CONSERVATION, DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM AT SWAHILI RUINS
Alex Vine’s article on the above subject in Bulletin No 37 reads very interestingly in conjunction with Mark Horton’s ‘Digging Up Zanzibar’ in No 35. Dr Horton says correctly that during the British period in Zanzibar there was a very ambivalent attitude towards the past. The same applies to the Mainland, except, as Mr Vines says, for the occasional professional like Neville Chittick – and, I would add, the occasional amateur enthusiast among the colonial rulers; one only has to glance at the District Books maintained by the District Commissioners (where are they now?) Mr Vine’s excellent report leaves one greatly depressed. It is difficult to picture what is going to happen, except that there is likely to be more robbery, more neglect and more riding roughshod over the archaeological past, as has been the case on Songo Songo. ‘There is no reason why development and conservation could not go hand in hand. ‘ True. But one only needs to remember that it did not in wealthy Britain until very recently. Surely legislation on the Botswana pattern is the first essential; is there no one in Tanzania prepared to take the first steps? If these first steps were set in train I don’t imagine financial assistance would be difficult to find, especially as Mr Vines says ‘both the Archaeology Unit at the University and the Antiquities Department have the expertise to carry out the necessary assessments.’ The article deals only with the Swahili ruins but if one takes the country as a whole there are many other important prehistoric sites, starting with Olduvai. As World Heritage monuments they could well attract not only specialist tours but also funds. And the European Community itself, three quarters of whose member states are former colonial powers, seems an obvious starting point in a search for resources. I look forward to hearing what happens next. And also to a report on Dr Horton’s 1990 excavations.
Paul Marchant

FACT AND FICTION IN RECENT HISTORY
Much has been achieved in the last thirty years to address the previous imbalance of Eurocentric perceptions of African history – and a good thing too. During the same period – perhaps inevitably – myths about the colonial period have come to be accepted as fact. Has any work been done on identifying the scale and nature of this new mythology, and its significance – if any? I can quote two examples relating to just Ukerewe district in which I served as District Commissioner from 1958 to 1961. A year or two before my arrival the Rubya Forest Reserve was earmarked as one of the country’s first ‘production’ reserves – as distinct from ‘protective’. It fell to me and the Assistant Conservator of Forests to establish it. It was an uphill task and there was a good deal of resistance to the idea from the local branch of the TANU Party. Eventually, after much discussion it was agreed that the local people would be paid to clear the land for a nursery and trial plots and would then be permitted to grow their own crops interplanted with the tree seedlings. The project was showing every sign of success when I left in 1961.

Four years later, whilst working with the British Council in Nigeria, I read in a local newspaper an article about the Rubya Forest by a Nigerian reporter who was doing a series on another former colony. It was an excellent article in many respects but I was astonished to read that the Reserve had been established as a result of local initiative in the teeth of opposition from the colonial government. When I visited Rubya again in 1971 I related this to the Tanzanian Conservator of Forests and his staff and they fell about laughing.

Recent correspondence with an inhabitant of Ukerewe island reveals the existence of the local perception that there was diamond mining at Rugezl during the period of my incumbency. This is a complete fiction. The rea1ity is that in 1959 when the channel at Rugezi , which separated the island (in Lake Victoria) from the mainland, was only about 200 yards wide, it was decided to build a causeway across the channel, retaining the ferry pontoon in a central gap – to be moved aside to allow fishing boats through as need arose. When we came to build the causeway the main item of equipment used was a large mechanical excavator with drag line of the kind used in diamond mining. For several months this was to be seen excavating soil and dredging mud as it pushed a causeway across the channel. This operation is evidently the source of the diamond mining myth.

About 1962 unprecedentedly heavy rains combined with Egyptian decisions about Nile irrigation caused the Lake level to rise by several feet, and a channel over a mile wide was opened up at Rugezi; the causeway was submerged and all evidence of its existence obliterated. One can understand pre-independence anti-colonial propaganda acquiring post-independence respectability. But how much of this has been permanently adopted?
Donald Barton

KINDWITI LEPROSY VILLAGE
I am writing this letter with a great sense of urgency. The Tanzanian department of Social Welfare (because the Treasury simply have not got the money) has cut our subvention by 50%. This means we are unable to feed our leprosy patients, many of them people who cannot feed themselves. We have done all we can to economise; we have cut the payroll, we have revised the ration list. We have been doing a lot of calculations; we need £75 a week to cover the short-fall. (This is the gist of a letter sent out by The Rev. Canon Robin Lamburn of the Kidwiti Leprosy Village at Utete. Contributions can be sent to the Rufiji Leprosy Trust, Horton House, Horton, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9RL – Editor).

THE GENESIS OF MZUNGU
I refer to the short article on this subject in Bulletin No. 34. For what it is worth I offer a copy of a Swahili story with the title’ Kwa Nini Watu Weupe Kuitwa Wazungu’ taken from the publication ‘Hekaya za Abunuwas na Hadithi Nyingine’ which throws a slightly different light on the subject, albeit in a somewhat facetious manner:

Zamani Wazungu walipoanza kuingia katika nchi ya Afrika watu wengi Hawakupenda. Basi ikawa mji wanaokaa Wazungu, watu hama, hutafuta mahali pasipo Wazungu.

Alikuwako mzee mmoja hapa Unguja alipoona bendera za Wazungu zinazidi, akaazimu kuondoka kwenda bara. Akaenda hata akafika mji mmoja mahali pazuri akataka kufanya maskani. Hata jioni akasikia kengele akauliza, nini hicho? akaambiwa, Nyumbani kwa Mzungu huko, pana Mzungu mwalimu anasomsha watu. Akasema, Haya ndiyo niliyoyakataa tangu kwetu. Akapumzika siku kidogo, akaondoka akaenda mbele.

Akafika mji mmoja, akakaribishwa, akakaa. Akauliza habari za Wazungu, akaambiwa, La, hapa hawapo, akafurahi sana. Akafanya maskani, akaanza kufanyiza biashara kidogo, akaanza kusitawi.

Hata baada ya miezi sita, siku moja wamekaa kitako wakasikia mganda unapigwa. Watu wakasema, Safari hiyo! Punde si punde wakaona safari inaingia, wakauliza, Safari ya nani? Wakaambiwa safari ya Mzungu, mwenyewe yuko nyuma anakuja. Alipofika akamwita jumbe wa mji akamwambia, nimetumwa na serikali yangu kuja kutia bendera hapa, maana hii nchi yake!

Yule mgeni akafahamu kuwa ndiyo mwanzo wa kufa kukaa pale. Akaondoka akaenda zake mpaka Nyasa. Alipofika huko akakuta Wazungu wa Serikali, wa biashara, walimu, wawindaji, wamekuwako tangu zamani. Akaona udhia mkubwa, kusimweke.

Akafanya safari akarudi Unguja. Aliporudi akawaeleza watu kisa chake. Lakini akanena, Mimi sijashindwa, maana Afrika kubwa. Sasa nitafanya safari nitakwenda ndani huko mpaka Uganda nikakae. Wenzake wakamwambia, Baba, Uganda kuna Wazungu kul iko huku kwetu.

Yule mzee akasema, Kweli, sasa najua hawa sio Wazungu lakini Wazungukeni. Hii Wazungu ni mkato wake tu, wamekwisha tuzunguka.

Ronald W. Munns
Adelaide, Australia.

THE GROUNDNUT SCHEME
I am publishing a study of the Queensland-British Food Corporation at Peak Downs – an activity of the Overseas Food Corporation which was also responsible for the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme. I would like to make a comparison between these two ventures. I wonder whether any of your readers could help me to answer a number of questions.

Firstly, why was Kongwa selected for the initial and principal project? It was not in the original Wakefield list but was added after a suggestion by Tom Bain, a settler near Kongwa, and a field inspection but despite contrary advice from the Governor, the Director of Agriculture and the Director of the East African Meteorological Department. Having been added to the list, how did it become first choice?

Secondly, what has happened to the area since the scheme was abandoned and what is happening there now? I understand that it was handed over to the Tanganyika/Tanzania Agricultural Corporation in 1955 and that this was subsequently amalgamated with the National Development Co-operation. How is it now managed? What is the farming ranching system and how successful is it?
I would be grateful for any help your readers may be able to provide.
Dr W.T.W. Morgan
Geography Department, University of Durham.
South Road, Durham DHl 3LE

NATURAL CRYSTAL FORMATIONS AT THE MUFINDI GOLF COURSE
I was interested to read the article by Colin Congdon in Bulletin no. 34. My memory of Mufindi golf course goes back to 1960 but, during 1961, I had a period there during which I hunted natural crystal formations. I was alerted to these through George Newton who was responsible for the upkeep of the golf course. I recall being driven in an Austin Devon at great speed down to the fourth green to check on the snakes. They came there for water even during the dry weather.

Later I came across black garnets at the fourth green instead. At the fifth green and on the slopes down into the forest there were red garnets of low value everywhere. But between the eight tee and green on the right hand rough there was a deposit which later proved to be a form of Zircon.

The finest formation was however on the lower edge of the bunker before the ninth green. This contained a group of clear and rose quartz crystal of large size, A magnificent find.

These all came to light while assisting with the reconstruction of the bunker at that time.

What is remarkable is that these memories returned only recently in the UK when I tried in vain to transfer an 8mm cine film of my family on the Mufindi golf all those years ago, onto video-tape. Having read Congdon’s article I really will have to try once again to preserve my family’s very fond memories of Mufindi and its golf course.

Colin Clinton-Carter, Sylhet, Bangladesh

AN EARLIER EXHIBITION IN JAPAN – A CHEETAH FOR THE EMPEROR
The interesting article ‘Tanzania and Japan’ in your May issue prompts me to recall Tanzanian participation in EXPO’ 70 at Osaka, a project for which I was responsible in the Ministry of Commerce under the leadership of the then Minister, Mr. A. M. Babu.

Our beautiful pavilion which was prefabricated in Dar es Salaam from 180 tons of the finest MNINGA and MVULE timber from the forests of the Usambara mountains, shipped to Japan and re-erected on the Senri Hills site near Osaka, was generally adjudged to be one of the 12 best in the EXPO.

It took the form of a stylised Ujamaa village surmounted by a palm tree and comprised four Halls of Nature, History, Culture and Progress, featuring inter alia a plaster cast of Homo Zinjanthopus, fish from Lake Tanganyika, the newly discovered blue gemstone ‘Tanzanite’, the Meru Sapphire, magnificent Makonde carvings, paintings by Sam Ntiro and vast background colour photographs of Mount Kilimanjaro and the glorious scenery and unrivalled flora of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

The pavilion was manned for the six months of the EXPO (March-September 1970) by a team of young ladies selected for their beauty and charm under the leadership of Mr. Frank Ettutu, the Executive Officer of the pavilion.

In June the Second Vice-President, Mr. Rashidi Kawawa led a 17 man delegation to Japan for ‘Tanzania Day’ on which a superb performance was given by snake dancers and stilt dancers, the police band, the Morogoro Jazz band and the famous blind drummer Morris Nyanyusa.

Earlier, two splendid cheetah had – not without difficulty – been caught in the Serengeti and flown over the North pole to Japan where one had been presented to the Emperor and the other to the Lord Mayor of Osaka as unique gifts from the people of Tanzania.

On his return to Tanzania Mr. Kawawa was quoted in the Sunday Post as having said that part of Japan’s interest in developing more trade with Tanzania had been because of the country’s successful pavilion at the EXPO. He said that Tanzania’s participation had showed the host country and other nations in the world, Tanzania’s rapid development in industry and culture as well as in international cooperation.

LUSHOTO SCHOOLGIRLS
Two ex-Lushoto schoolgirls, Ursula and Vera Engler who live at Via Cathedral 15, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland would like to get in touch again with former Lushoto pupils. I would be much obliged if you would publish this letter.
J. H. Leslie

‘SHORES WILL BE DESTROYED IN LESS THAN THREE DECADES’
With reference to the destruction of marine life which I wrote about in the last issue of the Bulletin, I have now found further cause for concern.

In UNESCO’s ‘Development Forum’ of November/December 1988 it is stated that ‘Salt makers are destroying the mangrove forests along the coast by cutting the trees for salt pans and felling hard timber for drying’.

Michael Pearson, a marine ecologist at the University of Dar es Salaam has warned that Tanzania’s coast al shores will be totally destroyed in less than three decades. Coral reefs are being destroyed by dynamite fishing, use of stone anchors and careless fishing with bucket traps. Fish catches have declined f om 3.2 tons per fisherman in 1981 to 1. 36 tons in 1986.
What is being done to improve the situation?
Christine Lawrence

MARINE GARDENS OF THE TANZANIAN COAST
On reading ‘Why are the Italians Not Coming to Mafia’ in the last issue of the Bulletin I was filled with alarm at the idea of Italian tourists, or tourists of any sort Whatsoever, flooding into Mafia. I have never visited the Mafia group of islands myself but know that their beautiful and special marine life is something to be preserved from the pollution and damage experienced further up the coast of Tanzania and Kenya. Dynamiting of fish; collecting for the marine curio trade; the pressure of tourism; and, pollution from sewage have all contributed to reef and marine life destruction.

The main attraction of Mafia is its game fishing and marine life so if any benefit is to be reaped from tourism there, conservation must go hand in hand with development.

I understand there is a modern style Fishing Lodge which possibly needs upgrading but cannot conceive why it should be necessary to enlarge the airport as long as small planes are available. The island is only 152 sq. miles and largely covered by coconut plantations. Is it possible for a tourist to arrive by sea? I feel this would be ideal.

Peter Marshall wrote in ‘Journey Through Tanzania’ (1984) “In the limpid water of the Indian Ocean myriads of brightly coloured fish – such as the damsel, angel and lion fish – sway luminously amongst the delicate coral formations. On the sea-bed, crabs, squirts, starfish, sea cucumbers and shells of all colours and sizes add to the irridescent ballet of underwater life. The extremely rare ‘dugong’ or sea-cow also comes to breed amongst the swaying sea grasses. Ancient mariners believed it was a mermaid … The Mafia Channel, breeding ground for the great white shark, also has a large population of giant turtles which can be seen swimming by. During the north-east monsoon the turtles come to lay their eggs on the white corraline sand of the small uninhabited islands to the east of Mafia. The area is an extremely rich habitat … It would be tragic if these magnificent marine gardens of the Tanzanian coast disappeared.”

Some legal protection has been proposed for the area: Chole Bay and Tutia Island were declared Marine Reserves in 1981 but no regulations have yet been implemented. It has been further recommended that the Rufiji Delta and the entire Mafia area should become a biosphere reserve (U.N.E.P. and I.U.C.N. ‘Coral Reefs of the World’. 1988). The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is responsible. Can we know what is being done about this please?
Christine Lawrence

KILIMANJARO CENTENNIAL
With reference to ‘Kilimanjaro Centennial’ (Bulletin No 32) I would like to add that another explorer’s anniversary, that of the three-month visit of J.J. Thomson in 1883 to Mangi Mandara at ‘Old’ Moshi and his excursions up the mountain was marked by a re-enactment, based on his journals, in June 1954 performed in the quadrangle of the then ‘Old’ Moshi School by pupils, with one of them, the great great grandson of Mangi Mandara, in the role of his forebear.
P.H.C. Clarke

UNIVERSITY LINKS
It was good to see (Bulletin No. 32) a list of University links between Tanzania and the UK since I suspect that many people are not aware of their range and number. In this regard, I would like also to mention that the Sociology link is co-ordinated from Hull University but also includes links with the Universities of Glasgow and Cambridge. The Cambridge side of the link, is over ten years old. It is focussed on the Cambridge University African Studies Centre and Churchill College, and it has been very valuable for creating and maintaining research and teaching interests on both sides. At present two staff members of the Dar es Salaam Department of Sociology are with us here in Cambridge and we expect a Cambridge visitor to be in Dar quite soon. I will be glad to provide further information for those interested.
Ray Abrahams
Chairman, African Studies Management Committee

In the September Bulletin there was a lively discussion of the Teaching of English in Tanzania. But unfortunately there was a good deal of over-simplification and even downright confusion about aims and objects.

Firstly, there is no doubt whatever that when a nation first becomes independent it needs to stress its own language for both social and cultural reasons. Anything less does not satisfy the aspirations of nationhood and the important sense of belonging to a country. But Tanzania has gone through that period many years ago. Secondly, a sound knowledge of English is much more important in the world today than it was even twenty years ago. There are many commercial and cultural avenues which are blocked if the nationals of a country – any country – do not have a fair knowledge of English. Thirdly it is not necessary to have Shakespeare ‘rammed down the throats of pupils’ in order to encourage them to appreciate him, not as an English dramatist, but as quite simply, the greatest dramatist the world has ever known – a title acknowledged everywhere as true.

In a word, Tanzanian educators and University personnel need to forget about English as the language of their former colonial bosses, and face the fact of English as an increasingly valuable asset – the most important of all the world languages.

I was recently speaking with some Tanzanian students in Birmingham, and they wished very much that before coming to England to further their studies, they had learnt a great deal more English as a means to a finer education and a better future. But they were all intensely proud of their own language. That surely is the point.
Noel K. Thomas

THE EARLY DAYS OF THE KNCU.

On page 33 of the May Bulletin there was a quotation to the effect that Africans started and ran their own cooperative union ” … right under the nose of the colonial master” .

I would like to remind the correspondent concerned that the cooperative idea started in Britain (Rochdale in 1844); that the Kilimanjaro Native Planters Association, as the Union of Chagga coffee planters was originally known, was founded shortly after World War I at the instigation of a British administrator, Mr. (later Sir Charles) Dundas; and that it was very ably managed until the 1950’s by Mr. A. L. B. Bennett encouraged by the Department of Cooperative Development.
W. Wenban-Smith

TANGA YACHT CLUB
I have been asked to write a short history of the Tanga Yacht Club. I believe that some of your readers have enjoyed many hours sailing under the auspices of the Club. I would be very grateful therefore if some of these former members would drop me a line describing any interesting experiences that they have had over the years preferably with the approximate date. Just the year would be fine. I would like particularly to be in touch with former office Holders.
Jeannette Hartmann
PO Box 299,
Tanga

PREJUDICE
In Bulletin No. 30 you printed a letter from a reader of African Concord under the title ‘Is Tanzania So Special?’ In it the reader points the finger at developed countries and corrupt leaders. His or her statement ‘some responsible people in Government are gay’ strikes me as very prejudiced. The sexual orientation of leaders does not mean they are corrupt. The Bulletin should not print material which contains this kind of prejudice particularly when the writer is trying to offset another kind of prejudice ie: that against Black people. In future I hope you will exclude such material.
Judith Holland

FROM NYERERE TO NEO-CLASSICISM – A REPLY TO MICHAEL HODD
The article “From Nyerere to Neo-Classicism” by Michael Hodd (Bulletin No.30) can be regarded as a continuation of a campaign initiated at a conference in “Tanzania after Nyerere” he organised at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in June 1986. Anybody reading the Hodd article or some of the conference papers cannot help noticing some half truths and untruths aimed at discrediting (not constructively criticising) Julius Nyerere, both as a statesman of undisputed integrity and commitment to the welfare of his people and as an intellectual. Let me hasten to add here that these qualities do not make Nyerere infallible.

Nobody is more aware of the mistakes and failures of some of the Party and Government policies during his rule than Nyerere himself; one has just to refer to his four-hour keynote speech to the 1982 CCM National Conference for the relevant evidence. Most of the changes, which are now being credited to the Mwinyi Government, were initiated by Nyerere and his colleagues during the period 1982-85. These include the upgrading of the role of the private sector in the national economy, reintroduction of the secondary cooperatives and local government institutions hence consolidating the decentralisation programme of 1972 and people’s power to manage their own affairs), trade liberalisation and deconfinement of capital and consumer goods, etc. This is not to belittle the august efforts being undertaken by the Mwinyi Government since its assumption of power in November 1985, but Only to document the roots of the current changes taking place in the country, at least for those who care for the truth and an intellectually stimulating debate.

The crucial point here is the fact that there is more continuity in these processes than the reversal of the main body of policies as Michael Hodd is attempting to tell us. At a recent meeting with Tanzanians living or studying in the U.K. in London, President Mwinyi said as much when replying to a question why his government came to the agreement with the IMF more quickly than his predecessor’s. Sheikh Mwinyi not only said that Tanzania had to agree because it could not stand any more ‘arm-twisting’ by the IMF, etc, but also that his Government started from where the Nyerere Government had left off, implying continuity. More importantly for the Tanzanian Left, the IMF’s conditions did not include the dismantling of the parastatals sector to make way for privatisation (which is held as sacrosanct by the neo-classicists) and wage-freezing, pillars of Reagonomics and Thatcherism. There are many people in Tanzania and in the U.K. who do not accept that these are the best solutions to our country’s problems even if they are success stories in the U.K. and the U.S.A. notwithstanding the fact that there are many people sleeping in the streets of London and Washington D.C. At any rate, who has given the Reaganists and Thatcherites the right to impose their own view of the world on Tanzanians?

If the parastatal sector has been left to continue by the IMF and from superficial observation of the current Economic Recovery Programme, which is being supported by both the IMF and World Bank, not to mention some Western governments, can one really talk of a full-scale demolition of socialist institutions and an installation of a capitalist economy in Tanzania by President Mwinyi with the assistance of the IMF? …

At this juncture it is pertinent to quote in extensu from a book “The Development of Capitalism in Africa” by John Sender and Sheila Smith:

The intellectually influential advocates of ‘free’ market forces and a non-interventionist state ignore the overwhelming historical evidence concerning the central role of the state in all late-industrializing countries. One consequence of adherence to an anti-statist ideology is that the possibilities and opportunities for supporting much needed improvements in quality of the state initiatives have been forgone. Instead the attention of many economists has been focused on the degree to which the public sector pre-empts or ‘crowds out’ private entrepreneurship, on the quantity of state expenditure, rather than planned improvements in their quality. The prospects for accumulation, industrial growth and the maintenance of the capacity to import will be bleak if policy makers and those influencing their decisions in the most important international financial institutions continue to be persuaded of the evils of state intervention per se. The outlook will also be bleak if economists continue to pretend that an optimal allocation of investment resources can be achieved only by reference to the benchmark of a mythical, undistorted or perfectly competitive market.

Perhaps, it is necessary to state that what is being said here is not in defence of the Tanzanian parastatal sector per se, rather it is a recognition that it is an important premise for the development of the country if given a chance, including ridding it of bureaucratic inefficiencies, mismanagement, embezzlement, venality, undemocratic practices and procedures and non-responsiveness to popular demands and aspirations. There is no evidence to suggest that these ills in our society are inherently a product of its socialist policies. In fact, the evidence shows that these ills are increasing alarmingly. Some people are blaming this state of affairs and wild game poaching on cuts to earn increased incomes. I am afraid a man-eat-man society is fast in the making in Tanzania and all of us know the reason why it is so.

All this is part of Hodd’s “although the rich might get quite a bit richer, the poor will be better-off as well”, the same old story of the trickle-down theory. Efficacy of this theory has long been in serious doubt; it is not worthy of mention here. Nonetheless, one is tempted to ask what prevents trickling of wealth to the poor in developed countries in which a substantial number of their Citizenry have to resort to living and sleeping in the streets. Or is it true that the rich and yuppies capture all the benefits of Reaganomics and Thatcherism so that even the crumbs falling from their dining tables are hardly enough to offer a decent life to these street men and women? Individualism, which allows the murder of a pregnant woman in a motorway or the starving to death of a child because communal concern is considered as interference is subject to serious questioning by all those who value human life more than money. Romanticism apart, surely, some values of Tanzanian socialism are superior!

Finally, the point raised by Hodd “Western trained economists are now in senior positions in the key Ministries and in the University” is mind-boggling. Since when have positions in Tanzania’s key ministries and universities (incidentally Tanzania has two universities since 1984) been occupied by Eastern trained economists; Who are these people? Can Hodd produce a list? I hope it can be published in the next issue of this esteemed Bulletin? To my knowledge, there is only a handful of people who have been trained in Eastern Europe, in senior positions. Apart from the veteran Tanzanian Marxist and former Minister, Abdulrahman Mohammed Babu, who fell-out with the system many years ago because of his insistence that Tanzania adopt and implement appropriate socialist policies, there are the present Deputy Minister and Principal Secretary of Industries and Trade, the Director-General of the Muhimbili Medical Centre and the General Manager of the National Insurance Corporation. At the University of Dar es Salaam there is the Director of IDS and the Director of the Economic Research Bureau. At Sokoine University in Morogoro, there is nobody trained in Eastern Europe in a senior position.

Thus, any socialism or its semblance installed and still existing in Tanzania is the product of Western education and culture. That includes Julius Nyerere and the overwhelming majority of his colleagues in TANU or CCM and Government during the past two and a half decades. Even his economic advisers (Professors Justinian Rweyemamu (now late), Justin Maeda and Simon Mbilinyi) are products of Western education, all holders of PhD degrees from well known US universities. Whether they were committed socialists or free market adherents, I leave it to Michael Hodd to tell us, hopefully in the next issue of this Bulletin! In any case, there are very good socialists in the West as there are vaery ‘good’ capitalists in Eastern Europe. To be sure, a person’s Educational environment may have an influence on his/her political and economic views, but in the final analysis it is his/her personal decision to become a devout socialist or capitalist, the dichotomy between East and West notwithstanding.

If Hodd if trying to exonerate the West of responsibility for what has happened in Tanzania during the past 25 years, it is evident that he is doing it in a very bad and clumsy manner. I am sure there are many Tanzanians who could not care less one way or the other. These people’s concern is how we can move further along the socialist path, overcoming difficulties on the way, in order to achieve the ideals of human dignity, respect and equality. Admittedly, these may appear idealistic at this point in time, but they are worthy objectives to live and fight for. Tanzania’s problems are not insurmountable, Given appropriate policy interventions and political goodwill, there is a way to overcome and solve them and eventually succeed, It is important that all Tanzanians realise that in the final analysis it is their hard work and perseverance, coupled with appropriate policies, which will bring about development of our country, Any outside assistance is only catalytic to our endeavours to build a humane and just society,

Regarding people trained in Eastern Europe going to Western Europe and USA to study, it is not necessarily because they aspire to glorify Western educational and cultural values more than those of Eastern Europe. Many of them, especially those who returned home in the sixties, were subjected to ‘academic’ discrimination and humiliation, including evaluation of their degrees and diplomas, before they were finally ‘accepted’ as ‘educated’. As part of this ‘acceptance’ process, they had to ‘travel to the West for ‘brushing-up’, As a person, who was trained in the first instance in an Eastern European country, I should know! If I were a cynic, I should blame all this on Western academic (or capitalist?) arrogance which has been inculcated in the minds’ of my former classmates in school; they take it upon themselves to be both prosecutors and judges of my academic qualifications. Ironically, this discrimination is not practised in the U.K!
Juma Ngasongwa

CURRENT PRICES (May 1988)
In response to the Goodchild’s letter in the last Bulletin I have obtained some details of current prices from my daughter who lives in Dar es Salaam.

Various staple foods ie rice, sugar and maize flour, have controlled prices but are not always available at these prices.

Current prices in shillings:
Eggs 15 each
Rice 40-55/kilo
Maize flour 20/kilo
Sugar 40-80/kilo
Margarine 400/kilo tin
Fresh milk 40/litre
Beef Steak 200/kilo
Chicken 300/kilo
Pork 120/kilo
Beef with bones 150/kilo
Petrol: Super 44/litre
Petrol: Regular 38/litre
Soap: Bar 20
Soap Powder 40/15oz

Wages:
Minimum 1,200 per month. (Since increased)
Secondary School Teacher 3,000 – 5,000 per month
Manager 7,000 per month

The better jobs often carry perks ie: cheap housing and transport. Manufactured goods are now widely available in the shops but prices are very high. (Exchange rate is about Shs 175 to the £ Sterling – Editor)
Ray Galbraith

THE STATE OF THE ROADS
When I last wrote to you I explained about the poor coverage given the Bulletin to the Tanzanian infrastructure and I was consequently pleased to see the recent article about the Transport and Communications Corporations.

My main infrastructural interest is in highways however which your article did not mention. I believe … that the highway system suffers from maintenance problems worse even than those of the railways.

When I lived in Tanganyika between 1950 and 1962 a pressing interest in the state of the roads was regularly displayed by much of the populace and I am sure the subject still grips the attention of many Tanzanian citizens. I am accordingly surprised that the highway system features so little in the extracts you publish.

I have the impression that the transportation by road of Zambian copper virtually destroyed the road system of Southern Tanzania and that the highways in much of the remainder of the country have been crippled by neglect. I should be very interested to learn whether my information is correct or not. Maintenance is tedious and thankless to carry out but there is very little point in capital investment in the absence of proper arrangements for maintaining the resulting capital stock.
S.A.W. Bowman

THE COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
I wonder how accurate is the picture of the Tanganyika Administration in 1938 taken from the report in the Tanganyika Herald at that time and reproduced in Bulletin No. 30. It would be interesting to know what reaction there was to the original article. I have read that, at times in the inter-war years, morale was low because of financial stringency, pay cuts and rumours that the territory would be handed back to the Germans but I very much doubt that it was generally so.

Certainly, Mr, Balfour’s view bears no resemblance to the Administration I knew throughout the 1950’s… Up country our hours were from either 7.30 or 8.00 am; to 4 or 4.30 pm and up to 12 noon on Saturdays – longer than has applied here in the UK for many years … a great many Colonial Service officers put in far more hours, I had to put in at least 50 hours per week to keep on top of the job and this was not very exceptional … Once, in a moment of weakness, I told a Greek settler that I thought pressure of work had increased over the years. He did not agree and related how, in the 1930’s, he had gone the 20 miles to Sumbawanga on his donkey arriving about 9pm and finding the District Commissioner still at work.

Since Independence I have visited districts where I once worked on several occasions and found my Tanzanian successors busily employed too. Some of them expressed surprise that we managed with se few staff …
Michael Dorey

SOKOINE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
With reference to the short report in the May issue of the Bulletin on the suspension of 297 students (out of 500) at Sokoine University of Agriculture I would be most grateful if the following facts were brought to the attention of your esteemed readers.

– The students were suspended for removing from some of the rooms double decker beds which had been installed for those who opted to use them. They had a choice to live off-campus and receive Shs 2000 monthly to meet costs involved. They were also suspended for obstructing their colleagues from using the double decker beds. Finally, they were suspended for refusing an order of the Executive Committee of Council requiring them to install the beds they had dismantled. This indicates that refusal to live in threes in rooms designed for two was not the basic reason for the suspension. They had the freedom to live off-campus if living in threes in rooms designed for two was considered (by them) to be inconvenient.

– 250 of the 297 (the figure was 296) resumed classes on 15th March 1987, 25 were suspended up to the end of 1987 and the rest up to the end of 1990. Council set up an ad hoc committee to investigate causes for the unrest. The suspended students were also allowed to use their right to appeal to a statutory Disciplinary Appeals Committee.

– Council, at its meeting on 2nd September, received reports from both committees. Council has allowed all those still on suspension to resume studies in January 1988. This follows from the advice of the two committees.
I hope that this information will help to get the facts up-dated.
Professor G.R.V. Mmari, Vice-Chancellor

A SLUM
Your issue of September 1987 quotes a woeful article in the Economist(June 20th) in which Tanzania is describedas ‘a slum’ and Kenya as a ‘shaky success’

Fortunately, one of the hard-won liberties of the 1980’s is not to have to pay the slightest attention to economists. Their capacity for producing conflicting analyses of trees while missing woods is inexhaustible.

I was however struck by the fact that the quote should appear close to an account of a Frenchman’s tourist experiences in Zanzibar in which he found the Kenyans not very pleasant and the Tanzanians friendly and happy.

I will personally fund five days in a Nairobi shanty town for that Economist feature writer’s next holiday, to be followed by five days in any Tanzanian village, so that he may return to Berkshire, or wherever, with his spirits revived.

Tanzania may be going through an economic upheaval, but it is in the strength of Nyerere’s ideas and policies that that upheaval brings immediate and tangible benefits from the top to the bottom of society – even though the policies themselves have necessitated the upheaval. Name me one other country where the same has been, or could be, achieved.
Dr. Tim Cullinan, Mbeya

PUNCHING
I refer to your article in Volume 28 of the Bulletin concerning the views expressed by Eileen Stillwagon on oppression of women at the University of Dar es Salaam.

I do not entirely agree with the impression created by Ms Stillwagon. The ‘Wall Literature’ on a wall at the back of one of the cafeterias is used as a mechanism to check the behaviour of members of the University community, not the women alone. Thus, anyone in the University can be ‘punched’, ranging from lecturers to students and the person who ‘punches’ others comes from any part of the University community – not from the engineering department only.
Female Ex – University Student

MAKONDE AND MAWIA
In the September issue of the Bulletin I was interested in the contribution by Mr. Godwin Kaduma ‘The Makonde Carving: Its Essence’. For nine years I worked at Newala on the ‘Makonde Plateau’ looking over the Ruvuma River to Mozambique. Members of the Mawia tribe, a tribe in Mozambique, frequently came over from Mozambique to seek work on the sisal estates on the coast and to sell their carvings. The Mawia were a tribe quite distinct from the Wa-Makonde different in their language, manners, habits, characteristics and appearance. Mr. Kaduma describes them accurately in describing Wa-Mawia – not Wa-Makonde!

The Wamawia are by nature gifted artists . This is evident in their ebony carvings showing the decoration of their heads, the pattern of their hair treatment, the pattern of their facial markings (Mr. Kaduma calls them ‘tattoed’; actually they are ‘incised’ – carved on the skin); also they file their teeth to a point.

A Mawia boy came to St. Josephs College, Chidya; he stood out clearly from the others especially in his gift for drawing pattern and picture making.

I understand that a group of Mawia settled near Dar es Salaam and sold their carvings which came to be known as ‘Makonde carvings’. Someone better qualified than me could give the Mawia their due and describe their characteristics.

The late Dr. Lyndon Harries shared life with me at Newala for a time and studied the Mawia language and I think wrote about it.

I fear the tourists who buy these carvings have spoiled their art by showing their preference for what is less original or, as Mr Kaduma says, less authentic.
Canon J.W. Cornwall

(Christine Lawrence who has also lived in the area has been doing some further research on the matters raised by Canon Cornwall and writes as follows – Editor)

It is not surprising that Canon Cornwall is puzzled over the Wamakonde and the Wamawia. In fact, they are one and the same although the latter is a nickname. This is explained by J. Anthony Stout in his book ‘Modern Makonde Sculpture’ (1966. Kibo Art Gallery Publications, Nairobi).

‘The Makonde are Bantu Africans and a distinctive people. These sculptors, or, in some cases, their fathers, were born in the north eastern corner of Mozambique. There is also a Makonde people indigenous to the area north of the Ruvuma in Tanzania’. Dias (in his book ‘Portuguese Contribution to Cultural Anthropology’. A. Jorge Dias. Witwatersrand University Press. Johannesburg. 1961) supposes that both Makonde groups were closely related at one time but have developed important cultural differences from their long separation.

Stout goes on to write ‘Because of the high cost of goods and the scarcity of employment in that part of Mozambique, there has long been considerable migration across the shallow Ruvuma into Southern Tanzania ….. they are generally regarded with both respect and fear. A reputation for ferocity and violence has accompanied them from Mozambique where they had the derogatory nickname ‘Mawia – the short tempered ones.’

‘Mawia’ comes from the Swahili verb ‘wia’ meaning to warm up, begin to boil, or to seethe.

Anthony Stout’s book was published following an exhibition of Makonde carvings at Kibo Art Gallery, Kilimanjaro in 1965.

Stout also wrote that ‘the times move on and we should not expect modern Makonde art to stand still. The artists have overcome great problems in the recent past because they would not stagnate. Makonde creativity is as unquestionable as life-force’.

PROPOSAL FOR A ZANZIBAR RESEARCH GROUP
There is a widespread feeling among Zanzibaris and others that the islands have been neglected in terms of academic research for a very long time. This has been partly because of the intellectual climate over there for the past couple of decades and partly because of the lack of co-ordination between scholars with interest in Zanzibar.

The climate in Zanzibar is now changing. The Government there is showing every sign of trying to bring about a revival in education and cultural development. The effort to establish a national library has begun to bear fruit; the Zanzibar archives are being rehabilitated; and the Government is apparently considering a proposal to set up an institute for social research in Zanzibar.

The renaissance however will be hampered by the fact that intellectuals with interest in Zanzibar have been scattered over the four corners of the globe. While some have attempted to maintain some informal contact among themselves , most are not aware of the interests and academic pursuits of their colleagues. This may not only lead to duplication of effort but also hamper the identification of the most fruitful avenues of research and collaboration between scholars with common interests.

We would like to propose a modest project to help correct this situation. The first requirement is to establish contact with all those with interest in Zanzibar.

Secondly, we would like to build up our research resources on Zanzibar . Many of us have written articles (academic as well as newspaper) and books but• these are often inaccessible to many of us when we become aware of them. We would like to propose the setting up of a unit where these materials can be collected. We would welcome two copies of these publications, one which can eventually be deposited in the Zanzibar library when it begins to operate. Readers of the Bulletin can send materials written by others if they are easily accessible or they could be donated.

Thirdly, to disseminate information on scholars and publications, we propose a modest newsletter. Unfortunately the cost of production and postage will impose a heavy burden on individuals. We wonder whether anyone would be in a position to share the cost with us in the form of a modest subscription or donation.

While such information, if disseminated by the newsletter, will be useful to us all, we feel that the unit can play a useful role in identifying or initiating specific research projects. One such project could be the recording of the experience of the last thirty years of the poetical and other changes on the Islands. Twenty years after the revolution, for example, there is only one scholarly account of it, and that written from a colonial perspective. And yet there are many participants in the political struggle leading up to it who have not yet been induced to put their reflections down on paper or on tape. Some of these participants are already dead and it will be unfortunate if we fail to record the memories of those still with us. Other projects could focus on aspects of culture, scientific development, language etc. We hope you will agree with us about the need to initiate this modest project.
Professor Abdul Sheriff , History Department, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O.Box 277, Dar es Salaam (to whom correspondence should be directed) and,
Dr. Haroub Othman, Institute of Development Studies, Dar es Salaam.

TOO MUCH POLITICS
I am not particularly happy with the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs. While retaining a great interest in Tanzania, Tanzanian politics, evidently the main preoccupation of the Bulletin, are to me the least interesting aspect of the country. In any case, policies which, while aiming at prevention of inequality in income, lead in practice to everyone becoming equally poor, do not have my support.

Stories concerned with economic rather than political activity would interest me more, particularly reports on the state of the infrastructure without which significant economic activity cannot take place.

If the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs could tell me how the lightweight highways built in the ’50s and ’60s have performed, or how the Tanzanian railway system operates nowadays, I should be fascinated. Or how the water supply and sewerage systems of Dar es Salaam have coped with the influx from the countryside. How have the air services of the country fared in the last 20 years? Do container ships use the ports, and if so how are containers handled? So many questions .

Undoubtedly socialism and self-reliance will have affected the infrastructure. Surely its present state is a matter of concern to a wider field than merely Yours sincerely,
S.A.W. Bowman

We accept your point and would welcome contributions from readers on the issues you mention – Editor

MANAGEMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS
I am writing in response to the letter from Mr Imray in the May issue, about the Ruaha National Park. At this time many organisations at home and abroad are having to re-think their management problems, to which you drew attention.

I wonder what efforts the park management has made to enlist the cooperation of the surrounding local communities. Do the young people understand the aims of the park, and why it exists? Is it seen as a place only for rich tourists, and of no benefit to them? Are any of the rangers employed in the park local people? In some regions it has been found possible to provide planned income supplementing activities for the community in the work of the national park. This can create a sort of protective buffer area for the park where it is in the interest of local people to protect the area from poaching by outsiders. But maybe this has already been tried.

Friends of Ruaha might like to consider ordering an extremely valuable and practical book published by IUCN/UNEP ‘Managing Protected Areas in the Tropics’ by J&K Mac Kinnon, Graham Child, and Jim T Horsell. It is obtainable from: IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre
219c Huntingdon Road
Cambridge CB3 ODL Price £18.50

This may give useful ideas for the Ruaha management and lead to opportunities for raising the funds needed for infra-structure improvements.
Brenda Bailey

A SECOND EXTINCTION!
I was most interested to read the note in your January 1987 issue of the research by Mrs.F.A. Mturi into the Zanzibar red colobus. Your readers will be interested to know that this is the second time in the last hundred years that this animal has faced extinction.

Writing in April 1884 H. H. Johnston records the following incident concerning .. a handsome monkey. the Colobus Kirkii. This as its name implies was brought to light by Sir. John Kirk; it was also extinguished by his means. Like most great men who have helped to extend the British Empire, Sir John has one dark blot on his escutcheon. Warren Hastings exterminated the Rohillas, Governor Eyre was accused of too summarily suppressing the Maroons; Sir. John Kirk, more, perhaps, in the interests of British science than of British rule, has entirely destroyed an innocent species of monkey. The Colobus Kirkii had disappeared from nearly every part of the island of Zanzibar, but a rumour prevailed that it still lingered in a clump of forest as yet unvisited by hunters. Thither Sir John sent his chasseurs to report on the monkey’s existence. After a weeks absence they returned, triumph illumining their swarthy lineaments. “Well did you find them?” asked the British Consul General. “Yes,” replied the men with glee, “and we killed them everyone!” Wherewith twelve monkey corpses were flung upon the floor and Colobus Kirkii joined the Dodo, the Auk, the Rhytina and the Moa in the limbo of species extinguished by the act of man.

It is to be sincerely hoped that by the means which Mrs. Mturi and the Zanzibar authorities advocate, this interesting and unique species will avoid the extinction which it allegedly suffered over a hundred years ago.
F.A.Fosbrooke

THE KOPJE AT OLD SHINYANGA
I refer to the Article ‘A Queen’s Scarf’ which appeared in the May issue of the Bulletin, In German times Old Shinyanga was of course just Shinyanga and came under Tabora District. Their 8th Company (162 men) were stationed in Tabora at the outbreak of war together with 110 Police, and 30 Police were stationed at Shinyanga. Shinyanga had a well- built German Boma (Fort) which was to become the Headquarters of the Department of Tsetse Research. The avenues which radiated out from the Boma were typical of German planning. The road to the kopje turned left off the Old Shinyanga-New Shiyanga road just beyond Old Shinyanga village. About half-way to the kopje, on the right, was a large hollow baobab which had once been the abode of an eminent witch doctor; indeed some of the remnants of his paraphernalia were found therein. At the foot of the kopje there was a well-kept ‘spirit hut’; these were common in the area.

The view from the top of the kopje was magnificent and covered the experimental area where the officers of the Tsetse Department had carried out such stalwart work. The bodies of C.F.M. Swynnerton, C.M.G. and B.D.Burtt, the botanist, were buried at Singida after the air crash. On top of the kopje was a huge granite outcrop to which was attached a bronze plaque bearing the well-known words from the epitaph to Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul’s ‘si monumentum requiris, circuspice’ (if you seek his memorial, look around you).

The Captain mentioned in the article, Captain Victor A. C. Findlay, had been a regular officer (Woolwich) and was, I believe, a godson of Queen Victoria. He was on duty at Kitalala in August 1946 when he considered he should finish off a rhino which had been wounded by one of the A.A.s. He was charged at close quarters in a thicket and knocked down, suffering severe internal injuries. He was taken to Mwanza 100 miles to the North on a mattress in the back of a station wagon. He was buried near Swynnerton and Burtt on the kopje.

One likes to think that the descendants of the helmeted guinea fowl and of the dik-d1k, always in pairs, continue to live on that kopje. Also perhaps the descendant of the leopard which used to keep the Fire Watcher company. And that kopje must remain dear to many memories.
S.E. Napier Bax

SHEIKH THABIT KOMBO
Herewith cheque for £2.80 for another years subscription to your excellent and well informed Bulletin.

In connection with your recent obituary on Sheikh Thabit Kombo you may be interested to hear that I was in Zanzibar last year before he died. Our meeting in his house was hilarious as he told anecdotes about the desperate battles he had been engaged in in the 50’s with the Zanzibar Nationalist Party. In fact, it was in my office in December 1956 (I was then Assistant Superviser of Elections), in my presence, that Mwalimu Nyerere, Sheikh Thabit Kombo and Abeid Karume discussed the amalgamation of the then African and Shirazi Associations into what became the Afro-Shirazi Party.

I thought he was a wonderful man. I liked his simple and direct smile. I remember on one occasion he met me at the airport which was crowded with people, whisked me quickly through the controls and said with a cheerful smile “They must think you are very important because you are with me”.
Tim Mayhew

THE SUKUMALAND DEVELOPMENT SCHEME
I am writing to you concerning the Oxford Colonial Archives Project (OCAP). A number of reports have been prepared under this project on activities in pre-Independence Tanzania of which probably the most important is on the Sukumaland Development Scheme (1947-57) with which I was closely involved as a member of the scheme team and as a contributor to the data on which the OCAP report is based. Whilst the report covers adequately the background, history, objectives and operation of the Sukumaland Development Scheme it is weak in those sections dealing with the results of the scheme and the reasons for its demise some three years before the completion of its allotted 10-year life. It ended in 1954.

Unfortunately I was not able to visit Sukumaland during my two later visits to Tanzania, but I did meet a number of people from Sukumaland from whom I culled some information and concepts of what life is like in Sukumaland today.

If the OCAP report is to be any use to future students and researchers, I feel that it should include an analysis of the scheme’s successes and failures (both short and long term) including the reasons for its early termination. It would appear that OCAP was not able to tap the memories of those most able to throw light on the end of the scheme nor has it been possible to obtain reports from people who are familiar with rural affairs in Sukumaland post-independence, by which the results of the scheme might be measured.

I would be interested to know whether any of your readers are in a position to help with any of these problems. Whether, for instance, readers could offer their views or do any research which would show how many of the objectives and teachings of the scheme were/are still in operation/use in 1967, 1977 and 1987 and why (or why not!)

Clarification on these points would not, in my view, be entirely academic. I believe that the proper analysis of the medium and long term effects of development schemes could be used to advantage on a wide scale. This is said with some feeling as I have been engaged in the planning of agricultural/rural development in many developing countries round the world since 1970 without once being able to learn the results of my work, good or bad.

J.O. Wolstenholme,
191, Oxbridge Lane,
Stockton-on Tees,
Cleveland TS18 4HY

THE FRIENDS OF RUAHA SOCIETY
I have just come back from a safari which ended up in the Ruaha National Park where I stayed at Fox’s Camp. I had earlier talked to the Regional Commissioner in Iringa who asked if Her Majesty’s Government could help in developing the Park or with rehabilitating and improving the roads to it. They need some Shs 6.0 million to erect an available Bailey Bridge over the Ruaha River. The Regional Commissioner wishes to develop tourism in the area. I explained that this did not fit into our present set of priorities and that he should try to persuade the Government of Tanzania to raise the matter with potential donors.

I had much the same conversation in Mufindi with Geoff Fox, whose family has put so much effort and investment into opening up and protecting the Park. He is a leading member of the Friends of Ruaha Society and is trying to canvas support from all quarters.

I should be most grateful if you would give the appeal publicity amongst friends of Tanzania in Britain.
C.H.Imray,
British High Commissioner,
Dar es Salaam

An attachment to the High Commissioner’s letter contains information about the Friends of Ruaha Society. The Society has been formed recently to help the Park Warden and his staff face the uphill task of protecting this part of the World’s heritage.

The Ruaha National Park at 13,000 sq.km. is second only to Serengeti in size but, together with its adjacent game reserves and controlled areas is among the largest in the world. But the pressure from poachers and others is increasing. Having decimated the surrounding areas the poachers have been moving into the park in increasing numbers. They use automatic weapons and start fires so that every year the Park is reduced to ashes. The Park staff are doing an extraordinary job, There are about 45 Rangers – about one for every 325 sq.kms. The poachers they face are superior in numbers and better armed, Ruaha is literally fighting for survival.

Readers able to help are asked to send cheques to The Friends of Ruaha Society, P.O. Box 60, Mufindi – Editor.