TA 35 cover
TANZANIA TO RECEIVE 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS
ANOTHER DEVALUATION
ARE TANZANIAN WORKERS LAZY?
AIDS – SERIOUSNESS RECOGNISED BY MEDIA
MWINYI OUTLINES INVESTMENT CODE
DIGGING UP ZANZIBAR
FRONTIER TANZANIA EXPEDITION 1989-1994
SHOCK OVER COOPERATIVE DEBTS
A group representing 14 donor nations and 11 international organisations have indicated that they will provide US$1.3 billion to Tanzania to support the country’s economic adjustment and development programme in 1990.
The Consultative Group for Tanzania meeting at the World Bank’s Paris Office from December 18th to 20th 1989 said a large portion of the aid would be targeted at balance-of-payments support and the country’s social sectors.
The Group praised Tanzania’s progress in implementing its Economic Recovery Programme launched in 1986, noting that policy changes had helped raise agricultural productivity and increased the economic growth rate to about 4% per year.
At the meeting, the Government announced its plans to move ahead with the second phase of its Economic Recovery Programme. Endorsing the plan, the Group said it was pleased that the Government had incorporated a ‘priority social-action programme’ into the overall recovery programme.
The Group emphasised that further action is still needed in improving public-sector management and reforming parastatals. Attention should also be given to additional reforms in the agricultural marketing and cooperative systems and in the financial sector. The Group also supported a stronger role for the private sector in the economy.
The World Bank has published detailed tables indicating how different groups of countries have performed during the decade 1977 to 1988. Tanzania’s Gross National Income Per Capita was (in 1980 US dollars) $300 in 1977 but had fallen to $240 in 1988. Figures for Kenya were $440 in 1977 and $390 in 1988. Tanzania shares with Burkino Faso, Burundi Malawi, Mali, Ethiopia, and Somalia the lowest income amongst 40 Sub-Saharan countries whose estimated incomes are published in the latest World bank tables. Tanzania comes fifth from the bottom. By comparison the 1988 figure for the United States is $14,080 and for the countries of the European Community $11,640 – World Bank News.
Inscriptions from a prayer niche in the mosque on Tumbatu island.
Of all the things that Zanzibar is famous for, its archaeology is probably not one. Yet for 1989, African archaeology was essentially Zanzibar’s with no less than three major international projects in the Isles. The results of last summers ‘ diggings promise to change much of what we thought we knew about the history of the East African coast. During the British period there was a very ambivalent attitude towards the past. On the one hand careful records were made of the standing antiquities accompanied by some sober and, more often, wild speculation. A museum was built but many of the objects there were poorly catalogued and many coins were lost. Colonial officials did their best to demolish the most important ruins – parts of the Marahubi Palace were taken down in the fifties as unsafe, while only the Revolution in Zanzibar saved the Chake Chake Fort whose fate had been almost sealed by 0 proposed hospital expansion in late 1963. A little archaeology took place at Ras Mkumbu, which Sir J. Gray thought was the ancient city of Kanbalu. Dr James Kirkman showed that he was wrong. After 1963 all research stopped, and responsibility shifted from one Ministry to another. Many of the monuments fell down; a few more were destroyed for their stones.
In 1984 we were invited by the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism to undertake a survey of Zanzibar’s archaeological sites and monuments. In collaboration with Abdulrahman M Juma, the Anti qui ties Officer of the Ministry, we found over 60 sites during the next two years. At many of these we dug ‘test pits’ (small holes a metre square) which produce a sequence of pottery and stratigraphy that provide a clear indication of the date range and wealth of the community.
One find was especially spectacular. At Mtambwe Mkuu, a large town of the 11th century in Pemba, which is even mentioned by Arab geographers by the name of Tamby, we found intact a large hoard of gold and silver coins, buried in a cloth pouch. The gold coins were all Fatimid dinars from Egypt, the latest dating to 1066 AD. But the silver coins, which numbered over 2,000, were of greater historical interest. They were locally minted – probably at Mtambwe itself – and give the names of nine local rulers living in the 11th century.
The next stage was detailed mapping and area excavation work. In 1989 three different groups were each allocated a major site. The Ministry itself worked at Unguja Ukuu, with help from SAREC and the Urban Origins Project; the University of Dar es Salaam worked at Pujini in Pemba; we worked with the British Institute in Eastern Africa on Tumbatu island.
Unguja Mkuu may well turn out to be the earliest site on the whole African coast. It covers a massive area of at least 30 hectares, with middens, buried walls, and what appears to be part of a fortification.
A burial site was also excavated with clear evidence of a spear wound in the skull. Abdulrahman Juma was able to identify a wide range of pottery and glass finds, including Chinese Tang Stonewares and very early Islamic moulded wares, possibly as early as the 7th century. Languja is mentioned by Al Jahiz in the 9th century, as one of the most important ports on the coast. Abdulrahman Juma seems to have found it at Unguja Ukuu.
The work at Pujini identified a rather different site, probably dating to the 15th century. Traditions link Pujini with a tyrannical ruler of Pemba, Mdame Mkume, who, among other things, forced the workers who built Pujini to carry the stones on their heads while shuffling on their buttocks. The work here, led by Dr. Adria LaViolette, found no direct archaeological evidence for such practices but a large and quite unique fortress was uncovered. Surrounded by large ramparts and a ditch, a square enclosure contained a number of stone houses, as well as two subterranean chamber s . Such fortifications are very rare before the arrival of firearms on the coast and the only explanation is that Pujini was the product of fantasy.
The third project on Tumbatu attempted to uncover parts of the best preserved medieval town on the islands. Tumbatu is, almost certainly, the Tumbat, mentioned by Yakut as the place where the ruler of the Zanj lived in the 13th century. It is a large town covering 20 hectares with over 40 ruined houses and mounds. There are at least four mosques of which three were discovered last year. In one of the mosques, the mihrab or prayer niche was excavated and found to contain an almost complete inscription collapsed on the floor. This was carved in local coral, using floriate Kufic script. Only one other example of such a script is known from East Africa and that is at Kizimkazi, where it is dated to 500/1107 AD. We are sure that the Tumbatu inscription was by the same craftsman. The style used is very close to recently discovered tombstones from the Persian Gulf port of Siraf, which was the seaport for Shiraz. Here, for the first time, we have some archaeological proof behind the many Shirazi traditions in Zanzibar, which were echoed in modern times, for example, in the name of the Afro-Shirazi Party.
We are sure that 1990 will yield more from, the buried soils of Zanzibar and Pemba where further work is planned at all three sites. Meanwhile, some of the more spectacular finds have already been put on display in the Zanzibar Museum. (Further information is available from the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford OXl 3PP – Editor).
Mark Horton
Tanzanian workers are lazy and unproductive says Tanzania’s National Productivity Council (NPC) quoted in ‘Business News’ on September 29th 1989. The NPC Executive Secretary, Mr Nikubuka Shimwela attributes the trend to a lack of a productive culture in the nation. “People are not serious with work” he said.
According to the Council the nation’s productivity has been falling since 1980 with adverse effects on the national economy. In financial institutions productivity has been declining at an average rate of 3.3% In the manufacturing sector at 6.2%, in the mining sector at 4% and in public administration at 5.5% In cross section interviews on productivity many interviewees have charged that the most unproductive sector is the public administration sector. Civil servants report late for work, one person charged. Some leave their work well before closing time while most spend a considerable amount of time in dubious private ventures during working hours.
NO SAYS MR. KASWAGA
Responding in the Mailbag column of ‘Business News’ a Mr Ben Kaswaga wondered what had happened to workers in recent years. Had the generation of early post-independence workers disappeared? The answer was no he wrote. Many of those Tanzanians were still alive and well. But something or other had happened in their minds.
‘How much productivity can be expected of a Tanzanian who gets up at 5.30 in the morning without even a crumb of boiled cassava for breakfast to make two bus connections at 30 shillings each so as to be in time for work? Can this hungry worker produce much when all he has for lunch is a couple of roasted sweet potatoes to be washed down the throat with, perhaps, one soda because he can’t afford anything better? Can this worker be productive when, at 2.30 pm – tired, underfed and undernourished – he has to make another two bus connections to get back home and arrive there, maybe two hours later ….
The Tanzanian is lazy? True, probably, but that is mainly because he does not eat enough. He does not eat enough because he is not paid enough (or sometimes not at all) because there is low productivity. But there cannot be higher productivity from a demoralised, tired and hungry producer …..
Need we wonder why even that old glorious self-help spirit is now only a thing of the past?’
Operating from a small office on the top floor of London’s Fruit and Wool Exchange in the East End and managed by only two persons is the Frontier Tanzania/Society for Environmental Exploration Project which is sending hundreds of British young people to work on environmentally related work in Tanzania.
The project began in July 1989 and already more than a hundred young Britons have been to Tanzania under the project. They claim to have put in 10,000 man days of work so far – equivalent to one person’s effort over a per! od of fort y years. It is hoped to send some 200 young British people to Tanzania each year for the next four years.
Guiding and supporting the young volunteers (average age 22) have been some twenty Tanzanian specialists (including post-graduate students) and twenty five experts from overseas institutions including the world famous author of the book ‘Mammmals of East Africa’ , Jonathan Kingdon.
‘Frontier’ is a collaborative project between the University of Dar es Salaam and the UK based Society for Environmental Exploration(SEE). A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two parties on July 12th 1989.
The objectives are defined as to promote and advance field research into environmental issues, implement practical projects designed to maintain or improve the environment and promote the sustainable exploit at ion of natural resources. SEE is a charitable organisation funded only by the contributions of the participating research scientists and the young people themselves who are research assistants.
Work accomplished between July and the end of last year has been in four areas – coastal forest studies, marine research on Mafia island, research on mangroves in the Rufiji Delta and various studies in the Mikumi National Park.
In the Park, work has been organised by the University of Dar es Salaam’s Botany Department and has included vegetation mapping and the establishment of forest plots – a wide diversity of forest types were found where only one was thought to exist. At the invitation of the National Park authorities, Frontier has conducted studies on the construction of roads in the southern part of the Park; the routes for 58 kms of new roads were defined.
Among the more important aspects of the work has been the assessment of the damage being suffered in the coastal forests at Kiono, Kisiju, Pugu Hills, the Vikindu Forest Reserve and in the Matumbi H:llls, The areas of remaining forest have been documented along with the destruction being brought about by logging, charcoal burning and slash-and-burn subsistence farming and hence the projected life spans of each forest. Preliminary results indicate that known evergreen coastal forests probably now occupy less than 200 sq kms and that a mere 50 sq kms remains completely undamaged. Frontier insists however that it is not a campaigning organisation. It leaves to others the dissemination of the information it helps to collect and the implementation of appropriate remedial action.
Frontier has provided transport, accommodation in tented camps and field equipment in the forests to help Tanzanian scientists in such work as mist netting of bird species, assembling quantitative data on the floristic composition of the forests, the collection of over 3,000 herbarium specimens (one new species of flowering plant was discovered), studies related to a new theory on shell polymorphism of selected snail species and the discovery of a species of toad new to science.
The Rufiji Delta contains the largest area of estuarine mangrove forest in East Africa <1,022 sq kms) and Dar es Salaam University's Botany Department selected the site for Frontier's research work on a small island in the Delta Simba Uranga. Studies there include recording patterns of mangrove sedimentation and shoreline retreat, vegetation mapping, determining patterns of water and sediment flux within the main channels, measurements of salinity intrusion, prawn fishing activities and the distribution of wintering bird populations. Asked in her London office to which she had just returned from Tanzania what had been the main problems so far, Eibleis Fanning, one of the organisers, mentioned three things. Firstly, some medical problems in the field in Tanzania - one case of malaria and lots of cuts and bruises amongst the volunteers. Secondly, a shortage of funds to employ additional staff in London, And, thirdly, the urgent need for a photocopier and a computer or word processor. Any reader of the Bulletin upgrading his Amstrad for something better and not knowing what to do with the old model is requested to phone Frontier at 01 375 2390! David Brewin
It is hardly possible to pick up a copy of Tanzania’s two main English language newspapers these days without seeing some reference to the AIDS scourge which is causing such serious concern. During the last three months of 1989 there were more than thirty different articles or news items on the subject in the press.
The saddest of all the stories was in the Daily News of October 7th and was written by Joseph Kitharoa from Bukoba in Kagera region, It concerned thousands of children who have become orphans and elderly dependents with no family members left to support them because of AIDS. A recent survey found 6,000 orphans who were being helped by the Tanzanian and Danish Red Cross organisations with donations of clothes and blankets.
The CCM Party in Kagera Region has instructed rural districts to immediately introduce bye-laws prohibiting people from attending night drinking parties and to close pombe (beer) shops and disco halls by 6 pm each evening. In Mara Region the party has called upon those performing circumcision ceremonies to suspend them until all have received instruction in hygiene.
Minister of Health Dr Aaron Chidu8 told an inaugural meeting of the newly established National Aids Control Committee that many more people will perish if control measures are not taken by 20 to 40 year olds following the daily increases in AIDS cases.
The Bagamoyo College of Arts cultural troupe has taken a play called ‘Ukimwi’ round many of the worst affected regions. Actor Nkwabi Ng’hangasamala, playing the part of AIDS in the play, and wearing a mask and vividly decorated shirt cries out “Watch out …. I am AIDS and I will shortly demonstrate how I torture end eventually kill those who cross my path”.
During a five-day media seminar on AIDS in Morogoro the participating journalists carried out a survey among Morogoro’s prostitutes. Some said that they refused to have sex with their clients unless condoms were used, They said that they were particularly wary of young people, especially those in a hurry. Those who were fat and old however were allowed sex without condoms. Specialists at the seminar estimated that there were now some 4,000 cases of AIDS in Tanzania and 500,000 people infected with the HIV virus.
In Zanzibar a Member of the House of Assembly suggested total isolation of AIDS victims but the Deputy Health Minister explained that this would be counter-productive and that the identities of Victims would not be revealed to the public.
Liheta Festo, a reader of the Daily News, put it very simply in a two-paragraph letter. ‘If you marry a virgin of the opposite sex and remain faithful, your chances of getting AIDS are about the same as getting struck by a meteor in the swimming pool’! – Editor
SHOCK OVER COOPERATIVE DEBTS
Members of the National Executive Committee of the CCM Party have expressed shock over the huge debts cooperative unions owe the banks, the Committee’s Department of Mass Mobilisation and Political Propaganda said in a statement on October 12th 1989.
The Committee directed that the following cooperatives should, by January 1989 pay their debts or explain why they should not be deleted:
Nyanza Shs 5,250,000,000
Shinyanga Shs 3,440,000,000
Ruvuma Shs 1,570,000,000
Mara Shs 1,450,000,000
Mbeya Shs 1,340,000,000
Kagera Shs 1,270,000,000
Tabora Shs 1,200,000,000
The next day, during a short meeting of the National Assembly in Dodoma, the Member for Shinyanga Urban twisted a debate on a new Written Laws Bill by rejecting the amendment on the Cooperative Law and suggesting instead the suspension of its application and a change towards free marketing of crops. He said that the Cooperative Law, which provided for a monopoly to be given to cooperative unions, was a barrier to people seeking their own markets.
The member for Bariadi said that high interest charges on the unions were among the reasons for their poor performance. Shinyanga cooperative union was paying Shs two million in interest charges. A Nominated Member said that the marketing boards were a burden to cooperative unions and that they should be scrapped as they were useless – Daily News.
MWINYI OUTLINES INVESTMENT CODE
During a state visit to Japan in late December 1989 President Mwinyi gave the first indications of the shortly to be announced Investment Code for Tanzania. The President listed, at a meeting with Japanese economists, the eight areas of priority for investment. They were agriculture and livestock development, tourism, natural resources (forestry, fisheries, fish farming, game cropping and wildlife ranching), mining and petroleum development, (particularly oil and gas, gold, diamonds, gemstones), manufacturing industries (including agro-based industries, steel and metal engineering, printing and publishing, pharmaceuticals and electrical engineering ) construct ion (hotels, houses, warehouses), transport and transit trade.
On investment protect ion the President said that Tanzania will undertake to maintain a legal framework that will give guarantees of protection to foreign and domestic investors. Tanzania would join the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
On incentives he said that initial investments would be granted a tax holding on profits for the first five years of production. Constraints on foreign exchange remittance would be minimised. The President spoke at length about the importance of the private sector and appealed to the Japanese business community to invest in Tanzania – Daily News.
TANZANIA DEVALUES AGAIN
Tanzania devalued its Shilling again on December 4th 1989. This time the devaluation was by 17.1% to a new value of Shs 190 to the US dollar. The Bank of Tanzania said that the devaluation was meant to sustain recent gains in the agricultural and industrial sectors.
SWEDEN GETS TOUGH ON TAZARA
The Swedish Aid Agency (SIDA) has lashed out at ‘bad management and indiscipline’ in the Tanzania Zambia Railway (TAZARA) and threatened to pull out its multi-million dollar support unless the two states tackle the problems. In identical scathing letters to the Ministers of Communications in Tanzania and Zambia the Director General of SIDA said that it was not in the interests of Sweden nor the TAZARA owner countries to finance investments in the railway as this would merely replace resources being wasted due to bad management and indiscipline.
He noted that when the line was handed over to Tanzania and Zambia in 1976 there were 128 locomotives. Of these, only 39 were in operation in October 1989, another 39 were awaiting repair and 50 had been scrapped. Between July 1986 and August 1989 12 locomotives, 140 wagons and 26,500 sleepers had been damaged in 145 accidents costing roughly US$12 million. This excluded losses on salvage operations, opportunity losses and permanent loss of market share. The procurement of 350 new wagons by TAZARA with Swedish support would merely cover about seven years of wreckage of wagons at the present rate he said.
Sweden is in a US$ 4O million agreement to aid TAZARA. The total amount of aid being provided by all donors is US$ 150 million. Sweden had offered to help finance a thorough review of the TAZARA management system by an experienced consultant.
An official of the Finnish Development Authority said that though they had not yet evaluated a Finnish supported project involving the supply of rescue cranes and rerailing equipment, casual observation would show that there was a state of indiscipline and slackness within the authority’s management.
An official with the Norwegian Development Agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was a state of turbulence in TAZARA.
A USAID representative however stated that he did not see the problems that other donors had ‘capitlised on’ but that his agency would be ready to offer short course training in management. USAID is providing 17 locomotives and manpower training to TAZARA.
Speaking a month earlier TAZARA General Manager Standwell Mapara said that the railway, after several loss-making years, now seemed to be on the right lines. It would shortly be one of the most profitable lines in Africa. It had recorded losses of US$37 million in its first seven years but since 1984 it had begun to make meaningful profits. In 1986/87 it had earned a surplus of US$413,000.
The line was now carrying one million tons of freight – double the carrying capacity of 1986 and this would shortly increase to 1.6 million tons thanks to the modernisation programme being supported by eleven Western countries and international agencies – Business Times/Daily News.
CABINET RESHUFFLE
President Mwinyi reshuffled his cabinet in September 1989. He took over the Defence portfolio himself and moved five Ministers. This followed the departure of Mr Salim Ahmed Salim for his new post as Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity. A full Ministry of Information was set up and the International and Regional Cooperation portfolio which was under the ministry of Foreign Affairs was shifted to the Ministry of Finance.
Shs 2 BILLION IN BRITISH AID
The British Government has agreed to give Tanzania £10.4 million (Shs 2.47 billion) in support of its Economic Recovery Programme. Some £4.5 million will also support English teaching. The programme will be expanded to cover 324 government and private secondary schools and will concentrate on a reading programme and in-service training for Tanzanian English language teachers.
Britain’s support for the University of Dar es Salaam will continue with the provision of 3508,920 to institute a MS Education programme in Applied Science at the Department of Zoology and marine Biology.
Tanzania’s Police force will receive £358,250 to assist in training programmes for criminal investigation and prevention.
The Songea-Makambako road built by Britain, will receive £1.57 million for extension of the existing maintenance project and the rehabilitation of the Lilondo quarry.
PARASTATALS RECEIVE ‘CLEAN’ REPORTS
More than half of the 396 parastatal accounts audited for the year ending June 30, 1989 received clean reports, The total of 51.5% is the highest proportion yet achieved. Another 35% of the account s were given qualified audit reports. 176 accounts disclosed profits and 189 recorded losses – Daily News.
SHERATON TO MANAGE KILIMANJARO HOTEL
According to the November 10th issue of Tanzania’s ‘Business Times’ Sheraton International will assume the management of the Kilimanjaro Hotel in 1990 under a partnership agreement with the Tanzania Tourist Corporation. Seven other hotels, including the Lake Manyara Lodge, Ngorongoro Lodge, Kunduchi Beach Hotel and the Mafia Lodge will also enter into joint management agreements with Accor, a French fir~ which Is already managing the Mount Meru Hotel. All the hotels are to undergo extensive repair and expansion at a cost of some US$35.0 million to be provided by a consortium including Swiss, German and Yugoslav firms plus the European Investment and African Development Banks.
ELEPHANTS – TANZANIA WINS ITS CASE BUT NOT EVERYONE AGREES
Tanzania’s initiative in trying to achieve a world-wide ban on the trade in ivory (Bulletin No 34) caused a heated debate at the biennial conference of the UN sponsored Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Switzerland in October 1989. Eventually 76 countries voted for a total ban on ivory but eleven voted against. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Burundi declared that they might file a reservation which would enable them to sell and export ivory. Furthermore, trophy hunting and the local use of meat, skin and ivory of the elephant is still not banned.
The immediate effects were good however. Reports from South Africa in early November spoke of the bottom falling out of the ivory trade. Shopkeepers selling ivory reported losing 60% of their normal turnover. American tourists were said to have reacted with horror on seeing ivory objects still on sale on the shops.
OSTRICH FARM IN ARUSHA
The Government has authorised the establishment of an ostrich farm in Arusha in spite of opposition from members of the Regional Development Committee who feared that this could lead to disturbance of the ostriches in their natural habitat. Parent stocks of the birds wi11 be captured from the wildlife areas and eventually produce up to 20,000 ostriches mainly for export . The farm is at Gomba Estate and already has some 200 ostriches. The birds are bred mainly for their valuable tail feathers, skin and meat – Daily News.
RICHEST RUBY DEPOSITS
Tanzania has the richest and biggest ruby deposits in the world a Swiss geologist/gemologist said in Arusha recently. The Longido mine was the biggest ruby mine in the world. The mine was nationalised in 1972 and operated by Tanzania Gemstone Industries (TGI) but closed shortly afterwards. However, it is now operating under a joint venture between TGI and a Swiss Company, Tofco SA. The new company has imported all necessary mining equipment and lorries – Daily News.
42,316 PUPILS LEFT SCHOOL IN 1988
According to the Ministry of Education’s 1987/88 Annual Report 42,316 pupils left school in 1988 because of pregnancy, early marriage, entering petty trading and following the emigration of parents in search of pasture.
Arusha Region had the highest incidence of pupils leaving school followed by Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Mbeya and Kagera Regions.
However, some 3,169,202 pupils were enrolled in primary schools and the number entering Standard One in January 1988 was 548,055 – an increase of 8,698 children compared with 1987. The enrolment represents 89.6% of the school age population. This means that some 800,000 children were not sent to school – Daily News.
A REGIONAL DERMATOLOGY TRAINING CENTRE
A Regional Dermatology Training Centre is being set up at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Mosh!. It will cover the needs of English speaking countries in East , Central and Southern Africa. The training will be aimed at the Medical Assistant level and will cover the diagnosis and treatment of the skin diseases prevalent in rural areas, including leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases, (including AIDS) in a two-year course leading to the award of a Diploma in Dermatology from the University of Dar es Salaam. The International Foundation of Dermatology will construct the training centre and hostel on the grounds of the KCMC. In addition to these capital costs considerable finance will be required to fund the training courses. Fund raising amongst potential donors was one of the purposes of a meeting about the project held on September 13th 1989 at the Bolivar Hall attached to the Venezuelan Embassy in London and hosted by H.E. the Venezuelan Ambassador who is himself a dermatologist.
Harold Wheate
MUSICAL SUCCESS IN EUROPE
‘Dr’ Remmy Ongala and his Super Matimila orchestra are, according to the Daily News, taking Europe by storm. The 10 man Tanzanian orchestra has so far performed in Yugoslavia, Norway, Finland, Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark, West Germany, Spain, Canada, the USA and Britain.
‘Throughout our tour’ said Ongala, ‘so many people have got interested in our music that we now have the double task of explaining where Tanzania is …. we play all our numbers in Kiswahili to show them that we come from that peace-loving, beautiful country in East Africa’
FOREIGN CONSULTANCIES CRITICISED
Foreign consultants have been criticised from two directions recently.
Discussing a paper on ‘Energy and Biotechnology’ at a three-day Party seminar in October a participant said that Tanzania was spending about US$270 million a year on foreign consultancy. He said that there were many Tanzanians who could do such assignments but many institutions preferred foreigners who are given 97% of all consulting work in the country.
Two weeks later Mwalimu Nyerere, told the closing session of a seminar on science and technology at Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam, that Tanzania should start refusing external aid which increased the country’s dependence on foreign experts. Reiterating the call for collective self-reliance among the developing countries, Mwalimu, who is also Chairman of the South Commission, said countries in the South should meet each others demand for human and material resources before going to the North. His remarks were cheered by the audience. At the same time Mwalimu donated Shs one million from the monetary part of the Lenin Peace Prize he got in 1987 to a proposed International Village for Science and Technology to be built in Tanzania.
Meanwhile, a Tanzania Association of Consultants (TACO) has been inaugurated at the Hellenic Club in Dar es Salaam. It was originally registered by Government in May 1988. The association is a multidisciplinary body comprising consultants in engineering, agricultural and rural development, financial management systems and administrative management. The Chairman is Mr Aloyce Peter Mushi of Co-Architecture, Dar es Salaam. The priority is to help the Government to cut down on expenditure on foreign consultancy companies – Daily News.
DAR UNIVERSITY PRAISED
The University of Dar es Salaam is one of the few examples in Africa in which faculty and research economists are contributing significantly to national economic policy analysis, according to the World Bank Annual Report for 1989. The economists had been seconded to Government and parastatals where they participated in the drawing up of the first Economic Recovery Programme and in techniques of external negotiation. The Bank praised the way in which the authorities had opened debate on difficult policy issues.
NEW TELEVISION STUDIES
The Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr Ahmed H Diria, has appointed an eleven-member technical committee to undertake feasibility studies on the establishment of television in mainland Tanzania. This follows the Part y and Government decision to introduce television by the year 2,000 Daily News.
FIFTY ENGINEERS QUIT CIVIL AVIATION
More than 50 Civil Aviation engineers have left their jobs and sought employment elsewhere because their scheme of service, approved by the Ministry of Manpower in 1983 has not yet been implemented.
AN OLD LADY WHO IS STILL AN EXTREME BEAUTY
It was with these words that the Danish Ambassador to Tanzania described the recently renovated (with Danish help) MV Victoria. The ship had broken down three years ago and the rehabilitation has included the changing of all engines, three generators, rewiring, and installation of A/C instead of D/C current. Its carrying capacity has been increased by 450 seats so that it can now carry 38 first class, 66 second and 1,096 third class passengers in addition to 200 tons of cargo. The vessel’s speed has been increased from 12.5 to 14.0 knots so that it will be the fastest of the 12 ships the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) operates on Lake Victoria.
MV Victoria dates back to 1958 when it was first built in Britain. It was brought to Kisumu in Kenya where it was re-assembled in 1960. When the East African Community collapsed in 1977 the vessel was held up in Kisumu and stayed there until the completion of lengthy negotiations between the Community partners and it was allowed to come to Tanzania. SHIHATA
Once again Tanzania occupies only a very small part of the latest Amnesty International Annual Report. The following notes cover the main elements of the report.
Three prisoners of conscience continued to be restricted to remote areas of Tanzania – two to Mafia island – to which they had been banished in 1987. Two had been detained without trial in October 1986 after they had circulated a petition calling for Tanzania to become a multi-party state; (the deportation order on one of the two has now been cancelled); the third, Mr Joseph Kasella Bantu, a former senior government official, had returned to Tanzania from exile in March 1987 after receiving official assurances of his safety, only to be placed under house arrest. In March 1988 the house arrest was lifted but he continued to be restricted to Njombe district.
In June 1988 a person from Pemba was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for tearing up a photograph of former President Nyerere. In May 1988 a correspondent for the BBC was arrested after he had reported that police had shot dead two Muslim demonstrators in Zanzibar. A Government Commission of Enquiry into the killings had reported by the end of 1988 but its findings had not been made public.
Twenty three people arrested after the Zanzibar demonstrations were on bail facing criminal charges at the end of the year.
Although four persons were sentenced to death after conviction for murder in Tanzania in 1988 no executions were reported – Editor.
Professor (of Geography) Meyer at Leipzig University and Professor Purtscheller from Austria were the first Europeans to climb Kilimanjaro. They reached the top on October 6 1889. The Committee which was set up to organise the centenary celebrations last year has pointed out however, that these two gentlemen were not alone on their ascent. And they decided to award certificates, posthumously, or in person, to the African porter-guides who accompanied them. The Committee studied old photographs and historic documents in its attempts to identify the persons concerned. Four of the original guides were found to be dead but one very old man was found to be still alive. He is Mr. Yohani Kinyala Lauwo now living at Marangu near Moshi and he is believed to have accompanied these first early explorers. He does not remember when he was born and is perplexed by the sudden interest in something he had long forgotten. Lauwo claims to have scaled the mountain three times by World War One (1914). The Committee assumes that he was then in his teens and thus that he would now be some 118 years old. Mzee Lauwo said that he was seeking employment at the time and met a European and some others in Moshi with their luggage. The European was looking for a certain Dutch doctor who was residing at Kibo. On arrival there he met another man (Jonathan Mtui who has since died) who told him that the European was looking for people to escort him to the top of the mountain. Recalling this first climb Lauwo said that the mountain was veiled in a very thick forest and they had to use pangas and sticks to cut their way through. The trip was ‘horrifying’ because of the wild animals including elephants, leopards and wild dogs. The trip took eight days and he received three and a half rupees pay. They used to wear only a shirt, a blanket and no shoes he said.