KILWA – FROM DECAY TO DEVELOPMENT

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

In our last issue an article under this heading described the development now underway of the significant natural gas deposits at Songo Songo, Kilwa and mentioned the indignation of many people in southern Tanzania because the gas is not to be used in Kilwa but piped to Dar es salaam for conversion into electricity. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDF) has since placed large advertisements in the press to explain why this decision was taken. Firstly, it was said to be cheaper and safer to transport gas than electricity and none of the energy was lost en route (compared with up to 20% in the case of electricity); it was easier to hook in the gas along the route for other uses (16 villages would have their own gas-generated power stations) but this would be very expensive with high tension electric wires; power generation alone would not have been economical unless industrial use of the gas was included in the project and this could be done only in Dar es Salaam where large industries existed. The advertisements emphasised that the pipes would be made of special material that could not be easily punctured and would be laid a metre underground.

A big fertiliser plant employing 2,000 people is expected to be built at Kilwa Masoko. Gas at Mnazi Bay is to be used to provide electricity to Lindi and Mtwara.

BUSINESS NEWS

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

Exchange Rates (December 1):
US Dollar = T Shs 605-615
£ Sterling = T Shs 850-1000

Although there was some opposition and there had been delays in presenting the matter to parliament the Bill ending the 29- year old state MONOPOLY OF INSURANCE was finally passed on November 5. The National Insurance Company (NIC) and the Zanzibar Insurance Company are to remain wholly owned by the two governments but they have been given two years ‘to clean their slates’ – Daily News.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority has begun publishing lists of registered TAX CONSULTANTS, the only persons authorised to offer advice on taxation matters. Persons who have been refused registration have been instructed to stop practising immediately – Business Times.

The LOANS AND ADVANCES REALISATION TRUST of Tanzania which was formed in 1991 to recover the bad debts of 93 firms (with a total debt to banks of $45 million) has brought in $9.0 million from sale of the assets of 59 of the firms – the East African.

The National Agricultural and Food Corporation (NAFCO) which has a new board of directors is now producing 50% of Tanzania’s requirements of WHEAT. with 38,000 tonnes in stock, the Chairman requested the government to stop importation of foreign wheat which was destroying NAFCO’s market Daily News.

The government has repaid £13.6 million to the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) out of a £20.0 million LOAN RESCHEDULED in 1990. CDC disbursed £8.0 million in 1995 for investments in power generation, agro-processing, tourism and financial institutions – Business Times

FUEL PRICES were increased by about 6% on September 1 due to the dwindling value of the shilling and increased prices of crude oil. Regular gasoline went up from Shs 335 to Shs 350 per litre – Daily News.

Five NEW COMMERCIAL BANKS were due to open before the end of 1996 to add to the fifteen already operating. The new banks are the Exim Bank, the Wall Street Banking Corporation, savings and Finance Bank, The Akiba Commercial Bank and the Mercantile Bank of Pakistan – East African.

From January 1, 1997 the MONOPOLY ON THE IMPORTATION OF REFINED PETROLEUM PRODUCTS held by the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is to be removed. Tanzania has long opposed this move which the World Bank had been pressing for (the refinery was considered outdated and inefficient) because it considered the refinery as of strategic economic importance. It was hoped that this change in policy would reinforce international confidence in President Mkapa’s commitment to free market economic policies – Africa Analysis Tanzania is to benefit from THREE NEW CREDITS from the World Bank/International Development Association (IDA): $26.3 mi 11 ion to improve the management of water resources; $ 31.1 million for the second phase of a national agricultural extension project and $35 million for Lake victoria to help conserve its biodiversity and genetic resources; this project includes assistance to buy equipment for 25 to 30 new irrigation networks and moves to streamline the operations of organisations managing the Pangani and Rufiji river basins – World Bank News.

Tanzania Breweries Ltd. (TBL) whose production went up 56% in 1995 following its entry into a JOINT VENTURE AGREEMENT with South Africa/s Indol International, was hoping that by Christmas 1996 its best selling brand ‘Safari Lager’ would be on sale in Kenya. It has also started selling on the local market a new brand with an alcohol content of 4.45% per half litre bottle – ‘Kilimanjaro Premium Lager/. Tanzania consumes some 20 million crates per year of which half comes from TBL, a quarter from Kenya and the rest from smaller producers – the East African.

Zanzibar could become an OFF-SHORE BANKING CENTRE – the first such tax haven in Africa. A locally registered mining company, Tanzalite International, is said to be in discussion with the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Agency on the possibilities – Business Times.

Dar es Salaam held its first MOTOR SHOW from October 13 organised by the 21-member Tanzania Motor Traders Association (TMTA). Chairman Pravin Mevada said that it had been a success and business enquiries had been received. Asked about possible future car assembly in Tanzania Mr Mevada said that with current sales volumes it was unlikely to be economic. The Vice-Chairman of the TMTA has criticised what he described as the ‘dumping’ of second hand cars; Tanzania imported only 4,600 new cars in 1995 compared with 41,400 second hand cars. – Daily News and the Express.

There was a drop in COFFEE PRODUCTION in Tanzania in the 1996/97 season about 42,000 tonnes compared with 53,000 tonnes in the previous season. Regional figures: Mbeya, Mbozi, Mbinga and Songea 12,000 tonnes; Kilimanjaro about 15,500; Bukoba some 13,000 tonnes. Planting of new seedlings was necessary if production was to be revived – the East African (November 11).

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

(In order to make this part of the Bulletin as interesting and representative as possible we welcome contributions from readers. If you see a mention of Tanzania in the journal, magazine or newspaper you read, especially if you live or travel outside the UK, please cut out the relevant bit, indicate the name and date of the journal, and send it to the address on the back page. If you do not wish your name to be mentioned please say so. We cannot guarantee to publish everything we receive but if your item gives a new or original view about Tanzania we certainly will – Editor)

MWALIMU AT HOME
The NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL devoted a full page in its September 1 issue to ’74-year old African elder statesman Julius Nyerere’ who was visited at his house in Butiama (Musoma); several of his 24 grandchildren were around. Nowadays he spends many of his mornings working in his maize fields and returns to the house at 2pm to have lunch with his wife of 43 years. Most afternoons he spends time in his library reading history, writing essays and later he often plays ‘bao’ with the best players in the village. He always wins! Every evening he attends Mass at the Roman Catholic church. (Thank you Elsbeth Court for this item – Editor).

THE BACK SEAT
A report by the organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has noted that Swedish aid to Tanzania since independence had totalled $3 billion but that the aid had ‘deterred rather than enhanced development and had led to aid dependency’. It should be reduced and then ended. Head of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) Bo Goransson said he was extremely surprised by the report. “We do not think it is OECD’s task to make suggestions as to what an individual donor does with its aid. He said that the Tanzanian leadership must share the blame for the ‘failed vision’ of self-reliance but he admitted that in dealing with Tanzania “we did take more responsibility than was necessary. The effect was that Tanzanians were moved from the driver’s seat to the back seat in development planning …… We have now started a new process of co-sharing in decision making to ensure that projects are owned by recipient countries” he said – EAST AFRICAN, October 21.

TANZANIA’S IMAGE NOT DAMAGED
During a recent long interview in the French magazine ‘PARIS MATCH’ Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye was asked whether he thought that Tanzania’s image might have been affected in French-speaking countries (where Tanzania was described as having been previously I qui te unknown’) due to the travails of Burundi and Rwanda. He replied “I don’t think it has damaged our image …. Tanzania has been praised by the international community for what it has done for refugees …. when you have a district like Ngara with 200,000 inhabitants and then, within one month, you get 500,000 people coming in you can imagine the pressures …. schools had to be used to accommodate the refugees, forests were destroyed …. if refugees passed though your farm they would cut your bananas or take your maize …. many had terrible wounds and our dispensaries were greatly affected …… ”

UNRELENTING MEDIATION EFFORTS
To coincide with its East African seminar in London the FINANCIAL TIMES (November 5) published a six-page supplement. It said that if East African co-operation reached fruition no one would be able to claim more credit than President Benjamin Mkapa. The recent rapprochement between the Kenya and Uganda presidents, who had been barely on speaking terms, had been largely due to his unrelenting mediation efforts. However, such commitment verged on the chivalrous because, while landlocked Uganda’s interest in sweeping away the barricades blocking its access to international trade seemed clear, Tanzania’s was far less obvious. Its lumbering bureaucracy remained a brake on development and the country was running trade deficits with both Uganda and Kenya.

However, the article went on: ‘Yet Mr Mkapa’s behaviour is not so foolhardy as it may seem. While the short term might be risky, the long-term benefits could be enormous’. Tanzania had huge tracts of unsurveyed and unexploited land; there was gold and minerals and the country was just beginning to recognise its failure to market its extraordinary tourist attractions; it would soon be exporting power to Kenya.

‘A SHARED SOFTNESS’
Two Ugandans and four Tanzanians put on an art exhibition in Kampala in August: Elaine Eliah writing in the EAST AFRICAN (August 26) contrasted their art. The Ugandan prints were ‘explosions of colour’ but there was a ‘softness about the Tanzanians’ styles’ probably due to their greater maturity: the Tanzanians were all significantly older. George Lilanga, from Newala ranked as one of Tanzania’s ‘master artists’ and was proficient in sculpting, pen and ink and batik painting as well as being an expert printmaker. Robino Ntila from Mdanda in Mtwara Region was described as pre-eminent in etching techniques and Francis Inmanjama’s work (he comes from Zanzibar) was said to show detailed realism in its depictions of wildlife and humans; his soft pastels ‘resembled illustrations in old books’.

BAD NEWS ON MALARIA
In what its editorial described as ‘bad news’ the LANCET (September 14) said that the very promising malaria vaccine known as SP166 which was tested in Tanzania last year had been found to offer no protection following a three year study in Thailand. ‘Any notion of actually eliminating the disease I , the Lancet wrote, has long since been abandoned; the operative term is still ‘control’.

A SYSTEM WITHOUT PARALLEL
Under the heading ‘Tanzania: a second garden of Eden’ PEOPLE AND THE PLANET (Vol. 5 No. 1) featured the ‘tree gardens’ of the Chagga people of Mount Kilimanjaro. It described them as an inspiring model of how tropical rainforest could be sustainably managed. Chagga farmers cultivated up to 60 different species of trees on areas of land typically the size of a soccer field. Known locally as vihamba the farms comprised multi-story tree gardens. They originated on patches of forest land where useful species remained standing while other parts were gradually replaced by what was now the main cash crop – coffee. Coffee had arrived at the Kilema mission from the island of Reunion in 1885. Long before the colonial period the Chagga tapped water in steep, remote gorges, digging canals and hollowing out tree trunks to conduct it as irrigation water to settlements on mountain ridges.

‘A DIFFICULT MARKET FOR OUR ADVERTISERS’
An article in the EAST AFRICAN (September 30) compared attitudes to TV advertising in Kenya and Tanzania. In Kenya advertising was throwing off its previously staid image and now testing viewer’s tolerance in hitherto taboo areas such as sex and politics. A very successful Barclays Bank advert had featured a robot dancing to a Zairean-style kwasa kwasa beat; the dancing cash machine was a great hit but some people hated it because the robot danced in a physically suggestive manner. Despite protests, this and other similar advertisements had remained on the air in Kenya.

But in Tanzania things could have been different. A range of factors including a long period of socialism was said to have rooted in the people a deep multi-cultural sensitivity. with its rural and conservative nature, Tanzania was difficult to handle for a globally inclined industry like advertising. A Mr. Sam Madoka was quoted as saying that Tanzania’s resistance to some commercials from Kenya was a commendable insistence on the country’s own identity and protection against the dumping of western concepts. Another advertiser said that “lack of a tangible knowledge of our cultures by expatriates results in the misrepresentation one sees on commercial TV in Kenya”. Others disagreed. Africa could not live in isolation from the rest of the world they said.

MILES AHEAD IN POLITICAL CULTURE
Kenyan journalist John Githongo has been writing in the EAST AFRICAN (October 21) about his long love affair with Tanzania. Extracts: ‘Nyerereism has made Tanzania an extremely refreshing place to visit ….. it is miles ahead of Kenya in political culture; notably absent from the recent by-election was the fierce abuse and threats that are typical of Kenya … then there is the refreshing way the media covered the Dar poll; the ITV went out and interviewed supporters of all parties …… both of Tanzania’s presidential transitions had been carried out peacefully and President Mkapa’s predecessors have not been aggressively marginalised in any way …… but there are two sides to the coin; Kenyans complain that everything takes too long in Dar especially financial transactions … the hunt for profit just isn’t taken seriously …. there is a subsistence mentality …. but I’m an optimist about Tanzania’s future and we in Kenya have a lot to learn from the country’.

REAL MEN
The London TIMES ran a series of articles on feminism and masculinism in mid-October and Lotte Hughes, who said that she had had a long romance with one of them, wrote about the ‘real men’ the Maasai. ‘Warriors dance, sing, cry (I’ve seen warriors weep and shake when their mothers shave off their locks at the Eunoto ceremony), show tenderness, laugh, fight a little, talk a lot to their sweethearts, take care of their families ….. they may look tough but they are true gentlemen with perfect manners ….. sex is guilt-free for both men and women and though Maasai society is patriarchal and polygamous I found that women have a fair amount of power …. these men are attractive because they are “centred”, self-assured without arrogance …. unlike British men who hang back when the going gets tough, these warriors defend their territory and their girlfriends …. to my surprise I rather liked it!’

UMOJA
The first issue of a quarterly newsletter entitled UMOJA has been published by the Tanzania Association in London. The members of the association, which elected a new Executive committee in 1995 (the chairman is Dr. G Mutahaba) are Tanzanians resident in Britain and Ireland. The newsletter contained an article on the increasing numbers of Tanzanians applying for political asylum in Britain. It said that in 1955 about 1,500 people from Zanzibar, including 43 unaccompanied children, had claimed that they were political refugees. Some 800 Tanzanians had been turned away by the immigration authorities. It was this influx that had prompted the British government to impose tighter visa restrictions. The article quoted Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete as telling the Britain Tanzania Society earlier that there was no political crisis in Tanzania to justify people fleeing the country.

‘A SYMBOLIC FORUM’
In an article critical of the arrangements being made for the trial of Rwandans on charges of genocide, Michela Wrong wrote in the FINANCIAL TIMES (September 25) that the choice of Arusha as a venue had proved a bone of contention. ‘A sleepy base for tourists climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the town is a five-hour drive from the nearest capital Nairobi and communications range from patchy to nonexistent’. Cells and bullet proof partition walls reinforced to withstand terrorist attack had to be built from scratch ….. only 21 people had been indicted and Judge Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor for both the Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunals, had admitted that the total might never exceed 40. That would turn Arusha into a symbolic forum rather than a realistic attempt to mete out justice to the thousands who had tried to eliminate a troublesome minority. But for those trying to rebuild Rwanda, such symbolism still had its value.’

The TIMES reported on November 19 that documents left behind by the fleeing Hutu extremists in Zaire had revealed plans to attack the Arusha centre to free three of the accused; they were said to be staying in conditions which resembled a four-star hotel. Tanzanian soldiers guarding the centre were said to have shown an ability to be corrupted and a Maasai spiritualist, who had access to the prisoners, might have been prepared to help (Thank you Andrew Gaisford for the first item – Editor).

LIONS AND AIRSTRIPS FOR FLYING DOCTORS
BBC WILDLIFE (December 1996) reported that mass vaccination of some 10,000 dogs living on the western borders of the Serengeti National park (around Musoma and Mwanza) would commence shortly. It would prevent a repeat of the 1994 distemper epidemic that had wiped out a third of the 3,000 lions.

A story about three human lives saved in Tanzania’s north Masailand recently was related in the November’96-January ’97 issue of MISSION AVIATION NEWS which described the apparently very difficult problem of obtaining a licence for an airstrip in Tanzania. It was said that it could take years. Forms have to be filled in by villagers who have cleared the strips and these then have to be approved by the village authorities, the District Commissioner – up to 50 miles away, the Regional Commissioner in Arusha and then, finally they have to go to Oar es Salaam. In January 1995 an airstrip at Buga had been opened which had been first identified four years earlier; 50 women had initiated the action which had led to the opening of the airstrip. Instead of a journey of six hours by road, serious medical conditions could now be reached within minutes.

Pilot John Clifford had identified 135 Tanzanian airstrips which could have a claim to exemption from the long licensing process as they were not used for tourism but only for medical and charitable work. Three new airstrips were recently licensed but seven were closed at the same time because licenses are for only two years. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for these two items – Ed.)

‘HIGH FLYING, DAPPER, GREGARIOUS BUSINESS TYCOON’
Under the heading ‘The rise and rise of Reginald Mengi’ NEW AFRICAN recently featured Reginald Abraham Mengi, the Tanzanian ‘media mogul’ who had risen from an impoverished childhood and who now owned a chain of other businesses in manufacturing (soap, chinaware, cold drinks and paper). ‘Two years ago he launched new radio and TV stations to add to his two national daily papers and three weeklies …. though his cri tics say he is expanding too fast and spending too much, his media is booming …. his success has made him many enemies and he has received hate letters …. though he says he has no political ambition ….. few doubt that deep down he has presidential ambitions’.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
Under this heading OASIS, the journal of water Aid, recounted in its Autumn/Winter 1996 issue the story of Chololo village in Dodoma region. water Aid’s programme in Dodoma was said to have enabled 622,000 people to improve the quality of their lives through the provision of improved water supply coupled with sanitation and hygiene education. In Chololo the people began work on their new water supply with great enthusiasm; they established a water fund, formed committees and took part in the initial survey but later, concerns over aspects of management of the supply caused them to lose confidence in the project. It took a visit to Ng’omai village, which had successfully completed its project 18 months earlier, for the villagers of Chololo to be convinced through discussions with their peers on the issues about which they were concerned. (Thank you Roy Galbraith for this item Editor).

‘ONE OF NATURE’S SILENT WORKERS‘
This is how the INDEPENDENT on a recent obituary page described Brother Adam (Dom Adam Kehrle): monk, bee breeder and beekeeper; born Germany 1898; died Buckfast Abbey, Devon September 1 1996. The obituary, by Lesley Bill, said that he was known in all beekeeping circles from the small market trader selling his honey on a stall in a French provincial town to the big commercial apiary owners in America and he was also well-known in academic circles in every continent. His aim had always been to create a cross-breed of bees with resistance to disease; bees that were gentle to handle, that swarmed rarely and were abundant honey producers. He had travelled 82,000 miles by road and 7,800 miles by sea plus many further miles by air in his search for appropriate bee characteristics. His travels culminated in a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro in search of the black honey bee (Apis Mellifera Monticola) when he was 89. The result of all this work had been the distinctive tan-coloured ‘Buckfast Bee’ which was still produced commercially on both sides of the Atlantic.

DANGEROUS PASSAGE
The story of a group of British tourists trying to snorkel off the coast of Zanzibar was given prominence in THE TIMES in its October 14 issue. Mrs Joan Garratt from Derbyshire described how she, three other Britons and two Africans, came into heavy weather; as they turned for shore the skipper got a line snagged round the outrigger and the small boat capsized. “The skipper gathered up the floating snorkel masks and started swimming for a distant sail and we assumed he was going for help” Mrs Garratt said. “But after he had reached it and climbed in, it set sail for the shore and we never saw him again. I think he was scared he was in trouble …. It was getting colder and colder in the water … and we expected to die. It was only when a fellow tourist began waving his brightly coloured shirt that we were spotted from the coast by a fisherman …. he had a dinghy and came out to rescue us. It seemed as though his boat would capsize too. I have never been so grateful to be on dry land”. After they returned they saw a map of the area with the words ‘white sharks’ written across it!

TANZANIA’S TRAIL OF TEARS – THE SLAVE ROUTES
The October-December 1996 issue of the Tanzania Tourist Board’s publication TANTRAVEL is so filled (in its 72 pages) with interest that it is impossible to do it justice in the limited space available in this section of TA. It is a very fine production filled with beautiful illustrations, enticing advertisements and engrossing short articles. The main subject in this issue is slavery. The early history of slavery is recorded followed by Livingtone’s eyewitness account of a slave massacre, an article on Tippu Tip (the King of the slavers), on Zanzibar, the hub of the whole trade and on Bagamoyo, the slave port. Other articles feature a family’s journey from Abu Dhabi to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and the ‘best fishing in the world’ at Mafia Island.

THE ANGLICAN CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL
The CHURCH TIMES of October 17 stated that the Rt. Revd Simon Chiwanga, Bishop of Mpwapwa has been elected Chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) one of the Anglican Church’s instruments of unity, which meets every three years. At its most recent meeting in Panama in October 1996 it discussed the next Lambeth Conference scheduled for 1998 and the future role of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Thank you Mr E G Pike for this item).

OBITUARIES

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

GEORGE BAKER (79) who, during the second world war was the official British Admiralty photographer, spent 16 years from 1946 in the administrative service in Tanganyika. In 1957 he served in Britain’s delegation to the Trusteeship Council of the UN and his last job before he moved to Sierra Leone was as head of government information services.

Former cabinet minister AMRAN MAYAGILA (64) who served as Minister in three ministries during his 15 years as an MP died on November 26 after shooting himself in the head. His widow said that two days before his death he had complained about severe chest pains.

Others who served in Tanganyika/Tanzania and who have passed away recently include former administrative officer IAN AERS OBE, agricultural research specialist (who worked on wheat improvement at Tengeru for many years) BRADFORD HOUSTON and former community development officer JOHN WORTHINGTON.

REVIEWS

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

Compiled by Michael Wise and John Budge

Astier M. ALMEDON, Recent developments in hygiene behaviour research. Tropical Medicine and International Health, 1 (2) 1996,p.171-182.

This discussion of research in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia aims at the preparation of a handbook for field personnel in water supply, sanitation and health/hygiene education projects. Trials were conducted in the Dodoma region and Kondoa districts in collaboration with water Aid UK. The villages of Asanje and Kwayondu were selected on the grounds that they represented parts of the region which suffered most from serious water shortages; nevertheless one cannot help being surprised, even in this conscientious study, by the naivete and glibness of experts, who, sitting in a room in London, with no doubt an adjoining fully-equipped toilet, discuss the importance of teaching African children to wash their hands thoroughly in clean water before meals and after defecation.
JB

Lene BUCHERT, Education in the development of Tanzania 1919- 1990. London: James Currey, 1994, 192p. (East African studies), ISBN 0-85255-704-3, £14.95 (paperback); £35 (hardback)

Lene Buchert’s book, which originates from her Ph.D. work, attempts to provide an account of education in the development of Tanzania and to relate the function of education to wider social, economic and political development from 1919 to 1990. Using mainly official, unofficial and semi-official primary sources, as well as secondary source material, the author discusses policies and their practices for specific periods during the British colonial era, and after independence.

The book examines the indirect rule system and relates the application of the government’s education for adaption policy to the actual provision of education during the colonial period. This is done well in showing that the aim of education, as stated by the report Higher education in East Africa in 1937 was to “render the individual more efficient in his or her condition of life … to promote the advancement of the community as a whole through the improvement of agriculture, the development of native industries, the improvement of health, the training of the people in the management of their own affairs, and the inculcation of true ideals of citizenship and service … ” The analysis concludes that factors such as the colonial government’s emphasis on its staffing needs, rather than provision of agricultural education for Africans; emphasis on provision of education for men; failure to provide education above elementary level, and so on made education a form of social control. A case study of Nyakato Agricultural Training Centre is used to demonstrate discrepancies between declared policies and the outcome of their implementation.

The years 1962 to 1981 were the period of education for socialism, self-reliance and social commitment, especially after the declaration of policies of socialism and selfreliance in 1967. Education was seen as a crucial instrument in achieving the goals and strategy for national development, and to redress the inequality inherited at independence. Chief among these were mass education, which was characterized by the establishment of adult education and universal primary education programmes; Africanisation of the curriculum; abolition of educational systems which were based on racial distinctions, and so on. These were all geared towards fulfilling the objective of making education a means to “liberate the African from the mentality of slavery and colonialism by making him aware of himself as an equal member of the human race, with the rights and duties of his humanity” as Julius Nyerere would have maintained.

The study indicates varying degrees of success out of these policies and practices, and highlights several drawbacks, especially in its focus on the community school movement, between 1971 and 1982. The movement’s purpose was to “contribute to village development by breaking down the barrier between the school and the surrounding society, and between academic and manual skills … ” Case studies of Kwamsisi community school as the prototype for the experiment, and Kwalukonge as a replicated experiment; also adult literacy programmes in Mvumi Makulu, Bahi and Dabalo villages in Dodoma region, are used to analyse discrepancies between policies and implementation.

Much has changed since the early 1980s. The retirement of Julius Nyerere and the succession of Ali H. Mwinyi, and subsequently Benjamin Mkapa; trade liberalisation; relaxation of policies of socialism and self-reliance; introduction of the multi-party system, all call for a further study which would help to assess their impact on education and the future direction of development in Tanzania. Do these factors explain why, for instance, some primary school children are studying without desks?

This book is another contribution to understanding educational issues in the nation’s development.It is highly useful and recommended to academics and tertiary level students interested in education, history and development in Tanzania.
Alii A.S. Mcharazo

Andre MAGNIN and Jacques Soulillou, contemporary art of Africa. London: Thames & Hudson, 1996, 192p., 317 illus. ISBN 0-500-01713-1,£45.

This significant book presents, in many good quality colour reproductions, the work of sixty artists from Africa south of the Sahara. About two thirds of the works represented are in the contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi, the world’s foremost collector of this kind of work, for which the volume serves as a catalogue. The artists hail from eighteen countries, inclusive of Tanzania.

There are spreads of several pages: photos, texts (by Magnin) and reproductions for two artists: Makondi sculptor John Fundi (1939-1991) and painter George Lilanga di Nyama (b.1944). Lilanga paints in a modified ‘Tinga Tinga’ style; his imagery has more density and is usually related to a proverb. Some of his works were exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992. The reference section lists note four additional artists, all resident in Dar es Salaam: painter Jaffary Aussi and three sculptors: Martin Dastani, Kashmiri, and Christine Madanguo. The glossary has three entries related to Tanzania, to explain the sources of styles: shetani, ujamaa and Tinga Tinga. It is a treat to see even this amount of attention given to Tanzanian visual arts.
Elsbeth Court

NYAKYUSA-English-Swahili and English-Nyakyusa dictionary; compiled by Knut Felberg. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 1995, ISBN 9976 973 32 2, £19.95; $US 35. Distributed by African Books Collective, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.

This dictionary arises out of an expatriate teacher’s sense of frustration, partly his own and partly his pupils’, because of the difficulty of observing the official policy of using English as the medium• of instruction in secondary schools in Tanzania. It was his (and the pupils’ experience) that bewilderment was created by insisting on what was effectively a third language at that stage of education. The approximately 1,000,000 Nyakusa are a sizeable and coherent cultural cluster, whose language essentially is their corporate personality. Swahili serves fairly well as the general lingua franca for communication with the wider world in the region. The understandable expectation by government, of using English in secondary and higher education often slows up the process of comprehension in the earlier stage of its compulsory introduction.

The author recognised that the first language had been picked up rather than taught, and this dictionary is an outcome of his attempt to provide a better grounding in the structure and vocabulary of Nyakusa. It provides an outline of Nyakusa grammar, usage and sounds, and the major part consists parallel word lists, Nyakusa-English-Swahili, and EnglishNyakusa. It is by no means a traditional vocabulary either, ranging from airmail to zip code and zoom lens. It is to be hoped that this lively and well produced dictionary will sell well enough to repay production costs, and set an example for others to follow where similar difficulties are encountered in other large language groups. By such means it may yet be possible for many of the approximately one thousand surviving African languages to remain alive and viable. Without support it is certain that many will disappear under the pressure imposed by stronger cultural influences and the languages in which they are propagated.
MW

Gregory PERRIER and Brian E. Norton, Administration of pastoral development: lessons from three projects in Africa. Public Administration and Development [Utah state University], vol.16, 1996, p.73-90.

It is salutary when somebody reveals that some western aid donors got it wrong – even after 30 years. This frank report on development projects conducted by the us Agency for International Development in Tanzania, Somalia and Lesotho does just that.

When the countries of sub-Saharan Africa achieved independence they were targeted for rapid development, both to generate export trade and strengthen their domestic economies. Many aid organisations, for instance, provided massive assistance for livestock development. The report asserts that despite the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars the projects “failed to achieve their goals … Projects designed by western specialists and funded by western donors have been based on faulty assumptions, inadequate information and distortions created by cultural bias, and have been implemented in an inappropriate manner”

As an example, ten million dollars were spent over a 10- year period on a project designed to increase livestock production, and improve the quality of life of the Masai people in Tanzania. visiting the area in 1989 the two researchers found “no evidence that the project had led to sustained improvements in the production system.” Whereas the Tanzanian government had been advised to establish “ranching associations” and to adopt rotational grazing practices, the investigators felt that the AID design team had ignored vital cultural aspects of Masai life; such as the need for subsistence milk production and capital savings, and the fact of their preference to sell small ruminants for their cash requirement. Instead, the advisers focused entirely on beef production and cattle marketing.

By the time when conflicts in strategy between ranching associations and the government’s villagisation policy were finally being resolved the project was abruptly terminated. Expatriate technical specialists “operated relatively independently of one another, each pursuing his own technical assignment … Project activities got out of sequence as staff applied themselves to personal professional interests.” Local administrators and politicians, pre-occupied with the implementation of ujamaa, also created confusion. “Inappropriate strategies”, such as introducing ranch-style rotational grazing to a people whose traditional grazing practices already included seasonal rest, or attempting to increase cattle off-take in a society where cattle are the primary measure of wealth, or transferring a project design to another region without taking into consideration local factors. These and other failures in understanding were “the result of false assumptions or the adoption of a western stereotypic model.”

The researchers come to what might seem the obvious conclusion that “producer participation is a necessity for project success”, and that the secret of success for the future must be adherence to three golden rules – flexibility, simplicity and appropriateness. Better late than never.
JB

Joan RUSSELL, Teach yourself Swahili. London: Rodder & Stoughton, 1996, 324p. (Teach yourself books) ISBN 0-340- 62094-3, £8.99 (book only); £18.99 (book and cassette)

With the new Teach yourself Swahili (replacing the previous book published in 1950), Dr. Joan Russell has written a new course for beginners which is both comprehensive and very accessible. It contains 18 units, each of which is based around a dialogue which serves as a vehicle for the introduction of vocabulary, grammar and cultural information. The situations described in the dialogues are typical of those which visitors to East Africa might encounter: booking into a hotel, buying gifts, asking directions, travelling, even climbing Kilimanjaro. Many, however, go beyond mere tourism and involve visitors in discussions with their Tanzanian and Kenyan friends on matters such as arranging meetings and travel plans, cooking the evening meal, and language learning. The dialogues are read by native Swahili speakers on the accompanying cassette, which begins with a pronunciation guide.

Although the approach is basically ‘communicative’, in that Swahili is introduced through the use of realistic dialogues, grammar is addressed throughout. Noun classes are introduced one at a time in the early units (beginning with the most commonly used classes) along with noun and verb agreement. other areas of Swahili grammar – tenses, suffixes, pronouns, and so on – are covered methodically and in some detail, but in terms accessible to any learner. In each unit, readers are encouraged to check their understanding and practise what they have learnt through various exercises. A brief ‘How to study’ section at the start of the book provides useful advice on getting the most out of each unit.

The book itself is compact enough to be easily portable (say, on a trip to Tanzania) and is attractively laid out, incorporating Swahili adverts, press cuttings and a few black and white photographs. At the end of the book are a key to the exercises, a summary of the main grammar points and a very useful Swahili-English/ English-Swahili dictionary.

Although described as “a complete course in spoken and written Swahili”, part 1 (the first of six units) can be used on its own as a course in ‘survival’ Swahili for beginners. I expect that complete beginners in Swahili will find that it presents a very steep learning curve; there is a lot packed into each unit! However, by the end of the course any reader who has taken the time to learn the vocabulary and tackle the exercises should be equipped with the Swahili language skills to cope with most everyday situations in East Africa.

Its communicative approach and attention to grammatical and cultural detail makes Joan Russell’s book ideal for people who may have picked up Swahili informally whilst in East Africa, and who wish to build on this and develop their competence in the language. In short, I wholeheartedly recommend the new Teach yourself Swahili to any member of BTS wishing to learn or brush up their Swahili.
Steve Nicolle

SERVICE provision under stress in East Africa: the state & voluntary organizations in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda; edited by Joseph Semboja & Ole Therkildsen. London: James Currey in association with Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen; EAEP, Nairobi; Mukuki na Nyota, Dar es Salaam; Fountain Publishers, Kampala, 1995, ISBN 0-85255-389-7, £12.95 (paper); £35 (cloth)

This powerful book is poorly titled. It is about the historical roles of the voluntary sector and the state in providing education, health and legal services and changes that came about in the wake of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). Out of fourteen chapters, two discuss the subject generally, and four are about Tanzania.

The editors hold that the rush toward privatisation of services that accompanied SAPs disregards the need for collective action by governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and ‘people’s organisations’ – the latter often called ‘community based organisations’ or CBOs. They assert that privatisation, as practiced, overlooks the increasing interdependence between voluntary sector and state, and the growing reliance of NGOs on foreign aid. To justify drastic cuts in government investment in services, proponents of privatisation often overestimate poor people’s ability to pay directly for the health and education services they need, with the result that social services are slashed more than other expenditures. To transform such situations., governments that rely on foreign assistance must risk defying IMF/WB prescriptions. For example, Official Development Assistance (ODA) accounted for 37% of Tanzania’s GDP in the early 1990s.

A further complication for governments is that donor aid is increasingly targeted to NGOs (2/3rds of it through donors’ own NGOs operating overseas, and the other third directly to East African NGOs). One author in the book argues that it is not NGO performance, but western donors’ efforts “to reduce the role of African states” that is functioning here. Several authors question the received wisdom that NGOs are more ‘poverty-oriented’ than governments. The truth may never out on this subject, however, because only an estimated 15% of donor aid is ever evaluated – a frightening fact when one considers how much possibly baseless conditionality is imposed on recipient countries and the NGOs by donors.

Chapter 8, by Gaspar Munishi, discusses the relationship between political development strategies and NGO participation in Tanzania. The author traces the history of public and private education from colonial times. In 1958, for example, 45% of African pupils went to government schools and 55% to NGO owned ones; the latter received grants-in-aid from government. Munishi’s views on the rationale behind increased government involvement after independence and the later resurgence of private, NGO provision of services are succinct; the desire to democratise education that the Arusha Declaration highlighted in the 1960s and the economic crunch and donor-driven support of NGOs rather than governments when aiding the service sector in the 1990s.

In chapter 9, Abel G.M. Ishumi focuses on secondary education. He concludes that nationalisation and monopolisation of social delivery systems stifle creative energles and lead to institutional stagnancy, and public apathy and disaffection. Self-help school projects succeed, he says, when a community links education with progress, and when there are strong economies and community-based management and leadership capacity.

Julius T. Mwaikus writes about maintaining law and order in Tanzania in chapter 10. using ‘Sungusungu’, the traditional defense and self-help groups among Sukuma youth, as his case study, he concludes that Sungusungu will survive as an ad-hoc people’s organisation only if its units know the basics of what the law requires or allows them to do.

The Catholic Church and the state in Tanzania are the subject of John Sivalon’s chapter 11, which challenges the conventional wisdom that Church and state have been ‘passive partners’, and that church-state relations became very tense after the Arusha Declaration. However, the recent Mtanzania Mpya’ programme of Christian professionals seeking to build the ‘new Tanzania’ by associating bureaucrats with NGOs disturbs the author, because Islamic communities perceive this church-state linkage as a threat to Islam.

The only chapter this reviewer found ominous is that by Goran Hyden, who proposes the creation of ‘trust funds’ as ‘intermediaries between foreign donor agencies and local recipients’. These funds would be “independent of government and any other actors” and they would support requests “from any agency, whether governmental, private or voluntary”. I see that proposal as creating a kind of parallel government – a powerful donor-driven institution that is responsible neither to the people nor to the government. Who, we must ask, will call the tune?
Margaret Snyder

Thaddeus SUNSERI, Labour migration in colonial Tanzania and the hegemony of South African historiography. African Affairs, 95 (381), 1996, p.581-598.

The author sets out to show how the history of labour migration in Africa has been unduly influenced by the assumption by historians and sociologists, that the migrations which provided the very large labour forces required by South African mining, industrial and agricultural activity, from the early years of this century, set the pattern elsewhere in the continent. He focuses on the record of German labour initiatives in Tanzania up to the time of the First World War, and shows how the Tanzanian inherited instinct to maintain something akin to traditional social life meant that the commonly held perception (by labour historians) of ‘kraal to compound’ African migrant labour was never applicable to the Tanzanian situation.

The Maji Maji rising of 1905-07 was sparked by German forced labour and production policies in the southern part of the country. There had been a systematic imposition of forced settlers, and railway construction which facilitated settler rather than peasant production.

Ever increasing development of the settler economy after 1907 meant that the demand for labour rose steadily, but government then faced the facts and gave some consideration to the reaction of the people. A middle way, between a ‘coolie policy’ and a policy of protection in favour of ‘Africa for the Africans’. Peasant production, allied to wage labour incentives, was recognised as the compromise way forward. The author points out that this gave leeway for the migration of families, rather than men only, to areas of settler developed production; that in more favourable circumstances (for there were great variations in treatment of labour and conditions of service and living), village society transferred for the period of a contract to new locations. By no means all the labour was at work at any time, and the people attended to their own crops in the locality as well as working for wages. People knew their rights, and were willing and able to use the judicial system to guarantee them. Thus, in one year 34 unscrupulous labour recruiters, Germans, Greeks and Africans were convicted of various infractions of the labour ordinances. Plantations were therefore vulnerable to the economic behaviour of their wage labourers, who were the major expense and whose response to work conditions determined the success or failure of a venture.
MW

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

M. BAREGU, Political culture and the party-state in Tanzania. Southern Africa Political & Economic Monthly [POB MP 111, Mount Pleasant, Harare], 9 (1) Oct. 1995, p.31-34.

BUILDING a vision: President Benjamin W. Mkapa of Tanzania Zimbabwe: Southern African Research & Documentation Centre (SARDC), 1996. 26p., £3.75; SUS 6.95 Distributed by African Books Collective Ltd., 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.

The text of an interview by David Martin, a Director of SARDC, with Benjamin Mkapa, conducted in Dar es Salaam on 11 and 12 November 1995, when elections had not been completed, but Mkapa was virtually president-elect at that time. Immediately after his formal declaration as Tanzania’s President the interview was published in Tanzania in three Swahili and two English newspapers. It concentrates therefore on the major aspects of his election campaign, and the matters of greatest concern to the country at that time. It is a useful and forthright record of answers to questions put by a practised interviewer.

G. FRAME, Serengeti cheetahs. Swara [E.A. wild Life Society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 16 (5) 1993, p.14-17.

R. HEYWORTH, The Last Rhinos of Northern Tanzania, Ngorongoro. Swara [E.A. wildlife Society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 18 (6) Nov.-Dec. 1995, p.18-21.

B. JACOBS and Z.A. Berege, Attitudes and beliefs about blood donation among adults in Mwanza region, Tanzania. East African Medical Journal [P.O. Box 41362, Nairobi], 72 (6) June 1995, p.345-348.

L. JANSSENS DE BISTHOVEN, A Safari in northern Tanzania Swarai [E.A. Wildlife society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 16 (2) Mar./Apr. 1993, p.15-19.

S.F.N. KIWIA, Management of work schedules in an educational institution: a case study. Business Management Review [University of Dar es Salaam], 3 (2) July-Dec. 1994, p.64-73.

L. RUTASHOBYA, The Role and performance of women’s retail cooperatives. Business Management Review, [University of Dar es Salaam], 3 (2) Jul-Dec., 1994, p.74-87.

Eve SARAKIKYA, Tanzania cook book. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1996, 165p., ISBN 9976-101-25-2, $3.95; SUS 7.50. Distributed by African Books Collective, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.

This is a reprint of the earlier edition of 1978, and therefore may be familiar to some readers. Its virtues as a guide to the rich variety of Tanzanian foods, and their use in the country’s cuisine, which uses a wealth of local spices, a great range of fruits and vegetables, staple grains and roots, as well as sea and fresh water fish, have kept it in use and appear to justify a reprint. It gives many recipes which strike the balance between meals that merely taste good, and those with nutritional value. All who live in London or any of a number of other large cities in the U.K. will feel confident of finding many of the ingredients required to reproduce tropical cooking in Britain’s cold climate.

* * * * * *

This list includes a certain number of articles published in African journals. We hope that those among our readers in the U.K. who may not have access to specialist academic libraries, will be able to use their local public library to obtain copies from the British Lending Library, which is richly endowed with journals from all over the world, and provides a lending or photocopy service at modest cost.

LETTERS

Posted on January 1, 1997 by editor

CAPITALISM VERSUS SOCIALISM
Joan Wicken (TA No. 55) complains about the price (£25) of Joel Barkan’ s ‘Beyond Capitalism vs Socialism in Kenya and Tanzania’. Readers might like to know that there is a paperback edition published by East African Educational Publishers (Brick Court, Mpaka Road, Westlands, P 0 Box 45314 Nairobi) at Shs 490, less than a fifth of the UK price. None of the authors forewent royalties to bring out this edition; there was never any question of receiving royalties in the first place. There are limits to market rationality! concerning Joan Wicken’s thoughtful review, probably all the authors would endorse our statement that ‘pluralistic politics and market economics are the two most important factors’ offering hope for ‘further (educational) decline being arrested.’ What alternative is there? The question is: how much hope is there? One problem is that supporting a market economy is taken by many on the left to mean supporting the Reagan-Thatcher ‘neo-liberal’ view of the market economy. I imagine few readers of Tanzanian Affairs would prefer dictatorship or one-party rule to ‘pluralism’, however defined. Functioning democracies are supposed to constrain the negative effects of unfettered markets. The fact that they do so less and less effectively is a cause of much concern. I believe, for example, that it is the responsibility of the state to provide basic education for all. Support for ‘the market’ does not mean that schools should be taken over by the private sector, as some neo-liberals argue. The market generates the wealth which the state taxes in order to run schools.

In the case of Tanzania, there is strong resistance from the ujamaa old guard in the government and ruling party to both market economics and democratic politics. To date, there is little evidence that there is a basis for the emergence of either effective markets or meaningful pluralism which would bring about the hoped for progress within the available time frame. If Tanzania’s new government has an alternative to ‘some kind of capitalist economy and society’ as Ms Wicken hints in her review, President Mkapa had better come out with it sooner rather than later. otherwise the country will end up as another convivial economic and social basket case, with the market represented by an influx of laundered drug money, and pluralism represented by politicians funded via donations from the same corrupted ‘private’ sector. If economic and cultural globalisation are unstoppable forces, then it is time Tanzanians started thinking what that means for them as we all career towards the 20th century.
Brian Cooksey

TA ISSUE 55

Posted on September 1, 1996 by editor

ta_55-1

Issue 55 featured:
POLITICS – MKAPA, MREMA, AMOUR, HAMAD
HOPE FOR ZANZIBAR SETTLENENT?
THE 1996/67 BUDGET
TANZANIA’S ‘TITANIC’ DISASTER MV BUKOBA
KILWA – FROM DECAY TO DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS NEWS
TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA
50 YEARS AGO

POLITICS – MKAPA, MREMA, AMOUR, HAMAD

Posted on September 1, 1996 by editor

Tanzania’s leading politicians – Union President Benjamin Mkapa, main opposition leader Augustine Mrema and the feuding leaders in Zanzibar – President Salmin Amour and opposition leader Seif Shariff Hamad have all had reasons for satisfaction and disappointment during the last few months of Tanzania’s rapidly developing multi-party democracy. On the mainland multi-partyism is working well; a by-election under way in Dar es Salaam will help to indicate how the main parties stand after almost a year of this new system of government. In Zanzibar, by contrast, it is becoming increasingly difficult for TA to present an accurate and unbiased report on what is happening because of the conflicting information received. The opposition continues to refuse all cooperation with the government elected under questionable circumstances last year and the ruling party is resorting to strong arm tactics in its determination to maintain law and order.

MKAPA

Popular President Mkapa’s dominant position was consolidated on June 20 when he was elected Chairman of his Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party by an overwhelming 1,248 votes out of 1,259 at an emotional ceremony in Dodoma. Former President and Chairman Ali Hassan Mwinyi handed over the CCM Constitution, 1995 Election Manifesto and Chairman’s gong midst deafening chants of ‘CCM’, ‘CCM’, ‘CCM’, dancing, ululation and music by the party’s cultural troop ‘TOT’. The new Chairman said that he would maintain earlier policies of socialism and self-reliance and would continue to fight tribalism, discrimination and religious bigotry. He would cleanse the party of immoral and corrupt elements and would enhance discipline, efficiency and integrity in the government and party.

The next day President Mkapa’s position was further strengthened when the entire CCM leadership secretariat resigned so that the President could arrange for his own people to be elected by the National Executive Committee. The new party leaders are:

Vice-chairman (Mainland) John Malecela (no change)
Vice-chairman (Zanzibar) Salmin Amour (no change)
Secretary General: Phillip Mangula (previously Kagera Regional Commissioner) Deputy Secretary (Mainland): Ukiwaona Ditopile-Mzuzuri (previously Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner)
Deputy Secretary (Zanzibar) Ali Ameir (no change)
National Publicity Secretary: John Mgeja MP for Solwa.
Mr Ngombale-Mwiru (who had been Publicity Secretary) was later appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and Dr. Lawrence Gama (who had been Secretary General) became Regional Commissioner, Morogoro.

President Mkapa has continued to surprise people by the number of changes he is making in senior posts. On May 6 he announced the appointment of Mr Omari Iddi Mahita, the Arusha Regional Commissioner of Police as Inspector General even though Mr Mahita had previously been two ranks below. The President sacked five other top officers. On June 30 he appointed Mr Onel Malisa as the new Principal Commissioner of Prisons and retired in the public interest 15 police, prison and immigration officers.

CITY COUNCIL DISSOLVED

One of the reasons for President Mkapa’s popularity is the decisiveness with which his government deals with signs of bad governance. An example of this is the case of the Dar es Salaam City Council. Prime Minister Sumaye had warned the Council when he addressed them on January 4 about its low 30% collection of revenue, poor levy system, outright corruption and poor administration of the Council’s by-laws. On June 28 he announced that the Council had been dissolved and been replaced by a Commission that would run the city for one year (later changed to 10 months) while a new management structure was established.

The government’s next step was to abolish regional development directorates and replace them with small secretariats to be under the Regional Commissioners. In districts also, District Commissioners would be overall supervisors of all government functions to reduce bureaucracy. But there are still remnants of the intolerance of opposition typical of earlier Tanzanian governments. When the long established Swahili biweekly ‘Heko’ published a letter claiming that there hadn’t been a proper government in Tanzania since independence it was promptly banned.

SECURITY CHIEF KILLED

Then came what could become a setback to the government’s reputation for probity. On June 30 the former Director of Intelligence and Security, Lt. General Imran Kombe, was shot dead in his car in a hail of bullets by five police detectives and a civilian who were said to have mistaken him for a notorious car thief. The owner of a similar car had offered Shs 1.5 million reward for the arrest of the thieves and recovery of the car. But, the police account of the incident differed from that of the General’s wife who was with him and had escaped. She said that her husband had stopped the car and put his hands in the air before he was shot. People began to wonder whether this was Tanzania or Kenya and what secrets the General was holding. The police were promptly arrested and charged with murder but the press became suspicious again when they were barred from the court when the police appeared before it. On July 20, under mounting pressure from press and public the government set up a high powered judicial enquiry under Justice Damian Lubuva to report within a month. The Commission immediately appealed to Britain’s Scotland Yard for assistance but this was refused. Responding to criticism the Attorney General later assured the National Assembly that there was nothing wrong in appointing the commission while murder proceedings were going on in court. The Commission’s proceedings would be in camera.

MREMA

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the NCCR-Mageuzi Party, Augustine Mrema, has been busy setting up a strong nationwide party apparatus. Somewhat reluctantly his party has set up a system similar to the 10-cell CCM party system believing that this is the only way to counter CCM’s strong grass roots organisation. The blue flag of the NCCR can now be seen flying in villages from end to end of the country – almost as many as the green flags of the CCM. And Mrema himself has bravely taken on a major political risk by putting himself up as candidate in a by-election which few believe he can win. Mrema had earlier accused CCM of being a sick administration suffering from ‘Acquired Anti-Democracy Syndrome’ (AADS).

AN INTERROGATION IN COURT

A petition filed by two defeated candidates (from NCCR-Mageuzi and CHADEMA) in the Temeke (Dar es Salaam) parliamentary constituency occupied several weeks of High Court time. The case revealed much of what was alleged to have happened in at least one Dar es Salaam constituency during the last elections and resulted in the convening of the first byelection of the new parliament.

During the case there were allegations that the successful candidate, CCM’s Ramadhani Kihiyo, bribed voters with money and T-shirts, provided a free supply of water from a bowser two days before the second round of the elections (the first round in Dar es Salaam constituencies was cancelled because of irregularities and several opposition candidates boycotted the second round on November 19 where the turnout dropped to 39% of the 143,749 registered voters) and that a CCM councillor had threatened traders supporting the opposition that they would lose their licenses. Mr Kihiyo got 37,303 out of the 57,152 votes cast in the second round of the elections. The location of several polling stations was said to have been changed because of the high rents charged by owners of the buildings where voting took place – this was alleged to have further confused voters and there were also allegations that ballot papers were bought and sold. But the court reached a pitch of high drama when NCCR MP and lawyer Dr. Masumbuko Lamwai, tackled Kihiyo on the qualifications he had told the electorate he held (as reported in the Daily News):

Lamwai: You say you graduated from the Dar es Salaam Technical College in 1986. Is that right?.
Kihiyo: Yes, of course.
Lamwai: Do you know that man? (pointing to former Technical College Students Council Chairman)?
Kihiyo: No, I don’t know him.
Lamwai: What is a foundry?
Kihiyo: I don’t know (laughter from the packed public gallery).
Lamwai: How many sub-departments are there in the Mechanical Department of the College?
Kihiyo: An engine room, an injection pump and repair (laughter).
Lamwai: Do you have any paper indicating what marks you got?
Kihiyo: I think I have it somewhere.
Lamwai: Do you know who the Principal of the College was when you were there?
Kihiyo: I don’t know.
Lamwai: Who was the Registrar?
Kihiyo: Mr Kuhanga.
Lamwai: No. Mr Kuhanga was my Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dar es Salaam at that time.
Lamwai: When did you start your studies there?
Kihiyo: I don’t remember.

Dr. Lamwai told the court that Kihiyo had used the title engineer during the campaign in relation to his ability to solve water problems affecting the constituency. The Judge asked Kihiyo to bring his certificate to court.

Kihiyo: (Next day). Your Honour, can you please give me two more days to look for the document.
Lamwai: Do you still maintain that you graduated from the College?
Kihiyo: Yes.
Dr. Lamwai then asked about the stream he had been in, his Head of Department’s name, who had presented the certificate to him, what were the entrance requirements but in every case Kihiyo either did not know or gave the wrong answer.
Lamwai: What does VTC stand for?
Kihiyo: It is National Committee Centre (laughter).
Lamwai: I ask you to step down as MP for Temeke

On May 29, following a month in the High Court, Mr Kihiyo announced through his counsel that he had written to the House of Assembly Speaker resigning as MP for Temeke on medical grounds.

On June 26 in the National Assembly Mr Christiant Mzindakaya (CCM MP for Kwela) said that Dr. Lamwai was a ‘bad comrade’. He was bent on unseating his fellow MP’s rather than using his talents to defend them (loud laughter).

Satirist Wilson Kaigarula in the Daily News wrote about a friend of his Uncle Tamaa who had been hovering about the disbanded Dar es Salaam City Council trying to get a job as Garbage Collector-in-Chief. He swore before the God of the Vingunguti dump yard that, if offered the job, he would make the City as clean as Paris. He said that the scientific exposure he had received at the Municipal Sanitation Technical College in the Kalahari desert would ensure that he could do the job!

AN ANIMATED BY-ELECTION

The by-election in Temeke, which is under way as this issue of TA goes to press, has attracted intense interest because NCCR leader and presidential candidate last year Mr. Augustine Mrema, who was also Deputy Prime Minister in the previous government, decided to take a great risk by putting himself forward as the candidate of his party. Few observers believe he can win. He is a Chagga fighting an election a long way from his power base in Moshi and standing against a local man, Mr Abdul Cisco Ntiro who represents CCM. He is a Christian in a predominantly Muslim constituency and has had difficult relations in the past when Muslim fundamentalists started attacking pork butchers’ shops and he had to bring the full force of the law down against them. The opposition vote is badly divided with possibly 11 other candidates. One of these is the previous NCCR candidate who was so bitter at his removal as candidate that he joined CUF and now campaigns against Mrema. The date of the by-election is October 6.

OTHER PETITIONS FAIL

Another electoral petition involving 45 prosecution witnesses against the election of CCM House Speaker Pius Msekwa in Ukererewe and a petition against NCCR-Mageuzi MP for Arusha, Mr Charles Makongoro Nyerere (the son of Mwalimu Nyerere) failed in the High Court.

A hotly contested electoral petition began in Bunda, Mara Region, where NCCR MP Stephen Wassira had beaten former CCM Prime Minister by a wafer thin majority of votes; there was much debate on whether Wassira had bribed voters with offers of sugar, salt and meat. At one stage in this case Judge Kahwa Lukingira ordered the former election supervisor for the constituency to appear before the court immediately. Told by the State Attorney that the supervisor was on tour with the Regional Commissioner, the judge asked if this meant that he had disregarded the on-going court session; had he opted to loiter with the RC?; other witnesses had come from as far away as Mtwara, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.

In Zanzibar the High Court dismissed four election petitions contesting the election of CCM MP’s in Unguja on the grounds that, under the 1990 Elections Act, membership of the Isles House of Representatives could not be challenged without the consent of the Attorney General – this had not been obtained by the CUF petitioners.

HOPE FOR ZANZIBAR SETTLEMENT?

There is no problem in Zanzibar, only a few individual trouble makers, according to Zanzibar President Dr. Salmin Amour. Many observers question this interpretation of the situation (see TA No. 54). As far as can be ascertained by trying to sift fact from rumour or propaganda it appears that positions have hardened in Zanzibar during recent months. Tanzania is blessed with a remarkably free press and the following attempt to explain what has happened recently is largely derived from items already published in Tanzania’s press.

As the ruling CCM has the support of only half the population, there is a long history of political division in the islands and the word ‘compromise’ is as popular amongst leaders in Zanzibar as it is amongst those in Northern Ireland, President Amour’s CCM government has taken to strong arm tactics to try and control the situation. The President does not conceal his determination to deal with dissidents – see below. The leader of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) Seif Shariff has reacted by stepping up his relentless local and international campaign to denigrate the President – saying that he was not properly elected – and criticising the injustices which he claims are occurring regularly in the Isles.

HUMAN RIGHTS

There is no longer very much doubt that there have been cases of infringement of the human rights of opposition supporting Zanzibar citizens, particularly those from Pemba (where people voted overwhelmingly for the opposition in the elections) but it is very difficult to get at the whole truth. Many people have been beaten up by the police; some Pemban born staff in the civil service have lost their jobs; hundreds of houses have been demolished; CUF is not allowed to hold meetings in Unguja – the latest one to be cancelled ‘for security reasons’ was on August 3.

Visitors to Zanzibar come away with mixed impressions. Tourists find Zanzibar very attractive; they meet warm and friendly people. There is an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. Few tourists know that there might be something amiss in the islands. Many (but not all) Dar es Salaam and foreign newspapers can be bought freely. Opposition supporters seem to be free to talk to strangers. But other visitors, who perhaps dig more deeply, speak of an atmosphere of fear.

An example of an incident in which it is difficult to obtain a clear picture is the case of the Zanzibar citizens who are said to have started to destroy their own homes in the middle of the rainy season this year and made themselves homeless. According to reports, on April 14, the government issued an eviction notice to all houses within a densely populated area of Mtoni in Unguja. The occupants had to move as their houses would be destroyed within seven days. Few heeded the warning. A week later a government bulldozer and a force of fifty police began the task by force. The bulldozer started by flattening concrete block houses – these were not temporary shacks. It worked. People rapidly began destroying their own houses trying to rescue doors, windows and roofing materials. The affected area contained hundreds of houses and many thousands of people of whom a large number are alleged (by some) to be immigrants from Pemba. The evictions apparently arose from an incident at the main power station on April 1 which denied electricity to the whole of Zanzibar for four days. The eviction order was issued the day the power was restored. The government says that the power station was sabotaged by opposition party supporters. Others maintain that the explosion was an accident caused by a chronic failure to maintain the plant properly. CUF claims that the government sabotaged the installation to raise the political tension and thus show that the CUF comprises anti-democratic troublemakers. The official statement on the destruction of the houses says that the houses were dangerously situated under high voltage cables and that people had occupied the land illegally.

AMOUR

President Amour, in a ‘victory’ speech after returning from the Dodoma party conference, where the CCM had given him total support, he said (according to the Dar es Salaam Guardian) that with this reinforced support the Zanzibar government would be able to deal with all who flouted its authority. He would use all legal instruments enacted over the 30-year period of the Zanzibar revolution to achieve this. He attacked news media for portraying his image negatively. Members of the opposition had been going to Dar es Salaam to give false information – but to no avail. “The mainlanders are in agreement with their fellow Zanzibaris to defend their unity” he said. No government could be overturned by a newspaper. “Even if they insult me, shelve me or otherwise, I will remain the same President and I will pay no heed to their insults because I am President by the electorate’s mandate”. People should start to dwell on development issues instead, he said. Reacting to an appeal for him to lift the ban he had placed on the Dar es Salaam newspaper ‘Majira’ he said that if the paper would refrain from reporting ‘half-cooked and concocted stories’ on Zanzibar he would lift the ban. He would ban any newspaper, even those owned by CCM, which tampered with Zanzibar’s rule of law, he said.

The government has justified its strong-arm tactics in Zanzibar because it says that CUF has been responsible for over 40 criminal acts.

As long ago as March, President Amour had said that he would not agree to mediation with the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) which refuses to recognise Amour’s presidency and demands new elections, even if the arbiter was Father of the Nation Mwalimu Nyerere himself. When Nyerere was asked recently why he didn’t do something about the crisis in Zanzibar he replied that nobody in the Union or Zanzibar governments had asked him to do so.

Addressing 14 members of the mainland press visiting Zanzibar on May 27 Dr. Amour (as reported in the Daily News) denied that his government was abusing human rights by harassing and imprisoning people from Pemba. Zanzibar’s prisons had only 92 inmates and remandees. One of the visitors subsequently wrote an article under the heading ,Zanzibar, where fear reigns1 in the Business Times (May 31). The writer said that on one occasion, when the bus full of journalists stopped at a village in Pemba, children playing football all ran away ‘with terror on their faces1. It was explained that the children had thought that the journalists were police or government officials. According to Radio Tanzania Zanzibar, quoted in the Daily News on June 12 a Mr Hassan Khamis had been jailed in Pemba for six months for defaming President Amour. The Magistrate said that this sentence would serve as a deterrent to other people.

PRESIDENT MKAPA IN ZANZIBAR

For several months after the elections President Mkapa made no comment on the situation in Zanzibar other than that he had no constitutional power to intervene. However, during a visit to Zanzibar starting on April 21 he made what the East African referred to in a leading article as a ‘wrong move1. It wrote: ‘Finally President Mkapa has spoken (about Zanzibar) but many Tanzanians wish that he hadn’t1. His words were unexpectedly harsh. Ruling out cooperation with the CUF he had accused it of using democracy to disrupt peace; rather than restrain Amour he would prefer to control the CUF; as for donor’s protests, most of them knew the opposition was causing civil disobedience and sabotage and their statements were ‘geared towards drawing the country into civil war’. President Mkapa had clearly thrown his weight behind force rather than diplomacy the article concluded.

Some observers noted however that, under a recent amendment to the constitution, President Amour is a member of the Union cabinet and, in that sense, President Mkapa has to live with him. Another newspaper noted that President Mkapa was, at the time, facing an election for the Chairmanship of the CCM party and needed Zanzibar CCM votes if his mandate as President of the United Republic was to be convincing.

COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY GENERAL ARRIVES

Into the midst of this unpromising situation Commonwealth Secretary General Chief Emeka Anyaoku decided to try his hand. After very extensive discussions indeed in the first week of August (he met all the key people in Zanzibar and on the mainland; he had seven meetings with CUF) the Daily News quoted him in an article under the heading ‘Club Chief sees end to Isles Stalemate’ as saying that he was ‘positive that the wrangling political parties would find a common stand and bring an end to the political stalemate on the islands’. Both leaders were said to have made him believe that a new chapter of cooperation would soon be opened.

CUF Secretary General Shabaan Mloo said that CUF had been deeply moved by Chief Anyaoku’s admission that there was political tension in the Isles. The Chief had said that he was concerned about the situation because it implied that multiparty democracy was not normal in Zanzibar. CUF was ready to meet the CCM for unconditional talks. Because the first step had been reached by establishing that there was a problem in Zanzibar, CUF believed that efforts by the Commonwealth might succeed in tackling the problem. He was under the impression that there might be a follow up mission by Commonwealth officials. As we went to press, however Dr. Amour had made no comment. It is understood that the Commonwealth Secretary General made certain proposals and that these were being considered in Zanzibar. In his departure statement Chief Anyaoku said that he was very hopeful that a new page of cooperation in the politics of Zanzibar would soon be opened. ‘Tanzanophiles’ will add their hopes to his.

DONOR ATTITUDES

Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete, on return from a nine nation tour of Europe on May 20 said that the donor community recognised President Salmin Amour’s government but had expressed reservations about human rights in the islands. Norway has granted Tanzania $3.7 million as a sign of goodwill towards the new Tanzanian government but it stated that it was not prepared to consider aid for new developments in Zanzibar. The Swedish Director of the East African region of SIDA was quoted as saying that the problem of Zanzibar was ‘dragging Tanzania backwards’.

According to the East African, international donors have decided to maintain the ban on aid to the Isles while releasing increased funds for the mainland. The Business Times reports that in Finland both the ruling CCM and the CUF are considered to be to blame for the political instability. The Finnish Ambassador said that Zanzibaris needed to agree to disagree, using the parliamentary forum, and to begin to address other critical aspects of peoples’ welfare.

THE 1996/97 BUDGET

Posted on September 1, 1996 by editor

Tanzania’s Finance Minister, Professor Simon Mbilinyi, said in his budget speech on June 20 that government would spend Shs 758,896 million in 1996/97 compared with estimates of Shs 631,906 million in the previous year – an increase of 20.8%. Government would collect Shs 550,192 million domestic revenue; the balance of Shs 208,704 million would be raised through a series of sources which included foreign loans and grants (Shs 187,537 million – an optimistic figure, non-bank borrowing (Shs 24,256 million), additional revenue from taxes and nontax revenue (Shs 13,563 million). There are no plans for ‘bank borrowing’ which is really equivalent to printing money. He said that he had two main aims in his 1996/97 budget – to broaden the tax base and to protect local industries. Shs 40 out of every Shs 100 of expenditure was to service foreign debt amounting to seven billion dollars. This would mean shedding 200 out of 1,500 development projects.

Earlier, Planning Minister of State Daniel Yona had stated that he was optimistic about restoring macro-economic stability by lowering the rate of inflation from 23.5% to below 10% within two years; exports had gone up from $519 million to $683 million last year but the government had had to borrow Shs 86.4 billion compared with Shs 56.8 billion the previous year to finance the budget deficit.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BUDGET

– increase in the minimum wage for the civil service from Shs 17,000 to Shs 30,000 but present allowances are consolidated in the new rates and income tax will be charged;

– higher taxes on imported beer; local beer tax remains at Shs 280; beer from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries Shs 345 per litre; from other countries Shs 745; Konyagi up from Shs 300 to Shs 400 per litre; imported spirits from Shs 300 to Shs 500; soft drinks from Shs 32/80 to Shs 34; cigarettes up by 20%;

– to protect the domestic textile industry higher taxes on imported woven fabrics and garments;

– increase of 20% on registration and transfer of motor vehicles;

– to help education substantial reduction in duty on packaging materials; abolition of duty and sales tax on newsprint used for printing newspapers, books and exercise books used for educational purposes – increases in duty on completely built buses, lorries and bicycles; sales tax on local tyres and on computers reduced from 25% and 30% respectively to 10%;

– reintroduction of tax on traditional exports including minerals:

– 15% income tax on landlords charging more than Shs 500,000 per month

– new taxes on security services, car rentals, air charters, quantity surveying, private valuers, driving schools, reworked jewellery;

– tax abolished on goods imported by religious institutions for educational, health and water supply projects;

REACTIONS

The budget was criticised by many in the business community which had itself prepared detailed budget proposals for the Minister’s consideration. They had proposed doing away with a myriad of taxes which cost more to administer than the benefit they brought; to introduce punitive measures for those breaking the law; give an amnesty for earlier defaulters because their cases could clog up the courts for years and cause yet more corruption; and encourage by tax incentive new investment in priority areas. The Business Times expressed the disappointment of the business community – ‘the difference between this budget and past budgets is that the business community was interested in what the Minister of Finance was going to say. This was the first time that there was a government which actually meant it when it said that it wanted to fight corruption, encourage the free market and the private sector. In the past Ministers of Finance had pretended that they were administering a budget and businessmen had pretended to pay their dues. But this budget was too conservative, designed primarily to appease the IMF and World Bank and lacked incentive for investors.

THE DONOR CONFERENCE IN PARIS

At the Consultative Group meeting in Paris in late July donor nations pledged about $1.2 billion in aid ($200 million more than originally planned) of which about $560 million could be made available during 19976/77. Delegates welcomed the progress that had been made during the second half of the 1996 financial year with structural reforms and the start made in restoring fiscal stability. But there was some ambiguity in the statement made at the end of the meeting. Specific conditions were laid down before the aid could start being disbursed. These included sustaining macro-economic and fiscal stability, further progress in reform and measurable improvements in governance (presumably in Zanzibar). A particularly contentious issue was the liberalisation and privatisation of the utility companies.

TANZANIA'S 'TITANIC' DISASTER – MV BUKOBA

Posted on September 1, 1996 by editor

In what many considered to be a disaster on a par with that of the ‘Titanic’ in 1912 (over 1,500 people perished) some 700 people died when the Lake Victoria passenger ship ‘M V Bukoba’ capsized on May 21 just 30 minutes before reaching Mwanza port. Only 53 people survived. President Mkapa declared three days of national mourning. Governments and individuals all over the world sent their condolences.

Eye witness survivors told how the ship was loaded with many more than its 433-passenger capacity should have allowed. At eight am, with Mwanza in sight the ship began to sway. Huge jikos, dishes and kitchen equipment in the restaurant crashed to one side; the loud bang created a panic and as people rushed to the deck the vessel turned over. Ironically, the vast quantity of Bukoba bananas the passengers had earlier asked the crew to throw overboard, later helped survivors by giving them something to cling on to in the water. There were not enough lifebelts. The vessel remained on the surface, partially buoyant. But then rescuers, who could hear trapped passengers screaming and banging, ignored the pleas of fishermen, and decided to drill a hole into the hull to rescue those trapped inside. The effect however was to release the air which had kept the hull afloat and shortly after 3 pm the boat sank.

Several hundred bodies were extracted with great difficulty by divers – people in the packed third class compartment of the ship had linked arms in solidarity before they died and it proved extremely difficult to break them free. Most of the bodies of the dead were buried in mass graves in Mwanza. An old lady in Kagera Region collapsed and died after learning that her daughter and three grandchildren had perished. One victim, a Ugandan businessman, was found to be carrying $27,000 in notes.

On May 29 the captain of the ship and eight senior officials of the Tanzania Railways Corporation Marine Department were charged in court with the murder of 615 people and were remanded in custody. They were later released. On the same day Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye announced the appointment of a Commission of Enquiry under Judge Robert Kisanga which included five other Tanzanians and six foreign experts.

On June 2 President Mkapa halted any further recovery of decomposed bodies from the wreck as this posed a health hazard to divers who had come from South Africa, Kenya and Zanzibar. 392 bodies had been recovered. At a joint service of remembrance on June 3 Chief Justice Nyalali spread a handful of soil on the lake as a burial symbol. The wreckage, which lies 27 metres below lake level, became a permanent tomb for those whose bodies could not be recovered.