TANZANIA IN THE LEAD
Tanzania’s immunisation coverage of one-year-old-children (85%) is one of the best in Africa according to the ‘State of the World’s Children 1990 Report’ issued by UNICEF, Dar es Salaam. ‘Coverage’ refers to immunisation against the major killer diseases – diptheria, whooping cough and tetanus. Seychelles leads with 94% followed by Cape Verde 90%, Botswana 89% and Mauritius 87% Tanzania comes next, ahead of 40 other African countries – Daily News.

AFRICAN BLACKWOOD THREATENED
Tanzania’s ‘Gold of the Forest’, the African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon), known locally as ‘Mpingo’ is being threatened by over-exploitation, bushfires and human activities. The wood is in great demand for Makonde carvings and, in Europe and the USA, for musical instrument billets.

It is estimated that there are 134,000 square kilometres of forest in the Lindi and Mtwara regions, parts of Handeni district and in the Coast and Morogoro regions. But recent estimates on an area of 4,088 hectares indicate that there are only about 12 stems of Blackwood per hectare. Furthermore, the growth rate of the tree is very slow – it matures in about 100 years – and most of the trees are in bad form so that recovery rate of the best wood is only about 25% at the sawmill. As the machinery in use at the mills – at Mingoya, Kilwa Masoko and Lindi can process only larger pieces of wood, smaller pieces tend to be thrown away.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has proposed a US$ 11 million programme for an inventory and forest programme to last about ten years; funds are now being sought to implement this programme – Daily News

MWINYI ADOPTS AIDS ORPHANS
SHIHATA (the Tanzanian News Agency) has reported (March 5 1990) that President Mwinyi has visited the AIDS ravaged Kagera Region where there are now 7,000 orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. The President hugged some orphans in the worst hit Muleba district and, when he concluded his visit, he informed his wife, Mama Sitti, that he was taking back to Dar es Salaam two orphans for adoption. He asked other people to do the same. 3,500 of the orphans are below nine years old. But, as Dr George Lwlhula, who has done research in the area says, the problem is that not many people are willing to adopt or take care of the orphans.

The authorities have therefore launched a fund to build them a home and send them to school. France and Denmark are providing aid. Another problem that has recently come to light is the refusal of many civil servants to accept transfer to Kageraj a number of others have requested transfers away because of fear of the disease – Daily News.

PYRETHRUM REVIVAL
At the start of a campaign to revive Tanzania’s pyrethrum industry
in March 400 acres were planted in the Mbulu, Babati and Hanang districts. It was hoped to plant a further 4-00 acres by July 1990 and 1,500 acres by May 1991.

Tanzania’s once thriving pyrethrum industry yielded 6,000 tons in 1967 but by 1988 production had dropped to 1,400 tons the bulk being produced in the Southern Highlands. The drastic fall has been attributed to competition from synthetic pyrethroids in the industrialised world but opinions were now changing as the pyrethroids were proving dangerous to the environment. Tanzania’s Pyrethrum Board has been able to raise prices from Shs 47.80 in 1988 to Shs 60 in 1990 as world prices have improved. The Board also supplies free seeds for nurseries. It is hoped to increase production to 2,200 tons by 1991/92 said a Board representative.

A NEW NEWSPAPER
Tanzania has a new tabloid newspaper. It is called the ‘Family Mirror’ and its first issue is dated April 1990. Its main front page article is headlined ‘Minister Threatens to Shoot Potential Opponent’ and starts: ‘A Senior Minister who survived the recent Cabinet shake-up has threatened to gun down a distant relative after jujumen warned him that the relative would cause his political downfall …..

Other articles feature ‘Tanzania – A Millionaire in Rags’ about the need for the country to properly exploit its tourist resources, ‘Adios Ntagazwa’ about corruption in the Ministry of Lands, ‘Tanzanian Mamas Prove They Belong to the Kitchen’ concerning a demand for longer maternity leave, and ‘State House For Sale’ a light hearted look at beach property sales in Dar es Salaam

HEART SURGERY IN DODOMA
A team of seven Chinese, Italian and Tanzanian doctors have performed heart surgery on two young girls at the Dodoma Regional Hospital. The girls were suffering from ‘Mitral Stenosis’ and ‘Mitral Incompetence’. defects which prevent heart valves from allowing proper flow of blood. The doctors succeeded in rectifying the valves in each case the first time that such an operation had been conducted in Dodoma – Daily News

BOT TAKES OVER GOLD EXPORTS
The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) has taken over responsibility for the export of gold and is offering attractive and competitive prices so as to better control the industry and ensure that Tanzania obtains full benefit from gold sales. It has been estimated that as much as one and a half tons of gold is being smuggled out of the country every month through the borders and communication and transport outlets. The Gold Committee of the Federation of Miners Associations of Tanzania (FEMATA) has welcomed the decision and has suggested the establishment of an international auction floor in Dar es Salaam to maximise profit for the country. The committee has also suggested that gold should be locally refined 99% before it is exported.

Several goldsmiths have said that they will cooperate with the government and banks to ensure the success of the new arrangements – Daily News.

OVERCROWDING IN PRISONS
Sixteen prisoners died of various diseases caused mainly by overcrowding at Ukonga and Keko remand prisons between January and March 1990 the Commissioner of Prisons has announced. Seven of t deaths were caused by AIDS. Keko Prison has a capacity for 340 prisoners but is at present holding 1,700 prisoners.

The Commissioner also revealed that two prisoners had escaped from Uyui Prison in Tabora in January because of negligence on the part of prison officers. They were still at large.

A new prison with a capacity of 600 is expected to open in June 1990 and should relieve overcrowding.

The Commissioner denied reports that some prisoners were suffering from malnutrition.

TANZANIAN MUSICIANS/ARTISTS COMING
Some 12 Tanzanian musicians and dancers (including an 80 year-old singer!), an artist and a painter were expected to arrive in Britain at the beginning of May to perform at various sites in the country including the Museum in Glasgow, and the Africa Centre and Commonwealth Institute in London. Ms Fatima Abdullah, the Minister Counsellor (Culture and Information) in the Tanzania High Commissioner told the Bulletin that the visitors will include Taraab musicians and dancers from Zanzibar (Taraab music is unique and combines African, Asian and Arab elements), Mr Kavanga Abdurahman with ‘Tingatinga’ paintings (this style of art was originally designed by a Makonde artist named Edward Tingatinga and features free-hand, always curved, never straight, brightly coloured images of birds, trees and animals with the dot as a recurring motif) and Mr Freddie Macha from Moshi who will present poetry using a guitar and drums.

REVAMPING SUGAR ESTATES
The Sugar Development Corporation (SUDECO) estimates that it will need some Shs 30 billion to revamp the Kagera and three other Tanzanian sugar mills.

The Kagera plant was first commissioned in 1982 but its operations were bogged down by management conflicts. It has the capacity to process some 60,000 tons of sugar anuually but the highest production reached so far has been only 6,000 tons.

Total production of sugar in Tanzania was estimated at 94,000 tons this year compared with a national demand for 450,000 tons. Efforts are under way to raise the necessary funds from British, Dutch and Tanzanian resources – Sunday News.

Tanzanian workers are lazy and unproductive says Tanzania’s National Productivity Council (NPC) quoted in ‘Business News’ on September 29th 1989. The NPC Executive Secretary, Mr Nikubuka Shimwela attributes the trend to a lack of a productive culture in the nation. “People are not serious with work” he said.

According to the Council the nation’s productivity has been falling since 1980 with adverse effects on the national economy. In financial institutions productivity has been declining at an average rate of 3.3% In the manufacturing sector at 6.2%, in the mining sector at 4% and in public administration at 5.5% In cross section interviews on productivity many interviewees have charged that the most unproductive sector is the public administration sector. Civil servants report late for work, one person charged. Some leave their work well before closing time while most spend a considerable amount of time in dubious private ventures during working hours.

NO SAYS MR. KASWAGA
Responding in the Mailbag column of ‘Business News’ a Mr Ben Kaswaga wondered what had happened to workers in recent years. Had the generation of early post-independence workers disappeared? The answer was no he wrote. Many of those Tanzanians were still alive and well. But something or other had happened in their minds.

‘How much productivity can be expected of a Tanzanian who gets up at 5.30 in the morning without even a crumb of boiled cassava for breakfast to make two bus connections at 30 shillings each so as to be in time for work? Can this hungry worker produce much when all he has for lunch is a couple of roasted sweet potatoes to be washed down the throat with, perhaps, one soda because he can’t afford anything better? Can this worker be productive when, at 2.30 pm – tired, underfed and undernourished – he has to make another two bus connections to get back home and arrive there, maybe two hours later ….

The Tanzanian is lazy? True, probably, but that is mainly because he does not eat enough. He does not eat enough because he is not paid enough (or sometimes not at all) because there is low productivity. But there cannot be higher productivity from a demoralised, tired and hungry producer …..

Need we wonder why even that old glorious self-help spirit is now only a thing of the past?’

Operating from a small office on the top floor of London’s Fruit and Wool Exchange in the East End and managed by only two persons is the Frontier Tanzania/Society for Environmental Exploration Project which is sending hundreds of British young people to work on environmentally related work in Tanzania.

The project began in July 1989 and already more than a hundred young Britons have been to Tanzania under the project. They claim to have put in 10,000 man days of work so far – equivalent to one person’s effort over a per! od of fort y years. It is hoped to send some 200 young British people to Tanzania each year for the next four years.

Guiding and supporting the young volunteers (average age 22) have been some twenty Tanzanian specialists (including post-graduate students) and twenty five experts from overseas institutions including the world famous author of the book ‘Mammmals of East Africa’ , Jonathan Kingdon.

‘Frontier’ is a collaborative project between the University of Dar es Salaam and the UK based Society for Environmental Exploration(SEE). A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two parties on July 12th 1989.

The objectives are defined as to promote and advance field research into environmental issues, implement practical projects designed to maintain or improve the environment and promote the sustainable exploit at ion of natural resources. SEE is a charitable organisation funded only by the contributions of the participating research scientists and the young people themselves who are research assistants.

Work accomplished between July and the end of last year has been in four areas – coastal forest studies, marine research on Mafia island, research on mangroves in the Rufiji Delta and various studies in the Mikumi National Park.

In the Park, work has been organised by the University of Dar es Salaam’s Botany Department and has included vegetation mapping and the establishment of forest plots – a wide diversity of forest types were found where only one was thought to exist. At the invitation of the National Park authorities, Frontier has conducted studies on the construction of roads in the southern part of the Park; the routes for 58 kms of new roads were defined.

Among the more important aspects of the work has been the assessment of the damage being suffered in the coastal forests at Kiono, Kisiju, Pugu Hills, the Vikindu Forest Reserve and in the Matumbi H:llls, The areas of remaining forest have been documented along with the destruction being brought about by logging, charcoal burning and slash-and-burn subsistence farming and hence the projected life spans of each forest. Preliminary results indicate that known evergreen coastal forests probably now occupy less than 200 sq kms and that a mere 50 sq kms remains completely undamaged. Frontier insists however that it is not a campaigning organisation. It leaves to others the dissemination of the information it helps to collect and the implementation of appropriate remedial action.

Frontier has provided transport, accommodation in tented camps and field equipment in the forests to help Tanzanian scientists in such work as mist netting of bird species, assembling quantitative data on the floristic composition of the forests, the collection of over 3,000 herbarium specimens (one new species of flowering plant was discovered), studies related to a new theory on shell polymorphism of selected snail species and the discovery of a species of toad new to science.

The Rufiji Delta contains the largest area of estuarine mangrove forest in East Africa <1,022 sq kms) and Dar es Salaam University's Botany Department selected the site for Frontier's research work on a small island in the Delta Simba Uranga. Studies there include recording patterns of mangrove sedimentation and shoreline retreat, vegetation mapping, determining patterns of water and sediment flux within the main channels, measurements of salinity intrusion, prawn fishing activities and the distribution of wintering bird populations. Asked in her London office to which she had just returned from Tanzania what had been the main problems so far, Eibleis Fanning, one of the organisers, mentioned three things. Firstly, some medical problems in the field in Tanzania - one case of malaria and lots of cuts and bruises amongst the volunteers. Secondly, a shortage of funds to employ additional staff in London, And, thirdly, the urgent need for a photocopier and a computer or word processor. Any reader of the Bulletin upgrading his Amstrad for something better and not knowing what to do with the old model is requested to phone Frontier at 01 375 2390! David Brewin

ELEPHANTS – TANZANIA WINS ITS CASE BUT NOT EVERYONE AGREES
Tanzania’s initiative in trying to achieve a world-wide ban on the trade in ivory (Bulletin No 34) caused a heated debate at the biennial conference of the UN sponsored Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Switzerland in October 1989. Eventually 76 countries voted for a total ban on ivory but eleven voted against. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Burundi declared that they might file a reservation which would enable them to sell and export ivory. Furthermore, trophy hunting and the local use of meat, skin and ivory of the elephant is still not banned.

The immediate effects were good however. Reports from South Africa in early November spoke of the bottom falling out of the ivory trade. Shopkeepers selling ivory reported losing 60% of their normal turnover. American tourists were said to have reacted with horror on seeing ivory objects still on sale on the shops.

OSTRICH FARM IN ARUSHA
The Government has authorised the establishment of an ostrich farm in Arusha in spite of opposition from members of the Regional Development Committee who feared that this could lead to disturbance of the ostriches in their natural habitat. Parent stocks of the birds wi11 be captured from the wildlife areas and eventually produce up to 20,000 ostriches mainly for export . The farm is at Gomba Estate and already has some 200 ostriches. The birds are bred mainly for their valuable tail feathers, skin and meat – Daily News.

RICHEST RUBY DEPOSITS
Tanzania has the richest and biggest ruby deposits in the world a Swiss geologist/gemologist said in Arusha recently. The Longido mine was the biggest ruby mine in the world. The mine was nationalised in 1972 and operated by Tanzania Gemstone Industries (TGI) but closed shortly afterwards. However, it is now operating under a joint venture between TGI and a Swiss Company, Tofco SA. The new company has imported all necessary mining equipment and lorries – Daily News.

42,316 PUPILS LEFT SCHOOL IN 1988
According to the Ministry of Education’s 1987/88 Annual Report 42,316 pupils left school in 1988 because of pregnancy, early marriage, entering petty trading and following the emigration of parents in search of pasture.

Arusha Region had the highest incidence of pupils leaving school followed by Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Mbeya and Kagera Regions.

However, some 3,169,202 pupils were enrolled in primary schools and the number entering Standard One in January 1988 was 548,055 – an increase of 8,698 children compared with 1987. The enrolment represents 89.6% of the school age population. This means that some 800,000 children were not sent to school – Daily News.

A REGIONAL DERMATOLOGY TRAINING CENTRE
A Regional Dermatology Training Centre is being set up at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Mosh!. It will cover the needs of English speaking countries in East , Central and Southern Africa. The training will be aimed at the Medical Assistant level and will cover the diagnosis and treatment of the skin diseases prevalent in rural areas, including leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases, (including AIDS) in a two-year course leading to the award of a Diploma in Dermatology from the University of Dar es Salaam. The International Foundation of Dermatology will construct the training centre and hostel on the grounds of the KCMC. In addition to these capital costs considerable finance will be required to fund the training courses. Fund raising amongst potential donors was one of the purposes of a meeting about the project held on September 13th 1989 at the Bolivar Hall attached to the Venezuelan Embassy in London and hosted by H.E. the Venezuelan Ambassador who is himself a dermatologist.
Harold Wheate

MUSICAL SUCCESS IN EUROPE
‘Dr’ Remmy Ongala and his Super Matimila orchestra are, according to the Daily News, taking Europe by storm. The 10 man Tanzanian orchestra has so far performed in Yugoslavia, Norway, Finland, Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark, West Germany, Spain, Canada, the USA and Britain.

‘Throughout our tour’ said Ongala, ‘so many people have got interested in our music that we now have the double task of explaining where Tanzania is …. we play all our numbers in Kiswahili to show them that we come from that peace-loving, beautiful country in East Africa’

FOREIGN CONSULTANCIES CRITICISED
Foreign consultants have been criticised from two directions recently.
Discussing a paper on ‘Energy and Biotechnology’ at a three-day Party seminar in October a participant said that Tanzania was spending about US$270 million a year on foreign consultancy. He said that there were many Tanzanians who could do such assignments but many institutions preferred foreigners who are given 97% of all consulting work in the country.

Two weeks later Mwalimu Nyerere, told the closing session of a seminar on science and technology at Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam, that Tanzania should start refusing external aid which increased the country’s dependence on foreign experts. Reiterating the call for collective self-reliance among the developing countries, Mwalimu, who is also Chairman of the South Commission, said countries in the South should meet each others demand for human and material resources before going to the North. His remarks were cheered by the audience. At the same time Mwalimu donated Shs one million from the monetary part of the Lenin Peace Prize he got in 1987 to a proposed International Village for Science and Technology to be built in Tanzania.

Meanwhile, a Tanzania Association of Consultants (TACO) has been inaugurated at the Hellenic Club in Dar es Salaam. It was originally registered by Government in May 1988. The association is a multidisciplinary body comprising consultants in engineering, agricultural and rural development, financial management systems and administrative management. The Chairman is Mr Aloyce Peter Mushi of Co-Architecture, Dar es Salaam. The priority is to help the Government to cut down on expenditure on foreign consultancy companies – Daily News.

DAR UNIVERSITY PRAISED
The University of Dar es Salaam is one of the few examples in Africa in which faculty and research economists are contributing significantly to national economic policy analysis, according to the World Bank Annual Report for 1989. The economists had been seconded to Government and parastatals where they participated in the drawing up of the first Economic Recovery Programme and in techniques of external negotiation. The Bank praised the way in which the authorities had opened debate on difficult policy issues.

NEW TELEVISION STUDIES
The Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr Ahmed H Diria, has appointed an eleven-member technical committee to undertake feasibility studies on the establishment of television in mainland Tanzania. This follows the Part y and Government decision to introduce television by the year 2,000 Daily News.

FIFTY ENGINEERS QUIT CIVIL AVIATION
More than 50 Civil Aviation engineers have left their jobs and sought employment elsewhere because their scheme of service, approved by the Ministry of Manpower in 1983 has not yet been implemented.

AN OLD LADY WHO IS STILL AN EXTREME BEAUTY
It was with these words that the Danish Ambassador to Tanzania described the recently renovated (with Danish help) MV Victoria. The ship had broken down three years ago and the rehabilitation has included the changing of all engines, three generators, rewiring, and installation of A/C instead of D/C current. Its carrying capacity has been increased by 450 seats so that it can now carry 38 first class, 66 second and 1,096 third class passengers in addition to 200 tons of cargo. The vessel’s speed has been increased from 12.5 to 14.0 knots so that it will be the fastest of the 12 ships the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) operates on Lake Victoria.

MV Victoria dates back to 1958 when it was first built in Britain. It was brought to Kisumu in Kenya where it was re-assembled in 1960. When the East African Community collapsed in 1977 the vessel was held up in Kisumu and stayed there until the completion of lengthy negotiations between the Community partners and it was allowed to come to Tanzania. SHIHATA

Once again Tanzania occupies only a very small part of the latest Amnesty International Annual Report. The following notes cover the main elements of the report.

Three prisoners of conscience continued to be restricted to remote areas of Tanzania – two to Mafia island – to which they had been banished in 1987. Two had been detained without trial in October 1986 after they had circulated a petition calling for Tanzania to become a multi-party state; (the deportation order on one of the two has now been cancelled); the third, Mr Joseph Kasella Bantu, a former senior government official, had returned to Tanzania from exile in March 1987 after receiving official assurances of his safety, only to be placed under house arrest. In March 1988 the house arrest was lifted but he continued to be restricted to Njombe district.

In June 1988 a person from Pemba was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for tearing up a photograph of former President Nyerere. In May 1988 a correspondent for the BBC was arrested after he had reported that police had shot dead two Muslim demonstrators in Zanzibar. A Government Commission of Enquiry into the killings had reported by the end of 1988 but its findings had not been made public.

Twenty three people arrested after the Zanzibar demonstrations were on bail facing criminal charges at the end of the year.

Although four persons were sentenced to death after conviction for murder in Tanzania in 1988 no executions were reported – Editor.

Professor (of Geography) Meyer at Leipzig University and Professor Purtscheller from Austria were the first Europeans to climb Kilimanjaro. They reached the top on October 6 1889. The Committee which was set up to organise the centenary celebrations last year has pointed out however, that these two gentlemen were not alone on their ascent. And they decided to award certificates, posthumously, or in person, to the African porter-guides who accompanied them. The Committee studied old photographs and historic documents in its attempts to identify the persons concerned. Four of the original guides were found to be dead but one very old man was found to be still alive. He is Mr. Yohani Kinyala Lauwo now living at Marangu near Moshi and he is believed to have accompanied these first early explorers. He does not remember when he was born and is perplexed by the sudden interest in something he had long forgotten. Lauwo claims to have scaled the mountain three times by World War One (1914). The Committee assumes that he was then in his teens and thus that he would now be some 118 years old. Mzee Lauwo said that he was seeking employment at the time and met a European and some others in Moshi with their luggage. The European was looking for a certain Dutch doctor who was residing at Kibo. On arrival there he met another man (Jonathan Mtui who has since died) who told him that the European was looking for people to escort him to the top of the mountain. Recalling this first climb Lauwo said that the mountain was veiled in a very thick forest and they had to use pangas and sticks to cut their way through. The trip was ‘horrifying’ because of the wild animals including elephants, leopards and wild dogs. The trip took eight days and he received three and a half rupees pay. They used to wear only a shirt, a blanket and no shoes he said.

No. 1. PAR 4,400 YARDS
The 2,000 metre contour passes through the tee, which is at the foot of the clubhouse lawn, affording a commanding view – and a daunting prospect – of the first and ninth fairways.

If you pull your tee shot you are likely to find your ball tucked in behind a forest clump containing a plant of the climbing – Adenia stolzii (Passifloraceae). This is a food plant of the acraeid butterfly Bematistes scalivittata, whose range is confined to mountainous country from the Nyika Plateau in Malawi to the Uzungwa and Rubeho Mountains in Tanzania. Crossing the fairway from here into the rough the other side – all too easy – you may find the pretty little iris Romulea_ campanuloides down among the grass.

Golfers (and others) are advised to wear shorts. These give advance warning of ‘siafu’ (safari ants – Dorylus sp) which otherwise tend to climb up the insides of trousers before turning to bite in unison. A golfer seen dancing a hornpipe in some distant rough is probably trying to divest himself of these ant sand possibly also of his trousers. Be warned, siafu are no respecters of persons, nor of parts of persons for that matter.

No. 2. PAR 5,541 YARDS
This is a dog leg from right to left. Brave and powerful golfers may be tempted to cut the corner, but if they fall short and end up in the trees, as I do, they may find themselves under a Syzigium masukuense. This is the first record of the tree outside Malawi – bang goes another endemic! This group of trees is the home of several epiphitic orchids, including Mystacidium pulcnellum, Diphananthe meliantha and Microcoelia stolzli as well as of occasional shade-loving butterflies. These may include the endemic skipper Chondrolepis obscurior. whose white antennae contrast sharply with the sombre brown body and wings.

On the right hand side of the fairway towards the green are white flowered Rutidea fuscescens (Rubiaceae) whose flowers are occasionally visited by the blue butterfly Virachola montana – so rare that only the female is known to science.

No. 3. PAR 4,293 YARDS
To the right of the tee is a small Bersama abyssinica, larval food plant of the powerful butterfly Charaxes ansorgei our subspecies is levicki.

The best line to the green is directly over the top of a solitary Cassipourea gummifera (onionwood) in the middle of the fairway. All too often, however, the ball ends up in what must be a magnetic clump of forest on the left. This contains Catha edulis, otherwise known as khat its hallucinogenic properties apparently unrecognised locally. A fine Syzigium overhangs the green and a careful search of this tree will sometimes yield larvae of Charaxes druceanus, the Foxy Charaxes.

No. 4, PAR 3, 163 YARDS
There is a fine view from the tee over rolling grasslands and scattered cultivation to the north, with the green nestling in the trees below. These trees are host to the loranth Englerina inequilatera, food plant of the beautiful little blue butterfly Epemera congdoni (After the author of this paper – Editor). The larvae of this insect are truly weird, with hunched and ridged foreparts, and with three fleshy curved and pointed tails. These break up its outline making it next to invisible on its food plant. The pupa is an exact mimic of a small piece of foliate lichen.

Another well camouflaged creature is the Uzungwe endemic chamelion Chamaeleo laterispinis which can defy detection while in full view on a lichen covered branch.

One day while searching a loranth for butterfly larvae, the way one does, I heard a rustling in the undergrowth. Quietly parting the branches I found myself looking down on a zorilla, vivid in his black and orange stripes, fozzicking about in the leaf litter. After observing him for some while, and not wishing to disturb him, I tiptoed quietly away.

There used to be a family of puff adders in the grass rough between this hole and the next, all of which have long since succumbed to an assortment of woods and irons. These days the snake most likely to be seen is another endemic, the Uzungwa wolf snake (Lycophidion uzungwense), so called for its needle-like teeth. These are needed to grip its favourite food item, the smooth and slippery legless lizard Melanoceps ater which it hunts through the rough. Decisions on the rules of golf – Rule 18: “A live snake is an outside agency. A dead snake is a loose impediment”.

No. 5. Par 4,297 YARDS
This turns from right to left, uphill to a perched green. Walking the dogs of an evening they always approach this fairway with a keen sense of anticipation, hoping to catch our resident troup of vervet monkeys crossing from the forest into the maize fields below the boundary track. I think the monkeys probably enjoy the ensuing shouting match as much as the dogs, although the same may not be said for the golfers.

No. 6. PAR 3, 155 YARDS
This is the first hole after the turn, heading back along the ridge towards the clubhouse. It has a well guarded green and is the only hole to have been aced. The tee is overhung by a group of massive blue gums towering 150 feet above. One of these hosts a Loranth, Phragmanthera rufescens, which is a larval food plant of the brilliant blue Iolaphilus maritimususambara whose females may sometimes be seen fluttering round it. In March the wattle break on the right of the fairway is carpeted with the purple brown orchid Cynorkis kassnerana.

No. 7. PAR 4,257 YARDS
Another landmark for the dogs is a natural drinking bowl in a fork of a tree near the tee. They always pay this a hopeful visit, even in the middle of the ‘dry’.

Soon after the break of the rains in December the little Acanths Lepidagathis rogersii and Blepharis ilicifolia can be seen among the grass on the fairway, the former with its flowers half hidden in little pincushions of protective prickles and the latter with bright blue solitary flowers. Half way down the fairway is yet another group of forest trees in which you may find your ball sitting beside a delicate mauve iris Radinosiphon leptostachya, In the trees above is a colony of an orchid endemic to Mufindi. This is the epiphitic 5tolzia leedalii whose flowers hang down on threadlike stems like tiny brown cow bells.

No. 8. PAR 4,393 YARDS
One evening not long ago I emerged into this hole to see a very large wild pig in the middle of the fairway, Seeing the dogs he wheeled and crashed off into the forest below. The dogs of course gave chase but failed to push home their pursuit, running up and down the forest edge, hackles bristling, for fear of what they hoped might be lying in wait inside. The Mufindi pigs are shy and cunning, very seldom seen in daylight, although the results of their night’s depredations are often all too evident. Alas, we seldom see bigger game these days, although some years ago a lion, tiring of life on the Usangu flats, crossed our mountains (and the second fairway) on his way over to the Kilombero Valley, helping himself to an occasional cow on the way.

A small party of the blue Sykes monkey Cercopithicus mitis is sometimes to be seen in the gums to the left of the green. Along the forest edge behind the green the blue and black swallowtail Papilio thuraui dances delightfully in the sunlight. This is another montane butterfly of restricted range from the Nyika Plateau to the Uzungwas.

In the rough between the 8th and the 2nd there is a group of Australian Blackwoods, Acacia melanoxylon, which have been fighting a losing battle with Loranths for many years now. Here I have found the blue butterfly Epamera dubiosa, previously known only from the Usambaras and from a female from ‘Lake Bangweulu’. Its cryptic larvae feed on Phragmanthera rufescens and Eriantheum schelei (Loranthacecae)

No. 9. PAR 5,490 YARDS
A wide and spacious fairway runs down and across a valley before climbing ‘coronary hill’ to the green. The view is panoramic with glimpses of distant tea fields, pale green splashes in the darker forest.

After the rains have settled in there are evening hatches of white ants. Clouds of hobbies wheel and dip to take the feebly napping termites whose survival strategy is to swamp their predators in sheer weight of numbers. Among the hobbies are the occasional mountain buzzard and eastern red-footed falcon with bats, nightjars and wood owls waiting to take over for the night shift. We once saw a Livingstone’s touraco flying for its life across the fairway but exploding in a puff of green and magenta feathers as it was taken by a pursuing eagle.

The green is perched and protected by some wicked bunkers on the lower left hand side. The burrows are tricky and few indeed are the visiting golfers who sink a cross-hill put from any distance.

No. 10. THE CLUBHOUSE BAR, 100 YARDS FROM THE 9TH GREEN
Well stocked and well deserved after a gruelling round. Here can be found a cheerful log fire in the corner and congenial (occasionally convivial) company in which to relive the triumphs and disasters that make up the final score. As the man said “There are no pictures on the card”.
A pity really.
T.C.E. Congdon

Acknowledgements:
BOTANY: John Lovett, Mufindi.
The Director and staff, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
REPTILES: Prof. K.M. Howell, Department of Zoology, University of Dar es Salaam

Mr T C E CONGDON is Estates Director of Brooke Bond Tanzania Ltd. and has worked in Mufindi for over thirty years.