Category Archives: Issue 46

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

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TANZANIA COULD GET US$ 1.2 BILLION
At the Consultative Group meeting of 16 countries and eight bilateral and multilateral institutions in Paris on July 12 donors agreed, on the basis of accelerated economic reform, to provide Tanzania with up to US$ 1.2 billion for the coming year – $840 million of project assistance and $360 million of balance of payments support. WORLD BANK NEWS (July15) wrote that donors had welcomed recent progress in opening Tanzanian society to more democratic processes but had expressed concern that the pace of economic reform was inadequate to put Tanzania on a sustainable growth path. They had counselled against continued dependency on flows of external assistance, a risky strategy given the rapidly changing aid situation. They noted the continuing gap between announced intentions and actual delivery of reforms particularly with regard to the fiscal and parastatal reforms. (Bulletin No. 45). The Government of Tanzania had reiterated its commitment to enhancing the role of the private sector.

THE BRAILLE PRESS
SIGHTSAVERS, the journal of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind in its Spring 1993 issue explained how the ‘stereotyper’ at the Braille Press in Dar es Salaam produces metal plates used to emboss Braille paper. The Press transcribes books for primary education. Now its output has been greatly increased so that as well as being able to produce computer discs to drive embossers, it can also generate aluminium plates (Thank you reader Paul Marchant for this item – Editor).

CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE LAW AND THE BARABAIG
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER (No 31, 1993) referred in its issue No 31 (1993) to recent developments in the 10-year struggle of the Barabaig people ‘fighting for their land rights’ in an area developed by the Government, with substantial Canadian help. into a vast wheat production scheme. The article reported that Tanzania’s Parliament had passed a law in 1992 which had abolished virtually all customary land tenure in the country and had done it retrospectively. The Barabaig court case had thus been made invalid at one stroke. Lawyers acting for the Barabaig were maintaining that this law was itself invalid as it contravened the right to security of property in the Tanzanian constitution. (Thank you reader Christine Lawrence for this item – Editor).

THE PERSIAN FACTOR IN KISWAHILI
Muhsin Alidina of the Institute of Kiswahili Research at the University of Dar es Salaam, writing in the May issue of AFRICA EVENTS, argued for the importance of Persian words in the make-up of Kiswahili. He quoted an authority as having said that there are 78 words which may have been ‘borrowed’ directly and at least 26 others that may have entered the language through indirect contact, perhaps though Arabic. He provided lots of examples: In a Swahili household one would be served with pilau or biriani and sambusa with limau and pilipili and perhaps bilingani (egg plant) and dengu (lentils). The food would be served on a jamvi (mat). You might need ice (barafu – another word of Persian origin) in your water.

The writer stated that the present composition of Kiswahili is as follows:
Bantu 72.17%
Arabic 23.09%
Persian 1.57%
English 2.09%
Hindi 1.04%
plus lexical borrowings (loan-words) from Portuguese, German, French and Chinese.

ADD A DASH OF TANZANIA TO YOUR COOKING
An unusual way of raising funds to make it possible to participate in one of Health Projects Abroad’s projects (in Tabora) was reported in the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS. With the help of contacts in the British Council, Anna Aguma has produced an attractively illustrated 31-page booklet of Tanzanian recipes under the title ‘Add a Taste of Tanzania to Your Cooking’, Copies can be obtained @ £2.50 (incl. p&p) from her at P 0 Box 29, Levenshulme Manchester M19 2JA. (Thank you reader Cuthbert Kimamba for item).

SWITZERLAND, FRANCE AND BELGIUM
In its most recent issue URAFIKI TANZANIA, the journal of the French Society ‘Amities Franco-Tanzaniennes’ described Swiss attitudes to Tanzania – ‘It is a country which has always been the subject of different and usually passionately expressed analysis because of the exemplary nature of its original experiences. I am not sure that Tanzania’s return to what might be described as international norms will change this situation’.

The journal also quoted from a long article in POLITIQUE AFRICAINE on Democracy in Tanzania in which a similar conclusion had been drawn – ‘La Tanzanie continue de suivre un cours singulier sur le continent africaine …. depuis le debut de 1990, le debat (on democracy) n’a cesse de se developer, notamment pour savoir s’i1 va1ait mieux conserver un systeme politique a parti unique ou passer au mu1tipartisme … ‘
URAFIKI TANZANIA also advertised a Belgian OXFAM exhibition of Tanzanian art scheduled to run from June to September 1993 at. the ‘Archives et Musee du Mouvement Ouvrier Socialiste’ at Gand.

ZERO GRAZING
At Dareda in Babati District the FINANCIAL TIMES reported (June 22, 1993) that the small herds of goats owned by most families are not only grossly inefficient for both milk and meat production, but as they roam the village, are also denuding the area of vegetation and trees. The British-based charity ‘Farm Africa’ recommends to the women (who do most of the work in farming) that they erect small huts for the goats and keep them confined all the time. The feed is then cut and carried to them by a system called ‘zero grazing’. The paradox is that animal welfarists in the West condemn such systems for limiting the movement of animals. In Tanzania however, the article goes on, the priorities are different and damage to the environment leading to lack of food and soil erosion is seen as the most important considerations (Thank you reader Hugh Leslie for this item – Editor).

SWAHILI SERVICES MOVE
After nineteen years a Swahili-speaking Congregation of many different denominations has moved from the Lutheran Church House for its Sunday worship to St. Anne and St. Agnes Church which is at the corner of Gresham St. and Noble St. in London. Announcing this in its June issue LUTHERANS IN LONDON stated that more than 100 East Africans attend the services.

A VANISHED AGE
writing about the development of studies in African history John McCracken in AFRICAN AFFAIRS (April 1993) described what he considered to be the well-funded ‘vanished age’ of the 1960’s. He mentioned John Iliffe’s book ‘Modern History of Tanganyika’ published in 1969 as an example of British Africanist scholarship at its best. ‘Based on an extraordinarily comprehensive investigation of both primary and secondary sources, Iliffe’s massive study bore witness to the greatest single potential strength possessed by British Africanists of his generation – the fact that so many of us had the opportunity to work in African universities. At one level it reached back into the 1960’ s in its then unfashionable reassertion of the significance of African ideas and agencies; on another, it pioneered themes that would come to be seen as of increasing importance in the 1980’s; notably the changing nature of African ethnicity (“the creation of tribes”) and the causes and consequences of ecological change … it provided its readers with history of an African territory … of a coherence, depth and style that none of the modern histories of Britain published over the last 20 years have begun to approach – though it is salutary to note that among the neo-Marxists who followed Iliffe to Dar es Salaam in the 1970’s it failed to win acceptance. In the standard ‘radical pessimist’ account of Tanzanian historiography, Iliffe’s work is relegated to a footnote and categorised … as ‘pure bourgeoise’ in its celebration of market forces’.

LIVINGSTONE’S GREAT TREK
The TIMES has reported that Livingstone’s great grandson, Dr. David Livingstone Wilson (67), a retired family doctor, is a member of an expedition retracing the famous explorer’s final epic journey. The four-month expedition was to start in Zanzibar and go via Bagamoyo to Ujiji where Henry Morton Stanley stumbled upon Livingstone in 1871. The expedition would then proceed to Lake Bangweulu in Zambia, which was where Dr. Livingstone died from dysentery and haemorrhage two years later. Dr. Wilson was born in Africa and was brought up there until he was ten. Where, in 1873 Livingstone relied on sextant and compass for navigation, Dr. Wilson was to be guided by three satellites and a computerised global positioning system.

ECOLOGISTS LOCK HORNS WITH TANZANIA
In what has become known as the ‘Loliondogate Scandal’ enraged environmentalists are in battle with the Government over the granting of hunting rights to the United Arab Emirate’s Brigadier Mohamed Abdul Rahim al Ali. Summarising the matter, which has raised a storm of protest in Tanzania, AFRICA EVENTS (July 1993) explained that the Prince had made friends in 1984 with the Tanzanian elite and had allegedly presented some gifts. 20 years later he has been granted a 10- year lease enabling him to hunt with his friends (67 people were said to have accompanied him on a January visit to Tanzania) in the Loliondo Game Reserve. The Director of Wildlife was said to have opposed the move as it would deprive registered hunting operators of the opportunity to conduct paid hunting safaris. However, it is believed that the Brigadier has paid a substantial sum for the lease. He is also said to have paid US$ 2.0 million for his hunting expeditions in 1991 and 1992 during which, the article claims, the Brigadier’s party shot indiscriminately and killed or maimed many animals.

WHO IS TO BLAME?
Commenting on the recent widely publicised attack by OXFAM on what it described as the failed IMF and World Bank structural adjustment policies in Africa, the FINANCIAL TIMES (April 29, 1993) admitted that the IMF and the Bank were hard pressed to find an African country where structural adjustment had led to a sustained recovery that had not been supported by continuing aid. But, the paper wrote, OXFAM’s proposals would be enhanced by a more detached and comprehensive examination of the causes of Africa’s crisis. ‘OXFAM’ puts most of the blame on external villains …… a markedly more cautious and inhibited approach characterises OXFAM’s analysis of Africa’s shortcomings, past and present. Zaire’s Mobuto and Malawi’s Banda are roundly and rightly condemned; but there is no appraisal, for example, of ex-President Julius Nyerere’s disastrous pursuit of African socialism in Tanzania …. ‘

CDC’S GROWING INVOLVEMENT IN TANZANIA
The Commonwealth Development Corporation’s DEVELOPMENT REPORT (May 1993) and the Annual Report for 1992 wrote about CDC’s growing participation in development in Tanzania. It referred to its oldest investment in forestry, the Tanganyika Wattle Company, which is now producing, on what was once unproductive grassland, 5,000 tons of wattle extract, 10,000 tons of fuel wood and 3,600 tons of sawn timber; the Kilombero Valley Teak Company, established in 1992 which is planning to produce 50,000 telephone poles, 300,000 building poles and 23,000 cubic metres of firewood with the first production expected in 2001; the Tanzania Development Finance Co Ltd, the most important. source of medium foreign exchange loan funds; the Tanzania Venture Capital Fund Ltd providing equity finance for small entrepreneurs; the Fatemi Sisal Estate which it is hoped will produce some 8.000 tons of sisal for export after an eight-year rehabilitation project; and, the East Usambara Tea Company – which was featured in Bulletin No 45.

A CIRCLE OF DEATH
‘I became afraid of the common Communion cup. This fear never diminished. I began to make sure that I sat in front in church so as to be at the head of the line going up to Communion; if I got behind anyone, I hoped it would be a missionary’. So wrote Gillian Goodwin in THE TABLET (June 12) describing her own fear of AIDS during her five years of teaching in Mwanza. Her article went on to describe the final days of a Ugandan friend who caught the dread disease (Thank you reader John Sankey for this item).

BOOK REVIEWS

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THE TANZANIAN PEASANTRY: ECONOMY IN CRISIS. Edited by P G Forster and S Maghimbi. Avebury. 1992. 287 pages. £39.95.

This book of sixteen papers is perhaps over-ambitious in endeavouring to cover the whole country through case studies in six regions; included are papers on: the historical dimension of the attempts by pre- and post-independence governments, with their different ideologies, to influence the peasantry; the cooperative movement (three papers); and, the relationship of academic disciplines (social anthropology and economics) to issues of rural development.

In their introduction, the editors ask whether there is an underlying message in the papers and then say yes, there is an underlying message in most, if not all of them. It is to the effect that there has been a general tendency to disregard peasant knowledge. In practice, if not in theory, ‘modernity’ and ‘science’ has been upheld in opposition to peasant ‘ignorance’ and ‘superstition’.

The editors state that this might have been pardonable if the result had been a major success in transforming the peasant economy so that peasants had clearly benefited. Anyone familiar with the country knew that this had not happened. The papers repeat many of the by now well-known causes – faulty advice from ‘experts I, misappropriation of funds, peasants I existing knowledge often treated with contempt, villagisation, failure to consult and so on. One contributor points out how successful ‘Sungusungu’ – a movement which responded directly to problems of social control – had been. Wisely the editors point out that the peasant is not necessarily always right and the expert always wrong. It would have been useful if this issue had been developed further.

For those not familiar with rural development in Tanzania the book is a mine of information. For others it makes a very good read but may add little to existing knowledge – DRB.

EXTERNAL AID: A LEVER FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES? A CASE STUDY OF SIDA SUPPORTED EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS IN TANZANIA, 1970-1990’s. A G M Ishumi. International Journal of Educational Development. Vol 12 No 4. 1992

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN PRE- AND POST-INDEPENDENT TANZANIA: AN ANALYSIS THROUGH CASES. L Buchert. Part of a thesis presented for the award of the degree of PhD in the University of London. 1991.

Both of these articles are concerned with the impact of education in the broadest sense on social development. Ishumi’s article is very informative about the origins and development of SIDA, the Swedish International Development Agency and provides an admirable review of the agency I s work in Tanzania. The range of projects is wide, yet, as Ishumi points out, is based on consistent principle – ‘to strengthen the productivity of poor people in order to raise their standard of living’. Areas of assistance include adult/nonformal education; vocational training; primary education; teacher training; and, support for a girls secondary school.

Folk Development Colleges appear to have proved highly successful initially (1975-80) but by 1990 there were signs of a falling off in enrolment. The establishment of Vocational Training Centres during the 1980’s followed the failure of the attempt to set up successful secondary technical schools in the 1970s, and is justified from the work of Lauglo (1990) who suggests that ‘institutional vocational training works best when it occurs in specialised training institutions’ and that ‘the extension of training into industry does not work well’. These are conclusions that might well give us all pause for thought.

Buchert’s article needs to be read in its context as part of a thesis with wider political concern than education alone. However it is a very well documented and researched piece. In some ways, the focus on pre- and post-independence in the title is misleading. Saba Saba 1961 would seem to be less significant than grass-roots or bottom-up change in society as against expert/imposed or top-down change.

The cases chosen by Buchert are, first, the setting up of the Nyakato Agricultural Training Centre (1933-39) – top-down, encountering resistance/pressure for change and subsequently running out of steam; second, the Singida mass literacy/education campaign (1959-61) – bottom-up, utilising existing social structures and having a SUbstantial impact as evidenced by such things as the increased number of wells and latrines, the growing of new kinds of vegetables and the establishment of more community development groups. It might be significant that the first of these projects was undertaken in what might be called the ‘colonial’ period of British Trust Administration, while the second was just prior to independence when the concept of preparation for selfgovernment informed much of what was happening in Tanzania. This is a perspective which Burchet seems to have missed.

Buchert’s third case study is the Kwamsisi (1971-75) -topdown- and more particularly the Kwalukonge (1975- the present) bottom-up Community Schools. Kwalukonge has for more than ten years won the first prize as the most successful ‘ujamaa’ village in Tanzania; the school is seen as belonging to the villagers. The Kwamsisi school was established under the aegis of MTUU (MNE, 1973-89 and 1978) with the Principal of the Korogwe Teachers Training College in overall charge.

The fourth case study is the Dodoma Rural District Mass Literacy Programme (1975-86) top-down. This functional literacy programme combined pure literacy with practical work. It involved heavy inputs and was dramatically successful, with illiteracy rates falling from around 70% to less than 40%. By 1986 illiteracy was estimated at around 10% of the adult population. What is particularly interesting is the difference in literacy achievement between the more urbanised village and the two ‘rural’ villages. In the former relatively fewer people achieved literacy. It would be interesting to hear speculation on why this might be so.

Buchert concludes that none of the schemes had any deliberate exploitative function – even though many of them were imposed from above. On the contrary, all the schemes studied had a ‘liberating’ effect on at least some of the individuals who participated, though it is doubtful if this included the politicisation which was a strong element in the original community school idea and of the thinking behind adult functional literacy.
C. P. Hill

SECTOR AID AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: THE CASE OF SUGAR IN TANZANIA. Netherlands Development Cooperation. Evaluation Report 1992. 183 pages.

This report provides an assessment of the impact and economic/social value of Netherlands development. assistance to the sugar sector in Tanzania. It also offers a readable and valuable account of the history of the sugar industry. At the time of independence in 1961 the only two sugar mills in Tanzania were at Arusha Chini (TPC) and at Bukoba (Kagera). Shortly thereafter two new estates and mills were developed at Kilombero and Mtibwa. An increase in sugar production from 40,000 to 80,000 tonnes per annum followed in the 1960’s.

In the 1970’s to the mid-1980’s the policies of the Government and its intervention (in the form of NAFCO and then SUDECO) through the fixing of consumer and ex-factory price levels plus the imposition of quotas for the distribution of sugar weakened the commercial drive of the existing estates and deflected foreign interest from further investment in the sugar industry. Nonetheless, in 1990 sugar production reached 110 million tonnes. However, this was less than 50% of the projected production and rated capacity of the four mills. The main causes of the disappointing performance related to the shortage of foreign exchange, the unfavourable internal pricing policy and deficiencies in management.

That the sugar industry progressed at all was largely as a result of the commitment of the Netherlands in supporting it. The total value of this support from the late 1960’s to 1991 was more than US$ 130 million. These funds were utilised for the expansion of production (1970’s), a period of consolidation (1980’s) and then of rehabilitation (1990’s). Support was also provided for the institutional development of the industry and for commodity imports, namely the purchase of machinery, transport, spare parts and agricultural inputs.

The report makes it clear that, over the period reviewed, both the production and financial performance of the sugar estates resulted in significant financial losses. The reasons for this are identified. The difficulties of making economic comparison with the import parity price of sugar are also discussed. In this section more emphasis could have been placed by the authors on the adverse impact of the highly protected and subsidised European beet sugar producers whose governments continue to ‘dump’ their surplus sugar onto the international markets.

In determining the efficiency of Netherlands aid the report focuses on three points – the choice of sector, the choice of technology and the quality of management. The conclusions support the choice of sector and technology but are critical of the focus on expansion in the 1970’s, a policy which was subsequently altered to one of consolidation.

The impact of the aid is also assessed on three policy issues economic self-reliance the aid is seen as successful in increasing Tanzania’s economic self-reliance; poverty alleviation – not stressed at project implementation and was not achieved as the outgrower programme was only fitfully implemented and sugar remains an expensive good in Tanzania; and, sustainability – while the industry is far from being self-reliant, recent changes have enhanced its sustainability.

As for the future the commercialisation of the estates and mills is seen by the authors as the only sensible way forward. The Netherlands’s position is that this can best be achieved by privatisation. At present the Tanzanian Government rejects the idea of privatising the entire sugar industry. Private management arrangements with incentives to reduce costs and raise productivity and the utilisation of existing capacity appears to be an attractive alternative.

The important role of Netherlands aid in successfully supporting the sugar industry has gone largely unrecognised. This report corrects this in a straightforward and undramatic manner. It also, with commendable honesty, identifies both the successes and shortcomings of the Netherlands aid policy in Tanzania a fact which contributes to the value of the document.
Keith Armstrong

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

REPRODUCTIVE KNOWLEDGE AND CONTRACEPTIVE AWARENESS AND PRACTICE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN BAGAMOYO AND DAR ES SALAAM. S Kapiga, D J Hunter and G Nachtigal. Central African Journal of Medicine. Vol 38. No 9. 1992. 5 pages. Some 490 pupils from four schools were interviewed for this study which found that 61% were sexually active, 68% knew of at least one method of contraception (mostly the oral contraceptive pill) and the majority approved the use of contraception. However, only 17% knew the ‘safe period’ within the menstrual cycle and only 15% had ever used a contraceptive method.

WOULD AGROFORESTRY AND AFFORESTATION RISK TSETSE REINVASION ? R 0 Otsyina. Agroforestry Today. 3 pages. This paper explains how, between 1930 and 1970 about 20,000 square kilometres of Shinyanga district were cleared of existing vegetation in order to declare a tsetse fly free area. However, the result had been that Shinyanga, once a dense forest, is now a semidesert. The study found that some 84% of farmers felt however, that tsetse would return if conditions were made more favourable by planting forests. What was needed was agroforestry technologies including boundary planting of trees, windbreaks, woodlots, fodder banks and mixed intercropping.

ACTION-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE DISTRICT MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY FROM TANZANIA. Elizabeth Barnett and S Ndeki. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. Vol 7 1992. 9 pages. The paper describes this increasingly fashionable approach to management training as it was applied in the health sector in Same District. The strategy involved a process of problem analysis, action-research, problem solving and review. Among the achievements was the development of good team spirit but, when the methodology was spread to eight other neighbouring districts, although there was enthusiasm for the initial workshops, the follow-up work failed to take place on time and effective monitoring was not done.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF BONDE 1920-60. A STUDY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INDIRECT RULE IN TANGANYIKA. J willis. African Affairs. Vol 92. No 366. 1993. 14 pages. This paper explains how for a number of years the administration avoided not only the invention of a Chief in Bonde but also any meaningful degree of indirect rule. In the 1940’s and 50’s however, the sisal industry interfered in local politics and, for a time, things changed

THE CONSERVATION OF MOUNT KILIMANJARO. IUCN Switzerland.1991. 148 pages. £10.

PEASANT RESPONSE TO PRICE INCENTIVES IN TANZANIA: A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGA’I’ION. G Eriksson. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. 1993. 85 pages.

TANZANIA RESTORES ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SPEEDS STRUCTURAL CHANGE WITH IMF SUPPORT. R Nord and M Saal. IMF Survey. Vol 22. No 4. 4 pages.

OBSTACLES TO DEVELOPING INDIGENOUS SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT. B Levy. World Bank Economic Review. Vol 7. No 1. 1993. 18 pages. Field surveys in Sri Lanka I s leather industry and Tanzania I s furni ture industry.

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES’ PERFORMANCE IN TANZANIA’S MANUFACTURING SECTOR. L Rustayisire. East African Economic Review. Vol 7. No 1. 1991. 17 pages.

PRODUCTION OF EDIBLE OILS FOR THE MASSES AND BY ‘I’HE MASSES: THE IMPACT OF THE RAM PRESS IN TANZANIA. E L Hyman. World Development. Vol 21. No 3. 1993. 14 pages. The ram press is a low-cost, manual technology for extracting edible oil and animal feed from oilseeds.

TRADE AND EMPIRE IN MUSCAT AND ZANZIBAR: THE ROOTS OF THE BRITISH DIMENSION. M R Bhacker. Routledge. 1992. 224pages. £40

DANCING WITH THE DEAD: A JOURNEY TO ZANZIBAR AND MADAGASCAR. Helena Drysdale. Hamish Hamilton. 1991. 273 pages. £16.99.

ZANZIBAR: HISTORY OF THE RUINS AT MBWENI. Flo Liebst. Publisher: CUT of Africa. 63 pages. The author, a Tanzaniaborn British artist, was helped by Anglican church workers in writing this book which traces the history of Mbweni since it was established in 1874 as a village for freed slaves.

STATE AND INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO PARASTATAL GROWTH IN TANZANIA. J W Makoba. Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives. Vol 11. Nos 3-4. 1992. 21 pages.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE 1976-77 COFFEE BOOM ON THE TANZANIAN ECONOMY: A TEST OF THE DUTCH DISEASE MODEL. F M Musonda and E Luvanda. East Africa Economic Review. 16 pages. This study tests (and finds not proven by the data) the Dutch Diseases Hypothesis that a boom in a single export commodity may affect adversely other export commodities. However, the Government was a major beneficiary from the boom and this was translated into ambitious development. expenditure programmes.

MAINTAINING HANDPUMPED WELLS IN TANZANIA. M Mtunzi and N Lombardy. Waterlines. April 1993. Vol 11. No 4. 3 pages. This paper describes a successful initiative in putting maintenance into the hands of the community.

ALWAYS SERVING. A PORTRAIT OF THECLA GRACE MCHAURU. A Nkya and A Anduru. Publishers Association of Tanzania. 1993. 65 pages. Now in her old age, Thecla Mchauru was the first Tanzanian woman to qualify as a teacher, nurse and social worker and rose to be the first Secretary General of the Tanzanian Womens Organisation (UWT).

YEARBOOK OF COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISES 1993. Plunket Foundation. 130 pages. This book contains a short concise summary of Tanzanian cooperative history.

TANZANIA IMPROVES LIVES
Tanzania has been mentioned as one of the few countries which have done well in translating their incomes into improving peoples’ lives. The UN Human Development Report 1993 has noted that, while Tanzania ranked 172nd in GNP its position in the World Human Development Index was 138.

LETTERS

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THE FALSE MONEY VALUES OF TODAY
I protest! Surely our Society does not intend to sink to the level of commercial publications and publish our much-esteemed Bulletin as a ‘glossy’. Such magazines reek of the false money values of today, as they attempt in numerous ways to winkle out yet more money form their naive readers. Our publication is, dare I say it, academic and should be printed on correspondingly dignified paper.
Mary Boyd

THE RISK OF BEING BLOWN UP
If I wrote to congratulate the Editor on all that intrigues and pleases me about the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs I would never stop writing.

However, I have a comment on Michael Ball’s mention in ‘A Tale of Igusule’ of the gun-makers in the last issue. When I was District Officer in Morogoro in 1955-58 I discovered a muzzle loader manufacturer in England (or was it Belgium?) who would deliver to Oar es Salaam at a price which easily competed with what I was told was the local home-made purchase price. But I ran up against some ancient convention – was it the Congo Basin Treaty? – which forbad such import. So local hunters continued to take the risk of being blown up by less than perfectly made home production. I was upset for a long while.
Patrick Duff

SAILING THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA
I studied agriculture some time ago and have, since then, travelled extensively and farmed In some of the various countries I have been to. I intend to eventually settle in Africa.
Next year I wish to buy a sailing dhow and sail the East Coast of Africa before, hopefully, bringing it back to Europe. I wonder if you could help me by putting me in touch with a non-resident who has done this.
Ben Freeth
(Anyone who can help should write to Mr Freeth c/o xxx – Editor).

TRADE MUSKETS
I read with interest the article in the last Bulletin ‘A Tale of Igususule’. Years ago, I think in 1971, I published an article on firearms in Africa in the ‘Journal of African History’. It was largely about trade muskets, the style shown in the sketch in the Bulletin, made in Birmingham and exported to Africa, Asia and the Americas by the millions – probably over 13 million were exported to Africa in the 19th century. The last known exports of such weapons were to Canada in the 1950’s.

Of course these are not really rifles – which need complex tooling to inscribe the rifling on the interior of the barrel; they are smooth-bores with the reliable flint-lock mechanism of the sketch you published. They can be made locally and in Arabia and India they were made locally. But we were puzzled that they were not made in Africa as far as we could determine. The cause was probably that there was no need – imports were cheap. But there is no production in Birmingham now so manufacture in Africa makes sense. And steering columns make good barrels; they don’t need to be drilled; they are already hollow. The powder has been locally made in Africa for centuries.

These weapons were essential for the spread of agriculture as crops could not be protected from wild animals without them. They were reasonably accurate and safe provided that brown powder, not black, was used. In Tanzania last month I saw one locally repaired with a red plastic hammer!
Gavin White

HISTORY OF THE DAR ES SALAAM BOTANIC GARDENS
I am a member of the Gardens Sub-Committee of the ‘Friends of the Museums of Tanzania’ which was formed in May 1991 to look into the improvement of the garden surrounding the National Museum and the adjacent Botanic Garden in Dar es Salaam. I am writing a history of the botanic gardens to mark the centenary of their foundation by the Germans in 1893. I have found a fair amount of information for the years up until 1936 but nothing much after that. Could I appeal to your readers for any information they might be able to let me have about the organisation and running of the gardens and about the Dar es Salaam Horticultural Society.
Gloria Mawji
(Mrs Mawji can be contacted at P0 Box xxx in Dar es Salaam -Editor)

COMPLICATIONS IN ROAD MAINTENANCE
I was interested in the article in the last issue of the Bulletin about Tanzania’s Integrated Roads Project. The country’s widely distributed system of lightly constructed roads is inevitably difficult to maintain, particularly when few contenders for exiguous resources can be less glamorous than road maintenance. It is not surprising that performance has been poor.

The cost of road maintenance can easily be inflated. At one time I was responsible for maintaining part of the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro road. The verges suffered constant damage in the rains from vehicles passing too close to the edge of the carriageway. The damage was repaired by digging out a shallow trench, putting the spoil through a concrete mixer with some cement, compacting the mixture back in the trench and spraying with bitumen.

One day, driving towards Morogoro, I spied the seven-man edging gang’s lorry with driver and another man heading for Dar es Salaam. Wishing to know why they were not at work I stopped them. The Headman said “Bahati mbaya Bwana. Bwana huyu” indicating the other man, “alivuta concrete mixer yetu tuliposukuma sisi wengine kisha ilipita gurudumu (the wheel passed over) ya concrete mixer juu ya miguu (his foot) yake na imekutwa (cut) kidole chake na ninacho hapa” holding out the severed toe to me.

So he had put the injured man in the lorry and was taking him to hospital in Dar es Salaam. What else could he have done? What could I do but send him on his way? But the wages of eight men plus the hire charges for the lorry and concrete mixer were charged to the Roads vote without any work being done.

This sort of thing, if not usually so bad, happens all too often. The result is not only to inflate the cost of road maintenance, but also to slow down the rate of working. If close supervision cannot be achieved under the new project the pursuit of ‘all weather, maintainable standards’ could become no more than a chimaera.
S.A.W Bowman

MWANZA TODAY
I lived in Tanzania in the years 1927-56 and my book ‘Asante Mamsapu’ about my childhood there is being published in about eight months. As a follow-up I am writing a novel about two African teachers working in Mwanza but I know from the one photo I have seen of it, that Mwanza has changed out of all proportion. So of course has the country. I am writing the bulk of the story with the hope that local colour can be added later. In order to avail myself of information about life in Mwanza today I thought your organisation might be of help insofar as you may have contacts in Tanzania who have been to Mwanza recently.
E Cory-King

50 YEARS’S AGO

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The following extracts are from the ‘Tanganyika Standard’ in the latter part of 1943, and were included in TA 46 (Sept 1993)

‘THE MOST SAVAGE CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR’
‘The campaign was brief, lasting barely two months. It was bloody, no quarter being given. It was unremitting. 3,520 African soldiers and 60 British officers and NCO’s were in action at the end. Eventually the campaign extended to 12,000 square miles. 380 vehicles were used ….. ‘

This East African campaign was not waged against a human foe but against one of mankind’s greatest hereditary scourges – locusts. Some 90% of the large and very dense hopper hordes were exterminated (August 20, 1943).

18 SETS OF LEADERS IN ZANZIBAR
Colonel Oliver Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies, addressed a large meeting of the Royal Empire Society in London about his recent tour of East Africa. Among the scenes that would remain in his memory was driving through Zanzibar amid the smell of cloves and his impression of peace and friendliness which was surprising since he was introduced to no less than 18 sets of leaders (laughter). Colonel Stanley spoke also of the Lutheran Mission at Dar es Salaam where the Germans had begged to be allowed to carry on but where, actually, were found effigies and a shrine to Adolf Hitler (December 11,1943).

SURPLUS BALANCE
His Excellency the Governor described Tanganyika’s financial position as ‘sound and satisfactory’ during his budget speech. There would be a surplus balance of about £965,000. There would be no change in taxation in 1944 and the estimated revenue would be £3,510,000. The biggest budget increases would be for the PWD, Medical, Veterinary and Education services. The Governor referred to the serious manpower shortages. The demand for new recruits for the armed forces would show a large reduction in 1944 but the demand for labour for production was increasing. The vast majority of labourers were volunteers, conscripts being less than 10%. Mainly because of poor weather it would be necessary to import staple foodstuffs during the next nine months in order to keep up the production of sisal, pyrethrum, rubber and other essentials