Compiled by Michael Wise and John Budge
Astier M. ALMEDON, Recent developments in hygiene behaviour research. Tropical Medicine and International Health, 1 (2) 1996,p.171-182.
This discussion of research in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia aims at the preparation of a handbook for field personnel in water supply, sanitation and health/hygiene education projects. Trials were conducted in the Dodoma region and Kondoa districts in collaboration with water Aid UK. The villages of Asanje and Kwayondu were selected on the grounds that they represented parts of the region which suffered most from serious water shortages; nevertheless one cannot help being surprised, even in this conscientious study, by the naivete and glibness of experts, who, sitting in a room in London, with no doubt an adjoining fully-equipped toilet, discuss the importance of teaching African children to wash their hands thoroughly in clean water before meals and after defecation.
JB
Lene BUCHERT, Education in the development of Tanzania 1919- 1990. London: James Currey, 1994, 192p. (East African studies), ISBN 0-85255-704-3, £14.95 (paperback); £35 (hardback)
Lene Buchert’s book, which originates from her Ph.D. work, attempts to provide an account of education in the development of Tanzania and to relate the function of education to wider social, economic and political development from 1919 to 1990. Using mainly official, unofficial and semi-official primary sources, as well as secondary source material, the author discusses policies and their practices for specific periods during the British colonial era, and after independence.
The book examines the indirect rule system and relates the application of the government’s education for adaption policy to the actual provision of education during the colonial period. This is done well in showing that the aim of education, as stated by the report Higher education in East Africa in 1937 was to “render the individual more efficient in his or her condition of life … to promote the advancement of the community as a whole through the improvement of agriculture, the development of native industries, the improvement of health, the training of the people in the management of their own affairs, and the inculcation of true ideals of citizenship and service … ” The analysis concludes that factors such as the colonial government’s emphasis on its staffing needs, rather than provision of agricultural education for Africans; emphasis on provision of education for men; failure to provide education above elementary level, and so on made education a form of social control. A case study of Nyakato Agricultural Training Centre is used to demonstrate discrepancies between declared policies and the outcome of their implementation.
The years 1962 to 1981 were the period of education for socialism, self-reliance and social commitment, especially after the declaration of policies of socialism and selfreliance in 1967. Education was seen as a crucial instrument in achieving the goals and strategy for national development, and to redress the inequality inherited at independence. Chief among these were mass education, which was characterized by the establishment of adult education and universal primary education programmes; Africanisation of the curriculum; abolition of educational systems which were based on racial distinctions, and so on. These were all geared towards fulfilling the objective of making education a means to “liberate the African from the mentality of slavery and colonialism by making him aware of himself as an equal member of the human race, with the rights and duties of his humanity” as Julius Nyerere would have maintained.
The study indicates varying degrees of success out of these policies and practices, and highlights several drawbacks, especially in its focus on the community school movement, between 1971 and 1982. The movement’s purpose was to “contribute to village development by breaking down the barrier between the school and the surrounding society, and between academic and manual skills … ” Case studies of Kwamsisi community school as the prototype for the experiment, and Kwalukonge as a replicated experiment; also adult literacy programmes in Mvumi Makulu, Bahi and Dabalo villages in Dodoma region, are used to analyse discrepancies between policies and implementation.
Much has changed since the early 1980s. The retirement of Julius Nyerere and the succession of Ali H. Mwinyi, and subsequently Benjamin Mkapa; trade liberalisation; relaxation of policies of socialism and self-reliance; introduction of the multi-party system, all call for a further study which would help to assess their impact on education and the future direction of development in Tanzania. Do these factors explain why, for instance, some primary school children are studying without desks?
This book is another contribution to understanding educational issues in the nation’s development.It is highly useful and recommended to academics and tertiary level students interested in education, history and development in Tanzania.
Alii A.S. Mcharazo
Andre MAGNIN and Jacques Soulillou, contemporary art of Africa. London: Thames & Hudson, 1996, 192p., 317 illus. ISBN 0-500-01713-1,£45.
This significant book presents, in many good quality colour reproductions, the work of sixty artists from Africa south of the Sahara. About two thirds of the works represented are in the contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi, the world’s foremost collector of this kind of work, for which the volume serves as a catalogue. The artists hail from eighteen countries, inclusive of Tanzania.
There are spreads of several pages: photos, texts (by Magnin) and reproductions for two artists: Makondi sculptor John Fundi (1939-1991) and painter George Lilanga di Nyama (b.1944). Lilanga paints in a modified ‘Tinga Tinga’ style; his imagery has more density and is usually related to a proverb. Some of his works were exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992. The reference section lists note four additional artists, all resident in Dar es Salaam: painter Jaffary Aussi and three sculptors: Martin Dastani, Kashmiri, and Christine Madanguo. The glossary has three entries related to Tanzania, to explain the sources of styles: shetani, ujamaa and Tinga Tinga. It is a treat to see even this amount of attention given to Tanzanian visual arts.
Elsbeth Court
NYAKYUSA-English-Swahili and English-Nyakyusa dictionary; compiled by Knut Felberg. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 1995, ISBN 9976 973 32 2, £19.95; $US 35. Distributed by African Books Collective, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.
This dictionary arises out of an expatriate teacher’s sense of frustration, partly his own and partly his pupils’, because of the difficulty of observing the official policy of using English as the medium• of instruction in secondary schools in Tanzania. It was his (and the pupils’ experience) that bewilderment was created by insisting on what was effectively a third language at that stage of education. The approximately 1,000,000 Nyakusa are a sizeable and coherent cultural cluster, whose language essentially is their corporate personality. Swahili serves fairly well as the general lingua franca for communication with the wider world in the region. The understandable expectation by government, of using English in secondary and higher education often slows up the process of comprehension in the earlier stage of its compulsory introduction.
The author recognised that the first language had been picked up rather than taught, and this dictionary is an outcome of his attempt to provide a better grounding in the structure and vocabulary of Nyakusa. It provides an outline of Nyakusa grammar, usage and sounds, and the major part consists parallel word lists, Nyakusa-English-Swahili, and EnglishNyakusa. It is by no means a traditional vocabulary either, ranging from airmail to zip code and zoom lens. It is to be hoped that this lively and well produced dictionary will sell well enough to repay production costs, and set an example for others to follow where similar difficulties are encountered in other large language groups. By such means it may yet be possible for many of the approximately one thousand surviving African languages to remain alive and viable. Without support it is certain that many will disappear under the pressure imposed by stronger cultural influences and the languages in which they are propagated.
MW
Gregory PERRIER and Brian E. Norton, Administration of pastoral development: lessons from three projects in Africa. Public Administration and Development [Utah state University], vol.16, 1996, p.73-90.
It is salutary when somebody reveals that some western aid donors got it wrong – even after 30 years. This frank report on development projects conducted by the us Agency for International Development in Tanzania, Somalia and Lesotho does just that.
When the countries of sub-Saharan Africa achieved independence they were targeted for rapid development, both to generate export trade and strengthen their domestic economies. Many aid organisations, for instance, provided massive assistance for livestock development. The report asserts that despite the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars the projects “failed to achieve their goals … Projects designed by western specialists and funded by western donors have been based on faulty assumptions, inadequate information and distortions created by cultural bias, and have been implemented in an inappropriate manner”
As an example, ten million dollars were spent over a 10- year period on a project designed to increase livestock production, and improve the quality of life of the Masai people in Tanzania. visiting the area in 1989 the two researchers found “no evidence that the project had led to sustained improvements in the production system.” Whereas the Tanzanian government had been advised to establish “ranching associations” and to adopt rotational grazing practices, the investigators felt that the AID design team had ignored vital cultural aspects of Masai life; such as the need for subsistence milk production and capital savings, and the fact of their preference to sell small ruminants for their cash requirement. Instead, the advisers focused entirely on beef production and cattle marketing.
By the time when conflicts in strategy between ranching associations and the government’s villagisation policy were finally being resolved the project was abruptly terminated. Expatriate technical specialists “operated relatively independently of one another, each pursuing his own technical assignment … Project activities got out of sequence as staff applied themselves to personal professional interests.” Local administrators and politicians, pre-occupied with the implementation of ujamaa, also created confusion. “Inappropriate strategies”, such as introducing ranch-style rotational grazing to a people whose traditional grazing practices already included seasonal rest, or attempting to increase cattle off-take in a society where cattle are the primary measure of wealth, or transferring a project design to another region without taking into consideration local factors. These and other failures in understanding were “the result of false assumptions or the adoption of a western stereotypic model.”
The researchers come to what might seem the obvious conclusion that “producer participation is a necessity for project success”, and that the secret of success for the future must be adherence to three golden rules – flexibility, simplicity and appropriateness. Better late than never.
JB
Joan RUSSELL, Teach yourself Swahili. London: Rodder & Stoughton, 1996, 324p. (Teach yourself books) ISBN 0-340- 62094-3, £8.99 (book only); £18.99 (book and cassette)
With the new Teach yourself Swahili (replacing the previous book published in 1950), Dr. Joan Russell has written a new course for beginners which is both comprehensive and very accessible. It contains 18 units, each of which is based around a dialogue which serves as a vehicle for the introduction of vocabulary, grammar and cultural information. The situations described in the dialogues are typical of those which visitors to East Africa might encounter: booking into a hotel, buying gifts, asking directions, travelling, even climbing Kilimanjaro. Many, however, go beyond mere tourism and involve visitors in discussions with their Tanzanian and Kenyan friends on matters such as arranging meetings and travel plans, cooking the evening meal, and language learning. The dialogues are read by native Swahili speakers on the accompanying cassette, which begins with a pronunciation guide.
Although the approach is basically ‘communicative’, in that Swahili is introduced through the use of realistic dialogues, grammar is addressed throughout. Noun classes are introduced one at a time in the early units (beginning with the most commonly used classes) along with noun and verb agreement. other areas of Swahili grammar – tenses, suffixes, pronouns, and so on – are covered methodically and in some detail, but in terms accessible to any learner. In each unit, readers are encouraged to check their understanding and practise what they have learnt through various exercises. A brief ‘How to study’ section at the start of the book provides useful advice on getting the most out of each unit.
The book itself is compact enough to be easily portable (say, on a trip to Tanzania) and is attractively laid out, incorporating Swahili adverts, press cuttings and a few black and white photographs. At the end of the book are a key to the exercises, a summary of the main grammar points and a very useful Swahili-English/ English-Swahili dictionary.
Although described as “a complete course in spoken and written Swahili”, part 1 (the first of six units) can be used on its own as a course in ‘survival’ Swahili for beginners. I expect that complete beginners in Swahili will find that it presents a very steep learning curve; there is a lot packed into each unit! However, by the end of the course any reader who has taken the time to learn the vocabulary and tackle the exercises should be equipped with the Swahili language skills to cope with most everyday situations in East Africa.
Its communicative approach and attention to grammatical and cultural detail makes Joan Russell’s book ideal for people who may have picked up Swahili informally whilst in East Africa, and who wish to build on this and develop their competence in the language. In short, I wholeheartedly recommend the new Teach yourself Swahili to any member of BTS wishing to learn or brush up their Swahili.
Steve Nicolle
SERVICE provision under stress in East Africa: the state & voluntary organizations in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda; edited by Joseph Semboja & Ole Therkildsen. London: James Currey in association with Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen; EAEP, Nairobi; Mukuki na Nyota, Dar es Salaam; Fountain Publishers, Kampala, 1995, ISBN 0-85255-389-7, £12.95 (paper); £35 (cloth)
This powerful book is poorly titled. It is about the historical roles of the voluntary sector and the state in providing education, health and legal services and changes that came about in the wake of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). Out of fourteen chapters, two discuss the subject generally, and four are about Tanzania.
The editors hold that the rush toward privatisation of services that accompanied SAPs disregards the need for collective action by governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and ‘people’s organisations’ – the latter often called ‘community based organisations’ or CBOs. They assert that privatisation, as practiced, overlooks the increasing interdependence between voluntary sector and state, and the growing reliance of NGOs on foreign aid. To justify drastic cuts in government investment in services, proponents of privatisation often overestimate poor people’s ability to pay directly for the health and education services they need, with the result that social services are slashed more than other expenditures. To transform such situations., governments that rely on foreign assistance must risk defying IMF/WB prescriptions. For example, Official Development Assistance (ODA) accounted for 37% of Tanzania’s GDP in the early 1990s.
A further complication for governments is that donor aid is increasingly targeted to NGOs (2/3rds of it through donors’ own NGOs operating overseas, and the other third directly to East African NGOs). One author in the book argues that it is not NGO performance, but western donors’ efforts “to reduce the role of African states” that is functioning here. Several authors question the received wisdom that NGOs are more ‘poverty-oriented’ than governments. The truth may never out on this subject, however, because only an estimated 15% of donor aid is ever evaluated – a frightening fact when one considers how much possibly baseless conditionality is imposed on recipient countries and the NGOs by donors.
Chapter 8, by Gaspar Munishi, discusses the relationship between political development strategies and NGO participation in Tanzania. The author traces the history of public and private education from colonial times. In 1958, for example, 45% of African pupils went to government schools and 55% to NGO owned ones; the latter received grants-in-aid from government. Munishi’s views on the rationale behind increased government involvement after independence and the later resurgence of private, NGO provision of services are succinct; the desire to democratise education that the Arusha Declaration highlighted in the 1960s and the economic crunch and donor-driven support of NGOs rather than governments when aiding the service sector in the 1990s.
In chapter 9, Abel G.M. Ishumi focuses on secondary education. He concludes that nationalisation and monopolisation of social delivery systems stifle creative energles and lead to institutional stagnancy, and public apathy and disaffection. Self-help school projects succeed, he says, when a community links education with progress, and when there are strong economies and community-based management and leadership capacity.
Julius T. Mwaikus writes about maintaining law and order in Tanzania in chapter 10. using ‘Sungusungu’, the traditional defense and self-help groups among Sukuma youth, as his case study, he concludes that Sungusungu will survive as an ad-hoc people’s organisation only if its units know the basics of what the law requires or allows them to do.
The Catholic Church and the state in Tanzania are the subject of John Sivalon’s chapter 11, which challenges the conventional wisdom that Church and state have been ‘passive partners’, and that church-state relations became very tense after the Arusha Declaration. However, the recent Mtanzania Mpya’ programme of Christian professionals seeking to build the ‘new Tanzania’ by associating bureaucrats with NGOs disturbs the author, because Islamic communities perceive this church-state linkage as a threat to Islam.
The only chapter this reviewer found ominous is that by Goran Hyden, who proposes the creation of ‘trust funds’ as ‘intermediaries between foreign donor agencies and local recipients’. These funds would be “independent of government and any other actors” and they would support requests “from any agency, whether governmental, private or voluntary”. I see that proposal as creating a kind of parallel government – a powerful donor-driven institution that is responsible neither to the people nor to the government. Who, we must ask, will call the tune?
Margaret Snyder
Thaddeus SUNSERI, Labour migration in colonial Tanzania and the hegemony of South African historiography. African Affairs, 95 (381), 1996, p.581-598.
The author sets out to show how the history of labour migration in Africa has been unduly influenced by the assumption by historians and sociologists, that the migrations which provided the very large labour forces required by South African mining, industrial and agricultural activity, from the early years of this century, set the pattern elsewhere in the continent. He focuses on the record of German labour initiatives in Tanzania up to the time of the First World War, and shows how the Tanzanian inherited instinct to maintain something akin to traditional social life meant that the commonly held perception (by labour historians) of ‘kraal to compound’ African migrant labour was never applicable to the Tanzanian situation.
The Maji Maji rising of 1905-07 was sparked by German forced labour and production policies in the southern part of the country. There had been a systematic imposition of forced settlers, and railway construction which facilitated settler rather than peasant production.
Ever increasing development of the settler economy after 1907 meant that the demand for labour rose steadily, but government then faced the facts and gave some consideration to the reaction of the people. A middle way, between a ‘coolie policy’ and a policy of protection in favour of ‘Africa for the Africans’. Peasant production, allied to wage labour incentives, was recognised as the compromise way forward. The author points out that this gave leeway for the migration of families, rather than men only, to areas of settler developed production; that in more favourable circumstances (for there were great variations in treatment of labour and conditions of service and living), village society transferred for the period of a contract to new locations. By no means all the labour was at work at any time, and the people attended to their own crops in the locality as well as working for wages. People knew their rights, and were willing and able to use the judicial system to guarantee them. Thus, in one year 34 unscrupulous labour recruiters, Germans, Greeks and Africans were convicted of various infractions of the labour ordinances. Plantations were therefore vulnerable to the economic behaviour of their wage labourers, who were the major expense and whose response to work conditions determined the success or failure of a venture.
MW
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
M. BAREGU, Political culture and the party-state in Tanzania. Southern Africa Political & Economic Monthly [POB MP 111, Mount Pleasant, Harare], 9 (1) Oct. 1995, p.31-34.
BUILDING a vision: President Benjamin W. Mkapa of Tanzania Zimbabwe: Southern African Research & Documentation Centre (SARDC), 1996. 26p., £3.75; SUS 6.95 Distributed by African Books Collective Ltd., 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.
The text of an interview by David Martin, a Director of SARDC, with Benjamin Mkapa, conducted in Dar es Salaam on 11 and 12 November 1995, when elections had not been completed, but Mkapa was virtually president-elect at that time. Immediately after his formal declaration as Tanzania’s President the interview was published in Tanzania in three Swahili and two English newspapers. It concentrates therefore on the major aspects of his election campaign, and the matters of greatest concern to the country at that time. It is a useful and forthright record of answers to questions put by a practised interviewer.
G. FRAME, Serengeti cheetahs. Swara [E.A. wild Life Society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 16 (5) 1993, p.14-17.
R. HEYWORTH, The Last Rhinos of Northern Tanzania, Ngorongoro. Swara [E.A. wildlife Society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 18 (6) Nov.-Dec. 1995, p.18-21.
B. JACOBS and Z.A. Berege, Attitudes and beliefs about blood donation among adults in Mwanza region, Tanzania. East African Medical Journal [P.O. Box 41362, Nairobi], 72 (6) June 1995, p.345-348.
L. JANSSENS DE BISTHOVEN, A Safari in northern Tanzania Swarai [E.A. Wildlife society, POB 20110, Nairobi], 16 (2) Mar./Apr. 1993, p.15-19.
S.F.N. KIWIA, Management of work schedules in an educational institution: a case study. Business Management Review [University of Dar es Salaam], 3 (2) July-Dec. 1994, p.64-73.
L. RUTASHOBYA, The Role and performance of women’s retail cooperatives. Business Management Review, [University of Dar es Salaam], 3 (2) Jul-Dec., 1994, p.74-87.
Eve SARAKIKYA, Tanzania cook book. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1996, 165p., ISBN 9976-101-25-2, $3.95; SUS 7.50. Distributed by African Books Collective, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU.
This is a reprint of the earlier edition of 1978, and therefore may be familiar to some readers. Its virtues as a guide to the rich variety of Tanzanian foods, and their use in the country’s cuisine, which uses a wealth of local spices, a great range of fruits and vegetables, staple grains and roots, as well as sea and fresh water fish, have kept it in use and appear to justify a reprint. It gives many recipes which strike the balance between meals that merely taste good, and those with nutritional value. All who live in London or any of a number of other large cities in the U.K. will feel confident of finding many of the ingredients required to reproduce tropical cooking in Britain’s cold climate.
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This list includes a certain number of articles published in African journals. We hope that those among our readers in the U.K. who may not have access to specialist academic libraries, will be able to use their local public library to obtain copies from the British Lending Library, which is richly endowed with journals from all over the world, and provides a lending or photocopy service at modest cost.
