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