MY FATHER AND THE ‘USEFUL’ PLANTS OF ZANZIBAR

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My father, Robert Orchard Wi11iams, known as ‘RO’, who lived from 1891 until 1968, was the son of a Dorset fisherman. His grandfather’s main living had come from crabs, lobsters, mackerel, whiting and other fish. During fifteen years of his life RO was involved with agriculture in Zanzibar, first, until 1948, as Director of Agriculture and then, until 1959, as General Manager of the Clove Growers Association.

The clove has for long been Zanzibar’s main cash crop. The tree was named Eugenia aromatica after Prince Eugene de Savoire-Carignan, an Austrian General who lived from 1663 to 1736 and was famed for the help he gave the Duke of Marlborough during the war of the Spanish succession . The clove originated in the Moluccca spice islands of the South China Sea where it was used to purify the breath of dancing girls, amongst other things. When brought to the West by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama it was found to mull well into wine, cure toothache and preserve meat. When the Dutch eventually took over control of the clove trade they went to the extent of felling clove trees on islands other than Amboina so as to corner the market a monopoly which continued until about 1870. They did not know that a Frenchman had captured some seeds and established a few trees in Mauritius.

In 1818 a Zanzibar Arab, Harameli bin Saleh, is reputed to have obtained some seeds from these trees and there by received a pardon from the Sultan of Zanzibar for some murder he had committed. By the middle of the twentieth century 80% of the world’s clove supply was coming from Zanzibar and Pemba – mostly Pemba.

Mature Zanzibar clove trees were 30 to 40 feet high with shiny, dark-green foliage; a full stand was about 80 trees to the acre. A plantation usually looked more like on area of wild forest for it was neglected except at harvest time when the weedy undergrowth was slashed. The trees were unshapely and ragged, the result of breaking off branches to pick the cloves. Gangs of pickers who arrived from the mainland did not care what happened to the tree and the owners regarded the damage done as inevitable. The tree would need one or two seasons to recover. After planting, trees took about five years to yield a first crop. The owner then had little more to do than sit back, engage a contractor for harvesting and collect the proceeds. The clove is the unopened flower-bud at the tip of a branch. Harvesting has to be done quickly and then the crop is sundried for four or five days. Stems and low quality buds are distilled for clove oil.

RO made a shrewd analysis of what his appointment as Director of Agriculture involved on arrival in Zanzibar. He found the clove industry largely managed its own affairs through a growers Association and that he had a member of staff, G. E Tidbury, who had made the crop his speciality and was writing what became the authoritative book on the subject. There was a worrying disease ‘sudden death’ which clearly required specialised research and the preparation of an application for funds and a team to undertake it. This was done.

RO’s offices were near the sea front on the ground floor of the main government office building which also accommodated the Legislative Council chamber. This square fantasy of some architect had been designed in the 1880’s. There were railed verandahs around each story, the whole surmounted by a clock tower. The antiquated lift, the only one on the island, was incredibly slow, but it worked and transported His Highness the aged Sultan when he attended meetings of the Council. It was the Sultan who later awarded RO the Brilliant Star Medal, the highest honour for a non- Muslim.

Office hours started early and finished for the day early in the afternoon. RO took advantage of the spare time this gave him to record, collect and make a catalogue of the plants on the islands. His well known book Useful and Ornamental Plants in Zanzibar and Pemba was published in 1949 by the Crown Agents, an impressively produced volume containing many illustrations, several of them by F. B Wilson. Wilson’s photographs of a coconut flowering spathe and a bunch of young coconuts are particularly striking.

The growing of coconuts was, to some extent, of greater importance than clove growing. The crop occupied a larger area than the clove on Zanzibar island though not on Pemba. The trees in Zanzibar were practically all of the tall type and could tower to 90ft when between 80 and 100 years old. The coconut industry was fully established and required little day-to-day attention from the Department as the marketing end tied in with the Clove Growers Association.

The coconut really seemed at home in Zanzibar particularly in its southern half where palms jutted over the beach as gracefully as anywhere on tropical shores worldwide. Scientists continue to argue as to the original home of the coconut, whether it be the Melanesian area of the Pacific or Central America. The Kon Tiki voyage did not solve the problem as ripe nuts have always floated on the sea and germinate when washed up on any suitable shore. After cloves and coconuts came the lesser crops. Rice was the most important cereal; others maize and sorghum, the former grown on low-lying land, the latter on the shallow soils of the coral-rag ‘wanda’ country. Sweet potatoes and cassava were the most important starchy food crops. Chilli peppers were a small export commodity. Oranges, mangoes and pineapples were the main fruits. The durian was a rarity but immensely popular but RO never had the courage to taste it! It smells more sickly than it tastes. A worthy description is written by Alfred Russel Wallace the famous explorer and navigator who expounded the theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin … ‘ its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich butter-like custard flavoured with almonds but intermingled with it come wafts of flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion, brown sher y and other incongruities’. ‘Best eaten by a novice while holding the nose’ another writer said.

Pulses were rarely cultivated; vegetables uncommon. Breadfruit trees were found around villages. Livestock rearing was insignificant.

None of these were particularly time absorbing or significant enough to warrant more attention than they received at the Department’s experiment station at Kizimbani. RO’s answer to his quandary on what to focus his attention was to find and develop a cash crop that might play a supporting role to the clove or substitute for it if and in areas where ‘sudden death’ became serious.

He thought he had found it in cacao, a crop with which he was very familiar. But there was a degree of apathy about anything new. It was only the discovery of small numbers of old cocoa trees in both islands that prompted the idea of developing the crop. The best of the fields was at a remote place called Dunga. In spite of their age the trees seemed remark ably disease free . After weeding and pruning the field it was established that the quality was of the best and plans were made for the establishment of trial areas. A station for the rooting of cuttings was constructed and areas selected for planting and shade trees put in. Unfortunately that was about as far as the project got because RO moved to the Clove Growers Association and there was no one of his enthusiasm to follow it up.

RO became a businessman and trader in cloves, clove oil, copra and coconut oil. But that is another story!
R.O Williams Jnr

Mr R. O. WILLIAMS JNR. spent his career in the Colonial Agricultural Service in Kenya, British Guiana and Sarawak where he was the Director of Agriculture. He now lives near Corfe castle in Dorset.

PARLIAMENTARY MATTERS

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The Union Parliament met twice during the first part of 1991. During its first session in Dodoma beginning on January 29th it discussed eight papers on One-Party Democracy and the role of the National Assembly in legislation and in development planning.

Two important new Bills were debated in a second session in April 1991. A Bill to allow for private banks in Tanzania was passed with amendments after it came under strong fire from certain members who felt that it went against the Constitution. They claimed that it did so because the Constitution prohibited the amassing of wealth in a few hands and also because it laid down that all the major means of production should be owned by the government. The Bill (which will be explained in more detail in our next issue) is the result of the work of the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into the Monetary and Banking System in Tanzania whose final report came out in July 1990 but was never published.

A new Cooperative Societies Act which proposes a four-tier structure was applauded by several Members of the Assembly but the Government was warned that the law alone could not help to solve all the problems facing the movement nor facilitate the attainment of the Acts objectives. Minister of Agriculture Anna Abdullah said that, among other things, the Act would take power away from the Registrar and invest decisions on Society members, a move meant to encourage democracy.

THE ZANZIBAR DECLARATION

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The Leadership Code and Party Membership Rules associated with Julius Nyerere’s famous ‘Arusha Declaration’ which laid out Tanzania’s political philosophy for the last 24 years were revised significantly at a meeting in February 1991 in Zanzibar of the National Executive Committee of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party. Under whet hes come to be known as the ‘Zanzibar Declaration’ Party members are now authorised to participate in private economic activities.

They can earn more than one salary, buy shares and take up directorships in private companies and build houses to let – things which were expressly forbidden under the Arusha Declaration.

Explaining the changes CCM Secretary General Horace Kolimba said they would encourage more individual participation in economic activities and thus reduce the pressure on government institutions and parastatal organisations. He said professionals were expected to seize the opportunity to apply themselves fully in income-generating side jobs, the impact of which would be to create more employment opportunities.

He admitted that many leaders and members of the CCM Party had been involved in corrupt activities and dubious accumulation of wealth contrary to the ‘Ujamaa’ policy. Many members had also started poultry schemes and housing projects in order to improve their economic conditions. He said that the trend now was for the Party to create conditions in which CCM members and Tanzanians in general could lead prosperous lives. This, he said, was the essence of the decisions taken in Zanzibar on the Leadership Code and party membership and they were not contrary to the Arusha Declaration. Mr Kolimba went on to say that when regimes are behind the times then it was necessary to ‘legitimise common sense’.

Many Party members have expressed their dissatisfaction about the changes and National Executive Committee members have been visiting the regions to explain the changes.

THE GULF CONFLICT AND TANZANIA

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THE EFFECT ON THE ECONOMY
The rise in oil prices in the second half of 1990 has caused widespread disturbance to the economies of developing countries throughout the world.

In the case of Tanzania the dominant influence has been the surge in oil prices in the last five months of 1990. This has been enough to cause serious loss estimated to be of the order of £40 million, or 2.8% of the Gross National Product. In terms of the fragile Tanzanian economy, an additional cost of this magnitude represents a severe burden on the economy and a critical setback at a time when there were real signs of progress. The consequence has been an addition to the already very serious negative balance on Tanzania’s foreign trade account and a grave setback for Tanzania’s industries struggling to make ends meet.

It is a cause of satisfaction that oil prices have now fallen to approximately the level at which they stood prior to the invasion of Kuwait.

Direct trade losses are believed to be minimal; trade with the Middle East does not feature as a separate item in the trade tables published in Hali Ya Uchumi. But importers generally have had to face increased sea freight costs and steeply rising insurance premiums, though these additional burdens are difficult to quantify. What is perhaps more significant is the possible 1055 of investment capital caused by suspension of the aid activities of the oil rich countries. It appears that in March 1990 Kuwait agreed to finance the rehabilitation and improvement of the Mwanza Textile Mill (MWATEX). On account of its preoccupation with domestic rehabilitation, it seems Kuwait will not honour such obligations in the near future. Some relief has been forthcoming from the donor community and in January it was reported that the United Kingdom Government had made a grant of £4.0 million to finance all oil imports over the next three months; virtually all of this money is reported to have been paid out. While this is a welcome contribution, it will offset only a small part of the losses incurred in the latter part of 1990.

Any setback to the transport sector must be serious to Tanzania, already burdened by bad roads, rail transport in need of repair and development and an over stretched air communications system. The Gulf Crisis has emphasised once again the extraordinary dependence of Tanzania on access to fossil fuels and the sensitivity of the economy as a whole to the terms of access.
J Roger Carter

NYERERE AND MWINYI SPEAK ON THE GULF WAR
Speaking to reporters just before the end of the Gulf War, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere accused the USA of manipulating the UN for its own ends. The UN should have emphasised use of other methods to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Calling for a ceasefire to give a chance to diplomatic solutions to the conflict, Mwalimu asked “How can Saddam pull out of Kuwait while bombs are falling?”

Five weeks earlier, in Kampala, President Mwinyi reiterated his call to Iraq to immediately withdraw its forces from Kuwait to avoid further bloodshed. He expressed his sadness at the failure of the international community to avert the war – Daily News, Business Times.

MISCELLANY

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CALL TO AMEND COPYRIGHT LAW
Although there has been a copyright law in Tanzania for literary and artistic works since 1966, its existence as well as its significance is unknown to most authors and artists. This was stated at a recent National Symposium on ‘Copyright’ organised by the Publishers Association of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Participants heard that there was rampant piracy of other people’s works especially in the video recording business. The participants also learnt that there were pirate publishers and printers who, through a ‘tender system’ used books of other publishers. The books were then sold at reduced prices.

The symposium suggested that the 1966 law should be strengthened and that Tanzania should join the international copyright conventions – SHIHATA

GOOD PERFORMANCE
A report covering the years 1979 to 1989 from the Tanzania Audit Corporation stated that the trend of performance of parastatal accounting was very good. Between 1985 and 1989 the number of clean accounts improved from 41.4% to 73.7% – a clear sign of improvement and a trend which should be maintained. Of 461 accounts audited during the year ending on 30th June 1990, 245 companies were given a clean certificate. This represented a percentage of 53.2%. – the highest percentage ever attained in anyone year.

BUT ….
The report went on to say that parastatal organisations made a loss of 5hs 4,198.9 million from 1979 to 1989. Many were becoming eaters and not creators of the national cake. During the decade 239 of the audited 461 accounts showed losses totalling 5hs 39,110.2 million as against 191 accounts which showed a total profit of 5hs 34,911.2 million. Large losses were by Industries and Trade, Communications and Works, Agriculture and Livestock, Water, Energy and Minerals, Local Government, Community Development, Cooperative and Marketing institutions Business Times.

LES AMITIES FRANCO- TANZANIENNES
The French equivalent of the Britain-Tanzania Society, ‘Les Amities Franco-Tanzaniennes’ has recently reported, in its journal ‘URAFIKI TANZANIA’, on its last Annual General Meeting. The Society has some 70 members and the last time we had direct contact (Bulletin No 29) it appeared to be thriving. Lately, however, it seems to have been passing through difficult times. The President and Secretary had apparently agreed to occupy these positions only for one year and they, together with the Treasurer, now wished to resign. Continuation of the society’s activities therefore depended on a new team taking over. The debate illustrated how attached the members were to a continuation of the society even if in reduced form.

On the other hand, the latest edition of ‘Urafiki Tanzania’ (January-March 1991) is one of the most informative that we have seen. It features a lengthy interview with the Tanzanian Ambassador in Paris, an analysis of Julius Nyerere’s career (‘La Voix de L’ Afrique’ …. ‘Maigr e Heritage Mais Pas De Regrets’), an article under the heading ‘The Struggle For Democracy’ and a rather sad piece on the equivalent in Dar es Salaam of what has become known as the ‘Cardboard City’ in London – DRB.

BRITISH BUSINESSMEN IN TANZANIA
Fourteen British businessmen visited Tanzania in March 1991 on a trade mission to search for local markets for British goods. They included representatives of coffee processing machine manufacturers, pallet racking and shelving systems, diesel engine suppliers and others. One member of the group, Mr Conor Robinson, an export executive of a London-based steel company, said that Tanzania had tremendous investment potential but the negative response by public organisations was hampering the investment business. He refused to name the parastatals and government institutions concerned – Business Times.

A BUSINESS NEWSLETER
The Tenzania/UK Business Group which was formed in London three years ago has recently produced its Inaugural Newsletter. This 20-pege issue, in the same format as this Bulletin, contained articles on the Tanzanian Trade Centre in London, a report on a visit by a group of members to Tanzenia last year, the new Investment Code (Bulletin No 37) and the results of the elections to the Group’s Executive Committee.

The principal officers of the Group ere Dr Fidehussein Remtulleh (Chairman), Mr Aziz Nasser (Vice Chairmen), Mr Simon Mlay (Secretary) and Mr Kassim Manji (Treasurer). Mr Manji defined the primary aim of the group as being ‘to get Tanzanian business people together and also those outsiders who are interested in Tanzania’s affairs, in order to ultimately play a part in the social and economic uplift of Tanzania’.

UNIVERSITY CHANGES
It has been announced in Der es Salaam that Professor G. R. V. Mmari has been appointed to head up the proposed new Open University, under the Ministry of Science, Technology end Higher Education in Tanzania. His place as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam hes been taken by Prof Mathew Luhanga who is an engineer by profession and was previously the University’s Chief Academic Officer.

But members of the University of Dar es Salaam’s Academic Staff Assembly (UDASA) described the removal of the popular Prof Mmari as an ‘act of injustice’ and requested President Mwinyi to re-instate him. The unprecedented request was contained in a two-page statement issued after an extraordinary meeting on April 8th 1991 – Daily News.

RINDERPEST – AN UPDATE

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Outbreaks of rinderpest used to occur annually in cattle and wildlife in Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya up until 1962 with the last recorded clinical outbreak in the area being in 1967. However in 1982 the disease was once again diagnosed on clinical and pathological grounds in buffalo and cattle at several widely separated localities in the north of the country. An intensive vaccination programme was started and the clinical disease disappeared once more, but the question remained was it possible for the wildlife and/or ‘shoat’ population to act as a reservoir of infection. After a couple of years research we found evidence that buffalo in the North and West of the Serengeti National Park had been continually exposed to the disease since 1982, whilst seropositive sheep and goats were found widely distributed in the north of Tanzania, especially in Simanjiro in Kitete District and Babati, Musoma and Tarime districts.

Cattle have been vaccinated in northern Tanzania annually for many years but the intensity of vaccination has been increased considerably since the 1982 outbreak. Between 1985 and 1988 a country-wide cattle vaccination programme was carried out and the immune status of the notional herd monitored. It is known therefore that the possibilities of transmission of infection between wildlife, small ruminants and cattle have been greatly reduced. Consequently the virus must be cycling separately within each population of domestic smell ruminants and buffalo. It must be assumed that this will continue unless there is intervention with vaccination of small ruminants. This, however, will not result in eradication of the virus if it continues to cycle in wildlife.

In summary, at present there is little, if any, reported clinical rinderpest in Tanzania, but the likelihood of the subclinical condition once more rearing its ugly head, particularly if the level of vaccination fa1ls, should not be underestimated.
Mark Jago

Mr MARK JAGO is a Veterinary Surgeon who spent two years from 1987 to 1989 on a project jointly organised by the Serengeti Wildlife Research Institute and the European Community looking at the epidemiology of rinderpest in the wildlife and sheep and goat populations of Tanzania.

FAILURE TO USE LOCAL CONSULTANTS

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The failure to use local consultants was a ‘Betrayal’ according to Robert Rweyemamu writing in the January 18th issue of Dar es Salaam’s Business Times. The article began by stating that behind every successful project there is always a successful consultant. ‘Yes, consultants are a brand of businessmen who seem to be indispensable in every walk of life’. ‘Occupying a place of dominance in the field of consultancy in Tanzania is the Tanzania Industrial Studies and Consultancy Organisation, otherwise known as TISCO. It was established under Act No 2 of 1976. It is an interesting piece of legislation. On the one hand it gives TISCO’ s big wigs the power to monitor and vet employment of local and foreign consultants in the country ….. On the other hand dear TISCO does not seem to have been vested with enough professional clout or technical vim and vigour to be able to limit the influx of foreign consultants into the country or to keep the clamour for foreign consultancy under control …. the original legislation .. . created TISCO mainly to slash our overdependence on foreign expertise in the running of our (wobbling) economy …. Yet our ‘banana republic’ coughs out nearly 300 million yankee dollars a year paying for consultancy services … a good chunk of our export earnings’.

The Managing Director of M/S Iramba Management and Industrial Services Ltd. Dar es Salaam, Hr Lawrence Mmasi, recently made scathing attack on government leaders’ neglect and/or failure to give sufficient support to the local consultancy industry. “It is a betrayal of the taxpayer’s interests to throw overboard local people trained at such a high cost” he said. “Consultancy has not been seen as an important productive or service sector. On the part of donors there is no serious goodwill to support local consultancy”.

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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58 NEW INVESTMENTS
The Tanzania Investment Promotion Centre (TIPC) had approved 58 projects worth Shs 19,300 million (US$ 98.5 million) by the end of December 1990 according to the AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST (February 18, 1991). The TlPC had received 150 investment proposals and 310 investment enquiries since it s establishment in July 1990. Of the total velue of projects approved foreign sources will invest US$ 65.0 million.

BACK TO NORMAL AT THE UNIVERSITY
‘The University of Dar es Salaam – seven months after its closure by the Government – is back in business, hoisting its academic flag as it greets the new year.’ So began an article in the February issue of AFRICA EVENTS. The article went on: But neither the students, the lecturers nor the Government seem satisfied. The students came back minus 13 of their number (the Government expelled the 13 who had either been student leaders or had been the most vocal in the meetings during the crisis; eight other students were severely reprimanded); the lecturers were promised an incentive package which they have yet to see; the Government botched up the house-cleaning job by expelling the wrong students. The Mroso Commission of Enquiry (Bulletin No 38) named after its chairman, a High Court Judge, had completely exonerated the students. Some lecturers who proved ‘troublesome’ during the crisis were said to have been offered lucrative jobs outside the university. ‘However’, the article concluded, ‘the university seems to be going about its business, all calm and academic’.

RATIONALISATION AT DAR ES SALAAM PORT
In a major feature on road and rail transport in Africa the March 18 issue of the AFRICA ECONOMIC DIGEST described in some detail a new 12- point plan drawn up by the Tanzania Harbours Authority (THA) and the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) to streamline operations in the port of Dar es Salaam and on the TAZARA railway. Topping the list of improvement measures is the stoppage of demurrage or storage charges once clients have paid freight and port Charges. Secondly, once payments have been made, the process of planning the supply of wagons and loading equipment is done by TAZARA and THA respectively and customers will not have to simply wait for wagons and equipment to become available as in the past. Similarly, checking by the Customs Department will in future be done simultaneously as cargo is being loaded and not, as previously, before the loading has taken place.

DANTAN
KUMEKUCHA, the journal of the Denmark Tanzania Associati on (DANTAN ) published in its March 1991 issue the full text of the article headed ‘A Letter from Iceland’ published in Bulletin No 38. The Editor of Kumekucha wrote that it was always interesting to see how one is perceived ‘by the world around us – and, in this case, through the spectacles of our English sister organisation. ‘

HEALTHY GOATS, HEALTHY INCOMES
Under this heading the March 1991 issue of BRITISH OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT wrote about an ODA Goat Extension Project in the Newala District near the border with Mozambique. Researchers from Edinburgh University have recently visited the area to help farmers raise goat s more successfully than at present. One development has been the building of improved goat houses which not only protect the goat s better from hyenas and leopards but also keep them dry in the wet season, reducing the risk of foot rot. The goats have been given drugs to get rid of any parasitic worms infesting them and researchers and farmers have worked on improved methods of hoof trimming.

MALARIA GETTING WORSE
Medical researchers in Tanzania, according to a recent issue of AFRICA HEALTH MARKETLETTER, say the malaria situation is getting worse. Whereas, in the past, urban areas and highlands were regarded as free from malaria that concept has now been quashed. A study by the National Institute for Medical Research has stated that the main reasons for failure in malaria control in urban areas include financial, managerial, personnel and administrative constraints. Environmental degradation has been blamed for the upsurge in malaria in the Eastern Usambara mountains. A vector control Training Centre has been set up in Tanga.

On the subject of malaria parasite resistance the NIMR states that, provided a full dose is taken, chloroquine is still effective in treating most malaria attacks. Camoquine appears to clear the parasite better than chloroquine, although, on follow-up, parasites may reappear. Resistance to Fansidar is said to be extremely rare.

Meanwhile, according to the AFRICA ECONOMIC DIGEST (February 25) the Third Phase of the Malaria Control Project between the Governments of Japan and Tanzania was signed on February 11th. The US$ 2.34 million project is aimed at reducing malaria prevalence and improving environmental conditions and health education.

RECORD COFFFEE EXPORTS
The AFRICA ECONOMIC DIGEST (March 18, 1991) quoted the Tanzania Coffee Marketing Board as stating that the highest coffee exports in five years were achieved in the first four months of the 1990/91 coffee season when 326,075 bags of clean coffee were sold compared with 190,448 sold in the same period in the previous year. The International Coffee Organisation has reported that, during the first two months of the season (October-November last year), Tanzania’s coffee exports recorded the highest increase, compared to the previous two years, of all mild arabica coffee producers in the world.

STRENGTHENING THE PETROLEUM DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
WORLD BANK NEWS reports that a US$ 44 million IDA Credit recently made to Tanzania will help the Government to finance improvements to the petroleum distribution system so that businesses, farms and households in outlying areas will have better access to a reliable supply of petroleum products. Petroleum storage depots will be constructed, rail transport will be upgraded (the cost of using rail transport is about three times less then the present practice of using mainly heavy trailer trucks which damage the roads) an off-shore terminal will be built at Tanga and other distribution facilit1es will be developed. But one of the main contributions of the project will be to encourage the return of the private sector in petroleum distribution.

Years of neglect are said to have left a crumbling petroleum distribution system with little incentive for local subsidiaries of international oil companies to maintain or expand their facilities, of rundown roads, shortages of spare parts, dilapidated petrol stations and retail outlets and inadequate storage facilities. As a result, fuel shortages are common in Tanzania’s agricultural regions and in land cities and this is acting as a constraint on increasing agricultural production. The article went on to say that, although the prospects are good for finding oil in the Rift Valley and in the coastal basins, none has been discovered yet. In the meantime the country must import all of the crude oil needed.

IMPORTS OF BIRDS
Reporting on a campaign to ban the import into UK of exotic wild birds the SUNDAY TIMES (May 19, 1991) noted the sequel to the case which followed the death through suffocation of more than 1,000 birds, including flamingos, which were found dead on arrival in London from Dar es Salaam. The British government was said to have subsequently suspended imports of birds from Tanzania after the government there refused to allow British Ministry of Agriculture officials to inspect conditions in Dar. At a court hearing the airline carrying the birds, KLM, was fined £20,000.

PROPPING UP THE CLOVE PRICE
News from Indonesia in a recent issue of the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE will cause further anxiety to the vital clove industry of Zanzibar devastated by the fall in prices. According to the article, Indonesian state banks have earmarked up to US$ 250 million to help boost local clove prices. A newly established Clove Support and Marketing Board has been given the monopoly to buy cloves from village cooperatives and sell them. mostly to makers of pungent, clove-flavoured Cigarettes.

200,000 BOTTLES PER DAY
Once production starts on a new production line at Tanzania Breweries it would be able to bottle 8,000 crates of 25 bottles each per day, enough to meet increasing beer demand in Dar es Salaam and neighbouring regions, according to the April 1 issue of the AFRICA ECONOMIC DIGEST. It is hoped that the beer brewed on the new line will replace Pilsner beer imported from Kenya. A second bottling plant was due to become operational by the end of April 1991. The cost of the new plants, imported from Czechoslovakia. was US$ 3.8 million. Due to severe leakages of filling machines in the old bottling plants the Breweries were losing about 20% of their output worth the equivalent of US$ 24.7 million annually.

SOUTH AFRICA AND TANZANIA
According to the French language magazine LA LETTRE DE L’OCEAN INDIEN (21/1/91) several South African businessmen have been visiting Tanzania recently to study the possibility of commercial exchanges between the two countries. Some of them have been authorised to invest in Tanzania but no official publicity has been given to this decision. Already numerous South African products are circulating in Tanzania. The Dar es Salaam Daily News was said to have reported that shops in Mbeya were ‘regorgaient’ with South African products. BMW and Mercedes cars assembled in South Africa were said to be in use in Dar es Salaam and the parastatal TAMEX in association with De Beers of South Africa was said to have concluded an agreement for diamond exploration near to Lake Victoria.

PRIVATE TUITION
AFRICA EVENTS (April 1991) has described the new government restriction on private tuition of school children as ‘bizarre’. The Tanzanian Minister of Education recently ruled that teachers must not hold tuition sessions after school hours in return for a fee. The Minister bases his argument on egalitarianism. In his view children whose parents are too poor to apply for extra lessons will be at a disadvantage and will be no match for their mates from more privileged homes. But, writes AFRICA EVENTS, this is a complex problem the Minister has sought to overcome with a simple solution.

Some students have to trudge five miles to school, are not sure to get a square meal when they get back home, have no privacy to do their homework and might have to miss evening study because their parents expect them to fetch water. Other students are dropped at school in a family car, have a nice working environment at home for private study and are never asked to do house chores because there are servants.

The article goes on: ‘Much as one might sympathise with the Minister’s concern for equality in the classroom, any effort on his part to tackle the larger question of inequality in society is bound to fly in the face of the new official mood for individual enterprise. The Leadership Code, a cornerstone of the Arusha Declaration, the ideological anchor of social and economic policy since independence, has just been scrapped. Is the Minister of Education on the same wavelength as the bigwigs in the ruling party and the Cabinet? ….

Getting the schools better equipped, improving the teacher/pupil ratio and motivating teachers would be a far more positive stab at the core (of the educational problem) than the nit picking and scratching on the periphery that he is currently tied down to’.

CHEAP SUITS
BUSINESS TRAVELLER has been advising its readers on where they can find
the most reasonably priced mens’ suits. Prices were given in US dollars and the average for UK was said to be $290. Tanzania came out as the second lowest (Ghana was the lowest). It was stated that a suit can be bought in Tanzania for $80. The highest priced suits were in Japan – $608 .

Tanzania also received prominence when it was found to be the cheapest place (36 countries were included in the sample) for the suit to be dry-cleaned. Taking 100 as the price of dry cleaning in Britain, the cost in Tanzania was estimated to be 16.5. Switzerland was the most expensive at 135.

WHO PAYS THE PIPER?
In issue no 37 of this Bullet in, under the heading ‘Tanzania in the Media’ we quoted from an article in AFRICA EVENTS under the heading ‘Plenty of Sulk, Little Bulk’ referring to dissident Tanzanian political groups in London.

In its February 1991 issue AFRICA EVENTS published a rejoinder which it stated had been published earlier in the September issue of Zanzibar Newsletter, an organ of the UK-based Zanzibar Organisation. The rejoinder stated that frivolity should not be a characteristic of a periodical claiming to report on events with a degree of seriousness. It went on ‘It is said that “who pays the piper calls the tune” and the magazine has of late been obviously extra cautious trying to avoid treading on the corns of the waning Mwalimu … . the subscription arrears blocked in Dar es Salaam have a sobering effect on Journalistic objectivity …. it is deplorable to see the first come-together of various political groupings dedicated to liberate Tanzania from a thirty-year dictatorship (being ridiculed) …. unless of course it is the writer’s intention to maintain the status quo in Tanzania when the whole world is moving towards freedom and progress …. the Tanzania Democratic Front has two aims: the democratisation of Tanzania and the liberation of Zanzibar . . . . pouring petty journalese cynicism on these laudable aims serves only to perpetuate dictatorship in Tanzania and to prolong the agony of occupation in Zanzibar ‘.

A NEW INTERNATIOINAL TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation has announced that a US$ 6.0 million international telephone exchange, which will connect Tanzania with the outside world, began on February 12th 1991. This was stated in the March 4 issue of t he AFRICA ECONOMIC DIGEST. The new exchange has a capacity of 2,000 trunks compared with the previous capacity of 650.

ALL THE TRAPPINGS OF AN AMERICAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN
‘The bunting is out, the cheerleaders sing and the dirt roads have been specially graded’ . So began an article in the London TIMES (May 20, 1991) reporting on the visit to a project they are sponsoring at Mareu in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro by former President Jimmy Carter, father of the Green Revolution, 77-year old Dr Norman Borlaug and former Nigerian President Obasanjo who has submitted his candidacy for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations. Finance for the project comes from wealthy Japanese philanthropist Ryoichi Sasakawa.

The project’s implementation was delayed for three years until the government was able to guarantee fertiliser supplies and a change in its agricultural pricing policy. Starting with 67 management training plots in 1989 the project now administers 4,286 in 78 villages in the area around Mareu. Each participating farmer has a demonstration plot of one acre and yields up to 12 to 28 bags of maize are being achieved compared with a local average of 4 to 8 bags. The idea is for other farmers to copy the success of the demonstration plots.

BWANA MSA
‘Zanzibar has just lost one of the greatest treasures in the literary world. Few are those amongst Swahili readers who do not know of Bwana Mohamed Said Abdalla, Monsieur MSA – which is also the name of the main character in his crime novels’. So reported URAFIKI TANZANIA in its January-March 1991 issue. ‘The two personalities resembled each other and both were always found smoking their pipes…. Monsieur MSA had a remarkable ability in handling words and through his many books his name will live forever.’

TANZANIA TRIUMPHANT
This was the first time in over 15 years that any Tanzanian soccer team be it at national or club level had brought home some sort of silverware to the soccer-mad Tanzanians. So began AFRICA EVENTS’ account of the triumph of Tanzania in the East and Central Club Championship. It was the famous Simba Sports Club of Dar es Salaam that was crowned king of club soccer in East and Central Africa when they trounced the much feared Sports Club Ville of Uganda 3-0. Simba were the first winners of the trophy, way back in 1974, in an era when they provided strong rivalry to the other well known team Young African. Would, asked Africe Events, Simba’s win usher in a new ere of success for Tanzanian soccer?

OBITUARIES

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SIR REX SURRIDGE
In its recent obituary on Sir Rex Surridge, a former Acting Governor of Tanganyika, who died recently at the age of 91, the Daily Telegraph recalled how he had fought vehemently, in the late 1940’s, against the ‘Groundnuts Scheme’. The idea had been to plant groundnuts on a large scale in the ‘rocky wilderness’ of Tanganyika. Surridge recalled that huge tractors as big as houses were used to clear the bush; fertliser was ordered – on one occasion a convoy of lOO-ton railway trucks arrived carrying gunny bags containing what was thought to be urea but was found, after it had been spread on the land, to be cement. The Scheme was eventually abandoned at a cost of more than f19 million.

Sir Rex was standing in for two years during the illness of the then Governor, Sir William Battershill, affectionately known as ‘Battered Bill’.

CANON RONALD THOMAS COX
Father Cox, as he was most widely known, was born in 1912 and died on 23/1/01. He will be remembered well both in the Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania and also in the Parish of Ermington in Devon, UK.

After serving his curacy in Gorton, Manchester, he offered himself to the missionary society founded by David Livingstone, the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and was posted to the Diocese of Masasi in 1944 where he remained until 1972.

The full story of those 28 years can never be told but he has left a tremendous legacy in buildings, and, such was his personality, that no doubt he is even now a legend among Tanzanians. ‘Bwana Kelele’ (Mr Noise) had a powerful voice which went with his physique as well as his generous and enthusiastic Christian service to those around him, regardless of the cost to himself.

Amongst other places he served at Newala (1944), Chidya, Nachingwea (1952-56) and Mtwara (1956-62) before becoming Procurator of Masasi Cathedral in 1963 while Trevor Huddleston was Bishop of Masasi. Bishop Huddleston has said about those years at Masasi “I can’t imagine I would have achieved anything without him. He was a ‘Jack of all trades’ and a master of each one”.

Bishop Huddleston’s first priority on arriving in Masasi was to rebuild the Theological Training College, St Cyprian’s at a beautiful site on the Rondo Plateau. Father Cox was given the task of building the chapel, an octagonal building with seven stained glass windows telling the story of creation designed by Jonathan Kingdon. Bishop Huddleston writes “If of Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral, it could be said ‘Si monumentum requiris circumspice’ (if you went a memorial look around you) so could it be said of the glorious little chapel et the Rondo, a fitting memorial to Ronnie”

Father Cox also built a new Nursing School, children’s ward end operating theatre et Nkomaindo Hospital. There were village churches rebuilt; Mtwara and Nachingwea churches; the Diocesan Library; the girl’s department at Mahiwa Farm School (now CCM); and many other smaller buildings.

Leaving Africa was a great wrench for Father Cox but he proved equal to the challenge and served the Perish of Ermington well from 1973 to 1988 when he retired. In Ermington there was undoubtedly a small corner of Masasi. He was made an honorary Canon of Masasi Cathedral end Commissary to Bishop Richard of Masasi in 1984. Without neglecting his parishioners, even inspiring them to help, he continued to work tirelessly for Tanzania and was planning a visit to Masasi in July this year.
Christine Lawrence

(Donations in memory of Father Cox will go to Masasi. P1ease send to Britain-Tanzania Society, 45 Heath Hurst Road London NW3 2RU)

REVIEWS

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IN TELEKI’S FOOTSTEPS. A WALK ACROSS EAST AFRICA. Tom Heston. – Macmillan. London 1989.

This book recounts the remarkable journey of the author, first on a bicycle end then on foot, between February end December 1983, from Pangani in Tanzania to Mombasa in Kenya where he celebrated the end of his journey with a cold Tusker beer on the verandah of the Castle Hotel. Tom Heaton had been working for the BBC in Kenya for 10 years and at the age of fifty, after living a luxurious but boring life in Kenya, decided that the only way for him to unravel some of the mysteries of East Africa was to travel simply. He hoped to replace the envy and suspicion he had previously experienced in travels in Kenya with sympathy and curiosity.

After much deliberation Heaton decided that the route for his journey, some 3,500 miles, would retrace the route taken by two 19th century explorers, Count Samuel Teleki and his travelling companion Ludwig von Hoehnel, the first Europeans to pass through Kikuyuland and penetrate the area North of Lake Baringo. Heaton set out with the support only of his wife Mary. Many of his friends predicted that his fate would be unsavoury, ‘the thugs of Kikuyuland will pounce end strip you naked … you will be speared by the Hamar Kuhe from Ethiopia and your testicles turned into necklace beads’. Heaton, arguing that he was as likely to be run over by a bus in Oxford Street, set off from Pangani with his guide Desmond (a potential troublemaker, partly due to the fact that he regarded every black face with suspicion) heading for Mauia on the left bank of the Ruvu river, where Teleki had made his first camp.

About a quarter of the book deals with the Tanzanian part of the journey. It tends to be rather superficial but good on description.

Heaton writes about the ‘dusty weariness’ of a Church in Mkuzi, the ‘sprawling slum’ Muheza, the never failing generosity of the people, the Usambara mountain range – ‘its stately gazelle-dun buttresses jutting out as though through rents in a vast curtain of gold, blue, orange and green velvet thrown loosely over its mass’; the Butu forest in Same district – ‘some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen’.

A chapter is entitled ‘Marealle’. Heaton talked in Moshi to the son of the famous Chagga Chief Merealle – ‘not only had his father befriended Teleki. but he had also become involved with the notorious German adventurer Carl Peters.’ Heaton refers at each stop to Teleki’s earlier experiences. He also has something to say about present politics. ‘Arriving from socialist Tanzania in capitalist Kenya is like stepping out of Albania into Greece – on one side lies a land of sapped energies and respectful greetings; on the other you crash into a Hogarthian tide of men and women seething all around you … a land where men are judged not by what they are but by what they have.’

His travels are full of incident; losing his bicycle temporarily under a Mango tree, being attacked by a swarm of African bees (‘I was carpeted from head to foot … but ten minutes later I gradually realised that it was not only their feet I could feel, but their tongues; the bees were drinking my sweat’); facing a bush fire and having to pedal away as fast as he could.

The dangers and disasters which are recalled in detail together with his humour and understanding of many of the people he met and situations he found himself in, make this an extremely readable book . Patricia Diop

THE GUNNY SACK by Moez G Vassanji. Heinemann. 1990. F4.95.

BLACK, AMBER, WHITE by J K Williams. Churchman Publishing. 1990. £5.95.

Black, Amber, White is a disappointing book. It promises well, purporting to give an account of Tanzanian legal services in which the author worked from 1951 until his retirement in 1965. It should therefore be packed with incident and excitement. Here was a colonial country looking forward to independence and relying heavily on its courts and justices to steer the way forward. The first years of independence, in particular , must have been full of interest and many new developments in the law.

Unfortunately Williams does not catch the flavour of these years in a meaningful way. He tells us a good deal about himself, his family and his daily travels but rarely looks at the wider scene. When he does so he says very little. Even the accident with his gun in Arusha, when he could have killed his wife, seems somehow undramatic. So often in the book it is because his style is flat and proseic. His book revolves so much around himself and his rather small world that it does not see the huge questions hurtling around him. What is the role of the judiciary in a fast developing, newly independent state? Whet powers should be given to the judiciary and what different powers to government? Should capital punishment still be carried out for the most serious crimes? There is no shortage of questions . The real need is for some stimulating answers, and these we do not get. Those readers who want a plain, unvarnished tale of how Wlll1ems spent his colonial years might find it mildly interesting biography. But if they are more demanding and want the wider picture, they will, alas, be as hungry and unfulfilled at the end as at the beginning.

The Gunny Sack, by contrast, is a marvellous piece of writing. Salim Juma, a Tanzanian Asian, is left a gunny sack by his mystical grand aunt. Nicknamed ‘Shehru’, this gunny pours out for our entertainment, and enlightenment a huge number of characters and incidents which mirror superbly the Asian experience in East Africa over several generations.

The novel has three great qualities which should commend it to readers far and wide. First and foremost it has from the very early chapters the most beautiful word-pictures of life in Tanganyika, especially before the first world war. His description of the two ‘jewels’ – the German farmers Herr Graff and Herr Weiss – are very funny and sad at the same time, and convey with such precision the whole flavour of German rule that we are given a remarkable insight into a world that seems now so far away, and yet shaped the world we have now. And the menace of that German rule is conveyed so swiftly. “Sometimes Guu Refu’s arrival was preceded by news that he was on the lookout for more men for a special project; and as soon as the lanky figure with the sunhat and the rifle was sited, towering over his Askaris, men and boys scurried towards the forest, at which sight the German and his mercenaries stomped after them in their heavy boots, cutting off their paths to safety.”

And in these pictures Vassanji has used caricature, satire, and occasional farce with marvellous effect. This is the hallmark of good, perhaps even great writing.

The second remarkable quality of this novel is its very clear, direct style. Vassanji has such sure mastery of his material, and even moral depth, that he does not need to play tricks. Above all his work has breadth and vision. He knows his people so well that he can glimpse a wider world beyond them and set his memories in such a firm context that they live absolutely, on their own terms. Fine style and extraordinary use of language are the keys to his art in which there is no deception. His publishers seek to spread his fame by subtitling his novel ‘Africa’s answer to ‘Midnight’s Children’. I have news for them; they have undersold him. This novel is considerably more powerful and much more clear in its vision than anything done by Mr Salman Rushdie.

Its final strength is that it tells a great story and holds the reader from first to last. Vassanji is quite simply a fine story teller, in addition to all his other achievements. Even his treatment of Tanzanian independence, and the views of Julius Nyerere, never get bogged down in political sterility. His work has all the integrity of an artist. He never lets his story wait for second hand analysis or sociological dispute. Here is, in essence, a fine vision of four generations of life in this Asian community, and there is very little indeed which compares with it, in depth of thought and the sheer compassion of its colourful prose. Get it – and read it IMMEDIATELY.
N. K. Thomas.

(The author of the Gunny Sack is the recipient of the 1990 Commonwealth Literature First Novel Award. According to Ahmed Rajab writing in AFRICA EVENTS Vassanji now joins Ngugi and Abdirazak Gurnah as the finest East African novelists writing in English at present – Editor).

BED IN THE BUSH by Wllliam Heleane. The Book Guild Ltd. 1991. £12.95

William Heleane, a new Zealand District Commissioner in colonial Tanganyika has written an authentic and amusing novel, based largely on his own up-country experiences in the decade preceding independence. The intriguing title is taken from Robert Louis Stevensons’s romantic poem ‘The Vagabond’ and indeed a golden thread of romanticism runs through the book which vividly portrays the sights, sounds end scent of the African bush.

The precise location of his imaginary Magonda District is anyone’s guess but from various clues tantalisingly scattered through the pages it would appear to be in the old Central Province – an amalgum perhaps of Manyoni and Kondoa Irangi given enough poetic licence to shift the railway a bit!
The day-to-day life in this archetypal ‘one-men station’ is faithfully depicted in a series of exciting scenes set in his hero Stephen Ashton’s time.

The often unconscious strain of being on duty 24 hours a day is well expressed in descriptions of the problems of providing food and accommodation for a variety of visitors appearing at short notice by road, rail or even air in response to constant crises of Mau Mau, leopard men murders, man eating lions and plague, and the more mundane claims of increased cassava and cotton production, fish farming and VIP visits….

The author paints sympathetic portraits of a greet variety of characters ranging from the larger than life European officers, missionaries whose latest eccentricities, here accentuated by their relative isolation in the bush, to Asian merchants and Africans old and new.

Indeed Mr Heleane shows great insight in understanding not only the tribal peasant farmers and their chiefs with whom he mostly has to deal but also with the growing number of educated African administrative officers, nurses and so on who were entrusted to his care for training and guidance.

Despite the obligatory legal disclaimer et the front of the book some of the characters seem vaguely familiar !

A delightfully hopeless love affair runs through the book lending a more precise relevance and poignancy to the excellent title. There are some lovely descriptive passages which evoke dream-like memories. ‘As I gazed at the early evening shadows on the plain I became aware of a blue-tinged veil over the land below me. This phenomenon was visible from high ground in this part of Africa quite often in the dry season. It never failed to stir a shudder of delight and wonder in me. I gloried in this one for a few minutes end the fairy shade slowly dissolved and disappeared and it was dark’.

It may seem churlish to refer to a few proof-reading errors such as ‘Provisional’ for ‘Provincial’, Agriculture end Education Officers, the Swahili ‘Anasemu’ for ‘Anasema’, the German ‘Dectch’ for ‘Deutsch’ and so on. Incidentally, the King’s African Rifles was certainly not the local equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, whilst Tanganyika became independent in 1961 not 1962. These minor errors apart, however, I can safely commend this book to older readers who wish to relive the past and to the younger ones who will read how it was from the ‘horses’ mouth’ . Randal Sadleir

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL POLICY IN TANZANIA. Felician S. K. Tungaraza. Journal of Social Development in Africa. Vol 5. No 2. 1990.

This paper analyses the development of social policy in Tanzania from 1961. From then until 1967 social policy was urban based and aimed to influence economic growth; afterwards it was oriented towards the broader population. Social policy has been determined by economics and politics. Amongst the sub-sectors of social policy throughout the period up to 1983 the health sector had the highest real growth (11. 7%) with education second at 7.4% – DRB.

WALUGURU TRADERS IN DAR ES SALAAM. Paper by Jan Kees van Donge of the Agricultural University, Wageningen, Netherlands presented to the African Studies Conference, Birmingham, 11-13 September 1990.

This paper contains few figures. It concentrates on the business careers and life stories of migrants to Dar es Salaam from the Mgeta division of the Uluguru mountains, south of Morogoro. It is thus both easy to read and fascinating to follow.

It begins by comparing the various other ways 1n which contemporary African society has been studied impersonal economic mechanisms, capitalist development, entrepreneurial behaviour. The paper points out how these various factors work out in practice. Virtually everybody in the area trades from time to time; the backbone of the trade is vegetables grown in the mountains and subsequently sold in Dar es Salaam.

As the story of the various individuals who were studied unfolds certain factors are repeated over and over again; unreliabllty of income; land scarcity in Mgeta; stiff competition; the physical hardship of the life of the traders; the unstable partnerships between new entrants and more established traders even though often framed in kinship terms; the constant threat of bankruptcy; the ambiguous relationship with government authorities and the frequent raids by the police; the widespread ambition to avoid physical wage labour; the aspiration to obtain a legitimate stall from which to sell; and, the totally ingrained value of individualism with, at the same time, a very great need for cooperation to survive.

Some of the traders are successful. Gaudens Thomas is one of the big men at the market. He tried many other things before becoming first an illegal trader and then having his own legal stall. He now has two houses. He is secure! – ORB.

PERSISTENT PRINCIPLES AMIDST CRISIS. C K Omari (Editor). Uzima Press for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. 1989. £8.95 (incl. p&p)

The first major benefit in this study is that it should have been published at all in East Africa, at a price that gives it a chance of being accessible to students and decision makers in Tanzania. The Editor, his contributors and the publishers are to be congratulated on making this possible.

The study is a great deal more than the title implies – in fact a comprehensive, in depth analysis by leading Tanzanian commentators of the economic and structural problems of the Tanzanian economy over the 30 years since Independence. The context is comparative analysis – Tanzania’s ideology and resulting policies against real economic development problems. However, the studies as presented, with the exception of a useful presentation of extracts from Nyerere’s writings on Tanzanian economic development and a less useful theoretical/ideological analysis of agricultural and rural development policy by Maganya, concentrate on a rigorous empirical analysis of structural, economic and financial problems in the economy’s development. The main focus is on agriculture but the logic of comprehensive analysis is followed through in informative chapters on population growth, the balance of trade, industrial development and financial and budgetary policy. Presentations are academic in the best sense of the word – analysed in depth and carefully documented – but intelligible to the lay reader.

The study should become essential reading in all undergraduate courses at the University of Dar es Salaam. It should also concern aid agencies and the officials of the IMF and the World Bank, as an example of a genre all too absent from debate on Structural Adjustment and Transformation Policies – African analysis of African problems. The difficulties created by this lack of input are now gradually being recognised, for example in the recently launched African Capacity Building Initiative, but will take time to work through.

The one major criticism that could be made is of the failure to move from exhaustive analysis of causes and symptoms to prescriptions for reform. For example, on the ‘agricultural/economic crisis’ that has dogged Tanzania for the last 15 years, both Miti and Omad provide excellent and comprehensive analyses of alternative causes drought, collectivisation/villagisation, population growth, inappropriate technology, relative emphasis between cash and food crop production and availability of finance. Hesitation in going on to policy prescription is understandable as the choice and solutions are so difficult. But more effort could hove been made. Even the one article that concentrates on policy – Wagoo’s critique of the IMF package for Tanzania – sticks very much to analysis. Someone, and preferably a Tanzanian expert, has to take the lead in defining reform programmes. Not least of the reasons for policy definition is the psychological need to move beyond the extremely depressing picture presented of current economic reality.

One last small but valuable addition that could be made to any reprint. Some of the authors are well known, some are not; the overall impact would benefit from brief biographical notes on contributors.
Gsrth Glentworth

(The above book is available from Leishman and Taussig, 2b Westgate, Notts, Southwell, Notts – Editor)

TAXING DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA: WHY MUST WOMEN PAY? Janet Bujra. Review of African Political Economy. No 47/48. 1990
LIMITATIONS ON WOMEN MANAGERS’ FREEDOM TO NETWORK IN THE TANZANIAN CIVIL SERVICE. Wendy Hollway. University of Bradford. Paper presented at the African Studies Conference, Birmingham. September 1990.

Janet Bujra uses the issue of development tax to examine the role of women in the Tanzanian economy, and particularly in its development. She combines some familiar questions about feminism and development in a fascinating study of the Tanzanian experience. The argument for a feminist perspective is made against a background of ‘Womens Studies’ in Tanzania; she highlights the tensions between the perception that the issue of womens position is a unique factor in society and an analysis which includes it in a broader context of class and national exploitation.

Tanzania’s explicitly socialist development policy implied greater equality for women and Nyerere himself drew attention to this. At first glance the Ujamaa policy of village production provided an opportunity for greater participation by women, but Bujra shows that, in fact, it added to the burden of women, while the policy continued to be dictated by men. Other development policies, too, ignored the particular role of women in Tanzania particularly as primary subsistence providers and fuelwood gatherers. Many of the classic development errors caused by consulting men, when women were the relevant group, were repeated in Tanzania – with adverse consequences for both the development programme and women.

Bujra investigates possible solutions to this problem, including the ‘Women in Development’ Way. However, this concentration on the role of women can be itself divisive, by concentrating on the ‘token’ women involved, without a more holistic approach to the community. Just as the theories of women’s role had concentrated on different aspects, the practical WID approach could be disappointing, and be hijacked by particular groups and classes of women for their own advantage. Bujra shows throughout her article that Tanzanian women have traditionally done more work and exercised less political influence than men. Moves to accelerate development, even when these were overtly socialist or aimed at women, merely exacerbeted this imbalance. Thus Bujra concludes that the inclusion of women in liability for a development tax on grounds of their equality is unconvincing – they already pay a tax in kind through their greater contribution. Indeed a tax would reinforce the iniquities already present in the economy.

The reinforcement of existing power structures is the theme of Wendy Hollway’s paper on networking in the Tanzanian civil service. This details a familiar story of social systems which provide opportunities for advancement for men and from which women are excluded. This exclusion is due partly to domestic responsibilities and partly to inaccessibility because of social custom. Hollway reports on attempts to remedy this through women’s networking within the civil service – where it has had mixed results. However the success of such groups in promoting women’s careers depends in turn on the access which the groups have to those in a position of power and influence.

Both these papers analyse the role of women in Tanzania, and attempt to remedy inequalities of opportunity and contribution. Both show what a slow and painstaking task it is to redress imbalances as deeprooted as these. Those who hold power (in this case men) are unlikely to yield it willingly, and will continue to use existing structures and new developments to reinforce their advantage.
Catherine Price

CHOICE OF TECHNIQUES AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA: THE CASE OF THE SUGAR DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. Samuel E. Chambua. Canadian Journal of African Studies. Vol 24. No 1. 1990.

This detailed seventeen-page study examines the factors which have influenced the choice of techniques of production in Tanzanian public enterprises with specific examples taken from sugar factory operations. The author begins by describing the conventional way in which managers choose the most appropriate technique. He goes on to describe the history of the sugar industry. The first company – the Danish-owned Tanzanian Planting Company was established in Arusha-Chini in 1930 and its first factory, with a capacity of 350 tons of cane per day, began operations in 1936. Then followed the Madhvani-owned Kagera factory (1958), the Kilombero Sugar Company in Morogoro district (owned by the Colonial Development Corporation from Britain, a Netherlands company and the Standard Bank) in 1962, the Greek owned Mtibwa Estates in 1963. In 1974 the parastatal Sugar Development Corporation took over the whole industry.

The author describes the various efforts made to make Tanzania self sufficient in sugar production and then analyses the two main sugar producing processes. He argues that the technique chosen, which involved heavy capital investment, was not the most appropriate. He describes the problems the industry has faced because of such factors as tied foreign aid, lack of standardisation, under utilisation of plant, low production of cane, shortage of labour and so on – DRB.

RESPONSES FROM BELOW. A TALE OF TWO TANZANIAN VILLAGES. Goren Hyden. Food Policy. August 1990.

Weak institutions are often cited as a major constraint to overcoming hunger in Africa. The author of this too brief six-page aper spent time in 1988 in two Villages – Mung’elenge on the main trunk road in Iringa region and Bulungura in a distant corner of Muleba district, Kagera Region, studying local institutions. He writes of the ‘parental authority’ of the CCM Party, the assumption that a village consists of 250 households organised into cells of ten with a village government or committee of about 25 (with obvious variations between villages) but noted that in his two villages the committees never met. But in Mung’elenge official institutions (including the womens and youth organisations) did play a prominent role in village life, partially because there were revenue earning activities including a sunflower project, beer sales and ox carting. In Bulungura, by contrast, an almost non-existent revenue limited the scope of village government. They tended to rely on ‘home grown’ institutions. Hyden asks who is responsible for food security. Is it a communal responsibility or not? Answer: In Mung’elenge, where weather conditions are good, it is an individual responsibility; in Bulungura which is less favoured climatically it is communal.

The author concludes by noting the disappointing results from the government’s desire to have uniform institutional structures all over the country and the great institutional adaptability that this has brought about in Tanzania. ‘There is much more than meets the eye’ – DRB