The Chumbe island (Zanzibar) Coral park has won the British Airways ‘Tourism for Tomorrow’ award (Southern region) for its concerted efforts in preserving the marine and coastal environment -Daily News.

Tanzania’s cashew nut producers did well in 1999. Exports reached 48,700 tons which brought in about $51 million -the export price has increased from $700 per tonne in 1997 to $900 per tonne in 1999.

There have been a number of serious accidents recently. Nine people were killed and 43 injured when a bus overturned in Handeni in January. On March 19 in Rungwe an oil tanker overturned and in the fire which followed 33 people died. A Sudanese owned Boeing 707 cargo plane on its way to Mwanza to collect 40 tons of fish for export to Europe crashed into Lake Victoria, four kms from the runway on February 13. The crew were saved. On March 19 five people were killed and 21 were injured when a bus overturned in Morogoro.

In view of the 52% failure rate in the treatment of malaria using chloroquine, Tanzania has cleared for use two new drugs, both derivatives of ancient Chinese medicinal plants. The new drugs are Arsumax (also recommended by the World Health Organisation -WHO) produced by a French manufacturing company and Beta Artmether from China -The East African.
At the meeting in Nairobi in mi-April of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) a worldwide ban on the sale of ivory was re-imposed for two years. Tanzania was one of the countries pressing for this decision -The Times.

The Ministry of Defence has issued a statement on the ‘streamlining’ of the Tanzanian army. No new recruitment was being carried out except for replacements following deatl1 or compulsory retirement -Daily News.

Public opinion aided by the press and the National Environmental Management Council with support from Vice-President Omar Ali Juma has been successful in causing the Ilala Council to remove a massive billboard advertising cigarettes which had been built at the Palm Beach end of the Selander Bridge in Dar es Salaam -Guardian.

Tanzanian Vice-President Dr Omar Ali Juma has appealed to donors to give maximum support to private institutions like the Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) to enable them to provide better services to the people. He congratulated the university, which began in 1997 and whose Vice Chancellor is Britain-Tanzania Society member Professor Esther Mwaikambo, on being the first private university in the country to be given a certificate of permanent registration.

Over 6,000 reptiles were exported from Tanzania in 1998 -a tenfold increase compared with 1991. Three quarters were spiny-tailed lizards, geckos and chameleons. The Coordinator of the Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) said that these exports were beginning to pose a danger to some species -Daily News.
The rule under which new recruits to the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces are expelled from the army if they marry within six years is to continue -Guardian.

Agreement was reached on a new policy on Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) at a meeting of 150 participants in Morogoro in November. A new Act of Parliament is expected to streamline NGO registration procedures and to create a new co-ordination board and registrar to supervise registration. There will be a new code of conduct and an NGO data bank.

According to Radio Tanzania quoted in the Sunday Observer, two inmates of the Ngwale Prison in Chlmya District escaped recently. However, a few metres from the prison, which is surrounded by a dense forest, they suddenly came face to face with lions. They climbed a tree but the lions sat down under the tree. Eventually the prisoners managed to hail a passing vehicle carrying tobacco which rescued them. But as they were still wearing prison clothes the driver took them straight back to jail much to their chagrin.

Fast moving vehicles on a mile-long road stretch in Zanzibar’s Jozani Forest Reserve have killed about 150 of the endangered red colobus monkeys since 1996 according to an article by Simon Kivamwo in the Tanzanian Guardian. Quoting from the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY JOURNAL, he wrote that most of the monkeys were being crushed to death by fast cars when trying to cross the road to get to trees on the other side. But after the installation of bumps to check the speed of the vehicles only one monkey had been killed. Jozani forest reserve is home to the world’s remaining 2,000 Zanzibar red colobus monkeys.

The government has declared illegal the breakaway (from Pare Diocese) Mwanga (Kilimanjaro) Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT). There have been clashes between church followers.

1,900 local people with the help of environmentalists are suing the Irish investor in the proposed 10,000 hectare multi-million dollar prawn project in the Rufiji delta claiming that this would cause them to be evicted from their ancestral land. It appears that the prospective financiers have now lost interest -East African.

Uganda has paid Tanzania $64.39 million out of the originally agreed total of $132.3 million as compensation related to the war involving the two countries in 1978-79 -Daily News.

Extracts from an article in The Times by Matthew Parris presented here with his permission.

Toilet paper festooned the poles supporting the makeshift canopy, in a gay new year display. Winding the rough, pink Tanzanian tissue neatly round and up the wood produces an effect of orderly merriment, like a barber’s pole. The ceremony for which these preparations had been made was our send-off on a millennial climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. We were at the Machame gate to the national park, on the edge of the forest at the mountain’s foot.

We nine were among the 800 expected on Africa’s highest mountain for the turn of the century. Our guardians, the Kilimanjaro National Park, would see us gathered at the gates to leave, and again when we returned a week later in a new century. In between, we would be throwing ourselves upon the mercy of the forests, tundra and snows.

We knew about the send-off party when we heard the drums. Labouring up the slope towards the gate in the Marangu Hotel’s Land Rover, followed (in a bus named the Mwika Express) by an embarrassingly large contingent of guides, porters, tents, equipment and food expertly organised by the hotel, we were overtaken by a fleet of top-of-the-range Toyota Land Cruisers containing men in suits, and police in uniform. The ladies wore expensive sarongs.

In the Congo they call them the waBenzi but here in rural Tanzania a new Toyota Land Cruiser is the more reliable indicator of membership of Africa’s ruling elite. The waToyota consisted of the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, a Permanent Secretary, the Regional Commissioner, the District Commissioner and the chairman and trustees of the Board of the Kilimanjaro National Park. Reader, before you mock, remember the plumes and the memsahibs, and ask where these habits were learnt. True, for a fraction of the cost of the official procession, which had lurched here and there at the walking pace dictated by an atrocity of a road, that road could have been repaired.

But we were greeted with a warmth which no colonial administrators’ party would have extended. The lavatories, on the other hand, were incomparably worse. The ceremony was Africa in vignette. It was hours late. Half the climbers were too. But somehow everyone eventually turned up and caught the spirit of the occasion. This too is Africa.

Proceedings had been further delayed by the most appalling traffic snarl-up. You might think that in the East African plains, where there are few cars and much space, a traffic jam would be improbable. But the park authorities had managed to produce, with fewer than 20 vehicles, a jam of spectacularly neurotic quality. Manhattan could not match it. Everything happened -as everything around Kilimanjaro must -on a 30-degree slope. Nobody could turn round. The waToyota were trying to arrive, the climbers to depart, porters’ lorries to advance, escort vehicles to withdraw, and everyone else to park. There was nowhere to park. Vehicles trying to execute three-point turns -into the mud bank became stuck; and all this was serenely observed by the platform party slowly assembling beneath its special canopy. A ring of brightly robed African women danced around a man thumping a skin drum, a group of Maasai dancers leapt rhythmically as though from a trampoline, and Toyotas revved and hooted, wheels spinning in the mud.

Somehow the vehicles sorted themselves out. The last arrival contained a television crew. A loudspeaker system had been rigged up. Ladies in sarongs watched imperiously from the podium. There is something about an African woman of consequence, something about her bearing, the way she moves, that declares she’s of account. How do they do this? English women have to announce their importance by their hat.

“Distinguished guests, honoured tourists and climbers,” began a dignified looking gentleman, “may I say good afternoon?” He paused, then introduced the podium party. “And now” he continued, “for the chairman of the board of trustees: me.”

“You will notice” he went on, “that eminent colleagues have each brought a spouse. I have not. This is because I have a number of wives. In the spirit of Tanzanian democracy I asked them to decide among themselves, by voting, which should accompany me today. By the time I departed they had still reached no decision.” He looked a nice man, but we climbers were restless. If we left it much longer we might not make it up through the rainforest to the campsite above, before dark. “A little light music, please,” called the compere.

The regional commissioner spoke next, in Swahili. “A professor,” whispered my guide in tones of respect. We checked our watches. But the main event was still to come: A speech from the Vice-President of Tanzania, read by the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism. Mrs Zakhia Meghij, a Zanzibari, was an imposing woman. The wife (I think) of the Permanent Secretary was European. Feelings of ethnic hostility are less marked in Tanzania than in much of Africa. The late Julius Nyerere may have almost wrecked his country’s economy with his dreams of village socialism, but no man in Africa ever did more to inspire a sense of co-operation in disregard of race or tribe. Tanzania is a good country and getting better.

The Vice-President’s speech was witty and well crafted. It mentioned the millennium bug. “Tanzania has worked hard to minimise this problem, and there is no worry for you climbers. Even our support services are free of computerisation.” We laughed at the joke but we were champing at the bit. And at last we were dispatched to the mercies of the mountain: “By a miracle of the Almighty, snow at the Equator,” said Mrs Meghij.

Balloons over the podium bounced and the toilet paper rustled in the afternoon breeze. Mrs Meghij shook many hands, including that of my niece, Christina, astonished that she was only 11. Christina became briefly a media sensation as local journalists dived to interview her. “I wish you all the best in the next century,” cried Mrs Meghij as we surged up the hill into the jungle. In the best political tradition, she accompanied us for the first hundred yards, wisely halting when the mud got deeper, and waving us cheerily onward.

“Every success,” she called again. The African women ululated, a feature sadly missing from official occasions in Britain. We disappeared into the undergrowth, observed by monkeys. Ululations died behind us as we were hit by the most monumental downpour.

Seven weary, happy days later we returned from the summit snows, Christina victorious, covered in mud. We slithered down through a sunnier rainforest through a different gate, Mweka, observed by different monkeys. Different women were ululating, a different drummer drummed, and there was even beer and t-shirts provided and a portable satellite telephone operated by batteries. The energy that had gone into our welcome was touching.

Sadly, the same energy had not been put into the organisation of our climbers’ exit register. The system was in complete chaos. The numbers had overwhelmed the single officer with an old exercise book, a ballpoint pen, and a pile of certificates. Nobody seemed to have anticipated this. Nobody had the nous to react to it and improvise.

After two hours we gave up. One alternates between hope and despair in Africa; sometimes before lunch.

It was another couple of miles walk down to our waiting vehicles. Some 20 lorries, Land Rovers, Toyotas and minibuses had parked along the rutted dirt road. But nobody was going anywhere. The blue lorry blocking the road at the head of the queue was driverless. Rage mounted among the rest. The driver of a minibus behind stormed off up the hill, accompanied by furious passengers, to seek out the truant driver. We sat.

A distant roar came from up the hill. The driver had been found and was being chased back. Down he sprinted, running for dear life, pursued by an angry crowd. As he passed, all the Africans waiting in the road yelled and kicked at him. He looked absolutely terrified. Had he stumbled, he might have been lynched or kicked to death by the mob. He really might, such was the mood; a flash-fury, frighteningly violent.

The violence passed. The driver made it to his cab and now another traffic drama, with much hooting, hysterical shunting and one collision, as vehicles tried to manoeuvre past each other to get away first.

And we were off -our open lorry bucking and rearing down the dreadful track, the wind in our faces. Behind, a struggle for precedence between a Toyota, a minibus and two Land Rovers, teetered on the edge of catastrophe. But the fragrant gardens and friendly staff of the Marangu Hotel -Tanzania’s welcoming face -beckoned.

It was Sunday. We passed a packed Lutheran church, doors open, the congregation all singing. Back at Marangu, the Minister had sent a medal for Christina.

Oh, Africa.

At the beginning of November President Mkapa called the Regional Commissioner, the Regional Administrative Secretary, the Regional Police Commander, District commissioners and MP’s from Kigoma region to an emergency conference to discuss the increase in crime in the region.

Two months earlier Regional Administrative Secretary Raphael Mlama had explained in an interview with ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ the costs and the benefits for Tanzania of the massive influx of refugees. Between August 1998 and August 1999 over 100,000 refugees from Burundi and the Congo had entered Kigoma region. On the benefits side he said that Tanzania received help from the UN High Commission for Refugees and many NGO’s and other agencies and their help included the construction of new roads. The $1.42 million 93-km Nyakanazi -Kibondo road was inaugurated on August 27. UNHCR had provided the funds to facilitate transport of food and goods to refugee camps in the region. Other benefits included new water supplies, rehabilitation of schools, increased employment opportunities, provision of social services, re-afforestation projects and an improved market for produce. But many of these benefits had to be placed against the problems refugees brought with them. By far the most important was the serious deterioration in security. Kigoma used to be a haven of peace but now there was a serious crime wave and highway robbery -“They use machine guns to steal a radio” he said. In Kasulu district villagers had begged the government to relocate them, such was their fear of crime. Some refugees also introduced new diseases like cholera, rabies and sexually transmitted diseases. The environment was damaged as vast cities had to be carved out of previously virgin forest. Heavy lorries carrying supplies for the refugee camps also damaged the roads. It was impossible to control the refugees who often went back and forth across the Burundi and Congo borders. On their return many would try to obtain additional entitlements to food and supplies by concealing their earlier stays in the camps.

Meanwhile in Kagera Region, which once hosted over half a million refugees, the crime wave they have left behind is such that the authorities now advise travellers by road to take a police escort with them.

13th IN THE WORLD “Tanzania is expected to have been the fastest growing economy in the world in 1999” said President Mkapa during his visit to Sweden in September. He spoke of the 4% sustained economic growth over the last few years and how the GDP was now estimated to be 7.5 billion or $250 per capita. Inflation had come down from 30% in 1995 to 7.6 at the end of July and was still going down.

Tanzania has been chosen as one of a group of member countries of the Commonwealth to advise on how best it can respond to the challenges of the new century. The group is being chaired by South African President Mbeki. On his return from the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in Durban in November President Mkapa described the summit as a resounding success particularly in its Declaration on Globalisation and People-Centred Development.

Tanzanian blacksmith Joseph Mashinji from Mwanza has won the first prize in an African Blacksmiths competition recently held in Britain. He was sponsored by Tools for SelCReliance and competed against blacksmiths from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Sierra Leone and South Africa. He made side axes, carving axes and hammers from old springs and half-shafts of vehicles to win the prize -Daily News.

The government suspended publication of the Kombora weekly following its publication of a photograph on the front page of a half-naked woman, something which it said was against the country’s traditions and culture ­Daily News.

‘What is wrong with female circumcision?’ was the question asked in the Dar es Salaam Daily Mail on October 8 following a visit by its correspondent Kenneth Simbaya to talk to Maasai mothers in Iringa. “If we want our daughters not to get married by their fellow tribesmen let us stop circumcising them” one said. “It is not true that girls over-bleed during circumcision … they bleed more when they are having a menstrual period … negative effects have never been experienced by Maasai girls. There is no need to fear accidental death by over bleeding ….. that’s God’s wish and it happens very rarely”. Another mother said “Some Maasai say they have stopped practising female circumcision…the truth is they haven’t …. they utter such words because they are afraid of the government… we don’t share razor blades any more and we treat the wounds with our traditional medicine”. The reporter found these views widely held in the area in spite of efforts by a Finnish-financed NGO (HIMW A) to end the practice. In Tarime, Mara Region, a week before this, it was announced that 25 out of 5,000 girls in the area died during circumcision each year mostly because of over-bleeding.

Parliamentary Speaker Pius Msekwa has been elected as Chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association International Executive Committee. And University of Dar es Salaam lecturer Prof Haroub Othman has become the UN’s Chief Technical Advisor on Good Governance in Liberia. -The Guardian.

To avoid difficulties which have arisen from potential students using fake educational certificates, the University of Dar es Salaam has introduced its own matriculation examination which new students must now pass before being admitted -The Guardian.

Two presidents commemorated Heroes Day at the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force Kaboya Camp in Muleba (Bukoba) recently in honour of the 600 combatants who died during the 1978-79 Kagera war. President Mkapa laid a spear and shield and President Museveni of Uganda laid a wreath at the Heroes Memorial Tower which contains the list of all the fallen heroes -Daily News.

The Serengeti’s elephant population (2.015) has increased by 48% during the last four years while the buffalo population (17,000) has declined by 21% according to a 1998 census -The East African.

Eliot Kadodo a Standard Seven school pupil in Hanang, Arusha has won the ‘Guinness Stout Effort Award’ for 1999 after making a computer, a TV set and several other technological gadgets. His prize was a new bicycle -The Guardian.

The Lyamungu Agricultural Research Institute in Moshi has developed 16 high yielding Arabica coffee hybrids resistant to coffee berry disease and leaf rust. These diseases require farmers to use large quantities of fungicides. The hybrids are being tested on 24 sites and it was hoped that they could be released to farmers by 2001 -The Guardian.

The number of Tanzanian asylum seekers trying to enter Britain has fallen from 1,535 in 1995 to 80 in 1998 following the introduction of the new visa requirement in 1986 -Daily News.

The Police carried out a highly successful operation against muggers on Oyster Bay’s Coco beach in Dar es Salaam on September 5. Six men in uniform and others in mufti combed the whole beach and underneath the cliffs to fish out 12 suspects before arresting them. While they were being held in a circle surrounded by police, a disorderly mob tried to organise a rescue mission but they were rapidly dispersed and three were arrested -Daily Mail.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a Zanzibari of Arab origin, who was arrested in South Africa at the beginning of October accused of being involved with others in the bombing the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998 and to have caused the death of 250 people, has been put on trial in New York. He is said to have bought a car and rented a house in Ilala, Dar es Salaam as part of the preparations for the bombings. A person holding dual Congolese and Egyptian nationalities and another -a Zanzibari of Arab origin -are being held in Dar es Salaam on similar charges -The Guardian.

A report from the Tarangire Elephant Project -Tarangire is a 2,600 sq km National Park 115 kms from Arusha – indicates that the elephant population there has increased from 250 in 1993 to 420 now. The Daily News reported that this was due to the successful anti-poaching activities of Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and the international trade ban on ivory which was imposed in 1989.

Tanzania has fallen from 118th to 123rd in the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) in its latest ranking of 201 countries. Uganda is 100th and Kenya 101st. Brazil remains on top. Tanzania had been knocked out of the African Nations Cup by Burundi and its youth team had been beaten by Ghana in the Olympic Games 2000 qualifiers match.

In the latest measures taken against corruption, 14 members of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF) including four senior army officers were sacked following illegalities in recruitment procedures that had taken place last year. Some 12 National Insurance Corporation (NIC) employees were arrested and locked up in the Dar es Salaam Police Station when it was found that some of them were planning to destroy documentary evidence held in a local bank. According to the Daily News, some of the suspects had started consulting witch doctors and another was trying to leave the country. The NIC has recently sacked or suspended 30 of its staff and 40 of its agencies have had their services frozen. It is estimated that the NIC has lost some Shs 2 billion.

It is also reported that 120 policemen have been sacked for taking bribes between January 1998 and June 1999; 132 others have been transferred to other duties. The Police Officer commanding Rombo district was suspended in May. A TANESCO auditor has been suspended following his alleged failure to report irregularities in the issue of cards for the payment of electricity which caused losses amounting to millions of shillings.

On May 22 President Mkapa announced the appointment of new chairmen, general managers and directors general for seven agricultural parastatals. On May 22 ten medical personnel including six doctors were suspended. The Acting Director of the Tanzania News Agency was retired at the same time. On July 6 according to the Daily News, President Mkapa retired ‘in the public interest’ the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Zanzibar and the Chief Administrative Officers in the Vice-President’s and Prime Minister’s Offices. The Zanzibar Commissioner of Police was ‘given other duties’. No reasons were given for these latter actions.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch published on July 7 an informative but highly critical 36-page report under the title ‘Refugees in Tanzania Confined Unfairly’. The report said, inter alia, that tens of thousands of refugees, some of whom had lived in Tanzania for more than two decades, had been rounded up by the Tanzanian army and confined to camps for the past year in the western part of the country. ‘The army separated the refugees from their families and stripped them of their belongings in an indiscriminate response to security risks from outside the country’ the report said. The army conducted sweeps largely in late 1997 and early 1998 on the grounds that it was necessary to protect Tanzanian citizens living near the Burundian border. The Burundian government had alleged that Burundian Hutu rebels based in Tanzania were engaged in arms trafficking and cross-border incursions; it threatened to act if the Tanzanian government did not. With little or no notice the Tanzanian army then swept through villages close to the border apprehending thousands of refugees from the homes in which they had settled and developed new lives, and sent them to refugee camps. They had lost personal belongings and their schools and community institutions had been closed.

The government said that the Refugees Act stipulates that refugees must be taken care of in a particular area and not mixed with citizens. Those complaining of loss of property and separation from their families had been asked to submit their claims but none had done so.

By contrast, at the beginning of June a visiting French delegation praised the government for the care being given to refugees in Kigoma.

And on July 14 the Guardian revealed that Tanzania (and the Cote d’Ivoire) had been made the first recipients of the 1999 OAU Medal for ‘Outstanding Service to Refugees and Displaced Persons in Africa’.

At the budget session in parliament on July 9 Home Affairs Minister Ali Ameir Mohamed said that the 20,000 refugees remaining from the original 500,000 who came from Ruanda, most of whom went home in 1996, must now also return home. Many were still in Ngara pretending to be Burundians. Tanzania still had 800,000 refugees from eight countries, mostly from the Congo and Burundi.

Karibu sana katika Kisa ya Kisasa tunapo kabiliana na maneno mapya na vichekesho vya kilugha.
Welcome to the modern story where we confront new words and funny phrases.

Mgoso agundua ulimi hauna mfupa! -The white person (Mgoso) understood that the tongue has no bone.

Nilikuwa mgeni Mzizima. Nilikuwa na uzoefu wa sehemu mbalimbali Tanzania lakini Kiswahili changu wakati ule hakijakolea sawasawa. Basi nilikutana na mwanamke mmoja kwa mara ya kwanza. Tulikuwa tumeongea kwenye simu mara nyingi lakini siku hiyo ilikuwa mara ya kwanza kuonana naye ana kwa ana. Sikujua jinsi ya kueleza hivyo kwa Kiswahili. Nilikusudia kusema ‘in the flesh’ kwa kumwambia, “Nimefurahi kukutana na wewe kwa mara ya kwanza kimwili.”

My first time in Dar-es-Salaam (Mzizima). I thought my Swahili was pretty good. I had spoken to this woman several times on the phone but never met her face to-face (ana kwa ana). How to express to her that this was the first time we had met ‘in the flesh’? I proudly announce that I was pleased to meet her bodily (kimwili) for the first time; with all the implications that you would expect of such a phrase. I thus learnt a valuable lesson and a useful proverb: the tongue doesn’t have a bone (ulimi hauna mfupa; i.e. it is incontrollable). This is an acceptable phrase for excusing those numerous faux pas.

Jamaa agoma kuondoka kizimbani -the man refused to leave the dock (in court).

Jamaa mmoja alishitakiwa kwa kuiba vitu vyenye thamani ya kilo tatu. Alimwambia hakimu kuwa bora afungwe jela kuliko kuja mahakamani kila siku. Mtu huyu alichoka na ‘njoo kesho’ za mahakama kwa sababu mlalamikaji hafiki mahakamani. Baada ya kugoma kuondoka iliwabidi maafande wamtoe nje kwa nguvu, ndipo alipofunguliwa shitaka lingine la kufanya fujo mahakamani. Aidha hukumu ya kesi hiyo haitatolewa mpaka mwisho wa 1999!

The man who refused to leave the dock in court was charged with theft of goods to the value of 300,000 sh. (kilo tatu). He asked the judge if he could be imprisoned instead of the constant postponements of the court (njoo kesho, lit. come tomorrow). After striking out and refusing to leave, the police (maafande: cops) had to remove him by force. This led to the opening of a new case, that of ‘creating a disturbance’ (fujo) in court, the judgement of which will not be announced until December 1999!

Kilo has come to mean 100,000 shillings ie. the same as ‘laki’. Maafande is a common word for the police; it’s in the dictionary. ‘Njoo Kesho’ means come tomorrow, it is used here as a noun; postponings. Fujo is what English soccer fans are famous for; disturbance. It is used to describe strikes as well as violence.
Ben Rawlence

Contemporary African Art poster

Two recent, fine, contrastive exhibitions in London’s premier art district showcased work by three established artists from Tanzania: Robert Glen, Georges Lilanga and Sue Stolberger. The first was ‘Contemporary African Art from the Jean Pigozzi Collection’ at Sotheby’s; the front cover of the illustrated 132-page catalogue shown here is a reproduction by Tanzanian artist Georges Lilanga di Nyama at the exhibition entitled Uishi na jirani zako vizuri ili ukipatwana shida watakusaidia (maintain good relations with your neighbours so they will help you when you are in trouble) Acrylic on plywood 1992. The second was ‘Robert Glen and Sue Stolberger: Tusk Trust Exhibition’ at the Tyron & Swann Gallery in Cork Street in London. There was a 14-page illustrated catalogue.

With East African childhoods, the three artists describe themselves as self-taught, that is without an academic art education; nonetheless Glen and Lilanga have at times run their own workshops. It was a rare opportunity during one week to see familiar kinds of Tanzanian art -European wildlife naturalism and Makonde social imagery.

Tyron & Swann, a commercial gallery that specialises in natural life subject matter, showed some 50 objects comprising 14 bronze sculptures by Glen and 37 water-colour paintings by Stolberger. Their realistic art is inspired by the ‘uninhabited wilderness’ of Ruaha National Park, their home and studio for the past five years. Their works are complementary. Stolberger’s paintings express the changing scene –dry environment, big skies and also the small, designer details of animals and birds (often depicted together, like Robin A’s batiks from Nairobi). Glen’s sculptures fill out the space with the eternal gestures of animals; bronze is permanent and such objects exude a powerful presence. Glen’s mastery of subject and medium are superb; it makes me wonder about links to his original profession of taxidermy -in the 60’s.

The Sotheby’s exhibition, in contrast, was a group show of Contemporary African Art from the Collection of Jean Pigozzi and part of their first ever auction in this genre (Sotheby’s expertise is African ‘tribal’ art; Pigozzi’s Collection has been shown in the UK previously at prime Modernist white walled venues such as the Saatchi, Serpentine and Tate, Liverpool; ironically the gallery walls were painted mud brown). The show of 28 artists featured four paintings inclusive of the catalogue cover. Georges Lilanga di Nyama who was born in Masasi and is a practised Makonde carver, co-founded the Nyumba ya Sanaa (House of Art) in Dar es Salaam in the early 70’s. His major achievement is the transformation of Makonde shetani (spirit) imagery into two-dimensional forms for prints and paintings; a touch of nationalism is his insistence on Swahili titles. He acknowledges ‘Tinga Tinga’ (Eduardo Saidi 1937-72 at Morogoro Stores) who introduced him to painting with domestic paints on square, plywood boards. I find Lilanga’s imagery is more original, organised and dynamic than that found on most ‘square’ paintings.

The auction sales were successful beyond predictions; only one of 57 works did not ‘go’. Lilanga’s paintings fetched between £6,000 -£8,200 (3 to 4 times the asked price); the average was £4,000 and the highest price was £11,200.
For me, viewing these works was evocative, recalling work in and visits to Tanzania while also affirmative of the ongoing contribution of art to cultural identity, if not development. Indeed, for both venues, percentages of the proceeds are being shared; from the Tyron & Swann Gallery with the Tusk Trust and Friends of Ruaha Society and from the Sotheby’s Pigozzi auction with UNICEF and an artists’ fund. Maendeleo na Sanaa.
Elsbeth Court

Tanzania has been awarded a gold shield in Accra for its outstanding leadership within the Africa Travel Association following its hosting of the associations’ annual congress last year. The New York-based Executive Director said that the congress was the best ever since ATA’s establishment 24 years ago -Daily News.

The famous bearded tourist guide in Bagamoyo, Honorary Professor Samahani Kejeli, locally known as a walking encyclopaedia and who extracts visiting cards from tourists to whom he shows the historic sites, claims that he now has 12,889 pen friends in various countries. He gets some 500 letters or postcards each year and tries to reply to them all. He has just been employed by the Roman Catholic Museum in Bagamoyo to continue to help visitors -Daily News.

Following some 15 years of dispute during which he had been told to stop his unorthodox ‘fundamentalist’ teachings, the Rev Felician Nkwera (and his wanamaombi followers) have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for causing confusion and division. He was accused of conducting devotions of a ‘dubious nature’ and unauthorised exorcisms and was said to have insulted Church leaders including the Pope and to have ‘disrespected the Holy Eucharist and caused conflicts in families -Guardian.

In a full page advertisement in the Guardian on July 22 the United States offered a reward of $5 million and the costs of relocation for persons providing information leading to the arrest of those it believes responsible for the bombing of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Pictures were shown of eight suspects headed by Usama Bin Laden.

The government had nothing to do with Zanzibaris seeking political asylum in Britain and no action would be taken against them. Most left for economic, not political reasons and they should not engage in a smear campaign to soil the image of Zanzibar -Minister of State in the Zanzibar Chief Minister’s Office answering a question in the House of Assembly.

A new ‘Copyright and Neighbouring Rights 1999’ Bill was passed into law on April 14. Any person violating the law, which is designed to protect the rights of authors, performers, sound recorders, broadcasters, lecturers, priests, musicians, and computer programmes, can be fined up to Shs 5 million or given imprisonment for up to three years or both for a first offence.

Tanzania’s thriving media now numbers 42 daily and weekly newspapers, 22 private radio stations, and 7 terrestrial and 17 cable TV stations. This was said by Foreign Minster Jakaya Kikwete when opening a regional conference of the Eastern Africa Media Institute in Dar es Salaam on May 3. He stressed that the government was committed to a free press. However, on the same day, at the launching of a new Journalists Association of Zanzibar (JAZ) complaints were heard about too much interference by the state. It was revealed in Dar es Salaam that a Zanzibar freelance journalist had been banned from practising his profession by the Zanzibar government -Daily News.

The national population census which should have been held in 1998 but had to be postponed for reasons including budgetary constraints, food shortages and roads devastated by El Nino rains, has been fixed for August 2002.

More than 1,000 kgs of trash was hauled off Mount Kilimanjaro by 110 volunteers with assistance from tour companies, the National Park and American donors in a ten-day clean up operation in April. The use of firewood for heating and cooking on the mountain has been banned -Daily News.

On the occasion of his 77th birthday Mwalimu Nyerere took over a new house at Butiama built for him through salary deductions from members of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF) over the years since he retired in 1985. The government is to pay for maintenance of the house. President Mkapa said that there was no due reward that Tanzanians could give to the founder president for his outstanding service except to wish him everlasting life -Guardian
Tanzania, which earned $431 million from tourism last year is now fifth in Africa in its tourism earnings -after South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritius -Kenya came sixth with $400 million.

Two Tanzanian hunters, Doug Scandroll and Peter Swanepoel, have received 1998 International Professional Hunter Awards from Safari Club International (USA). They hunt for ‘Game Frontiers Safari Club’ (in the Mbarang’undu Wildlife Management Area and in the Selous Game Reserve K3). The Club has been upgraded from 55th to 42nd among more than 530 hunting companies worldwide -Daily News.

Some 50 participants at the evaluation of the Tanga School Aids Education Programme on June 30 were astonished to hear from a health consultant that primary schoolboys had said that they were fed up with parent’s procrastination about the use of condoms and had demanded smaller sized ones. A sizeable number of primary schoolchildren, some as young as ten, were said to be sexually active. They had complained that they had to use props such as rubber bands and string to enable them to use adult condoms. The Daily Mail, which published this story on July 1, reported the next day that there had been widespread shock and indignation. Most people were totally against the issue of small condoms; they would accelerate moral decay in society. Some asked whether this demand arose from too much sex education in primary schools. One journalist said the story should never have been printed.

Four Acts are to be amended to ensure that Tanzanian culture is not distorted. One would ensure that film actors and actresses would wear clothing commensurate with the country’s culture; the country’s coat of arms was not to be used in trademarks; torn national flags should not be hoisted; and, those artists appropriating songs from people in rural areas should be dealt with under the new Copyright Act of 1999 -The Guardian.

A stray buffalo, believed to have come from the Saadani game reserve North of Bagamoyo injured several people near the Bahari Beach Hotel in Dar es Salaam on April 11 before it was shot dead by local residents. A German resident called in to help was knocked down twice having heard that there was a nyani (Baboon) in the area whereas in fact the stranger was the much more formidable nyati (buffalo) -Daily News.

It is estimated that around 1,000 tourists will be climbing Kilimanjaro on the Millennium date -December 31 1999. The National Park is doubling the fees on this occasion -Daily News.

Robert Otani writing in the May issue of NEW AFRICAN compared retirement benefits for retired leaders in East Africa. Recent legislation in Tanzania was said to be particularly generous and to be aimed at luring leaders to accept retirement as President Nyerere did some years ago. President Mkapa was said to be entitled to a gratuity equal to the total of all the salaries he had received while in office plus 24 months salary as a winding up allowance plus a generous monthly pension. This compared with President Mandela who will receive 75% of his current monthly salary plus an allowance of $16,000.

Several foreign experts claimed at a recent seminar on managing water resources in the Usangu Plains, Mbeya Region, (which feed the hydro-power stations at Mtera and Kidatu which produce 80% of Tanzania’s electricity) that too many trees were ‘drinking up the water’ and that livestock were not to blame for the drying up of the plains. But, according to the Daily News, Tanzanian water managers were amused by this and many expressed either utter disbelief or outright contempt. One said that this was ‘voodoo philosophy’ and another said there had been too many studies already and that the experts should read these first before speaking.

In a ceremony at the Sea Cliff Hotel on May 8 the Tanzania Sports Writers Association (TASWA) made various awards for sporting prowess in 1998. Winners included Rashid Matumla, the World Boxing Union’s light middleweight champion as ‘national hero’ (he defended his title again successfully in Italy on June 5); Michael Yombayomba, Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, as the best amateur boxer; Xebedayo Bayo, Los Angeles marathon winner as best athlete; Renatus Njohole of Simba Sports Club as best footballer.