Category Archives: Issue Number

NEW CODE OF PRACTICE FOR LEADERS

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The original ‘leadership code’ under the one-party state was binding on senior civil servants and TANU party leaders and was set out in the TANU Party Constitution. Similar requirements, extended to the membership of the successor organisation CCM, appear in the 1982 Constitution of CCM.

With the introduction of the multi-party state, the subject of leadership ethics was incorporated in section 132 of the Constitution and Parliament was required to give practical effect to the subject by setting up a tribunal to adjudicate on matters of leadership ethics. The new code passed by Parliament in May this year (Public Leadership Code of Ethics Act 1995 – part of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution) set up an Ethics Secretariat under an Ethics Commissioner. It differs in important respects from the TANU Leadership Code. No longer is the holding of shares in public companies, or the ownership of rented housing, forbidden. Leaders are, however, required to declare their assets and declarable assets including dividends and profits from stocks and shares or real estate other than personal dwellings. The definition of leader is wide-ranging from the President to the members of a local government authority, but this list can be altered by the Minister in charge, who appears to be a Minister of State in the Office of the President, though not defined as such.

The Act also specifies the procedures to be followed in dealing with allegations of infringement. Allegations known to be false may be punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years.

It is too early to judge the likely effectiveness of this legislation. The ethical standards of leaders are unexceptional, but in the last resort much will depend on the independence of the Commissioner in the exercise of his quasi-judicial functions. The prospects for the independence of the three- member Tribunal are enhanced by the statutory requirement that one of them must be a judge of the High Court, or the Court of Appeal, while the other two are to be appointed on advice by the Commissioner.
Roger Carter

THIRTY YEARS – TWELVE SERMONS – FIVE YEARS

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It was thirty years since I had been a priest in the Diocese of Zanzibar in the twilight years of missionary direction. They had not been fruitful years for me; nobody had worked out what to do with the last of the new missionaries in the parishes, and I was glad to be moved to a theological college where I knew, and everyone else knew what I was supposed to be doing.

I went back last year to research a book; I was there for five weeks during which I preached twelve times, at first haltingly, then more easily as the language came back. It was hot, it was tiring, it was disorienting. I learned to avoid the people who wanted to answer my questions, and to listen to those who did not. And I reached conclusions which I checked with others, and with the literature, and discovered I was in agreement with the experts. Which was reassuring, for five weeks is not a long time.

So, what did I discover? After my first day I remarked that there was more sense of order. I was inclined to say that people were more intelligent, but mental alertness may be the best way to put it. Which I should have expected; in my day only 14%of children had any schooling at all and this had risen to eighty-five percent.

HOP SCOTCH
The second astonishing discovery was to see children playing games. Complicated games. Sometimes with complicated home-made toys, the boys particularly delighting in handmade toy cars which could be steered with long sticks. And the girls playing hop-scotch. Are hop-scotch squares the key to everything? (No, I am sorry, hop-scotch is not Scotland’s contribution to world progress; ‘scotch’ is a form of ‘scratch’). It was only after my return that I discovered that children’s games scarcely existed in Britain before the industrial revolution. Children helped their parents; they did not play with one another. But once they played with one another, they learned the ways of the whole world, and their own worlds widened.

WOMEN WEARING GLASSES
And the third discovery came a few days after my arrival when I started to preach to a packed church, a vast and untypical stone building dating from German colonial days, which I remembered as having been three-quarters empty. What was different? And it dawned on me; women wearing glasses. These used to be rare enough amongst men but the idea of glasses for women! I had already noted that people were better dressed, and better fed, and of course there were many more of them, but it took longer for me to realise that women had made more strides than had men. In all fields of life.

QUIET PRIDE
As I listened, I began to get some idea of how people regarded themselves and the world. First, there was a good deal of quiet pride in what had been done since independence. Tanzania was a ‘haven of peace’, and the name of the capital, Dar-es-Salaam, means just that. There had been political stability, and a degree of democracy – imperfect democracy, but government generally responsive to popular will. Compared with the neighbouring countries – Zaire, Uganda, Rwanda, they have been fortunate. And they also consider themselves more fortunate than people in Britain. There is a religious view that the west is largely lost to Christ and lost to decency, and this has, surprisingly, been accepted by many Africans. I was forced to argue that churches in Europe were not in as bad shape as we supposed. I had great difficulty in conveying my conviction that young people were good-natured, open to spiritual influences, and with a strong moral sense, even if not quite that of the church. And I began to wonder if my hosts did not regard, and want to regard, Africa as the Christian heartland, replacing a Europe and an America which had fallen by the wayside.

CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
And now the church. It was not as different from early days as I expected. Except that things worked better. There was less inertia, more drive, as there was in the country generally. And there were more people in church. The national population was four times what it had been thirty years earlier, but Christian growth in Africa far outstrips population growth. It is estimated that these Christians have multiplied from 25 to 100 million from 1950 to 1975, and may well number 200 million today. But in a mainly Islamic area such as coastal Tanzania there were not the mass movements seen elsewhere. There are some converts from Islam, and whole villages have turned from Islam, but Islam is still a strong force. And many Christians are very worried about Islam and ask if there is not a central plan by Muslims to take over the world. I tried to suggest that Muslims the world over are aware that Muslim states are generally not very successful, and they tend to get over-sensitive because they feel that Christians, for their part, are more united than they seem to be and want to take over the world, and that this leads to extremist movements and statements. But Muslims and Christians generally try to get on in Tanzania.

WORSHIP
The worship differs from early days, just as it does here. The old Zanzibar liturgy has given way to a ‘Provincial’ liturgy~ this is like shifting from English Missal to 1982 Blue Book, though propers from the old are sometimes inserted into the new, and the old is still used for requiems. Of course some bemoan the changes, and some think they came too late, but that is much as it is here. But there are also , revival’ meetings, and gospel songs inserted into the more formal worship – some being translations from the English which completely disregard the rules of Swahili grammar. All this is attributed to invasions by American groups, mostly Pentecostal twenty years ago. They swept up what are described as the ‘nominal Christians’ (did anyone ask what the Anglican church lacked which made them nominal?) so the Anglicans responded by putting on revival services and songs in order to win these back, which, on the whole, succeeded.

When I went to Africa in 1959 the consecration of Africans to the episcopate was consigned to the remote future. Then came independence, and virtually all bishops were African. Since then there must have been a good thousand – Roman, Anglican, Lutheran, other. About 100 have been removed from office for various offences or have just failed to prove up to the job – this is about the same proportion as missionary bishops from Europe and about the same as bishops anywhere else. Looking back, Africans could have, and should have, been permitted to take control much earlier. That they were not so permitted was due to more than just race; it is within living memory that British bishops were still sought for dioceses in some of the white dominions.

A SORT OF BOTTLED JOHN THE BAPTIST
Finally, the trappings of Americanism are everywhere. Soft drinks, of all things. abound in a subsistence economy. But Coca-Cola, which nobody needs, is a symbol of a way of life which everybody wants. And if it precedes Christianity, it becomes a sort of bottled John the Baptist. which will trouble some people who think Africans should be Africans, and that means no Coca-Cola, no electric altar candles, no American music. But the ‘ old’ Africa was based on imported seeds – maize and cassava – and Africa received from other continents as it gave to other continents. And with the coming of transistor radios and the sight of the Echo Sounding Balloon in the night sky (as startling to an agricultural people as the Star of Bethlehem and leading in the same direction), the move to westernisation was accelerated. Of course there will be an African style in all this, but Africans are very much a part of world society. And they are more like other peoples in the world than is generally realised.
The Rev’d Gavin White

(from an article in the Scottish Episcopal Church Review – Winter-Spring 1995)

DOUBLE EVENT

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Although numbers allowed to attend were restricted and it was a stiflingly hot night, some 35 Britain-Tanzania members and a group of Members of Parliament participated in a joint event on July 18 at the House of Commons in London to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Britain-Tanzania Society and the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tanzania. Speeches were made by Roger Carter and Izabella Koziell from the Society and the Tanzanian High Commissioner in London Mr Ali Mchumo representing Tanzania. Lord Redesdale, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on overseas aid in the House of Lords, who was also representing Mr David Steel MP, was in the Chair.

Among the MP’s present were Mr Richard Page who is the Conservative member for S W Hertfordshire; he told TA that he had pointed out when he was in Tanzania with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Group last year, the importance of free and fair access to the media for all parties in multi-party elections; he added that, since he had now become Minister for Small Business in the Department of Trade and Industry he was no longer in a position to intervene in external matters like this, for fear of impinging on the prerogatives of the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary; Mr Win Griffiths, Labour MP for Bridgend who (with the Chairman of the Group, Sir John Stanley MP for Tonbridge and MaIling), has taken a leading role in setting up the parliamentary group; the well-known Eurosceptic Conservative MP for Stafford, Mr Bill Cash whose wife was born in Mwanza; Dr. Jeremy Bray, Labour MP for Motherwell South , who had also been on the visit to Tanzania last year and who told TA that he had been impressed by the responsible way in which Tanzania’s move towards multipartyism had been handled; and, Ms Hilary Armstrong, Labour MP for Durham North west.

Mr Andrew Faulds, Labour MP for Warley East (Smethwick), who was born in Isoko, Rungwe District, who also spoke, told TA that his father had been a Church of Scotland missionary at Isoko for four years from 1921 and had married there. The parents had spent most of their lives in Malawi however and had asked that, after their deaths, their ashes should be buried in Malawi. Mr Faulds spoke movingly about the long journey he took through Tanzania in 1990 to take his mother’s ashes to Malawi and how he had been able to see again the hills approaching Isoko after an absence of 70 years.

BOOK REVIEWS

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AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT. Eds: U Himmelstrand, K Kinyanjui, E Mburugu. 1994. James Currey.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS IN AFRICA. W Tordff. 1993, Indiana University Press.

POWER IN AFRICA. P Chabal. st. Martins Press. New York. 1994

‘African Perspectives on Development’, a tightly argued case laced with hard facts, calls into question much of the data and methodologies used by ‘experts’ (Eicher, Hyden, the World Bank) on the subject of Tanzanian agricultural production and its supposed decline during the years preceding the foreign exchange crisis of 1978. Marjorie Mbilinyi’s command of the history of agricultural production leads to conclusions that contrast sharply with those of the experts. Mbilinyi points, for example, to the tendency to aggregate crop data, combining plantation and peasant crops. Imagine aggregating data that include the collapsing sisal plantation industry with the positive growth of crops like tea and coffee planted by peasant and small capitalist producers! How easy to beat up on the small farmers once again; and how easy to justify unnecessary food imports.

From her factual base, Mbilinyi’s commentary is harsh. ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP’s) in agriculture are structured around the rehabilitation of the large-scale plantation and large farm sector owned by foreign, and, to a lesser extent, national enterprises and TNC’s, and the provision of a regular supply of cheap labour by impoverished peasants and farm workers. That the ‘cheap labour’ is mainly female is clear: by 1978 63% of all waged and unwaged agricultural labourers aged 15-29 were women. The campaign against the smallholder is further evidenced by data on credit: 90% of total lending in 1983 went to indigenous heads of household (covering some 4,300 out of 8,700 villages) as compared to only 15% of all peasant household heads in 1976. But following the SAP, only 2,000 villages received credit in 1986.

Recognising women’s grassroots organisations (in 1979 more than 7,500 economic groups on the mainland), and given the predominance of women in rural areas together with the much increased incidence of female-headed households, the author poses as ‘one of the greatest challenges to scholars and activists’ to ‘catch up with the ordinary women’. Much greater attention is due to the excellent writings of M Mbilinyi.

In the same volume, Samuel Chambua states that , irrespective of what development paradigm a sub-Saharan country has followed, the result has been the same ie: the failure to liquidate underdevelopment. This reviewer cheered his warning that ‘belief in the market has to be viewed with suspicion’ since the market was found wanting in the 1960’s as the solution to development problems. Both ‘modernization’ (dual economy) and ‘dependency’ theories are inadequate. Chambua calls for a theory and strategy that transforms the peasant economy while recognising that state and collective farms failed in both Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Also in ‘African Perspectives’, Benedict Mongula spoke to the ‘economic recovery experiments’ that have directly increased mass impoverishment, unemployment and destitution because both the social services sector and peoples’ real incomes have been affected. He points to the ‘considerable measurement problem’ in assessing the effectiveness of economic stabilization policies, due to such factors as the erratic inflation rates that follow currency devaluations and the challenge of comparing GNP’s when exchange rates and prices vacillate so much. Considering Mongula’s observations, one is tempted to question the exactness of economics as a science. After reviewing development theories and trends (often mentioning Tanzania) the author calls for a new kind of planning that would return control of their economies to the concerned countries themselves and avoid the blind liberalization of the economy advocated by the IMF.

Ernest Maganya scans the history of agricultural transformation in Southern Africa during the past three decades and the ongoing debate over modernization v dependency paradigms. Holding that the ‘free market’ can be ‘used or misused’, Maganya presents clear cases of government actions to improve or destroy the contributions of peasant farmers. He foresees the debate shifting from the issue ‘centrally planned economy v the market place’ to ‘the nature of the state that will have the political will and the technical capacity to harness the advantages of the market place and use it in the interests of the majority of the rural producers and smallholder peasants’.

The comprehensive analyses by the four Tanzanian authors above tempt one to ask the publishers of ‘African Perspectives’ to get a copy of their volume into the hands of every World Bank, IMF, and government planner. ‘Power in Africa’ a political essay labels as failures ‘paradigms lost’- all of the theories that have been employed to explain post-colonial politics. Patrick Chabal’s discussion of the African state as inherited from colonial powers, a state that did not arise from but had to create a nation, go a long way toward explaining why the post-colonial years have been perilous and why current economic adjustment programmes that disempower already fragile states’ capacities, carry with them a serious risk. Perceiving the state as the dominant economic actor in Africa – whether values are socialist, capitalist or mixed – Chabal nonetheless accepts ‘the politics of external aid’ from the West, the World Bank and the IMF as givens. He holds that ‘the system of dependence which is underpinned by the World Bank is one of the most significant factors in the survival of the post-colonial state. He sees such dependence as ‘hardly dependence at all’ but rather ‘inter-dependence’ – because, in his judgement, the donors finance African states ‘because the result is a relatively stable international order’ .

Some people, including this reviewer, hesitate to agree with Chabal, believing that the inherited risks that accompany adjustment programmes place ‘the social sectors in crisis’ as the World bank has itself said about its results in Tanzania (see ‘Adjustment in Africa’ page 413).

William Tordoff’s new edition of ‘Government and Politics in Africa’ is rich with detailed examples and refreshingly critical of both donor and developing countries. A former professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tordoff covers Tanzania thoroughly, from the East African Community through to President Mwinyi. He finds it ironic that ‘in the name of political and economic freedom’, western governments seek to deny African states the freedom to choose the political and economic systems that best suit their individual circumstances’. Questioning whether the African state as yet possesses the institutional capacity that the market economy system requires, he sees paradox in the SAP’s envisaging a ‘stronger society and a weaker central state’.

Reading Tordoff, I was reminded of President Nyerere’s response to questioning at a UN seminar in 1994. The gist of his statement was: They tell me all countries – the USA, Japan, Tanzania – participate on equal terms in the global ‘free market’. But putting Tanzania into that global market is like putting me in the boxing ring with champion Mohammed Ali! Margaret Snyder

THE MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES IN TANZANIA: A PLEA FOR HEALTH SECTOR REFORM. P Sandford, G J Kanga and A M Ahmed. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. Vol. 9 No. 4. 1994. 13 pages.

This report on a research project in Kisarawe overturns widespread belief that management of health services can be substantially strengthened by such measures as development of information systems, training and evaluation. More radical changes are needed including the broadening of the base of funding (precise proposals are made) which would take into account an annual population survey in each district; full autonomy to health unit managers; the introduction of the private sector as provider; and, labour market reform including promotion to larger health units as incentives.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

INFLUENCE OF ARABIC LANGUAGE ON SWAHILI (WITH A TRILINGUAL DICTIONARY). I Bosha. Dar es Salaam Univ. Press. 1993. 268 pages. £11.95. The author does not accept that Swahili was of Arabic origin. There were linguistic interferences from both sides. The book includes a list of Swahili words believed to have originated from Arabic.

DOCTOR’S CONTINUING EDUCATION IN TANZANIA: DISTANCE LEARNING. S S Ndeki et al. World Health Forum. Vol. 16. 1995. 6 pages.

THE POETRY OF SHAABAN ROBERT. Edited and translated into English by C Ndulute. Dar es Salaam University Press. 1994 179 pages. Shs3,260. A selection of the best and most representative of the poems.

QUALITY REVIEW SCHEMES FOR AUDITORS: THEIR POTENTIAL FOR SUBSAHARAN AFRICA. Sonia R Johnson. Technical Paper No 276. World Bank Findings. 1994. This paper concentrates on one aspect of financial management: the role of the external auditor and describes the results of two pilot quality reviews of government and private auditors in Tanzania and Senegal.

ECONOMIC CHANGE AND POLITICAL LIBERALIZATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. Jennifer W Widner. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. 1994. 307 pages. £14.00 paperback. The results of a 1992 colloquium in 1992 at Harvard; six case studies including one on Tanzania.

BUILDING CAPITALISM ….. SLOWLY. P Lewenstein. BBC Focus on Africa. Jan-March 1995. Two pages on how Tanzania is encouraging grass-roots capitalism.

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS ON FARMING SYSTEMS AND LIVELIHOODS IN RURAL AFRICA. T Barnett et al. Journal of International Development. Vol. 7. No 1. 1995. 12 pages.

MARKET AND STATE: EVALUATING TANZANIA’S PROGRAM OF STATE-LED INDUSTRIALISATION. M Costello. World Development. Vol. 22. No 10. 1994. 10 pages

STRUCTURALLY ADJUSTED AFRICA: POVERTY, DEBT AND BASIC NEEDS. D Simon, W van Spengen, C Dixon and Z Narman. Pluto Press. £12.95. Essays in this book cover the workings of structural adjustment in several African countries. The Tanzanian case study is on urban migration and rural development.

ESSAYS ON THE TRANSITION TO MULTI-PARTYISM IN TANZANIA. Pius Msekwa. Dar es Salaam University Press. 1995. This book of 10 essays by the Speaker of the National Assembly, which is apparently not-for-sale, describes the transition to multipartyism, shows how pluralism helped Parliament to recapture its supremacy from the CCM National Executive Committee, questions the decision to reject a three government structure for the country, suggests new methods of arranging presidential elections and points out that there is still no provision for independent candidates to stand for election.

URBAN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SUPPLY IN DAR ES SALAAM. Geographical Journal. 160 (3). 1994. 11 pages.

THE POLITICS OF ADULT EDUCATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: MODELS, RATIONALITIES, AND ADULT EDUCATION POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN CANADA, MEXICO AND TANZANIA. C A Torres and D Schurugency. Comparative Education. 30 (2). 1994. 21 pages.

BETTER HEALTH IN AFRICA: EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNT. World Bank. 1995. 240 pages. Tanzania is praised for its radio programme Man is Health which has been followed by two million people and also its health personnel plans where, in some cases, targets that were set up two decades ago have been surpassed.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT DECENTRALISATION AND THE HEALTH SECTOR IN TANZANIA. Public Administration and Development. 14 (5) 1994. 26 pages.

WOMEN AND COOPERATIVES IN TANZANIA: SEPARATISM OR INTEGRATION? Margaret R Msonganzila. Economic and Political Weekly. October 29. 1994. 11 pages in small type. This article discusses integrated cooperatives with men and women members and women-only cooperatives but states that the perspective and practice of Tanzanian Cooperative policies is biased against women.

The January 1995 issue of the JOURNAL OF FINANCE MANAGEMENT of the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam contains articles on the taxation of pension benefits, accounting and its environment in Tanzania, women executives and stress, an introduction to livestock insurance, safety management and on cushioning Tanzania’s external debt.

LETTERS

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SURPRISES
Recently I had two experiences which may be of interest to your readers. In a bar in Newcastle I was informed by the barman that a man who was also present was from the Kilimanjaro area of Tanzania. I greeted him formally in Kichagga. He was so surprised that he nearly dropped his glass of beer!. The man said that, as he was born after Uhuru, I was the first European he had met who could speak Kichagga. until Uhuru I commanded Field Force units in Moshi, Mwanza and Tanga.

Travelling by train from London to Newcastle on another occasion an elderly European couple suddenly started speaking to each other in Kiswahili. As their conversation was obviously meant to be private I interrupted and said, in Kiswahili “How nice to hear Kiswahili spoken again but I must point out that you are being ungrammatical”. Their mouths fell open with surprise. The man was a retired Director of Education in Kenya and whenever they wished to speak privately they always used Kiswahili. In the past thirty years they had never encountered anyone who had understood what they were saying.
R Hodgson

OLD NOTES AND COINS
I am a local businessman here in Musoma and I have in my possession a number of coins and bills issued in East Africa of which I would like to know the value. I am hoping that among your readers there might be someone who might send me information on this.
* Two 20 shilling Bills (in very good condition) from the East African Currency Board with the amount written in English, Kiswahili and Arabic with illustrations including a dhow, cotton, coffee and sisal and a watermark of a rhinoceros. No date is written but it must be Ca 1950.
* Bill from the Bank of Tanzania ‘Legal tender for twenty shillings’. One side has a picture of a young Nyerere and a national emblem ‘Umoja na Uhuru’. There is a giraffe watermark.
* Two 20 shilling Bills from ‘Benki ya Tanzania’ written completely in Kiswahili and with signatures from the ‘Waziri wa Fedha’ and ‘Gavana’. The pictures are of a man working in a textile factory and a cotton boIl. Also a 10-shilling smaller note with a picture of Mount Kilimanjaro.
* One Rupee ‘Deutsch Ostafrika’ coin (1906) with a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the words ‘Guilelmus II Imperator’ and one ‘Eine Rupee Deutsch Ostafrikaanisch Gesellschaft’ 1892 with a picture of a lion and a palm tree and also the Kaiser. Both in fairly good condition.
* One shilling TANU 1978 ten-sided FAO Regional Conference for Africa coin with pictures of a tractor driven by a woman and ‘Rais wa Kwanza’ Nyerere.

Robert Kussaga
Box 1229, Musoma

LESOTHO AND TANZANIA
Your readers might be interested to hear some of my impressions when I recently attended celebrations at the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Lesotho. The Dar celebrations began with a sports bonanza on June 7 and culminated in a peak on July 1, the university’s Silver Jubilee anniversary. The fact that all my appointments did take place despite the shortness of the notice of my visit indicates a welcome efficiency in the management. Substantial expansion in the student enrolment is planned, this is feasible in terms of existing favourable staff:student ratios but may be difficult to achieve in terms of the physical infrastructure. New technology is here to stay – part of the anniversary exhibition was an impressive demonstration of the University Library’s CD-Rom facilities although the use made of these to date has been disappointing. The Faculty of Engineering is an honourable exception to this. In January, I had attended the celebrations by the National university of Lesotho – as a consultant to the Association of African Universities – of its Golden Jubilee. There was a substantial difference between the two occasions. At the Lesotho celebrations many other universities and donor organisations were involved. The Dar es Salaam celebrations were very much a national affair. I cannot help wondering whether the presence of people from abroad at the fund-raising dinner and dance in Dar es Salaam and the following day’s ceremonies might not have been beneficial.
John Theakstone
Consultant in Higher Education Management and Gender Planning

TA ISSUE 51

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TA 51 cover

POLITICAL SCENE TRANSFORMED
HOW STRONG IS THE OPPOSITION?
DONORS PROMISE $1 BILLION
THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
CROCODILE BITES AND TRADITIONAL BELIEFS
CANADA AND THE BARABAIG
NYERERE – THREE BOOK REVIEWS

DISMISSAL OF MREMA TRANSFORMS POLITICAL SCENE

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Who will be the next President of Tanzania? This is the question exciting the country at present. And the short answer is that nobody has the least idea at this stage. But the picture has been transformed following the dramatic entry of former Deputy Prime Minister Augustine Mrema and now Acting Chairman of the NCCR-Mageuzi opposition party into the fray. Tanzania’s first multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on October 29 1995. Voter registration will be from August 6 to September 4 and nominations of candidates must be completed before August 22. The campaign will begin officially on August 29.

CCM LOOKS FOR A WINNER
Potential candidates for the presidency have started campaigning already. But, with the new threat from a potentially strong opposition candidate (see below) the monolithic Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has ruled Tanzania for the last 25 years, is faced with a formidable problem in finding a candidate who is not tainted with the corruption acknowledged to be widespread in Tanzanian society today. A growing number of CCM members have let it be known or are likely to let it be known shortly that they wish to be in the running for the top job – the Presidency – as President Mwinyi, who will shortly complete his second term of office, has to step down under the Constitution. The CCM is no longer the united group it once was as various factions look over the possible field of candidates and decide where to lend their support. Political analysts are trying hard to identify the eventual winner of the much prized CCM candidacy because the odds still are on the CCM candidate winning the election.

The following are believed to be the leading contenders for the presidency:

MARK BOMANI, former Attorney-General and presently Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission.

NJELU KASAKA MP, Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, the first person to announce that he will stand for president; he was not well known until last year when he led the ‘Group of 55’ MP’s pressing for a separate government for Tanganyika.

EDWARD LOWASSA, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

JOHN MALECELA, former Prime Minister and still Vice-Chairman of the CCM but greatly weakened by Mwalimu Nyerere’s clear disapproval.

SIMON MBILINYI, Managing Director, National Development Corporation.

REGINALD MENGI, prominent businessman.

BENJAMIM MKAPA, Minister of Science and Technology.

PIUS MSEKWA, Speaker of the House of Assembly, the second person to declare his candidacy and regarded as a strong contender.

CLEOPA MSUYA, Prime Minister.

FRANCIS NYALALI, Chief Justice of Tanzania.

SALIM AHMED SALIM, Secretary General of the OAU, has stated that he will not be standing but he might change his mind or at least stand for the Zanzibar presidency.

TUNTEMEKE SANGA, MP for Makete

Little has been said so far on the issues to be debated during the election but Mr Msekwa has indicated support for a separate Tanganyika government and a return to the leadership code of the Arusha Declaration; both he and Mr Kasaka have emphasised good uncorrupt government.

THE DISMISSAL OF MREMA
The nation was stunned and the CCM severely shaken on February 24 when they were told that President Mwinyi had dismissed Labour and Youth Development Minister and former Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema for indiscipline.

The event which triggered off the dispute between Mr Mrema and the President was a debate in the National Assembly in Dodoma following the publication of a Parliamentary Committee Report into the affairs of a prominent non-citizen businessman and owner of several farms, Mr V G Chavda – a case which has been hitting the headlines in the press for many months. The Committee recommended the arrest and prosecution of Mr Chavda over a multi-million shilling foreign exchange scandal. ‘The Committee alleged that Mr Chavda had misused Shs 916 million in debt conversion funds lent to him by the government, to develop four sisal estates he owned. Some ministers felt that he was innocent but on February 11 the government declared him a prohibited immigrant. Three days later the High Court restrained the government from deporting him.

Mr Mrema used the occasion to castigate the government. His conscience would haunt him, he said it he went along with the government line on Chavda. President Mwinyi therefore sacked him for failing to observe the rule of collective government responsibility.

Shortly after, Mr Mrema announced that, as he was being ‘harassed’ by the ruling party (the CCM) , he was resigning from it and had decided to join the opposition National Convention for Constitution and Reform – Mageuzi (Change) NCCR-Mageuzi whose Chairman Mr Mabere Marando promptly resigned to make way for him.

VAST CROWDS
Then began a triumphal procession. In Dodoma Mr Mrema was carried shoulder high by excited crowds and some 3,000 people signed up for the NCCR-Mageuzi. When he reached his home town, Moshi, police had to use tear gas to control the crowds and shops closed as thousands greeted him all the way from Kilimanjaro airport to the town.

In Dar es Salaam he addressed what was described as one of the biggest meetings ever held in the city. At the NCCR party headquarters officials were selling membership cards until late in the night making nearby roads impassable. It is assumed that he will soon declare his bid for the presidency and there are indications that several other opposition parties might support him.

STINKING OF CORRUPTION
Mwalimu Nyerere addressed the Dar es Salaam Press Club at the height of the Mrema drama. He reiterated at length his views on the sacredness of the Constitution and the vital importance of preservation of the Union.

He then turned to the corruption issue. “Tanzania stinks of corruption” he said and reminded his listeners that, when he was President, people charged with corruption were not only imprisoned for at least two years but also flogged. “Twelve strokes before the sentence and 12 stokes at the end so that they could show their wives!” (Laughter). “The State House is a holy place (Applause). I was not elected by the people of Tanzania to turn it into a den of racketeers” (Wild Applause). “This year’s elections will be ruled by money. Previously, candidates were asked where and how they got their property. Wealth was not a qualification. This year wealth will be the primary qualification!”

But Mwalimu was careful not to indicate which candidate he supported. It was essential he said first to examine the issues facing the electorate.

AUGUSTINE LYATONGA MREMA
The name Mrema evokes strong feelings. He is not considered to be an intellectual but he has charisma; he is a hero to the masses, and to the underprivileged, but is regarded with some distrust by many of the thinking classes because of his unpredictable behaviour and the way he sometimes tends to take action which might be considered to be stretching the law. He is very hard working and diligent in his search for injustice. But, having detected it, he tends to make very rapid judgements often without giving full thought to the probable consequences.

His reactions during the Dodoma drama are interesting. First, he is reported to have said that he was not going to quit the CCM party. Two days later he left it. Then he said he was leaving but still loved the party very much. Later he was attacking it with all barrels blazing; the party was guilty of ‘corruption, negligence and theft.’ He also said to have declared that he was not going to join another political party. Then he joined NCCR-Mageuzi.

In cabinet he often irritated fellow ministers by interfering in their portfolios.

His four-year crusade against corruption however has made him immensely popular. But the only people he managed to catch for corrupt practices seem to have been lower level managers and employees.

Mr Mrema is popular amongst women as he has declared war against wife beaters and husbands who neglect their families. In Moshi it was said that marriages were in danger as women flocked to join NCCR-Mageuzi while the men stayed with CCM.

He has frequently caused panic in business circles as he demands action within so many days on improving pay and conditions of workers. He was initially on the side of the petty traders, a large number of whom are operating in Dar es Salaam. On December 18 last year Mr Mrema assured a group of them in Kariakoo that they would not be forced out of the city centre as long as they obeyed the law. On February 16 however, the government drove them away from the market area and there was a riot which had to be quelled by the police.

HOW STRONG IS THE OPPOSITION?

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A revealing analysis conducted by the Danish aid agency DANIDA and reported in the Business Times (January 20) indicated that in the most recent test of voter opinion – the local government elections held late last year the opposition parties did very much better than at first appeared. The full results were not published. Of the 2,411 wards on the mainland, contested elections were held in 1,226 wards while in the remaining 1,185 CCM candidates were elected unopposed.

DANIDA was unable to obtain data from the Kigoma (where the opposition scored well), Tanga, Rukwa, Lindi and Singida regions but it was able to study 537 of the contested wards in the other regions.

OPPOSITION WON ONLY 3% OF THE SEATS BUT 26% OF THE VOTE
Because Tanzania has opted for a ‘first-past-the-post’ or ‘winner takes all’ and not a proportional representation system of elections the results examined showed that the opposition parties won over a quarter of the vote but gained only 3% of the seats. In Mara Region the opposition got 36% of the votes.

Thus, although the opposition parties fought against each other, obtained little or no publicity on Radio Tanzania and had very limited funds, they did garner, on a 50% voter turnout, a surprisingly large number of supporters. If a system of proportional representation were in effect (something which would have the support of many including the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Justice Lewis Makame) and the opposition were to unite, now that it has a credible presidential candidate, it could do very well in the next elections.

But it remains divided. Only four of the 12 registered parties obtained a significant number of local council seats;

CHADEMA 23
Civic United Front 21
United Democratic Party (UDP) 16
NCCR-Mageuzi 15

SETBACKS FOR CCM
The CCM has had a number of other setbacks recently. The Court of Appeal ruled that the successful CCM candidate in the February 14, 1994 Kigoma by-election, Mr Azim Premji, was not a Tanzanian citizen and upheld an earlier High Court decision annulling the results of the by-election. CCM leaders (including Mr Mrema) had intimidated voters, the Judge said, the counting of votes had not been fair and Radio Tanzania had campaigned for the CCM. Amidst strong protests from the opposition, the National Electoral Commission subsequently stated that a new by-election could not be held this year on the grounds that it was time-barred – it had to be held six months before the general election and this was no longer possible.

Then, after a long court case, the election last year of the CCM Mayor of Dar es Salaam, said to be a close collaborator of President Mwinyi, was declared nul and void.

OPINION POLL
The Swahili newspaper ‘Heko’ carried out an opinion poll in Dar es Salaam in January and found that Christopher Mtikila, the firebrand leader of the unregistered Democratic Party remained the most popular politician (with 41% of the votes); Mr Njelu Kasaka came second (18%). The best contender to succeed President Mwinyi was said to be Lands Minister Edward Lowassa (22%) followed by businessman Reginald Mengi. Former President Julius Nyerere was very much more popular (77%) than President Mwinyi (23%). Former Finance Minister Kighoma Malima was said to have been voted the most untrustworthy politician.

ELECTION OBSERVERS
Mr Justice Makame has indicated the National Electoral Commission’s views on observers for the October elections. He said, at a three-day seminar on multi-party elections, in late January: “We have nothing to hide so we do not seek to stop any observers, local or international, from carrying out their assignments. For reasons which are obvious – we would not know where to stop – we do not take the initiative of inviting any observer …. provided that observers do not seek to influence the trend and pervert the process, there is no harm in having people distant enough from the wood to be able to see the trees … Observers should be in place well before the election day and they should be conversant with our rules to be able to gauge properly what is going on. Their presence would promote credibility in the electoral process to some people …. foreign observers could usefully operate with local observers”.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM STILL NOT SOLVED

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In the last issue of TA the problem of the constitutional position of the Vice-Presidency was outlined. Subsequently Parliament passed an 11th Amendment to the Constitution which deprived the Zanzibar President of his automatic right to occupy the position of Vice-President in the Union Government; it was accepted however that he/she would be entitled to a senior post in the Union cabinet. The reason for the change, which House Speaker Pius Msekwa has been vigorously defending, was the fear that, under multi-partyism, it would be possible for a Vice-President to be elected who was not in the same party as the elected President.

But Zanzibar was unhappy with the amendment and remains very unhappy. One party leader has said that if elected their party’s president would not sit in the Union cabinet.

The Law society pointed out that the Amendment conflicted with the 1964 Articles of the Union. To make the change there would have had to have been a two thirds majority of all mainland and Zanzibar MP’s. If challenged in court, there could be a constitutional crisis. Surprisingly, on the same day (January 20) it was announced that President Mwinyi had signed the Constitutional Amendment a few days earlier!

As this issue went to press the government was promising a Bill in Parliament in April which would clarify the status and role of the Zanzibar President in Union affairs. The isles’ main opposition party CUF has made it clear that it opposes the 11th Amendment.

The National Assembly also rejected an earlier proposal (TA No 50) that 20 seats should be reserved in the National Assembly for persons to be nominated by parties achieving a certain proportion of the votes in an election.

CANADA AND THE BARABAIG

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My reaction on reading the Tanzanian part of the recent book ‘No Man’s Land: An Investigative Journey through Kenya and Tanzania’ by George Monbiot (Macmillan. £17.99) was to want to know more about the latest situation in the Barabaig country of Northern Tanzania, where a large Canadian-supported wheat scheme (Described in Tanzanian Affairs issue No 24, May 1986 – Editor) has been steeped in controversy for many years.

I did some research. I spoke to Charles Lane of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, to an official of the managers of the project – the National Agricultural and Food Company (NAFCO) in Tanzania and also to officials of CIDA the Canadian International Development Agency) in Hull, Quebec Province.

But first, about the book itself.

George Monbiot’s earlier book ‘Poisoned Arrows’ exposed the plight of the people of Irian Jaya in Indonesia. For this he received a life sentence in absentia. He then wrote ‘Amazon Watershed’ about tribal life in Brazil. Now he has brought to our attention the plight of pastoral tribes in Kenya and Tanzania. To do this he spent some time living among them. He encountered much hardship and many dangers but found friendship and people as human as we are. In fact, once again, a book about East Africa reminds us who we really are: ancestors of the first travelling people like those whose footsteps are preserved in Olduvai Gorge. ‘Humankind was born on the road. Our brains, our physique, our emotional identity, are those of the migrant. The restlessness, which in one corrupted form or another, is felt by every human being on earth, is incurable, for it is fundamental to our nature’. Writing like this, in its widest sense, helps us to live together with more understanding so has something to give to all its readers.

Monbiot visited Hanang District in Tanzania in 1991 and 1992 and met some of the Barabaig people and also Canadian and Tanzanian officials concerned with the 102,000 acre wheat farms. This chapter of the book usefully gives the history of the project including some of the scandalous details of the treatment of the Barabaig. It does not make pleasant reading. CIDA has serious reservations about some of what is written: ‘The chapter, which is written in pseudo-journalistic style, is filled with innuendos and misrepresentations. Mr Henckroth flatly denies many of the quotes attributed to him. ‘The author appears to be following his own particular agenda which does not include accurate reporting’.

However, Tanzania and also Canada have now faced up to the fact that there was a failure on the part of the original planners to give any consideration at all to the 40,000 Barabaig who depended on the land concerned for their survival. It is to be hoped that this story could not be repeated in the world of today. No doubt, at the time, Canada’s proposal seemed like manna from heaven to the Government of Tanzania but our understanding of development has matured since 1970 and human rights matter more, though not enough, particularly in the building up of democracy.

Tanzania eventually set up a lay commission headed by Appeal Court Judge Robert Kisanga to look into the problems of the Barabaig. In its 1993 report the commission made recommendations for the continued existence of the wheat farms and the Barabaig together. Some changes of staff were made on NAFCO’s side and the District Commissioner for Hanang was replaced. The Barabaig were advised to organise themselves to take a full part in discussions at district level and this they have done. NAFCO’s policy now is to help construct water points and to provide proper routes for the cattle of the Barabaig; to allow the people to visit their sacred burial sites; to stop harassing them whenever they are seen trespassing and to settle disputes amicably. The Ministry of Agriculture was recommended to update its guidelines on Hanang District and increase its extension services.

CIDA, for its part, is contributing Canadian $4.5 million towards the implementation of the Kisanga Report. Of this sum, C$700,OOO have already been provided for photomapping the area for the purpose of confirming land use and its registration. Al though CIDA is no longer involved with the wheat farms, since July 1993, they regard them as ‘of strategic importance to the domestic food security of Tanzania’. In 1994 34,430 tonnes of wheat were produced but this was not a good year due to drought. An average 40,000 tonne crop would produce 180 million loaves of bread.

CIDA conducted a mission to Tanzania in January 1995 in order to produce ‘an updated social and economic profile of the Hanang District’. A social and community development project is now being drawn up.

I hope that ‘No Man’s Land’ will be read by many people for the light it throws on the plight of pastoral people today: most of it is highly readable, well-written with humour and understanding, even though some of it, notably the chapter about the Barabaig, is quite distressing.
Christine Lawrence