magufuli personally committed murder, shooting Ben Saanane, a senior opposition party figure, in the grounds of State House, in retribution for having publicly cast doubt on the President’s academic qualifications. He argues that the President’s belligerent attitude towards his perceived opponents fostered a determination among acolytes to curry favour by anticipating his desires and acting even without receiving directions. There is a suggestion that this lay behind the attempted assassination of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Putting all this and more together, Kabendera paints a picture for us of an intensely paranoid, thin-skinned and venal President, who lacked the political skill (and inclination) to play the game by democratic means, but who resorted instead to authoritarianism, manipulation and brutality. In this view, Tanzania had a lucky escape in the manner of the President’s premature exit from the stage, which Kabendera unambiguously attributes to Covid-19 and pre-existing heart problems.

More worryingly, however, the conditions that gave rise to President Magufuli are said to remain largely unchanged. The manner in which an incompetent leader – in Kabendera’s description – was able to seize control of key organs of the state and manipulate them to his own ends should be a major concern.

Before concluding, it would be remiss not to mention some of the book’s evident shortcomings. First, there are extensive inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies. Some dates given in the author’s personal story are incorrect, as is the year in which Prime Minister Edward Sokoine died in an apparent car crash. The sequence of events when opposition leader Zitto Kabwe paid a visit to the Director of Intelligence Services has been corrected by Kabwe himself. And there are several misspelled names. These may be little more than typos and proof-reading errors, but they do not inspire confidence.

Second, given the seriousness of the accusations laid out in the book, the minimal supporting evidence presented in some cases is problematic. Protection of sources is a key journalistic imperative, but so too is the need to demonstrate the credibility of such explosive claims. It will be much easier for Magufuli’s supporters to challenge Kabendera’s account than it might have been otherwise.

Third, the author’s writing style often gets in the way of the narrative. A tendency to jump around in the timeline and to omit important details until a story is well-underway left this reader repeatedly flicking back-and-forth through the pages to look for something that had been missed, and several times unable to work out what was actually being said.

And lastly, it is odd that Kabendera did not engage at any length with the incontestable fact that Magufuli remained – and remains – popular with many Tanzanians. This is an important element of the Magufuli story for how it enabled his excesses, for what it says about the state of the country’s democracy, and for how it emboldened (and continues to embolden) his followers. For many in CCM, Magufuli still stands as a model to be emulated.

That said, this book will be difficult to ignore. It may not be perfect, but it is essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in Tanzania’s recent history and near future, and the ways in which these are being contested. Under the circumstances, Kabendera’s courage and commitment to telling the truth as he sees it is admirable. It will be interesting to see how the debate over Magufuli’s legacy develops, and whether Kabendera’s warnings are borne out or heeded.

Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor is the Editor of Tanzanian Affairs.

THE OVERHEAD LOCKER: TALES OF TRAVEL, TANZANIA AND TRYING TO KEEP IT TOGETHER. Phil Double. Independently published, 2025.158 pp. ISBN 9798314381182 (paperback) £4.99; also available as a Kindle Edition.

In this book, Phil Double covers two themes – he talks about a family holiday to Tanzania, and the account is overlaid by his struggles with anxiety which affect many of his actions.

He starts the book by discussing in detail his descent into anxiety, over nearly a decade – how it started, how he was unaware of what was happening to him and wondered why he suddenly was unable to eat and was tired all the time, how he sought help and how finally he developed some coping strategies which began to help him with situations such as those he encountered on his month­long visit to Tanzania. Although he found being with people difficult, he was determined not to hide away, and this was one of the reasons he decided that the family must go to Tanzania.

Double was born in Tanzania, of missionary parents, in a remote village near Singida. He is also married to a Tanzanian, and since leaving as a child, he has visited Tanzania on other occasions. Although familiar with all matters Tanzanian, he found even planning the journey triggered feelings of anxiety.

However, the family – his wife, three children and his mother – made it safely to Tanzania, after some anxious moments on the journey, and immediately went to stay with family in a village on the slopes of Mt Meru. There are some vivid descriptions of village life and Double understands that he is able to find peace in adjusting to the very different way of life, new routines and a slower pace, making the most of each day.

He describes in detail how people in Tanzania access water in their homes, and how difficult it is for many people throughout the country, for a variety of reasons. The family embark on a project to improve the water system in this village, by repairing a tank higher up the mountain. Double hikes up with his father-in-law, through Maasai villages, to investigate the source of the problem, and he is able to gain an understanding of the water issues faced by several communities and individual households. Through the charity he works for, he can donate funds to this project. He is particularly struck by seeing small children struggling to carry heavy water containers to their homes, and is relieved that they will now have extra time and energy to spend on more profitable pursuits as a result of the improvement of the water system.

There are other trips – one to nearby Moshi where his parents worked, a week in Dar es Salaam in a hotel to spend time with other family members and his wife’s friends, and of course, a safari, to Tarangire, where they see all the necessary wildlife. Despite his anxiety, particularly when they have to make journeys, Double enjoys much of their visit. He ponders on the connectedness he feels spending time with his wife’s family, sharing meals, getting to know the children, the older people, and how this turns out to be one of the best ways to counterbalance his anxiety. But he also encounters negative aspects, lamenting the amount of rubbish in the sea along the beach where they are staying, and an example of corruption at the airport – this fills him with frustration as he wonders what new visitors to the country would make of such a blatant display of dishonesty, and he worries that it would influence their view of the country as a whole.

There are many descriptions and incidents in this book that will conjure up familiar images to those who live in Tanzania or those who, like me, have spent time there in the past – the airports, road travel, Dar es Salaam streets clogged with traffic, rural villages with their stunning greenery and busy lives. Plagued as Double is with anxiety, he is brave to have embarked on this journey, although much of it was facilitated by family members, and he comments at the end ‘You can’t reach the end if you never take a step’.
Kate Forrester
Kate lived in Tanzania for 15 years, working as a freelance consultant chiefly in social development, and carrying out research assignments throughout the country. She now lives in Dorchester, where she is active in community and environmental work.

A TRAINING SCHOOL FOR ELEPHANTS. Sophy Roberts. Doubleday, London, 2025. 432 pp. ISBN 9780857528377 (hardback) £22.00; ISBN 9781473597471 (eBook) £9.99.

At its simplest level this is a tale of four Indian elephants (two female and two male) acquired in Pune (Poona), crammed into the hold of a ship in Bombay and shipped to Zanzibar via Aden. These four animals were craned into the water in Msasani Bay, adjacent to the future colonial capital of Dar es Salaam, and swam to shore making East African landfall for the first time. Seven weeks after leaving Pune, on 2 July 1879, the animals and their Indian mahouts, set off in a caravan towards the interior.

Who triggered this operation and for what reason? Leopold II of Belgium, who had in 1865 personally acquired the space of what is now roughly the Democratic Republic of Congo, was the primary instigator. But the fact that he was purchasing and moving these animals through areas of British direct and indirect control, stirred wider official and unofficial interest. Operational leadership was entrusted to an Irishman, Friederich Falkner Carter, who had the advantages of marine logistical experience, as well as a fluency in Arabic acquired during long-term residence in Basrah at the head of the Persian Gulf. He also had a background in trading Mesopotamian fauna into a European market. The overall goal, it could be argued, was to create an equivalent of the Pune elephant breeding centre in an African space utilising African elephants. Those trained elephants would then be used in a variety of commercial contexts, in many cases replacing the role of African labourers.

The expedition absorbed the death of their senior male elephant near Mpwapwa, probably through the strain of overloading the animal. It was at this stage they were joined by a secondary Belgian caravan, adding some confusion as to who was in overall control. Within several days of leaving Mpwapwa, traversing the area of Gogo control, the second male elephant died. After ostentatiously parading through the Nyamwezi centre of Tabora, the caravan angled in a southward direction to Karema on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Within sight of that destination the third (female) elephant died of infections. Stranded in Karema, with one elephant, and starved of reserves, Carter eventually made the decision to return to the coast in order to rejuvenate his mission. Shortly after his departure in June 1880, he was inadvertently caught up in a local African conflict and lost his life; the last remaining elephant in Karema died shortly afterwards.

A unique African elephant training school in the northeast Congo did eventually come into existence some two decades after Carter’s death; its last habituated graduate died in 2010. The book has minimal detail on the initial training structure and mechanics of that later enterprise.

The author, who would see herself as a travel journalist with a sense of history, alternates chapters of the historical journey with her own quest for background in archives and on the ground in Tanzania. She occasionally hints at the wider global story of elephant exploitation in a European and North American context. She briefly mentions the aborted attempt to electrocute an elephant (‘Jumbo II’) in Buffalo NY in 1901 yet fails to mention the more successful public execution of another elephant (‘Topsy’) at Coney Island in 1903 by a combination of electrocution, strangulation and poisoning.

The initial hurried quest by King Leopold for elephants in Europe namechecks the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg but the author makes no further mention of Carl Hagenbeck, arguably the greatest exotic animal entrepreneur of the period before the First World War, a merchant with a preference for female elephants from Ceylon. Several decades later, after Germany had acquired the colonial territory in which our story takes place, the metropolitan German government approved a budget to allow several German contractors to again test the idea of animal transport (not elephants), this time in the south of the East African colony. It was an exercise that produced no practicable results.
Lorne Larsen
Lorne Larson was one of the first doctoral graduates in history from the University of Dar es Salaam. He has taught East African history in Tanzania and Nigeria. He specialises in the German colonial period and is most interested in the history of southern Tanzania.

HABITATS OF AFRICA: A FIELD GUIDE FOR BIRDERS, NATURALISTS, AND ECOLOGISTS. Ken Behrens, Keith Barnes, and Iain Campbell. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2025. 448 pp. ISBN 9780691244761 (paperback) £30.00; ISBN 9780691244778 (e-book) £30.00.

Let me review this book from the eyes of a birder widely travelling in Tanzania with a general interest in nature.

Why should we study habitats when the target of most visitors will be birds and mammals? Well, first of all you will discover in this book that Tanzania is home to many different habitats, far more than a first-time visitor will imagine to see. Even on the most classical Northern Tanzania safari tour from Arusha to Ngorongoro and Serengeti you will pass through many different habitats holding their special birds and mammals’ assemblages. Now with just a little bit of preparation (and the book is really very easy to use) you will recognise the Tropical Montane Cultivations around Arusha followed by the Northern Dry Thorn Savanna (Maasai Steppe) when driving to the Rift and arriving either at Lake Manyara or Lake Natron with its salt pans. Climbing the road to Ngorongoro Crater you will pass through the most beautiful Moist Montane Forest with its extraordinary and specific avifauna. When descending on the other side of Ngorongoro you will first enter a very dry area in its rain shadow called Afrotropical Grassland. At this very place you will encounter the millions of wildebeest calving around February when the grass is green, before leaving in March, April to the north­west into the Moist Mixed Savanna called here Serengeti.

Maybe next time you will do the Southern Circuit with a whole different set of habitats, leaving Dar Es Salaam surrounded by East Coast Forest Matrix but soon entering a mosaic of Afrotropical Grassland and a different forest type, the Miombo holding a very different avifauna and mammals difficult to find in other habitats like the African painted dog or greater kudu.

But how easy is it to recognise these different habitats? Two main criteria were used by the authors: their visual distinctiveness with species of vegetation present, e.g. grass versus
trees, that even the most narrow-sighted birder or first-time safari visitor will recognise, and their assemblage of wildlife, primarily mammals and birds.

To get the maximum information out of the book, you only have to read the very short introduction to the main text (11 pages) which includes nice and easy to understand climate descriptions and graphs. Every single habitat is introduced by a map, a climate diagram, and a beautiful black-and-white illustration showing the vegetation and including a human for scale. The habitat is then described in a way that everybody, birder or naturalist and even the novice safari tourist will understand, including numerous very high-quality photographs of the habitat, mammals and birds present and characteristics of the place with a special section explaining why these species of mammals and birds are present. Not to forget the numerous sidebars presenting great information about various topics.

But why is this book so interesting for birders? Well, with more than 1,000 different bird species present in Tanzania, it is essential to know the habitat of the different species. Let me explain with a specialised raptor, the Eastern chanting-goshawk (Melierax poliopterus), often confused with the Dark chanting-goshawk (M. metabates). Looking in your brand-new bird guide and studying the tiny maps you will get an erroneous picture of the distribution of the Eastern chanting-goshawk in Tanzania, although an almost perfect distribution map can be found on the Tanzania Bird Atlas website (http://tanzaniabirdatlas. net/start.htm). But as an owner of Habitats of Africa you can simply look at either page 37 in the East Africa chapter or at page 227 in the Savannas chapter, and knowing that the Eastern chanting-goshawk is a Northern Dry Thorn Savanna bird, you will have a perfect map of its distribution in Tanzania. The habitat as defined by the authors is clearly working!

And this is true for many bird species in Tanzania, especially in the very difficult families with tens of closely related species like sunbirds and cisticolas. Without knowing their habitat, identification, especially when they’re not singing, is an almost impossible task.

Thus this book is perfect for planning your trip, learning much more than you will ever get out of an ordinary field guide, putting your observations in a broader ecological context. By the sheer fact that you will start to understand African biogeography in relation to birds and mammals, your trip will be even more fun.

What else makes this book so appealing? A wealth of information not readily available elsewhere, written for birders and naturalists, explained by first class diagrams and maps and filled with hundreds of excellent photographs. So, from my point of view as a keen birder interested both in African birds and mammals, this is essential guide to prepare a trip and to understand distribution of the avifauna of Africa. It is even more useful with its complementary information about a topic not readily available to birders and others until now. Everybody interested in Tanzanian nature needs this book!
Tom Conzemius
Tom Conzemius is a veterinarian by profession and birder by passion, living in Luxembourg. When he first visited Tanzania back in 2005, he found his Garden of Eden. Since then, he has returned many times visiting the different regions and national parks. He’s especially interested in raptors and for many years has conducted a raptor road count on each trip, an activity which is both enjoyable and may one day be useful as a reference.

OBITUARIES

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by Ben Taylor

Cleopa Msuyu

Former Vice President and Prime Minister, Cleopa Msuya, died in May at the age of 94. In a decades-long political career, he held nearly every major economic portfolio apart from the presidency, serving as the country’s first Vice President from 1990 to 1994, as Prime Minister for two separate periods in 1980-1983 and 1994-1995, as well as Minister of Finance at critical moments in the country’s economic history.

Mr Msuya had been receiving treatment for a prolonged illness both locally and abroad, including at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), Mzena Hospital and in London.

Born in January 1931 in Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro Region, Mr Msuya was a prominent civil servant and politician. After studying at Makerere University from 1952 to 1955, he began his career in rural community development before rising through the ranks of public service. From 1964 to 1972, he served as Permanent Secretary in several key ministries, including Community Development and Culture, Lands and Water Development, Economic Affairs and Planning, and Finance.

He was appointed Minister for Finance in 1972, later serving as Minister for Industry before being named Prime Minister for the first time in 1980. Mr Msuya went on to hold multiple cabinet positions, including Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning and Minister for Industry and Trade.

Msuya was perhaps best known for his role in steering the country through an economic crisis after Julius Nyerere stepped down as President in 1985. Tanzania’s $3 billion debt at the time and reliance on foreign aid necessitated painful concessions. Together with the late Prof Benno Ndulu and Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, Msuya played a major role in guiding the government towards a solution.

President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Nyerere’s immediate successor, has applauded these three economists for how they helped the government to break the deadlock. As Finance Minister under President Mwinyi, Msuya was tasked with initiating the painful but necessary reforms that would pivot Tanzania toward a market-driven economy, and guiding the country’s difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He championed the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) in 1986, which included currency devaluation, privatisation of state-owned enterprises, and deep fiscal restructuring. These reforms, while controversial, were seen as unavoidable in the face of mounting economic pressures.

“We must face economic realities,” Msuya said in 1987. “Our loyalty to socialism cannot blind us to the need for efficiency and global integration.”

Msuya’s reforms were a double-edged sword; they stabilised the macroeconomy but deepened disparities, revealing the limits of IMF-prescribed solutions,” said Prof Amon Mwambene, a historian.

Speaking at the funeral, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said Tanzania had lost a leader whose advice was always rooted in ethical and professional execution of government duties. “His service to the country remains a mark of excellence that current and future leaders should aspire to,” said Mr Majaliwa.

As if to emphasise Msuya’s historic significance to Tanzania, his funeral took place at grounds that bear his name: the CD Msuya Grounds in Mwanga, Kilimanjaro. In a show of respect, local authorities closed all nearby primary and secondary schools, allowing students and teachers to attend the ceremony, an acknowledgment of Msuya’s enduring contributions to the education sector, where he was regarded as an architect of academic progress in Mwanga.

“The nation has suffered a great loss,” said President Samia Suluhu Hassan. “I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family, relatives, friends and all Tanzanians.” She declared seven days of national mourning.

Charles Hillary Nkwanga, renowned journalist, passed away on May 11, 2025, at age 66.

Hillary worked with top-tier media organisations, including Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD), IPP Media, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Azam Media. His voice was for many years a prominent and authoritative presence on the Kiswahili broadcasts of the BBC World Service.

In 2021, Hillary left the media to take up an appointment as Zanzibar’s Director of Presidential Communications, and later served as chief spokesperson for the Government of Zanzibar, his birthplace.

His death marks the end of a distinguished career in journalism and public service that left a lasting impact both locally and internationally. He had a reputation as a sharp, ethical, and passionate journalist. His reporting and editorial leadership earned him wide respect across East Africa and beyond.

News of his death prompted an outpouring of grief and tributes from across the region. Leaders, journalists, and citizens alike remembered him not just for his professional contributions but for his humility.

“The late Charles was not only a good inspirational friend and a mentor, but also a visionary leader who inspired many generations. What a life and what a humble and nice guy,” said his close friend, Abdulswamad Abdulrahim.

Ahmed Rajab, who died in February aged 79, was a journalist and political analyst whose views on Tanzanian and wider African politics and economics were highly respected.

Rajab’s career began in broadcasting, where he worked in various production roles at the BBC World Service in London before serving within the Unesco communications office in Kenya and then, in 1984, returning to the BBC as a producer.

In the 1990s he switched to print journalism as editor of Africa Analysis, a fortnightly magazine dedicated to African politics and economics. Around the same time, he became a go-to commentator on African affairs for broadcasters, including the BBC, Channel 4 News and CNN. In later years, before his retirement, he served as head of the newsroom at the Middle East/Asia bureau of Irin, the United Nations’ Humanitarian News Agency.

Born in Vuga, Zanzibar, Rajab’s early life was shaped by the revolutionary upheaval of 60s Zanzibar. He escaped this, moving to the UK to study philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, and then a master’s in African studies at Sussex University. After that he went straight to the BBC World Service.

Throughout his career, he rode a parallel track as a human rights activist, including calling for the freedom of Zanzibari’s who were detained following the Zanzibar revolution. In this case, from London he worked closely with a small committee of progressives in East Africa such as Aishura Babu, Issa Shivji, Walter Rodney, and Abdul Sheriff, using human rights platforms in London to press their cause.

Renowned surgeon, medical educator and former cabinet minister Prof Philemon Sarungi died peacefully in Dar es Salaam in March at the age of 88.

Prof Sarungi led a life dedicated to public service and excellence. His academic journey was distinguished, beginning with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Medicine in Szeged, Hungary, in 1966. He went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Surgery from the same institution in 1970, a Diploma in Orthopaedics and Trauma from the University of Medicine in Vienna in 1973, and a Diploma in Replantation Surgery from the University of Shanghai in 1975.

Returning to Tanzania, Professor Sarungi embarked on a long and distinguished career in medical education at the University of Dar es Salaam, where he shaped the future of the country’s healthcare system. He served as professor and head of the University’s department of surgery from 1971 until 1984, then as the director general of Muhimbili Medical Centre from 1984 to 1990.

Alongside this, Prof Sarungi served as the Member of Parliament for the Rorya constituency, representing CCM. From 1990 he held several key cabinet positions, including as minister of Health, minister of Communications and Transport, minister of Defence and National Service and minister of Education and Culture.