Category Archives: Issue 112

HEALTH

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by Ben Taylor

President Kikwete confirms commitment to “super-hospital”
PRESIDENT Kikwete has affirmed the government’s intention to part­ner with an Indian hospital, Apollo, to set up a medical centre in Dar es Salaam. This is intended to cater for over 100,000 Tanzanians who travel abroad annually in search of treatment for chronic diseases.

President Kikwete, said the government, through the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), has entered into a deal with Apollo Hospital for the establishment of the centre that will serve primarily those that require surgery.

“With collaboration from the Tanzanian government we are ready to set up the centre and we believe that it is very crucial for the country in the fight against non-communicable diseases with assurance of thorough health services to citizens,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Hospital, Mr Sangita Reddy.

22 million nets
The government, together with USAID and various anti-malaria organi­zations, has launched a 12-month nationwide campaign to distribute over 22 million long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Miriam Lutz of USAID said after increasing awareness and the use of pesticide nets, malaria infections have been reduced by 50%. Partly as a result of such anti-malaria initiatives, there has been a 28% reduction in mortality rates among children under five.

Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Said Meck Sadiki said at the launch that each household registered to receive long-lasting insecti­cide-treated mosquito will be given it free of charge.

SPORT

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by Philip Richards

Athletics
Tanzania’s elite athletes are eagerly preparing for 2 significant events this year and hoping to improve the country’s medal record in recent times. First, the World Athletics Championships will take place in Beijing in August. Following that, the All Africa Games will be held in Congo-Brazzaville in September (which happens to be the 50th anniver­sary of the Games being held in the country who first hosted it in 1965).

Ismail Juma (5,000m), Alphonce Felix (10,000m), Ezekiel Ngimba and Fabiano Joseph (both marathon) have already run the necessary quali­fying times in recent events and are expected to travel to both events, and other athletes in some shorter distances are also hoping to make qualification times (The Guardian, 14/7/15).

To help them achieve their goal, the sport has received an injection of Tsh 10m from TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks Authority).

Football
Gloomy news continues on the Tanzanian national men’s football scene. After presiding over a string of defeats in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying round, most recently a 0-3 defeat at home to Uganda, Mart Nooij, the Dutch coach of Taifa Stars, has been sacked after 14 months in charge (BBC Sport website 22/6/15). It was reported that the team and coach were booed throughout the Uganda match and Nooij had to be shielded from angry fans by tight security (CCTV-Africa.com).

Yanga Sports assistant coach Charles Boniface Mkwasa now acts as interim coach whilst a permanent successor is found. The team has been drawn against Malawi in the opening 2-leg qualifying round in October for the 2018 FIFA World Cup; there remains a long journey ahead if the team are to have any chance of making the finals in Russia – if it hap­pens there of course….

Unfortunately the women’s national team have not been faring much better as their under 20’s team went down 4-0 to Zambia in a qualifying game for the 2016 World Cup in Papua New Guinea.

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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by Donovan McGrath

Editor’s Note: This section of Tanzanian Affairs, is very popular with readers, as it includes interesting and often moving stories that readers can relate to. It is reliant on the contributions by the TA readership, and it would be greatly appreciated if you could send in any news items you find concerning Tanzania. We would also like to hear your comments on any items published in TA.

By the river of Msimbazi, a health crisis looms
“I will live here until I die,” says Mussa Kibwana, crouching in an ankle-deep pile of decaying garbage. The main road in his neighbourhood is made entirely of trash – plastic bags, bottles and far more sordid kinds of waste. Kibwana lives in Magomeni, a small ward in the Kinondoni district of Dar es Salaam. The garbage is left over from last year’s rainy season, deposited there by the flooding of the Msimbazi River… “The trees around this area block the dirt in the river, and when the water can’t pass through, it rises and flows into peo­ple’s houses.” The Msimbazi is severely polluted, he explains, and its bacterial levels are as dangerous as the flooding itself. But the pollution is both a gift and a curse to communities by the river – when the flooding starts, their only protection comes in the form of “waste walls.” They use trash found in the Msimbazi to build barriers along the banks which help keep the rising water at bay… [I]t just so happens that the garbage is the cheapest way to fight the floods. The Msimbazi is the longest river in Dar es Salaam … Garbage block­ages not only force the water higher during the flood season … but prevent it from flowing during the dry season as well… [T]he residents of Magomeni aren’t the only ones polluting the river – the Msimbazi is a discharge sight for textile industries, municipal waste stabilisation ponds, and home sewage pipes… (East African, April 11-17, 2015)

Dangote Cement to Begin Production In Tanzania
The sub-Saharan Africa’s leading cement producer, Dangote Cement, said it will begin production of cement in Tanzania’s Mtwara region in August. This is contained in a statement by the Office of Tanzania President, Jakaya Kikwete, in Dar es Salaam. It said the date was announced at a meeting between President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and Kikwete … The 500 million dollar factory, which has an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes, will double the country’s annual output of cement to 6 million tonnes. However, Dangote faces challenges in accessing coal and natural gas as sources of cheap power to run the factory. Tanzania, East Africa’s second-biggest economy, has made big natural gas discoveries and had coal reserves of up to 5 billion tonnes, but lacks infrastructure to deliver the energy to major factories… The Tanzanian plant will supply the domestic market and export to landlocked countries in the region. It will be competing with other Tanzanian cement producers, including Tanzania Portland Cement, owned by a subsidiary of Germany’s Heidelberg Cement AG. There is also the Tanga Cement, owned by Afrisam Mauritius Investment Holdings Limited; and Mbeya Cement, owned by France’s Lafarge SA. (nigerianobservernews.com – 6 May 2015)

US forces train game rangers in Tanzania
Extract: An elite unit of the US Armed Forces was … in Tanzania to train game rangers and wardens in how to use American war tactics to fight poaching and wildlife trafficking in the country. The first ever exposure of the game rangers and wardens to American combat skills ended on March 27 with a graduation ceremony attended by senior diplomats and Tanzania wildlife conservation officials… The use of the US military in the war against trafficking of animal parts is the latest endeavour by the government to end rampant poaching, which has reached alarming levels in the whole of East Africa… (East African, April 4-10, 2015)

Reports: Nonprofit VETPAW kicked out of Tanzania
By Jon R. Anderson, Staff writer. A small but splashy veterans group with lofty plans to take on African poachers has been kicked out of Tanzania in the wake of what appears to be a self-inflicted publicity blitz run amok. A six-person team with VETPAW – Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife – was ordered to leave the East Africa nation following a burst of controversy. According to VETPAW posts and comments online, the team had been accompanied by an Animal Planet film crew that was producing a show on the group… In a recent press conference surrounded by dozens of fatigue-clad Tanzanian park rang­ers whom VETPAW had come to train, the head of the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources said he was “saddened” by recent posts that have been circulating widely online. Those have included pictures of “tactical model” Kinessa Johnson – a former Army diesel mechanic now with VETPAW – posing with various weapons and gear. Most, if not all, of those pictures appear to have been taken before her tour to Tanzania but have been posted recently in the group’s social media accounts, spurring a spate of blogger and media interest. “Meet the Badass, Tattooed Army Vet Who’s Hunting Down Poachers in Africa” was typical of many headlines. Overblown media hype of a group that was just there to train, not fight? Maybe, but then some of her actual com­ments surfaced… “We’re going there to do some anti-poaching. Kill some bad guys and do some good,” Johnson says in one YouTube video posted from the gun industry’s annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas in January as VETPAW was preparing to depart for Africa… (militarytimes.com – 7 May 2015)

Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer? Africa’s inequality struggle
Fast cars thunder down tree-lined avenues. Luxury yachts sway in the sparkling marina, while diners in trendy beach-side restaurants clink Champagne glasses, enjoying the gently ocean breeze. This isn’t Miami or the French Riviera, but Luanda, the capital of Angola. The city is a poster-child for the extraordinary economic boom experienced by many African nations since the early 2000s, its crane-filled skyline testament to the breakneck speed of construction seen in recent years. But it’s not just Luanda. From million-dollar mansions dotted along Mozambique’s coastline, to high-end shopping emporiums in Nigeria’s metropolises, oases of influence have sprung across the continent which has been home to seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world… “On the one hand you hear glowing stories of growth and prosperity, shiny new buildings being built, big cars, nice homes, and lots of consumption. But Africa is producing bigger and bigger numbers of poor people, so poor so desperate” says Ali Mufuruki, CEO of Tanzania’s Infotech Investment Group and member of the International Monetary Fund’s Group on sub-Saharan Africa. He adds that the growth statistics measure only those who are active participants in the economy leaving out the marginalized masses who often find themselves in sporadic, informal employment… Reasons for these diametrically different realities are complex, but the main culprit seems to be the nature of the growth pattern which enabled the already wealthy to get richer, without a significant impact on the rest of the population. Rakesh Rajani, a Tanzanian civil society activist, says that a lot of the growth has been driven by industries like mining, oil and gas and, to some extent, tourism – all of which don’t employ a huge number of people… (edition.cnn.com – 12 May 2015)

The albino children locked away to be safe from witch-doctors
The terrible plight of albinos in Tanzania continues (see related article in TA111): It was from neighbours that Scola Joseph first heard of two strange men in the village asking after her children. She knew immediately the moment she dreaded had com. Packing small bags for Elijah, 3, and Christine, 5, she led them away from their home and towards the nearest town, to a government camp where hundreds others like them were living under protection. It is the only way to keep them alive. Buhangija is one of nine such centres in Tanzania. This is where the country’s endangered class of albino children are moved in an attempt to keep them safe from witch-doctors, who claim their body parts, ground up and put in charms, can bring wealth and fortune… Albinism, caused by the lack of pigmentation in their skin, hair and eyes, affects about one in 20,000 people worldwide, but is for unknown reasons more common in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania particularly, where it claims one in 1,400. At least 75 children and adults with albinism have been killed here since 2000 and more than 62 others have escaped with severe injuries following the witch-doctors’ attacks. With witch-doctors paying as much as $75,000 for a full set of body parts … [S]ome of those implicated in the killings are members of the victims’ own families. The UN warned recently of a marked increase in attacks on albi­nos, which it said were at greater risk with the approach of national and local elections in October… January Makamba, a candidate vying to take over from President Jakaya Kikwete, said a better solution had to be found for people with albinism to live safely in Tanzania. “It’s an embarrassment to this country that we have to keep them in camps like this,” he said… (Sunday Telegraph, 5 July 2015)

Tanzanian low-cost water filter wins innovation prize
A water filter which absorbs anything from copper and fluoride to bacteria, viruses and pesticides has won a prestigious African innovation prize. Its inventor, Tanzanian chemical engineer Askwar Hilonga, uses nanotechnology and sand to clean water. He told the BBC his invention should help the 70% of households in Tanzania that do not have clean drinking water. The prize, worth £25,000 ($38,348), was the first of its kind from the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. Head Judge Malcolm Brinded said, “His innovation could change the lives of many Africans, and people all over the world.” The sand-based water filter that cleans contaminated drinking water using nanotechnology has already been trademarked. “I put water through sand to trap debris and bacteria,” Mr Hilonga told the BBC’s Newsday programme about the filter. “But sand cannot remove contaminants like fluoride and other heavy metals so I put them through nano materials to remove chemical contaminants.” … “For people who cannot afford water filters, we have established water stations where people come and buy water at a very very low, affordable price,” he added… (bbc.co.uk – 2 June 2015)

Cholera hits refugees in Tanzania
About 3,000 refugees fleeing political turmoil in Burundi have been infected in a cholera epidemic in Tanzania … Up to 400 new cases of the deadly disease were emerging every day … mainly in Tanzania’s Kagunga peninsula where tens of thousands of Burundians have taken refuge … ([London] Guardian, 23 May 2015)

Inside the elephants’ graveyard of Tanzania
Herd numbers face wipeout at the hands of poachers, but little is done to halt the slaughter. Extract continues: As Howard Frederick flew in a Cessna low over the scrubland of Tanzania’s Selous game reserve, it was the complete absence of elephants rather than the piles of scattered bones he saw that chilled him the most… Tanzania had lost two-thirds of its once mighty elephant population in just four years as demand from China for ivory tusks sent a highly organised army of rifle and chainsaw-wielding criminals into its game reserves… Having let the way in calling for a ban on elephant ivory exports in the Eighties, Tanzania has grown complacent about safeguarding its bountiful wildlife… Run by big criminal syndicates based in Dar es Salaam, the poachers worked in “highly mechanised teams”, according to Mr Frederick. “You would have lead teams who would go out and scout an area, then kill teams come in, ambush and kill whole groups,” he said. “They move on to the next area while the butchering team comes in and chops all the tusks, and then the transport team comes in. “It’s progressed from being very casual poaching to teams of highly organised individuals.” Tanzania’s herds … in 1976 … had 316,000 elephants, the largest population on the planet… In Selous and its surrounding ecosystem, the elephant population was the lowest since counts began, down from 109,000 in 1976 to 13,084. The Tanzanian government said it would beef up protection and accepted offers of help, including one from the Americans who sent marines to train its rangers… (Sunday Telegraph, 19 July 2015)

Radio: Twiddle that dial
With half the adult population in Tanzania tuning in to local radio, community stations have an influence way bigger than their budgets – and have even been known to save lives. Extract continues: Baloha FM had only been on air for five weeks when a deadly storm struck the village of Mwakata in north-west Tanzania, killing more than 40 people and destroying hundreds of homes. The radio station’s founder, Samada Maduhu, found himself catapulted into the emergency relief effort in early March of this year: “The district commissioner, MPs, representatives of NGOs [non-governmental organisations], UN agen­cies and officials from ministries were here broadcasting information to the victims,” he recalls. In the following days, people stranded by the torrential rains were found because they were able to call in to the radio. Such commu­nity engagement often lies behind the impulse to create a local radio station. Micheweni FM, situated in the remote rural area on the Zanzibar Archipelago island of Pemba, began in reaction to local conservative voices preventing young girls from attending school. “You only need to educate one girl and she can change the whole world,” says Ali Massoudi Kombo, manager of the station, which is the only media in the district of more than 130,000 people. Micheweni FM only began broadcasting in 2010, yet girls now outnumber boys by two to one in classrooms, according to the local government’s district plan­ning officer, Hamadi Massoudi… (Africa Report, June 2015)

How a displaced Polish family found itself as refugees in Tanzania
(See related article in TA108) As the world marks World Refugee Day on June 20, millions of people around the world today are stateless or are refugees. This story traces the journey of one Polish family uprooted from their home during the Second World War who found themselves stateless refugees in Africa in the 1940s. Extract continues: The letters are written in ink in a tight, classic script… Some of the earlier ones are datelined Teheran or Morogoro, but most were written from Tengeru and address to “Our dearest Papa.” … And they are written in Polish… The writer of this momentous news was the almost 13-year-old Stanislaus Odolski, who lived, along with 5,000 other Poles, at Tengeru, northern Tanganyika, one of the first refugee camps in Africa, from 1944 to 1948… [F]ew East Africans ever expected to see large groups of Polish people deposited in their midst as refugees… [The wife of Anton Odolski – “Dearest Papa”, his] daughter and son Stan were among the 37,272 Polish – but stateless – civilians, including 13,948 children, who were evacuated from the Soviet Union and travelled overland to Teheran and then on to various parts of the world under British influence for resettlement since they could not return to Poland. The Odolski family landed in Nairobi; some of the Polish refugees went to Masindi in Uganda. They went to Tengeru via Morogoro… (East African, June 20-26, 2015)

OBITUARIES

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by Ben Taylor

Hero of southern African liberation battles, Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, died at Lugalo Military Hospital in Dar es Salaam, in April, aged 81.
Mbita’s most prominent public role was as Executive Secretary of the Liberation Committee of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Liberation Committee executive secretary. The committee had been hosted in Tanzania, and offered support to African liberation movements in their fight for independence.

He served for 22 years from 1972, stepping down after the first democratic elections were held in South Africa in 1994. “Mission Accomplished” was the title of his statement to the meeting in Arusha that marked the closure of the Liberation Committee.

He also served in various leadership capacities, including army officer with the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), press secretary to the country’s founding president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, and a politician.

His efforts earned him the highest recognition around Southern Africa. President Robert Mugabe awarded him the Royal Order of Monomotapa, the country’s highest honour available to non-Zimbabweans, bestowed to those who excelled in the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe and other southern African countries. South Africa bestowed on him the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, for his “exceptional and gallant support of African liberation movements and his tireless efforts in ensuring that the struggle for freedom throughout the African continent bore fruit.” He was honoured by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with the Sir Seretse Khama Medal, and by the African Union with its first “Son of Africa” award.

Nevertheless, he wore his medals lightly, never one to seek out publicity or attention.

“There are few people in this country who we can compare with Brig Gen Mbita; he was a man of his own kind who served this country for a long time and in all that period, he executed his duties ably and diligently,” said President Kikwete. “There was no freedom fighter in Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa who did not know the immense con­tribution made by Mbita.”

Tanzania’s Chief Sheikh, Mufti Issa bin Shaaban bin Simba, died in June at the TMJ Hospital in Dar es Salaam where he had been undergoing treatment for kidney and bronchial complications.
Dar es Salaam Chief Sheikh, Alhadi Mussa Salim, told reporters in Dar es Salaam that the Mufti had undergone surgery the previous day but did not recover.

The late Sheikh Simba became the Mufti of Tanzania in 2003 after acting in the post for 3 months following the death of the then Mufti of Tanzania, Sheikh Hemed Bin Jumaa in 2002. Prior to this, he had been Chief Sheikh of Shinyanga Region since 1970.

As death is inevitable for every human being, we have to accept it. It’s our responsibility to pray for Sheikh Simba so that he rests in peace,” said President Kikwete in a condolence message.

National chairman of the opposition party, Chadema, Freeman Mbowe, said “the Mufti has been heard several times saying that he is not the leader of Muslims alone but all believers. I join other Muslims in the country during this difficult moment as we mourn the death of their spiritual leader.”

Mr John Nyerere, the son of Tanzania’s founding father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, has died in Dar es Salaam, aged 58. He had been battling with diabe­tes. The late John Nyerere is survived by nine children. He was the fourth of Mwalimu Nyerere’s seven children. He will be remembered for his contribu­tion during the Kagera War in 1978-9 when he served as a Tanzania People’s Defence Force fighter jet pilot.

REVIEWS

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by Martin Walsh

MOBILIZING ZANZIBARI WOMEN: THE STRUGGLE FOR RESPECT­ABILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE IN COLONIAL EAST AFRICA. Corrie Decker. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014. xiv + 254 pp. (hardback). ISBN 978-1-137-46529-0. £62.50.

Those familiar with Decker’s earlier publications will know the rich oral his­tory she has accumulated through extensive research with women of various generations in Zanzibar. This book builds upon her previous work to present a thorough investigation into the development of women’s education and pro­fessionalisation in 1920s and 1930s Zanzibar and the emerging significance of women within the public sphere in the post-war and late colonial period.

Central to the argument is an exposition of the processes by which women, and female teachers and professionals in particular, shaped prevailing notions of heshima (respectability) in the early colonial period into what was by the post-war period ‘a symbol of the publicly active, self-reliant, middle-class profes­sional women’ (p. 2). Women’s literacy was a key element in their manipulation of heshima. That many Zanzibaris describe the late colonial period as the time of maendeleo ya wanawake (women’s development) underscores the indispensabil­ity of women’s education and professionalisation to more general social and economic development the 1950s and 1960s. Decker uses the term ‘self-reliance’ to encapsulate the Swahili concepts of faida and nafuu (benefit or profit) and other factors to describe ‘the goals – economic and social, individual and com­munal – that professional women set out for themselves and their families’ (p. 13). Women’s mobility and action is contrasted throughout the book with the attempted ‘mobilization’ of women in male-authored discourses, including those by the colonial government, elite Arab figures and nationalists.

The decision by the colonial government to support women’s education in the late 1920s was related to the drive to improve standards of living. Although the colonial government sought ‘to produce “good wives and mothers” not profes­sional women’ (p. 80), generations of educated women delayed marriage to continue to work as teachers or nurses. Decker demonstrates that this was far from a top-down movement – aspirant scholars and educated women reshaped notions of heshima to gain greater social and economic freedom. Furthermore they were essential mediators who established acceptable methods for dissemi­nating colonial policies, such as those related to health, which were often seen as invasive interventions into the domestic sphere.

These insights into the domestic alongside the official make this a particularly engaging study, as Decker interweaves of archival records and oral history. Al­though these sources are used in tandem throughout, each chapter has a pe­nultimate section focusing upon an individual whose experiences provide a personal perspective on key issues. As such we learn of the diverse outcomes of women who through education gained greater ‘self-reliance’ and also the ways in which they articulate these memories. These narratives elucidate how such women negotiated the public and private sphere – we cannot understand their professional experiences without also locating them in the domestic setting as daughters, sisters and mothers.

This book is vital reading for scholars of 20th century Zanzibar, and education and development in the global perspective. Decker’s final point clearly demon­strates the wider significance of this work. Evident in her interviews with men and women was the ‘refusal by women to see explicit political gains or losses as the only lens through which to understand their history. Instead they high­lighted the continuities in women’s education and work between the colonial and postcolonial period as the message to take away from our conversations.’ (p. 161). Such fresh perspectives, which occur throughout the book, challenge the prevailing histories of colonial, revolutionary and post-colonial period in Zanzibar and as such the book makes a vibrant and important contribution to scholarship on East Africa and beyond.
Sarah Longair
Sarah Longair is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the British Muse­um, where she has worked for 10 years. Her research explores British colonial history in East Africa and the Indian Ocean world through material and visual culture. Her monograph, Cracks in the Dome: Fractured Histories of Empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897–1964, will be released in August 2015. She has also published several book chapters, articles and edited volumes, including Curating Empire: Museums and the British Imperial Experience (2012), co-edited with John McAleer.

GROWING UP WITH TANZANIA: Memories, Musing and Maths. Karim F. Hirji. Mkuki Na Nyota, Dar es salaam, 2014. 302 pp. (paperback). ISBN 978-9987-08-223-0. Available from African Books Collective, £17.95.

Karim Hirji grew up during the dramatic years before and after independence. He is an Ismaili whose parents came from the Indian subcontinent and this memoir provides a rare view of how Indians made the future Tanzania their home. Hirji begins by depicting provincial life in Lindi during British colonial rule where many Asians of different communities were engaged in trade and commerce, and he reflects on the hierarchical relationship between the colonial rulers, the Indians and the Africans. The family moved to Dar es Salaam when he was in his teens in 1961. The Ismaili community were mainly living in Upan­ga where their Jama’at Khana (mosque) was located and he describes playing cricket and attending the Aga Khan Boys’ school. This is when Hirji fell in love with numbers, anticipating his later life as a professor of mathematics in the US. The memoir is sprinkled with mathematical concepts, presented in a thought­ful but fun way (readers who are not mathematically inclined can readily skip these pages: they are not essential to the story).

Hirji went to Dar Technical College for his secondary education and found him­self in an environment where the majority of students were Africans. This had a transforming effect on his outlook, and he began to see himself as ‘a member of an emergent nation unified and guided by a noble leader’. During this pe­riod he attended a ‘nation-building’ camp at Kinondoni for a month, where the majority of students were again African. At that time not many Asians were exposed to the wider world because they tended to remain segregated within their own communities. His discovery of mathematics led him to move next to a boarding school at Kibaha to complete his schooling. Ujamaa was in full swing and all school leavers had to do national service prior to going to university. Hirji attended Ruvu camp for six months and during this period he reflected further on social and racial equality.

This was a challenging time for Asians in the country, and they did not always perceive the transition from colonial rule as positive. Hirji manages to capture how many of his friends reacted to these changes. Asians had come from India to Africa under the umbrella of British colonial power, and cultural separation from the local population was embedded in their mindset. Africanisation in the 1970s led to the mass exodus of many Asians because they felt insecure. The nationalisation of property after the Arusha Declaration led the Aga Khan to negotiate with the Canadian government to allow the Ismaili community to leave Tanzania and resettle in Canada. Hirji captures the early euphoria be­fore nationalisation and reflects thoughtfully on its consequences. He notes that many of his family and friends (of Indian origin) are scattered all over the globe, including in the US, Canada and England. He himself spent 20 years in aca­demia in the US, but does not reveal how this came about.

This memoir is very much a personal journey seen from the eyes of an Asian growing up in Tanganyika/Tanzania during a period of great change. It pro­vides a rare glimpse of the Ismaili community and its cohesiveness. The Aga Khan has played a fundamental role in directing the life of its followers and there is no doubt that Hirji is very much a product of that community. There is much to recommend his account, particularly his musings on education and mathematics.
Shamshad Cockcroft

Shamshad Cockcroft grew up in Zanzibar and is a professor of Cell Physiology at University College London.

The Development State: Aid, Culture and Civil Society in Tanzania. Maia Green. James Currey, Woodbridge, 2014. xi + 227 pp. (paperback). ISBN 978-1-84701-108-4. £19.99.

Readers familiar with Tanzania will find much of interest and much to ponder in this book. Tanzanian development and development politics has a long, rich tradition from the socialist policies and experiments of the Nyerere years to the changes heralded by structural adjustment and beyond. Notwithstanding some excellent historical work, there have been very few book-length studies of development in Tanzania in recent years. For this reason Maia Green, a social anthropologist with considerable knowledge of contemporary Tanzania, is well placed to write a comprehensive study.

The Development State comprises an introduction, eight chapters (all but one pre­viously published) and a conclusion. The introduction sets out her general ap­proach, which focuses on the effects of neoliberal development on forms of gov­ernance. This donor-driven ‘discourse’ legitimises and supports a very specific agenda of trade liberalisation, macro-economic stability and fiscal discipline. It has important consequences for developing countries like Tanzania: aid rela­tionships are framed in the language of partnership and local ownership, which in turn are underpinned by limited forms of donor support in the expectation that a state will empower its citizens to achieve development. This is a world away from the 1970s when the state was the political actor which defined and implemented development.

Green argues that Tanzanians have, for a variety of reasons, come to accept and pursue a neoliberal vision of development even though this has delivered very little for the majority of citizens. In Chapter 1 she defines ‘development states as those that are materially and ideologically sustained through development re­lations’ (p. 15). That Tanzania is such a state is reinforced by her view of the his­tory of development from the British mandate to the present. Chapter 2 looks at the ‘participatory’ rhetoric which has dominated Tanzanian development from the 1990s, and argues that participatory planning is the form through which development is organised at all levels. Chapter 3 examines the ubiquitous plan­ning workshops that rely on logical frameworks and participatory methods to identify and agree ‘manageable projects’. In the next chapter Green critiques notions of participation, which, she argues, is a tool ‘to enrol divergent inter­ests’ into supporting a common enterprise.

While Green states that there is little evidence that participation delivers real benefits, she does not ask why Tanzanians fail to question this way of thinking and pursuing development. Subsequent chapters focus on civil society actors who claim to represent local ‘communities’ to ‘anticipate development’, obtain funding and become development agents. Green argues that this process cre­ates inequalities because these people, who have tenuous links to communities, are in fact ‘privatising development’ even as they attempt to enrol local people into a project through workshops aimed at ‘capacity building’.

Chapter 7 provides a fascinating account of ‘anti-witchcraft services’ which, Green argues, are modelled on modern, neoliberal forms of governance and ser­vice delivery. Chapter 8 examines the cultural logic of neoliberal development for Tanzanians, by which she means the small urban-based middle class. This class is largely the product of policies which created and maintains the public sector; in Green’s view it is parasitic in that its access to education, modern housing, IT technology and modern forms of consumption are underpinned by exploitative arrangements with poor rural households. Green concludes, rather unsatisfactorily, that the state has prioritised forms of development which pro­mote the capitalist transformation of the economy (which will benefit very few Tanzanians), while using participatory planning to reinforce the message that ordinary citizens are responsible for their own development.

This book is problematic for several reasons. The various chapters do not fit together to provide a coherent analysis of development, and despite the book’s claim to speak about the whole of Tanzania, Green’s research and analysis is largely focused on Morogoro region. While her insights are interesting, we learn very little about how ordinary Tanzanians participate in or experience development. Finally, the terms and language used by the author make the book difficult to read and her arguments hard to comprehend. Her focus on ‘discourse’ obscures an understanding of the complex social and political re­lations and networks that underpin development, the diversity of actors and institutions with an interest in development, and, critically, what two decades of pursuing neoliberal development policy has or has not delivered.
John R. Campbell

John R. Campbell taught sociology in the University of Dar es Salaam in 1980-84, following which he worked at the University of Wales, Swansea, where he was involved in development in Ethiopia, Botswana, and Kenya. In 2000 he joined the anthropology department in the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

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by Hugh Wenban-Smith

This compilation of articles on Tanzania, culled from journals in the LSE library, cov­ers January to June 2015. The abstracts are based on those published by the author(s).

“Regulatory compliance in Lake Victoria fisheries” Eggert, H & RB Lokina Environment and Development Economics Vol 15(2).
This paper analyses the causes for regulatory compliance, using traditional de­terrence variables and potential moral and social variables. We use self-report­ed data from 459 artisanal fishers in Lake Victoria. The results indicate that the decision to be either a non-violator or a violator, as well as the violation rate – if the latter – are influenced by changes in deterrence variables like the probability of detection and punishment and also by legitimacy and social variables. We also identify a small group of fishers who react neither to normative aspects nor to traditional deterrence variables but persistently violate the regulation.

“Households’ income-generating activities and marginal returns to labour in rural Tanzania” Nerman, M Journal of African Economies Vol 24(3).
This study uses detailed household-level data to assess whether rural Tanza­nian households seem able to allocate labour so as to maximise their incomes, and what factors determine if they do. In contrast to much earlier work on in­come diversification I use crop-level data to explicitly evaluate marginal returns within agriculture. The integrated household survey used allows me to then link these returns to household characteristics and broader labour supply deci­sions and consumption behaviour. In line with expectations, agricultural wage work seems to be a last resort option, as agricultural wage labourers have lower marginal returns than others due to a higher labour allocation to own agricul­tural production. Furthermore, wage rates are much higher than the shadow wages, implying that there are gains to be made from expanding the non-farm side of the rural economy.

“Rural policies, price change and poverty in Tanzania: An agricultural house­hold model based assessment” Tiberti, L & M Tiberti Journal of African Econo­mies Vol 24(2).
The main objective of this study is to develop a robust and comprehensive tool to evaluate the effect on household welfare of different agricultural policies in Tanzania and food price changes. A two-stage estimation strategy is adopted: the shadow price of labour is first estimated and then used to estimate produc­tion and demand systems as well as labour market functions. These models are subsequently used to simulate the effect on household welfare of a hypotheti­cal 40% increase in the price of cereals and other crops and a hypothetical 10% increase in the hectares of arable land and in the use of ox-ploughs. The results are finally compared with the case in which a separable model is adopted.

“Inter-temporal and spatial price dispersion patterns and the well-being of maize producers in Southern Tanzania” van Campenhout, B, E Lecoutere & d’Exelle B Journal of African Economies Vol 24(2).
We revisit a methodology to gauge the short-term effect of price changes on smallholder farmer’s welfare that is popular amongst policy makers and aca­demia. Realising that farmers face substantial seasonal price volatility over the course of an agricultural year, we pay particular attention to the timing of sales and purchases. In addition, we depart from the implicit assumption that all farmers scattered across rural areas face the same prices when interacting with markets. Using maize marketing during the 2007-2008 agricultural season in a sample of smallholders in Tanzania as an illustration, we find that especially poor farmers face greater losses than what a standard analysis would suggest. We also relate our methodology to factors that are likely to affect potential ben­efits or costs from inter-temporal and spatial price dispersion, such as means of transport, access to price information and credit.

“The role of credit facilities and investment practices in rural Tanzania: A comparative study of Igowole and Ilula emerging urban centres” Larsen, MN & T Birch-Thomsen Journal of Eastern African Studies Vol 9(1).
Small urban settlements or small towns in rural areas represent the fastest ur­ban growth in most of the African continent. Along with a renewed political interest in African agriculture, the role of urban settlements has gained a promi­nent position in poverty reduction in rural areas and as an alternative to out-migration. Based on data collected between 2010 and 2012 covering more than 60 business operators in two emerging urban centres (EUCs) and their rural hinterlands, the article explores development trajectories in two EUCs in Tan­zania, both of which have experienced rapid population growth and attracted new investments in business by both migrants and the indigenous population in an effort to exploit new opportunities in the centres. The initial urbanization has not been driven by the state or by new institutional interventions such as microfinance but rather by the ‘market’. This paper argues that microfinance plays a role in facilitating possibilities for some businesses to sustain, expand or diversify their businesses once the business is well-established in the EUCs. Migrants play a pivotal role for the early development and later diversification of business activities within both EUCs. They have been attracted by new in­vestment opportunities and bring capital and knowledge from previous experi­ences with economic activities.

“The challenge of intermediary coordination in smallholder sugarcane pro­duction in Tanzania” Mmari, DE Journal of Modern African Studies Vol 53(1).
Orthodox approaches to development view the market as a key institution for driving economic transformation and for fostering innovation and com­petitiveness. The working of markets alone, however, does not always lead to improved outcomes such as increase in productivity or production efficiency in the context of smallholders. This paper examines the role of intermediary coordination in addressing constraints to efficiency and productivity in small­holder sugarcane producers in Tanzania. It also makes a contrastive analysis of different organisational arrangements for smallholder sugarcane producers in Malawi. The key proposition is that while intermediary organisations of cane out-growers in Tanzania have played a significant role in promoting effective market linkages, an increase in productivity required for competitiveness is limited by the lack of effective horizontal coordination.

“Participatory forest carbon assessment in south-eastern Tanzania: Experi­ences, costs and implications for REDD+ initiatives” Katani, KZ, I Mustalahti, K Mukama & E Zahabu Oryx (FirstView article, 25 June 2015)
The aim of this study was to determine the changes in forest carbon in three vil­lage forests in Tanzania during 2009-2012 using participatory forest carbon as­sessment, and to evaluate the capability of the local communities to undertake the assessment, and the costs involved. The results show that forest degradation is caused not only by disturbance as a result of anthropogenic activities; other causes include natural mortality of small trees as a result of canopy closure, and the attraction of wild animals to closed-canopy forests. Thus mechanisms are required to compensate communities for carbon loss that is beyond their control. However, an increase in the abundance of elephants and other fauna should not be considered negatively by local communities and other stakehold­ers, and the importance of improved biodiversity in the context of carbon stocks should be emphasised by those promoting REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). This case study also shows that the cost per Ha of USD < 1 for participatory forest carbon assessment is less than that re­ported for Tanzania and elsewhere (USD 3-5); this is attributed to the large area of forest studied. However, the cost of data analysis and reporting in 2012 (USD 4,519) was significantly higher than the baseline cost (USD 1,793) established in 2009 because of the involvement of external experts. “Landlords in the making: class dynamics of the land grab in Mbarali, Tanza­nia” Greco, E Review of African Political Economy Vol 42(155).
This paper reorients the analysis of land grabs in Tanzania towards the role of class dynamics. It draws on primary research on resistance against the privati­sation of a rice farm in Mbeya region. This is a land grab ahead of its time, as it occurred before the wave of global land enclosures spurred by the 2007/8 crisis. The paper argues that the recent wave of dispossession builds on pre-existing processes of rural social differentiation and class formation, which are played out through the politics of land and its class dynamics. It claims that if scholar­ship is to support the progressive potential of resistance against land grabs in Africa, the class dynamics of land grabs must be acknowledged.