SETTING THE STAGE ON FIRE

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Reporting on the 2003 Zanzibar International Film Festival, Miguel Suleyman wrote in The Express on July 3 that, with their music reminiscent of the Kilwa era, Sidi Goma, the African Sufis of Gujarat, India, set the stage on fire at the opening of the Festival. ‘The group’s performance of ritual music and dance captioned qawali, dhamal and baithi, was clearly a reflection of the African root of call and response, improvisational talking drums and common Bantu phraseology. Sidis are African Sufis of Gujarat, India; they were brought in as slaves to Maharajas and Nawab families of the time. Yunus Babu Sidi, the group leader, told ‘The Express’ that there were many Kiswahili words in their songs, but none of them understood their meaning. “We have preserved the culture and dances of our ancestors for more than seven centuries ….. however, we think people of this region understand them better than we do and we rely on them to help us connect to our past…. We have preserved a lot from our ancestors, the word Goma (refers to Ngoma in Bantu language) represents dance to us. But we think our visit to our people here will bring some productive changes in our life” he said. Sidi Goma performs in a group of twelve, four lead musicians (drums/singers) and eight dancers. The performance centres around a dance zikr (remembrance), consisting of joyful, satirical praise dances to their Saint Bava or Bava Gor, who is attributed with giving them the joy they express in their dances. Intoxicating drum patterns that speak the zikr prayers in rhythm, support the dancers who perform virtuoso feats of agility and strength. They gradually reach an ecstatic climax which ended with a coconut being thrown high in the air and, when it landed on the head of Nazir Gulamhusein, broke into tens of pieces splashing its juice on the excited audience. The acts of Sidi Goma featured solos on malunga, an instrument resembling the Brazilian Berimbau or East African Zeze, while the circle dance, with people coming to the centre platform, was more exhibitionist dancing, indicative of the slave dances of Zanzibar. Juma Khamis Pandu, a resident of Zanzibar, told ‘The Express’ that the faces of the Sidi Goma group members resembled the Tumbatu people of Pemba, or those from the Tanga coastal line, mainly Pangani. The features of the musicians -thick lips, height between 5.4 and 5.6 feet and the general facial appearance -suggests that Sidi Goma are the descendants of the Kilwa empire, which ended in the 15th century when the Portuguese interrupted its trading activities.

OBITUARIES

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The forester BERNARD GILCHRIST (83), who died recently, was appointed to the Colonial Service in 1943. On his first journey to Tanganyika his ship ran into a ferocious storm during which all the lifeboats, decking and railings were washed away. Later, in South African waters, the ship was torpedoed. In 1946 he moved to Mufindi to establish a large escarpment forest reserve and in 1948 to Morogoro where he was responsible for the management of the mangrove forest of the Rufiji delta. During his service he prepared a vegetation map for much of southern Tanganyika, determined the sustainable rate of yield from the West Usambara forest reserve and helped draw up a management plan for the Ngorongoro crater. In the 1960’s he became Deputy Chief Conservatory of Forests, drew up a pulp and paper production scheme and wrote a five year plan for forest development –Thank you John Ainley for sending this obituary from the Daily Telegraph -Editor.

Veteran politician JOSEPH KASELA BANTU (81) died on 29th April. He was among the 17 founder members of TANU in 1954 and later became a founder member of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) ­Guardian.

The Swahili press has reported that the University of Dar es Salaam historian PROFESSOR ISRAEL KATOKE has been killed by thugs at his home in Karagwe. His body was found bound and gagged and he had been strangled with a necktie. Some workers on his farm have been arrested as suspects. Prof Katoke was also a Consultant to UNESCO and, in his retirement, was working on developing a new university in Bukoba.

Mrs JOSEHPINE SHARP, wife of the late former Commissioner for Town Planning in Tanganyika, Robert Sharp, who has died of cancer, directed or took part in more than 39 of the productions of The Dar es Salaam Players at the Little Theatre. Her proudest moment was when, in 1964, President Nyerere attended a production of ‘Twelfth Night’ which she directed. She was also sometime President of the Women’s Service League. [this is corrected version see letters issue 79]

The London Guardian (22nd May) published an obituary on the influential World Bank development economist BEVAN WAIDE who has died at the age of 66. In 1969 he was seconded as Chief Adviser to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Development Planning in Tanzania. He advised on Tanzania’s second five-year plan during the turbulent years when Julius Nyerere was consolidating his country’s socialist stance in development and the World Bank was less concerned than today about nationalisation and substantial state expenditure. While in Tanzania he also obtained a pilot’s licence and flew frequently to remote areas in the course of his work –Thank you Peter Yea for sending this obituary -Editor.

REVIEWS

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REVOLUTION IN ZANZIBAR: AN AMERICAN’S COLD WAR TALE. Don Petterson. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3949-9. £19.99

This memoir will instantly become required reading for every student of the Revolution. It is an incredible and fascinating first hand account of the Revolution in Zanzibar, a unique perspective on a unique period of history. Strangely though, the teller of
the tale does not seem to appreciate its drama. For those who know some of the history and debates surrounding the Revolution it will be hard to see this book as anything other than a classic and brilliant revisionist history. It is for this reason that the style disappoints, since without a sense of the context and the controversy that the book will undoubtedly provoke, the material is flat. The role of the Americans and the British in the foggy days of early 1964 has been the source of much speculation, even recrimination on the part of Babu and other leading opposition figures in the years since. Petterson’s detailed descriptions of his meetings with all the key players at the time provide a wealth of insights into the sequence of events and how the Great Powers at the time viewed this ‘Cuba of East Africa’. This is explosive history at its best, yet diplomatic showdowns and violent massacres are described in the same pedestrian style as trips to the beach.

In a sense, Petterson’s dispassionate style is the hallmark of classic diplomacy. Reportage allows the author to remain un-implicated in the story he is telling (not me guv, I’m just the messenger). The problem though, is that this is an illusion. At many points the story would benefit from a strong dose of opinion. Petterson is at his best when he is unafraid to contradict other sources. For example, in his telling of the formation of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Babu’s claim that the US engineered the Union and the British assertion that their influence on Nyerere prevailed are both shown to be false as he provides convincing eye-witness testimony of the cunning strategy of Kambona, Nyerere and Karume in doing it quietly themselves.

Similarly, the inside account of Nyerere’s expulsion of American diplomats from Zanzibar and Tanzania in 1965 is gripping historic stuff. Misinterpretation of a mundane US embassy telephone conversation, tapped by the Chinese and supplied to the Zanzibar government gave rise to the (now popular) fable that the US was planning a coup in Zanzibar a year after the Revolution. Nyerere mishandled the affair by going to the press before the mistake had been corrected, the consul was expelled and a myth was born. Nyerere appears an inexperienced and emotional figure and the early politics of the Union to have been especially fragile.

Petterson is literally rewriting history, but does not seem to be aware that he is doing so. Nevertheless, in the long run, and for anyone interested in the history of Zanzibar the facts should speak for themselves. Tales of Petterson’s family life at the time give a flavour of the social context of the diplomatic corps at the end of the colonial era and his loving descriptions of Zanzibar and its geography will surely strike chords with many.
Ben Rawlence

CONFLICTING MISSIONS: HAVANA, WASHINGTON AND AFRICA, 1959 -1976. Piero Gleijeses. University of North Carolina Press. 2002. $34.95, cloth.

This weighty volume of 550 pages uses CIA documents, diplomatic cables and other archival research (the notes on this stretch over 50 pages) much of which has not been seen before, to explain what Cuba was up to in its clandestine activities in Africa in the 1960’s and 70’s. It was Cold War time and anything to do with it was of intense interest to the USA. Cuba became involved in Algeria, Guinea Bissau and later, Angola, to which it sent 30,000 of its troops. All is described here. For readers of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ however it is the chapters on Zanzibar and Zaire which will be of most interest. In order to reach Zaire the Cubans had to travel through Tanzania by road and then cross Lake Tanganyika by boat.

The author describes the panic which arose in Washington when Zanzibar exploded in the revolution of January 12, 1964. The US was worried that non-communist leaders of the new Zanzibar government would be manipulated by ‘subversive Communist elements.’ US President Lyndon Johnson urged the British to send troops to Zanzibar because Britain had the ‘primary responsibility for handling the problem.’ To the dismay of the Americans the British refused. In any case, the crisis subsided when President Nyerere and President Karume signed an agreement setting up the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and called it Tanzania.

By June 1964 however the situation in the Congo (later Zaire) was attracting the attention ofthe Cold War adversaries. Midst much turmoil ‘rebels’ calling themselves the Simbas (lions) armed with vaguely Marxist jargon and led by the man who became, many years later President Kabila of Zaire, had started causing considerable worry. They had taken over a major part of the country and Fidel Castro saw in them the possible beginnings of an African revolution, Cuban style. He decided to send volunteers, under the leadership of the famous guerrilla leader Che Guevara, to help the Simbas. President Nyerere, who was then at loggerheads with the Congo government of President Tshombe, agreed to allow Tanzania to be used as a conduit and staging area for this Cuban intervention.

As the civil war in the Congo had escalated, the CIA had created a naval patrol on Lake Tanganyika consisting of eight heavily armed boats which were assembled piece by piece on the shores of the lake by CIA agents. The Simbas also had several motorboats supplied by the Soviet Union, but the author says that they did not know how to maintain them. When the boats arrived the Cubans helped them in this. The author claims that America was determined to crush the Simbas but did not want to do so itself and called upon Britain and other countries to send in troops. This call was rejected but, meanwhile, foreign mercenaries, mostly from South Africa, came to help government forces attack the Simbas.

Men from Cuba in groups of three to six on scheduled commercial flights, claiming to be athletes, agronomists, engineers and musicians, arrived in Dar es Salaam and were whisked quickly from the airport to a small farm on the outskirts of the city that the Cuban embassy had bought. The volunteers were almost all black because this was what the Simbas had requested. In order to explain the presence of two whites it was said that one was a doctor and the other an interpreter. Che decided that it would not be appropriate for him to inform Nyerere of his presence before he told Simba leader Kabila who was at a conference in Cairo. The Cubans were disappointed at the very cool reception they received in the Congo. The local Simba leaders seemed surprised to see them and did not know what to do with them. A message was sent to Kabila who was apparently stunned to learn that Che was in the Congo.

On 29th June 160 Simbas and 40 Cubans attacked the town of Bendera but, according to the book, the Simbas fled in panic and left the Cubans to face the enemy alone. Four Cubans and 20 Simbas lost their lives. It was their bodies that fmally alerted the CIA to the presence of the Cubans in the Congo. Eventually, under intense pressure from the ruthless and increasingly numerous mercenaries, the Simbas began falling apart on the battlefield. Nyerere, pre-occupied with other parts of the African liberation struggle, in particular in trying to persuade the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson to send troops to prevent UDI in Rhodesia, began restricting the flow of weapons, medicine and other suppliers to the Cubans. The Simbas soon wanted to abandon the struggle altogether and resented the Cubans for urging them to keep on fighting. On November 21st two boats arrived to take the Cubans back to Tanzania after seven months ofhardship and frustration. Che wrote to Castro “I believe more than ever in guerrilla warfare, but we have failed.” He returned to Dar wanting only to write. He lived in a small apartment in the embassy in Dar Salaam for more than three months but, because ofhis security concerns, he never went out. However, he was full of praise for the Tanzanians. They had been very helpful; everything was well organised and well structured. When Nyerere withdrew Tanzania from the war he had done so with dignity. Surprisingly the Cuban embassy only informed Nyerere about Che’s presence after he had left Tanzania in early 1966. It was explained that the silence had been due to security considerations. According to the author the Tanzanians were angry, but relations remained friendly.

The Washington Post has described this book as ‘rich and provocative and downright entertaining.’ The Los Angeles Times wrote: ‘The author brilliantly describes deceits, disguises with all the accompanying blood and guts and glory. Over the 10 years it took him to research this book the author tracked down every lead, every participant, every document on all sides of the conflicts. This is a fascinating account of Cuban involvement in Africa.’ This reviewer fully supports these comments.
David Brewin.

EAST AFRICAN DOCTORS: A HISTORY OF THE MODERN PROFESSION. John IllifIe. ISBN 9970023039. 350pp. Fountain Publishers. £20.95. Available from African Books Collective Ltd, The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OXl IHD.

The book has 246 pages of text and 92 pages of Notes referring to each page of the text, 17 pages of bibliography and an index. The need to refer constantly to the notes for clarification made for laborious and difficult reading.

The purpose for writing the book was not made clear other than a note on page two stating “the idea for this book came partly from reading David K. Leonard’s “African successes: four public managers of Kenyan rural development”, (Berkeley 1991). The author states that the book is a collective biography of East African doctors, dealing only with black Africans. The title of the book is therefore confusing and will disappoint the many European, Asian and doctors of other nations who served in East Africa in a tradition which started from the late nineteenth century, in Government service, in specialised fields including research, in the missions, and in private practice.

In the first sentence of the book the author opines that “not since the origins of Mankind has East Africa been so important to the world as it is to-day. This special importance comes from the AIDS epidemic”. But surely the opening up of central Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century, culminating in the building of the Mombasa-Lake Victoria railway, had a greater impact on the development of medical care and the growth of the medical team in East Africa than the outbreak ofAIDS in the early 1980’s? The text gives scant recognition to the amazing basic research work carried out in several centres in the territories on the major tropical diseases, nor to the leadership ofW.H.O. in the worldwide Smallpox Eradication Programme in the 1970’s, the Global Immunisation Programme in the 1980’s and 90’s and later again in the 1990’s in collaborative programmes for research and control of AIDS. Nor is the disparity between Zanzibar and other East African territories in the role played by African doctors noted. By 1961 the posts of radiologist, ophthalmologist, the specialists in T.B. and dentistry, and the two M.O.H. posts for the two islands were all filled by local nationals who had been trained and taken post-graduate qualifications overseas.

To sum up in the words of the author, the book “is not a contemporary sociology of the East African Medical Profession, but a collective biography of East African Doctors dealing only with black Africans”. It would be impossible to include biographies of all the black African doctors, but the names of many who contributed greatly to the successful delivery of medical care and the development of the profession generally, are missing.
William Barton

PRIESTS, WITCHES AND POWER -POPULAR CHRISTIANITY AFTER MISSION IN SOUTHERN TANZANIA. Maia Green. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp.xiii/180, maps, index. ISBN 0521 62189 5 (hardback). £40.00

Many in the secularized north imagine that global Christianity is dying and leaving the field open to Islam. The reality is different. Christianity in the south is enjoying a boom. Much of Africa, during the past century for example, became quietly and massively Christian. Northerners who are aware of this new Christianity may not like what they see. Instead of being democratic, liberal, activist or liberationist, it is an authoritarian, morally conservative Church which is concerned with personal salvation and is absorbing the habits and thoughts of cultures very different from the European. Maia Green’s book gives us a fascinating specimen, the Catholic Church among the Pogoro people of Tanzania. In spite of the persistence of missionary Church structures, of continued economic support from Europe, of a clerical elite locally engaged in controversial financial operations, the Pogoro of Ulanga District, though poor and unempowered, are predominantly, even fervently, Catholic. Moreover, they have developed a popular, post-mission Christianity with its own theological nuances. Green sees both tension and ambiguity in this situation, and believes the gap between formal Christianity and popular practice is growing. On the other hand, the Pogoro have a deep sense of being Christian. Green describes a fluid situation in which authority and practice are changing.

German Benedictine monks before World War I and Swiss Capuchin friars afterwards established what was to become the Diocese of Mahenge. Both German colonial rule and the Catholic mission were challenged in 1905 by German colonial rule and the Catholic mission were challenged in 1905 by the maji maji rebellion which engulfed half the ethnic groups of Tanzania, including the Pogoro. German retaliation took the form of a scorched earth policy which resulted in side lining Ulanga District in the development process. The Church moved into the vacuum, developing a system of patronage and synergy with govermnent that continued under the British and beyond political independence in 1961. With the contraction of the Tanzanian state, Church influence has grown even greater.

Christianity is a religion of the book and, to ensure enduring conversions, evangelization was linked, as elsewhere, to education and literacy. The adult catechumenate, prevalent in other parts of Tanzania, does not feature in Green’s account. However, she sees the community-based Christianity led by village catechists as a counterweight to the clerical structures of diocese and parish. Green is silent about the extent to which the Catholic pastoral policy of jumuiya ndogondogo (small Christian communities) has been implemented in Mahenge.

Popular Christianity sees priests as a source of blessing and power, but women also engender power through the management of fertility in puberty rituals (unyago) and the removal of death pollution at burials. These roles inspire a female religiosity, which is focused on Mary, the bereaved and compassionate mother of Jesus. One wonders to what extent Pogoro priests are aware of this popular theology, especially in view of Vatican II’s interest in initiation rituals, and the proposals for unyago wa kikristu (Christian initiation) in Tanzania. Women also feature prominently in the witchcraft cleansing movements, which Green credibly associates with political rivalry and the critique of clerical power.

Anthropological fieldwork in Africa has traditionally been conducted by the lone foreigner, whose valid criticisms may be resented by the local elite. The latter can only be co-opted by means of a self-study. Moreover, condensed, technical language, while it suits the professional anthropologist, runs the risk of being misunderstood by the ordinary reader in Africa.
Aylward Shorter

ONCE INTREPID WARRIORS: GENDER, ETHNICITY AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF MAASAI DEVELOPMENT. Hodgson, Dorothy L. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2001. -from a review for Africa Today, by Peg Snyder.

Dorothy Hodgson explores “continuities and changes between the ideas and experiences of development in the colonial period and those of the post colonial period” in the lives of the Maasai of Arusha Region, the “once intrepid warriors”, as they were called by Harry Johnston in 1886. She shows how both being a Maasai, and being a Maasai man or woman changed over time. Delightful “Maasai Portraits” appear between the chapters.

Finding that failure of planned development projects only served to inspire another try at a similar model, the author judged that it was the ways of “seeing Maasai” rather than “being Maasai” that underlay failures, so she observes development efforts through the lenses of gender, ethnicity and cultural politics, and associations between development and state power. During the British colonial period, projects were directed to men, leaving women marginalized; “taxation classified women as property to be paid for by men”. By the eve of independence, after a half century of water development projects, the Maasai experienced a drought whose effects were exacerbated by loss of most of their dry-season pastures and water points that government had closed off or ceded to settlers. The colonial government shifted blame for their condition onto the Maasai.

After independence, government representatives in Arusha Region had no better image of the Maasai, and soon sought to impose a “modern” dress code on them. Women got angry, cursed their elites whom they thought were complicit in the campaign, and were preparing to travel en masse to Dar es Salaam to express their views to the President when Government dropped the campaign.

The follies of the famous, failed groundnut scheme pale in comparison to the multi-million dollar, USAID sponsored Masai Livestock Development and Range Management Project of 1969. Like the Masai Development Plan of the colonial 1950s, its evaluations were consistently negative and the Masai were blamed for the failure of something they neither chose nor designed. Hodgson describes the whole fiasco scathingly, pointing out the “marvellous ambiguities” of the term development, as when “in the mid-1970s, USAID discovered that people were part of development”.

Donors and NGOs were expected to accept women’s lessened status as “tradition”; elite men were the authentic and indigenous representatives of the Maasai. Young women confronted change in gender relations through spirit possession (orpeko) then converted to Christianity to remove the curse and achieve moral superiority over men.

This excellent book reveals how the legacies of development projects are far, far broader than their technical goals. The author cautions that “neither the Maasai of the present nor the Maasai of the past bear much resemblance to the stereotypical images of them that pervade, and have always pervaded, Western and African media.”

INTO AFRICA -THE DRAMATIC RETELLING OF THE STANLEY-LIVINGSTONE STORY. Martin Dugard. Transworld Publishers/Bantam Press. 2003. 339 pages. £18.99.

Not another book about Livingstone surely! And about Stanley too! Yes, but this one, as is claimed in the title, is different. It will be found exceptionally entertaining by both those who already know the story and those who do not.

The author describes himself as an adventurer -one of his earlier books traced the ‘rise and fall’ of Captain James Cook -and the layout of the drama, as he narrates it, with alternating chapters on the two main characters, obliges the reader to keep on reading to see what happens next.

The author’s racy writing style may not be to everyone’s taste and is probably best described as evocative. Dugard describes Stanley’s writing as ‘purple and intimate; the sentences meandering, sparsely punctuated, sometimes lazily crafted -yet always evocative.’ Livingstone is described as possessing ‘a very human mixture of hope, dreams, longing, depression, spirituality, sexuality and regret.’

In contrast to some other books on the same subject this one gives quite detailed character sketches of the other key participators in the saga. These include the explorers Speke and Burton, Royal Geographical Society Presidents Sir Roderick Murchison and Sir Henry Rawlinson, the ex-slave Sidi Mubarak Bombay, British Vice-Consul in Zanzibar John Kirk and his adversary, American Consul Francis Webb, Royal Navy Gunnery Officer E. D. Young, the celebrated African Chief Mirambo who vanquished the Arab military leader in Tabora, Khamis bin Abdullah, the New York Herald’s James Gordon Bennett Jr, Prime Minister William Gladstone, Sir Samuel White Baker, and others.

The final chapters, with their moving description of the famous meeting, bring the book to an abrupt end. The remarkable loyalty of Livingstone’s servants Chuma and Susi and events subsequent to Livingstone’s death are dealt with all too briefly. The reader is left wanting more.

Readers of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ will be glad to know that the major part of the book describes events which took place in what is now Tanzania 135 years ago.
David Brewin

‘MR. MYOMBEKERE AND HIS WIFE BUGONOKA, THEIR SON NTULANALWO AND DAUGHTER BULIHWALI: the Story of an Ancient African Community’ by Aniceti Kitereza. Translated from Kikerewe by Gabriel Ruhumbika. Published 2002 by Mkuki na Nyota 687pp. available from African Books Collective, Oxford. £29.95.

This 700-page novel makes a compulsive read. I found myself reading it simultaneously on two levels: first, on the level of narrative plot, and second, as a piece of closely documented social history.

The novel was written during the early 1940s. The author, born in 1896, had been a lifelong writer -involved with early Kikerewe translations of the Bible and a Kikerewe dictionary, as well as being a prolific reteller of local stories. This, however, was the climax of his life’s writing. The work was written with the explicit aim of preserving the Kikerewe way of life, which the author saw as increasingly threatened by change; although multilingual in a range of possible lingua francas (in Latin and Greek, German, Kiswahili and English), the natural choice of language for this intimately personal work was Kikerewe. The fate of the manuscript reflects the complexity of the ‘language map’ of Tanzania: initially archived overseas in Montreal by the White Fathers, the novel reached a wider public only in 1980 when the author’s Kiswahili translation was published in Tanzania. While the original Kikerewe manuscript remains unpublished, the work has now at last found an international audience, translated in this full-length English version by the author’s nephew Gabriel Ruhumbika, now at the University of Georgia.

Set in pre-colonial Ukerewe, the main narrative plot is tellingly simple, depicting the lives of a husband and wife whose misfortune it was to find themselves childless. While on the narrative level the unhurried pace sustains the reader’s interest in the unfolding events of the story, the reader is at the same time drawn into understandings of the rich and complex world of pre-colonial Ukerewe. The author’s declared intention to provide a record of all aspects of pre-colonial Kikerewe life, ‘from birth to death’, is clearly evident and might well in other hands have become clumsily obtrusive. In fact, the descriptive matter is skilfully integrated to complement and amplify the plot, and the two levels work together to provide a richly rewarding text ­albeit a long one, which demands time, attention, and a deliberately leisurely reading.

The volume contains an excellent Introduction by the translator. Particularly intriguing is the account of the way in which this ‘novel’, in written prose form, relates to the conventions of epic oral literature. The Introduction also contains revealing comment on translation issues. A genealogical table is supplied (a map of Ukerewe would have usefully supplemented this), and a glossary of names and their meanings. A further glossary of Kikerewe words would have been useful as meanings are back-referenced in the chapter notes to their first occurrence: an editorial irritation. The translation may occasionally jar (‘gatecrash’, for example, for an unexpected arrival, or ‘barbecue’ as equivalent for traditional cooking over an open fire). There are a number of typos. An invaluable resource, which will be of interest to all social historians, are the chapter notes supplied by the translator, who -in the spirit of his Uncle’s original intentions -has added a wealth of explanatory matter drawn from written sources and from recent personal field-study among the elders of Ukerewe.
Ann Brumfit

“ALMOST AN OXFAM IN ITSELF”: OXFAM, UJAMAA AND DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA, by Michael Jennings. Journal of the Royal African Society, African Affairs voll01, 509-530. 2002.

This article by Michael Jennings, currently Research Officer at the Well come Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford, is based on work undertaken for his PhD at the University of London, 1998. It traces the rise and fall of the ‘Ujamaa’ policy of the Tanzania Government in the 1960s and early 1970s Jennings shows how Oxfam thinking, at least in its Tanzania programme, became committed to the policy -in particular its emphasis on voluntarism, self help and grass roots democracy -and continued to support it, and even to advocate it as a strategy for other developing countries, for several years after the Tanzania Government had effectively abandoned it, in its actions if lot its words, and had shifted to a more conventionally individualistic Jrogramme of social and economic development.

Jennings describes in some detail the growth of the Ruvuma Development Association, established in Songea Region in the early 1960s under the leadership of the charismatic local secretary of the Tanu Youth League, John Ntimbanjayo Millinga. The RDA linked the first and perhaps ‘purist’ of Tanzania’s ujamaa villages, and supplied much of the practical experience on which Julius Nyerere based his early thinking and writing on ujamaa. Jimmy Betts, Oxfam’s first Field Director for Tanzania, was understandably impressed by the achievements of the RDA, as were most visitors to the RDA villages in the 1960s, including myself: Betts described it as ‘a physical manifestation of what Oxfam wished to promote on a larger scale’.

Yet by 1969, following a visit to Ruvuma by TANU’s Central Committee, the Government had declared the RDA an illegal organisation and had forced its disbandment. Jennings is not explicit on the reasons underlying this action -he explains it as an indication of ‘regional fears combined with political factions at the centre’. But banning the RDA was surely the predictable response of an insecure political bureaucracy to a peasant movement which tried to take its future into its own hands. The very name RDA is provocative, suggesting that the Association, rather than the Government, was the driving force responsible for the development of Ruvuma Region! With Oxfam’s historic commitment to equality and grass roots democracy, it is not surprising that Betts and his successors were reluctant to recognise the shift in Tanzania Government policy in the late 1960s and early 1970s -from voluntary towards compulsory villagisation, and from collective towards individual action and decision-making -and the widening gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of what was happening on the ground. This was surely a classic if understandable case of wishful thinking writ large.

As an objective academic observer of political developments Jennings is careful not to pass judgement on the rights or wrongs of Tanzania’s early dalliance with socialist development, nor on Oxfam’s extended backing of the ujamaa policy. Many observers at the time, and since, have, however, compared Nyerere’s “utopian idealism”, usually unfavourably, with the more pragmatic individualistic development strategies adopted in neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Congo. In the light of the political and economic chaos now reigning in most of those countries, compared to the relative political stability and steady (albeit socially divisive) economic growth experienced in Tanzania in recent years, one might be excused for questioning whether the roots of Tanzania’s recent success may not lie in the democratic and communitarian foundation which Nyerere strove to lay down in Tanzanian society in the 1960s. One might even wonder whether, had the Tanzania Government, as well as Oxfam, maintained its faith in such policies for a little longer, this foundation might have become even more solid.
Antony Ellman

FROM RACE TO CITIZENSHIP: THE INDIGENIZATION DEBATE IN POST-SOCIALIST TANZANIA, Ronald Aminzade, Studies in Comparative International Development Vol. 38, No. 1. 2003. Pp43-63.

Aminzade’s study seems to serve several purposes. First, he focuses on how anti-Asian sentiment during Tanzania’s post-socialist era was politicized as an indigenization factor rather than the stealth racist issue it represented. And, second, he offers it as a tool to explain electoral behavior of political parties as they attempt to create as well as mediate policy differences, conflicts and competition with the major party. He outlines the colonial and socio-economic factors establishing the Asian community’s separate identity as both envied and resented and thus susceptible to political exploitation in Tanzania’s new era of capitalism. Tracing indigenous identities as a means of distinguishing between citizens and foreigners, Aminzade outlines the evolution of this policy when anti­Asian sentiment was used as a political weapon, mainly by Chama Cha Mapinduzi’s opposition, to seek electoral support especially after 1992 when multiparty competition was institutionalized. Political parties across the political spectrum utilized anti-Asian sentiment as a political weapon after Reverend Christopher Mtikila, leader of an unregistered party and a candidate in another opposition party, opportunistically raised the “indigenization” issue, and thus not only unleashed widespread violence against Asians, especially shopkeepers, but also legitimized usage of the issue for other opposition politicians. As the liberalization and privatization process evolved in the 1990s, Government responses to these political demands included various economic policies limiting activities of “non-indigenous” investors that aided the emergence of an influential black, and sometimes corrupt, African bourgeoisie which often sent its profits abroad rather than re-invest in the local economy. Aminzade fails to note that while the government excluded non-indigenous peoples from trade it also permitted them to engage in banking, finance, and technology, and the Asians used this to their advantage. Government policies led to an increase in foreign investments, especially from South Africa, and the “dumping” of foreign goods sold at cheaper prices than local goods. The historically authenticated anti-Asian sentiment became a convenient weapon for opposition groups reluctant to make charges of corruption against the major political party. The more things change the more they remain the same.

Much of the evidence is based on sources published during the 1990s, and its worth noting that the author draws on material published in six issues of Tanzanian Affairs.
Marion E Doro, College New London, CT 06320.

LETTERS

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I DISAGREE
I read the last issue of Tanzanian Affairs with great interest -as usual. And, also as usual, I found many comments with which I disagreed -e.g. Mr Musiba saying that he had never seen development arising from aid. Where has he been all his life? … where was he educated, and how, and would he have had the same opportunities if at that time aid had been scorned while we waited for private investment?…… I don’t claim too much for the first 25 years of independence but some of our greatest achievements -e.g. almost universal literacy and the system of basic education and health spreading almost everywhere and without religious or racial discrimination -would have not been possible without aid ….. .

But eventually I read my obituary of Judge Mustafa ….. I am now embarrassed by what I am sure is the kind of error which can easily be made when you have deadlines to meet. I wrote: ‘Judge Mustafa was dependent upon thrice-weekly dialysis for his last years, but continued to enjoy life with his wife Sophie. You wrote: ….. dialysis for his last years but continued to endure life with his wife Sophie….. Could some short acknowledgement of the error be published in the next issue?
Joan Wicken

I am even more embarrassed I can only blame too much use of modem technology especially dictation to the computer. Many apologies -Editor.

THE SERVING CLASS
I read with interest Professor Pat Caplan’s criticism of my review of “Serving Class” published in issue number 74 of Tanzanian Affairs (here). I feel that her response was overly protective of the book and its author Janet Bujra, and lacked any substantive point. Professor Caplan asserts that the book is an academic study by a well-known development sociologist whose work on both Tanzania and Kenya is widely respected both in those countries and internationally. This surely does not render the work impervious to criticism. Are well known and respected people in the world always right? Cannot they be criticised? That is surely unacceptable in the academic field. If all authors are not to be criticised, how are they going to improve their work?

In response to my argument that the author Bujra had borrowed western ideas to fit into her research, Professor Caplan notes that the author pays tribute to Issa Shivji, who has written on class struggle in Tanzania. Professor Caplan goes on to make the general point that the author has taken great care to be historically, socially and culturally specific. Professor Caplan suggests that my review didn’t take these aspects into account. I do not dispute that Bujra mentions social, cultural and historical aspects in her work. What I vehemently argue is that Bujra has not commented on the significance of these aspects on the emergence of domestic services in Tanzania. Merely stating that domestic servants were working for missionaries and colonialists or foreigners in general, does not link up the sources of domestic services in Tanzania with traditional, religious, slavery and colonial practices.

Similarly I do not dispute that Bujra mentions women who are sexually abused by their employers, and that child servants are not neglected in the book. My point is not that the author does not mention these subjects, but that no critical challenge is made of common practices like parading child domestic servants along roads to sell ice cream, bread or cake for the household they work in. Nor is there any analysis of the reactions of parents whose children were made victims of child labour and abuse. Professor Caplan is incorrect to say that Bujra’s page 2 has answered my arguments. Page two only notes the existence of sexual and class exploitation as well as nomenclature of dominance.

Moreover, I stand by my criticism of Bujra for dropping some details from the English version, which appear in Swahili, thus losing certain areas of meaning in the process. I also feel that it is regrettable that there is no translated version into Swahili to give a chance for people who were involved in the study to read this work, compare the correctness of the findings and eventually gauge their reactions in the light of the past and current status of domestic services in Tanzania.

Finally, I am very surprised that the learned Professor Caplan wants to know what I have done before she hears about my criticisms. Nobody was born a writer, a university lecturer or famous person. Everything has a beginning and then develops. I don’t think it is appropriate to try to frustrate, intimidate and bully young writers so that they become afraid to review work of high profile people simply because their qualifications, celebrity and experience do not match. Other readers who can analyse text and write must be encouraged to do so in forthcoming issues regardless of their level of education, experience or fame in the Society. Please read the book and exercise your right to criticise or support it.
Frederick Longino

ARE WE CRAZY?
That’s what our friends and family said when we told them we had committed ourselves to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. For some reason they seemed to find it amusing that we would swap hairdryers for mountain blizzards, vodka bottles for water bottles, kitten heeled mules for blistering walking boots and the famous Indian curry for re-hydrated mash. Perhaps we are crazy, but when you discover why we’re doing it you will understand. We have committed ourselves to raising £2,800 each to help VSO with its work in Tanzania. There are currently 74 VSO volunteers working in Tanzania representing 12 different nationalities and they are concentrating on four key areas: education and health care, income security through sustainable livelihoods and employment and promoting the use of natural resources. If any of your readers can contribute to this challenge could they please call us: Ben Langdon on 020 xxx0 7218 or e-mail us on ben.langdon_AT_vso_DOTorg.uk
Emily McEweb and Kate Backler

THE GROUNDNUT SCHEME
I refer to TA No. 74 and have to report that I received a response from one of your readers, Mr John Pike who was mainly employed in the southern province in the 1900’s and could be of help to Mr David Morgan of Alcester but I regret not to me. I am sure readers must be around who have photographs of Kongwa from 1946 to 1951. I do wish you could try again. I find explaining the Groundnut Scheme verbally is very hard going.
S G Carrington-Buck, 3 Glassenbury Drive, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN 40 2NY. Tel: 01424 -2xxxx11

TANZANIA AND THE IRAQ WAR

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Tanzania made its position on the Iraq war clear before it began. President Mkapa announced that the government and people of Tanzania were opposed to the war and Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye told parliament on February 14 that military supremacy might win the war on the battlefield but it would not bring peace or win hearts. Tanzania also could suffer economically if another war was imposed on Iraq.

It was difficult to hear a dissenting voice and Tanzanians appear to have been united in opposition to the war.

The East African, in an angry article under the heading ‘Humiliated, Helpless, we are all Iraqis Today’ reported the views of a news vendor in Dar es Salaam: “American heavyweight Mike Tyson slugs it out with Tanzanian featherweight Rashidi Matumla!” The article went on: ‘The unequal Anglo-American war on little Iraq is termed “War in Iraq” as if there were simply civil strife going on there, not an invasion by the world’s superpowers of a Third World poor country. There is nothing on the global news networks, BBC or CNN, to assert this fact -that the war is not being fought between equals in terms of weapons, resources and technology.

If any were in doubt about the Tanzanian view they had only to read the Swahili press which rivaled British tabloids in the extremism of its news coverage.

Typical headlines:
British army fearful of entering Basra; says it is dangerous (Mtanzania)
Bush nearly drowning; seeks more funds to destroy Iraq ­(Nipashe)
More Americans killed; the British contingent in trouble -Nipashe
Bush, Blair hammered, The British running from Basra;
The Iraqis forcing them to mark time in the desert; others confused, killing each other -An-Nuur
Iraq destroys US tanks; Saddam’s soldiers stinging like ants -Mwananchi
We have cornered the Americans; claim they control not a single city -Mwananchi
Coward Americans confused at the front line; killing women, children indiscriminately -Majira

By April 10th however, the tone had changed.
Further headlines: ‘Iraqis applaud new era of freedom’ wrote Nipashe; a Rai editorial said ‘ The imperialist aim has been achieved. Iraq is in their hands now. It would be a wise undertaking if they could rebuild Iraq politically and socially …

By April 14th Nipashe wrote ‘US forces enter Sikrit unopposed; Baghdad is calm…..’

FBI TO ESTABLISH AN ANTI-TERRORIST INSTITUTE

According to The Swahili paper Rai, in a bid to counter terrorism, the American Federal Bureau of Investigations will establish an institute for training Police investigators on how to combat terrorism. Construction of the institute, which will also cater for neighbouring countries, is to commence in July this year near Dodoma. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) was said to have allocated 127 hectares for the project. The Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police was quoted as confirming the reports.

37 BY-ELECTIONS

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There will be significant by-elections on May 18 for 15 seats in the Tanzanian National Assembly mostly from Pemba Island in Zanzibar (but including four mainland seats) and another 17 seats are being contested in the Zanzibar House of Representatives. All but one of the seats in Pemba were previously held by Tanzania’s main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF). The previous MP’s had been expelled from parliament because of a boycott they had conducted in protest against what they consider to have been rigged elections in 2000. The 17th seat became vacant when Tanzanian Vice-President Dr Shein had to give up his seat on taking up his new appointment.

The election results will not make any dent in the dominant position of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party in Tanzania but they should provide some indication, if the elections are free and fair, as to the correctness or otherwise of CUF’s long­standing claim that it is the majority party in Zanzibar. For this reason the by-elections are being fought with great vigour by both sides.

The CCM party claimed that many people living in the main island of Zanzibar were going to Pemba to register as voters for the by­elections and accused CUF of being behind the move.

As this issue of Tanzanian Affairs went to press there was good news. Both the CCM Treasurer and the CUF Director of Planning reported a peaceful atmosphere during the voter registration exercise and the CUF Director described the behaviour of the police as commendable. But, according to Majira, registration was said to be proceeding slowly.

Also, according to the same paper ‘big shots’ from the CCM had expressed uncertainty on the outcome of the by-elections. One was quoted as saying a CCM loss in Pemba would not be a big issue. If the Party lost it would concede defeat.

CABINET RESHUFFLE
Two ministers changed places in a minor cabinet reshuffle on February 1. The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Information and Political Affairs) and Publicity Secretary of the CCM Party, Mr Omar Ramadhan Mapuri became Minister of Home Affairs replacing the previous Minister Mr Mohammed Seif Khatib. The opposition parties, about whom Mapuri had been highly critical, were unhappy with his promotion to what they described as ‘such a sensitive position as Home Affairs Minister.’ The Guardian’s editorial on the subject was headed ‘Mapuri’s appointment raises many eyebrows.’

A MINOR SETBACK
In a surprise result CCM has lost a ward in local elections for Musoma Town Council to the CUF candidate by a margin of six votes. Local CCM members demanded the resignation of their district chairman and secretary blaming them for CCM’s failure to win the seat.

A UNITED OPPOSITION?
Eleven opposition political parties drew up a provisional agreement at the beginning of February to field one presidential candidate in the 2005 elections. They also agreed in principle to divide parliamentary constituencies among themselves. Augustine Mrema’s Tanzania Labour Party however refused to join the alliance because he said that Tanzanians were not yet ripe to vote for a single opposition candidate as had happened in Kenya last year.

JOHN CHEYO BOUNCES BACK
Turmoil has continued in the United Democratic Party (UDP)but in a surprise move on March 13 John Cheyo bounced back as the legitimate chairman of the Party. After eight months of conflict, Registrar of Political Parties John Tendwa, reinstated the ousted leader and declared his rival, Amani Jidulamabambasi, no longer chairman. Tendwa said that he was now satisfied that the Party’s constitution and procedures had not been followed when Cheyo was deposed. “The current leadership had forged the evidence and had cheated the Registrar, the Tanzanian community and party members”

Tendwa said that Jidulamabambasi had originally presented documentary evidence, which he had accepted, to justifY his claims that the UDP Central Committee which had met on 6 July last year had decided to dismiss Cheyo. Later, Cheyo submitted the original minutes of what actually transpired at the meeting written by the Deputy Secretary General, who was a regular minutes writer, in his own handwriting. When he was called to Tendwa’s office to identify the minutes early this year, he denied his own handwriting. In order to settle the dispute, the Registrar decided to present the original copy of the disputed handwriting to the Identification Bureau of the Criminal Investigations Department for technical verification which indicated that there had been ‘significant similar characteristics.’ With the documentary evidence presented at his office and technical results from the CID, Tendwa said his office had reviewed its former decision and reinstated Cheyo.

As this issue of TA went to press Jidulamabambasi was said to be wanting to take the Registrar to court.

A BRITISH VIEW ON THE TANZANIAN PARLIAMENT
Valerie Davey, Labour MP for Bristol West, speaking in a debate in the House of Commons on International Women’s Day compared life in the British and Tanzanian parliaments. “Looking down” (from the gallery in the National Assembly in Dodoma) she said: “I was enthralled to see a wonderful red semi-circle. People addressed the Speaker, who sat high above them -even higher than you, Madam Deputy Speaker -well above contradiction. The Mace may not have been as lavish as ours but it was carried in with as much dignity. Of the 282 members of the Tanzanian parliament 61 (21%) are women. However, only 12 of these were elected. The others hold special seats and two are presidential appointees…… An all-party woman’s group invited me to a question and answer session. They wanted to know how we in Britain planned to meet the 30% Beijing target for women on elected bodies by 2005… Tanzania will have reached this target at the 2005 election…. I could give no clear answer on how we would reach 30% in Britain, but, in the Labour Party, there will be all-women shortlists as seats become available…. I had to admit however that this would probably not result in 30% women members.”

Ms Davey paid tribute, firstly, to the British Council for what she described as its ‘incredibly good work in increasing the number of women in effective leadership positions and also, to Dr Elly Macha, the Britain-Tanzania Society-supported blind Tanzanian student who recently completed her PhD at Leeds University.

CORRUPTION, KITINE AND MTIKILA

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During recent weeks, if one is to judge by the prominence given to the subject in the Tanzanian parliament and media, corruption has come a close second to Iraq, in terms of public interest. Two people in particular have made the allegations which have stimulated the debate and have gained a great deal of publicity in the process. They are the former Head of Intelligence and present CCM MP for Makete, who is also a member of the ruling party’s National Executive Committee, Dr Hassy Kitine who has made wide-ranging allegations to the effect that many CCM and government leaders are corrupt; and, on February 18, long-term activist/politician and Chairman of the very small Democratic Party, the Rev. Christopher Ntikila who directed his attention to alleged corruption by Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye. But many others soon joined in the fray.

A HEALTHY DEBATE
The former Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, which had produced a much praised report to President Mkapa on corruption, Judge Joseph Warioba, told journalists that he agreed with Dr Kitine that some leaders in the country were corrupt. Dr Kitine had been right in expressing his view about what was amiss in the country.

Transparency International the corruption watchdog calculated in its 2002 ‘Corruption Perception Index’ that Tanzania was the 12th most corrupt country in the world and the 7th most corrupt in Africa. The March issue of ‘Africa Today,’ in an article headed ‘In the Grip of Corruption’ noted that in Tanzania there had recently been a notable shift from the culture of silence inside Tanzania’s ruling circles and that Kitine’s allegations had triggered a ‘somewhat sizzling debate amongst the public’. The media were said to be ‘beaming a searchlight on corruption’.

In its editorial on 23rd January the Guardian stated that the remarks made by Dr Kitine had ‘shaken the entire country and the Government quite a lot.’ Otherwise, it wrote, how could the latter’s reaction be explained? The Government, through Minister of State in the President’s Office, Wilson Massilingi, had reacted quickly by saying that Kitine’s allegations should have been channeled through the Prevention of Corruption Bureau (PCB) and not made to the media. Why did the government reveal its position so quickly, the editorial asked. Why were the public not allowed to express their views first? Dr Kitine, supported later by Musoma MP Nimrod Mkono, had injected a breath of fresh air into democratic discourse in Tanzania. It was a healthy debate and a sign of maturity, the Guardian wrote.

Under the front page headline ‘MP Tired of endless corruption literature’ the Guardian (February 22) quoted the MP for Bukoba Urban as complaining, at a Workshop for 200 MP’s: “Every year we hear the same things …. I can safely predict that even next year, we will be bombarded with similar lectures on the corruption issue,” he said. Well known CCM MP Gertrude Mongela, although critical of Kitine, said that the situation would not have reached its current stage if the Government had properly implemented recommendations contained in the Warioba report on corruption. Mwananchi quoted retired High Court Judge Raymond Mwaikasu as saying that corrupt leaders were known to the PCB but it was unable to take action because it was responsible to the President’s Office, which often ‘hindered it from naming or making decisions on corrupt leaders’. He called upon the PCB to be given freedom to work independently.

KITINE’S ALLEGATIONS
The Kitine case created a sensation but soon became quagmired in allegation and counter-allegation, which led to a situation of considerable confusion. Dr Kitine had originally been in trouble over allegations that his wife had been wrongly paid fees by the Government for hospital treatment she had received in Canada in 1997/98. Dr Kitine had subsequently resigned form his position as Head of Security.

More recently Parliament’s Accounts Committee had initially declared Mrs Kitine innocent but a month later, according to the Sunday Observer (February 23) discretely changed its mind.

Mbulu MP Philip Marmo said that the government’s demand for proof about corruption was to question the obvious. Marmo suggested that there was no need to demand evidence and proof from Dr. Kitine, because what he had said was known by Tanzanian society.

MP’s were divided on the matter although many were critical of Kitine and said that he should have addressed his comments to the party leadership or to the Prevention of Corruption Bureau.

CCM Youth Wing Mobilization Secretary and Nkenge MP, Deodorun Kamala, said that if the Government was serious about the war against corruption, there was a need to change the judicial system in the country. He said that it was high time that the burden of proving innocence or guilt of those accused of corruption should placed on the accused as it was difficult to prove corruption allegations in the courts. Between the Government and normal citizens, who was in better position to quickly get evidence on corruption allegations?” Kamala asked.

This prompted a reaction from Attorney General Andrew Chenge, who said that the legal system that governed civil disobedience in the country was based on the Commonwealth system that put the burden of proof on the prosecution side, as opposed to the continental system followed by many European countries, that put the burden of proof on the accused.

Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Harith Bakari Mwapachu, said corruption cases would continue to be resolved through the current system as the government had no plans to establish a specific organ to deal with such cases.

MTIKILA’S ALLEGATIONS FORCEFULLY REBUTTED
Meanwhile, the Rev. Mtikila went further and listed properties he alleged were owned by Prime Minister Sumaye or his wife or his allies. The list included houses in Morogoro, Arusha and Dar es Salaam, farms in the Coast, Dodoma Morogoro and Arusha regions, factories and an aeroplane.

Within days several leaders and others made statements contradicting the allegations. Home Affairs Minister Mapuri made it clear that the CCM party would not discuss corruption allegations against the Prime Minister because they lacked credible evidence.

However, on 10th April the Dar es Salaam ‘Family Mirror’ reported that the PCB had taken up the allegations against the Prime Minister to determine whether he had misused public office to amass wealth. PCB Director-General Anatory Kamazima was quoted as saying that the PCB was collecting evidence on Sumaye’s registered properties.

The Home Affairs Minister was quoted in several newspapers as saying that CCM would debate and investigate allegations facing the Prime Minister if it received the allegations from official and credible sources. He said that so far only ‘blah blah’ had been heard and no evidence of corruption had been provided. He said that the Prime Minister, like any other leader, had a right to own property including farms.

As this issue of TA went to press the Sunday Observer quoted the Prime Minister as saying that he was not corrupt and was considering the possibility of suing those making the allegations.

PRESIDENT MKAPA ENTERS THE DEBATE
President Mkapa entered the debate several times. He was quoted in Mtanzania in January as saying that corrupt practices were rampant in the construction industry and that efforts to fight it had proved futile. He urged engineers to rescue their profession by side lining those who condoned corrupt practices.

As this issue of TA went to press Majira reported that President Mkapa had acknowledged receipt of an anonymous letter listing corrupt ministers, deputy ministers, directors and companies that had solicited favours from public officials in exchange for bribes. The President said that Tanzanians were not bold enough to name the corrupt in their midst and that many were jealous when they saw colleagues with new cars and houses.

A DOWNWARD TREND
However, on February 9 the Sunday Observer had written as follows: ‘The marauding scourge of corruption devastating the economies of poor countries had shown a downward trend in Tanzania since last year when government started implementing its ‘Anti-corruption Strategy and Action Plan.’ Closing a one-day conference on ‘Good Governance’ in Dar es Salaam Chief Secretary, Marten Lumbanga, said it was not true that the scourge was increasing. The corruption index in Tanzania had fallen from 81 points to 71, compared with the rising trend (above 70) in some neighbouring countries. “These are not my figures” he said “They are published by ‘Transparency International’ He said the fall in the corruption index showed that the anti-corruption programme was becoming effective. “We are certainly not complacent about this initial success. In fact we are energised to continue fighting the scourge tooth and nail” he said.

(The Financial Times (March 25) reported that a draft corruption Bill is now being prepared for presentation to the British Parliament under which business people who use backhanders to help contracts progress in foreign countries could face up to seven years in jail. Ever since the time of President Nyerere, Tanzania has been pressing Britain to make this end of the corruption cycle a crime -Editor}.

STOP PRESS. The verdict was given on April 18 in the long standing corruption case against former leaders of the Ministry of Public Works. Minister Nalaila Kiula, the Roads Director and a Chief Engineer have been found not guilty. The Principal Secretary at the time has been sent to jail for three years. According to Dar Leo the Government may appeal against the three not guilty verdicts and the Principal Secretary will definitely appeal against his sentence.

POPULATION NOW 34 MILLION

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The 2002 census has revealed that Tanzania’s population has now reached 34,568,609 of whom 984,531 are in Zanzibar. Growth rates averaged 2.9% on the mainland (4.8% in Kigoma, where there are many refugees, compared with 1.4% in Lindi) and 3.1 % in Zanzibar.

Average numbers per family were 4.9 compared with 5.3 recorded in the 1998 census.

Population densities were 38 per sq km on the mainland and 398 per sq km in Zanzibar.

Dar es Salaam recorded 2,497,000 people -Daily Mail.

TENSIONS AMONGST RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

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Most observers of the religious scene in Tanzania agree that relations between Muslims and followers of other religions are generally good. But, perhaps reflecting conflicts with a religious element in other parts of the world, Tanzanian Muslims are showing increasing signs of unhappiness both within their own ranks and against Christians in the belief that Christians are better treated in Tanzania.

There have been several minor incidents during recent weeks: On February 26 the Chief Sheikh of the Parley of Clerics of Zanzibar blamed the Zanzibar government and in particular the newly-created Office of the Mufti for denying Muslims their constitutional right of freedom of worship. The Chief Sheikh said that the two recent incidents in which the police had used force against Muslims peacefully marching, one during the Eid el Hajj and the other on February 21, provided proof beyond doubt that the Government had created the Mufti’s office to intimidate Muslims. “We can’t see any point in having this Mufti office” he said. The constitution gave people the right to gather and preach.

Meanwhile Zanzibar Attorney-General Hassan Iddi Pandu Hassan reminded people that The Mufti (Constitution and Powers) Act of 2001, which was enacted to control foreign religious groups intending to disrupt peace and tranquility, must be followed to the letter. He said that members of religious groups from Pakistan and Afghanistan had been to Zanzibar and were sleeping in mosques. This could adversely affect the security of the nation.

The Guardian reported on February 18 that some people had been injured after being shot by members of the Field Force unit in Zanzibar; several people had broken into bars and wine shops and burnt government vehicles. 20 people later appeared in court over the disturbances and the loss of property.

On March 14 the Guardian reported that the Court of Appeal had quashed the conviction and set aside a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment on Hamis Dibagula for uttering words with the intent to wound religious feelings at a religious meeting. In a 25­page judgment, the judges pointed out that the prosecution had to prove that the appellant had a deliberate intention to wound the religious feelings of those within hearing range. When the appellant told his audience that ‘Jesus Christ was not the Son of God’ he was doing no more than preaching his religion. They quoted several Surahs (Chapters) from the Koran, one of which said that ‘Christ the Son of Mary’ was no more than a messenger. The question was a purely religious one and therefore could not fall for determination by a court of law. The judges concluded by saying that religious intolerance had launched many wars and caused endless streams of blood. Religious intolerance was a device which must not be permitted to find a place in the hearts of our people.

HOMOSEXUALS
On March 15 some hundreds of Muslims demonstrated in Dar es Salaam against the proposed visit to Tanzanian tourist centres and game parks by a group of 100 American homosexuals. The Muslims chanted insults at the Government, BAKWATA and the ruling CCM party and threatened violence against motorists and bystanders.

At a symposium shortly afterwards to commemorate the Moslem New Year 1424 Al Hijiriyyah in Dar es Salaam, Moslem scholars, teachers, students and Imams began to make plans on the best way to combat homosexuality in Tanzania.

According to An-Nuur, a new Swahili newspaper in Zanzibar, tourist hotels in Arusha had been warned not to accommodate the gays from America.

The Sunday Observer (March 2) quoted a prominent Tanzanian clergyman as announcing that he also would organise a protest march over this planned visit. The paper’s editorial stated that homosexuality was a taboo practice in Tanzania and that whoever regarded homosexuality as un-Tanzanian could do so without fear of contradiction. ‘It is disturbing however’, the article went on ‘that no concerted battle is being waged against homosexuals.’ The Zanzibar Government, but not the Union Government, outlawed the proposed tour, which was cancelled before it began. Zanzibar Industries, Commerce and Tourism Minister Mohamed Aboud told Majira that the Government would not allow the gays to tour Zanzibar because they were not ‘normal’ people.

Nipashe quoted the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Bishop Zakaria Kakobe as threatening to organise a massive demonstration against the proposed tour.
Pope John Paul’s representative in Tanzania, Michae1 Fitzgera1d, has called upon people not to regard every Muslim as a terrorist and instead to take steps to harmonise relations between Muslims and Christians. He was talking to the head of the Muslim Council, BAKWATA, Chief Sheikh Issa bin Shabaan Simba.

Fourteen Sheikhs, Imams and religious teachers underwent voluntary HIV testing early in the year. They were praised by health officials for ‘leading by example’. The leaders said that they had taken the tests in the hope that their followers would follow suit. However, they added that they would never condone the use of condoms.