PARLIAMENTARY MATTERS

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The National Assembly has had two sessions since the last issue of the Bulletin. The first, in Dodoma, ran from April 18th to 25th and dealt with three Bills. One established a Planning Commission, the second redefined the words ‘Peoples Militia’ to recognise officially the activities of traditional defence groups such as ‘Sungusungu’ or ‘Wasalama’ and the third provided for corporal punishment for armed robbery, attempted robbery and assault with intent to steal. One MP said that bandits should be hanged. This session also approved the 1988/89 – 1992/93 Development Plan. The Plan emphasises communications and transport (23.8% of all resources), agriculture (18.5%) and industries and Works (19.4%). 49.5% of the resources were expected to come from outside the country.

With Members of Parliament flexing their muscles one year ahead of elections the Government came under heavy fire during the Budget Session in Dar es Salaam. As Minister after Minister stood up to deal with the complaints the refrain was the same. There are no funds. In its efforts to ease this problem the Assembly itself joined in the cost cutting exercise. It suspended several of its rules in a move to save time and cut-down on expenses. The Assembly met for six days instead of five every week, the length of speeches was cut down to 25 minutes instead of 35, the debate on the budget itself was limited to five days and the total period for examining all ministerial estimates was limited to 30 days. It was hoped to complete the budget session by August 5th 1989. The session actually ended on August 9th.

INFORMATION
As usual the debate elicited a vast amount of information on almost every aspect of national life. The following, extracted from the Daily News, represents a small part of this information which was given in response to 740 questions from members:

– crime is on the increase; a rise of 1.7% since last year; total crimes reported – 260,809;

– Tanzania spends 40% of its research funds on agriculture, 25% on industry and 10% on public health;

– 142 people died in 995 accidents involving 1,134 buses last year;

– 7,030 animals (9 species) and 962,624 birds (15 species) were exported between 1982 and 1988 which earned the country US$ 2.42 million; there is a quota for every animal or bird caught so as to avoid the danger of extinction;

– Tanzania’s budget for public health is equivalent to She 8/- per person per annum;

– Tanzania has recently deposited in Britain £1.80 million from the sale of gold by the country’s 29 licensed gold dealers;

– despite an increase in production of 6,200 tonnes to a total of 49,200 tonnes Tanzania’s coffee brought in only US$ 106.00 million last year compared with US$ 145.62 million in 1980;

– Dar es Salaam Region had the highest per capita income (Shs 4,235/-) in the country in 1987; Rukwa had the lowest – Shs 598/-;

– the Government has set aside Shs 240 million in this years budget to support self-help projects;

– during the last three years the Government has imported 9,026 vehicles; this year 4,498 will be imported;

– the price of regular grade petrol went up on July 11th this year from 61/- to 92/-;

– there are 207,534 workers in the private sector;

– 30% of all hospital patients last year were suffering from malaria;

– cooperative unions lost She 531.3 million since 1984 when they were re-introduced; most of this was ‘imaginary entries’ and theft of property;

– production of cotton in the 1989/90 season will be 100,000 bales less than last year (total expected – 350,000 bales); heavy rains have had an adverse effect;

– Tanzania Breweries will produce 6,200,000 bottles of beer this year; 90% Safari and 10% Pilsner;

– 76 foreigners were granted Tanzanian citizenship last year;

– the price to the farmers of fertiliser is heavily subsidised; a bag of urea is worth Shs 1,238/-; the farmer buys it for Shs 496/-;

– a total of 72,000 Mozambican refugees have fled to Tanzania since the outbreak of war with the MNR rebels;

– in 1985/86 Tanzania employed 557 expatriates; this number was reduced to 401 in 1987/88;

– the Government has been losing millions of shillings through fraud and salary double payments; initial investigations have shown that over 20,000 people have been receiving two salaries and many receiving government salaries are not even civil servants;

– there are 106 prisons in the country with a capacity of 21,128; but there are some 39,522 prisoners and detainees in these congested facilities;

THE DEBATES
The Government responded to the need expressed by Parliamentarians for cost cutting in a number of ways:

– transfer of civil servants has been suspended save in exceptional circumstances;
– local duty trips by government officers have been reduced to 60 days annually instead of 84;
– written permission will be needed in future for all air travel;
– university graduates will no longer be guaranteed employment in the civil service except in the case of specialists such as doctors, accountants, engineers and teachers; the government employed 99 of the graduates from last years output of 552;
– 310 Air Tanzania workers are being laid off and six domestic and foreign offices are being closed;
– embassies in the Sudan and Guinea have been closed; the government will no longer pay school fees to diplomats for the education abroad of their children;
– seminars held by parastatals and government departments will in future need the approval of the appropriate permanent secretary; only important seminars will be authorised; organisers must pick the cheapest venue and restrict the duration;
– the number of vehicles used in motorcades for visiting national leaders will be reduced:

The debates covered many subjects and some ministers had a tough time in getting their estimates accepted. In particular, the House had to work overtime and there had to be a vote (26 members voted against) before the Ministry of Communications and Works obtained approval for its estimates. Complaints were many but members were particularly concerned about the Kigamboni ferry problem. The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Development had a difficult time over his proposal to import sisal decoticators.

BEES AND POWER CUTS
Members of Parliament suffered from some non-political problems during the second session. On June 16th swarms of bees invaded Karimjee Hall but, in no time, workers from the Bee Section of the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism and the Fire Brigade removed them. On June 28th the session had to be adjourned and the Speaker escorted out of the building by torchlight when the lights went out!

At the end of the session Prime Minister Warioba praised members for their probity during the session. “I have been reading letters in the newspapers which have commended MP’s for their scrutiny of government operations. This testifies to the rule of democracy in our affairs ” he said.

FRIENDS OF THE MAKONDE

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(In Bulletin No 33 we published a review of an exhibition of Makonde sculpture then showing at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford. We asked Eirlis Park if she could find out something about how the collection was built up. She has sent us the following – Editor)

When I first arrived in Arusha in 1957, my husband Peter had already been there for five months and so knew exactly where to go to buy material and get the curtains made. Downtown we were warmly welcomed by the Malde family, Mr. Malde senior, Moti Malde and his younger brother. All were very helpful but our buying was often interrupted for introductions to other visitors to the shop who, to my surprise, were not buying but going over to the other side of the shop, to Moti, where there was a square glass case of cameras. Discussion there was on the subject of photography and at the end of our transaction we too drifted across. An unofficial meeting of the Arusha Photographic Society was taking place, In 1957 Moti opened his own purpose designed photographic shop near to the Safari Hotel. To those who know him, Moti Malde and photography are permanently intertwined.

He admits that, originally, the Makonde were a challenge photographically; there were still older women who wore lip plugs – but slowly he began to appreciate the nature of the people themselves – gentle, not aggressive and, as he says, “not against the laws of nature”. Their masks, used in ceremonies, were carved from wood and no killing of birds or animals was involved in decoration. Moti is a Jain and something in the Makonde character appealed to his beliefs. Jains reject the caste system, they believe in non-violence and are against any form of animal sacrifice.

Moti and Kanchen were married in the mid-fifties and it was from this period that serious collecting began. They did, at one time, do some trading in Kamba carving but they decided that the Makonde carvings would be bought and kept for their own personal pleasure, Moti is very methodical – keeping a dossier of where, when and why he purchased each of his gramophone records, for example, and of course, all his photographic material was also well documented – so it was quite natural to record the details of each carving and to make notes after the carver had explained his design.

Between the years 1954 and 1964 very few people wanted the larger Makonde carvings; everyone wanted small pieces which were easily transportable, but the bigger sculptures appealed to the Maldes. They were fascinated by the way the work was developed from the varying shapes of the timber and by how the carver expressed himself and his ideas, often with laughter. Kanchen however, told her husband that she felt that the market value of the carvings was too low and that it was unfair to pay so little for this handwork. So they used to take down from Arusha, baby food, medicines, children’s books, pencils, dried milk etc. and share these with the carvers’ families. Friendships grew up between them, strengthened by each visit.

However, by the early sixties, it became obvious to the Maldes that more and more of the young Makonde carvers were carving to meet the market demand and fewer were following the old traditional ways. They were carving more, but smaller pieces – which meant that they were able to increase their income. So the Maldes stopped collecting in 1968.

Knowing how much her husband loved his carvings, Kanchen began packing them in 1970 to send them to England. Some years later the Maldes followed, finally settling in Bedford. Now, he says he has more time to expand his notes and his one aim is to make the work of Makonde carvers known worldwide. Ask him which is his favourite piece and he will say about 150 are “his very very favourites, but everyone reminds us of a place, a person, a hamlet – very personal memories – their value is the joy of keeping the Makonde within us alive, and we want their art to be recognised in the whole world”.

REVIEWS

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THE LIGHTNING BIRD
On March 17th 1989 Channel 4 produced an extraordinary film in its ‘ Survival’ series about lions in the Serengeti (Bulletin No 33). In the same series and shown on June 24th was another film about Tanzanian wild-life. This was made with the cooperation of the National Parks and the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority. It is the work of Joan and Ann Root and its title is ‘The Legend of the Lightning Bird’. As Andrew Sachs started his commentary we saw what we have learnt to expect from wild-life films of Africa South of the Sahara Kilimanjaro, elephants in the forest, lions on the savannah, herds of wildebeest and fantastic, glorious birds.

Who is the King of the Birds? Is it the huge ostrich, the powerful eagle, the handsome superb starling or the regal crested crane?

Legend says it is none of these. It is the hammerhead or hammerkopf. He is related to herons and storks, stands a foot high, is uniform brown with a tuft of feathers at the back of his head and looks like a kindly dunpy pteradactyl. The hammerheads spend most of their lives fishing. This they do effectively but without display. When they are excited they jump on each others backs, flap their wings and squawk.
According to legend these dowdy avian monarchs receive homage from subjects who bring contributions to the palatial nest, help build it and even guard it. The hammerheads are also credited with magical power over rain and floods. None of this is true. They cannot swim and have no special weather sense.

Visitors to the big nest come for their own purposes. A silver bird takes what she needs to build her own nest; an Egyptian goose tries to take over the penthouse until thrown out by the owners; she then finds a disused nest downstream. A grey kestrel is small enough to use the old nursery but finds her way barred by a family of acacia rats and a large African owl nest on the summit, ostensibly on guard.
The hammerheads, far from being feudal lords, act more like the local housing aid centre because they re-use an old nest. At the beginning of the rainy season they start to build in the fork of a tree overlooking a river. For nearly three months they each make journeys totalling about three hundred miles to build a nest four feet high and weighing two hundred pounds. It is so strongly woven that it can bear the weight of a man jumping on it. The entrance is sensibly kept away from the tree trunk and the roof is decorated with feathers, shed snake skins, little bones and porcupine quills. This nest even had a wildebeest tail.

Most of the film was concerned with the building of this nest and the mating of the hammerhead, kestrel and goose families. I particularly enjoyed the emergence from the nest of the two-day-old goslings who plopped in the water below one after the other like children going down a chute. One gosling had unfortunately fallen out a day earlier and had had a Disneyesque adventure with hippos and a crocodile. He found a diminutive island for the night and miraculously met up with his family again the next day.

There seems to be no scientific explanation for the hammmerhead’s extravagant use of energy. We are told the species is the only member of its family. I wonder if there were others now extinct who decided to build Hiltons and died in the attempt.

Anyway, Good Luck to the eccentric loveable bird. Long may he reign! Congratulations too to all concerned with the production of this delightful, tantalising film. Shirin Spencer

TANZANIA: COUNTRY STUDY AND NORWEGIAN AID REVIEW. Kjell J. Havnevik and
Others. Centre for Development Studies. University of Bergen. 1988.

There was a time when it seemed as though almost everyone wanted to write a book about Tanzania. The early years after independence are well documented in several comprehensive studies. Nowadays, this is no longer true. As far as the Bulletin has been able to determine there are no recent comprehensive studies covering all sectors of Tanzania’s economy other than those provided from time to time by the World Bank. It is for this reason that this Norwegian book is so useful. It is useful primarily for those wishing to up-date their knowledge (references and statistics go up to 1988) and those who do not know Tanzania and do not have the time or the opportunity to study the innumerable short papers available in the better libraries. It is concise (the whole country is covered in 193 pages), clear and, as they say nowadays, ‘reader friendly’; it does not appear to be over afflicted, as so many papers on Tanzania are, by ideological bias. It contains a useful up to date bibliography but, surprisingly, no index. It has particularly strong sections on women (for example, the effect of villagisation on them) and reveals much cause for alarm in its section on AIDS.

The second part of the book critically analyses Norwegian aid programmes. Although the authors state that Norwegian aid does not differ from that of other countries (Norway comes second only to Sweden in the ‘league table’) those interested in sea fisheries, coastal transport (in both cases associated companies went bankrupt!) sawmilling, hydropower and the maintenance of rural roads can learn much from this book.

One interesting item (Page 13) states that after the First World War the idea was considered of giving Norway the task of ruling Tanganyika Territory – DRB.

(We are indebted to Mr. Karl Aartun for sending us a copy of this book – Editor).

A NEW HIGH COMMISSIONER IN LONDON AND A NEW HIGH COMMISSIONER IN DAR

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Tanzania has a new High Commissioner in London. He is Mr John S. Malecela (55) originally from Dodoma region and previously the holder of a range of very senior positions in government. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1972 to 1975, Minister for Agriculture (1975-80), Minister for Minerals (1980-82) and Minister for Communications/Transport/Works (1982-85). At earlier stages in his career he was Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and Ambassador in Ethiopia. In 1985 he was a member of the ‘Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons’ dealing with the problem of South Africa. The months of June and July 1989 witnessed a flurry of farewell parties in London and Dar es Salaam as incumbent High Commissioners departed and the arrival of the new High Commissioners was awaited.

The principal event in London, attended by some 150 persons, was a farewell to Mr and Mrs Nyakyi organised by a committee under the chairmanship of Ms Fatma Abdullah which included representatives of several Tanzanian organisations in Britain: the Tanzania Association (Chairman, Mr. Richard Mpopo), Tanzania Womens Association, Tanzania Business Group, Tanzania Sisal Marketing Association (TASMA), Tanzania Students Association, Tanzania Diamond Sorting Office (TANSORT), and the High Commission.

Mr. Uhi Mwambulukutu, Deputy High Commissioner, referred at the gathering to Mr. Nyakyi’s workaholic habits. “He stays in the office from morning to next day” he said. “I don’t know how Mrs. Nyakyi reacts!”.

Mr Mpopo, speaking on behalf of several of the sponsoring groups said that Tanzanians in Britain had been very happy to be under Mr. Nyakyi’s guidance for the last eight years. The eight years had seemed to pass very quickly; there had been no friction and many happy moments.

Meanwhile, in Dar es Salaam, Mr. Colin Imray was saying goodbye to old friends. His next posting is as High Commissioner in Bangladesh. And then, in Britain we read the:

Court Circular
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
June 30, 1989
Mr. John T. Masefield was received in audience by the Queen upon his appointment as British High Commissioner to the United Republic of Tanzania. Mrs Masefield had the honour of being received by Her Majesty. Mr. Masefield (50) has served in Malaysia, Poland, Switzerland and Pakistan.

LETTERS

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AN EARLIER EXHIBITION IN JAPAN – A CHEETAH FOR THE EMPEROR
The interesting article ‘Tanzania and Japan’ in your May issue prompts me to recall Tanzanian participation in EXPO’ 70 at Osaka, a project for which I was responsible in the Ministry of Commerce under the leadership of the then Minister, Mr. A. M. Babu.

Our beautiful pavilion which was prefabricated in Dar es Salaam from 180 tons of the finest MNINGA and MVULE timber from the forests of the Usambara mountains, shipped to Japan and re-erected on the Senri Hills site near Osaka, was generally adjudged to be one of the 12 best in the EXPO.

It took the form of a stylised Ujamaa village surmounted by a palm tree and comprised four Halls of Nature, History, Culture and Progress, featuring inter alia a plaster cast of Homo Zinjanthopus, fish from Lake Tanganyika, the newly discovered blue gemstone ‘Tanzanite’, the Meru Sapphire, magnificent Makonde carvings, paintings by Sam Ntiro and vast background colour photographs of Mount Kilimanjaro and the glorious scenery and unrivalled flora of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

The pavilion was manned for the six months of the EXPO (March-September 1970) by a team of young ladies selected for their beauty and charm under the leadership of Mr. Frank Ettutu, the Executive Officer of the pavilion.

In June the Second Vice-President, Mr. Rashidi Kawawa led a 17 man delegation to Japan for ‘Tanzania Day’ on which a superb performance was given by snake dancers and stilt dancers, the police band, the Morogoro Jazz band and the famous blind drummer Morris Nyanyusa.

Earlier, two splendid cheetah had – not without difficulty – been caught in the Serengeti and flown over the North pole to Japan where one had been presented to the Emperor and the other to the Lord Mayor of Osaka as unique gifts from the people of Tanzania.

On his return to Tanzania Mr. Kawawa was quoted in the Sunday Post as having said that part of Japan’s interest in developing more trade with Tanzania had been because of the country’s successful pavilion at the EXPO. He said that Tanzania’s participation had showed the host country and other nations in the world, Tanzania’s rapid development in industry and culture as well as in international cooperation.

LUSHOTO SCHOOLGIRLS
Two ex-Lushoto schoolgirls, Ursula and Vera Engler who live at Via Cathedral 15, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland would like to get in touch again with former Lushoto pupils. I would be much obliged if you would publish this letter.
J. H. Leslie

‘SHORES WILL BE DESTROYED IN LESS THAN THREE DECADES’
With reference to the destruction of marine life which I wrote about in the last issue of the Bulletin, I have now found further cause for concern.

In UNESCO’s ‘Development Forum’ of November/December 1988 it is stated that ‘Salt makers are destroying the mangrove forests along the coast by cutting the trees for salt pans and felling hard timber for drying’.

Michael Pearson, a marine ecologist at the University of Dar es Salaam has warned that Tanzania’s coast al shores will be totally destroyed in less than three decades. Coral reefs are being destroyed by dynamite fishing, use of stone anchors and careless fishing with bucket traps. Fish catches have declined f om 3.2 tons per fisherman in 1981 to 1. 36 tons in 1986.
What is being done to improve the situation?
Christine Lawrence

TA ISSUE 33

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TA 33 cover

Mwinyi Launches Ambitious New Development Plan
And Reshuffles his Cabinet
Nyerere Lays Down the Law in Zanzibar
If the Union had Never Happened
Tanzania and Japan
Cotton Processing – Rehabilitation Programmes
Taking a Broom Dance to Tanzania
Amnesty International 1988 Report
The Census – Preliminary Results

MWINYI LAUNCHES NEW DEVELOPMENT PLAN

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President Mwinyi launched an ambitious new US$ 1.3 billion Five Year Development Plan in the middle of April 1989 which aims to raise gross domestic product growth to six per cent a year by 1992-93. Exports which rose 8% in the first year of the Economic Recovery Programme to US$ 388.0 million in 1987-88 are budgeted to rise to US$ 681.0 million by 1992-93. Reviewing progress during the past few years President Mwinyi told Parliament “Problems are still there but what is emerging is that our efforts are not for nothing.” The Financial Times wrote recently that the reforms are working. Real growth is expected to reach 4% in 1988-89 compared with years of negative growth in the early eighties.

(At time of going to press we do not have the details of the Plan but hope to review it in our next issue – Editor)

THE CABINET RESHUFFLE

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The Daily News reports that President Mwinyi made ‘sweeping’ cabinet changes on March 6, 1989.

A new Planning Commission under his own chairmanship has been set up. The Vice-Chairman will be Mr. Kighoma Malima who was, until the Changes, Minister of Education. Other commissioners lnclude former Minister of Communications and Works, Mustafa Nyang’anyi, former Minister of State for Finance, Damas Mbogoro and former Principal Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Pius Msekwa.

The new Minister of Education is Mr. Amran Mayagilo, formerly Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development and the new Minister for Communications and Works is Mr. Stephen Kibona who was Deputy Minister for Defence.

New Ministers of State include Messrs Hassan Diria (Information), and Mateo Naasi Qaresi (in the restructured Ministry of Local Government, Community Development, Cooperatives and Marketing) and Mrs Fatma Said Ali (Civil Service). There are also new Deputy Ministers for Defence and National Service (Mr. Ernest Kisurno) and Agriculture and Livestock Development (Mr. Charles Shija Kabeho).

Meanwhile, in a separate event at the same time, the Third National Congress of the Tanzania Womens Organisation (UWT) Mrs Sophia Kawawa was re-elected Chairperson for five years by a vote of 905 to 3.

MWALIMU NYERERE TAKES A TOUGH LINE IN PEMBA AND ZANZIBAR

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Party Chairman Julius Nyerere spent the first five days of March 1989 in Pemba, The front page headlines in the Daily/Sunday News tell their own story of what happened.

March 2: Nyerere Dismisses False Propaganda
March 3: Mwalimu Warns Agitators
March 4: Pemba Elders Want Severe Punishment For Detractors
March 5: Regional Commissioners Free To Detain Trouble Shooters

He is reported to have made the following remarks in addresses to various Party meetings in Pemba. (He was responding, among other things, to the demand by Party elders for punitive action to be taken against ‘traitors, detractors and hypocrites’ on the island).

He said that Party members should ignore false propaganda being spread by disgruntled elements against the Party and its leaders. Government organs would book opportunists disturbing political stability on the pretext of promoting democracy. “Democracy is not chaos …. Frankly, I personally don’t care what he (referring to former Zanzibar Chief Minister Seif Shariff Hamad’s reported mud-slinging campaign against the Party and its leaders) says … He can stand on top of Kilimanjaro and shout himself hoarse, but there is a limit to which the utterances will be tolerated” . Hamad and his clique, who were expelled from the Party last year, were motivated by impetuous greed for power … they had been given every opportunity to reform. Mwalimu said that Hamad had written abusive letters to him and to Party Vice Chairman Mwinyi. Mwalimu added however that the Party would protect the constitutional rights of Hamad and his group.

Later, in Zanzibar island, Mwalimu told Regional Commissioners to apply state powers, including detention, against political cheats and opportunists who were waging a smear campaign. He warned that Commissioners failing to book the culprits would be treated as accomplices using their positions to protect the detractors. The Party Chairman said that the culprits should first be warned to desist from the slander campaign, failing which they would be detained. He said the R.C’s should renew the initial 48 hour detention orders on a given culprit as often as necessary to bring him under control. Under the law R.C’s can seek presidential approval to hold culprits for longer periods.

Responding to questions in a wide ranging 40 minute interview on Television Zanzibar, Mwalimu denied accusations that he was spearheading a crusade to turn the CCM Party into a Catholic Church movement. He said it was sinful for a grown-up person to tell lies and wondered how people could speak of such serious charges when both Christianity and Islam preached against lies.

Mwalimu also denied that he had influenced the appointment of Seif Shariff Hamad as Isles Chief Minister in 1984 or that of his successor, Dr. Omar Juma. “It was President Mwinyi who picked Seif. As for Dr. Omar, I did not even know him. Why give me credit for things I did not do, Mwalimu wondered. He admitted however that, after the 1985 elections he had strongly argued for the re-appointment of Seif following the misunderstandings created by Seif and his clique aimed at stopping the election of Zanzibar President Idris Abdul Wakil. “I did this not because I feared Seif but for national unity. If this was a miscalculation on my part, I accept the responsibility” he explained.

Various organs of the press outside Tanzania have been giving their views.

Sometime before these events African Concord stated that tension in Zanzibar was under control but that security measures had had to be taken in response to rumours of impending strife. It quoted President Mwinyi as having said that “The government is not taking any risks. Every possible precautionary measure is being taken to guarantee public safety and the security of the state”.

The Financial Times in its January 17 issue stated that Zanzibar feels that it deserves a larger slice of development aid than the US$ 50 million which was allocated to island projects in 1988-89. It quoted an economist in the Zanzibar Finance Ministry as complaining that the case put to the IMF was not based on the economy of Tanzania but on that of Tanganyika. But the newspaper went on to state that Zanzibar, despite a more liberal economic policy than that of the mainland, would be hard pushed to go it alone. ‘Zanzibar currently relies on import of food, electricity and fuel from the mainland for which it pays in shillings, while it spends more than a third of its foreign exchange on rice from Thailand for the discerning local palate. Perhaps more pertinently, Zanzibar does not control its own defence. To overthrow the government would be impossible. For the opposition leaders, who drink tamarind juice beneath the Sultan’s old palace and gaze out across the sea to the mainland, this must be all too clear.’

Africa Analysis, however, in its March 17 issue stated that it considered that Mwalimu Nyerere’s recent public utterances were unlikely to dampen widespread agitation against the Party and the Tanzanian authorities.
Editor

IF THE UNION HAD NEVER HAPPENED

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Tanzanians (and friends of Tanzania) have just been celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar which created Tanzania. It happened on April 26, 1964, and, by intent or by chance, a revealing new book has just been published (US Foreign Policy and Revolution: The Creation of Tanzania by Amrit Wilson. Pluto Press) which takes us back to the days of the founding of the Union.

The book gives us the author’s interpretation of the events of the time on the basis of declassified US State Department and CIA documents . It also provides (in an Introduction and an Appendix) a typically combative view of the events as seen by one of the main protagonists – A.M. Babu – although, apparently, he was away abroad at the time that the Union was created. We have dealt with this matter before in Bulletin No. 30.

The creation itself was clearly a matter of immense International importance at the time because, according to the book, the United States Government was intent on ensuring that, under no circumstances could Zanzibar, which only three months earlier had had a violent revolution, be allowed to become another Communist Cuba. It is important to remember that we are talking about the period when the ‘Cold War’ was at its coldest. Some of the most revealing documents indicate the intense world-wide repercussions of what was happening in Zanzibar:

February 4, 1964: US Secretary of State Dean Rusk to US Ambassador, Tanganyika: The President continues to be gravely concerned about the Zanzibar situation ….

February 5: US Secretary of State Rusk to British Prime Minister Douglas Home: I am sending you this personal message to let you know of my deep concern over the possibility that Communists may consolidate a strong position on Zanzibar ….

March 30: US President writes to British Prime Minister. (The British Government seems to have been remarkably resistant to American pressure on Britain to take action but the book does not contain any British official communications): The US ambassadors in Nairobi , Dar and Kampala have seen Kenyatta, Nyerere, Obote respectively and stressed desirability their acting promptly to make Karume (the then President of Zanzibar) see dangers of present trend towards Communist domination. State Department has instructed US Embassies approach Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia, Congo and Tunisia attempt to get them establish physical presence on Zanzibar. Following Embassies requested reemphasise to host governments desirability assigning resident representatives Zanzibar and offering aid if possible: Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, The Hague. Circular telegram sent following posts in attempt stimulate responsible Asian countries establish missions in Zanzibar: Tokyo, New Delhi, Canberra.

April 3: State Department cabled US ambassadors in Bangkok, Canberra, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Tokyo, Wellington and Manila urging them to establish diplomatic presence Zanzibar soonest.

The book is not able of course to reveal the content of telegrams then being exchanged between Communist countries but we learn from it that the Soviet Trade Mission had agreed to purchase 500 tons of Zanzibar cloves, that China was providing US$ 500.000 in assistance and that the East Germans were very active in the housing field. There were also rumours about East bloc arms being introduced into the country. In the context of a cold war none of this is surprising. The book makes virtually no reference to any action the Eastern Bloc was presumably making to frustrate American aims. The book is concerned strictly with US interference in Zanzibar’s business. The author also seems to have been unsuccessful in making contact with any of the main participants in the events described except for Mr. Frank Carlucci who was then US Charge d’Affaires in Zanzibar and subsequently became President Reagan’s Secretary of Defence. He was interviewed by the author in August 1986 and described the person at the centre of the drama – the then President of Zanzibar, Karume – as “a very decent, somewhat phlegmatic man … I spent a lot of time with him on a one to one basis”. The book quotes however a cable from Mr. Carlucci to Washington on March 30th urging them to make an ‘impact offer’ (or, says the book, in plain language, a bribe ) to Mr. Karume to help separate him from ‘the radicals surrounding him’ . A possible offer might be a helicopter with an American pilot!

Babu asks why the US was more worried about a possible socialist success in Zanzibar, a small island perched off the coast of Tanganyika, than about Mozambique, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe or the Seychelles. The answer he says is to be found in the role Zanzibar has played historically in influencing neighbouring countries. It used to be said ‘When they flute in Zanzibar they dance in the lakes (Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika)’. According to Babu the Zanzibar revolution had been the first of its kind in modern Africa. ‘Zanzibar patriots did not revolt simply to overthrow a politically bankrupt government and a caricature monarchy. They revolted in order to Change the social system which oppressed them and for once to take the destiny of their history into their own hands … the revolution turned Zanzibar into that s ingle spark that would start a prairie fire.’

He goes on to write about the Union. ‘Even if the masterminds of the Union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika were motivated by the best intentions (the book implies that the Union was instigated largely by the US government) the manner in which it was effected was far from conducive to a stable unity’ … it was sprung on the people of the two countries in the form of an indigenous coup d’etat…. the arbitrariness, secrecy and resultant suspicion coupled with the colonial and alien nature of the constitution that was to bind the two countries together, all constituted essential ingredients for the tensions that have accompanied it ever since’

The American objective was achieved. Zanzibar did not become a Communist state. But one wonders what would have happened if it had. Would it have been a success? The book, which is dedicated to ‘the people of Zanzibar in solidarity with their struggle’, hints that it would have been. Babu writes lyrically about ‘a huge vista of hope and potential to create a new social order’. Would Zanzibar have become another Cuba? Would it have been totally isolated from most of its neighbours for a long period? Would the Soviet Union have been able to afford to give to another island aid on the massive scale it provides to Cuba? Would it have become a show place for socialist values? Would it have got into very serious trouble after being accused of fomenting revolution elsewhere in the continent? Armed intervention was a serious policy option being discussed by the western powers according to the book. Would Mwal1mu Nyerere have had an easier or a harder time in steering Tanganyika through all the problems it has faced in the last twenty-five years? Would Mr. Gorbachev have been visiting the island in 1989 and recommending its government to adopt Perestroika and Glasnost? We can never know.
David Brewin