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

LETTERS

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In Bulletin No 33 in describing DANTAN it was said that the Britain-Tanzania Society is aged 11 years. In fact it is now 16 years since its inauguration. In Bulletin No 37 the Obituary Notice for Sir Bernard de Bunsen describes correctly how, after preliminary exploration from 1972, the Society was set up in January 1975. The recent AGM on 12 October 1990 was the fifteenth AGM and related to the year 1989-1990.
Mary Boyd
Oops! Editor

THE SOUTHERN AFRICA STUDIES TRUST
You recently published an article by my son on some archaeological sites in Tanzania which I hope your readers enjoyed. I am a trustee of the Southern Africa Studies Trust which supports the work of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of York. For our purposes Tanzania, as a member of the SADCC, is within the Centre’s area of expertise. The Centre is the only significant multi-disciplinary academic unit in Europe concerned exclusively with teaching about and research into the affairs of Southern Africa. It has also helped to build an important documentary archive and regularly organises conferences and seminars. Its teaching is at the post-graduate level but currently, although the demand for places remains high, student numbers are restricted by lack of funds and scholarships for students from Britain and Africa. Further information about the Centre and Trust is obtainable from the University of York, Heslington, York YOl 5DD. Telephone 0904 433670.
Eric Vines
(Mr Eric Vines is the former British Ambassador to Mozambique).

ELECTION RESULTS – MWINYI RE-ELECTED

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“Plurality?” asked the old Tanzanian, looking genuinely perplexed. “Does that mean more than one wife?”

No, that was not what it meant, I explained. It meant that a country should have two or more political parties so that people could have a choice. His eyes lit up. What was the point of that, he asked. Two wives would mean more children, more hands to till the land. Political parties would not do that. So wrote David Martin on the election campaign trail in Masasi (The Independent, November 3, 1990). He went on: ‘In the election campaign here last week the issue of political pluralism was never mentioned … in Dar es Salaam it is a slightly different story. The Law Society voted overwhelmingly in September for a multi-party system and the newspapers published articles and letters debating the issue. In one article, a British academic dismissed advocates of pluralism as “middle level Tanzanians and frustrated professional and business people who feel they have been politically marginalised”.

The elections were held on October 28th 1990; when the results were announced, there were few surprises, except when it was all over and the President chose his Cabinet. But first, the results.

95.5%
“Your Excellency the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Your Excellency Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, CCM Vice-Chairman, Your Excellency the Prime Minister and the First Vice-President, Ndugu CCM Secretary General, Your Excellencies, the ministers, ambassadors and the government leaders and all guests ….. (Judge Lameck Mfalila, Chairman of the Election Committee speaking at the Diamond Jubilee Hall in Dar es Salaam on November 3rd 1990)… the number of Yes votes is 5,195,124 which is equivalent to 95.5% of all votes cast” (prolonged tumultuous applause, song). Thus was the popular Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the sole candidate, re-elected as President of Tanzania.”

74.7%
5,441,286 people voted which represented 74.7% of all Tanzanians registered to vote.

97. 74%
Dr Salmin Amour won his election as President of Zanzibar with the remarkable total of 97.74% but one third of the electorate did not turn up at the polling stations. The Zanzibar elections also returned the son of the First President of Zanzibar Sheikh Abeid Karume. The son, Amani, won the Rabeho seat.

MORE THAN THIRTY M.P’s LOSE THEIR SEATS
The biggest casualties of the elections were the veteran politicians Paul Bomani who lost his Mwanza seat and Lucy Lameck who held a National seat. Other casualties included the Dar es Salaam and Mwanza Regional Commissioners – Major General Kimario and Mr Timothy Shindika. Some thirty Members of Parliament lost their seats.

THE BIG SURPRISE
London’s loss is Tanzania’s gain. In the short time he served as High Commissioner the dynamic and hard working Mr John Malecela put Tanzania on the map in London. He was to be seen everywhere and usually taking an active part in what was going on. It was therefore a complete surprise when he first postponed an address he planned to give at the Africa Centre until January 1991 and then, after a rapid departure for Dar es Salaam, cancelled it altogether. He had become Prime Minister and First Vice-President of Tanzania!

AFRICA EVENTS wrote ‘Malecela’s departure from London has provoked a frisson of mixed feelings amongst his ex-colleagues at the at the High Commission …. they are thrilled about his new appointment but saddened because his promotion has ended an era distinguished by an unrivalled zing of benign and caring leadership. He is remembered as a man, rich in dignified humility and untouched by hubris.’

OTHER CHANGES
There are six new faces in the new Cabinet and five new Ministries (Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment, Science, Technology and Higher Education, Regional Administration and Local Government, Community Development, Women and Children, and Works). Six former ministers were dropped including, in addition to Paul Bomani, Pius Ng’wandu, and Stephen Wasira and five deputy ministers.

The President said that certain ministries had had too much work. He cited the former Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism. “Land had given us a big headache” he said and so he had split this Ministry into two. The same applied to the former Ministry of Communications, Transport and Works. “We realised that road construction had not been properly attended to … in future, emphasis will be placed on road construction and we will ensure that funds allocated for roads are not utilised elsewhere.” “We must move with the times” the President went on. Hence the new Ministries for the Environment and Science and Technology.

As far as Deputy ministers were concerned President Mwinyi said that he wanted to cut the numbers. He announced only seven initially. “We shall see if the need arises for more. This will become clear after we start working.”

THE NEW CABINET
Head of State and Minister of Defence – Ali Hassan Mwinyi

President’s Office:
Minister of State for Planning – Kighoma Malima
Minister of State for the Civil Service – Fatma Saidi Ali
Minister of State for Defence- Amran Mayagila

Prime Minister and First Vice-President – John Malecela
Minister of State – Edward Lowasa

Second Vice-President – Salmin Amour
Min. of State, Office of Second Vice-President – Temporarily vacant
Ministers Without Portfolio – Rashidi Kawawa, Horace Kolimba
Regional Admin and Local Government – Joseph Warioba
Finance – Stephen Kibona
Works – Nalaila Kiula
Communications and Transport – Jackson Makweta
Agric. Livestock Dev. and Cooperatives – Anna Abdullah
Industries and Trade – Cleopa Msuya
Water, Energy and Minerals – Jakaya Kikwete
Tourism, Nat. Resources and Environment – Abubakar Mdumia
Education and Culture – Charles Kabeho
Lands, Housing and Urban Development – Marcel Komanya
Health – Philemon Sarungi
Information and broadcasting – Benjamin Mkapa
Foreign Affairs and International Relations – Ahmed Hassan Diria
Science, Technol. and Higher Education – William Shija
Home Affairs – Augustine Mrema
Labour and youth Development – Joseph Rwegasira
Community Development, Women and Children – Anna Makinda

REACTIONS AND COMMENTS
NEW AFRICAN: Nothing seems to ruffle the single party monolith in Tanzania. The election results confirm that the CCM Party. though showing its age and conservatism is still in charge.

AFRICA EVENTS: President Mwinyi rides into the second and final lap of office on a wave of frothy public approval. Free from the trusses of doctrine and the ‘camaraderie culture’ of the previous era, he has bared the economy to market charms and has, with limited prospects of success, boldy hacked away at the sinews of corruption …. in 1985 President Mwinyi came to power to find Tanzania brick. Will he, when he goes in 1995, leave it marble?

The Dar es Salaam DAILY NEWS: The CCM National Executive Committee in Zanzibar met on November 16th to assess the economic and political situation in the Isles …. Pemba North was, between July and last month, hit by a wave of political banditry where Party offices were dynamited and people who were known to have registered for the polls had their houses and farms burnt ….

AMNESTY INTENATIONAL (September 1990): ‘Amnesty International is concerned by a wave of arrests in Zanzibar. The arrests, over 60 on Pemba alone, have come as the authorities have sought to counter an opposition boycott of preparations for the elections. Some of those arrested have been charged with public order offences. Others have been held without charge or trial, sometimes for only brief periods …’

The Dar es Salaam BUSINESS NEWS: ‘Salmin Amour inherits a tattered economy with faint signals of a fragile recovery and a political crisis that is far from healing …

AFRICA EVENTS: ‘The opposition in Zanzibar has succeeded in converting this years elections there into a referendum on the Union between the spice islands and the mainland. Despite all the limitations on its operation in a one-party state, with most of its prominent leaders under detention, and with enormous pressure applied by the government, the new President has been elected with the support of only 65% of the eligible voters, not the 98% plurality that the authorities claim …. In Pemba less than 40% of eligible voters registered … in the elections to the Zanzibar House of Representatives and the Union Parliament the Party National Executive Committee bypassed the choice made in district primaries including a number of the most effective incumbents … the polls as a whole failed to convey legitimacy and have merely exposed the deep fissure that exists in society in Zanzibar …‘
David Brewin

YOUTHS THRONG IRAQI EMBASSY

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Despite the Government order that the Iraqi Embassy in Dar es Salaam should stop recruiting Tanzanians to work in Iraq, hundreds of youths continued to throng the embassy premises yesterday (November 2nd 1990). The youths who flocked to the embassy as early as seven o’clock said they were optimistic about being recruited ‘although some big shots are against the recruitment’ some of them said.

Meanwhile, a number of readers have expressed their anger at the alleged illegal recruitment of Tanzanian youths to join the Iraqi army. One who had lived in Kuwait for 16 years said that Tanzanians should be warned of what they were likely to face in the Gulf . Although the Iraqi government was recruiting Tanzanians by luring them with cash, it had failed to pay its own soldiers for almost two years during the Iran-Iraq war. Several people also blamed the Iraqi government for using religion to condone its ambitions over oil-rich Kuwait. ‘Tanzanians will not only face religious humiliation but also discrimination in Iraq’ they added. Another caller was flabbergasted at how the Iraqi embassy had managed to recruit people without the government’s knowledge. ‘There is something fishy about the whole issue’ he said.

Meanwhile the Implementation Committee in Ukerewe District has condemned the recruitment of Tanzanian youths for military training in Iraq . The Committee claimed that if the tendency is not checked it stands to complicate national matters in the future – Daily News.

TANZANIA PROTESTS
Tanzania has protested to Iraq (November 2nd 1990) over reports that the Iraqi Embassy in Dar es Salaam has been recruiting Tanzanians to serve in the Iraqi army. A Tanzanian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Iraqi Ambassador, Mr Fauzi Ali al-Bander, had been told that any such recruitment should stop immediately. Tanzania has condemned the Iraqui invasion of Kuwait and called for an immediate withdrawal (Press agencies).

IRAQ DENIES THE REPORTS
The Iraqi Ambassador has denied the reports. He said some young Tanzanians, mostly from Zanzibar, had visited the embassy to express their support for Iraq during the Gulf crisis – Press agencies.

BODY BLOW Tanzania’s economy has suffered a body blow. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent tremors it sent to world oil prices have seen the Tanzanian fuel bill shoot up to 80% of its foreign exchange earnings. President Mwinyi had just visited the Emirates and had come back with handsome promises of aid. These have also dried up now – Africa Events.

(The sequel to these stories is not quite clear but we believe that no Tanzanians were in fact recruited – Editor)

SISAL – THE ‘WHITE GOLD’ OF TANZANIA – RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

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Sisal production by Tanzania has dropped significantly since the 1960’s and has stabilised over the last five years at approximately 30,000 tonnes of line fibre per annum. In 1989 approximately one third came from public sector estates of the Tanzania Sisal Authority (TSA) and the remaining two thirds from privately owned estates. Recently, obvious signs of a move towards increased demand have encouraged new investment in the industry and, with it, technical changes.

TECHNICAL CHANGES
Sisal has been processed traditionally by large stationery decorticators with effluent being removed by water pumped to the factories to wash the fibre. Transport costs for the collection of leaf have always been high in relation to the amount of sisal fibre extracted (about 4% dry fibre/leaf) and, in consequence, any way of reducing transport costs has been of interest to growers. During the 1970’s experimental work was carried out to develop a ‘mobile decorticator’ capable of radically reducing transport costs. Early machines were initially developed and constructed in Kenya by Mr Evan Spyropoulos. They met with a mixed and guarded reception mainly because of doubts about their reliability, their productivity and the quality of the fibre produced.

In the mid-eighties Spyropoulos entered into a partnership with Michael Dobell, a UK based entrepreneur, and, eventually, production moved from Mombasa to Chard in Somerset and the machine received a brand name – the ‘Crane’ mobile decorticator. The machine now offers sisal growers in Tanzania and elsewhere a cost effective alternative to the hauling of thousands of tonnes of leaf to machines designed, and often built, before the Second World War. The TSA has already invested in a number of the units which are driven by a 100-120 bhp tractor. They are operating with some success in the Central Line production area around Morogoro. Other sisal growers in Kenya and Tanzania are becoming increasingly interested in seeing how effective they will prove to be in the long term.

An alternative invention developed by Ralli Estates, a joint venture between the TSA and the UK’s ‘Chillington Corporation’, has been the utilisation of weight transfer hitches and large trailer units for leaf transport to traditional decorticator units. These have replaced the 6-7 tonne capacity lorry units on estates where no railway systems exist so that 95 bhp tractors can now be seen successfully hauling loads of 15-18 tonnes with little difficulty. Ralli Estates has also undertaken significant modifications to ‘Stork 20-12′ 8nd ’20-10’ decorticator units which they hope can significantly increase production efficiencies.

NEW INVESTMENTS FROM NON-TRADITIONAL SOURCES
The recent improvement in the price of sisal, as the green movement encourages greater use of organic hard fibres, has brought about a significant change in mood in the Tanzanian industry, aided by a number of devaluations of the Tanzania Shilling and a liberalisation of marketing regulations for sisal. The result has been increasing new investment in the industry from non-traditiona1 sources. Examples include the purchase of a number of estates by Tan Farms owned by the Chavda Group, the Ralli Estates investment by Chillington Corporation and the recently started Ngomezi project on TSA estates near Korogwe, funded by the German Government and managed by the British firm Booker Tate.

On the processing front the TSA has negotiated funding from Italy to rehabilitate machinery at their Ngomeni factory and hopes to see the Mruazi factory between Muheza and Korogwe reopened in due course.

All the spinners are short of fibre in all grades and there is an expectant atmosphere pervading the industry with hopes that production can rise to meet the demand that already exists. Processing capacity, once the Ngomeni factory has been refurbished, will total more than double the existing total production of fibre nation wide. Providing the market remains strong there seems little doubt that local processors will be keen to add value to all available production.

The prospects for sisal therefore look much better than they did a decade ago and one would hope that growers fibre could soon resume its place as the ‘White Gold’ of Tanzania.
Steve Vaux

Mr S.G.M. VAUX is an agriculturalist with Booker Tate. He is working as a Project Controller whose main responsibility is co-ordination of the five and a half year Ngombezl Sisal Estate Project near Korogwe.

A LETTER FROM ICELAND

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It is not every day that you receive a letter from Iceland. But I was in Copenhagen when the letter was received and I am sure it is not such a rare occurrence there.

I was with Ms Ulla Baagoe (pronounced in Danish something like ‘bar eu’ without the g; it is also difficult to type on an English typewriter as it, and so many other Danish words, have uniquely Danish accents!). She is the recently elected new Chairperson of the Denmark Tanzania Association (DANTAN). She was opening her mail. It was a letter, apparently inspired by the Tanzanian Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries, from an Icelander asking how he could learn more about DANTAN. So the Britain Tanzania Society’s (BTS’s) opposite numbers in Denmark seem to be broadening their horizons and should soon have at least one new member.

Ulla Baagoe is clearly well chosen as Chairperson because she is so well informed. She works on the Tanzania desk of DANIDA, the Danish Department of International Development Cooperation. Cooperation between Denmark and Tanzania has always been very close and relations always very warm. Ulla Baagoe gave me the latest figures: Total assistance US$73 million in 1990 including US$ 58 million in grants and 80 technical assistance personnel; 50% was expected to go into water, health and education, 38% on transport and 15% on various ongoing commitments in industry, agriculture and the environment.

The former Chairperson, for eight years, Mr Keld Jorgensen, the Roger Carter of DANTAN, outlined to me, in some detail, how DANTAN began and had developed over the years. And it became possible, while listening to him, to begin to compare and contrast DANTAN with the BTS.

The two societies are about the same age – DANTAN 10, BTS 11, but DANTAN has had a far more changeable leadership and, unlike the BTS, many of its early members and even its leaders had never been to Tanzania when they joined. Original motivations in the case of DANTAN were more oriented towards the creation of a New World Order I obtained the impression, as I listened to Mr Jorgensen, (I am sure he will correct me if I am wrong) that, to some extent, the fact that it was Tanzania which so many early members became attracted to was almost incidental. I assume that it was the socialist orientation and the magnetism of its leader, Julius Nyerere, which appealed to the early members. Something similar applies to the BTS which originally seemed to have and probably still has a preponderance of members with socialist sympathies.

The changes in leadership of DANTAN make an interesting tale and illustrate the way in which it continues to modernise and rejuvenate itself at regular intervals.

The first Chairperson resigned after three months when she became head of a committee on male-female equality. She was soon replaced. The second of DANTAN’s Secretaries became Chairman of a political society and couldn’t carry on. The third Treasurer left because he also worked for the Danish State Railway and became far too busy working on the construction of the bridge with the longest span in Europe at the main exit from the Baltic Sea – 1.8kms in length. The first editor of the Association’s quarterly journal ‘Kumekucha’ was lost when she married an Australian and went to live there. The driving force in the Association’s Aahus branch went to Borneo. His successor later left for Botswana! But the Association still thrives.

‘Kumekucha’ the Swahili for ‘Dawn’ is better illustrated and better printed than the journal you are now reading and ‘Kumekucha’ is a much more attractive title than ‘Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs.’ But it has its disadvantages. I was told that few people in Denmark know what it means! Kumekucha’s 37th issue was published in November 1990. The Bulletin’s 37th issue was published in September 1990.

Usually ‘Kumeckucha’ is produced largely in Danish but its 10th anniversary issue in April 1990 was entirely in English and contained many articles by Tanzanians. One, by Mr Ilyas Abdulrahman, Vice-Chairman of DANTAN, under the title ‘DANTAN for Ten Years’ makes fascinating reading in London where Tanzanians meet regularly in the Tanzania Association and Britons meet in the Britain Tanzania Society.

Mr Abdulrahman wrote that ‘Recently there has been a meeting in Copenhagen where a friendship association between Denmark and Tanzania was discussed’ said my friend Elias … We asked a lot of questions. Where did the initiative come from? Is it official? How does one qualify to be a member? … Could we influence the course (of the association) if we joined? How much can the two countries benefit from such an organisation? Elias smiled and said “We are talking friendship, not politics!”. My reply was “if you want to maintain a friendship, make sure you understand your friend!”

‘Ambassador Mhina was visiting Copenhagen (he resides in Stockholm) … we had a get-together evening …. he was a good lobbyist …. many enrolled at the end of the meeting. They all had different ideas about the organisation … one thing we all agreed on was that it was a good idea. Our (Tanzanian) profile was a heterogeneous group of workers, retired seamen, students, political refugees (from Zanzibar), short term visitors, unemployed permanent residents, mixed (Tanzanian/ Danish) couples. Their (Danish) profile was active politicians, senior government officials, people who contribute in influencing or running the policy of this country. Some of the names mentioned were familiar from the newspapers or television. An interesting combination.

‘(Later) an invitation to an informal evening came from DANTAN .. an appeal to Tanzanians living in Denmark to join the club. We turned up. lnger and Keld Jorgensen were extra sweet … we were all inquisitive; everybody wanted to know everything about everyone. There wasn’t enough time for us all to give our life histories; but what I recall is that our Danish friends got to know more about us than we did about them … That was the time ‘Kumekucha’ was mentioned as a slogan. The sun is rising, wake up, open your eyes and get to know more about each other’s country,culture, traditions, not to mention mentality. Some time later we (my wife and I) became members no 48 of DANTAN.

‘DANTAN was now one year old. The general meeting was held at the Parliament building of Christiansborg … We went through the whole procedure as normal in such meetings. Some Tanzanian’s got a bit bored; could have been problems with the Danish language. The time came when all could have the floor … some militant Zanzibaris raised up to exercise their democratic rights. They aired their opinion about DANTAN and in quite a dramatic way. The situation was a bit unbecoming to some of the parliamentarians present ; other Danes were totally confused … I couldn’t help smiling. With the Zanzibar population in Copenhagen an incident like that was bound to take place. DANTAN had passed the first year without having managed to accommodate the Zanzibar wing … Zanzibaris were quite great in number in those days … Other wise our first general meeting was a success.

More activities followed. Member groups in other parts of Denmark were set up… but as the years went by the number of active Tanzanians decreased drastically. Some of the active Danes took a low profile, too, but they were always replaced by others. Why has the association become less interesting for the Tanzanians living in Denmark? Did they have expectations which were not met? Are DANTAN activities not that interesting? Have they given up making friends and contributing to creating better understanding between the two nationalities? No, actually many think positively about the association, but just as many don’t feel at home in the many meetings held around. I hope these questions will be answered and debated by many others.’

Members of the BTS perhaps need the same debate!

In many other respects DANTAN and BTS are similar. DANTAN tends to have better attended seminars end meetings, usually in the presence of a Tanzanian Cabinet Minister, but less frequently than the BTS. It has development projects in Tanzania and actively campaigns in Denmark in support of Tanzania. DANTAN has 245 members. BTS has twice as many. But the population of Britain is more than ten times that of Denmark. Membership subscription in DANTAN is about £12 for a family – everything is more expensive over there.

And I almost forgot to mention one major difference between the two societies – DANTAN has organised Danish Tanzanian soccer games!
David Brewin

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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INVESTMENT CODE IS NICE AS FAR AS IT GOES
Under this heading AFRICAN BUSINESS in its July 1990 issue stated that 1I1any businessmen in Dar es Salaam had welcomed the new Investment Code (analysed in Bulletin No 37). While many felt that it could have offered more carrots, it represented a crucial break with the past and thus an important beginning. The new code was said to have offered few new guarantees to investors but had restated the constitutional position that no property could be nationalised without compensation. Tanzania would be joining the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) as well as the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). A local business consultant was quoted as having said that potential investors had nothing to fear. Tanzania was undergoing fundamental changes.

THE GENESIS ARCHIPELIGO
‘One hundred years ago Baron Adalbert Emil Redcliffe le Tanneur von Saint Paul-Illaire, the Governor of German East Africa (later Tanzania) found a pretty blue-flowered plant growing around limestone out crops near Tanga … he posted some seeds to his father who grew the plant … and in turn sent some seeds to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Herenhausen. The first of those plants to flower were exhibited lit the International Horticultural Exhibition of 1893 in Ghent under the name Saintpaulia ionantha – the African violet.’ Thus began an article by Jonathan Kingdon in the May 1990 issue of BBC WILDLIFE.

The article went on to describe how the Tanga region was later taken over by estates and the plant became extinct in its original habitat. The wild Saintpaulia was then lost to science for several decades until , in 1985, it was rediscovered by John Lovett in the Uzungwa mountains 300 miles from the place where it had been found originally.

In October 1989 the Society for Environmental Exploration (Bulletin No 35) enabled Jonathan Kingdon to visit Tanzania and in particular the Matumbi range of sandstone hills close to the Indian Ocean. He found a second surviving population of African violets . He went on to explain why he expected he might find the violet there and compared and contrasted what he described as ‘stable’ as distinct from ‘fluctuating’ habitats in many other parts of Africa. He stated that about a quarter of Africa’s species are clustered in old enclaves with stable climates. He concluded by referring to the ‘profligate and irreversible waste’ now occurring in the Matumbi forest and the need for conservation of the remaining forest.

THE POPE IN TANZANIA
Commenting on the Pope’s frequent use of Kiswahili during his visit to Tanzania for three days from September 2, 1990 one local priest said he “sounded like a foreigner who had lived in Tanzania a long time” (UNIVERSE September 9, 1990).

This visit gave Tanzania much greater publicity in the international press than it is accustomed to.

The DAILY TELEGRAPH: ‘Pope’s Call to Shun Condoms Fuels AIDS Row’ According to the Telegraph the Pope had declared in Dar es Salaam that condoms would only encourage – the very patterns of behaviour which have greatly contributed to the expansion of the disease”

The French newspaper LIBERATION: ‘Jean Paul II Face a L’Afrique Qui Bouge’: ‘Addressing 80,000 people in Dar es Salaam yesterday the Pope ordained 43 new priests who would help to ‘prepare the African Catholic Church for the third millennium.’

The NEW YORK TIMES wrote of the Pope’s intention to prepare an encyclical reinforcing the Catholic Church’s hostility to all forms of contraception.

The London TIMES: ‘Pope Calls for Moral Drive Against AIDS.’ The Pope arrived at the Jangwani sports ground to the rhythms of Swahili hymns and traditional drums. As he drove through the crowd in an open black Rolls Royce the huge congregation rose to its feet , ululating, clapping and waving ….

UNIVERSE: ‘AIDS Cure Rivalry Must End’ . “AIDS brings a unique cultural unease because in it the life giving functions of human sexuality, and the blood which epitomises health and life itself, have become a roadway to death”. The Pope praised the rapidly growing Church in Tanzania for its ministry to the sick and needy and for its overall spiritual vitality.

The DAILY TELEGRAPH: ‘Africans Flock for Pope’s Blessing’. Father Giorgio Battifolo, an Italian who has been working In Tanzania for 36 years, said “I never thought to live to see this. It’s beautiful. This is a great reward for the early missionaries who had so many difficulties~

BUSINESS AS USUAL
Reviewing police efforts to deal with the problem of prostitution in Dar es Salaam during the last eighteen months, AFRICAN CONCORD in a recent issue, described how the Police had launched a major campaign at the end of 1989. About 100 prostitutes had been rounded up and within days some 50 had been sentenced to prison for six months. Several others were fined and the youngest and oldest were placed under the care of the social welfare services. But the nation, led by fervent feminist groups, reacted angrily, saying it was unfair for the Police to carry out a one-sided scoop, singling out women and leaving behind their male counterparts. AFRICAN CONCORD said that it believed that the women had eventually received a Presidential pardon. As one of them put it recently “it is now business as usual”.

NEW APPROACH TO CRAFTS PROMOTION
‘Almost everywhere in tropical Africa where there are ore deposits, iron ore is produced. The Negro possesses a marked talent for working iron. Reportedly, even entire rifles have been fabricated including the bores for the barrels’ . With this quotation from a 1910 document entitled ‘Handicraft and Industry in East Africa’ a recent issue of the German publication AFRIKA reviewed historically the work of craftsmen in Africa with particular reference to Tanzania.
‘Colonialism based on the primitive exploitation of men and raw materials afforded traditional crafts no new opening or markets … Liberation brought no improvement – traditional artisans ‘under a tree’ were viewed by the new elites as a sign of backwardness and underdevelopment …..

Far more than churches, schools, or health centres, the structures that Strike the eye in rural Tanzania are the water tanks. These are all so sophisticated in their design that maintenance and repair can only be carried out by specialists with modern equipment … hardly any system of water supply is today operational except where a new development project has been initiated to rehabilitate the dilapidated water tanks.

For years now efforts have been made to develop appropriate technologies for the Third World. The spread effect has remained minimal for various technical, economic and ideological reasons …

But in Singida, the Usambara mountains and Morogoro a new approach to craft promotion has begun in arrangements made in partnership with the churches. The key concept is that promotion should be directed at existing, local workshops … aid donors provide direct business consultancy in conjunction with credit facilities and flexible individual training of craftsmen. Particularly successful is the Crafts and Artisans Promotion Unit (CAPU) set up in Singlda. In the first phase the craftsman is provided with what he needs to fabricate axes, hoes, knives, spears, arrows etc with new tools in a more rational manner. In the second phase … a workshop is constructed and provided with manual machines … In the third phase new technologies are introduced.’

FOREST CONSERVATION MEASURES
The German publication AFRIKA (9-10/90) stated th8t Tanzania had launched ‘a fire and environment war’ to reduce the damage caused by bush fires and discourage firewood 8nd charcoal use. Tanzania’s trees, which supplied 90% of domestic fuel requirements, were being felled at an annual rate of 300-400,000 hectares and another 65,000 hectares were destroyed by fire each year. New planting accounted for only 20,000 hectares.

New measures included taking tax off electric, gas and solar stoves, a ban on charcoal exports, extra fire fighting units, more patrols and a public awareness campaign.

BODIES ROT
Under this heading AFRICA HEALTH in its September 1990 issue reported that in Bukoba, one of the districts worst affected by AIDS, a major problem has arisen in the disposal of bodies of people who have died from the disease. Relatives often do not come to collect bodies for burial. The Red Cross has provided 2,400 metres of shroud cloth to the Kagera Regional Hospital which has no cold room.

ANC EXILES STAY ABROAD
NEW AFRICAN in its November 1990 issue wrote that many South African exiles were having second thoughts about returning home due to the instability and violence there. In Tanzania, it stated, ‘where most of the exiles found refuge, about 50 school teachers are known to have applied for jobs … Over 200 South African students have just joined the Soloman Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania because there are no alternatives at home.’

HOMECOMING
The Tanzanian writer Adam Lusekelo has been spending a year working with the BBC in London. He wrote in the November-December 1990 issue of the BBC magazine FOCUS ON AFRICA about his ‘homecoming’:

‘Sweltering Dar es Salaam. The sun burns you as you walk down the busy Samora Machel Avenue – now avoiding a heap of rubbish, now making a minor Olympic record as you jump over a pot-hole. Pretty damsels walk the opposite way but you ignore them. AIDS. But you are home again. It feels good ….

A friend hails me from across the street. “I say. When did you come?” You tell him that you came back four months ago … “Have you been to the Kremlin?” he suggests. .. Kremlin?” “Yeah. In Moscow. It’s a nice place. You can get roast chicken. Goes down well with ugali. There are also some very cold beers there.” So you take a cab to Kinondoni shanty township – the people there call it Moscow. The cab would have made Peugeot manufacturers pleased with themselves – if that is, they are still alive …. the friend takes out a packet of cigarettes. “Don’t” yells the driver.
“Why?”
“This car will explode” he says. You agree from the smell of petrol that is getting increasingly intolerable. The Kremlin is full of youngish men and women …
“Back to TZ, eh? We’ll see about those fancy shirts you are wearing. They will fade. And that hair will turn red. You see, God has lowered the sun by an inch or two. And those nice smells you are wearing will disappear. You will end up smelling of good old Tanzanian sweat…

STATISTICS FOR 185 ECONOMIES
WORLD BANK NEWS in its September 26, 1990 issue compared and contrasted statistically the economies of 185 countries. Tanzania’s GNP in 1989 was given as US$ 3,079 compared with US$ 3,775 in 1988. Its growth rate for the period 1980 to 1989 averaged 1.8% (compared with a population growth rate of 3.5%). Tanzania’s GNP per capita was US$ 120 in 1989 – equivalent to a real growth rate between 1980 and 1969 of minus 1.6%. Tanzania came out at the very bottom of the list in terms of GNP per capita. Only Mozambique with a figure of US$ 100 came lower. Ethiopia was said to have had the same rate as Tanzania in 1989 – ie: US$ 120.

The United Kingdom had a GNP of US$ 834,166 in 1989 equal to a per capita GNP of US$ 14,570. The figures for the United States were US$ 5,237,707 or US$ 21,100. Other African country GNP’s per capita were given as: Kenya US$ 380, Angola US$ 620, Botswana US$ 940, Burkina Faso US$ 310, Cote d’ Ivoire US$ 790, Gabon US$ 2,770, Gambia US$ 230, Lesotho US$ 470, Malawi US$ 160, Nigeria US$ 250, South Africa US$ 2,460 and Swaziland US$ 900.

DEFICIT IN ACCOUNTANTS
A national campaign by the accountancy profession in Tanzania over the last five years has successfully resulted in the 460 parastatal organisations bringing their accounts up to date according to E. B. Mndolwa writing in the September 1990 issue of CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANT. At present Tanzania needs some 6,000 – 7,000 qualified accountants and 15 – 20,000 accounting technicians according to the article but the numbers available total only 1,000 and 3,000 respectively.

AND THE NEW TANZANIAN NEWSPAPERS

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The relatively new part of the Tanzanian media the privately owned newspapers continue to illustrate the press freedom now apparent in Tanzania. The following items appeared in the privately owned Dar es Salaam press during the last part of 1990 – Editor.

FORMER HIGHJACKER ARRESTED
Musa Membar, who took a free ride to Britain aboard an Air Tanzania Boeing 737 which he hijacked with four other youths in 1982, was arrested on September 14th 1990 when he crossed the Kenya-Tanzania border. He had been jailed in Britain for eight years. After his release he became a founder member of the Tanzania youth Democratic Movement under the umbrella of a Tanzanian opposition front headed by Oscar Kambona, former Foreign Minister who has been in exile in Britain since 1967.

Speaking in a BBC interview the other day, Mr Kambona denied any prior knowledge of Member’s departure from London. “He did not bid any of us farewell” he said.
In a letter from the Ukonga maximum security prison, where he is being held, Member said “I returned to Tanzania … to lead a peaceful campaign for multi-party democracy …… (Business Times, October 19).

WHO DESTROYED THE COOPS?
‘Last year the CCM Party ordered the cooperative unions and marketing boards to clear their outstanding debts by the new year, failing which they would face liquidation. Almost a year later the unions owe the banks a staggering Shs 30 billion and the marketing boards owe another Shs 26 billion. To date not a single union has been liquidated.

The Nyererarian state’s handling of agricultural marketing is probably the worst example of the negative impact of collectivist policy …. during the last thirty years. From colonial times until Independence authentic farmers’ crop marketing cooperatives developed in different parts of the country … .. after Independence the freedom of the cooperative movement was systematically undermined by the state …..

Socialism worldwide and nation-wide has demonstrated its tragic but undeniable inability to provide either freedom or progress to the toiling masses. Trying to use cooperatives to achieve socialist objectives in 1990 is a complete aberration. The overpowering majority of CCM members do not believe that cooperatives can be a vehicle for building socialism. They do not want socialism. We all know that, after a generation of Ujamaa, there are hardly any socialists left in Tanzania!

In his parting address to the nation Mwalimu reiterated the CCM’s commitment to building a socialist Tanzania ….’ (Family Mirror, October 16 – 31).

CROCODILE TEARS
‘It raises no eyebrows to hear of loads of cashewnuts stuck in Newala, tobacco in Igalula or coffee in Muleba. These, after all, are confined crops whose markets are out there over the deep blue sea. The sole agents are the bureaucratic laden state marketing boards.

But not when beans are said to be stuck in Karagwe, maize in Sumbawanga or paddy in Malampaka. All these are staple foods, with ready markets in all the major towns …. What is sad about it all is the mentality we have cultivated over the years. The farmers in their memoranda to visiting leaders always appeal to government to help with trucks, with wagons, with gunny bags, with markets.

Given market in formation, loans for trucks and cash from the banks, entrepreneurs from the villages and towns alike could haul and sell off all the surplus crops …

Crying out to the government to undertake every task in this era of trade liberalisation is like shedding crocodile tears.’ (Business Times October 19).

MROSO COMMISSION VINDICATES UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
‘The Commission, under the respected Judge J. A. Mroso, appointed to investigate the closure of the University of Dar es Salaam last May has at last submitted its report, and, together with a number of actions taken since the closure, it seems that the students have been largely vindicated while the government’s handling of the crisis has been heavily criticised ….

A number of corrupt top officials of the university named by the students have been or are in the process of being moved or removed and the badly dilapidated campus is being hurriedly rehabilitated to remove one of the major grievances …

The report indicates that students had good reason to lose confidence in the government and VIJANA, the youth wing of the sole ruling party, which has been lording over the students ever since their autonomous organisation was suppressed in 1978 ….

In July-August last year, at the instigation of VIJANA, two student leaders were detained under humiliating conditions … for calling into question the corrupt and oppressive behaviour of some Party leaders during a visit to Korea for the Youth Festival …’

The article went on to describe the students’ loss of confidence in VIJANA, the government and the Ministry of Education which is heavily criticised in the report. The Principal Secretary had been ‘unnecessarily provocative’, The Commission also did not agree with government criticisms of the staff for supporting the students. The Commission felt that they had played a ‘very positive role in preventing a breakdown in communication’. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor G. R. V. Mmari was described in the article as extremely hard working and honest and the most popular Vice-Chancellor the University had ever had.

The Commission examined the grievances presented by the students and, not surprisingly, in almost every case it found them to be genuine …. The Commission also illustrated how the government controlled radio and newspapers were used in this case as important tools of state against the students ‘some reports did not give an accurate picture of the events and others used language that could have provoked resentment;’ words like ‘traitors’ and ‘not one of us.’ Some of the reports wanted to ridicule the students in front of the nation … letters sent to the newspapers from the University community were either not published or published very late’…… (Family Mirror, October 1-15).

RICHEST UK ASIANS COME FROM TANZANIA
‘When the Prince of Wales invited a group of wealthy Asians to dinner last June, he asked them if they could subscribe one million pounds to his Youth Business Trust. By the time coffee was served five million pounds had been raised ….. four of the top seven Asians in Britain, all millionaires, came from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda … ‘ (Business Times, September 7).

PRESIDENT HITS AT FOREIGN JOURNALISTS
President Mwinyi has lashed out at foreign journalists who under-play the contribution made by the former President, Mwalimu Nyerere to the country’s social and economic development. Recounting the country’s achievements under the National Economic Recovery Programme he said that Mwalimu Nyerere was fully involved in formulating and adopting all economic policy reforms. “Our achievements are the product of collective leadership and efforts in the Party. Government and all the people, and Mwalimu played a major role” he said. “It is through his dedication and selflessness that we are here today.” – Daily News

WORLD BANK AND TANZANIAN CONSULTANTS
Tanzanian consultants will be more involved in national projects undertaken through the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Disclosing the move, the President of the Federation of African Consultants (FECA) Aloyse Peter Mushi, said the two banks would change their procurement rules to accommodate more African consultants. “We are currently negotiating with the bilaterals, some of whom come in with tied aid, using their own consultants, to adopt the same system”. “Some of them, including the governments of Germany, Netherlands and Canada have come out very clearly, that where local expertise exists, this should be given priority in the awarding of consultancy assignments” Mushi said. Tanzania formed its consultancy body, the Tanzania Association of Consultants (TACO) in November 1989.

At a German sponsored joint consultant seminar in Arusha in mid-December 1990 a member of the Tanzanian Planning Commission, Dr Mbogoro, said that development projects in Tanzania were only those which donor countries initiated and preferred to implement. “Because of economic constraints Tanzania does not have its own projects” he said.

This pronouncement provoked strong objections from a member of the German Government who said that Germany did not dictate to recipients but always assisted them to undertake their own projects – Daily News.

MATUMBI – MY SEARCH FOR A CAVE

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Matumbi Cave illustration on postage stamp

The illustration is of a non-postage stamp showing the entrance of one of the Matumbi caves, produced about 1910 by the Benedictine Mission. The picture size is 45mm x 31mm and it is grey in colour.

Although limestone caves exist at Tanga and at Songwe, (Mbeya District), very little is known of others elsewhere in Tanzania. It was therefore with the greatest interest that I saw a cutting from the Cape Argus of 17th June 1911 describing the discovery of two sizeable caves in the Matumbi Hills, some 50 kms from the coast in Kilwa Province.

Library research revealed three more contemporary accounts. Two were in the Berlin magazine ‘Deutsches Kolonialblatt’ and the third in the publication of an Austrian cave-exploring society at Graz. The caves were first noticed and recorded in August 1909 by Police Sergeant Weckauf from Kibata. Investigating an isolated patch of forest, he was surprised to find the large entrance of the Nangoma Cave, used as a refuge in the fighting of a few years before by tribesmen who had left the forest uncleared to hide it. This entrance, 43m wide and 21m high, is at the bottom of a deep hollow in the limestone. Weckauf’s find came to the notice of Ambrose Mayer, a Catholic missionary at the Nambiligja mission, and in February 1910 both men went there together, exploring more of the Nangoma Cave and recording passage lengths which totalled 329m.

At the very end of 1910 the much larger Nduli Cave was visited and found to be 3,630m long. As cave lengths are so often exaggerated in popular accounts, I should emphasise that Mayer has given precise passage lengths for each part of the caves, as if measured, or at least paced, and the totals have been obtained by summing these.

A stream flows through the Nduli Cove and eels and fish were found in it. Many fruit bats were seen there also. ‘A passage at the back of the third hole, leading perhaps to the Nangoma Cave, could not be entered because the flying foxes hung on the head, chest and back of anyone coming in and flew against the lanterns so that they were in danger of being extinguished.

That the caves were moderately well known locally at this time is evidenced by the fact that the Catholic mission produced adhesive stamp-like seals, showing ‘cave entrance at Matumbi’ as illustrated here. It seems likely that these may have been sold for charity and they certainly date from the period when the country was still German East Africa.

One problem that I faced when attempting to discover more about the caves was that their exact location was not known. Thurmann had published his sketch map in 1911, but direct correlation of this with modern maps could not be done because the small area it covers made it impossible to fit the river pattern, especially in view of its unknown accuracy. Fortunately. a copy of the 1900 map used by Thurmann as a basis for his sketch exists in the Royal Geographical Society in London. It names the rivers referred to by Thurmann and so allows the cave locations to be determined in two stages from the 1911 sketch map to the relatively small scale map of 1900 in which details are often only approximate, and then from there to the large scale map of 1968. The river confluence close to the caves is at 8″ 28′ 34″ 5, 38° 48′ 23″ E (grid reference 4787 0633) and the Nangoma and Nduli caves are in grid squares 478063 or 4 78064. The presence, on the 1968 map, of a main track (motorable) from Nandembo to the village at Nakilago should prove useful for reconnaissance.

A cave more than 3.5 km long cannot easily be lost, but the Matumbi caves have attracted hardly any attention since their discovery. A brief mention of their bat guano was made in 1934 and 1948 but I have not been able to find anything else in the normal scientific end general literature. Then in 1966 a list of the world’s long caves included Nduli, but the length given is the same as that in the original accounts, so there had evidently been no subsequent exploration, or at least none recorded. Similarly no plan seems to have been made.

Of course Matumbi was not a tourist area and the caves had negligible economic value, but surely someone must have explored or at least visited them in the last 80 years or so. Dr Waane, the present Director of Antiquities for Tanzania tells me that he went there in 1985 though he di d not travel the full length of Nduli Cave.

DOES ANY READER OF THE BULLETIN KNOW OF ANY OTHER VISITS TO THE MATUMBI CAVES, RECENT OR LONG AGO? Perhaps there are photographs, diary accounts, articles in newspapers or magazines or mentions in regional guide books.
Trevor Shaw

Dr TREVOR R. SHAW is a retired Royal Navy officer who has made a life-long study of caves. His doctorate (as an ‘antique student’) was awarded for work on the history of scientific cave studies.