The Department of Research and Training (DRT) in the Ministry of Agriculture has recently prepared a comprehensive new Research Plan. This Plan has been developed to ensure that Tanzania’s limited resources are focused on the most important technical problems constraining agricultural production. The Plan was developed with the financial assistance of Germany, the Netherlands, and the united Kingdom and the professional assistance of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). The plan was completed in 1991.

The Research Masterplan was launched by the Government of Tanzania during a Workshop held in the Kilimanjaro Hotel, Dar es Salaam in March 1992. This launching was effected with the help of the Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPARR). SPAAR was established in 1985 by 23 donor members to strengthen African agricultural research systems through the launching and start-up of a collaborative plan of priority agricultural research.

The Government has established a Consultation Group with its donor representatives in Dar es Salaam. This Group is called regularly into session by the DRT to discuss implementation plans and financing needs.

The Department of Research and Training are now putting the finishing touches to their detailed commodity research programme plans, to their plans for using some of the surplus research stations for alternative purposes and to the redeployment of some scientific and support staff from low to high priority research stations. Tanzania is fortunate to have one of the largest and best-trained teams in Africa (more than 350 graduates with over 10% holding a doctorate degree).

OPTIMISM AND ENTHUSIASM
There is a new mood of optimism and enthusiasm in the air at Temeke (the old headquarters of the Tanzania Livestock Research organisation and now DRT’s HQ near Dar es Salaam) and one can anticipate that this new consolidation and focus of effort will pay dividends in the years to come.

However, this new enthusiasm is likely to be difficult to sustain without rapid action by Government to reform its civil service with significant improvement of salaries and rewards for exceptional work. At present, Tanzanian scientists, including those with PhD and many years experience are paid little more than an attendance fee, needing to supplement their salaries with other work. No useful agricultural research system can ever function with part-time scientists. The long-awaited reform is coming but maybe not in time to stop the emigration of those who can find an incentive salary elsewhere.

This new initiative by Tanzania to consolidate the support of its donor community (about 16 SPAAR members now finance research in Tanzania) behind its new Research Plan is exciting and should help Tanzania develop its agricultural production with resulting benefits all round of greater food security and more foreign exchange earned.
Andrew Spurling

We came back to Tanzania in October 1991 and again are very happy here. We live at Mafiga, Morogoro, where we have a lovely old house (formerly a sisal farmhouse) and large garden: from our verandah we can see the steep Uluguru Mountains and the view from the back is dominated by another range, Mindu. The garden is a naturalist’s paradise: it contains a wonderful range of tropical plants – many of which provide us with our own fruit – and abounds in birds, reptiles and invertebrates.

The bird life is particularly impressive. We awake each day to the songs of white-browed robin chats (Cossypha heuglini), spotted morning warblers (Cichladusa guttata) and yellowvented bulbuls (Pycnotatus barbatus). Pied crows (Corvus albus) and white-naped ravens (Corvus albicoll is) come and drink from the water bowls that we have put out in the garden, as do balck-headed weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) and, from time to time, other birds such as bronze mannikins (Lonchura cucullata) and blue-capped cordon bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus). Scarlet-chested sunbirds (Nectarinia senegalensis) and variable sunbirds (N. venusta), feed from the flowers in the garden and little beeeaters (Merops pusillus) hunt insects. African yellow-billed kites (Mil vus migrans parasitus) often frequent our trees by day – there is also a large roost, mixed with the European race, only a few kms away – while barn owls (Tyto alba) hunt in the garden at night. Bateleur eagles (Terathopius ecaudatus) regularly soar overhead and cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) pass over morning and evening.

Reptiles are also prevalent. There are striped skunks (Mabuya striata) and house geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia) everywhere but we also see yellow-headed dwarf geckos (Lygodactylus luteopicturatus), chameleons (Chamaeloe sp.) and Nile monitors (Varanus niloticus). The commonest snakes appear to be the white-lipped or herald snake (Crotaphopheltis hotamboeia) which is rear-fanged and the tiny blind snake (Typhlops sp.) which is harmless. spitting cobras (Naja nigricollis) visit us from time-to-time and there is at least one green bush snake (Philothamnus sp.) in the bushes overhanging our outhouses. Puff adders (Bi tis arietans) are frequently reported by our Tanzanian neighbours and we are often called to remove them.

The invertebrates we see deserve a multivolume text to themselves. The most spectacular are the butterflies such as the mocker swallowtail (Papilio dardanus), citrus swallowtail (P. demodocus), African monarch (Danaus chrysippus), commodores (Precis spp.) and, especially after rain, grass yellows (Eurema spp.) which provide us with a far better spectacle than any butterfly house in Britain! Large wasps, bees, grasshoppers, mantids and beetles are ubiquitous and not proving easy to identify. Giant millipedes appear when it rains as do giant land snails (Achatina sp.), ant lions and termites.

We have a large collection of captive animals – some “permanent”, some temporarily with us while undergoing veterinary treatment and others in transit for only a few days. At present we have two dogs, four guinea fowl, two chickens (one the local Kuchi breed which has a bare neck),four pigeons, an Indian house crow, eleven rescued tortoises (of two species), an African rock python and various insects. other species which have passed through our hands have ranged from freshwater crabs to young ostriches.

John and Margaret Cooper

MANPOWER RETRENCHMENT
The Government is to lay off 10,000 workers before the end of this financial year under a manpower retrenchment programme. Minister of State in the President’s Office (Civil Service), Fatma Said Ali, said, on October 28th that the employees, whose list had already been compiled, were from 55 years old and above. To ensure that the exercise would go smoothly, the Minister said, a special committee would be established to take charge of the task. However, in some Government departments, new workers would be employed to fill vacant positions. She cited the Ministry of Education which has a shortage of 16,000 teachers and the Ministry of Health. The Minister said that under the second phase, some 28,000 would be laid off . These would comprise drunkards, the lazy, negligent, incompetent, the sick, unfaithful and uncommitted persons.

POWER SUPPLY
Power supply in the country is likely to stabilise in the next four months following serious power cuts which damaged industry in September and October in Dar es Salaam. There have been improvements of water intake at the Mtera Dam and a donors8 commitment to finance importation of gas turbines with the capacity to generate 60 megawatts. There has been a gradual improvement in water level at the dam, following heavy rains which fell in November. Donor agencies have expressed concern, however, over TANESCO’s outstanding debts and have called for drastic measures to ensure that payment is made for electricity. TANESCO’s main debtors are the Government (mainland) and the Government of Zanzibar which owe them TShs 2.2bn/- and TShs 1.3bn/- respectively.

CABINET RESHUFFLE
President Mwinyi swore in on October 21 Professor Sarungi – the new Minister for Communications and Transport, Jackson Makwetta – Minister for Agriculture, Livestock Development and Cooperatives and Amran Mayagila – Minister for Health; Juma Hamad Omar became Deputy Minister for Defence and National Service, Ditopile Mzuzuri, Deputy Minister of Communications and Transprt, and S P Makame Deputy Finance Minister.

LAND COMMISSION
President Mwinyi received on November 12, 1992 a report by the Commission on Land which had been formed two years ago. The report was presented to the President by the Commission’s chairman, Professor Shivji at Ikulu, Dar es Salaam. The report will be studied by the Government before being made public.

TREASURY EXEMPTS KENYA BEER FROM DUTY
Beer imported from Kenya is no longer subject to import and excise duties. However, this move has caused some concern. Demand for locally produced ‘Safari’ and ‘Pilsner’ beers has gone down rapidly and border regions are said to be flooded with foreign beer. Beer from Kenya is now selling at TShs 115 per bottle in these border areas compared with TShs 350 before, to the detriment of Tanzanian beers which are selling at TShs 300 – Business Times.

COTTON BUYING LIBERALISED
Private businessmen are now being allowed to purchase cotton directly from growers. When the move was first announced there were strong protests from MP’s and, as a result, the Government agreed to rescind the decision, NOW, the Government has allowed businessmen to purchase cotton in areas where cooperatives fail to secure bank loans.

TANZANIA PRAISED
Both France and the United States have recently praised Tanzania publicly for her efforts to bring peace in Rwanda.

Rubondo Island National Park is a unique place, situated in the South-West waters of Lake Victoria; it is exceptionally beautiful, far flung from the madding crowd and last, but definitely not least, cheap, since this is a park where hiring a four-wheel drive vehicle is not an obligation. Therefore, between the 19th and 24th September 1991, five of us (all volunteers with VSO) took a break here on this island. I am quite certain none of us will ever forget this trip end that none of the five will ever deny that much of the memorabilia we have stored in our minds are the events of one single day,

We begin in the early morning at the Rangers Headquarters camp where we were staying. We hired a park boat and bought fifty litres of petrol because today we were going to the southern end of the island to look for Rhino and Elephant. We set off slightly late, and headed south, past the Island of Birds, the Island of Crocodiles, over the deepest blackest waters of Lake Victoria, and skirted a series of formidable rock cliffs that fell straight into the deep water. We reached our first port of call, a smaller Rangers outpost that we were already familiar with, having spent our first night on the island there. This is where things really began to happen. To begin with, we foolishly let the Rangers take our boat (and our petrol) to the opposite side of the island to buy some cigarettes. Meantime, we brewed up some tea and had a simple breakfast. Eventually, the boat came back and we were prepared to leave.

Into the campfire I threw a pinch of the magic powder that I had bought from my local medicine man (he sold ‘dawa’ in the market place) for drawing the animals to us, imploring whoever was listening, in my best Kiswahili, to “Bring us Elephant and Rhino”. We had not quite gone when I was called over to the side for an urgent discussion with one of the Rangers. Reluctantly I disappeared behind a big tree with the man in order to listen to his problem, when, without further and to my immense consternation, he began to silently unbuckle his trousers and undo his fly. My mind began to reel with the possibilities. He silently carried on until his lower midriff was totally naked, and then, wedding tackle in hand, he began to beg me for help. His genitalia had been beseiged by insects of a variety I had no inclination to study more closely, and he, having seen me with the magic powder and having heard my Kiswahll, had obviously decided that I was an Mzungu to whom all could be bared. As it was, I was in no position to help and somewhat befuddled by his unique situation, All I could do was to worm my way out from behind the tree by claiming that two of the other VSO’S (who lived at the nearest mainland town) were the ones to see and that he could feel free to drop in on them any time he saw fit. We pushed off, and thus it was that we came across the poachers in the lake.

The day’s plan was that we were to be left at the southern end of a long sweeping bay, and that we would walk north following the line of the shore until we’d reached the end of the bay, where we would be met. We’d just rounded the northern tip of the bay formed by a headland crowned with a large steep hill, when we spotted another boat. Obviously they were poachers and so we set off to arrest them. As we drew nearer it became clear that their vessel was waterlogged; there were two men sitting up to their chests in the lake astride their stricken and totally useless boat.

At first I had thought they were using a cunning trick to hide from us – The lower they were in the water, the less we could see of them. In fact they were drowning and had been so since nine pm the previous night when their boat had begun to sink.

Ridiculously, we offered them our greetings and condolecences, and finally we rescued them. The thing was that the two fishermen-cum-poacher s were so dispassionate about the whole affair. Since nine pm they’d been slowly drowning, not four hundred metres from the shore, yet they’d not attempted to attract our attention nor flung themselves into the sanctity of our boat, nor attempted to reach the shore, nor displayed any emotion whatsoever. This was very disconcerting and occupied our minds for a good part of the rest of the day. Though they could talk end breathe, it was as if we had just pulled two very dead men from the lake. Anyway, we the tourists and the Rangers, were left at our start point while the ‘dead men’ were taken back to the Secondary Rangers post that we had just left.

We began to rapidly move northwards. Our Ranger, an ex-soldier, must have been in the throes of some sort of Uganda War flashback, because what we were engaged in was not a gentle tourist stroll through the woods, but a tough physical speed march. The woods were magnificent and, as on the previous days, the magic powder seemed to be working for we were surrounded by wildlife: Bushbuck, Sitatunga, fresh spoor of Elephant, and a diversity of birdlife to make an ornithologist weep. Much marching later and we were approaching that part of the bay opposite to where we had made our rescue. Our Ranger stopped and casually informed us that there was a crocodile on the beach in front of us. At first I saw nothing, but then the ubiquitous tree trunk that was protruding from the forest edge suddenly become the neck and head of a crocodile.

In that instant of recognition, I knew why those fishermen had ‘died’. Had I been mad enough to wish to run forward and embrace the crocodile in a warm hug about its neck , its tremendous girth was such that my hands would have failed to meet on the far side of the beast. The crocodile was now looking at us with its rear eye (deep orange-yellow in colour and infinite in depth): it rose and began to emerge from the forest’s edge to cross the beach not fifteen metres to our front. The beast was extraordinarily large, elemental and awesome, as tall on its feet as a very, very large dog. Needless to say we, the tourists, were rooted to the spot. The crocodile’s length (perhaps five metres or so), passed us and entered the water. Its tail waved once and it was gone. So that was it. Can you imagine sitting up to your chest in that creature’s dark kingdom from nine pm last night till this morning? “But that was only a small one” announced our Ranger, “the bigger ones are in the Island of Crocodiles that we passed this morning”. Suckers for punishment that we were, we decided to have a closer look on our return journey. We carried on, but by now some of our party were suffering from the effects of the marching and the heat. It was necessary therefore for three of us to remain behind while the others went to bring the boat back. This we did. We all climbed aboard and began the return to the headquarters via the other Rangers post.

The two men from the lake were still in shock, though slightly more lively; we didn’t have anything to say to them. What could we say? We had just arrested them for poaching, after all.

The day was not over yet. The unforeseen activities of the day, the cigarette sortie, the rescue, and returning to pick up the retired tourists, had sorely depleted our petrol. In short, we didn’t have enough to get back. We were faced with two poor choices: stay here the night (with our insect laden friend), or go on and then row the rest of the way.

We chose the latter. At this point, let me tell you that I am terrified of deep water – but deep black water inhibited by large monsters? Well, as it was , we ran out of petrol as we were circling the Isle of Crocodiles. We were going to run out of petrol anyway, and as I said, we were suckers for punishment. The crocodiles put on a great display for us. On sighting us they rushed from their basking points, down their mud-slides, to crash with horrible momentum into the water. We screamed and, for an instant, I nearly began to run, when fortunately I remembered where I was.

Every one of them was a large beast, though, to the great disappointment of our Rangers, none were larger than the one we had seen on the beach. From here, it took us six hours of constant rowing through the inky night to reach our camp. Though I was frightened, I shall never forget how beautiful that night was. The moon was bright and we could clearly see the island to our left, the cliffs falling into the waters. The other four VSO’s were singing as they rowed, but I was silent, numb with fear and awe.

When we got back we found that the only other campers there had left us another gift from the lake, Tilapia – good fish for eating. We fried them up and it was delicious, and let me tell you, it was not just the taste I was enjoying.
Michael Ball

TANZANIA TO GET US$ 990 MILLION
Aid donors and international organisations meeting in Paris on June 29 th and 30th 1992 pledged about US$ 990 million to help finance Tanzania’s development programmes next year. Almost two thirds of the funds will be provided in the form of grants – World Bank News.

PRIVATISATION OF CROP SALES
The Tanzanian Government bowed on July 16th to pressure from Members of Parliament and delayed implementing a decision it had earlier announced to privatise the sale of cash crops. “The Government has, with immediate effect, suspended the new crop purchasing procedure until next year” Prime Minister John Malecela told the National Assembly.

The decision was a setback to economic reforms being pressed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Government had originally decided also to abolish further interest-free loans for cooperatives to help them to buy crops after the State-run National Bank of Commerce had accumulated US$’5 million in bad debts from cooperatives; the reversal of policy meant that this decision was also reversed.

Mr Malecela explained that the Government’s earlier decision to end a monopoly enjoyed by the cooperative movement had been designed to encourage competition. But angry legislators said that farmers would turn to smuggling if private businesses were allowed to buy crops. “We cannot let cooperatives compete with the wolves” said the Member of Parliament for a northern wheat growing constituency.

ELECTRICTY MONOPOLY ENDED
Tanzania Electricity Supply Company’s (TESCO) 30-year monopoly on the production and supply of electricity has been ended. Minister for Water, Energy and Minerals Jakaya Kikwete told Parliament that it would take years for the whole country to be energised unless private organisations and individuals were free to enter the power market.

TELEVISION COMING
The new Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr Shija has told the National Assembly that plans have been finalised for a three-phase programme (estimated to cost Shs 13 billion) for the introduction of television. Some 18 TV stations would need to be built and the Government had agreed to cooperate with local and foreign investors who had shown interest.

PRAISE FOR TANZANIA
Mrs Lynda Chalker, who, in spite of being defeated as a Member of Parliament in the recent British elections, remains Minister for Overseas Development, praised Tanzania recently for having the courage to bring about economic reform. She said that, during the last six years, she had seen Tanzania undertake serious reforms and that that was why Britain had decided to cancel debts owed by the country – Daily News.

JUNIOR DOCTORS ON STRIKE
A strike by some 70 junior doctors at the Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC) Hospital which started on January 24-th 1992 soon escalated. The doctors had a number of grievances about allowances and insisted that they would not return to work until, as a minimum, their full On-call allowances were paid. On January 26th they were instructed to return to work on pain of dismissal. Meanwhile, senior doctors worked overtime to fill in the gaps. The junior doctors were then sacked and the Government ordered private hospitals not to employ them. By January 30th riot police had to be deployed to evict some of the doctors from the hostels, The sacking of the doctors then resulted in a general strike involving hundreds of nurses and workers at the MMC and a boycott of classes by students at the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences. Following a march on the Prime Ministers office, a protest at Government actions by the Organisation of Tanzania Trade Unions WTTU) , and the setting up of a grievance investigating team, Prime Minister John Malecela ordered the unconditional reinstatement of the striking doctors. By February 1st all were back at work.

However, five weeks later, following a civil case by 76 doctors and 8 pharmacists, the Acting Director General of the Medical Centre Professor Mmbaga found himself sentenced to 14- days in jail for disobeying an earlier order of the Magistrates Court prohibiting him from evicting from the hostel the persons concerned. The next day, however, his sentence was suspended pending an appeal to the High Court. He was released on Shs 2 million bail – Daily News.

WARIOBA BACK AGAIN
Former Prime Minister and First Vice-President Joseph Warioba has regained his seat in Parliament in a by-election. He won 21,038 votes compared with 10,136 for his opponent. His previous election had been nullified by the National Electoral Commission. – Daily News.

LUTHERAN DISTURBANCES
Serious disagreements involving members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ameru District, Arusha Region have resulted in the death of one man and the injury of others. During a meeting at the Usa River Rehabilitation Centre a crowd of some 1,500 people started hurling stones. One Bishop was slightly injured and had to be rescued by Police.

CAPTURING HEARTS AND MINDS
How a Devon man and his engineer colleague captured the hearts and minds of Tanzanian villagers was described at the recent annual meeting of the ‘Friends of Urambo and Mwanhala’ at Exeter University. The Devon-based group’s technical training officer, Martin Gilbert, and Mark Holdsworth spent a long time repairing and reconstituting mill and pump engines in villages in the Tabora region. “The fact that we put the machinery back into working order was not the most important factor” declared Mark. “What really mattered was that we gained the confidence, respect and friendship of the people”. Their work is now being continued by VSO engineer Chris Lowey, the newly appointed technical tutor under the group’s village mechanics training project which cost more than £37,000 last year – John Budge.

BANKING MONOPOLY ENDED
President Mwinyi signed into law 1n February 1992 the ‘Banking and Financial Institutions Act No 12 of 1991’ which ended the 24-year old monopoly of commercial banking in Tanzania by the National Bank of Commerce. Applicants for licenses to operate private banks are now being prepared. The Government hesitated for a long time before implementing this change which had been one of nearly 200 recommendations made in 1991 by a Presidential Enquiry into the Monetary and Banking Systems of Tanzania. The Bulletin had hoped to publish an article on this matter in this issue but problems of time and space prevented this. It is hoped to do so in the next issue.

HISTORIANS TO MEET IN ZANZIBAR
Zanzibar Museum and Archives Director Hamad Omar has announced that the Zanzibar Government is organising an international conference on the history and culture of the Isles to take place in December 1992. Some 150 participants are expected to attend – Daily News.

TANZANIA TORTOISES FLOWN HOME
Some 450 tortoises from Tanzania which had been illegally exported to the Netherlands last year were repatriated to Tanzania in January by the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). They are to be ‘rehabilitated’ before being returned to the wilds – Business Times.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE CHANGES
The Government has allowed Tanzanians and foreigners to bring into Tanzania any amount of convertible currency and open accounts with local financial institutions or ‘Bureaux de Change’ which were to be opened from April 21st 1992. No one would be asked how they earned the money. Nationals travelling abroad would be allowed to take out of Tanzania the equivalent of US$ 100 (Shs 30,000) – Daily News.

CYPRESS TREES DYING
Experts at the Morogoro-based Tanzania Forestry Research Institute have stated that thousands of cypress trees (Cupressus lusitanica) on which forest based industries such as Fibreboard Africa Ltd at Arusha depend are dying. The cause of the problem is not yet clear but mention has been made of drying through drought, aphids and deficiency of mineral nutrients in the soil 8S possible contributors to the problem. There are about 15,000 hectares of cypress trees in Tanzania mostly in Arusha, Mbeya and Kilimanjaro regions – Daily News.

STUDENTS PROTEST COST SHARING
Students in higher education institutions are becoming restive yet again. This time the protests are about the new Government policy of ‘cost-sharing’. As Prime Minister John Malecela explained on February 26th to students at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam, nobody is to be denied access to higher education. The object is to mobilise the better off parents to make a contribution to their children’s education. Mr Malecela explained how far enrolments in higher education in Tanzania fell behind those in other countries and the need to substantially expand enrolments in Tanzania. He pointed out that there were 6,071 students in higher education in Tanzania compared with 26,839 in Kenya. Only 25 out of 100,000 had access to higher education in Tanzania compared with Malawi 54, Uganda 75 and Zimbabwe 396.

The Prime Minister also said that the Government would not pardon the 10 students who had recently been expelled from the University of Dar es Salaam for’ instigating chaos’. He said that some of those expelled had also been ringleaders in the 1990 student unrest at the University. They had been pardoned by President Mwinyi early last year – Daily News.

AGAINST ISLAMIC ETHICS
Muslims in Mwanza who have been accused of and admit having participated in the killing of 13 pigs owned buy a Mr Rogasian John in September last year have refused to pay compensation, They have claimed that it is against Islamic ethics to compensate the forbidden, They said that they were prepared to go to prison rather than do what was against their belief. Investigations revealed that the housing for the pigs had been constructed near to a graveyard reserved for Muslims – Business Times,

CRIME DECLINES
The efforts by Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema to involve the people in fighting crime have reduced the incidence of serious offences according to Police Inspector General Harun Mahundi. Although the number of crimes was up by 12,6% last year many of these were of a minor nature. There had been 191 less murder cases and robbery with violence had declined by 374 cases, Housebreaking decreased by 619 and there had been less cases of theft of cars, Some 528 suspects in corruption cases had been netted last year – a figure 30% higher than in the previous year – Daily News,

MREMA DISMISSES CASE
Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema has directed the Director of Immigration Services to dismiss a case of staying in the country without a permit against German citizen Wermer Kreissle, It had been alleged that Mr Kriessle had been harassed by Assistant Immigration Officer Paul Nchemi who had demanded that Kriessle should bring him a fishing boat engine from Germany. Mr Nchemi had been transferred to a section where he would not be dealing with foreigners – Daily News.

Readers of the last issue of the Bulletin, which quoted an investigative article in Tanzania’s radical tabloid ‘The Family Mirror’ will be relieved to hear that, three days after the publication of the article, the Mirror found the Rolls, now again parked in a corner of the Dar es Salaam Museum. The limousine, a 1930’s model, is apparently in good condition save for a few missing parts. The Government issued a statement refuting any kind of conspiracy over the disappearance of this part of the national heritage. The Rolls had apparently been taken to Cooper Motors in December 1990 because its condition had deteriorated. For four years the Museum authorities had corresponded with the Rolls Royce Company in UK to seek their assistance in its restoration but had received no positive response.

Thirty years have now passed since the birth of one of Africa’s most renowned centres of learning – the University of Dar es Salaam. Very few universities in Africa have been able to attract the kind of international interest and financial support that Tanzania’s first institution of higher learning has managed to drum up. Even fewer have intellectually flourished independently of government directives while at the same time training their quota of skilled managers and technicians for Africa’s know-how-starved economies. But the economic stagnation of the 1980’s chilled much of the intellectual fervour that had marked the 1960’s and 1970’s.

THE FACULTY OF LAW AND THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
In October 1961 the Faculty of Law of the University of East Africa was opened in its temporary quarters in the TANU party building in Dar es Salaam. Meanwhile Western donor funds were invested in a new dream campus atop the lush hills on the outskirts of the city. President Nyerere officially opened proceedings on ‘the Hill’, as the new campus of the University College came to be known, in August 1964. The euphoria of independence was still very much in the air; students enjoyed quite privileged circumstances, and as time went by, some began to acquire the reputation of being elitist. One thing is clear: they dubbed their main dining hall ‘Harvard’ and, as campus legend has it, wore shirt and tie to meals and ordered from proper menus!

The Canadian professor Cranford Pratt, one of the foremost scholars on Tanzanian political economy, was appointed the first Principal of the University College. He would soon be joined by a host of other foreigners – among them Terence Ranger, Goren Hyden, Helge Kjekshus, Lionel Cliffe, John Saul, Andrew Coulson and Michel von Freyhold – who came to typify the kind of Western intellectual of liberal to radical bent who would arrive on campus over the next twenty years, drawn to Tanzania by the progressive rhetoric of President Nyerere and the promising spirit of ‘Ujamaa’. The University was to attract prominent Third World intellectuals as well including the famed Marxist historian from Guyana, Walter Rodney.

PROTEST BEGINS
The quiet days at the Hill came to an abrupt end in 1965 when the government sent police to break up a student-organised attack on the British High Commissioner in protest at Britain’s non-committal stance on Rhodesian UDI. The following year the National Association of Tanzanian Students organised a march to State House in protest at the governments’ plans to mandate two years of national service for secondary and university school leavers. Particularly arrogant phrases in the student declaration (‘This is an ultimatum’) and the unfortunate presence of some offensive poster board slogans (‘Colonialism was better’) no doubt sparked President Nyerere’s ire. Nyerere’s response was to become legendary and certainly left its mark on Tanzania. In response to student complaints about high salaries of leaders and civil servants he slashed his own salary by 20% and agreed to revise the salaries of others permanently. Some 400 students were sent home and before they were allowed to return, Nyerere had released the Arusha Declaration which included strict guidelines on the accumulation of wealth by party and government leaders.

After the students were allowed to return and during the following years the ideas of Black Power and workers’ revolution were powerfully advocated by visiting lecturers like Stokely Carmichael, C.L.R. James and A. M Babu. For some time the increasingly radicalised university community welcomed Nyerere’s socialistic rhetoric and supported the policies of TANU.

THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM AND POLITICAL DEBATE
In July 1970 the University of East Africa broke up and the Dar campus became a fully fledged national university. Some students began to dissent. The law student Issa Shivji came out against the ‘sham socialism of the Arusha Declaration and the ‘bureaucratic bourgeoisie’ of the party and government machinery. An intense debate followed on the nature of Tanzanian socialism accompanied by such incidents as the detention of the student organisation president, a student boycott of classes and a period of a year during which students refused to cooperate with any University institutions – including the campus bar.

As events during the 1970’s threw a hard light on both the socialist experiment of Nyerere’s government and the debates in the university, the left became split into warring factions. There was still a large group supporting Nyerere’s policies but another group continued to argue that the bureaucratic bourgeoisie had ‘hijacked’ Tanzanian socialism. Then, in 1978, the government announced salary increases of up to 40% for leaders. This was seen by students as a clear contradiction of the Arusha Declaration and, on March 5, 1,500 students marched on the city centre. They were brutally attacked by the police. 400 were taken away to their homes without due process of law and the government media engaged in a concerted campaign against them.

THE EFFECTS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
By 1980 the country had entered the most profound economic crisis of its 20-year history and by 1986 the University had ebbed to its lowest point ever. The once beautiful facility on the Hill had collapsed. The water system had broken down and lack of spare parts delayed its repair until 1990. Campus restrooms became unserviceable and the odour of backed up excrement pervaded the campus for years a pungent metaphorical reminder of the rot that was spreading through the land. Shelves in the bookstore remained empty save for the dust-covered stacks of Lenin and Mao. Staff salaries could not support the most modest of families. The once-vindicated supporters of Nyerere quietly sought sabbaticals. Expatriates trickled home. Corruption soared; twice – in 1986 and 1988 the students struck against corruption and deteriorating conditions, but to no avail. The University fell into the hands of those who would not rock the boat.

A NEW CONSERVATIVE GENERATION
By the middle of 1988 the university was bankrupt and unable to open for class as scheduled in July. When classes were finally resumed in October, one of the last foreign radicals, the Jamaican political scientist, Horace Campbell , a disciple of the late Rodney, was no longer on the University payroll. His release was symbolic of the new Mwinyi government’s attempt to forget about Nyerere’s socialist dream while still attempting to maintain a monopoly on political power.

A new conservative generation dominated the University staff. Regardless of ideology, however, they were just as susceptible to the temptations of political corruption as their illustrious predecessors and just as capable of feeling the pinch of economic want. Despite numerous ‘campaigns’ against corruption and despite the new signs of life slowly emerging in the country’ s economy as a result of the Mwinyi economic recovery programme, the plight of the University teachers and students continued to deteriorate.

THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL
The fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989 again stirred the students to action. Now it appeared that they had the weight of world events on their side. Not only could they present their former demands for an end to corruption and a consequent rehabilitation of the campus, but also a new call for a multi-party democracy.

Readers of recent issues of the Bulletin will be familiar with happenings on the Hill since then. The boycott of classes in May 1990, the ‘wall literature’ which so offended President Mwinyi, the subsequent closure of the University, the Mroso Commission (which vindicated the behaviour of the students), the rapid rehabilitation of the physical plant of the University (running water was now reaching all parts of the campus), the transfer of the popular Vice-Chancellor, Professor R. G. V. Mmari to head the new Open University and the launching, in June 1991, of a ‘Dar es Salaam Declaration of Academic Freedom’. Back in the days when President Nyerere – then himself a writer and intellectual of growing repute – used to casually stride around the corridors in his capacity as University’ Visitor’, and used to candidly discuss matters of national significance with students, such a declaration would have sounded odd.

THE FUTURE
Now, in October 1991, as the third decade of the University winds to a close in the wake of the dramatic collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, it remains to be seen what will become of the University.

The University community – once again acting as the conscience of Tanzania – may again find itself on uncomfortable ground. Even if it wins the current battle for free intellectual expression, and even should CCM party hegemony eventually come to an end, to which ideological corner will this new ‘conscience’ turn when it becomes clear that the much vaunted’ multi-party, free-market democracy’ has failed to deliver the promised goods?
Paul A Isbell Munch

Tanzania has earned an international reputation as a leader in the field of wildlife conservation and is world famous for its national parks and wildlife. Nearly a quarter of the country is under some sort of wildlife protection order. Despite this Tanzania is the second largest exporter (after Senegal) of wild caught birds in Africa.

The bulk, if not all of Tanzania’s wild bird exports, are of its own native species, unlike some Far Eastern exporters/markets. There are over 200 registered bird and animal exporters. The main trade is in Estrilid finches (waxbills, cordon bleus etc), weavers, bishops, whydahs and, to a lesser extent, native parrots especially the endemic Fisher’s Lovebird. Large bird exports are dominated by flamingoes, storks (especially marabou), ibises and crowned crane. Trapping appears to be centred in Dodoma, Shinyanga and Kilimanjaro regions with holding grounds in Arusha and Dar es Salaam.

CONCERN ABOUT WELFARE AND CONSERVATION
Increasing concern is being expressed in Tanzania and internationally about the welfare and conservation aspects of the trade. It should be stressed however that the bulk of the Tanzanian trade is legal, according to Tanzanian and international law. But there is evidence of some illegal acts being committed.

Studies of the wild bird trade elsewhere have shown that there are huge losses suffered at capture, in the holding grounds and whilst being transported and there is no reason to suppose conditions in Tanzania are any different. In a well publicised case recently at least 1,200 birds died miserably on a flight from Tanzania to Heathrow. In 1982 a report by Kim Howell of the University of Dar es Salaam made a number of recommendations which helped to stop the trade in the yellow-collared lovebird (only found in a wild state in Tanzania). In 1948 Moreau (the doyen of African ornithology) commented on the huge numbers of lovebirds being exported (40-50,000 per annum) and in 1987 and 1988 a total of 183,607 live imports of lovebirds were reported, Tanzania being the source of the majority. 43% of birds imported into Britain from Tanzania in 1988 and 1989 were of unidentified species. Whilst there may be some excuse for not identifying non-breeding plumage whydahs or weavers there should be no excuse for not identifying families such as bar bets, starlings, coots, mousebirds, turacos, hornbills, flamingoes, lovebirds, rollers, waders and orioles.

REGULATION
The Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania was partly formed in 1987 because of the growing concern about unregulated exploitation of wild birds. As a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Tanzania has agreed to regulate its trade in CITES Appendix species. No CITES Appendix 1 species (the highest level of protection eg: elephants) are regularly exported but a number of Appendix 2 species IMPORT BANS
Earlier this year a joint campaign was launched by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Environmental Investigation Agency to ban the import of wild caught birds into the EEC. The USA has already decided to phase out all imports of wild caught birds. As a result of concerns about the current population status of Fischer’s Lovebirds, the CITES EEC Committee imposed a temporary ban on the import into EEC countries of these birds on January 16th 1991. Many airlines (including KLM and BA but not Egypt Air and Air Tanzania) have banned the carrying of wild caught birds. There is also currently a MAFF imposed ban on all bird imports into Britain from Tanzania. A consignment of Tanzanian birds in 1990 was found to contain Newcastle Disease and this ban will continue until the Tanzanian veterinary authorities satisfy the British that their procedures are adequate.
Zul Bhatia