‘I BEGAN TO WRITE A NOVEL….’
I would like to thank you for renewing my subscription to the Bulletin. In my opinion it is improving with each issue. I would hardly call it ‘glossy’! (But then again, nor would I call it big-print).
I was especially impressed by the obituary of the Rev. Canon R G P Lamburn whom I met – like many others – on a brief trip to Kindwitwi in 1987. So impressed was I with the place, the people and the man, that upon my arrival in Spain in the summer of 1989, I began to write a novel set in Tanzania with Canon Lamburn and his two young British assistants as major characters! Upon reading of Robin’s death, it was obvious to me that a great soul had passed away.
Paul Isbell Munch
Madrid, Spain.

THE NAME OF A MOUNTAIN
I am a staunch Tanzania-phile and I thought that you might be interested to hear about climbs I made last year of the Mguru Mountain which lies 10 miles North of Morogoro. During a first attempt at Easter three of us succeeded in climbing about two thirds of the way up the northern end. The terrain was harsh; many thorns, biting flies, inconspicuous rock faces and loose boulders. In August we tried again. We walked along the Southwestern ridge of the horseshoe to where (from the West at least) appears to be the highest point. At first a woodcutter’s trail eased our path, nevertheless, towards the top there was very dense bush and a steep gradient.

We tried to uncover more information about the origin of the mountain’s name – in KiUluguru ‘the foot of the bird’. We learnt a number of intriguing hypotheses from our Uluguru friends. These revolve around three central themes. First, that the large rock faces resemble the digits or talons of a bird’s foot. Second, according to legend, a very large bird sent by God is said to have landed on this mountain. Third, from behind this mountain the first aeroplane to be seen in Morogoro was said to have come. Could this plane, as was suggested to us, have been involved in the fierce fighting in the Morogoro region during the First World War? We wonder whether anybody can throw light upon the name of this mountain and we should be interested to hear tales of other people’s adventures on her slopes.
Maxwell Cooper
Volcano Veterinary Centre
B.P. 105, Ruhengeri, Rwanda.

BLACKSMITHS AND BLACKSMITHING
I read with much interest the report – sent out to members of the Britain-Tanzania Society with the January Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs – of the seminar ‘Down to Earth With Appropriate Technology’. I am sure that such technology is not only far more cost effective and less wasteful than large and grandiose projects, but is of more benefit to ordinary people. I would however like to question a point made in the discussion suggesting that during the German and British Colonial periods blacksmithing was made illegal in order to protect the market for imported factory-made tools.

I served as a district officer from 1950 to 1952 in several districts and never heard of any laws or restrictions on blacksmiths who, as I recall, operated in small numbers in many areas. Indeed district officers were keen to promote any economic activity which would increase people’s wealth. With the encouragement of the district administration an attempt was made in 1956 to revive the traditional skills of Wafipa iron-smelters and blacksmiths at Sumbawanga. The hoe produced was said to last at least twice as long as factory made hoes. I remember hearing that the whole process was so labour and time consuming that it could not be made at a price people could afford to pay, or in sufficient quantity. If, at any time, there were restrictions on blacksmiths, I think it more likely that their intent was to prevent the repairing of weapons e.g. muzzle loaders. However, in the mid- 1950’s there were more than 3,000 muzzle loaders in Mpanda district.
Michael Dorey
Hexham, Northumberland

CHANGES IN THE WEATHER
The following is part of a letter from Dr. Esther Mwaikango dated April 25, 1994 which explains vividly the vagaries of the Tanzanian climate; earlier drought in many parts of the country has been followed by violent storms in Dar es Salaam: ‘We are a bit tired of the torrential rains. We pray for rain, and then we pray for it to end. Saturday, on the bus, one man complained bitterly at getting wet from cold rain blowing in the window which couldn’t be closed. A woman answered him smartly – “This rain is a blessing from God. Shame on you for fussing about a small thing. No lives have been lost. That would have been a disaster”. Looking at the roadside, water pouring over the verge as if a cataract, one could wonder at this blessing. And yesterday, a small cyclone blew roofs off in Kariakoo (the centre of the town) and killed at least two people, one a small boy. Over a thousand people have no homes now. It seems like a very comfortable and homely trouble compared with what is going on in Rwanda and Burundi – and one which commonsense and kindness can take care of. Kindness for now and commonsense in city planning in the future……’

HOME-GROWN SUCCESSES
Two brief comments on the Bulletin. It now reads fine in its new big print glossy-papered format. Was Mary Boyd’s protest in the last issue written tongue in cheek? However, am I alone in my feeling that endless accounts of political strife and of projects charitably funded and operated by international bodies are overwhelming other items more likely to enhance the standing of Tanzanians on the world stage? I cannot believe that the many talented and highly qualified people of that country outside politics, are without home-grown successes worthy of record in the fields of business, research, invention and creativity. Could you please consider redressing the balance.
P Hooper

(Fair point! As a first step in redressing the balance please see the article by Cuthbert Kimambo on page 5 – Editor)

THE ALL-TIME BEST
Your issue No 45 was as good as any I can remember, if not indeed the all-time best. I would like to mention a few points.

Firstly, I was taken aback by the coincidence of the obituaries of Dunstan Omari and Lucy Lameck, because when I arrived in Dar es Salaam in 1953, having travelled from London by sea with Dunstan, he lost no time in introducing me to Lucy Lameck. We all went to a dance together and I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear of their engagement!

The reference to War graves on page 22 reminds me that the Commonwealth War Graves commission provides information about named individuals; it also has lists a) of those who died in World War I and are buried at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, Bagamoyo Road and b) for World War 11, all cemeteries in Tanganyika. The lists are alphabetical. It occurs to me that you might wish to get someone in Dar es Salaam to report on the matter.

On ‘This Maddest of Pursuits’ on page 24, who on earth is Martin Cropper? What is ‘cyclothermic’ (Livingstone) and ‘melanothobe’ (Burton)? And what is meant by ‘Livingstone himself never made a single permanent conversion’? Or is it all a joke?
Paul Marchant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE MUSIC CONSERVATOIRE OF TANZANIA LTD.
Thank you very much for your letter of 15. 1. 93. and for the copy of the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs. We are delighted with the review of our book on Traditional Music Instruments of Tanzania. Please thank John Brearley most warmly on our behalf. We have plenty of copies and will be pleased to send them to anyone interested for $5 or £3 plus postage. Our grateful thanks for your help.
Mrs. L.E. Crole-Rees

NANGOMA CAVES
A friend recently showed me the article by Mr. Trevor Shaw on Nangoma Caves in Bulletin no.38, 1991. I would like to correspond with him over the details of the early German visits. Unfortunately, he does not give his address; would you please pass my letter on to him, explaining my interest. I am a zoologist who has lived in Tanzania since 1968, with broad interests, including speleology, bats, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. I do know that in 1924, a German biologist named Ahl described a species of frog endemic to Tanzania from Nangoma cave: the reference is Zool. Anz. 61, p.99. Perhaps this specimen was collected on an earlier visit.

I am told that local people are reluctant to allow biologists to collect anything from the cave, but would certainly be willing to try to organise a visit involving biologists from the University of Dar es Salaam. I was unaware of the larger caves mentioned in Shaw’s article. Thank you for any help you may be able to offer in putting me in touch with Mr. Shaw.
Professor Kim M. Howell

(Regret have not been able to trace Mr Shaw’s address – Ed)

SURVEY OF BIRD FAUNA
I hope to be taking part, with five other Oxford zoologists and two Tanzanian students plus Dr. P Lack, a world renowned ornithologist on East African birds and Dr. Neil Baker, in an expedition to Tanzania to study the bird fauna in the Mkomazi Game Reserve from June 26 to September 7 1993. The bird life in the reserve has never been studied and since birds are good indicators of habitat conditions, Mkomazi provides a baseline against which one may measure change elsewhere. The survey will monitor the ecological conditions and pressures inside and outside the reserve and provide the basis for a future programme of monitoring biodiversity in an African ecosystem. The project has the full support of the Royal Geographical Society, Oxford University and the Schlumberger Corporation but we still need further funds. If any persons or firms reached by the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs would be willing to sponsor us we would be most grateful.
Ben Underwood,
Huntingdon, Cambs. PE18 6PE

RUBONDO ISLAND
I was particularly pleased to hear news of Rubondo Island National Park in the last issue of the Bulletin because this was the last major initiative of Peter Achard, then Senior Game Warden in the Game Department, before serious illness forced his retirement.

Peter can no longer read, but I am hoping his family will be able to convey to him that work he started still continues.
Roger Searle

THE AUTHOR WAS A SHE NOT A HE
I would like to give two comments on the review of my paper ‘The Challenge faced by the Building Materials Industries in Developing Countries in the 1990’s: with special reference to Tanzania’ in the September Bulletin. We seem to share the same views on the future of this sector in the 90s. The point which I disagree with is the suggestion that I tend to confuse “the large scale modern construction sector and the small scale traditional domestic sector’. The classification which is suggested was first introduced in this sector by O’Brien and Turin in the 1960s. They argued that in developing countries there are four separate sectors of construction, viz, ‘International Modern’, ‘National Modern’, ‘National Conversional’ and ‘Traditional’; each of which make different demands upon the building materials industries and is supplied by correspondingly separate building materials sectors. I find this approach quite misleading and untrue. I also wish to let the reviewer know that the author was a ‘she’ not a ‘he’.
Dr. Aida U. Kisanga

‘JUMA’S GOAT’
The September issue of the Bulletin, included an advertisement by Janus Publishing Co. As a result, my wife got in touch with them regarding a manuscript entitled ‘Juma’s Goat and other stories’. It was accepted and has just been published in time for Christmas. It is a book written for 11- 13 year olds about a fictional Tanzanian school boy who wanted a bicycle more than anything else. His rich uncle could have given him a bicycle, but gave him a goat in order to teach him patience and to learn to start from what is at hand. Ultimately Juma does get a bicycle. The stories have a development moral in them and are also concerned with ecology. It should prove interesting reading to children with African interests.
S.v.Sicard

LUSHOTONIANS
The meeting for those at Lushoto School from 1942-6, announced in the January Bulletin, duly took place over the weekend of August 22nd in Lugano, Switzerland. It was attended by twenty-six people from England, Kenya and Switzerland, including husbands and wives. Gazing down from a mountain restaurant at the Swiss Alps, Lushotonians fondly remembered mostly happy school days in very different surroundings fifty years ago.

The friendships formed then between very small children far from home and well educated in difficult circumstances, were very strong and have been helped by the reunion of 1989 and the hard work of the Englers of Lugano. We are now all looking forward to the next reunion in Kent in 1993.
Jane Gibbs

‘I WAS ASTONISHED’ (So was I – Editor)
In the last number of the Tanzanian Bulletin, I was astonished to see on the ’50 Years Ago’ page, a parody of the ‘Ode to Autumn’, describing the Monsoon Season of the Tanzanian Coast. Yes! I remembered that I had written it all those years ago.

As I read it again, I had a vivid picture of a very solid, double-storied German Lutheran Mission building. With the outbreak of war and the internment of the Germens, this building had been taken over by the Government, and used as offices for the administration of Kiserawe District. The offices were on the ground floor, and steep wooden steps led from the wide verandah to the floor above, and this was our home for two years. We looked out on a level with the tops of many coconut palms, shining in the moonlight, and rustling eerily in the evening breeze. All water had to be fetched by porters from the wells in the valley below, and then carried up these steep steps.

The sanitation consisted of a large pit latrine, built a little way from the house. This ‘convenience’ was spacious with a long wooden seat with accommodation for three people simultaneously!

Of the local people, I remember the daily queues sitting on the ground outside the office, bringing their shauris to the ‘Boma’. But I also remember, when, once, during the wet season, my husband was confined upstairs for some weeks with sciatica, the many dignified visitors in their long robes , Arab and African, who came to see him, offering compassion and concern with great courtesy.

We did not often go to Dar es Salaam, 20 miles away, petrol rationing being then in force; but we frequently visited the U.M.C.A. mission at Minaki, 2 or 3 miles away, where in school and hospital Canon Gibbons and Dr. Mary Gibbon must have had a lasting influence for good.

They are good memories of a friendly people – 50 years ago!
Helen Griffiths.

MAGEUZI
I feel sure that some readers of the Bulletin who possess an Oxford Standard Swahil1-English Dictionary, as I do, will have written to you in connection with the first paragraph on page 2 of the May Bulletin (No. 42) , headed, ‘What is Mageuzi’ , and the translation you gave from the “Teach Yourself” dictionary. I agree that the word ‘fluctuations’ hardly fills the bill and I feel sure that the Inter-Territorial Language Committee, East African Dependencies would also agree on the inadequency of this word. In the event of your not having been informed of the Standard Swahili-English Dictionary translation, I quote it as given:
‘Geuzi’ – noun, plural ‘mageuzi’ – usually in the plural, that which causes change, alteration, shifting turn, transformation.

This to me would appear to be a more suitable translation for what is happening in Tanzania today.
Ronald W. Munns. Adelaide.

In your May issue you were looking for a suitable English translation for’ Mageuzi’; but surely it is itself a Swahili translation of the wellknown English ‘U-Turn?’ There is no mistaking what that means.
Alan Hall

PUBLICATIONS BY POLITICAL PARTIES
One of the specialist activities of this Library is the collection of publications issued by political parties in Commonwealth countries. I note with some interest the contents of page 8 of the latest Bullet1n of Tanzanian Affairs where you list new political parties in Tanzania. Obtaining documents from such bodies is not easy, particularly as the parties often do not have postal addresses. Our TANU and CCM holdings are exceedingly modest and I am always seeking to improve them and extend the collection.
If any of you readers can help us in obtaining such documents or letting us know where they could be obtained I would be most grateful.

Patricia Lar by (Mrs), Librarian,
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
28 Russell Square , London WCIB 5DS

DEVALUING SWAHILI
Like Don Barton (Bulletin No 41) I too was intrigued by Dr Thomas saying Kiswahili was ‘still’ being devalued at the end of British rule. I shall not enter the Welsh part of the debate but agree with all Mr Barton says about Swahili.

I would add one further comment. I found myself on safari from time to time with one of the Maryknoll Fathers. His Swahili was perhaps adequate but he had one great advantage over me in that he spoke the local tribal languages (of which there were a dozen or so in Musoma District) and he told me it was his mission’s policy to use the tribal languages (in the 50’s) rather than Swahili as that gave them immediate access to the woman and the home
Paul Marchant

THE TANZAM RAILWAY, THE WORLD BANK AND THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK The abbreviated version of my letter which you published in your May issue did not reflect one of the main points I wished to make. In the penultimate paragraph you used the word “we” without indicating who was represented by the word. (Indeed I was fully aware of the potential of the Port). The point I was trying to demonstrate was that, after consideration in Abidjan and Washington the two banks were sufficiently interested in the TANZAM project for the ADB to send the No 2 of the Bank for discussions in Nairobi (then headquarters of the railway services in East Africa), Dar es Salaam and Zambia. I was asked to accompany him and help him on the mission.
Sir James Farquharson

THE TANZAM RAILWAY AND THE WORLD BANK

Re the article by Mr J Roger Carter on the Tanzania-Zambia Railway in Bulletin No 40. As one closely involved with railway development in Tanzania between 1937 and 1961 I found two parts of particular interest.
First, I am amazed, though no figures are given in the article, that the railway has never achieved financial viability. Any railway carrying over one million tons of long-distance freight, not susceptible to competition by road, should have its finances on a sound basis. Rates would have to be equal to or less than rates on other routes with reasonably balanced traffic (say not more than 60% in one direction). Revenues should meet working expenditures, depreciation provision and reasonable loan charges.

Second, though I cannot speak for the World Bank, I doubt whether the statement that the Bank ‘certainly did not consider future prospects to be sufficiently bright to justify their financial involvement’ correctly represents the Bank’s attitude.

Early in 1967 the African Development Bank asked me to take part in the examination of a concept which had been put to it for a railway that could carry all Zambia’s export and import traffic. I took the view that providing a system of this capacity would be unnecessarily expensive and would be detrimental to Zambia’s long term interests which lay in using routes to the East and West coasts. I advised the Bank to consider a link carrying initially about 40% of the traffic.

A few days later I accompanied an ADB delegation to Washington to examine the possibility of both the ADB and the World Bank financing the project. Further invest investigations continued on two major points; whether Dar es Salaam Port could be adapted at reasonable cost to provide for the increased traffic and the method by which a sound road-bed could be secured at reasonable cost on a known section of unstable soil north-east of Makambako.

In June 1967 on a mission to Kenya (where the East African Railways had its headquarters) and Tanzania, we were made aware of the clear potential of the port. Though a visit was not made to the unstable section of the line it was my understanding that consultants were working for the banks on the problem. (Mr Carter’s article indicates that the problem has not yet been satisfactorily solved).

It was also my understanding that the final views of the two banks would be formulated shortly thereafter. Before any statement was issued by the banks, the Tanzanian Government announced that arrangements had been made for the Chinese authorities to finance and build the railway.
Sir James Farquharson

THE COFFEE SERVED AND THE BABY MILK PROBLEM
I attended, some time ago, the Britain-Tanzania seminar on health which found very interesting, enjoyable and varied. However, I feel I must write to say that I was appalled that we were served Nescafe coffee. The fact that we did not have Tanzanian coffee, as the person due to bring it was ill, is quite acceptable. What I found very hard to understand was how anyone involved with helping the Third World could support Nestle.

Nestle provide hospitals in the Third World with free baby milk. This is fed to the babies in hospital, which often results in their mothers’ milk drying up. Once they leave hospital, most of the babies are then bottle fed with feeds made up with unclean water in inadequately sterilized bottles. The feed is often over diluted to make it go further, if the mothers can afford 1 t at all. Such is the profit that Nestle make that they have no morals about the deaths that are caused due to infection or malnutrition. I am writing this letter because maybe there are other members of the Society who are unaware of the Nestle Boycott. I urge all your members to join the boycott of Nestle and all their subsidiaries. Further details can be obtained from the Baby Milk Action Campaign (BMAC), 23, St Andrewo s St. Cambridge CB2 3AX (Tel: 0223 464420),
Lyn Bliss

(In view of the interest this letter is likely to arouse and its controversial nature and to determine the extent to which the issue raised is relevant to Tanzania we called on two other readers to comment. Their letters follow – Editor)

It is Government policy in Tanzania to actively promote breast feeding and to discourage bottle feeding. In rural areas nearly all mothers breast feed. In urban areas most African mothers also start to breast feed but many return to paid employment at three months after delivery. They usually continue to breast feed when they are at home but the baby will need other foods while the mother is at work. The baby might receive baby milk, but fresh boiled cows milk is also often used though the latter is not ideal for young babies since the protein and salt content are too high. Introduction of other foods before four months of age is not recommended but many mothers do start to give Cerelac (a commercial baby cereal) or homemade porridge (usually based on maize flour with cows milk or ground peanuts) from about three months.

Tanzanians of Asian origin are more inclined to favour bottle feeding from birth but hospital staff try to discourage this.

The importation of baby milks into Tanzania is restricted and they are not supplied free to hospitals or mothers ….

To bottle feed a baby here is very expensive. To exclusively bottle feed a three month-old infant would cost Shs 90 000 per month. The minimum wage of Tanzanian workers is Shs 4,000 per month.

I am aware of the problems raised in the letter and have heard of its effects in many Third World countries but I think the situation is rather different here.
Prudence Eliapenda
Dar es Salaam

HOW DO PEOPLE IN THE THIRD WORLD DEFEND THEMSELVES?
Lyn Bliss has raised a very complex problem viz: How do people in the Third World defend themselves adequately from aggressive Western sales promotion? We in Britain are used to it. But people in the Third World are not.

The organisation Lyn mentions – the BMAC – provides some facts and figures to demonstrate that baby milk products may be marketed so aggressively that mothers are persuaded – even conned – into bottle feeding their newly born infants, particularly it seems, in those countries which have recently industrialised.

But our main concern is Tanzania. Does it happen there? There is no mention of Tanzania in the sorry catalogue of firms which have contravened the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. Europe is top of this league table (135 contraventions described) followed by Asia (98) and the Americas (89). Africa has 70 contraventions listed, one of which is in East Africa (and that is not Nestle and not Tanzania) while 50 are in West Africa and 5 in South Africa.

The overall concern of the BMAC is that baby milk substitutes might be provided FREE to mothers in hospital so that breast feeding is never established. But, said one Tanzanian whom I consulted, “There wouldn’t be time”. In Tanzania some 85% of the population live in rural areas, and might, for a difficult delivery, be admitted to the district hospital or to the two or three maternity’ beds’ (ie: floor spaces) in their local health centre, but the pressure on beds is such that the mothers walk home with their babies the day after delivery. Neither could they buy baby milk once they return home. They couldn’t afford it.

Alas, babies and young children still die from diarrhoea. The infant mortality rate is 104 per 1000 live births, but this can be caused by poor hygiene rather than dirty bottles or infected water. Baby milk products are still needed in Tanzania eg: for orphan babies, for twins, for babies of malnourished mothers and other babies for whom wet-nurses cannot be found.

A boycott against only one firm seems very unfair; Ostermilk and other brands can be bought in Tanzania as well as Nestle products; and Nestle’s multi-national and multi-product firm includes Rowntree Mackintosh so it is chocolate and toffees, as well as instant coffee, that Lyn would wish us not to buy.

For myself, I would rather put my (limited) time and energy into a positive programme for health and nutrition education in the Third World. For instance, I would support the WHO’s suggestion of appointing an Ombudsman to arbitrate between opposing interests and also, where necessary, to draw the attention of health authorities to the problem. Fortunately, African mothers, being wiser than some of us, actually prefer breast-feeding.
Mary Boyd

ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE
Re the article by Steve Vaux on sisal in Tanzania in Bulletin No 38 I would like to add that there is another important factor worth a mention: the use of a high-yielding hybrid (work initiated by George Doughty and continued by George Lock) at many estates at low to medium altitudes.

Unfortunately the use of this plant is not without problems. It 1s susceptible to Phytophthere nicotiana in wet conditions and must not be used in areas likely to be waterlogged for several weeks. More recently, there have been problems with rogue plants (some of these are another hybrid whilst others may have arisen from seeds); and the high yields are associated with high demands on soil fertility.
Although I join Steve in hoping that sisal will regain its place as the ‘white gold’ of Tanzania, I fear that the immediate future is not bright. A review published by Wigglesworth & Co Ltd in December 1991 said: ‘The sisal market, in many ways, is probably in its most precarious position for more than twenty years … the industry is on the edge of a precipice and, without outside assistance, a good part of it may topple over’.

The review attributes the problems to the worldwide recession after the Gulf War, the lack of funds in Eastern Europe for purchase of sisal fibre and the extremely low prices of Brazilian sisal. Some estates in Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar have been able to continue to sell at reasonable levels as they have built up a demand for their name mark but many large estates have not been able to do this. The review considers that support is required from Government and international bodies to avoid a dramatic reduction in the number of estates exporting fibre. The review concludes that ‘Action is necessary now to avoid this politically, socially and economically unacceptable situation:
John F Osborne

ANOTHER COLONIAL MYTH?
I was intrigued and puzzled by the reference in Dr Thomas’ book review (Bulletin No 40) to Kiswahili being ‘still’ devalued in the last part of British rule. I would question the ‘still’, and indeed was not aware of it being devalued at all. At the time Kiswahili was the normal medium of instruction in primary schools; it was the language of the local and district courts, the language in which local bye-laws were framed (and subsequently translated into English for the benefit of a non-Swahili – speaking Judiciary and Legal Department), and was the language of the District Council debating chamber. It was incumbent on the expatriate officer to learn and use Kiswahili, not on the indigenous population to learn English.

This is not to say that there may not have been occasions on which pupils were punished for not speaking English. But this would have been for the purpose of improving English rather than devaluing Kiswahili in schools where English had become or was in the process of becoming – the medium of instruction, and, of course, the key to higher education. There was certainly no official policy of downgrading Kiswahili. We seem to have another ‘colonial myth’.

Dr Thomas also compared the teaching of Kiswahili with the teaching of Welsh. By way of comment may I add the following quotation from ‘The Age of Empire’ by E. J. Hobsbawm: ‘ The prohibition of the use of Welsh, or some local language or patois in the classroom, which left such traumatic traces in the memories of local scholars and intellectuals was due, not to some kind of totalitarian claims by the dominant state-nation, but almost certainly in the sincere belief that no education was possible except in the state language, and that the person who remained a monoglot would inevitably be handicapped as a citizen and in his or her professional prospects.
Donald Barton

AN OASIS
… The Bulletin remains an oasis of information in the middle of a British media desert.
Odhiambo Anacleti

USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
I much enjoyed the article in Bulletin No 39 by R. O. Williams Jnr. especially as I was privileged to be working alongside ‘RO’ in 48/49 in Zanzibar. Ever since those days my copy of his book has always been near at hand for reference. ‘Useful and Ornamental Plants of Zanzibar and Pemba’ certainly merits a new edition because in many ways it provides a model layout which is especially helpful to the amateur. It opens with a very readable section on the structure and function of the different parts of plants and then goes on to list the ‘Useful Plants’ under headings which vary, for example, from the Cereals, Salads, Spices, Fruit, Nuts, Timbers, Medicinal plants, Fish poisons, Perfumes and Dyes to Water containers and Witchcraft plants. The next section provides a cleverly devised simplified flora or systematic guide to the reader in the identification of Ornamental Trees and Plants and this leads on to the main body of the book which, in alphabetical order (by botanical name) provides a description of each species that includes most interesting observations on where they occur and, when appropriate, their local usage.

The book is profusely illustrated with excellent line drawings and photographs. Above all, it succeeds in giving the reader that rare feeling of being given a real insight into the economic and ornamental botany of the Spice Islands and the teamwork, both national and expatriate that went into its 497 pages of compelling reading.
Geoffrey Wilkinson

WHAT ABOUT HYPHENS?
As a founder member of the Britain-Tanzania Society I have naturally followed with interest the development of the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs and have no hesitation in congratulating you on the latest (No 39) – undoubtedly the best so far. The book review section was outstanding though I’m surprised Catherine Price did not comment unfavourably on such a horrible title as ‘Limitations on Women Managers’ Freedom to Network in the Tanzanian Civil Service’. To network?

I should add, perhaps, a personal note to the obituary of Ronald Cox. My wife and I were members of his congregation in Mtwara in 1956 and such was the force of his personality that he had no difficulty in persuading the whole congregation (of all colours) to spend the non-churchgoing part of their Easter weekend bent double clearing with pangas part of the sisal estate which was to be the site of the new church. And many was the time when we found him lifting his cassock to leap over the thorn-hedge rather than waste valuable time coming round by the path and gate on his way to visit us.
Finally, what’s happened to hyphens? Whatever modern word-processors may think they are often a help, indeed necessary. Surely, ‘leopard men murders’ is not as clear as ‘leopard-men murders?’ and ‘man eating lions’ is certainly not the same as ‘man-eating lions’….Ditto ‘in depth analysis’.
Paul Marchant
(We strive after perfection but it’s a poor workman who blames his tools. The word processor was not guilty! – Editor).

THE BITER BIT
In my review of the splendid novel by William Helean (Bed in the Bush) in Bulletin No 39 I pointed out a number of proof-reading errors. I must therefore now apologise for misspelling the author’s name twice and leaving his country of origin, New Zealand with a small ‘n’ in my review. The errors were doubtless due to my inferior calligraphy.
Randal Sadleir
(Again it was not the word processor – or the reviewer. The fault was mostly right here in the editorial office- Editor)

BAD ROADS
Articles in the Bulletin refer often to Tanzanian activities being hampered or prevented by bad roads. A large country with exiguous resources like Tanzania cannot afford heavily constructed roads but lightly constructed roads require active, labour-intensive maintenance. Successful labour-intensive maintenance requires very skilful administration and Tanzania may well have been unable to provide sufficient skilled personnel to administer its road system. Articles in the Bulletin describing which Tanzanian roads are so bad as to hamper economic activity; how they have become so bad; and, what measures are necessary to improve them, would, accordingly, be very interesting.
S. A. W. Bowman

A GOOD FRIEND OF TANZANIA
Regarding the obituary in Bulletin No 39 I remember Ronald Cox in Nachingwea …. as a practical Christian who treated his parishioners, both black and white, firmly but fairly which I am sure gave the Africans a feeling of confidence and religious security …. He took classes in Swahili which I attended on many occasions and when the then Governor, Sir Edward Twining, visited the area it was Ronald Cox who did the interpreting after the Governor’s customary opening of “Jambo, Watu Wote” when speaking to a large African audience – the only three words of Swahili he ever uttered!
A good friend of Tanzania, Father Cox will be well remembered in the old Southern Province.
Ronald W. Munns
Adelaide, South Australia

A SAD END
I found the article ‘My Father and the Useful Plants of Zanzibar’ in the last issue very interesting.
Zanzibar is at present suffering from the catastrophic drop in world clove prices – from £10,000 per ton ten years ago to £1,000 today – due to over-production and competition from other countries. The Die-back and Sudden Death diseases are still with us, though recently an ODA-Funded Research Team identified the cause but not the cure….a sad end to a story of a crop that Zanzibar once supplied to 80% of the world market. The Ministry of Agriculture is still looking (50 years on) for an alternative cash crop and will soon be assisted in this by an ODA-funded ‘Crop Diversification Project’. No immediate solution and/or crop comes to mind and I doubt if the rainfall is sufficient for cacao.

In the meantime a ‘Rainfed Rice Development Project’ is being implemented in an endeavour to save foreign exchange. Progress is not likely to be spectacular, however, since conditions for rice are far from ideal and the rainfall is erratic and insufficient. In the meantime there is a building boom in Zanzibar City as Zanzibar Omanis return to the land of their birth with their ‘petro-dollars’; this is an encouraging trend for the economy despite the strain that it puts on electricity, water and telephone services.
Patrick Smyth MBE (Zanzibar)

In Bulletin No 33 in describing DANTAN it was said that the Britain-Tanzania Society is aged 11 years. In fact it is now 16 years since its inauguration. In Bulletin No 37 the Obituary Notice for Sir Bernard de Bunsen describes correctly how, after preliminary exploration from 1972, the Society was set up in January 1975. The recent AGM on 12 October 1990 was the fifteenth AGM and related to the year 1989-1990.
Mary Boyd
Oops! Editor

THE SOUTHERN AFRICA STUDIES TRUST
You recently published an article by my son on some archaeological sites in Tanzania which I hope your readers enjoyed. I am a trustee of the Southern Africa Studies Trust which supports the work of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of York. For our purposes Tanzania, as a member of the SADCC, is within the Centre’s area of expertise. The Centre is the only significant multi-disciplinary academic unit in Europe concerned exclusively with teaching about and research into the affairs of Southern Africa. It has also helped to build an important documentary archive and regularly organises conferences and seminars. Its teaching is at the post-graduate level but currently, although the demand for places remains high, student numbers are restricted by lack of funds and scholarships for students from Britain and Africa. Further information about the Centre and Trust is obtainable from the University of York, Heslington, York YOl 5DD. Telephone 0904 433670.
Eric Vines
(Mr Eric Vines is the former British Ambassador to Mozambique).