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CABINET RESHUFFLE

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President Mkapa announced a minor Cabinet reshuffle on February 3:

Ministers: Finance – Daniel Yona
Industries and Trade – Dr.William Shija
Health – Dr. Aaron Chiduo
Natural Resources and Tourism – Ms Zakhia Meghji
Minerals – Dr. Abdallah Kigoda
Minister of State: Vice-President’s Office: Bakari Mbonde
Prime Minister’s Office: M. S. Khatib
Planning: Nassor Malocho
Deputy Ministers: Health: Gladness Mziray
Agriculture: Prof. P Mbawala
Education: Bujiku Sakila
Finance: Monica Mbega
Water: Ismail Ivwata
Minerals: Manju Msambya

MORE SURPRISE BY-ELECTION RESULTS

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Once again Tanzania’s unpredictable electorate has surprised the nation. This was in the second and third by-elections under the multi-party system. The results of the Magu, (Mwanza Region) by-election, following the death of the late MP Mr Malaki Lupondije and the Morogoro North by-election, following the murder of Professor Nicas Mahinda MP, are given below. Some mystery surrounds the death of Professor Mahinda. The police have been quoted as saying that the MP was probably killed by a bullet from his own shotgun fired by his mason, Mr Franco William, while some 30 armed bandits were raiding the professor’s beach house in Dar es Salaam. Mr William was arrested.

MAGU, MWANZA (March 3, 1997):
John Cheyo – United Democratic Party (UDP) 30,737 (54.7%)
Dr. Festus Limbu – Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) 17,916 (31.9%)
Cosmas Chenyenge – National Convention for Constitution and Reform (NCCR- Mageuzi) 4,833 (8.6%)
Chasten Naswanyiwa – CHADEMA 596 (1.06%)
John Makoye – Civic United Front (CUF) 434 (0.84%)
Spoilt votes 1,671

MOROGORO NORTH (March 23, 1997):
Su1eiman Saddiq – CCM 24,076 (64.2%)
Theodori Mkwidu – NCCR-Mageuzi 9,780 (26.01%)
Constansio Mbena – CHADEMA 1,429 (3.8%)
Pastor Lungalame – CUF 709 (1.89%)
Bogor Ponera – UDP 551 (1.47%)

At first sight the Magu result looks like a purely tribal vote – Sukuma people voting for one of their own. But rural Tanzanians are accustomed to doing this. In the days of the one-party state, MP’s tended to look after their own areas and if they did this conscientiously they would be re-elected. In this case, Magu voters had the additional satisfaction of being able to vote for a local man who also held the prestigious position of National Chairman of his UDP party and had been a presidential candidate in the 1995 general election. The voters must have been bemused by the behaviour of Tanzania’s two main parties. CCM recruited as their candidate a well-known local businessman who had been the NCCR candidate for the seat during the general elections – which indicates how much more important personalities are than policies in Tanzania’s fledgling democracy. For the previously triumphant leading opposition party the NCCR-Mageuzi, still on a wave following its great victory in the Temeke by-election, the result was a disaster and a salutary lesson. The party had been strongly advised not to contest this by-election because Mr Cheyo had supported NCCR in the Temeke by-election and because of the need for the opposition parties to cooperate if they are ever to beat the CCM in the next general election. The NCCR announced that it had investigated the situation on the ground and had found that John Cheyo could not win. It then put in a massive effort in which virtually all its top leadership took part. But to no avail.

The Morogoro result is better understood when it is recalled that this seat has been won by Asian candidates in the past and also by the fact that former Secretary General of the CCM party Lawrence Gama is Regional Commissioner in Morogoro and must have been able to add his weight to the CCM campaign.

PARTY PROBLEMS
All Tanzania’s political parties have had headaches recently. For the CCM the loss of Magu was a severe blow but regaining Morogoro North must have raised morale.

The dramatic news about the death of its former Secretary General Mr Horace Kolimba (see Obituaries) at the precise time at which he had been summoned by the party’s Central Committee to explain his public criticisms of the party’s ‘lack of vision’, created a great shock. Comments on his views had varied from an accusation that he was a traitor to the party to more moderate expressions of opinion to the effect that he was right and that the party should be more open in discussing its aims and policies.

The CCM has also been embarrassed over an apparent recurrence of the kind of authoritarian action which was common in the days of the one-party state. The ‘Sunday News’ reported that on February 28, that, in spite of protests from some seven local and international journalists’ associations, Mr Adam Mwaibabile, a journalist in Songea, had been sentenced to one year in prison for ‘possessing confidential government documents’. The ‘document’ was apparently a letter from the former Regional Commissioner directing the Songea Municipal Director not to issue a business licence to the journalist, to enable him to run a stationery shop. According to the East African, the National Security Act of 1970 under which he was jailed had been criticised as long ago as 1992 by Chief Justice Nyalali as unconstitutional, oppressive and not fit to remain on the statute book. On March 14 the ‘Business Times’ reported that a squad of Dar es Salaam University dons had flown to Songea to take up the case. An appeal was subsequently launched in the High Court which decided that this was a civil case and Mr Mwaibabile was released, after one month in prison, pending further court consideration.

The split in the NCCR-Mageuzi party between the intellectuals like Mr Mabere Marando (who was briefly arrested at the Morogoro by-election for holding an illegal meeting) and the leader of the party, Mr Augustine Mrema, because the former do not believe that Mrema has the educational calibre to be the party’s presidential candidate in the next general election, is coming more into the open. When they appear together in public, the very popular Mr Mrema is usually loudly applauded but Mr Marando is not. The loss of two key by-elections must have added strains to party unity.

Meanwhile, the mainland and island branches of the Civic United Front (CUF) have apparently split. The mainland branch announced on January 22 that it was prepared to recognise Dr. Salmin Amour as President of Zanzibar, something which is totally unacceptable to the island branch of the Party. The previous day, fierce fighting involving knives, stones and bare hands had broken out at the Dar es Salaam meeting. The intruders were accused of being spies from the party’s top leadership in Zanzibar. The meeting was stopped by police.

MTIKILA RETURNS
The sudden re-emergence of the fiery Rev. Christopher Mtikila on to the political scene has created something of a sensation. Mtikila became very popular in the past with his extreme views on many issues, his attacks on non-indigenous Tanzanians and his vigorous denunciation of the Union between the mainland and Zanzibar, but he has been keeping a low profile for a long time. He was the first prominent opponent of the government when multi-partyism was introduced in 1992. He has tried since then to have his ‘Democratic Party’ registered but, as he refuses to accept the Union, this has always been refused. On March 31 he announced that he had joined the CHADEMA party and he was then selected to fight the Ludewa by-election scheduled for May 25 as the CHADEMA candidate. As this issue of TA goes to press, he has been arrested for allegedly inciting people to act violently and making false allegations against government leaders. Mtikila’s acceptance as a member of CHADEMA may be partly explained by the absence in hospital in Nairobi of Edwin Mtei, the party’s leader, and the growing influence of more radical members.

MORE BY-ELECTIONS
Election petitions which could lead to further by-elections are underway in Rungwe West where the advocate for the NCCR petitioner complained that the defending CCM MP had appointed two advocates; he requested the judge not to demand two lots of costs if he lost the case (laughter); in Ukonga, Dar es Salaam, where the CCM MP is alleged to have bribed voters by offering home brewed gin (gongo) to a football team; in Ilala, Dar es Salaam where the case has been making very slow progress during recent weeks; in Muleba, Bukoba where it was claimed that 13,330 registered voters did not vote because of poor control at polling stations; and at Kibaha where there was a long debate in court as to whether former CCM Secretary General Lawrence Gama could be admitted as a witness – eventually he was.

As this issue goes to press a by-election is underway in Kishapu (Shinyanga)which is close to Mr Cheyo’s home district of Bariadi. The death of Mr Horace Kolimba will mean a by-election in the Ludewa constituency on the northern shores of Lake Malawi and the resignation of Jospeh Warioba to take up an international post will mean a by-election in Musoma district

ZANZIBAR – THE LATEST

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Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary General Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, who said that his father was from Pemba and his mother from Unguja, appealed for political tolerance in the isles during a visit to Tanzania in January. party politics should not be allowed to divide the people, he said. If the simmering political crisis was left unchecked it would jeopardise the unity of Zanzibaris and ultimately of Tanzania too. But as this issue of TA goes to press there is no sign of any resolution of the problem.

The Aga Khan and President Amour have inaugurated the Stone Town Cultural Centre housed in the ‘Old Dispensary’. President Mkapa has opened a new 51- room luxury Serena Hotel which has been converted from the colonial style Old Extelcoms Building and the Chinese Doctors Residence which once housed David Livingstone and later the British Consul – East African. President Amour announced on March I that the Isles’ government will in future have a fourth element in its security system. Vigilantes are to be given training, uniforms and special allowances to motivate them. The other security units are the Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi (JKU), prison staff and coastal security guards (KMKM) – Sunday News.

Licenses have been issued to 43 journalists to allow them to work in Zanzibar. Those who have not yet applied for licenses, which cost Shs 6,000, risk being fined Shs500,000 or put in prison for up to five years – Daily News. A seaweed company in Pemba is offering free trips to Mecca for people able to sell more than 13.5 tons of seaweed to the company within six months. Zanzibar seaweed sales in 1994 totaled Shs 492 million – 27% of the Zanzibar GDP – Business Times.

An Italian and three South Africans have been fined $300 each and deported for working illegally in a Zanzibar hotel. People wanting work permits must apply for them while still abroad – Daily News

SPEED GOVERNORS

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Although it created temporary chaos all round the country the government stuck to its guns and insisted that from March 1 every bus authorised to carry passengers must have a speed governor fitted to limit speed to 60km/hour. Garages worked overtime as bus owners left the fitting of the governors to beyond the final date.

Wilson Kaigarula the satirical ‘Sunday Mail’ columnist wrote about his fellow journalist’s experiences:

• Since daladala buses were not operating Star reporter Mike Lukumbo decided to cycle to the city. He could have hired a cab but, since his pockets and money are on hostile Mobutu-Kabila-like terms, he couldn’t afford it. This would have the double advantage of impressing his editor that he is a dedicated reporter and would also enable him to trim his size to the Tanzania average …. He is the extreme opposite of a slim man. And that’s what caused the problem. After one kilometre, the old bicycle broke into two equal pieces. Lukurnbo suffered a king-size hip damage and was ferried … to Muhimbili by good Samaritans in a wheelbarrow which a cement dealer by the road had volunteered … to pick up a cab in the wake of the transport crisis would have cost 100,000/-.

• A distant voice – like the distant drums of Jim Reeves – told Sukhdev Msabaha that it was not for nothing that he had scored an A in his fourth form mathematics exam. He calculated that he could use his father’s seven-tonne tipper to make quick money …. half a minute after parking the tipper at the bus stand … it was filled with seven tonnes of illegal passengers, each of whom paid 500/- in advance. But half way through the journey the truck developed mechanical problems. He tried to revive it but to no avail. The passengers noisily demanded a refund of their fares. But the money was too sweet to surrender, so the mathematician-journalist calculated that he could solve the problem dramatically. He engaged the special gear that facilitates the contents of a tipper to spill backwards … .in the chaos he fled the scene ….

V.I.P. VISITORS

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Recent visitors to Tanzania have included Prince Charles and his two sons Prince William and Prince Harry who went to the Selous and other game parks and Mrs Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea who visited a USAID community-based development project in Arumeru district before going on a private visit to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti National Park.

TANZANIA DEFENDS ITSELF

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Midst severe criticism from the UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International, Tanzania has defended its action in deporting 126 Burundi refugees who were later massacred by Burundian soldiers. Minister of Home Affairs Ali Ameir said that Tanzanian forces rounded up 157 Burundians who were engaged in factional fighting and had defied an order to turn themselves into Tanzanian police. Instead, they opted to return home after being identified as trouble makers by their fellow refugees. They were members of two radical Hutu groups fighting against the Tutsi-dominated Burundi government. The return to Rwanda of 500,000 Hutu refugees from Ngara and Karagwe was completed between December 14 and 29, 1996.

BUSINESS NEWS

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Exchange Rates. (April 1)
US Dollar T Shs 610-615
£ Sterling T Shs 960-1020

The Bank of Tanzania is scrapping a proposed arrangement which would have cut its STATUTARY MINIMUM RESERVE to commercial banks by half from 12% to 6%. Every bank now has to maintain minimum reserves equivalent to 12% of the outstanding balance of its total shilling deposits and borrowings from the general public. This decision was welcomed by the IMF and has indicated the high priority Tanzania gives to its economic reform programme.

The NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE which lost Shs 66 billion in 1995/96 and is being privatised is to be divided into three parts – a Trade Bank for large companies, a Regional Bank for medium sized companies and a Microfinance Bank for small projects – Business Times.

Thirteen large companies will deal in shares on the DAR ES SALAAM STOCK EXCHANGE when it starts shortly. The companies include Tanga Cement, General Tyre, BP, AGIP, Tanzania Breweries, Tanzania Cigarette Company, and Tanzania Oxygen. During the debate prior to the passage in parliament on January 29 of the ‘Capital Markets and Securities Act 1997’ which authorises the setting up of the exchange, several MP’s complained that they did not understand the Bill, especially, as one said ‘after three decades of socialist economic policies’. “Are we now going capitalist” asked another MP – Daily News.

On the same day parliament passed the ‘Tea Act 1997’ which paves the way for increased participation by the private sector as part of a process of RESTRUCTURING THE TEA INDUSTRY in Tanzania. A ‘Tanzania Tea Board’ replaces the ‘Tanzania Tea Authority’ and a special fund has been created for research and development.

By joining with the Malaysian Group Petronas the South African Energy group (Engen) has gained the financial muscle to enable it to venture into DOWNSTREAM OPERATIONS IN TANZANIA. Engen has invested 100 million rands in a state-of -the-art terminal in Dar es Salaam as well as several inland depots which will ‘open up the whole hinterland’ – Business in Africa. The proposed 1997 TANZANIA INVESTMENT ACT, expected to be enacted shortly will spell out the incentives to be given to new investors, the qualifications needed, the areas of priority for investment (which will include mining, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, banking, media and aviation), tax concessions and a new simpler way in which expatriates can obtain work permits for approved projects.

The Zanzibar State Trading Corporation bought 12,000 tons of CLOVES worth Shs 36 billion this season, about 75% of the projected target – Business Times. Tanzania has introduced the SINGLE BILL OF ENTRY SYSTEM for all customs declarations including imports, exports, warehousing and transit goods, thus reducing the length of time for clearing goods at the port from one or two weeks to 24 hours.

Coca Cola is to invest $50 million in a NEW PLANT in Dar es Salaam able to produce 10 million crates per year – the fifth Coca Cola plant in the country. The company’s President said that the investment was in response to the new liberalized economy – African Economic Digest

New 500 Shilling Note

New CURRENCY NOTES of 10,000/-, 5,000/-, 1,000/-, and 500/- which bear the head of a giraffe rather than that of the President were issued on March 10. Existing notes remain legal tender – Daily News.

In spite of strong opposition from the Board of Air Tanzania Corporation it looks as though there might be eventually a MERGER between the national airlines of Tanzania and Uganda (Rwanda wishes to join too) with ‘Alliance Air’ ‘to save’ according to Tanzanian Minister William Kusila ‘both airlines from eventual collapse’ – East African.

VALUE ADDED TAX is scheduled to be introduced on the mainland on January 1 1998. It is expected to replace sales tax on locally produced goods and services, hotel levy and stamp duty on receipts. Shs 3.6 billion from World Bank and EC projects is being spent on preparations for it – Business Times.

The Swiss Societe Generale de Surveillance has built a $500,000 MINERAL TESTING FACILITY in Mwanza to cater for gold prospectors in the Lake Victoria zone – East African.

The Zanzibar Government has approved the setting up of a ‘Global Centre OFFSHORE BANKING FACILITY’ where foreign banking institutions, casino operators and shipping companies will provide financial and leisure services to foreigners – East African

The long awaited harmonisation of CUSTOMS TARIFFS between the mainland and Zanzibar finally took place on January 24 for rice, cooking oil, wheat flour, sugar, khangas and kitenge cloth. It is hoped that this will reduce the losses of revenue through the ‘Zanzibar route’ which have amounted to between Shs 500,00 and one billion per month – Daily News.

TANZANIA AND RUSSIA are in negotiations about the settlement of the $600 million said to be owed by Tanzania. One of the issues being discussed is the unstable exchange rates of the Tanzania shilling and the Russian rouble since the mid-1980’s.

THE MPEMBA EFFECT

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Tanzania, ice cream and international scientific controversy wouldn’t win many points in a word association game. But add the name ‘Mpemba’ and there is a link. ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ has uncovered a mystery that began in ancient Greece, resurfaced in 1960’s Tanga and has since ricocheted around university labs the world over.

And we exclusively trace the Tanzanian boy at the centre of the puzzle. His name now fills reruns of scientific journals but at the time he was mocked by his classmates as the ‘black sheep’ of the class.

Erasto Mpemba was the ‘black sheep’. He takes up the story in ‘Physics Education’. “In 1963 when I was in Form 3 in Magamba Secondary School, Tanzania I used to make ice cream. The boys at the school do this by boiling milk, mixing it with sugar and putting it into the freezing chamber in the refrigerator …. a lot of boys make it and there is a rush to get space”. One day Mpemba began boiling milk but another boy dashed to grab the space. Rather than miss his chance Mpemba acted rashly. “I decided to risk ruin to the refrigerator on that day by putting hot milk into it”. His gamble led to a strange discovery.

“The other boy and I went back an hour and a half later and found that my tray of milk had frozen into ice cream while his was still only a thick liquid not yet frozen.” The gamble paid off, but set in motion a chain of events that went far beyond a cool lick in sweltering Tanga town.

Mpemba had discovered a phenomenon that had been observed before but never explained. Sometimes, against all our intuitions, warm liquid freezes faster than cold.

Aristotle noticed this in the fourth century and wrote: ” … many people when they want to cool water quickly begin by putting it in the sun … “. Mpemba said that the ice cream makers of Tanga were among them. Before ice cream was even thought about in Tanga, and almost two millennia after Aristotle, the French philosopher Descartes observed: “… water which has been kept for a long time on the fire freezes faster than other water”. Twenty years before the English civil war Francis Bacon noted the same. So did scientist Marliani in Renaissance Italy.

But the mystery remained unsolved, tossed aside by the scientific community like a stone in the shoe of the new physics which could not explain it. Mpemba put the stone back.

But before the world would take notice another person entered the story. Six years after Mpemba’s discovery, Denis Osborne, Professor of Physics at the University of Dar es Salaam, went to speak in Mkwawa High School. Osborne recalls in ‘Physics Education’ that he faced a variety of questions from students: “How do I get to University?”, “What does the syllabus have to do with development?” but almost thirty years later one question still sticks in his mind.

“Why did hot water freeze more quickly than cold?” Mpemba was persistent – he had asked this question before. His first physics lesson on arriving at Mkwawa High School was on heat. Mpemba recalls the scene:

“One day as our teacher taught us about Newton’s Law of Cooling, I asked him the question “Please Sir, why is it that when you put both hot milk and cold milk into a refrigerator at the same time, the hot milk freezes first?” The teacher replied: “I do not think so, Mpemba”. “1 continued: It is true, Sir, I have done it myself’. And he said: “The answer I can give is that you were confused.” “I kept on arguing, and the final answer he gave me was that: “Well all I can say is that Mpemba’s physics is not the universal physics”.

“From then onwards if I failed in a problem by making a mistake in looking up the logarithms this teacher used to say: “That is Mpemba’s physics”. And the whole class adopted this, and any time I did something wrong they used to say to me “That is Mpemba’s …. whatever the thing was”.

Despite ridicule Mpemba adopted a pitbull-like persistence. Once he stole into an empty lab and ran through an experiment with beakers of warm and cold water and again found the same result. When Denis Osborne turned up at the school, he thought he might at last get an answer. Mpemba continues: “He first smiled and asked me to repeat the question. After I repeated it he said: “Is it true? Have you done it?” I said: “Yes”. Then he said: “I do not know but I promise to try this experiment when I am back in Dar es Salaam.” Osborne recalls: “It was a surprising question. I thought he was wrong. On my way back to Dar es Salaam in the car I worked out that he must be wrong in theory.” But Osborne held true to his promise Although Mpemba’s classmates would soon be laughing on the other side of their faces, they continued to rib him. “Next day, my classmates in Form 4 were saying to me that I had shamed them by asking that question and that my aim was to ask a question that Dr Osborne would not be able to answer. Some said to me: “But Mpemba, did you understand your chapter on Newton’s law of cooling?” I told them: “Theory differs from practical”. Some said: “We do not wonder, for that was Mpemba’s physics:’

Osborne was surprised when a technician at University College in Dar tried the experiment and he saw the results. He set about trying to explain them, coming up with a few possible explanations, and publishing material in various journals.

Recently the debate was re-ignited in the pages of the ‘New Scientist’ – exposing the same scepticism faced by Mpemba.

Norman Gardiner in Cheshire wondered whether Mpemba knew that his name had entered the language and that scientists were still debating the question that he put to Professor Osborne 30 years later. Charles Knight of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado recommended readers of the ‘New Scientist’ to read a paper which had been published in ‘The Transactions of the American Philosophical Society’ in 1948 under the heading ‘The Freezing of Supercooled Water’ but J Jocelyn from the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre warned readers that this extended to 80 pages! Tom Trull from the University of Tasmania wrote: “This is a cultural myth.” But his colleague Michael Davis from the same university countered: ” … it is possible to produce ice cubes more quickly by using initially hot water instead of cold”. Matti Jarvilehto at the University of Oulu in Finland. writing in the New Scientist’s ‘Last Word’ section, reported on a similar effect in an electric sauna. “By fooling the temperature sensor by splashing water I increased the oven’s output” he wrote.

With the controversy having been re-opened in Tanzania by Mpemba the solution could come from elsewhere in Africa. South African physicist David Auerbach working in Germany thinks he knows the answer.

“It’s all to do with super cooling” Auerbach was reported as saying in the ‘New Scientist’ in late 1995. After 103 experiments he found that the Mpemba effect is not an iron law – sometimes warm water and sometimes cold water freezes first. The explanation lies in branching ‘ferns’ of ice. These shoot out from the walls of beakers full of water as it just begins to freeze. Auerbach says that this is a sign of super cooling. The Mpemba effect occurs with this super cooling. The sudden appearance of ‘ferns’ of ice crystals from the super cooled liquid occurs at a higher temperature in water that was originally hot. This means that warm water can freeze quicker than cold.

But will Mpemba’s discovery lead to any new inventions? Osborne is not sure. “Among other things the effect is quite erratic. It depends on random vibrations and wafts of air so you get different effects on different occasions.” This could limit its practical applications. Yet whether the Mpemba effect solves the world’s energy crisis or patches the hole in the ozone layer it undoubtedly affected the people involved.

“Surprising questions are fun. They are not to be despised,” says Osborne. “One piece that’s to my credit is that I did not despise, I went off and researched it.” Osborne has pursued a distinguished career in science education. Mpemba’s life has followed a different path since the two parted company in 1969 after they published their joint paper in ‘Physics Education’.

FINDING ERASTO MPEMBA
Finding a one-time physics student in a country the size of Tanzania seemed, at first, like a daunting task. But after tracking down Professor Osborne in Britain, the task became straightforward as they had remained in touch with each other. In Dar es Salaam, after a tip off from a Security guard at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, we tracked him down to the “Ivory Room” in Changombe, Dar es Salaam. This is where the big annual sale of Tanzanian ivory used to be held before marketing the tusks was banned. Ivory is still stored there from elephants that are damaging crops and have to be killed.

Mpemba’s work with wildlife means that he is no stranger to elephants. “We were on control work in Dodoma some years ago” he said. “We met a big herd. The leader dominating the herd was tuskless. They were ruining peoples crops. He had to go. But he decided to die with us”. “I aimed between the eyes. He went down. He stood up again and charged. I shot him again at 50 yards. I shot him for a third time, a fourth time. A fifth time. He was over my head. As he finally fell, his body grazed my leg.”

But run-ins with elephants were not what Mpemba always had in mind. Originally he wanted to be a doctor but his parents did not have the money to pay for the training, he said. Seeing work with wildlife as the best way to an overseas scholarship he ended up at the Mweka Wildlife College. After getting his diploma he was promoted to Regional Natural Resources Officer in Mara Region in 1967. It was eight years before he achieved his ambition of foreign study. In Australia he got a degree in Natural Resources Management. Today Mpemba is Principal Assistant Game officer working with communities to involve more people in conservation.

Funnily enough his wife is a doctor. But science does not seem to run in the family. “And your children, are there any budding physicists among them?” we asked. “No. They are not doing at all well in physics” he replied. Mpemba may have done more for science than science has done for him. Osborne says: “He is slightly cynical about the whole thing and says people are making too much fuss about it. He did badly in his physics exam”. But if the Mpemba effect does lead to some new advance it will not be a first for Africa. “Some aspects of environmental science and drugs taken from natural sources are being pioneered by Africans and people in other developing countries,” says Osborne.

And Mpemba’s lesson is more than just about the properties of water. How many students in the high tech labs of British schools have made a similar contribution to science understanding? And how many teachers have dismissed students who go against the textbooks? The “black sheep of the class” may have done badly in his physics exam but he has taught a lesson to students and teachers the world over.
Matthew Green

(The heavily guarded Ivory Room is still in use. 144 elephant tusks, disguised as boat spare parts and believed to be from the mainland were recently seized at Zanzibar airport. This brings the total stock of ivory in the Room to some 60 tonnes worth $6 million. The fate of this ivory is to be decided at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Harare in July – Editor).

STOPPING THEFT OF TORTOISES

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The tortoise is threatened with extinction in Zanzibar because they are being taken away for sale to ships in Dar es Salaam harbour. But now, according to the ‘Business Times’, they are to be provided with special devices to be implanted in the shells which will respond to the touch and so trigger a signal directly to a monitoring centre to show that the animal is probably in trouble. It is one of the new technologies being used to protect endangered species the world over.

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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‘FROM SOCIALIST SHEEP TO CAPITALIST LION’?
In a 7-page cover story in its February issue AFRICAN BUSINESS Maja Wallengren wrote that ‘decades of socialism have so enervated the enterprise spirit in Tanzania that it acquired the unwelcome reputation of being a sheep in a region of predators. All this is about to change and the country is clearing its throat to roar like a lion’. The Director General of the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) was quoted as saying that it was his hope that in the 21st century not only Asian tigers but also some African lions will be roaring in the international economic arena and Tanzania could be one of them.

QUALITY YES; QUANTITY NO.
AFRICAN BUSINESS (March) described the state of Tanzania’s struggling coffee industry as ‘quality not quantity’ following reports that the production in the year 1996/67 would be only 42,000 tonnes, a drop of 20% from the previous year. Traders were quoted as saying that massive replanting schemes were needed to replace the many trees which are 50 to 100 years old and thus increase the average yields from the 250kg per hectare in Tanzania to the Kenya figure of 500 kgs. However, quality was said to be improving and the country was now again earning a world class reputation for its mild Arabica. Production of Robusta coffee in Bukoba remained steady at 12-14,000 tonnes but here the problem was price. Vietnam’s coffee production had increased from 20,000 tonnes in the mid-1980’s to almost 250,000 tonnes for 1996/97 which was depressing world prices (A massive new replanting programme is about to start under a $14 million EC aid grant – Editor).

“SOOO POOR”
Zoe Heller, the columnist in the SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE explained (on March 9) how she had thrown over her boyfriend and, in order to distance herself from him, moved from Los Angeles to New York. But she doesn’t seem very happy with her new friends: ‘I have been out to a dinner party at a fancy house on the Upper East Side’ she wrote. ‘There was a revolting deb type there banging on about her recent jaunt up Kilimanjaro. “God, Africa, I mean, it’s sooo poor”! she kept on bellowing. “But so real, you know”. She told me about how fetchingly hard her thighs got during her ascent. ” ….. my porter was sooo sweet – when it got really cold and my nose was running, he’d take a handkerchief and wipe my nose for me”. “Ah, yes” I murmured “those marvellous Tanzanians, they do make remarkably good bearers, don’t they ……. ”

THE ‘MAGIC WAND’
NEW AFRICA (February) recounted how Mwalimu Julius Nyerere recently sold his famous cane or ‘magic wand’ as he calls it to raise funds for his sponsorship of the education of bright but poor children. Dozens of wealthy Tanzanians wanted to buy it. Former UN Adviser Gertrude Mongella was said to have offered Shs 3 million but it was local business tycoon and soccer financier Ahmed Bora who eventually got it for Shs 4.5 million. Nyerere was said to have been shocked by this revelation of the wealth of Tanzania’s new capitalist class. One of his relatives said that Mwalimu had lots of sticks and he had probably sold one of the powerless ones, not the magic one. Midst much public criticism Mr Bora decided to give the stick back to Mwalimu. No one knew whether he got his money back. Some were said to believe that the wand just refused to stay in Bora’s hands.

‘WHERE TO BE MUGGED’
Under this heading the INDEPENDENT published a guide to mugging (based on information from the British Foreign Office Travel Advice Unit) in its issue of March 1. Countries featured in this particular issue included Indonesia, Iran, Sierra Leone and Swaziland. On Tanzania it wrote: ‘Incidents of mugging and theft are common especially on public transport and beaches. Food should not be accepted from strangers as it may be drugged. Armed car thefts, particularly of four-wheel drive vehicles occur fairly frequently and may be accompanied by personal violence (Thank you Jane Carroll for this item- Editor).

BUREAUCRATIC HURDLES
The JOHANNESBURG STAR’s BUSINESS REPORT in its issue dated January 23 was highly critical of Tanzania’s six-year old investment act and wrote that the country was now rewriting its investment code. ‘The Investor Road Map of Tanzania’ sponsored by USAID had ranked it among countries with the worst investment hurdles. The article went on: ‘The report said that it took between 545 and 1,095 days to lodge an application for business …. there were delays in finding land, high taxes, poor infrastructure and far too many forms to fill in. In all, a firm in Dar es Salaam could expect to submit at least 89 separate filings per year ….. and financial institutions had to submit up to 235 returns every year. …. While it takes only one or two days to clear imports into Mauritius, Namibia or South Africa, in Tanzania it takes up to three months’. The article went on to describe the changes likely under the new code with its one-stop centre and a ‘facilitation office’ which was expected to make a considerable improvement in the investment climate.

ONE MAN COMPENDIUM
In an article on a recent African music festival at the Barbican in London NEW AFRICAN (February) reported as follows: ‘Tanzania’s much travelled master musician Hukwe Zawose, who is almost a one-man compendium of his nation’s cultural heritage, performed a spellbinding demonstration of song and dance with myriad traditional instruments’. It reminded readers that Hukwe’ s current album Chibeto had been chosen as African Life’s ‘Album of the Year’. The VSO publication ORBIT (fourth quarter 1996) listing the same album in its ‘Top 10 Sounds of 1966’ described Zawose as ‘one of Tanzania’s national treasures and a magical character of mythical proportions’ .

‘MALARIA FEAR FOR AFRICA TRIP MAYOR’
Under this heading the DAILY TELEGRAPH (21/3/97) wrote that a Labour mayor who spent £1,500 of council money on a week-long ‘fact finding’ trip to Musoma, Tanzania has returned with suspected malaria. Dawn Neal’s visit had been criticised at a time of financial cuts on Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Danny McIntire, a fellow councillor and Margaret Berry, the council’s senior environmental health officer. They left Halifax to see the Serengeti Game reserve and advise the locals on tourism and also handed over a piece of medical equipment that can help to clear swallowed fishbones from throats. “This was not a holiday” she said. “It was a fact-finding mission to Calderdale’s twin town and we intend to begin fund-raising to pay for medical supplies for the people of Musoma” but a former mayor, Liberal Democrat Stephen Pearson, said “I don’t believe glad-handing people is going to make a fundamental difference to their quality of life”.

SCHOOL FEES
“When our children do well in primary school we get really worried” said a farmer in the western Usambara mountains. He was peaking to Charles Worth who wrote in CHRISTIAN AID NEWS (February/March) that since the government had imposed fees, secondary education had become a luxury which this family could scarcely afford. Only one family out of 300 in the village were able to send their children to secondary school. … many Tanzanians felt enslaved today because of Tanzania’s massive debt burden – the World Bank and IMF had imposed a structural adjustment programme which had drastically cut government spending on health and education …. ‘ Mr Worth went on: ‘Victorian campaigners had the vision and persistence to help bring an end to the evil of slavery. Can the British churches today catch their spirit, change the rules and end the slavery of debt in Tanzania?’ (Thank you Betty Wells for this item – Ed).

ONE HUNDRED CONSULTANTS
‘That is the staffing level of a London hospital with 300-400 beds and a district population of 200,000 – the same as Muheza district in Tanga Region. In London there are many more junior doctors and a network of GP’s. Muheza has three doctors. If each saw only inpatients for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, that would be 3xlOx7 = 210 hours, half an hour for each inpatient. Yet many are very sick and need more intensive treatment or operations done by the same three doctors. Then there are long hours to be spent seeking outpatients, supervising the laboratory and X-ray, and administration, teaching and trips to the ministry in Dar es Salaam to be fitted in …… ‘ extracts from a recent issue of the NEWSLETTER of ‘MEDICINES FOR MUHEZA’ (Thank you Trevor Jaggar for this item- Editor).

LAUNDERING
The New York WALL STREET JOURNAL has published an article by Robert Greenberger under the heading’ Some Hotels May Do More Laundering of Cash Than Towels’ which has attracted a lot of attention. It stated that there were indications that Zanzibar banking and hotel businesses were being used by foreign investors to launder international drug money. It was alleged that huge sums were being deposited in banks by hotels which had few guests. The IMF has been quoted as saying that shady financial flows were flourishing in Zanzibar but the Government of Zanzibar and the Bank of Tanzania have denied the allegations.

‘ALMOST LIKE HOME’
‘Tanzania may not resemble the famous gold producing regions of Western Australia on the surface, but Australian explorers active in the east African nation reckon that underground it is almost like home. ‘Tanganyika Gold’ has 28 exploration tenements in two main areas – the Lake Victoria Goldfield and the Lupa Goldfield. “it is exciting to be in an area that is very unexplored by Western standards and clearly has a lot of gold” says Managing Director Ian Middlemas. “It has similar geology to W Australia”….. Two tenements have been drilled so far – at Buhemba in the north of the Lake region and Busolwa to the South. The latter included intersects of 32m at 2.48 grams per tonne – a lot of the holes end in mineralisation Mr Middlemas said – THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (December 23) – (Thank you Mr D Gledhill for this item and for the mention of your gold prospecting uncles who were on the Lupa in the 1930 ‘s – Ed).

‘BARRED FROM ANIMAL KINGDOM’
Under this heading, at the end of a speaking tour of Britain by three Maasai spokespeople complaining about the action of the Tanzanian government in driving them from their lands in the interests of game and tourism, the London OBSERVER (April 6) published a half page article. It concentrated on the situation at the Mkomazi Game Reserve in the Same district and contrasted what it described as ‘the glass-fronted house with a satellite dish, verandah and spectacular views’ of manager Tony Fitzjohn (said to be nicknamed ‘boy Tarzan’ by the Maasai) and ‘the fly-infested, stinking animal carcasses, children with distended bodies standing in glum groups … near the boundaries of the 1,400-square mile reserve’. Mkomazi is run by a non-profit trust-making trust set up by the late George Adamson – husband of ‘Born Free’ author Joy Adamson – and Mr Fitzjohn and supported by the wealthy, including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and the film stars Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood and Ali MacGraw; the Duke of Kent is a patron. When the trust arrived in 1989 the Maasai thought they would be able to negotiate but they claim that his has not happened and that they were driven out of the land at gunpoint. Sixty three of them are challenging the government in court. The trust, on the other hand, claims that it has succeeded in its conservation task and that the elephant count has gone up from two in ] 968 to 1,000 in 1993; the East African black rhino population had previously been hunted from 65,000 to near extinction; the area was badly overgrazed and there had been serious erosion when the Maasai were there.

SUDECO
AFRICAN BUSINESS (January) had a cover story and seven pages of text on Tanzania’s impressive political and economic progress. One of the articles was about the sad state of the sugar industry due to a severing of government subsidies to the Sugar Development Corporation (SUDECO) and the associated lack of capital for rehabilitation of factories now running at an average of only 50% capacity. It was assumed that SUDECO would be privatised some time this year.

THE MAASAI AND THE MINERS
The BBC WORLD SERVICE in its FARMING TODA Y programme on February 26 reported on the effect of mining for minerals on Maasai cattle keeping around the settlement of Simajiro. Cattle fall into the pits left after the miners of Rhodolite (a pale violet or red garnet) move on to other sites and as the miners encroach upon the surrounds of the village itself. A Maasai spokesman in a taped interview complained also of the water supply problem and a woman reporter spoke of the careful control of overgrazing of the poor land by the Maasai. (Thank you Mr P H C Clarke for this item – Editor).

ARROGANT ANIMALS
“At one time attacks by wild animals constituted 25% of all evacuations” said Juliette Heza, the longest serving flight nurse in the Flying Doctor Service quoted in AMREF NEWS (Spring 1997). “Nowadays”, she said, “most of the patients are from traffic accidents, malaria, cardiac emergencies and exhaustion amongst tourists”. She went on “I’ve treated dozens of hyena bites and snake bites. We still get buffalo attacks – they’re very arrogant animals. They can be very frightening”. The Flying Doctor Service teams aim to leave their base within five minutes of receiving a call for help.

THE BIGGEST RATS
‘They nibble at sleeping people. They gnaw at parcels in the post office. They take free rides in cars and trains …. .rats are on the rampage in Tanzania’ according to NEW AFRICAN (April). Minister of Transport and Communications William Kusila was quoted as claiming that the biggest rats of all were found on Tanzanian trains. “They grow fat on the food brought on board by travellers” he said. The article concluded ‘Foreign funded projects to eliminate crop destroying rodents ceased when donors cut their aid three years ago. Now the whole nation is being overwhelmed by a plague of rats and very little is being done about it’ .

REFUGEE STUDIES
A new Centre for Refugee Studies has been established at the University of Dar es Salaam reports the BRITISH COUNCIL’S AFRICA NEWSLETTER (January 1997). A British Council managed link has been arranged between the Centre and the Refugee Studies Programme at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University (Thank you Trevor Jaggar for this item – Editor).

FROM TOTTENHAM TO TANZANIA
‘A friend of mine, a surgeon, volunteered to work overseas and was swiftly transferred from Tottenham to Tanzania and a post in a city hospital… the wards were adequately equipped and the work was most satisfying … But she found that there was little she could do to affect a series of curious occurrences in one intensive care bed … patients had been passing away with far greater frequency in bed No 13 than occupants of other beds. Some staff thought that the bed was jinxed …. And then our surgeon discovered that the victims of bed 13 all died on the same day – a Wednesday, early in the morning. She decided to stake out the ward. All was quiet until the appearance of the cleaner, mechanically cleaning the floors as usual. Then suddenly, above the grinding din, she could just hear the high-pitched life-support machine alarm bleeping desperately. Springing to the rescue, the surgeon rushed over to see that the intensive care apparatus appeared to be switched off. To her horror she then noticed that the cleaner had been plugging his floor-polisher into the most convenient socket.. … ‘ from ‘Urban Myths’ in THE GUARDIAN (November 11).

(In our last issue there was a story about the difficulties ‘Mission Aviation Overseas’ was facing in obtaining licenses for airstrips in Maasai country. Christine Lawrence tells us that eighteen licences have now been granted – Editor).