Category Archives: Issue 135

SPORT

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by Philip Richards

Women’s Rugby – a “Try for Change”
In recent years, the game of rugby union is increasingly being embraced and professionalized across the world by women. Led by the Tanzania Rugby Union (TRU), the men’s game in Tanzania has been played and has grown for many years, and now the women of the country want to get in on the act.

The person leading the charge is Fatma El-kindiy who is from Botswana where she contributed to the development of the women’s game there. El-kindiy had originally visited Tanzania to see her mother but relocated permanently in June 2021 and admits she first contacted the Tanzania Rugby Union (TRU) because she “didn’t have anything else to do” when she first arrived.

Fatma El-kindiy at a training session – Photo Women in Rugby

Back in Botswana she became an advocate for the benefits the oval-ball game could provide young women and girls and helped to devise a programme, ‘A Try for Change’, to help encourage more women and young girls in the country to pick up a rugby ball. The success of the programme contributed to El-kindiy becoming an ‘Unstoppable’ in Botswana, part of a role model campaign by Rugby Africa to fast track women’s rugby across the continent. When she moved to Dar es Salaam she was keen to have a similar impact on female participation in Tanzania. She now has a new goal: to field Tanzania’s first women’s national team, and this year a women’s team has been invited to participate in a Burundi Women’s Day tournament involving 6 nations from East and Central Africa.

The TRU had struggled to grow interest in female participation and so when they received the phone call from El-kindiy, they were only too happy to accept her offer of help. She has since become head of development for women’s rugby and set about increasing opportunities for and interest in women playing the game. One area where interest has ignited is Ukonga, in Illala District of Dar es Salaam Region. There, with the help of coach Denis Lipiki, El-kindiy has found a growing group of women who are keen to learn how to play the game. From an initial squad of 7, there are now training sessions for 25 young women up to three times a week with sessions starting as early as 6am.The majority of these new players are aged between 18 and 20, however, El-kindiy says there is one “determined” squad member who is only 13.
She sees the potential and is confident of attracting players beyond Ukonga, from across Tanzania. Requests have been sent to men’s clubs around the country in the hope that they will continue to offer those women opportunities to play beyond the tournament. Beyond that, El-kindiy is also planning to roll out ‘A Try for Change’ in Tanzania and hopes to convince schools to offer girls an opportunity to play as part of their curriculums. (Women in Rugby https://www.women.rugby/ 10/8/22)

Boston Marathon

Gabriel Geay (right) with Evans Chebet (the eventual winner) at the Boston Marathon – photo @gabrielgeraldgeay

Gabriel Geay, one of the country’s top marathon distance runners, crossed the finish line in a creditable second place at the 126th running of the Boston Marathon in the USA. He clocked a time of 2:06:04 just 10 seconds behind the Kenya winner Evans Chebet who defended his title. Geay was also ahead of Ugandan and twice Olympic Champion Eluid Kipchoge who surprisingly faded in sixth position. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was swift to congratulate the athlete as evidence of the improvement of athletics in the country based upon a history of world class long distance runners. (Daily News)

Football – AFCON Update
After beating their East African opponents by the same score a few days previously at Suez Canal Stadium in Ismailia, Egypt, the national men’s team Taifa Stars conceded a late goal to lose 1-0 to Uganda Cranes at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

The visitors scored a stoppage time winner to make the qualification race for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals even tighter. The result means that both Taifa Stars and Uganda are tied on 4 points in Group F with two matches remaining to play. The Stars welcome Niger early in June in a “must win” encounter for the home side.

This was only the first defeat for Stars Head Coach Adel Amrouche at the helm of the team, and the country still has a chance to qualify for the AFCON finals to be hosted by Ivory Coast. Algeria top the group and have already made it through to the finals in 2024. (Daily News)

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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by Donovan McGrath
In the blood: why diabetes is the scourge of entire families in Tanzania
(The Guardian online – UK) Elisaria has had diabetes for decades. Her husband died of it and five relatives live with it. Yet millions in this fast-growing country cannot afford to get the treatment they need. Extract continues: … The 70-year-old retired Tanzanian businesswoman from Dar es Salaam has been living with type 2 diabetes for decades, and she is one of six in her extended family with the chronic illness… Government health sector reports show that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes are on the rise and now account for about 40% of Tanzania’s disease burden… Older Tanzanians are disproportionately affected by NCDs, yet nearly 90% of people over 50 do not have health insurance and have little access to medical services. The state health insurance scheme can cost between £70 and £350 a year, and healthcare costs are prohibitive for many… Victoria Matutu, 35, is shouldering a double burden. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two years ago, Matutu spends about £35 a month on insulin, and the same amount on clinic visits every two months. Her mother also has the condition, so Matutu has to help her with medical bills. She earns the equivalent of £140 a month, which is not enough to pay into the government’s scheme… Mary Mayige, coordinator of the National Survey for Non-Communicable Diseases, says that conditions that once mainly affected the elderly now affect people in their 30s who are “the production engine of the country”. Healthcare has always been thought about in terms of spending, she says. “It’s high time that countries begin to look at the situation as a threat to the economy and human capital development.” … Tanzania allocates less than 5% of its GDP to health, which is below the international threshold for provision of basic services. Donor funding contributes to about 60% of total public spending, but the health programmes it pays for are heavily skewed towards infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, despite data which suggests that cases of infectious diseases are falling, while NCDs are on the rise and account for nearly half of the country’s deaths… (28 December 2022)

Now that’s petrifying! Bizarre lake in Tanzania instantly turns animals that touch it into ‘STONE’
(Mail online – UK) Extract: The idea of a lake that instantly turns animals that touch it into stone may sound like a concept from Greek mythology. But it’s a reality in Tanzania, where animals live in fear of one of the world’s deadliest lakes. Lake Natron is a key mating ground for lesser endangered flamingo, but animals risk being frozen forever in its salt if they dare to go near its shores. Bacteria, which give the water its blood red tone, are some of the only organisms that can tolerate its average 78°F (26°C) heat, fatal salt concentration and alkalinity. Bodies that fall into the water decompose rapidly while those which fall on its edge are ‘encrusted in salt’ that ‘stays forever’, according to ecologist David Harper of the University of Leicester… The lake’s hostile conditions can be blamed on the nearby Ol Doinyo Lengai – also known as the Mountain of God – which is the only active volcano to emit natrocarbonatites. These feed into the lake through stream channels that cut through the volcano, contributing to its harsh alkalinity of over pH 10. Only flamingos, which eat up the water’s nutrient-rich cyanobacteria, flock to the area for mating. But even they cannot escape the salt lake’s merciless conditions, and can fall victim to being encrusted at the shore… (22 March 2023)

From Maasai warrior to YouTube star! Son of Tanzanian tribe chief gains more than a MILLION views online as he tries pizza and takes a flight for the first time
(Mail online – UK) Extract: … Kanaya Kolong Parkepu, 38, is the son of the 95-year-old chief and has become the first Maasai warrior to have YouTube and Instagram. He created the Maasaiboys channel a year ago, with his videos gaining up to 700,000 views as he and his friends try out burgers and pizzas for the first time. He revealed that part of his motivation to start the channel was his fear that his tribe and culture will be lost in the future. The 38-year-old influencer told The Times social media is ‘good’ for the tribe, adding: ‘My dream is to teach people how the Maasai live. ‘The Maasai all communicate as a group. We pass down songs. We help each other…’ Kanaya created the page with his friend Arman Alamdar, 20, who appears alongside him in videos with other friends, Kili, Simba and Kanaya’s girlfriend, Sally. Meanwhile his father, the chief of the tribe, Arooni, also appears on screen at times. Kanaya said his father has ‘embraced’ the new technology in the tribe, adding he ‘likes to laugh’ and sees the clips as ‘educating people.’ They have amassed 14,700 followers on Instagram and 17,300 subscribers on YouTube. Their top video, African Tribe tries Burger for the first time, has almost 750,000 views, while another African Tribe tries Pizza for the first time has over 200,000. A third showing them embarking on their first ever plane journey has over 40,000 views on YouTube… (16 March 2023)

Finding a brighter future for Tanzania’s child domestic workers

Mercy Esther – photo Marek Klosowicz/Kulczyk Foundation

(CNN online – USA) Extract: … Raised by her grandmother in rural Tanzania, Mercy Esther and her siblings were born into poverty, sometimes without money for food, let alone schoolbooks. When their grandmother was approached with a job offer for Mercy Esther in Kenya, and the promise that money would be sent home, she accepted… The job offer turned out to be a lie – the first of a string of broken promises that would deprive a young woman of her childhood and her family. Mercy Esther was born with a deformity in one foot, causing a pronounced limp. On the streets of Nairobi she and other children were forced to beg. She was told to pretend she could not walk, to elicit sympathy from the public. Each day, what money she collected was taken from her. One day, while begging, Mercy Esther was approached by a woman who offered her domestic work and more promises: a new home, a wage and good treatment. She went with the woman, but instead Mercy Esther was abused and received no money for her labour. It would be six years before she ran away. With the support of the Nairobi police and Kenyan and Tanzanian governments, Mercy Esther returned to the country of her birth, but without details of the village where she was raised, authorities put her in the care of WoteSawa Domestic Workers Organization, which runs a shelter for trafficked children in Mwanza … in the north of the country… “Tanzania is a beautiful and peaceful country, but there is a dark side,” said Angela Benedicto, the organization’s founder and executive director. “Many people live in poverty, and forced labour is a very big problem,” she added. “The most common form of human trafficking in Tanzania is domestic servitude, young girls forced into domestic work. They face abuse, exploitation, and are not paid for their work.” Around one million children – mostly girls – are engaged in domestic work in Tanzania, according to the non­profit Anti-Slavery International. WoteSawa was set up in 2014 and every year takes in around 75 children who have escaped trafficking… So far, the non-profit has helped hundreds of survivors, but the needs are greater than the resources available. Benedicto dreams of building a bigger haven for more children. Her mission is to empower domestic workers and advocate for their rights. It’s an issue that’s close to her heart; she is herself a former domestic worker… WoteSawa means “all are equal” in Swahili. At the shelter children are housed and provided with counselling and legal support. They also receive an education in literacy and numeracy, and vocational skills such as needlework. Reintegrating children back into education works in step with efforts to reunite children with their loved ones, “so that when they go back to their families, they can help not only themselves, but they can help their families,” said Benedicto… (18 March 2023)

Ancient DNA Confirms the Origin Story of the Swahili People
(Smithsonian Magazine online – USA) Medieval individuals in the coastal East African civilization had almost equal parts African and Asian ancestry, a new study finds. Extract continues: A new analysis of medieval DNA has revealed that around the turn of the first millennium, Swahili ancestors from Africa and Asia began intermingling and having children, giving rise to a Swahili civilization with a multicultural identity, at least among its elites. The discovery matches local stories passed down through generations that were previously dismissed as myth by outside researchers… Members of the medieval and early modern Swahili culture live in towns and villages along the coast of East Africa, shared the Kiswahili language and largely practiced a common religion of Islam. The new research published … in the journal Nature, sheds some light on how this culture formed. To start, the research team—made up of 44 scientists, including 17 African scholars—worked with locals to excavate cemeteries along the Swahili coast. They gathered DNA samples from 80 people who lived between 1250 to 1800 C.E. and compared that data with saliva samples from modern-day coastal Swahili-speaking people, as well as individuals living in the Middle East, Africa and other areas of the world. Afterward, the team ensured the exhumed bodies were replaced in their cemetery plots. They found that about half of the DNA from the medieval individuals came from African women, while the other half primarily came from Asian men. Of the Asian DNA, about 80 to 90 percent revealed Persian ancestry, while approximately 10 percent was linked to India. The genetic material from modern-day individuals supported this mixed ancestry, though people who identify as Swahili today have inherited varying amounts of DNA from medieval peoples… Essentially, the paper reveals a timeline of intermarriage that matches a narrative told by the Swahili people called the Kilwa Chronicle… The Kilwa Chronicle tells a story of mixed Asian and African ancestry, suggesting that an influx of Persian sultans helped give rise to the Swahili culture. But prejudiced researchers have cast doubt on the story, assuming that the thriving East African port cities were built by Europeans, writes Popular Science’s Jocelyn Solis-Moreira. It has also been questioned by some African natives, who accused the elites of exaggerating their Asian connection to raise their social status, per the publication… The researchers intend to gather more samples to continue to fill in the missing pieces of Swahili ancestry… “These findings bring out the African contributions, and indeed, the Africanness of the Swahili, without marginalizing the Persian and Indian connection.” (31 March 2023)

African rats are being used to sniff out wildlife crime

Photo from APOPO’s HeroRATs facebook site


(Mail & Guardian online – UK) Extract: The multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade poses a major and growing threat to biodiversity, pushing species including pangolins, African elephants and rhinos closer to extinction. Now an unlikely little hero is being trained to sniff out smuggled wildlife products stashed inside shipping containers— the African giant pouched rat. The innovative Belgian non-profit, APOPO, in partnership with the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), a conservation NGO in South Africa, has been researching the abilities of the rodents to detect illegally trafficked wildlife products at APOPO’s base in Tanzania. The rats, which weigh between 1kg and 1.3kg, have a highly developed sense of smell, are intelligent and easy to train, locally sourced and widely available. The non-profit already uses these scent-detection animals, nicknamed HeroRATS, to find landmines in countries such as Mozambique and Cambodia and for tuberculosis detection in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Obeid Katumba, the wildlife and law senior project officer at the EWT, said one of the core focus areas of its Wildlife in Trade Programme is the detection of trafficked wildlife and wildlife products… Standard screening methods are expensive, time-consuming, and potentially disruptive to operations, especially if customs officials have to open up and visually search shipping containers for suspected wildlife contraband. Coupled with this, organised criminals are innovative and find ways to circumnavigate these screening methods, he said. The EWT considered alternative, complementary screening methods to detect and deter wildlife smuggling. “We knew about APOPO and the work they did with the African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and to screen for tuberculosis using the rats’ incredible sense of smell and we thought that this ability might be transferable to the detection of wildlife contraband, much like dogs are used to find wildlife products.” … There are 16 rats in the project, which are trained at APOPO’s training facility on the campus of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro … said the project’s lead researcher, Izzy Szott, a behavioural research scientist… The rodents are a potential asset in the fight against wildlife crime. They have a “fantastic” sense of smell, comparable to dogs. Another plus is the rats work with any trained handler and, unlike dogs, are not focused on a specific person… (15 March 2023)

Jane Goodall: ‘People are surprised I have a wicked sense of humour’
(The Guardian online – UK) Extract: … The scientist in me was evident early on. At four, desperate to know how eggs come out of chickens, I hid inside a hen house waiting to witness it. When I finally returned, Mum had called the police. I’d been missing for hours. Instead of punishing me, she listened to my discoveries. I was jealous of Tarzan’s Jane as a child. Yes, I know they were fictional. But I still felt spurned he didn’t pick me. From the age of 10, I dreamed of living with animals and writing books. In my early 20s, I travelled to Kenya. Out in the Serengeti, the palaeontologist Dr Louis Leakey was impressed with me. He offered me the opportunity to study chimpanzees like nobody had before. It was destiny. I don’t remember my father much. War broke out when I was young, then he was gone for good. Mum, meanwhile, encouraged me to follow my dreams. On my first expedition, in today’s Tanzania, the authorities wouldn’t let a woman work solo in the wild. My mother volunteered and joined me. After four months they all agreed I was crazy enough to go it alone. People often assume I’m stern and serious: Dr Jane Goodall PhD DBE. They’re surprised I’ve got a wicked sense of humour. When I started out I was told animals needed numbers not names, that mind, personality and emotion were unique to humanity. To me, this was so obviously not the case. A fact anyone with a pet could attest to… Before the pandemic, I travelled 300 days a year. Slowly I’m returning to that number. I’ll be 90 in a year – who knows how long I have left? Yet there’s so much left to do. As long as my mind and body obey, I’ll keep at it. (18 February 2023)

Young Africans are logging in and clocking on
(The Economist online – UK) The internet creates new kinds of work, but patterns of inequality persist. Extract continues: His home is Bungoma, a small town in western Kenya, but his workplace is the world. Kevin, who asks that his real name be withheld to protect his credibility, has written about casinos in China without ever going there. He has reviewed weightlifters’ barbells, headphones and home-security systems he has never seen. Africa’s digital workers are rewiring the old geographies of labour. Freelance on online platforms can reach clients around the world, harnessing skills from blogging to web design. Others are hired by outsourcing companies, sifting data used to train chatbots and self-driving cars. Optimists hope that online work can set Africa on the path of services-led growth trodden by countries such as India and the Philippines. Pessimists worry such work will entrench injustices… Freelances, like the wider outsourcing industry, “are fighting against a reputation of Africa as somewhere where you would not expect digital work to take place,” says Mohammad Amir Anwar of the University of Edinburgh, who co-wrote a book about Africa’s digital workforce. Some African freelances use virtual private networks and fake names to pretend they are somewhere else. Power cuts and competition for gigs from cheaper workers in Asia and beyond create other challenges. The available data suggests that it will take time for Africa to become a continent of digital freelances… (23 February 2023)

REVIEWS

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by Martin Walsh
RELIGION, POLITICS AND SOCIETY: A PROGRESSIVE PRIMER.
Karim F. Hirji. Daraja Press and Zand Graphics Ltd., Toronto, 2022. 572 pp. (paperback). ISBN: 9781990263125. USD $45.00 (e-book ISBN: 9781990263217. USD $6.99).

Hirji cover


Karim Hirji is an outstanding mathematician and statistician. He is also a prolific writer about Tanzania.

He was born in Newala in southern Tanzania in 1949, came to Dar es Salaam to go to secondary school, and then studied maths and education at the University of Dar es Salaam – where, in his spare time, he edited the radical magazine Cheche. He then worked in Sumbawanga and Dar es Salaam, obtained Masters degrees at both LSE and Harvard, and enjoyed a successful academic career in the USA, which included identifying a number of false or misleading claims by drug companies. He returned to Dar as Professor of Medical Statistics at Muhimbili University.

He is also a medical miracle. All but a few centimetres of his intestine were removed in an operation in the US, and he survives on a diet of predigested foods and mineral supplements. At times he has been so weak that the only way he could write was by dictating to his wife Farida.
Yet since retiring he has written eight books. Three are the stories of different parts of his life, one is a collection of his writings on education, another is a guide for journalists on how they should use statistics. Another (reviewed in TA 118 in 2017) summarises the work of his mentor Walter Rodney, and especially his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Yet another is a novel about two girls who are very good at maths, one from a poor background, the other better off, who get involved with the Banana Liberation Front (!), and end up in Ukonga Prison where they gain the approval of the governor by teaching other prisoners maths.

His latest book, 468 pages of main text and many more of sources and references, is a presentation and explanation of religions in the world. There are substantial sections on the four religions with the greatest numbers of followers – Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, plus secularism and neoliberalism. He draws on his background as an Ismaili to write about Hinduism and Islam in Africa and other continents. The section on Christianity shows the heavy involvement of the Roman Catholic Church with the CIA and State Department in the USA and their disastrous interventions in Vietnam, Indonesia, Syria, Afghanistan and many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the close relationship that Trump and his supporters have with evangelical churches, especially Adventists. A section on liberation theology brings out the contribution of theology to leftist individuals such as Paulo Freire, Franz Fanon, and others. The sections on secularism and neoliberalism are, broadly, presented without comment.

The book is a form of political economy. Much of it is put together in blocks of text, making good use the internet – many of these can stand alone outside the main argument of the book, for example nearly twenty pages on the story of Indonesia, and a section on the life of Eleanor Marx.

It is a prodigious achievement to have written something so wide-ranging – a book for the general reader who is asking questions about the world and the way religious thinkers deal with them. It should be on every religious education teacher’s bookshelf and shared with anyone who is overconfident about a particular religion, or looking for a third world perspective. It should be held by libraries in universities which study comparative religion or world history. It is non-judgemental – recognising that there is good in all religions, especially in their early years, but also showing how power corrupts religions once they get into the hands of wealthy capitalists or governments.

There are limitations. An index would make it easier to use the book, and more on Judaism would have enlightened the sections of Islam and Christianity, and the discussion of the situation in Palestine. More credit might have been given to Pope Francis and his reforms of the Roman Catholic Church, and to other reformers in the Dominican and Jesuit orders. It was written before the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine and there is little on the climate emergency – these will no doubt be addressed in the promised second volume that will focus on science and scientists and their relations with religious ideas.

It is hard to improve on the following from the promotional material for the book:
“Its foundational premise is that while their spiritual beliefs differ, all humans are equal in dignity and have equal rights. No belief system is more exalted than the rest. There are no chosen people; there is no chosen religion. We all are a part of the global human family. Our religious and cultural diversity is a cause for celebration, not conflict.” If anything, it is more critical of most religions, but Hirji’s underlying sympathy for those who are searching for meaning in the world is not in doubt.
Andrew Coulson.
Andrew worked in the Planning Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture in Dar es Salaam 1967-1971 and taught agricultural economics at the University of Dar es Salaam 1972-76. His edited book African Socialism in Practice: The Tanzanian Experience was published in 1979. Tanzania: A Political Economy followed in 1982, with a second edition in 2013. His most recent book, with Antony Ellman and Emmanuel Mbiha, is Increasing Production from the Land: A Sourcebook on Agriculture for Teachers and Students in Africa (Muki na Nyota, 2018). He was Chair of the Britain Tanzania Society 2015-18.

Social Protection and Informal Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lived Realities and Associational Experiences from Kenya and Tanzania.
Lone Riisgaard, Winnie V. Mitullah, and Nina Torm (editors). Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2022. 274 pp. (e-book). ISBN: 9781003173694 (free to download from https://www.taylorfrancis.com; print versions can also be purchased).

There has been little research into informal social protection mechanisms in Sub-Saharan Africa and not much is documented about their extent or form, nor, until now, has there been a systematic analysis of how informal workers access any type of social protection.

This book starts with a thorough literature review of how social protection is organised in informal economies, highlighting gaps in the literature, and then provides an overview of the methodology used by the authors of this book. The book continues with chapters written by different authors, exploring how informal workers in different sectors access formal and informal social protection (if at all), examining in detail what people “actually do on the ground” (p. 19). They have taken a comparative approach, examining two countries (Tanzania and Kenya) and three urban sectors prone to informality in those countries. There is a chapter each on transport, micro-trade and construction workers in Tanzania and in Kenya, each following a similar pattern of presenting the findings of the research, and the book finishes with two chapters comparing the sectors and countries and drawing together the threads of the study.

The authors have three specific research questions:
1. Do informal workers or associations offer any kind of informal social protection, what characterises the format of these services, who benefits from them and how do they compare to formal social protection measures?

2. What extent do formal social protection schemes cater for informal workers, and how do informal associations provide access to formal protection schemes?

3. How far are the viewpoints and realities of informal workers represented in institutions?

In both Tanzania and Kenya, the provision of any form of social protection by government or others, including international donors, has been fragmented and inadequate, hampered by the absence of a policy framework with clear institutional roles and responsibilities, and an overall plan. At the same time, there has been a lack of capacity and financial resources at government and civil society level to implement the necessary measures. There are also challenges which make it difficult to put into place a system of social protection for informal workers – workers must make contributions from their extremely limited income, and due to a lack of understanding and information, but also experiences of previous schemes and a suspicion that any subsequent initiative will turn out the same, many will not choose to take part in such schemes. The limitations of social protection for informal construction workers are summed up by a Kenyan contractor: “we pray to God so that a bad incident does not occur” (p. 216). Several of the papers analyse the reasons for poor uptake of various forms of social protection.

However, the authors find that in recent years there has been a move towards more coherent social protection, and this includes the extension of coverage to informal workers. Indeed, many see that social protection is a potential solution to issues of poverty.

There is much discussion about associations, including the relationship between membership of associations and access to more formal social protection. It is concluded that social dynamics among members make associations a much stronger means of social protection than programmes which come from government. Many of these associations are savings and credit societies, where trust around financial matters has been built up. In addition, associational power is able to advance the interests and conditions of informal workers. One association member in Dar es Salaam said: “We have one hope only, and that is our associations. That is why we call our group ‘Our Hope’” (p. 184). But the associations themselves may be weak, with poor leadership, and inadequate training, so many challenges remain.

The book provides a comprehensive study of the subject, with plenty of data from both countries, and the authors have clearly spoken to a wide range of informants. In my experiences with people working on the margins of the economy in Tanzania, those mostly without a voice, I have found people to be coherent in their analysis of their own situations and I was glad to find in several of the papers quite extensive quotes of the actual words of some of the interviewees, vividly explaining how difficult their situation is, or why the attempts of various bodies to increase social protection has failed. In presenting this information, this book has gone some way to giving these informal workers a voice.
Kate Forrester.
Kate lived in Tanzania for 15 years, working as a freelance consultant chiefly in social development, and carrying out research assignments throughout the country. She now lives in Dorchester, where she is active in community and environmental work.

Also noticed:
THE EASTAFRICA CAMPAIGN 1914-18: VON LETTOW-VORBECK’S MASTERPIECE. David Smith (illustrated by Graham Turner). Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2022. 96 pp. (paperback). ISBN: 9781472848918. £15.99 (e-book £12.79).

The publisher describes this book as a “beautifully illustrated study of the daring war in East Africa waged by German colonial forces under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck against the wide array of colonial and expeditionary forces of the Allied Powers.” The blurb continues:

“The East African Campaign in World War I comprised a series of battles and guerrilla actions which began in German East Africa in 1914 and spread to portions of Portuguese Mozambique, northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, the Uganda Protectorate, and the Belgian Congo. German colonial forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck attempt to divert Allied forces from the Western Front. Despite the efforts of the Allied forces, Lettow­Vorbeck’s troops remained undefeated at the end of the war.

In this fascinating work, David Smith documents how a wide array of British, Indian, South African, Belgian, Portuguese and local native forces invaded German East Africa and slowly ousted the German forces, a process made tortuous by Lettow-Vorbeck’s masterful management of the campaign. Among the events covered in this work are the Battle of Tanga, the scuttling of the Königsberg, the German railway campaign, and the battles at Salaita Hill, Kondoa-Irangi, Mahenge, Mahiwa and Namacurra. Colourful period and specially commissioned illustrations bring to life a wide-ranging and eventful campaign in which a high price was extracted for every inch of ground given up.”

The period photographs are of course in black and white, but there is plenty of colour in the maps, plans and drawings provided by Graham Turner. While this is not presented as a work of academic scholarship, David Smith is an experienced military historian, and his well-informed account will be of interest to a wide audience, not least admirers of von Lettow-Vorbeck’s extraordinary guerrilla campaign.

IMPERIAL POWERS AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS: THE ZANZIBAR SULTANATE, BRITAIN, AND FRANCE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN, 1862-1905. Raphaël Cheriau. Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2021. 270 pp. (e-book). ISBN: 9780429323232. £29.59 (also available in print formats).

This book will likely be of interest mainly to specialists in Indian Ocean and imperial history, and indeed Routledge have included it in their ‘Empires in Perspective’ series. Their short description (reproduced below) is short and not particularly illuminating. Readers wanting more information may like to consult the list of contents provided by the publisher, or seek out Edward Alpers’ review on the website of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/).

“In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Zanzibar Sultanate became the focal point of European imperial and humanitarian policies, most notably Britain, France, and Germany. In fact, the Sultanate was one of the few places in the world where humanitarianism and imperialism met in the most obvious fashion. This crucial encounter was perfectly embodied by the iconic meeting of Dr. Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley in 1871. This book challenges the common presumption that those humanitarian concerns only served to conceal vile colonial interests. It brings the repression of the East African slave trade at sea and the expansion of empires into a new light in comparing French and British archives for the first time.”
Martin Walsh

OBITUARIES

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by Ben Taylor

Liz and Ron Fennel, pictured in 2013

BTS Vice President and former BTS Chair, Ron Fennell, passed away peacefully on April 12th, attended by family. He and his wife, the late Liz Fennell MBE, had a great love for Tanzania and were stalwarts of the Society, including providing substantial support to the work of the Tanzania Development Trust.

Ron and Liz met in 1950 while both were studying geography at Cambridge University and they married in 1956. He worked in Sierra Leone for 12 years until 1966, when he joined the International Monetary Fund and moved to Washington, DC. He joined the World Bank three years later and the family lived first in Nigeria and then Tanzania, where Ron served as the World Bank’s Resident Representative for four years, before returning to the United States in 1987. They retired to the UK in 1995, settling in West London.
Thereafter, Ron and Liz were active members of BTS known in particular for their energetic support to the Society at events and to TDT where they would take long trips to Tanzania to assess and support projects, at their own cost and even to the most remote areas.

Writing in 2000 about his time in Tanzania, Ron wrote: “When I was sent to Dar as World Bank Resident Representative in January 1984, the Bank’s Senior Vice President made it clear to me that all Bank lending to Tanzania would stop after the approval of the Mtera Power Project in early 1984 unless the government entered into a more active dialogue with the World Bank on economic reform. Times were hard. People were suffering. The picking of tea in the Mufindi plantations fell behind because the women pickers were unable to get sugar to put in their own morning tea, which constituted their main source of energy in the fields. There was a severe shortage of basic consumer goods.”

It was an unpromising situation to be facing, and the negotiations between the government and the World Bank were at times highly strained. Tensions were also high between reformists and traditionalists within the government and ruling party – this was after all, the same period that saw President Julius Nyerere step down.

The World Bank’s insistence that policy change should come before Bank funds were released weighed heavily on Finance Minister Msuya. Nevertheless, agreement was reached, in the form of a Structural Adjustment Programme, which Nyerere accepted as necessary.

“There is no doubt that mistakes had been made by both sides,” wrote Ron. “The Bank itself went through major changes in its approach to development assistance over the period,” and Nyerere “was slow to recognise that parastatal inefficiencies were having such a detrimental impact on peasant farmers. … He refused to accept the need to devalue the shilling until donor consensus and the parlous state of the economy made it unavoidable.”

These reforms, and the Bank’s role, are still somewhat contentious in Tanzania. Researchers like Prof Ruth Meena have repeatedly said that World Bank/IMF-driven structural adjustment programmes undermined development in health and education. It was a difficult time for the population, as the government reduced spending on public services and introduced cost-sharing for schooling and health services, price controls were lifted and the shilling was devalued. And yet few would dispute that the state of the economy necessitated major changes.

Despite these challenges, Ron maintained good relations with his counterparts in the Tanzanian government, later commenting that the friendliness of the people, the stable political environment and a commitment to consensus building, made it possible to work through the difficulties. And his ongoing work in Tanzania after his retirement amply demonstrates the fondness he felt for the country.

Ron and Liz were both made MBEs in the 2013 New Year’s Honours list for services to building relations between the UK and Tanzania. “We are thrilled,” said Ron at the time. “It is nice that we both got one because we have worked as a team for many years.”