ELECTIONS 2000

THE TIMETABLE
On election day, October 29, 2000, the People of the United Republic of Tanzania living on the mainland vote for the Union President, members of the Union National Assembly and District and Town Councillors. On the same day Zanzibaris vote for the Union President, the President of Zanzibar, members of the Union National Assembly, the Zanzibar House of Representatives and Zanzibar councillors. Nomination of candidates took place in August. Registration of voters was scheduled to take place from August 8 to 21. The election campaign began unofficially in July but the official campaign period was scheduled to be from August 22 to October 28.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME?

At the end ofthe 1995 elections these were the results:

UNION PRESIDENCY:
Mkapa (Chama cha Mapinduzi -CCM) 4.0 million votes (61.8%)
Mrema (NCCR-mageuzi) 1.8 million votes (27.8%)
Lipumba (Civic United Front -CUP) 410,000 votes (6.4%)
Cheyo (United Democratic Party -UDP) 250,000 votes (4.0%)
Mr Mkapa became President.

UNION PARLIAMENT:
CCM: 186 MP’s were elected, 27 women became nominated MP’s plus the Attorney General plus five Zanzibar House of Representative members = 219 CCM MP’s. The CCM formed the government.

CUF 24 elected MP’s (all came from Zanzibar) plus 4 nominated women = 28 MP’s. These MP’s in alliance (on the mainland) with the UDP MP’s became the official opposition in the Tanzanian National Assembly NCCR-Mageuzi: 16 elected MP’s (mostly from the Kilimnjaro Region and urban areas) plus 3 nominated women = 19 MP’s.

CHADEMA (Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo): 3 elected MP’s plus one nominated woman = 4 MP’s. UDP: 3 elected MP’s plus one nominated woman (all from the Mwanza Region) = 4 MP’s

These elections were considered by observers to have been broadly free and fair but there were many administrative teething troubles (especially in Dar es Salaam) in this first multiparty election following the demise of the one-party state and CCM enjoyed advantages because of the fact that it had been the ruling party for over 30 years.

ZANZIBAR PRESIDENCY:
Amour (CCM) 165,271
Hamad (CUF) 163,706
Dr Amour became President of Zanzibar

ZANZIBAR HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
CCM: 26 MP’s elected plus 10 nominated by the President plus 5 nominated women plus 5 Regional Commissioners plus the Attorney General = 47 MP’s.

CUF 24 elected MP’s plus 4 nominated = 28 MP’s. CUF took every seat in Pemba and four seats in Unguja (the main island).

These elections proved highly controversial and there was a widespread feeling amongst independent observers that they were not free and fair. The Isles were divided politically almost exactly 50:50 and even if CUF had been declared the winner the result would have been very close. (For further details on this see the Reviews Section below -Ed.). During the following three years there was political tension and CUF boycotted parliament in protest against the results. There were also widespread allegations about infringement of human rights of CUF members by the Zanzibar government.

Since 1995 there have been over 20 BY-ELECTIONS for Union MP’s in which the CCM further illustrated its continuing dominance by winning all but two. One of the two ensured the entry into Parliament of NCCR-Mageuzi presidential candidate Augustine Mrema (a seat he later lost when he was no longer able to work with his colleagues and joined the Tanzania Labour Party -TLP); CCM then regained the seat. The second allowed UDP presidential candidate John Cheyo to enter Parliament where he took a prominent role as Deputy Leader of the opposition and Shadow Finance Minister. In most by-elections CCM won by huge majorities but in two Dar es Salaam by-elections in 1999 CUF illustrated its growing strength in areas with large Muslim populations and would have won if the opposition had been united behind CUF.


THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

The electoral system is ‘first past the post’ -the person with the largest number of votes in a constituency wins. On the mainland there is an Electoral Commission chaired by Judge Lewis Makame. It has issued a tough ‘Election Code’ designed to stop government officials and party leaders using their facilities (planes, vehicles, offices, churches, mosques, the media) in political campaigning.

To be nominated as a candidate for the presidency it is necessary to pay Shs 1 million ($1,250) and have written support from 250 ‘trustees’ from each of eight mainland regions and the two Zanzibar regions. Parliamentary candidates have to pay Shs 100,000 ($125). The government has been subsidising parties with representatives in parliament according to the number of seats they hold. There are 13 registered parties. Independent candidates are not permitted.

CANDIDATES FOR THE UNION PRESIDENCY

Candidates for the Tanzanian Presidency

Augustine L Mrema (TLP)
Ibrahim Lipumba (CUF)
Benjamin W Mkapa (CCM)
John Cheyo (UDP)
ZANZIBAR
Seif Shariff Hamad (CUF)
Amani A Karume (CCM)

UDP: JOHN MOMOSI CHEYO. In his capacity as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts Cheyo has been relentless in pursuing the government on such issues as corruption, excessive government expenditure and the large number of South African investors. Explaining why he and his party had failed to join the CUF/CHADEMA Alliance (see below) so as to put up a united front against CCM he said that as the presidential candidate and his running mate were both Muslims this showed religious bias. He said that the two candidates should have come from different parties and be of different religions. In order to comply with the law one should have resigned from his party and joined the other party. He added that UDP did not favour ‘tooth for tooth policies. “We are against vengeance” he said.
Running mate: Omar Massoud Omar.

CUF/CHADEMA ALLIANCE: PROFESSOR IBBRAHIM LIPUMBA. Formerly economic adviser to President Mwinyi at the time Tanzania’s economy was being liberalised, Lipumba
was a Professor of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. He believes that CCM is tired after 40 years in power, wants to offer an intelligent alternative to government policies, recommends an increase in mining royalties, reduction in taxes handicapping small business and borrowing to help improve
education. Lipumba has been making more and more radical speeches criticising almost every aspect of CCM government policy, lashing out against corruption and has charged the CCM with accepting funds from petroleum smugglers. He wants big
companies to be taxed more.
RUNNING MATE: Nassoro Hamis Mohamed, a lawyer who is defending the accused in the treason trial (see below)

CCM. BENJAMIN WILLIAM MKAPA (62) got 99% of the votes at the Party’s National Executive Committee. A journalist and former editor of several national newspapers, Mkapa was Press Secretary to Mwalimu Nyerere before becoming a
diplomat representing Tanzania in Nigeria and then becoming Foreign Minister. He was elected President in 1995 and since that time has managed to retain his reputation as an honest, hard working man who has steered Tanzania on a route of economic conservatism. He has tried hard to justify his campaign promises to fight corruption and has preserved Tanzania’s good reputation for stability and peace in the outside world. He has resisted pressures from donor countries to intervene in the troubled politics and judicial problems of Zanzibar (See Reviews Section below Ed). If elected he is likely to be in a much stronger position to rule and to deal more forcefully with corruption as he will be less likely to be in the hands of former leaders many of whom are reaching retirement. Running mate: Dr Omar Ali Juma, the present Vice-President.

TLP: AUGUSTINE LYATONGA MREMA, a former teacher and state security officer, reached the position of Deputy Prime Minister before being sacked by former President Mwinyi in 1995 and establishing himself as the leader of NCCR-Mageuzi just before the last elections. He re-invigorated the party and attracted great support for his populist speeches defending the common man and vigorously attacking corruption. Although he represented a real threat to CCM in 1995 he has since lost much of his lustre. He tends to behave erratically and fell out with most of the other NCCR leaders before breaking away to take over a previously virtually unknown party -the Tanzania Labour Party -TLP. Mrema still has a personal following amongst the under privileged and amongst his Kilmanjaro compatriots but his own apparent inability to work with others and his third change of party allegiance has damaged his credibility. His party also has financial problems as many of his wealthy supporters are believed to have fallen away. As the TLP has no MP’s it therefore receives no government subsidy. Running mate: Ali Iddi Ali

The once influential NCCR-MAGEUZI party has collapsed because of internal dissension, with several of its 15 MP’s deserting it for the CCM and TLP. Its attempts to launch candidates for the Tanzanian and Zanzibar presidential elections both failed. For Tanzania -Edith Lucina, a nominated woman MP -was refused permission to stand by the National Electoral Commission when she failed to get the necessary 200 supporters in Rungwe Region before the closing date for nominations. For Zanzibar, Naila Jiddawi, a nominated CUF MP, was rejected by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission as she tried to change parties to the NCCR just before nominations closed. NCCR leader James Mbatia said that he had refused to join the CUF/CHADEMA Alliance because CUF insisted that both the presidential candidates had to be from the one party.

-AND FOR THE ZANZIBAR PRESIDENCY

CUF. SEIF SHARRIF HAMAD is the charismatic and strong­willed CUF Vice-Chairman and effective leader of CUF in Zanzibar. As Zanzibar Chief Minister from 1984 to 1988 he worked with former President Mwinyi in liberalising the economy. He was dismissed in 1988, expelled from CCM and detained in prison charged with taking away confidential documents before the case was dropped. After the 1995 elections he refused to recognise President Amour and his party and boycotted the Zanzibar, but not the Union parliament until this year. At nomination he said that, if elected, he would form a coalition government with CCM but CCM refused to reciprocate. He vigorously denied in an interview in August 2000 with BBC Swahili Service Head Tido Mhando that his party was being used by Islamic countries, and favoured Muslims. He was in favour of a three-tier government for the Union, a major point of difference between himself and the CCM candidate who wishes to retain the present two government system.

CCM: AMANI ABEID KARUME (51) is the only ‘new’ presidential candidate -all the others stood in 1995. The tall and soft-spoken Minister of Transport and Communications in the outgoing Zanzibar government is the eldest son of the assassinated former President Sheikh Abeid Aman Karume. When he went to collect his nomination forms he first went to pray before his father’s statue. He said that, whenever one wants to embark on any crucial assignment, one has to seek blessings from one’s parents. When Karume, whose campaign had been led by Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete (who came near to beating Mkapa in the selection for CCM Tanzanian presidential candidate in 1995) returned to Zanzibar in a six-boat fleet, accompanied by former President Mwinyi, after the Dodoma selection process, there was an explosion of joy in the streets. Government offices and shops closed as thousands greeted Karume’s 50 vehicle procession, showing, according to the East African, that CCM still knew how to ‘play politics’. Even CUF leader Seif Sharrif Hamad welcomed the choice reportedly saying that Karume was a man who ‘knows how to listen’. Others interviewed in the press spoke of him as being clean, non-corrupt, not pompous and the only candidate who had shown any commitment to ending the four-year long political conflict in the Isles. In his campaign for election as candidate he promised to revive the programmes of housing development and land reform initiated by his father who is fondly remembered by many Zanzibaris. He is credited with all significant development in the Isles. Many people are nostalgic about the time when Zanzibar had a near monopoly on the world market for cloves and hence a healthy economy. At nomination Karume said he wanted to purify the polluted political atmosphere in the Isles and to restore unity, brotherhood and solidarity by removing the prevailing animosities but he did not favour a coalition government. Karume has been suffering from health problems for three years but said that he had a check up in May 2000 and was now fully fit.

PARTY POLICIES.
As this issue of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ went to press the party manifestos were not available. Based on previous experience it seems unlikely that there will be clearly defined differences between the policies of the different parties (except in Zanzibar). Politics in Tanzania (as in many other countries) is dominated by personalities. Starting in August Tanzanians were subjected to a massive dose of rhetoric in which CCM defended its record and the other parties promised all kinds of benefits, often without indicating how they would be paid for. It is impossible in the limited space in ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ to even summarise the flow of rhetoric but the following are examples from the earliest stage of the campaign:

Mkapa pointed to the 91 bills passed by parliament in the last five years which had gone far to improve management of the economy and create an enabling environment for the participation of the growing private sector. Cheyo, who has always had something of a Thatcherite approach to the economy, promised to privatise land and abolish primary school fees. Mrema would raise workers pay, increase the prices of agricultural crops and abolish laws which made loitering and prostitution offences. Karume would deal with people advocating parochialism based on the islands of Unguja and Pemba and would end the delays civil servants were suffering in obtaining their salaries. Lipumba criticised Mkapa for concentrating on his achievements but not touching on the looming famine in 11 regions. Seif Hamad would revive a plan for the establishment of a free port in Zanzibar.

The death of Tanzania’s hero, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, last year was expected to damage the ruling CCM party but in spite of internal tensions it has retained a remarkable degree of well-disciplined unity and hence its vice-like grip on power. The party began as an open advocate of socialism with widespread state ownership in the 1960’s but changed its polices in the eighties and now follows a middle of the road line including privatisation and the encouragement of individual enterprise and foreign investment. The main reason for its continued popularity is that it has kept the country at peace and politically stable while most of Tanzania’s neighbours have experienced periods of turmoil.

The other parties seem to differ little on policy although all are highly critical of what they consider CCM’s economic failures, the widespread corruption and the running down of social services like education and health.
Mrema’s policy has always been to support the undergdog. CUF is alleged by its opponents to be biased in favour of the Muslim part of the population but denies this. UDP suffers from having most of its membership concentrated in the regions near Lake Victoria.

CUF in Zanzibar advocates a three-part government for the Union. CCM staunchly defends the present two-government system.

‘Grow up you multiparty brats’ was the heading in an editorial in the East African (May 15) which went on: ‘Sadly .. . hopes that the passage of time had given political parties …… . and the electorate a chance to grow up and cultivate a disposition suited to democratic politics, appear to have been over ambitious. Witch hunting, character assassination, demonstrations of anger and sensationalism are overshadowing constructive analysis, fair comment and articulation of policies’.

It is difficult for outsiders to understand why the CCM government often takes actions which some would describe as undemocratic, for example, by changing the constitution in its favour (the President was recently granted power to nominate 10 MP’s) and by often banning opposition meetings and taking advantage of its control of radio and government newspapers, when its position in the country is so dominant that it has little to fear. It is equally difficult for outsiders to understand the folly of most opposition parties in not cooperating with each other to try and defeat the CCM. The consequent weakness of the opposition means that many electors are becoming disillusioned about the democratic electoral process which could be harmful in the long term.

NOMINATION AND REGISTRATION

There was really no serious opposition to President Mkapa as the CCM candidate for the presidency. A former CCM Executive Committee member, a certain Eugene Sabi Munasa, declared his democratic right to enter the contest but it was soon clear that the die was already cast. When Munasa arrived at the CCM HQ for nomination papers he was told that he could not contest because he didn’t have a degree.

‘Africa Today’ was critical of the process in its March issue: Extracts: ‘Critics aver that Tanzania under Benjamin Mkapa is drifting towards dictatorship at a rate even cynics did not foresee. To be sure, part of the blame for this turn of events is …. the union between the mainland and Zanzibar and the constitution …. President Mkapa has set the tone for his party’s hardliners by accusing the Kisanga Constitutional Commission of overstepping its mandate (it recommended a three government structure for the country) and the media for highlighting the Commission’s findings ….. But of even more concern is the fact that nowadays the Tanzanian press is awash with cases of government excesses against its critics’.

As successful selection as a CCM candidate almost guarantees a place in parliament because of the popularity of the party, the CCM preferential candidate selection process in July/August was, according to the Guardian, ‘characterised by intense competition and drama with repeated allegations of corruption, withdrawals, boycotting of results, personality clashes and alleged bribes (from money to clothes to bicycles). But Dar es Salaam University’s Dr Daudi Mukangara said that CCM should be commended for the way in which it conducted this exercise in democracy at its basic level. “Other parties do not do anything similar” he said.

So strong was the media pressure against allegations of corruption in the CCM selection process that the leadership stepped in on August 13 and announced the names of 40 incumbent MP’s who had been banned from taking part in the election because of what was described as their ‘violation of party ethics and regulations’. President Mkapa had earlier complained in a speech about ‘the rich who used their financial muscle in an attempt to privatise the Party for their personal gains’. Amongst those not allowed to stand, even in some cases where they had been selected by local party members, were the Minister and Deputy Minister for Water, two ministers of state, MP for Kawe Zainurdin Adamjee, Ambassador Paul Rupia MP and former High Commissioner in London Ali Mchumo. The CCM leadership’s move was widely welcomed by the media.

The CCM was fighting for every seat. CUF selected 48 Zanzibar members to fight for seats in the National Assembly and 47 for the Zanzibar House plus 32 mainlanders also for National Assembly seats. NCCR-Mageuzi named some 90 candidates for the Assembly and 22 for the Zanzibar House.

TLP was hoping to nominate a total of 120 but lack of funds was likely to handicap its efforts.

In Zanzibar competition was fierce for the CCM candidacy after the party had decided that the present President Salmin Amour could not stand for a third term (TA No.66). Six candidates picked up forms including Zanzibar Chief Minister Dr Ghalib Bilal who was said to be favoured by President Amour. He obtained 44 votes out of the 77 cast when Zanzibar’s CCM branch met; however, when the issue was moved to CCM HQ in Dodoma and the mainland members had their say, their choice, Kamme, got 111 votes to Billal’ s 61.

The registration of voters also proved contentious especially in Zanzibar. In the early stages of registration in August several houses were burned down, allegations were made that mainland CCM supporters had been shipped in to Zanzibar, other resident mainlanders were told by CUF supporters to leave the isles, and some 150 CUF supporters were arrested.

As this issue went to press the National Electoral Commission said that during the first two weeks of the three­week registration process 5.5 million people had registered. Registration was high in Dar es Salaam, Coast, Dodoma, Mbeya and Singida regions but low in Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Iringa, Mtwara and Tanga. In the 1995 election 8.9 million people registered.

WILL THE ELECTIONS BE FREE AND FAIR?
Recently retired Chief Justice Francis Nyalali was quoted in the Guardian on May 3 as saying that Tanzania still had a long way to go before attaining free and fair elections and the dissemination of information through independent media.
Some weeks ago Political Parties Registrar George Liundi told journalists that all 13 political parties in the country had committed serious mistakes in one way or the other over the last seven years which warranted them all being struck off the register. But this would leave a political vacuum. He said that all parties had received assistance from outside the country and none had disclosed the amount; few parties practiced internal democracy; there had been too much internal bickering.

However, most observers believe that the 2000 elections are likely to be basically free and fair on the mainland. Some 75 international observers are expected.

In Zanzibar the election is again likely to be hard fought between CCM and CUF. ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ has covered in earlier issues recent moves in Zanzibar including the Commonwealth-brokered Inter-party Agreement signed but not fully implemented, CUF’s insistence on an independent electoral commission, rejection by CUF of a constitutional amendment Bill which would have allowed such a change but would also allow President Amour to be free of any charges relating to his period in office.

Dr Moses Anafu, the architect of the Zanzibar peace agreement, who was also the Commonwealth Secretariat’s most senior advisor on African Affairs resigned on June 5 following revelations in The Times that he had an interest in a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -in an area defended by Zimbabwean troops -while he was part of the Commonwealth team monitoring Zimbabwe’s elections. Most of the attention in the press and amongst donors over recent years has concentrated on allegations of the government’s deprivation of human rights of CUF supporters and as the election approached the intermittent violence between the parties increased.

Four Zanzibar ministers published in May a 60-page booklet ‘Zanzibar Politics: A proper perspective’ listing 144 criminal acts and acts of intimidation said to have been committed by CUP since it was formed. Included in the list was intimidation of CCM members, destruction of their crops, expulsion of CCM tenants, barring of CCM members from communal services and from attending weddings and funerals. The ministers blamed some western countries for persistent criticism of Zanzibar and using blackmail associated with their aid programmes.

Whether the 2000 elections will be free and fair in Zanzibar is not clear. Early good signs were peaceful initial party rallies, the broadcast live (for the first time) of a CUP campaign rally and the news that the Zanzibar Electoral Commission had a new chairman (Abdulrahman Jumbe) and had agreed to remove polling stations from army camps. There were some worrying initial indications including an increase in the number of army personnel in the Isles, the apparent refusal of the government to allow international observers from the BU (ostensibly because, unlike the OAU and Commonwealth, neither Tanzania nor Zanzibar were members of the EU) and many serious disputes and some violence during the electoral registration process plus serious threats from CUP leaders of a ‘tooth for a tooth’ attitude and a warning that if the elections were rigged there would be violence.

One political observer thought that the popular Zanzibar CCM candidate might win the presidency while CUP won the majority of the seats in parliament. He considered that this could be the best possible result for the future of Zanzibar as a coalition would then be necessary.

WHO WILL WIN?
There seems little doubt that Benjamin Mkapa will win the Union presidency comfortably and that CCM will win the vast majority of seats on the mainland. CUP should again become the largest opposition party in the mainland parliament with the help of its strong base in Zanzibar and recent progress made in building up the party in the coastal regions of the mainland where Muslim voters are numerous. Other mainland opposition parties are expected to do badly.
The Swahili paper ‘Wiki Hii’ estimated in August that CCM would increase its overall number of MP’s, CUP might gain a few seats on the mainland for the first time and TLP was likely to gain a few seats at the expense of NCCR-Mageuzi.
In Zanzibar with both parties determined to wm (seemingly at all costs) it is difficult to forecast the result.

THE COST
The elections will be expensive -some $40 million (Shs 32 billion) -to pay, according to President Mkapa ‘for the excessive transparency demanded by the externally voiced test for a free and fair election’. Donors initially offered $8 million and the President has appealed for more assistance.
Monthly subsidies to the five parties with MP’s in Parliament will continue only until the election. NCCR, being the largest mainland opposition party has been receiving Shs 31 million, CUF Shs 36 million, CHADEMA and UDP Shs 18 million each (TLP gets nothing as it has no MP’s) but CCM gets Shs 330 million per month because of its much larger presence in parliament.

THE ‘COMPLICATED’ TREASON TRIAL
On May 3 the prosecutors amended the charges against the 18 Zanzibar CUF leaders who have been in detention for two years to include the accusation that they had secretly enlisted the party’s private security guards -former government soldiers called ‘blue guards’ -in the alleged plot to bring down the government. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the new charge.

CUF Chairman Ibrahim Lipumba said that they had lost faith in the Zanzibar High Court and would now appeal to the Tanzanian Court of Appeal. In the most recent adjudication the Nigerian judge had erred in his interpretation of the Union Constitution. Zanzibar was not a sovereign state (Tanzania was) and therefore treason could not be committed against it. The defendants also appealed again for bail.

At the hearing on April 18 CUF’s Seif Sharrif had himself been involved in a demonstration outside the Court and was arrested and charged with stealing a sub -machine gun with violence and attacking four police officers. He was released on bail.

At the Appeal Court on August 21 the three judges listened first to three ‘friends of the court’. One of them was constitutional lawyer Prof. Jwani Mwikusa who later gave ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ the gist of the advice he had given. He had pointed out that the Zanzibar Penal Decree under which the applicants were charged had not been repealed since the days of the British Protectorate. He said that what constituted the offence of treason was the intention, imagination or manipulation against the supreme authority (the then Sultan) and not the killing of a president which was murder. He said that law makers were to blame for not observing this problem. He thought that the appellants had been charged with nothing. He also pointed out the differences between the constitution of Tanzania as regards treason and that of Zanzibar. As regards the application for bail he said that no adequate reasons had been given for this to be refused. After hearing the two other ‘friends of the court’ the judges said that the whole matter was complicated and they needed time to do more research on the laws and the arguments which had been presented. They would therefore reserve judgement to a later date.

TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

GOING UP
AFRICA TODAY (August) quoting the latest data from the UN’s annual Human Development Report said that Tanzania had risen 17 places to 156th last year out of the 174 countries included in its human development index. Uganda was down because of a drop in life expectancy to 39.6 years and Kenya was up by 18 places. Bottom of the list were Burundi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

LUGUFU
The July issue of the GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE included four pages of pictures and some text under the heading ‘Life on the Inside’ about Lugufu refugee camp, one of three purpose-built Congolese refugee camps in what was described as ‘a remote area of mosquito-infested marshland’ in Kigoma region. Extracts: ‘This urban society of 45,000 people supported by donors including the Red Cross, living in 34 villages is larger than Kigoma with shops, discos, wrestling arenas and hairdressers in abundance. The camp even has its own radio station and cinema and numerous bars selling pombe and banana beer to the accompaniment of Congolese Lingala music. The Lugufu bicycle-taxi company runs 20 ‘cabs’ between villages and, for the equivalent of $2 offers a bone-crunching day trip along rutted roads to the nearest Tanzanian village. There are 40 churches, a mosque and 10 primary schools following the Congolese (French) curriculum plus one additional subject -‘peace and conflict’ .

A less happy picture of Lugufu was presented earlier in the year by INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL which wrote as follows: ‘Most of the refugees are women, and to compound their desperate plight, they are sexual prey for the men … rape is something you have wherever you have refugees said Kenyan Red Cross Reproductive Health Coordinator Mama Obaso. “The men want children …. to replace their dead relatives. They cannot afford the bride price to marry again so they rape a girl. The victim’s family, anxious to cover the shame, force the girl to marry the man … they turn it into a positive thing. About three months ago 50 refugee women were raped one afternoon while trying to reach the camp from the Congo’ .

LIFE AND DEATH
The SUNDAY TELEGRAPH published a moving story on July 2 by Lindsay Hawdon under the heading ‘An Englishwoman Abroad’. Extracts: ‘I notice him first because he seems too old and tall to be leaning on his mother’s shoulder. His head tilts to one side as if it is too heavy to hold upright. They are the first to board the bus. They move slowly up the aisle, settling somewhere in the middle; she by the window, he by the aisle. The bus engine starts and coughs black fumes from its exhaust. “Are you American?” the driver asks as I pass him. “No, English” I reply. “Ah, Margaret Thatcher” he says, flashing a gold tooth in his smile. Finally, everyone is aboard and we set off down the bumpy road out of the Tanzanian capital. I am cramped across my rucksack with my feet almost around my head ….. the driver is singing. And then there is a groaning sound that becomes distinct above the noise of the engine. The tall boy has flung his head back against the seat and his eyes are moving erratically from side to side. His groans catch in his throat and seem to choke him. The mother takes his head in her hands and brings it down to rest on her lap. I try to think of other things. I’m counting potholes and dreaming of home …. The mother starts rocking back and forth. She holds the body against her chest, squeezing him tightly. His eyes are open, staring unmoving at the roof…. It is only when she starts to sob high, drawn-out wails that I know he is dead. She tries to close his eyes but the lids seem fixed open. The driver is no longer singing and is looking worriedly behind him. Eventually he stops the bus. But the mother tells everyone that there’s nothing they can do and that she wants them to let her take him home. Everyone is quiet. Occasionally a hand reaches out to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. For most of the four hour journey we sit in silent sadness. The mother looks back towards her son -and still she cannot close his eyes … (Thank you Paul Marchant for sending this ­Editor).

MAMA NYOKA (SNAKE WOMAN)

“This business has been dominated by men for too long” said Salma Moshi in an interview published in the EAST AFRICAN (May 8). Extracts: ‘Sahna (38) claims to be the only woman in East and Central Africa who dances with snakes and makes a good income from doing it. She has six snakes of different sizes and types which she refers to as pets. Her favourite dance partner is a cobra, whose ability to stand on its tail thrills the crowds who flock to watch her. She has been bitten twice on the hands and once on the chin. When that happens, she quickly wipes off the blood and keeps going or otherwise the crowd would take off… .Apart from being a source of income, the snakes also keep thieves way from her house. “Sometimes I leave the doors open, but no one dares come in” she says.

TRADITIONAL PLANTS AND MALARIA
The Maasai people have a strong tradition of using plants for healing, often as a ritualised retreat called orpul aiming to increase both physical and spiritual strength. POSITIVE NEWS (Spring 2000) explained that many of the plants used by the Maasai have already been demonstrated scientifically to be effective against particular diseases, such as zanthoxylum chalybeum for malaria. Research into this field is being undertaken by the Aang Serian Peace Village in Arusha, in association with the Global Initiative for Traditional Systems of Health at Oxford University. To celebrate this vibrant heritage of ancient healing wisdom a festival of traditional medicine and culture was recently organised in Arusha. The festival also commemorated the inaugural meeting of the Research Initiative on Traditional Anti-Malarials (RITA) which was held there to develop a strategy for more effective, evidence -based use of traditional medicines. The Peace Village contact address is P 0 Box 21103, Arusha (Thank you John Porter for sending this item -Editor).

RAP -REGGAE -TAARAB
Yusuf Mahmoud described in the Spring issue of ORBIT how in Zanzibar, between calls to prayer from the many mosques, you can also hear American rap and Jamaican reggae. But around the next corner you will just as likely hear music from India or the latest chart toppers from Egypt and the Gulf States. The article went on: ‘Equally popular are local musical forms, in particular, ‘modem Taarab ‘. This is derived from the Arabic Taarab meaning to be moved or agitated -it is sung poetry. The Malindi Music Club is the oldest group dating back to 1905. Legend has it that, in the 1870’s, Sultan Bargash sent a Zanzibari to Cairo to play the qanun, a kind of zither, common to the Arab speaking world. Besides the qanun other instruments in a taarab orchestra include the oud (an Arabian lute), violin, accordion, cello and keyboard. ‘East African Melody’, currently, the biggest act in Zanzibar, plays ‘taarab to dance to’ which has sparked a debate about the debasement of traditional culture’

WATER OF LIFE
The intervention of former US President Carter together with the very persistent persuasion of a London-trained Bavarian-born anaesthetist has led to a unique production system for the water which is dripped intravenously into patients to enable them to recover from a multitude of illnesses. So wrote MISSION AVIATION NEWS -MAF (June-August) which went on to explain how the liquid is produced using the reverse osmosis method (once clean and softened, using ion exchange, the water is forced through an osmotic membrane so fine that it stops microbes from passing through; it is later further cleansed through a filter made of pressed glass dust) -a method employed by NASA as part of the USA space programme. Although it was secret, President Carter allowed Dr Kamm at the Christian Medical Centre in Moshi to develop production and the system has now been installed in 54 Tanzanian hospitals. MAF uses its planes to help technicians to travel to even the remotest hospitals and to distribute medicines and medical equipment (Thank you Christine Lawrence for sending this item -Editor)

HOW UGANDA LED TO NYERERE’S DOWNFALL
There was strong reaction in the July/August issue of NEW AFRICA to an article by Henry Gombya which it published and which was referred to in Tanzanian Affairs No 66. A Kenya reader described the suggestion that Nyerere lost power because the soldiers he sent to Uganda were exposed to Ugandan ‘riches’ as a lie. Another reader described the article as ‘shocking’ and said that it portrayed a ‘very ungrateful Ugandan’. ‘It is a pity’ , he wrote, ‘that Gombya did not see that Nyerere deserved credit for trusting his ‘school dropouts’ to chase ‘the rich’ Idi Amin out’.

THE NEW DAR ES SALAAM
In a glowing 16-page supplement on Dar es Salaam in its May 22 issue the EAST AFRICAN said that ‘the sun never sets for Dar’s exciting nights; the city is as awake at night as it is during the day’. Articles spoke of the new Strategic Urban Development Plan (SUDP) -the city now occupies 1,350 square kilometers compared with 51 Sq. Kms. at independence; annual revenue collection rising in the last three years from $125,000 to $11 million largely from rapidly expanding business and industry; many new high rise buildings; massive refurbishment of roads and telephone services; 200 licensed taxis; a huge modem port which welcomed its first cruise liner this year ….. .

A ‘TRAINEE COMMUNITY MUSICIAN’
Kate Murdoch writing in THE INDEPENDENT (April 22) told of her experiences last year when she was taught traditional music -as a ‘trainee community musician’ by the nephew of the well-known Tanzanian musician Dr Hukwe Zawose. ‘The Zawose household boasts 11 professional performers and everyone else in the family plays sings and dances too’. Her classroom was a shady mango tree and under it she learnt ilimba (the Gogo word for ‘thumb piano’ -a series of metal or bamboo tongues fixed to a wooden plate). After classes, a room stuffed with thumb pianos, stringed gourds called ‘zee zees’, skin drums and xylophones became the focus of activities. She explained how ilimba music evolved in the dry dusty plains of Dodoma as cowherds played while walking their cattle to water.

GENITAL MUTILATION
The EAST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL in its May issue published a table comparing estimates of the prevalence of female genital mutilation in African countries. Countries topping the list included Egypt (98%), Sudan (89%) and Mali (94%). Kenya was said to have 50% while the figures for Tanzania (10%) and Uganda (5%) were the lowest in the table of29 countries.

‘A SKIN-DEEP AFRICAN AFFLICTION’
“Kaburu” children scream as Mohamed Msoma pushes by on his bicycle. Being called a Boer is just one of the many taunts hurled at the middle-aged religious teacher. He is an Albino, chairman of the 80­member Albino Society in Morogoro. As in other African countries albinos in Tanzania face social stigma. Mr Msoma claimed that he was sacked from the local tobacco factory because he is an albino. The superintendent said that he could not work properly with poor eyes. Health problems do indeed compound discrimination. Weak eyesight, blisters, bums from the sun and skin cancer are common afflictions …. American researchers estimate that one in 17,000 people has some form of albinism -THE ECONOMIST. (Thank you Jill Bowden for sending this item -Editor).

THINGS HAVE CHANGED
Michael Korda writing in the NEW YORK TIMES (May 7) contrasted a recent visit to the Ngorongoro crater with what a visit used to entail 15 years before. Extracts: ‘Our first surprise was that everyone at Kilimanjaro Airport was pleasant, helpful and friendly. On previous visits it had been like flying into East Germany in the old days … .At the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge the decor is breathtaking. The phrase ‘over the top’ scarcely does it justice. Not since I was in Cher’s house in Malibu have I seen anything so extraordinary. Here are giant fireplaces, African sculpture and weapons, fine bronzes, English country furniture, very beautiful tile work in the Moorish tradition …. The men’s room is so unexpected and luxuriously decorated that we all go to visit it -it’s as if Versace had been asked to design a urinal -only then did we discover that the ladies room was even more baroque…….’ (Thank you Peg Snyder for sending this story from New York-Editor).

THE PRIVATISATION SONG

‘There cannot be many countries that have composed a privatisation song but this has happened in Tanzania and is a point of pride for the Parastatal Sector Reform Commission and symptomatic of the transformation taking place as the country changes from socialism to capitalism … ‘ This was how Mark Turner and Michael Holman of the FINANCIAL TIMES began a 6-page supplement in the July 24 issue. After a slow start, Tanzania was said to be gathering momentum: ‘Dar es Salaam, once not so much sleepy as comatose, now boasts cybercafes and satellite dishes. New hotels are opening to cope with the foreign investors now responding to the new business climate. South Africans are in brewing, British in banking, Canadians in mining, Japanese in cigarette making, Germany in telecommunications and a Philippine company is about to take over the port’s container facility. But when President Mkapa goes to the polls in October he will have a lot of explaining to do ….. ‘ The article goes went on to list the alleged rigging of the last Zanzibar elections, the treason trial, heavy-handed powers to limit freedom of expression, poverty, unemployment, corruption, AIDS, the fear of competition amongst local manufacturers and hence tariff barriers and cumbersome bureaucracy. ‘But Tanzania now looks a better regional investment base than ailing Kenya and the sooner Tanzania meets the objectives of the new East African Community Agreement the better’ .

BUSINESS NEWS

Exchange rates (August 15): £1 = TShs 1,200 $1= TShs 800

Minister of Finance Daniel Yona announced on May 25 that the budget requirement for 2000/2001 would be in excess of Shs 2.4 trillion but that the government could provide only 50% of this -Shs 1.3 trillion from its own resources. The estimate was almost double the previous year’s budget but Tanzania expected some $200 million (about Shs 160 billion) in debt relief under the HIPC initiative. Shs 15 billion would come from the sale of parastatals. Representatives of over 30 governments and international agencies at the Consultative Group meeting had promised about $ 1 billion (Shs 800 billion) for each of the next three years. Tanzania had achieved an average annual growth rate of 4.1 % during the last three years; it had not had to borrow from banks and inflation had come steadily down to 6% in April.

Main features of the budget:
-excise duty on cigarettes, beer and spirits up by 5%
-excise duty on 46 products abolished
-more money for social services
-reduction of the present 70 petroleum companies to only those with permanent infrastructure -to stem the loss of revenue
-an increase of up to 40% of the budget for social services (20% for defence)

Britain remains one of Tanzania’s main trading partners with some Shs 64 billion earned by British exporters last year said British High Commissioner Bruce Dinwiddy while launching ‘Trade Partners UK’ at the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair on July 3. He expressed the hope that with Tanzania’s booming gold mining industry, exports to Britain, which currently consisted mainly of commodities, would grow so as to narrow the trade gap. He was delighted that the UK had been chosen as a safe depositary for Tanzanian gold. Under ‘Trade Partners UK’ a website offered details of 55,000 companies wishing to develop overseas trading links, he said -The Guardian.

There was a well attended Trade and Investment Forum at the American Embassy in London on April 27 at which the keynote addresses were given by Industry and Commerce Minister Iddi Simba and High Commissioner in London Abdul Shareef. It was designed to provide opportunities for US companies, especially those with regional headquarters in Europe, to interact with Tanzanian officials and business representatives.

President Mkapa commissioned the $165 million Geita Gold Mine on August 3. It is capable of producing 500 ounces (16 tonnes) of gold a year -Daily News.
The largest hotel operator in Africa, Southern Sun, a subsidiary of South African Breweries has launched a Rands 85 million project to build a Holiday Inn in Dar es Salaam -South African Times.

Tanzania has confirmed that it will withdraw from the 21-state Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) when its one-year notice period ends.

Libya has announced that part of the $46 million debt Tanzania owes it will be turned into Libyan investment projects in Tanzania -East African.

The Government awarded 35% of Tanzania Telecommunications (TTCL) to the consortium Detecon of Germany and MSI of the Netherlands which is paying $120 million and has agreed to increase the number of connections from the present 140,000 to 800,000 by December 2003 -The Guardian.

The First Adili Bankcorp Ltd closed shop on May 15 and was placed under statutory management by the Bank of Tanzania.

A semi-autonomous agency -TANROADS -will take over from the Ministry of Works responsibility for maintaining and rehabilitating roads starting next year. According to the East African this action follows pressure from the EU which has set aside $200 million for roads but doesn’t want the government to manage the programme -East African.

Tanzania is the first African country to sign for a World Bank ‘Programmatic Structural Adjustment Credit’ ($190 million) to help sustain economic reform and speed up poverty reduction.

A GLANCE AT SWAHILI POETRY

In Swahili culture, a poet’s role is ordained by his ability to reciprocate the needs and wishes of his community. In order to perform this duty to the fullest extent, a poet must have a highly intimate rapport with his own context and therefore he must occupy a position from which he has access to various edifying sources from within the community. According to Swahili ideology, a poet can be described as one of the Mlozi wa mji (proverb meaning, ‘pillars of the town’), signifying that his presence is fundamental to the maintenance of civilised society. Poets are known within the community as Shaha or ‘Shah’, a sign of their high status; they understand more of God than ordinary people, and it is said, ‘poets go deep into the sea to find secrets’. Thus the social position given to poets in the Swahili community is one of respect and high status, defined by the acquisition of the dual qualities of heshima, ‘respect’, and elimu ‘knowledge’.

Through the use of various different modes of presentation, which the poet employs, he may challenge any of the existing hierarchies and institutions that form the nucleus of changing Swahili society. In order to accomplish this nature of social commentary without causing offence or even potentially endangering himself (especially in the case of political poetry), a poet relies upon a wealth of enigmatic and metaphorical language in order to make himself understood to his audience. Through the use of such richly metaphorical language and cryptic or encoded imagery, the poet’s message may remain ambiguously hidden, and in many cases an understanding can only be achieved through the application of specific social or political circumstances onto the poem’s patchwork of language and imagery. Only then will the poem’s inner discourse become clear to the audience. Indeed, in Swahili society, where the importance of speech and words is paramount, people naturally strive to cultivate speech into art, and a Swahili is often judged by his linguistic skill.

Contrary to the opinions of several non-Swahili scholars who have described Swahili poetry as ‘dull’ and unattractive, it must be emphasised that its function is not to be beautiful but to be useful. At the same time let there be no confusion that Swahili poetry, whether traditional versification or modem free verse, exemplifies the Kiswahili language in its most aesthetic form.

Swahili poetry has suffered further at the hands of foreign scholars with the constant reference to its ‘ethnic or local form’, or in the use of the term, ‘traditional poetry’. The term ‘traditional poetry’ implies that the form and content have become outmoded by another form of self-definition. The reality is quite opposite, and in fact Swahili poetry serves as functional a purpose in a modem context as it has done throughout history.

In Swahili poetry, both form and content are of equal importance, and a Swahili poet must adhere to numerous structural criteria in order to produce a piece of work that can be regarded by the community as high quality. With growing access to Swahili poetry in the media there has been an increase in poems written by amateur poets and consequently much of the poetry published in the newspapers stands accused of being mere versification at the expense of meaningful content.

Free verse has gained considerable popularity on the mainland despite strong opposition from Swahili poets who feel it represents a loss of poetic artistry and is a product of euro­centric scholarship. The debate continues until today.
Jonathan Donovan

MISCELLANY

Africa’s biggest internet service provider ‘Africa Online’ has arrived in Tanzania with exchanges in Dar, Arusha, Mwanza and Zanzibar where customers can now dial up by paying local rather than national call charges. Ten new e-touch centres are being opened every month – Guardian

Former Tanzanian High Commissioner in London Anthony Nyakyi was appointed Chairman of the National Construction Council on April 4 ­Daily News.

The Deputy Minister of Education and Culture has told parliament that corporal punishment in schools will continue “until we think of another suitable way of punishing offences in learning institutions” -Guardian.

Tanzanian botanist Sebastian Chuwa has been awarded a Lindburgh Foundation Grant for his research project ‘Balancing Ecological Diversity with Art and Music -a Community-based Program to Replant African Blackwood’ (which is used for carvings and to make musical instruments but is facing extinction). Chuwa raises and replants the Blackwood and educates young Tanzanians about its conservation -Guardian.

Some 5,000 women underwent contraception by surgery in the Lake and West Zones during the past six years. But only 25 men agreed to vasectomy -Guardian.

Following several years of good rainfall, a low infant mortality rate and the continuation of the international ban on sales of ivory, the elephant population in the 2,600 sq km Tarangire National park is picking up after the heavy poaching of the 1980’s. The number of elephants in family groups has increased from 250 in 1993 to 420 now. One female produced six infants in seven years with three consecutive sets of twins -East African.

British High Commissioner Dinwiddy was present on July 23 when Tanzania’s WBA Continental Super flyweight boxing champion Mbwana Matumla beat Andy Roberts from Britain in a technical knockout in the second round. The fight was given massive coverage in the local press.

Of the 16 people being accused of involvement in the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar on August 7, 1998 one, 26-year-old Khalfan Khamis Mohamed from Tanzania, is destined to be the first defendant in an international terrorism case to be tried on capital charges in the United States. He is charged with helping to build the bomb used in Dar and to load it on to a truck which he rode part of the way to the embassy. The defence is arguing that he played only a minor role and was the least important member of the conspiracy and therefore should not be facing the death penalty -New York Times.

According to General Secretary Prof. Sebastian Sawatt of the Rural Foundation for Sustainable Development, Tanzania is now second only to South Africa in the list of African countries with advanced bio-gas technology. His organisation was now providing consultancy to other countries and was encouraging the use of a simple $100 tubular plastic biodigesters to provide domestic energy and reduce the demand for wood -The Guardian.

The Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) (through a subsidiary) opened a shop in Dar es Salaam on May 12 for the sale of light weapons and explosives. Consumers, who include licensed hunters, miners, construction companies and foreign markets, are able to buy locally (in Morogoro) manufactured ammunition and imported guns. Another of the five shops licensed to sell arms is the YMCA.

PRESIDENT CLINTON IN ARUSHA

“I am honoured to be here in a place of peace, to visit a champion of peace”. So said President Clinton when he arrived in Arusha on August 28 to witness, with his daughter Chelsea, former President Mandela and eight other African Presidents, the signing of a Burundi peace accord. According to the Swahili press Arusha was dazed by the Clinton visit and his retinue of 1,000. The town seemed to be taken over by US servicemen and marines. A police helicopter shadowed his motorcade of 100 vehicles. The President praised Tanzania for harbouring many refugees and for its economic and political reforms. He said that the US would be freeing $100 million year in aid for Tanzania.

OBITUARIES

The well known bearded British former Labour MP ANDREW FAULDS (77) who died on May 31 was born in Tanganyika. In its obituary The Times wrote: ‘True to his African origins he was throughout his life a passionate opponent of apartheid and a champion of both the Third World and the ethnic minorities in Britain. After Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence he astonished colleagues by demanding that Prime Minister Ian Smith should be executed.

The Anglican Church in Kings Somborne, Hampshire, was packed for the Catholic Requiem Mass given at the funeral of FREDA MARCHANT on June 13. She had spent 16 years in Tanganyika during many of which she served as a Nursing Sister in various parts of the country. She had been married from 1954 to Paul Marchant an administrative officer/district commissioner. She was active in helping various charities during her retirement in Britain.

JOHN PEARCE CMG (84) died from cancer of the liver on February 27 in Queensland, Australia. After an impressive period of service as district/provincial commissioner in various parts of Tanganyika he worked closely with the newly appointed Prime Minister Julius Nyerere (in 1961) who asked him to stay on after independence. But he declined on the grounds that this role should be undertaken by a local person (Thank you Mrs Pearce for letting us have this sad news and also Ron Neath for sending us the obituary published in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ -Editor).

WILLIAM (BILL) WENBAN-SMITH CMG CBE (91) who died on January 3 served in Julius Nyerere’s first (pre-independence) cabinet as Minister for Education and Social Affairs. Prior to that he had spent 23 years in up-country administration and five years in Dar es Salaam as Director of Establishments.

READERS LETTERS

COFFEE
I am trying to work out a history of the spread of coffee culture around the tropics and I am wondering whether any of your readers could shed some light on when and from where C. arabica cultivars came to East Africa.

In your article on Kilimanjaro Agriculture in Tanganyika Notes and Records No.64 you stated that the first coffee planting was made at Kilema Mission ‘over 60 years ago’ i.e around the beginning of the century. Monseigneur Le Roy of the Holy Ghost Fathers based in Zanzibar negotiated for the site of the mission at Kilema in August 1890. German plantations around Kilimanjaro appear to have started around 1895 when a Land Commission was set up to give out concessions and a Colonial Economic Committee of 1896 investigated suitable crops, of which coffee and rubber were the most important, so presumably coffee was already available by then. On the other hand robusta coffee had been in use around Bukoba and traded locally in pre-colonial times and the Germans certainly exported this and may well have used it in their plantations initially.

I wonder if the Holy Ghost Fathers were responsible for the importation into Kenya and Uganda from Reunion and then passed stock on to the other countries? Being a French mission, they might well have had contacts with Reunion and their headquarters in Zanzibar could have been used as a port of entry. Furthermore, the White Fathers sent out to the Lake Region and Uganda in 1878 were also French. I wonder if you have any more information or know where I could find some?
Mike Bigger
(The writer is updating the standard work ‘Insect Pests of Coffee’ -Longmans -and has increased the world list of such insects from 890 to some 1,400. Anyone able to help in his research can contact him at Tel: 01568708319 -Editor)

HONEST EVALUATION
Thank you for producing a very good magazine, with lots of interesting information in it. You asked for suggestions about how to improve it, so below I have described my idea.
I lived in Tanzania for a total of 7 years, which means that family and friends, and often friends of friends, regard me as someone who ought to know about things Tanzanian. Obviously I do not feel like an authority in any sense of the word. But increasingly I receive letters and e-mails from people who have been given my address by friends or family, asking for my advice. Typically they say that their 18-year old daughter wants to take a year off before university and has applied to go to Tanzania with an organization for a ‘short-term experience’. They want to know what my opinion is of this organization. Is it a rip-off? Is it reliable? Do I recommend it? Or the letter will say that they wish to give money to a charity that works in Tanzania. Can I recommend one? Will that charity use their money wisely?

I wonder if there is a place in Tanzanian Affairs for a series of articles about organizations that work in Tanzania. I’m not really looking for the facts and figures; they are easily obtainable from the organization itself. I’m looking for an honest report from people who can advise, recommend or even condemn a particular organization. Would this be possible? 1 know that there are many other people in my situation because we ask each other for advice, but frequently we are stuck, and don’t know who to turn to for the answer.
Catherine Lee.

As regards organizations that really work in Tanzania would readers who are able to help please get in touch with Catherine Lee at St. James Episcopal Church, 23 Wu-chuan West Road, Taichung, Taiwan. Concerning charities which work and use their money Wisely I think you should be aware of the Tanzania Development Trust’ which is part of the Britain-Tanzania Society and helps development projects in various part of the country. Its Project Officer is Peter Park, 45 Highsett, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1NZ -Editor

TANGANYIKA NOTES AND RECORDS
I have copies of 11 of Tanganyika/Tanzania Notes and Records (1960-65) -plus the index for Nos. 1-55 -which I would be happy to pass on to anyone who has an interest in them.
V Evans (Tel: 01323 733 966)

PLANE CRASH
You have recently reviewed Randal Sadleir’s book -‘Tanzania ­Journey to a Republic’ in which he describes the events following a plane crash in Handeni in 1952. My uncle was killed in this crash and the local authorities in Tanga (presumably including Mr Sadleir) were kind enough to arrange a Jewish burial and gravestone. Could you let me have Mr Sadleir’s address.
John Rudkin

Randal has spoken to Professor Yudkin and disclaimed any credit for the Jewish burial which he believes was perhaps arranged by the then Provincial Commissioner Mr J C Clarke or his staff as Tanga is 150 miles from the site of the crash -Editor.

A CONTENTS PAGE
A quick thought on the really excellent Tanzanian Affairs. Being quite a substantial publication now it would benefit from a contents page. This would include (as on the cover now) regular sections and, of course, page numbers.
Nick Mc William

Thank you for this suggestion with which I am sure many readers would agree. The trouble is that this would slightly reduce the space for the main text so much good material has to be rejected each time TA is published that I am reluctant to make any reduction in this space. The problem might be eased if we could publish say a separate annual or five­yearly index. Any volunteers to make one? -Editor

REVIEWS

THE POLITICAL PLIGHT OF ZANZIBAR. Ed: T L Mwaliyamkono TEMA publishers Co. Ltd. 2000. 255 pages.

At the annual Consultative Group meeting in Dar es Salaam in May almost every donor delegate stressed the need for the Union government to contain the Zanzibar political situation which they said was tarnishing Tanzania’s image and reputation. President Mkapa responded by cautioning the donor community against patronising the situation in Zanzibar. He advised them to dig deeper into history before making a judgement. This timely and revealing book, which was launched in June this year, could serve the purpose well as it does delve deeply into the history of the Isles and goes a long way to explaining its present political plight.

At the launch, Executive Director of the Eastern and Southern Africa Universities Research Programme (ESAURP) Prof Maliyamkono said that political hostilities go back to the colonial era. “People in Zanzibar are born in politics as they are born like Christians or Moslems” he said. Post-independence governments up to 1995 did almost nothing successfully to unify the people. He went further (some might say too far) by saying that a coalition government (as proposed by the CUF party in the present elections) could not be established in Zanzibar because of fundamental differences, particularly regarding the 1964 revolution. CCM members considered themselves to be pure Africans and had favoured the violent revolution; CUF supporters who were Africans/Shirazis and Arabs, had not supported the revolution. These groupings were almost exactly the same as in the three elections held in Zanzibar in 1961 and 1963. There had been no change. However, neither CUF nor CCM had an absolute majority in the Isles; the election would be decided by the 20% best described as neutral.

The opinion survey on which the book was based was conducted by 75 Tanzanian scholars who interviewed 7,500 Zanzibaris. It reveals people’s views on such issues as ethnicity, race, religion, political affiliation and relations between Unguja and Pemba. Chapters by Professors J Mwimbiliza and D R Mukangara explain how and why these views were formed historically; Judge Ramadhan goes into the legal framework; C A Rugalabamu explains why the 1955 elections were so chaotic; and, Prof Mwaliyamkono delves into the controversial issue of the extent to which Zanzibaris are subsidised by mainland Tanzanians.

This is an excellent book packed with information and data which enables the layman to begin to understand the extraordinary complexity of Zanzibar politics -DRB.

CONFLICT AND GROWTH IN AFRICA. VOL. 2. KENYA, TANZANIA AND UGANDA. J Klugman, B Neyapati and F Stewart. Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 1999. 113 pages.

This is a book about conflict which contrasts in a balanced way (with an abundance of tables and charts) the varying experiences of the three countries from the standpoint of economic analysis. It includes brief reference to earlier history but concentrates mainly on the post­independence period. It concludes that the key economic condition for stability rather than conflict is equitable growth. It describes Tanzania (which has its own chapter, unlike Kenya and Uganda which are grouped together) as having been the most stable country, avoiding even the relatively minor outbreaks suffered by Kenya and attributes this to its inclusive and egalitarian policies along with some historical and political factors. The paper makes sound recommendations for both government and donor policy and repeatedly emphasises the need for inclusive economic and social policies. Democratic reforms alone will not resolve and may even cause political violence it states -DRB.

THEY CAME TO AFRICA. 200 YEARS OF THE ASIAN PRESENCE IN TANZANIA. Lois Lobo. Sustainable Village. PO Box 23904. Dar es Salaam. 100 pages.

The author of this informative illustrated oral history book is a fourth generation Tanzanian Asian who chronicles the lives of Asians who emigrated at various times from India to Tanzania. What makes the book doubly interesting is that the 20 extended families described are selected from the Zaroastrian, Hindu, Jain, Sunni, Ismaili, Ithnasheri, Bohra, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist communities. Even the author admitted that when she started writing the book she did not know enough about these various communities and so she includes a helpful introductory chapter on each sub-group and the differing religious cultures. (Thank you Gloria Mawji for sending me this book for review -Editor.)

BEEKEEPING AND SOME HONEY BEE PLANTS IN UMALILA, SOUTHERN TANZANIA. Paul Latham. 92 pages with over 100 colour photographs. 1999. Available from Bees for Development, Troy, Monmouth NP25 4AB £33.

This is the English edition of a manual produced in Swahili. It is intended to encourage the conservation and planting of useful bee plants (74 are illustrated) in the southern highlands. The introductory section describes log hive beekeeping practised in the area and shows a typical smoker constructed from bamboo.

LOVE -IS IT BLACK OR WHITE? E. Cory-King & V. Ngalinda. Citron Press. 1999.231 pages.

Despite a challenging title that has the appearance of a sociological inquiry, Cory-King’s novel succeeds in promising a little more than it can deliver. Upendo (love) follows the relationship between Eliza, a young woman from Nyaishozi (Lake Victoria), and Mark, a Black English expatriate, posted to work in Tanzania. The couple’s problematic relationship allows the narrative to bring to the fore the dilemma facing young Tanzanian women in a modem context as they struggle against the opposing forces of traditionalism and westernisation. The treatment of Mark and Eliza’s cross-cultural relationship at times shows an interesting level of insight, but on the whole it is burdened by the author’s obsession with cultural nationalism.

Upendo resists falling into any specific genre of novel, precisely because it can’t make up its mind what direction to follow. Cory-King’s narrative moves from one debate to another without really accommodating any depth of discussion; stumbling from the issue of African feminism onto the topic of development and the next minute returning to the subject of cultural nationalism. I remain uncertain as to the author’s intention in stereotyping the novel’s central characters. Could this possibly have been deliberate? Whatever the reason, Upendo has got the lot: the headstrong ‘African Queen’; the greedy Swahili Moslem trader; the handsome yet stubborn male hero; and of course the stiff upper lipped British parents, and not forgetting the down-to-earth American feminist. On the subject of character representation, I became even more concerned when the heroine arrives in Oxford Circus and is ‘instantly assaulted by a pair of black men fighting with knives!’ In fact the only other representation of blacks in England is of Mark’s parents who are portrayed as wealthy and aristocratic as Queen Elizabeth herself. Is this really a realistic representation? By this time, I had consoled myself with the fact that Cory-King’s novel is in fact more of a fairytale then a serious novel.

Indeed, in true fairytale style, the final chapter sees the heroine transported in a glittering carriage (all right, it’s a Mercedes not a pumpkin) to a fairytale wedding with a real prince charming. The more compelling parts of the novel are furnished with vivid and colourful descriptions of Tanzanian village life, thanks to V. Ngalinda who assisted Cory-King by acting as a cultural advisor, and they make lively and entertaining reading.

Readers who have had experience of living in Tanzania may well enjoy this novel, as Cory-King has obviously worked hard to adorn her narrative with the vibrant characteristics of everyday life in rural Tanzania.
Jonathan Donovan

CLIMBING MOUNT KILIMANJARO. S W Carmichael and S Stoddard. 1999. 112 pages. Approximately $ 15.00.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

PERI-URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN AN ERA OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN AFRICA: THE CITY OF DAR ES SALAAM. John Briggs and David Mwamfupe. Urban Studies. 37 (4) 12pp.

Anyone returning to Dar es Salaam after a prolonged absence in recent years will have been struck above all by two things: its prodigious expansion and an apparently vibrant urban economy which has emerged in the wake of economic liberalisation. In this article, co-written by geographers from the universities of Glasgow and Dar es Salaam, connections between these two phenomena are explored. Davis and Mwamfupe argue that the nature of the city’s growth since the early 1990s has been fundamentally affected by the implementation of structural adjustment policies in Tanzania, not necessarily for the better. Prior to 1992, urban growth in Dar es Salaam could be characterised as taking the form of ‘ribbon’ development, which entailed expansion along the main arterial routes leading out of the city. This was prompted by demand for residential space, but more particularly peri-urban land was occupied as agricultural land and used for subsistence purposes in place of, or supplementary to, waged employment. The direction of this development was determined above all by transport availability. In the 1980s, the government-owned company, Usafiri Dar es Salaam, had a virtual monopoly over urban transport, providing irregular and inefficient services to only the most accessible areas, notably those located along the roads heading west and north from the city. As a result, development tended to occur close to these routes.

Since 1992, as the impact of structural adjustment policies has begun to be felt, the character of Dar es Salaam’s expansion has changed. ‘Ribbon’ development has been replaced by ‘in-fill’ development -the occupation of vacant areas between existing population settlements. This has been conditioned above all by the de-regulation of the urban transport sector, with new areas being settled as privately-owned public transport has expanded apace, reaching formerly inaccessible locations. A progression is described whereby pioneer settlers are initially serviced by Land Rovers, and as communities expand and roads improve they are eventually incorporated into the city-wide network of vipanya (small mini-buses) and dala-dalas (larger mini-buses), which in turn encourages further settlement in neighbouring areas. In addition, ‘in-fill’ development has been stimulated by an expansion in car ownership in the 1990s, which has also opened up locations previously considered too remote. Both car and home ownership have received official support amongst state employees, in the shape of supplementary entitlements. Consequently, in some of the ‘in-fill’ areas surveyed by the authors around two-thirds of the houses under construction were owned by government employees.

Another change occurring in the wake of structural adjustment, Davis and Mwamfupe argue, is that the acquisition of land for subsistence purposes has given way to acquisition for investment purposes (either in the shape of property development and rental, or for commercial agriculture). A construction boom in the peri-urban areas has been stimulated by a growth of surplus capital in the de-regulated urban economy. This surplus has stemmed from the expanding economic opportunities resulting from the removal of import-export restrictions and other obstacles to trade. It also arose from -up to the mid-1990s, at least -corruption amongst government officials, who took advantage of the abundant opportunities for private gain during the permissive, liberalising regime of President Mwinyi. Davis and Mwamfupe lament the fact that the surplus generated since the implementation of structural adjustment has been invested in construction and property, as opposed to manufacturing activity. This is one indication, they argue, that structural adjustment in Tanzania is failing in one of its main aims -the promotion of sustainable long-term investment in the productive capacity of the economy. They are concerned that as the consumption boom which occurred in the wake of liberalisation wanes, and as President Mkapa’s anti-corruption initiatives begin to have an impact (thus blocking another source of private -if illicit -surplus), the city’s long term economic health will be adversely affected.

Davis and Mwamfupe are right to voice their concern. However, the position is perhaps not as serious as they fear. Firstly, the construction industry is not -as they acknowledge in an aside -necessarily a ‘consumption-dominated’ rather than a productive activity -it has important linkages which help stimulate economic growth. Secondly, as the memory of the nationalisation of industry and assets in the dirigiste 1970s and 1980s fades (to which the authors, in part, attribute investors reluctance to support industry as opposed to the less risky property development) investors -both domestic and foreign -should become more confident about sinking capital into long-term productive projects. Indeed, there is already some evidence of this occurring -the Bora Shoe Company and Associated Breweries are two examples of recently established local manufacturing companies producing goods for domestic consumption. However, Davis and Mwamfupe are surely right in concluding that without increased investment in industry, the urban economy will be hard-put to provide for its rapidly expanding population. This, as they indicate, is an important failing of structural adjustment policy in Tanzania.
Andrew Burton

AGENCIES IN FOREIGN AID: COMPARING CHINA, SWEDEN AND THE UNITED STATES IN TANZANIA. Ed: Goram Hyden and R Mukandala. Macmillan. 1999. 246pp. £45.00.

In a review of this book in African Affairs (99) Douglas Rimmer writes that Tanzania was a special favourite of donors in the 1960’s and 1970’s especially of Sweden and so warm were the relations that SIDA’s aid could be given as a ‘country programme’ or effectively on the recipient’s terms. ‘Not until 1984 was this approach reluctantly conceded to have been a mistake’. US aid was governed by presidential diktats and congressional prohibitions so that, according to Rimmer, ‘it seems indulgent to characterise it as ‘pragmatic altruism’ as the book does. The Chinese delivered loan aid-in-kind and the resulting enterprises were left to the management of Tanzanians who, according to the book, ‘messed them up’ along with the rest of the state sector. ‘Chinese efforts at rescue through the formation of joint ventures were not well received and the loans have not been repaid’. The book finds that none of the methods of providing aid proved satisfactory and recommends the payment of aid into ‘autonomous public funds, rather like banks or research councils to which bids could be made for complementary funding by institutions (NGO as well as governmental) already receiving their core requirements from other sources. A possible implication would be that aid flows would be much reduced.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICIPATORY MEDIA IN SOUTHERN TANZANIA. Dominick de Waal. INTERVIEW WITH FARIDA NYAMACHUMBO UTAMBIE WANANCHI (TELL THE PEOPLE!). QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT PARTICIPATORY VIDEO. Lars Johansson, Dominick de Waal and Farida Nyamachumbo. Forests, Trees and People Newsletter No. 40/41. Dec 1999/Jan 2000.

It has long been argued that radio is by far the most effective media for rural people in poor countries. The breathtaking advances in technology may be changing that idea. Inexpensive, lightweight, easy-to-use digital video equipment, cheap tape’ and portable editing computers are making possible participatory video (PV) -that is, scriptless video production directed by local people.

In these three fascinating articles the authors describe work that has been going on in southern Tanzania since the mid-1990s. They show that PV is an excellent tool in processes of public consultation, advocacy and policy dialogue, as well as for mediation in conflicts.

Experiments began with the setting up of a communications media facility in Mtwara as part of the Rural Integrated Project Support (RIPS) Programme. The Mtwara Video Centre was formed in 1994. The object was to promote regional rural media that would give villagers a voice and improve their access to information. In this way villagers could influence the management of local natural resources and social services.

Villagers and facilitators with basic video camera skills work together to tell a story so that a social or environmental problem can be aired. During filming the raw material is shown back to the villages where it is shot and villagers choose representatives to help with the editing. Then the edited film is shown in the villages.

One issue chosen and discussed by villagers was prompted by women who ask why men in their village say that all women who sell food and locally produced artefacts are prostitutes. Another arose from complaints from a youth group that they have no market for the cashew nuts they are processing. In a third case schoolgirls complained that when they return from school each day they are faced with a heavy work load while boys have only light duties.

To the question “Isn’t radio a more appropriate medium for reaching rural people?” the authors say: “For reaching out to rural people, yes. But for setting up a dialogue through exchanging tapes with others, and for rural people reaching urban people and policy makers, we found video much more effective. “For capturing the interest of an entire village and initiating debate, a video show is better than playing back an audio tape. Both video and radio are more cost effective than print for communicating with thousands of rural people -particularly if they cannot read. ”

The authors make a much wider point, namely that “there is actually a TV set in the majority of the world’s villages today, even in many places where there is no electricity. People are beginning to watch CNN and BBC in Shinyanga, Mtwara and in Pemba. This is only the beginning of a globalised media landscape in which almost every person in the world is able to watch the same TV images. In this situation doesn’t the decentralisation of video imagery production make a lot of sense?”
Derek Ingram

KNOWLEDGE AND POWER: THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GENDER POLICIES IN MALAWI, TANZANIA AND ZIMBABWE. Nicola Swainson. International Journal of Educational Development. Vo120. No 1. pp 15

LIBERALISATION, GENDER AND THE LAND QUESTION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. Gender and Development. 7 (3) November 1999. 10 pages. This paper focuses on case studies in Tanzania and Zimbabwe and states that current theories of land and debates on gender issues fail to explain the complex processes through which women’s access to land have been affected, contested and negotiated during socio­economic and political restructuring.

CENTS AND SOCIABILITY: HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN RURAL TANZANIA. Deepa Narayan and Lant Pritchet. World Bank/University of Chicago. 1999. Pp 26. After outlining the various concepts of social capital (eg. membership in voluntary groups such as churches, political parties, burial societies farmers groups) the authors explain why and how they created data on social capital using a large-scale household survey designed to illicit social connections and attitudes. By using the Social Capital and Poverty Survey and data from a different survey on incomes, they show that a village’s social capital has an effect on incomes.

INNOVATIVE WAYS FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DAR ES SALAAM: TOWARD STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIPS. Francis Halla and Bituro Majani. Habitat International 23 (3) 1999, ppl0. THE ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND THE CONFLICT OVER OUTPUTS IN DAR ES SALAAM by the same authors in the same publication (11 pages).

The first paper points out that, because of limited public sector resources, until the early 90’s the city authority collected less than 5% of the total refuse generated in the city each day. It evaluates a number of innovative approaches which have proved effective in recent years -emergency cleanup campaigns, community involvement, disposal site management and waste recycling. The second paper writes about the conceptual confrontation among three different approaches to urban development planning in the city -Land-Use Planning, Information Management and Participatory Urban Management.

FINDING WAYS TO FIGHT CHILD LABOUR IN TANZANIA. K. Mehra-Kerpelman. World of Work. No 28. 1999. 3 pages. This article describes how the ILO’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour is helping Tanzania to cope with this problem. It shows how in urban areas children below 15 constitute about half the labour force and that other major areas of child employment include plantation agriculture, artisanal mines and prostitution.

A PLAGUE OF PARADOXES: AIDS, CULTURE AND DEMOGRAPHY IN NORTHERN TANZANIA. P Steel and P W Setel. University of Chicago Press. Pp 272. $19.00. 1999. A case study about the Chagga people and the cultural circumstances out of which AIDS emerged.

THE SOCIAL SERVICES CRISIS OF THE 1990: STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS IN TANZANIA. (Making of Modern Africa Series). Ed: Anna Tibaijuka. Ashgate Publishing Co. 1999. $73.00.

FAMILY PLANNING AND THE POLITICS OF POPULATION IN TANZANIA: INTERNATIONAL TO LOCAL DISCOURSE. Lisa Richey, University of North Carolina. Journal of Modern African Studies. 37.3. 1999. pp 30.

One of the first Third World countries to introduce family planning services in 1959, Tanzania, according to this paper, has been one of the last in Africa to prepare a comprehensive policy. The peculiar ambiguity and ambivalence of the government’s National Population Policy is thoroughly explored, but not entirely explained in this carefully considered study.

When former President Julius Nyerere ardently supported family planning for the purpose of child spacing some leftist groups and religious leaders combined to oppose it and even forced the closure of some clinics during the 1970s, with the leftists blaming “an imperialist and capitalist tendency.”

Posing ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ approaches to the problem the writer describes the latter as tackling it on the basis of the freedom of the individual from interference, especially by government and institutions, while the former sees it in terms of what a person “is actually able to do or be.” The negatives see population as quantitative and the increase in the population leading to the overburdening of development systems, such as the environment, health care and education -even the family itself -while the positives focus on the ‘quality’ of people. Rather than focusing simply on whether or not people have access to services it stresses people’s productive capacities, calling for more social sector spending, employment creation and state assistance for the most vulnerable. The writer suspects that the sudden policy shift from a ‘development’ to a ‘population’ solution might have “strategic” motives, especially as it came at a time when the economy was “hitting rock-bottom”, dramatically altering its relationship with donors and international lending institutions. Developing countries stopped referring to international population assistance as racist, genocidal or imperialistic or accusing western nations of advocating population control as a substitute for foreign aid. It looked very much as though indebtedness and reliance on aid made Third World countries careful about damaging their relations with the West. By maintaining a strategic ambivalence, she believes, Tanzania was able to appease donors by promoting subtly different demographic objectives. During the 1980s changes seemed to be taking place in the government’s overall approach to development, especially when the IMF and the World Bank began to dominate aid to the health sector. The latter began to use “careful” language to avoid any possible implication that its policies had any impact on the government’s national policy, although a Dar es Salaam professor declared that the country was “forced into a policy by conditionalities which were not written down” indicating that the donors really wanted to control population if they were to give aid.

The author concludes that it is unlikely that family planning alone will provide sufficient remedies. It seems that some people in the villages continue to believe that family planning means “white people not wanting Tanzanians to have children”
John Budge

CATALYSING COASTAL MANAGEMENT IN KENYA AND ZANZIBAR: BUILDING CAPACITY AND COMMITMENT
. Lynne Zeitlin Hale. Coastal Management. 28 (1) 2000. 10 pages.

LAKE VICTORIA’S NILE PERCH FISH CLUSTER: INSTITUTIONS, POLITICS AND JOINT ACTION. Winnie V Mitullah. IDS Working Paper No. 87. Brighton Institute of Development Studies. 1999.28 pages.

COASTAL AND MARINE RESOURCE USE CONFLICTS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA. D C P Masalu. Ocean and Coastal Management 43. 2000. 19pp. This paper surveys conflicts (eg: a sugar factory versus fisheries, rice farming versus fisheries, port expansion versus neighbouring users, seaweed farming versus tourism and the marine environment) and recommends the setting up of a lead agency with full authority on all activities in the coastal area.

STROKE MORTALITY IN URBAN AND RURAL TANZANIA. R W Walker and seven others. The Lancet. Vol. 335. May 13, 2000. This paper records the results of regular censuses of a vast population of almost half a million people between 1992 and 1995 including the monitoring of all deaths (11,975) which arose. Amongst the findings were that 5.5% of the deaths were attributed to cerebrovascular disease and that yearly age-adjusted rates per 100,000 were 65 in the urban area, 44 in a fairly prosperous rural area and 35 in a poor rural area (for men) and 88, 33 and 27 (for women) compared with UK rates of 10.8 for men and 8.6 for women. The authors concluded that the high rates in Tanzania were due to untreated hypertension and that ageing of the population was likely to lead to a very large increase in mortality from strokes in the future. (Sir Colin Imray has passed on to us some correspondence he has been having with Sir George Alberti, President of the Royal College of Physicians who is at the University of Newcastle, concerning a related project in which he is interested -it is the Adult Morbidity and Mortality Project –which is looking at all causes of death in Dar es Salaam, Hai and Morogoro (rural) following earlier work on diabetes, hypertension, asthma and epilepsy -Editor).

BIRDS OF DAR ES SALAAM. G Wium Anderson and Fiona Reid. Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania. 2000. Dar es Salaam has 470 of Tanzania’s 1,097 bird species but this illustrated guide for novice bird watchers concentrates on 113 of the most likely to be spotted.

TOP-DOWN DEMOCRATISATION IN TANZANIA
. Goren Hyden. Pp 9. Journal of Democracy. Johns Hopkins Univ, Press. 10 (4) 1999. This book review states that Tanzania’s democratic transition path has been unique in the African context. In other countries there has been political polarisation (eg. Kenya), no improvement after a change in government (Zambia) or military rule (Ghana). Democratisation is moving forward slowly.

DIVERSIFICATION AND ACCUMULATION IN RURAL TANZANIA: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON VILLAGE ECONOMICS. Copenhagen. NIAS. 1999. 244pp.

COMMUNITY-BASED WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT (CMW) IN TANZANIA: ARE THE COMMUNITIES INTERESTED? A S Songorwa, Lincoln University, New Zealand. World Development 27
(12) Pp 18. 1999
This paper states that the ‘fences and fines’ approach to wildlife protection is now perceived to have failed in Africa. In evaluating an alternative approach in which rural communities are given custodianship or management responsibilities (CWM) using the Selous Conservation Programme and seven other African cases, it was found that the communities were generally not interested. Their decision to join the programme was largely influenced by promises of socio-economic benefits which were not fulfilled in line with their expectations.


THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES?

Continuity and change in colonial and post-colonial East Africa
At a one-day workshop at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies on June 21 organised by Andrew Burton and Michael Jennings papers presented included:

The ‘Haven of Peace’ purged: tackling the undesirable and unproductive poor in Dar es Salaam. 1950-85 (Andrew Burton).
Continuity and Change in the laws of East Africa (Emeritus Professor James S Read).
A critique of development from below: Villagisation and ‘customary’ land practices, Dodoma District. (Ingrid Yngstrom).
Popular participation and development crisis in Tanzania, 1961­66. (Michael Jennings).
Central Administration, Local Government, Cooperatives: Organising the State in Tanzania, 1940’s to 1960’s. (Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University, Berlin).
Using Information and Communication Technologies in Tanzania: responses ofinfOImation professionals (Julia Nawe).

EAST AFRICA
The new East African Community’s Secretary General Francis Muthaura was quoted in the East African on April 24 as saying that regional integration would not be achieved without resistance from groups who benefited from the present situation. 13 articles in the treaty dealing with trade were left for further negotiations when the treaty was signed on November 30 1999. The trade chapter is said not to address in detail the need to eliminate internal tariffs. Tanzania ratified the treaty on June 13 but does not expect to be able to fulfil the next stage, the enactment by parliament of a law to make the treaty legally enforceable, until after the elections in October. The ratification paves the way for the establishment of an East African Legislative Assembly and a Regional Court of Justice. The revived Inter-University Council for East Africa was inaugurated on June 5 at Arusha and Tanzanian Open University Vice Chancellor Professor G V R Mmari was elected Chairman of the 27­member Governing Board. The editorial in the East African (June 19) headed ‘Budgeting for disintegration’ criticized the budgets of the three member countries -‘They strongly suggest that the sister states are pulling in different directions … .Tanzania’s budget contained no specific measures for regional integration … Tanzania clearly feels that it is not helpful to team up with rich neighbours until it has crossed through the valley of poverty … ‘.

SOUTH AFRICA
According to the East African (June 5) South African investors are losing their favoured status in the country following what it described as the National Bank of Commerce ‘debacle’. The South African ABSA bought the bank for $18 million and then demanded payment of the same amount from another state-owned bank as a delayed inter-bank branch transaction. South African investors were said to have been left out of the preferred list of buyers for the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd. Tanzania Investment Centre Director Samwel Sitta was quoted as saying “Most South African investors are white. When anything happens at a work place Tanzanian workers are reminded of apartheid”.