by Donovan McGrath

Zanzibar beer: Alcohol shortage hits Tanzania’s spice islands
(BBC News online – UK) The spice islands of Zanzibar are facing a shortage of alcohol which threatens the tourism sector of Africa’s top travel destinations. Extract continues: Tourism generates about 90% of the Tanzanian archipelago’s foreign revenue. Prices of beer have shot up by almost 100% after the supply chain was disrupted by a sudden change of importers. The island’s tourism minister resigned recently citing poor work conditions. However, some have linked his resignation to issues with alcohol supplies… Last year, Zanzibar was ranked among the 10 best travel destinations in Africa by several tour magazines. But hoteliers now warn that the problems over alcohol supply might make the island lose its tourism shine… Mr Mshenga’s business selling beer and seafood has been badly hit. “We are running short of beer at my bar, and I just have a stock of soft drinks,” he told the BBC. “The government has to take action. It is the high season now, it’s very hot and these tourists need joy, they need cold beer on these beaches.” … The local manufacture of alcohol is banned in Zanzibar, whose population is largely Muslim. Most of the alcohol sold on the islands comes from mainland Tanzania, while some is imported from South Africa. The initial shortage early this year began when the Zanzibar Liquor Control Board (ZLCB) delayed renewed permits for the three established importers – One Stop, Scotch Store, and ZMMI… (5 February 2024)

Eight children and an adult die in Zanzibar after eating sea turtle meat
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: Eight children and an adult have died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, and 78 other people have been taken to hospital, authorities said … Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Zanzibar but it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning. The adult who died … was the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier, said the Mkoani district medical officer, Dr Jaji Bakari… [He] told the Associated Press that laboratory tests had confirmed all the victims had eaten sea turtle meat. Authorities in Zanzibar, which is a semi-autonomous region of the east African nation of Tanzania, sent a disaster management team that urged people to avoid consuming sea turtles. In November 2021, seven people, including a three-year­old, died on Pemba after eating turtle meat and three others were hospitalised [see TA131]. (9 March 2024)

Brits flock to African city rivalling party capital Magaluf with £1 beer, beautiful beaches and 30°C sun all year
(Mail online – UK) Extract: … According to recent statistics by Luxury tour operator Scott Dunn, ‘up-and-coming’ Zanzibar has experienced an astonishing 83% surge in bookings among its clientele. Its sharp rise in tourism comes as popular European holiday destinations, such as Lanzarote and Amsterdam, crack down on rowdy behaviour and are asking boozy Brits to ‘stay away.’ However, there is a particular part of the island that isn’t the reserve of the well off and where British tourists are flocking in record numbers: the main town of Zanzibar City. One of the key attractions drawing British tourists to Zanzibar City is its unbeatable drink deals. Not only can you get pints from as little as £1.06, according to PintPrice, but Hikers Bay says you can get a meal in an affordable restaurant in the city from as little as £3.84. There are also affordable prices on accommodation options, with one budget double room for two adults, found by Daily Star on booking.com, amounting to just £13 per night – that’s a cool £6.50 per person. There are many bars, clubs and restaurants where Brits have been partying the night away, as well as exploring historical sites such as Stone Town – the birthplace of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury… With flights on Skyscanner available for as little as £378 for a round trip, Zanzibar is poised to remain a top choice for travellers seeking an affordable yet unforgettable holiday for years to come… (17 March 2024)

Three Tanzanian soldiers are killed as violence persists in eastern Congo
(Washington Post online – USA) Extract: Three Tanzanian soldiers were killed and three others injured after a mortar shell landed near their camp in eastern Congo, where Tanzanians are deployed under the banner of a regional bloc to help quell violence. It remained unclear who was responsible for the attack … reported … by the regional bloc, the Southern African Development Community, or SADC. SADC also said in a statement that a South African soldier had died while being treated for undisclosed “health challenges.” It sent condolences to the Tanzanian families of the victims. The bloc’s peacekeeping mission was launched … as a longstanding group of U.N. peacekeepers known as MONUSCO gradually pulls out of Congo. Eastern Congo is rich in minerals, with various armed groups battling for control of resources. The most prominent of them is the M23, which has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in North Kivu province in recent years. The M23 was most recently threatening to take Goma, the largest city in the region… (9 April 2024)

Julius Nyerere: Former Tanzanian leader honoured by African Union statue

(BBC News online – UK) Tanzania’s founding father Julius Nyerere has been honoured with a statue outside the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Extract continues: Nyerere led what is now Tanzania from independence in 1961 until 1985. Known as Mwalimu, Swahili for teacher, he was a committed pan-Africanist and hosted independence fighters opposed to white minority rule in southern Africa. He played a key role in the creation of the Organisation of African Unity, which later became the African Union. Unveiling the statue at a ceremony attended by numerous African heads of state, AU Commission leader Moussa Faki Mahamat said: “The legacy of this remarkable leader encapsulates the essence of Pan Africanism, profound wisdom, and service to Africa.” He recalled Nyerere’s own comments at the inaugural OAU summit in 1963. “Our continent is one, and we are all Africans.” … Paying tribute to Nyerere, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan said: “To him, Africa’s wellbeing came first, before popular approval, personal fortune or country wellbeing.” … In a post on X, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema described the unveiling of the statue to “one of our continent’s iconic figures” as a “proud day”… Nyerere is the third leader to be honoured with a statue outside the AU headquarters, after Ghana’s founding father and pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah, and Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Selassie, who became a symbol of African nationalism for resisting Italy’s attempts to colonise the country in the 1930s, and later agreed to host the OAU. (18 February 2024)

How a $33,000-a-night private island inspired by the Kennedys became a beacon for sustainable tourism
(CNN online – USA) Extract: … A luxury estate which must be rented in its entirety, where prices start at $33,000 per night, you’ll have to share this tropical hideaway with some of Mother Nature’s most majestic creatures, including the largest fish in the sea, the whale shark. Located a 30-minute helicopter ride from Tanzania’s biggest city, Dar es Salaam, Thanda sits amid a private marine reserve with a rigorous conservation and restoration program – one that is already reaping rewards for visitors as well as the surrounding island communities. The brainchild of Swedish entrepreneurs Dan and Christin Olofsson, Thanda Island Hotel has been in operation since 2016. “They want to create the ultimate escape,” says general manager Antigone Meda, who explains that multigenerational families and groups of friends are the island’s typical guests, with most staying for five to eight nights. The island features a villa and two open-air beach chalets. “The villa was very inspired by the Kennedys’ beach home,” Meda says, referring to the compound in Cape Cod that belonged to the family of JFK. “It breeds beach romance, nostalgia, (with) a touch of East African flare.” Thanda strives to be as self-sufficient as possible, she adds, with a seawater desalination plant on site, rainwater harvesting, and powered by the largest off-grid solar farm in Tanzania, she claims. Organic waste is turned into compost. But the hotel’s sustainability credentials are only part of the allure for the environmentally conscious traveller… The benefits to tourism have been married to a number of projects engaging with the Mafia Island community. The majority of employees at Thanda Island come from the neighbouring island, and Thanda supports a series of entrepreneurs and small businesses there, says Meda. [Thanda’s dive master, Hassan] Jumbe says other people from Mafia have been trained in open water diving and coral restoration… “(A) holistic approach to sustainable tourism is really finding its foot(ing) on the continent, because so much of tourism on the continent is in connection with the environment. And so you’re seeing sustainability really on the cutting edge in some places,” [Meda] explains. (21 March 2024)

Suffolk supports Tanzanian farmers combating climate change
(BBC News online – UK) Churches in Suffolk are raising money to help farmers in Tanzania combat the effects of climate change. Extract continues: The Bishops’ Lent Appeal at the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is paying for training and equipment in Kagera. The Church and Community Mobilisation Process (CCMP) in Tanzania also provides seeds for drought resistant crop varieties. “We see climate change with our own eyes,” said CCMP leader Thomas Shavu. “There is a lot of evidence; streams are disappearing; potato, cassava and bananas, they are getting blight. “Farmers are struggling to know when to plant their crops.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a Unite Nations body – has said it is “indisputable” that human activities are causing climate change. Mr Shavu said: “In years back, they would know ‘this is the planting seasons, this is the weeding season’, but nowadays no-one knows. The rain may come early, but then stop, if you plant, then plants would dry. Or you plant late and the rain continues. Sometimes it’s very heavy and causes flooding, or comes with winds and destroys crops.” The Church of England in Suffolk has had a partnership with the diocese in Kagera since 1994, with regular exchange visits. Last year’s appeal raised £25,000, and the diocese said it reached more than 50 villages, teaching new farming methods, supplying seeds and saplings, and training people to build rainwater tanks. It also paid for training for a local doctor in ophthalmology, provided bursaries for students in theology and bought motorbikes to help priests get around their parishes… (20 March 2024)

Globe-trotting billionaire
Mo Dewji made a fortune in East Africa selling palm oil, rope, and soda. Now he claims to have the recipe for transforming Tanzania into an agribusiness powerhouse. (Forbes online – USA) Extract: Puffing on a nicotine vape and seated on a white leather chair in his $50 million home in Dubai, Mohammed “Mo” Dewji is waxing poetic about his plans to mechanize farming 2,500 miles away. “I want to make Africa, long term, a food basket for the world,” says the 48-year-old billionaire, who was born, raised and until recently lived in Tanzania. A framed photograph of a street in Zanzibar, the Tanzanian archipelago famous for lush white beaches, hangs on a wall behind him. “Why the hell are we not investing in agri?” Dewji is well known in Tanzania, Africa’s fifth largest country with a population of 70 million. The football team owner and former politician controls a range of businesses through his consumer goods conglomerate MeTL Group, including textile manufacturing, edible oil refineries and his Mo Cola carbonated beverages line (name after himself). MeTL already grows crops like tea, avocados, and sisal (a natural fiber used in rope), which are vertically integrated into his other businesses. Now Dewji wants to grow his agribusiness empire – by order of magnitude. He is seeking to invest $250 million, including $100 million of his own capital, to buy and mechanize 100,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania. MeTL would use the crops to feed its own businesses, then sell the surpluses to other Tanzanian firms, African countries and even European customers. Dewji says this “vision” came to him in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as soaring food and fertilizer prices worsened conditions of poverty and malnutrition in Africa. Agriculture accounts for one-third of Tanzania’s annual GDP (of $75 billion), but roughly 90% of that farming is done by subsistence farmers tilling less than 5 hectares of land each. As a result, food insecurity in Tanzania is widespread: Over 30% of children are stunted, and 13 million Tanzanians live in extreme poverty, while “many other live just above the poverty line,” according to the U.S. Agency for International Development… Bigger, more efficient farms could help solve Tanzania’s hunger problem. In developing countries, “Larger farms tend to be more efficient that their smaller counterparts,” a recent European Commission paper found. Within Africa, increasing agricultural productivity was “a substantial driver of growth and poverty reduction” in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda— in contrast to Tanzania and those countries where farming growth lagged, according to a UN study. But agribusiness also comes with costs: human displacement, environmental degradation, disruption of local trading networks upending entire communities. Dewji says the benefits outweigh the cons… He wants to prove his agribusiness model works in Tanzania, then raise money from global investors to replicate it in other African countries… (14 March 2024)

America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League won by Tanzania’s Ramadhani Brothers
(BBC News online – UK) Extract: … Fadhili Ramadhani, 36, and Ibrahim Jobu, 26, beat nine other finalists, taking home the inaugural trophy and $250,000 (£198,000) in prize money. The pair are known for their daring head-balancing performances. Their mentor, judge Howie Mandel, said their routine was “probably one of the most terrifying acts in [AGT] history”… [I]n the show which is a spin-off of America’s Got Talent, featuring winners, finalists and fan favourites from previous seasons… Jobu told People Magazine that they would use the prize money to buy more equipment and upgrade their training centre back home in Tanzania. “We also want to help other acrobats from our community improve their lives. We’d also like to buy land and build our own homes.” The pair are first to headline a show on the iconic Las Vegas Strip in the US. The two acrobats amazed the AGT: Fantasy League judges with acts that involved one [of] them balancing the other’s body weight on his head while navigating different sets… (20 February 2024)

by Donovan McGrath

Statesman and saint
(The Tablet – UK) In this section of the publication, readers share their thoughts and stories. The following was submitted by Joy Elder: I was thrilled to read that the Church in Tanzania is calling for the canonisation of Julius Nyerere … I was in Tanzania as a young White Sister just after independence and beyond. Julius Nyerere was, I think, educated partly by White Fathers … His visits to my mission of Sumbawanga were always memorable and delightful and he was my hero. Among all the leaders of the world he was distinguished for his genius in running the country successfully and for being a man of great kindness, talent, humour, integrity and humility. He has always been a saint for me! (16 December 2023) – Thanks to Roger Bowen for this item – Editor

The Tanzanians searching for their grandfathers’ skulls in Germany
(BBC News online – UK) Isaria Anael Meli has been looking for his grandfather’s remains for more than six decades. Extract continues: He believes the skull ended up in a Berlin museum after his grandfather, Mangi Meli, along with 18 other chiefs and advisers, was hanged by a German colonial force 123 years ago. After all this time, a German minister has told the BBC the country is prepared to apologise for the executions in what is now northern Tanzania. Other descendants have also been searching for the remains and recently, in an unprecedented use of DNA research, two of the skulls of those killed have been identified among a museum collection of thousands… [It was] on 2 March 1900 [in a one-time market area for the villagers of Tsudunyi, in a part of what is now called Old Moshi] that, as the descendants tell it, one-by-one the 19 men were hanged. They had been hastily tried the day before, accused of plotting to attack the German colonial forces… Mangi Meli, the most prominent mangi, or chief, among those who were killed, had in 1882 successfully defeated the German forces. That success was later reversed and by the end of the 19th Century, the Europeans were keen to stamp their authority on this part of what was known as German East Africa. They wanted to make an example of Mangi Meli and other local leaders who may have been planning an uprising… While most of the torsos are believed to be buried in a mass grave somewhere near the tree, their heads were at some point removed, packed up and sent 6,600km (4,100 miles) to the German capital. In some cases the complete skeletons were shipped… The lively 92-year-old [grandson] was told about the killing of Mangi Meli by his grandmother, who he says was forced to watch the execution … Since at least the 1960s, Mr Meli had been writing to the German and Tanzanian authorities urging them to look for the remains of his grandfather. He says officials tried to put him off by telling him that relevant records had been destroyed during World War Two. But Mr Meli was not deterred. “… [T]his skull is needed by the whole country – not me, myself, only.” There is a sense of profound loss that goes beyond the idea that this was a historical injustice. Mangi Meli was a chief from the Chagga ethnic group – one of the most prominent in modern-day Tanzania. For the Chagga people, as well as others in the region, the idea that the head was separated from the body and then taken away from the land is deeply disturbing. In Chagga culture the dead are supposed to be buried in the homestead so they can continue to watch over the living. It is believed that the failure to do that could have consequences down the generations… Simulango Molelia, the grandson of another victim of the executions – Mangi Molelia – believes his family is being haunted by the chief’s spirit… Museums and other institutions in 19th and early 20th Century Europe and North America amassed large collections of skulls and other human remains. This was partly driven by huge interest in the now-discredited science of phrenology. It was based on the idea that someone’s fundamental characteristics were reflected in the shape of their skull. In some cases it took on a racist element, with researchers trying to establish a racial hierarchy… As a consequence people began collecting skulls from across the world. Zablon Ndesamburo Kiwelu followed in his late brother’s footsteps and took up the search for the skulls “What the Germans did was not a good thing,” says Zablon Ndesamburo Kiwelu, whose grandfather, Mchili Sindato Kutesha Kiwelu, served as an adviser, or akida, to Mangi Meli and was also hanged… Mr Molelia wants the skull of his ancestor to be brought to Tanzania and “buried in our Chagga tradition”… (29 October 2023)

Joshua Mollel: Tanzania says student killed in Israel by Hamas
(BBC News online – UK) A Tanzanian student initially reported to have been taken hostage by Hamas in Israel is confirmed to have been killed, Tanzanian government says. Extract continues: Joshua Mollel was working as an agricultural intern at a kibbutz which was attacked by Hamas gunmen on 7 October. Tanzania’s Foreign Minister January Makamba says Mr Mollel was killed immediately after he was taken hostage. Fellow student Clemence Felix Mtenga was also killed in the attack… The two Tanzanian students had travelled to Israel just a month before the 7 October attack. It was initially reported that they were among the 240 people taken hostage by Hamas. According to Tanzania officials, around 350 Tanzanians live in Israel, mostly students pursuing agricultural-related studies… (14 December 2023)

Philip Mpango death rumours: Tanzania orders crackdown over VP speculation
(BBC News online – UK) Tanzanian authorities are investigating social media users accused of spreading false information about Vice-President Philip Mpango’s health. Extract continues: Mr Mpango resurfaced … after being absent from public view for over a month, sparking relief and ending widespread rumours he had died. Information Minister Nape Nnauye has ordered investigations into those who spread the speculation. Mr Mpango says he was hurt by the false rumours circulating on social media… There have been mixed reactions regarding the vice­president’s return and the rumours that surrounded his absence. Some argue the matter was mishandled by the government’s failure to provide clear information about his whereabouts. His absence had sparked widespread concern, with Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa previously warning citizens against the speculation… [T]he vice-president appeared unannounced at a Sunday service in the capital, Dodoma, saying he was healthy and had not lost any weight. “There have been photos circulating alongside a candle, and claims that I have passed away…”, Mr Mpango said… In 2018, Tanzania enacted tough laws against the spread of “fake news”, which critics see as a way of curbing freedom of expression. This is not the first time there have been rumours about the state of Mr Mpango’s health… (11 December 2023)

DP World in Tanzania: The UAE firm taking over Africa’s ports
(BBC News online – UK) A multimillion-dollar deal signed between Emirati maritime giant DP World and Tanzania … looks set to further entrench the dominance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Africa’s freight industry. Extract continues: Reports of the $250m (£205m) deal first emerged in July, sparking criticism by the opposition that it “violated Tanzania’s constitution and endangers national sovereignty”. Activists petitioned a court to halt the deal and were briefly detained for planning anti­government protests. The high court in Tanzania’s south-western town of Mbeya dismissed the petition, paving the way for DP World to manage two-thirds of the Dar es Salaam port for the next 30 years. Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa … said there would be no job losses and that Tanzania would retain 60% of earnings. DP World says it expects to triple revenue within a decade and speed up the clearance of vessels from the current average of 12 hours to 60 minutes. Chronic inefficiency, corruption allegations and competition in freight management by neighbouring Kenya are some of the underlying reasons why Tanzania President Samia Suluhu signed off on the agreement… Part of the contention over DP World’s presence in Tanzania is the perception that its operations are undermining local rights and management. DP World Group boss Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said while in Dodoma that the Dar es Salaam port would become a “world-class facility”… DP World remains an anchor for the UAE to extend its geopolitical ambitions across Africa. (23 October 2023)

Investigations launched into killings and evictions on World Bank tourism project
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: … The World Bank is investigating allegations of killings, rape and forced evictions made by villagers living near the site of a proposed tourism project it is funding in Tanzania. The bank has been accused of “enabling” alleged violence by the Tanzanian government to make way for a $150m (£123m) project ministers say will protect the environment and attract more tourists to Ruaha national park. The “resilient natural resource management for tourism and growth” (Regrow) project will almost double the size of the park, which is 130km (80 miles) from the city of Iringa. Villagers living near Ruaha told researchers at the Oakland Institute thinktank that rangers had killed and beaten cattle herders and fishers, had raped women and confiscated thousands of head of cattle, under the premise that they had encroached on the national park. In April 2021, rangers reportedly shot and killed William Nundu, a fisher, and allegedly killed two herders, Sandu Masanja, and Ngusa Salawa, who was only 14 years old. The regional police commander claimed that they were killed by wild animals while illegally entering the park, according to a report published by the institute … More than 21,000 people from dozens of villages around Ruaha are also facing eviction by the government, it claimed. Anuradha Mittal, the executive director of the Oakland Institute, said: “[The] Regrow project is not about protecting wildlife or conservation. Instead, the bank is financing an oppressive and violent economic growth model based on boosting tourism revenues.” Mittal said the World Bank should have scrutinised the Tanzanian government’s record on human rights before financing it. The government authorised evictions close to the same area in 2006 and has been criticised for its handling of forced evictions in northern Tanzania, which “should have triggered internal alarm before the bank decided to finance the project”, added Mittal. “Instead, it looked the other way and continues to do so. It should be held accountable.” The institute said villagers were told in October 2022 they would have to leave their land despite holding title deeds, which the government has cancelled, claiming the property fell within the boundaries of the national park. More than 850 villagers have challenged the evictions in Tanzania’s high court… [Roland Ebole, An Amnesty International researcher focusing on Tanzania and Uganda] said tourism, much of it linked to trophy hunting, has driven a need for the government to take land, even at the expense of the people living there and often without their consent… (28 September 2023)

‘Oldest wooden structure’ discovered on border of Zambia and Tanzania

(Guardian online – UK) Extract: … Researchers have discovered remnants of what is thought to be the world’s oldest known wooden structure, an arrangement of logs on the bank of a river bordering Zambia and Tanzania that predates the rise of modern humans. The simple structure, made by shaping two logs with sharp stone tools, may have formed part of a walkway or platform for human ancestors who lived along the Kalambo River nearly 500,000 years ago. Marks on the logs show they were cut, chopped and scraped with an array of stone tools found at the site. One log, a type of bushwillow, overlies the other and is held in place by a large inverted U-shaped notch in its underside. “When I first saw it, I thought this can’t be real. The wood and the stone suggest a high level of ingenuity, technological skill and planning,” said Prof Larry Barham, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool who led the work. “It could be part of a walkway or part of a foundation for a platform,” he said. “A platform could be used as a place to store things, to keep firewood or food dry, or it might have been a place to sit and make things. You could put a little shelter on top and sleep there.” Scientists at the University of Aberystwyth dated the structure to at least 476,000 years old, from long before Homo sapiens are thought to have emerged about 300,000 years ago. The structure may be the work of Homo heidelbergensis, a predecessor of modern humans that lived in the region… The findings, published in Nature, are remarkable because wood so rarely survives for long periods. The material at Kalambo Falls was preserved by waterlogged sediments that are starved of oxygen…
(20 September 2023)

The new ‘scramble for Africa’: how a UAE sheikh quietly made carbon deals for forests bigger than UK
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: … The rights over vast tracts of African forest are being sold off in a series of huge carbon offsetting deals that cover an area of land larger than the UK. The deals, made by a little-known member of Dubai’s ruling royal family, encompass up to 20% of the countries concerned – and have raised concerns about a new “scramble for Africa” and the continent’s carbon resources. Such deals can deny the rights of people living on the land to make use of it for their own purposes while providing unclear benefits to the environment. As chairman of the company Blue Carbon, which is barely a year old, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook al-Maktoum has announced several exploratory deals with African states that are home to crucial wildlife havens and biodiversity hotspots, for land that represents billions of dollars in potential offsetting revenue. The sheikh has no previous experience in nature conservation projects. So far, the deals cover a fifth of Zimbabwe, 10% of Liberia, 10% of Zambia and 8% of Tanzania, amounting to a total area the size of the UK…” … The deals would give the UAE firm the exclusive rights to sell the credits for 30 years, taking 70% of the sale of the credits. Under the rules of the Paris agreement, countries that sold the credits would not be able to use them for their own commitments. Some of those involved in these deals highlighted that carbon markets provide much-needed financial support to African countries where other sources of climate finance were not delivering. However, others raised concerns, saying the size of the land deals amount to “a new scramble for Africa”… (30 November 2023)

Who is Nestory Irankunda? Meet the Bayern Munich wonderkid who suffered life threatening injury on the pitch after leaving a Tanzanian refugee camp for Australia
(Daily Mail online – Australia) Extract: Nestory Irankunda is the wonderkid every Australian football fan is talking about after he landed a huge move to European Powerhouse Bayern Munich. Irankunda, 17, will join the German giants next July after Adelaide United agreed to part ways with the prodigious talent for an A-League record fee of $5.5million. The youngster has made waves in Australia’s domestic scene but his arrival in Germany will certainly raise eyebrows, with very few players making the step up from football’s backwaters to the big stage. But Irankunda’s journey is a unique one that has consisted of challenges from very early on… Born on February 9, 2006 to his father Gideon, a rideshare driver, and his mother Dafroza in Kigoma, Tanzania. The fourth child of seven, Irankunda spent the first three months of his life in a refugee camp, with his family desperate to flee Burundi’s civil war. The Irankundas moved to Perth, West Australia before relocating to Adelaide in South Australia, where Nestory soon discovered his love for football. He played for the Northern Wolves and Parafield Gardens as a junior and his talent was quickly recognised by scouts. Irankunda was snapped up by National Premier League club Adelaide Croaia Raiders, where his performances attracted attention from Airton Andrioli, head of youth at Adelaide United. Irankunda was invited for a trial with the A-League club in 2020 and was offered a place in the club’s academy within a couple of weeks. ‘When you see a boy like Nestory, some players have that naturally,’ Andrioli said. ‘That gift of understanding and reading the game. Being street smart. You don’t see that [in] a lot of Australian players… Irankunda had long been linked to Bayern … ‘We’ve had Nestory on our radar for some time and we’re pleased we’ve reached an agreement with him and Adelaide United on a move to Munich for next summer,’ said Jochen Sauer, Bayern’s director of youth development… (14 November 2023)

by Donovan McGrath

Twickenham veteran runs ultra-marathon across Tanzania
(BBC News online – UK) A British veteran is spending her 37th birthday running an ultra-marathon across Tanzania. Extract continues: Tricia Sinclair, from Twickenham, is raising money to help fellow veterans tackle the “petrifying” obstacle of reintegrating into civilian life… Ultra X Tanzania [is] a five-day race which traverses Mount Kilimanjaro … “I want to inspire others to really challenge their mental resilience,” she said. Ms Sinclair was in the army for 14 years between 2008 and 2022 and served five operational tours. She now works as the director of fitness for charity REORG, which helps rehabilitate veterans, military and emergency services personnel through functional fitness and jiu­jitsu. She hopes to raise £30,000 from the ultra-marathon to allow 100 people to go through the charity’s fitness programme. Ms Sinclair is to run 155 miles (250km) during the challenge including the 3,700m climb up Kilimanjaro… (12 June 2023)

Tanzania aims to connect 8 million citizens to broadband alongside mobile network operators
(Fintech Times online – UK) Extract: With an aim to achieve 80 per cent broadband penetration by 2025, the Tanzanian government, supported by the World Bank, has partnered with a number of mobile network operators to begin project ‘Digital Tanzania’. The government aims to see the extensions of broadband services to 1,407 villages – benefiting over eight million Tanzanians across the country. H.E. President Suluhu of Tanzania said: “This project will see all 26 regions across Tanzania’s mainland reached with quality and reliable telecommunication services compared to Zanzibar which was wholly covered in November 2022. “The presence of services is of great significance not only in rural areas but also in town areas as it accelerates development and inclusion politically, socially, and economically as well as for the safety and security of the nation. The implementation of this project is in line with the government’s commitment to improve telecommunication services and facilitate youth with opportunities in the ICT sector”… Suluhu has … commended the excellent implementation of the ‘m-mama’ program in partnership with the Vodacom Tanzania Foundation which has remarkably decreased the maternal mortality rate across Tanzania… (16 May 2023)

Interview: Gains of USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s visit to Tanzania
(Time Africa Magazine online – USA) Extract: On her first day in Tanzania, Administrator Samantha Power travelled to Arusha, where she visited a community farm. She met with cooperative farmers and representatives of the Tanzania Horticulture Association (TAHA) to learn how TAHA, supported by USAID, has successfully driven economic growth and generated jobs for thousands of women and men by partnering with farming communities, the private sector, and the Government of Tanzania. While at TAHA, the Administrator announced an additional $260 million in U.S. funding to address the global food crisis that has been exacerbated by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the severe drought in the Horn of Africa region. This new funding includes support for programs in Tanzania, as well as other countries and regional initiatives. Administrator Power then met with a group of women conservation leaders who work in partnership with USAID in Tanzania. The conservation leaders shared how they are helping local communities benefit from conservation efforts, including sustainable fisheries, carbon credits for forest preservation, and wildlife tourism. The Administrator commended their leadership in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in conservation and development… [Tanzania] Vice President [Philip] Mpango and the Administrator then joined a celebration of the national expansion of the m-mama public-private partnership between USAID, Vodacom Foundation, and the Government of Tanzania. The m-mama program provides emergency referral and transportation to newborns and expectant mothers… (24 June 2023)

United States and Tanzania Announce a $24 Million Food Security Project
(African Business Magazine online – UK) Extract: During this year’s Nane Nane event in Mbeya, the United States government and the United Republic of Tanzania announced USAID’s new food security activity Tuhifadhi Chakula (“Let’s Save Food”), a five-year, $24 million initiative to be implemented by the Tanzania Horticulture Association in partnership with the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) Centre. By targeting and reducing food loss and waste, the USAID Tuhifadhi Chakula project will increase food security, improve livelihoods, increase employment, and generate export opportunities for Tanzania – especially among women and youth. In Tanzania, 40-50 percent of crops are lost between the field and the end market. USAID’s Tuhifadhi Chakula project will work with farmers, traders, processors, and other actors in the value chain to cut food loss and waste in half. The project was designed in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and aligns with its National Post-Harvest Management Strategy. The project will initially operate in the Arusha, Mbeya, Morogoro, Njombe, Pwani, Tanga, and Zanzibar regions of Tanzania… (9 August 2023)

A stunning gem, to honour a slain geologist, unveiled at Smithsonian
(Washington Post online – USA) Extract: The jewel rested on a cushion in a small black box covered with cloth in a vault at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection, put on a pair of white cotton gloves, pulled off the cloth and opened the box. “So, this is the stone,” he said, holding it under the fluorescent lights—a lustrous, green 116­carat gem called a tsavorite. With 177 facets, it glittered as he held it. “It’s truly a beautiful stone,” he said. “When you look at the colour of it, it just doesn’t look like anything else that we have.” Technically a garnet, it is named the Lion of Merelani. And, as with many a precious gem, it comes with a story. . . [N]amed in part for the Merelani region of Tanzania where it was found. it was put on display along with the Hope Diamond, the Carmen Lúcia ruby and other spectacular jewels in its hall of geology, gems and minerals. It is the largest precision-cut tsavorite in the world … The museum said the stone, which was found in 2017 and cut over three months by renowned gem cutter Victor Tuzlukov, was donated by Somewhere in the Rainbow, a private gem and jewellery collection, and by tsavorite mining executive Bruce Bridges, in honour of his late father… Bridges’s father, geologist Campbell Bridges, discovered tsavorite in East Africa in the 1960s—reportedly while fleeing from an angry buffalo—and brought it to prominence. He had lived most of his life in Africa, often in a treehouse near his mines, and was known as the old lion. But in 2009, he was murdered in Kenya by a gang of illegal prospectors who had been threatening him and trying to drive him away from his mines, his son said in an interview. On Aug. 11, they ambushed him, his son and four of their employees, and stabbed the elder Bridges to death. “Losing my father is the worst tragedy in the history of our family,” Bruce Bridges said. “And the driving forces in our lives have been to see justice … and then on top of that to ensure that my father’s dream and legacy for tsavorite lives on.” “What better way than to have all of this come full circle and have this particular, one-of-a-kind tsavorite in the National Gem Collection,” he said… (20 April 2023)

UK students pledge ‘career boycott’ of insurers over fossil fuels
(The Guardian online – UK) Extract: Hundreds of students and recent graduates of top UK universities are pledging a “career boycott” of major insurers, saying they will not work for firms including Lloyd’s of London if they support controversial fossil fuel projects. More than 500 current and recent students from the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Edinburgh and others have warned they will keep a close eye on firms that fail to shift to climate-friendly policies. “We refuse to put our professional careers at the service of climate wreckers that insure those responsible for the climate crisis,” the letter – sent to insurance market Lloyd’s of London, as well as individual firms including Beazley, Hiscox, Chaucer and Tokio Marine Kiln – said. “Insurers’ lack of action on climate change will cost them talented workers.” A Deloitte survey recently found that more than half of Gen Z recruits tended to research a brand’s environmental impact and policies before accepting a job, while one in six have already changed jobs or sectors over climate concerns. A further 25% say they plan to move roles because of their employers’ climate impact in the future… The students’ letter explained signatories would pay particular attention to insurers that decide to work with TotalEnergies and Equinor, which they said were currently seeking insurance for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) – scheduled to transport oil from Uganda to Tanzania – and the Rosebank oilfield – which is the largest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea. The students noted that nearly two dozen insurers had already ruled out supporting the African pipeline, including several that worked within the Lloyd’s of London market. “Since 2017, at least 41 insurers have adopted restrictions on underwriting coal, 22 on tar sands and 13 on conventional oil and gas. But Lloyd’s of London and many Lloyd’s managing agents are lagging behind and putting our lives at risk by continuing to insure oil and gas,”
38 Tanzania in the International Media the letter said… (24 May 2023)

Scientists warn Africa is splitting in TWO: 2,000-mile crack that appeared along south-east of the continent is widening by one inch every year
(Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: A massive crack ripping through Africa is set to split the continent in two and form Earth’s sixth ocean, scientists have warned. Countries along the southeastern coast would become a giant island, creating an entirely new sea from Ethiopia to Mozambique. The so-called Eastern African Rift formed at least 22 million years ago but has shown activity over the last few decades – a crack appeared along the deserts of Ethiopia in 2005 and is widening at a rate of one inch per year. It is a result of two tectonic plates moving away from each other, but the exact mechanism was not fully understood at the time. Now, a study published in June found that a massive ejection of super-heated rock coming up from our planet’s core is driving the rift. While Africa is not expected to tear for at least another five million years, Somalia and half of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania will form a new continent when it does… A 35-mile crack that appeared in 2005 already shows signs of a new sea near Ethiopia. And another tore through Kenya in 2018 following heavy rainfall, forcing people to leave their homes and shut down roadways… (6 July 2023)

‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference
(The Guardian online – UK) Extract: Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance. Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali … where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion. “We were taken aback,” said conference attendee Bruna Martinez, an activist from Brazil and member of Young Feminist Europe. “We don’t understand why a woman like this would be invited.” Before becoming president in 2022, Novák served as family minister in Viktor Orbán’s government and was key in implementing the government’s pro-natalist policies. She has said Hungarian women “shouldn’t compete with men” or expect to earn the same amount of money… Novák, former leader of the Political Network for Values, an international organisation that works to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage, was on a state visit to Rwanda and Tanzania. To applause, she told the conference’s opening ceremony … “I’m the first woman president of my country.” She said that increasing the fertility rate is Hungary’s goal for gender equality and expressed hope that her teenage daughter will feel empowered to have “even 10 children if she chooses to”. Delphine O, a French special envoy for the global Generation Equality initiative, tweeted that Novák’s “so-called ‘pro-family’ values are at odds with what feminists in the room stand for”. . . Maliha Khan, the president and CEO of Women Deliver, said that she had agreed to platform Novák at the behest of the Rwandan government. “If we want to achieve what we want to achieve, we have to partner with and talk to people who we don’t agree with on many, many things,” she said… (19 July 2023)

‘Green colonialism’: Indigenous world leaders warn over west’s climate strategy
(The Guardian online – UK) UN summit in New York hears how resources needed for sustainable energy threaten Indigenous land and people. Extract continues: World Indigenous leaders meeting … at an annual UN summit have warned that the west’s climate strategy risks exploitation of Indigenous territories, resources and people. New and emerging threats about the transition to a greener economy, including mineral mining, were at the forefront of debate as hundreds of Indigenous chiefs, presidents, chairmen and delegates gathered at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “It is common to hear the expression to ‘leave no one behind’. But perhaps those who are leading are not on the right path,” the forum’s chairman, Dario Mejía Montalvo, told delegates … as the 12-day summit opened in New York in the first convening since the pandemic outbreak. The longtime advocacy group, Cultural Survival, in partnership with other organizations, highlighted how mining for minerals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper – the resources needed to support products like electric car batteries – are presenting conflicts in tribal communities in the United States and around the world. As countries scramble to uphold pledges to keep global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre­industrial levels by 2030, big business and government are latching on to environmentally driven projects such as mineral needs or wind power that are usurping the rights of Indigenous peoples – from the American south-west to the Arctic and the Serengeti in Africa… During a special panel discussion, Edward Parokwa, executive director of the Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Organization (Pingo’s Forum), said a mass migration has ensued of thousands of Maasai violently displaced from their Tanzania homelands to make way for a luxury game reserve … A UAE-based company is believed to be behind the big game hunting operation. “And it’s happening in the name of conservation,” Parokwa said… (23 April 2023)

Tanzanian killed in Ukraine: We told him not to go
(BBC News online – UK) Nemes Tarimo’s family in Tanzania warned him against agreeing to fight with Russian forces in Ukraine, but the 37-year-old had a big incentive to sign up. Extract continues: … [His] relatives learnt of the news that confirmed their worst fears. He had died in combat… One [relative] says they last heard from him in October when he had said he had agreed to sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner. “Nemes informed me and some other family members about joining Wagner, and we advised him not to,” the family member … tells the BBC. But for the young man, whose relatives describe as polite, God-fearing and supportive, there was an offer that was hard to resist. The family says that Tarimo, who had ambitions to be an MP with the opposition Chadema party, had been in Moscow as an ICT master’s student at the Russian Technological University. But he was then imprisoned some time after January 2021 for what was described as drugs-related offences. Last year, he was enticed with a deal: sign up and be pardoned or stay in prison. “He said he would join to free himself,” the relative says. This case echoes that of 23-year-old Zambian student Lemekhani Nyirenda, who has also been in prison in Russia and died last year fighting with Wagner. . . Last September, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin was seen in leaked footage outlining the rules of fighting, such as no deserting or sexual contact with Ukrainian women, and then giving the prisoners five minutes to decide if they want to sign up. . . Russian state-owned domestic news agency, Ria Novosti, interviewed someone who said he had fought alongside Tarimo. He said the Tanzanian had died while trying to help a wounded soldier. The Federal News Agency says that Tarimo was awarded a posthumous medal “for courage” by the Wagner Group… (20 January 2023)

by James L.Laizer

Nyerere National Park, an emergent tourism destination in Southern Tanzania
The Tanzanian government and tourism sector partners are keen to highlight the potential of the Nyerere National Park, and various outlets now cover news and offers on this emergent tourist destination. Covering an area of 30,893 square kilometres, the park is one of the largest in the world. Located in south-eastern Tanzania, about 230 kilometres by road from Dar es Salaam city to Mtemere Gate, it was carved out from the Selous Game Reserve, a gigantic wilderness area and safari destination in Southern Tanzania.

The park was named after the first president of Tanzania, the late Julius Nyerere, in recognition of his work going back to the Arusha declaration of 1967, championing conservation and protection of wildlife in the country, as a matter of national heritage. It is one of the wildest places remaining in Africa, with a wide variety of wildlife habitats, including open grasslands, miombo woodlands, swamps and riverine forests in the many tributaries of the mighty Rufiji River which flows through the park to the Indian Ocean.

Given that the park was only upgraded to national park status in November 2019 and less frequented by tourists, animals there tend to be less exposed to humans. The park hosts some of the largest populations of mammals and reptiles in Africa, including buffaloes, elephants, hippos and crocodiles. Together with the remaining part of Selous Game Reserve, it is considered to be the last stronghold of the African wild dog—or painted wolf. Other common wildlife includes the wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, eland, the greater kudu, sable antelopes, black rhino, waterbuck, impala, lion, leopard, the spotted hyena, cheetah, baboon, blue monkey, and the black and white colobus monkey which can be viewed in riverine forests.

Increasing coverage indicates Nyerere National Park offers a wide variety of game viewing opportunities including the experience of a walking safari in the company of an armed ranger. The many waterways in the park provide an excellent natural setting for boat safaris, both for big game viewing and bird watching. This is in addition to the game drives in bespoke safari vehicles which, combined with boat and walking safaris, offer specialist products distinctive to Nyerere National Park.

The best time to visit is from June to October, when vegetation is sparse and when thirsty ungulate herds move towards water, trailed by lions, hyenas, leopards and wild dogs. During the long rains, between March and May, some parts of the park are temporarily closed for game drives due to poor accessibility. For bird lovers, Nyerere National Park is one of the best birding destinations in Tanzania and the best time for one to go for birding is between November and April during the wet season when migratory birds fly into the country. Established bird species include the yellow-bellied bulbul, mangrove kingfisher, black cuckoo-shrike, palm-nu vulture, red throated twin spot, red-winged warbler, African skimmer, spotted flanked barbet and the grey hooded kingfisher among others. About 440 species of birds both resident and migratory have been observed in the national park.

There is an increasingly wide range of choice for accommodation, which have been developed for this new key tourism product and conservation habitat in the southern circuit.

Dialogue over securing a single tourist visa for EAC Partner states
Initial discussions over securing a single tourist visa for the East African partner states are in progress. The East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP) is developing a work plan for research and advocacy to partner states on the East African Community (EAC) single tourist visa to help the sector thrive. Mr John Bosco Kalisa, the Executive Director of the East African Business Council (EABC), stated that the new initiative is in line with a vision of developing a single tourist destination to boost the performance of the bloc’s tourism sector.

The visa will therefore help to ease movement of international tourists across the EAC partner states boarders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and make it easier for industry players to offer multi-destination packages and fostering economic growth in the sector.

Tourism is one of the significant sectors in the EAC economy. The sector accounts for approximately 17% of total export earnings, 10% of GDP growth, and 7% of total employment opportunities in the region. The sector has close links to transportation, food production, retail and entertainment sectors. The EAC is a popular region offering numerous tourism investment opportunities, include the establishment of resort cities, the branding of premium parks and the construction of internationally branded hotels.

Other opportunities include the development of high-quality meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) tourist facilities and conference tourism facilities, as well as health and sports tourism.

According to data from 2022, the EAC recorded around 5.8 million international tourist arrivals, and in the context of the African tourism market, the EAC held a share of approximately 13.5% of the total international tourist arrivals in Africa, which stood at around 43 million last year, according to Mr. Yves Ngenzi EATP Regional Coordinator. Mr Ngenzi said by streamlining the visa application process for international tourists, the EAC can create a more tourist-friendly environment that could potentially lead to an increase in tourist arrivals, as visitors would find it more convenient to explore multiple EAC destinations with a single visa.

Study suggests challenges with community conservation partnerships
Current partnerships for wildlife, forestry and marine resource conservation have had limited or no impact on local communities, according to a recent study. It proposes a number of steps for the arrangement to be improved on, to provide the desired results.

The five-year study, from which results were launched on 6th April, 2023, was a collaboration between researchers from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Copenhagen Business School and University of Roskilde (Denmark), University of Sheffield and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Experts who were based in the districts of Kilwa, Rufiji and Mtwara Rural presented evidence to stakeholders and the government to enhance their methods of conservation of natural resources in relation to the livelihoods of local residents. The project ‘New Partnerships for Sustainability’ (NEPSUS) suggests that while complex partnerships that link donors, government, community organisations, NGOs, consultancies, certification agencies and other intermediaries have been emerging to address the sustainability of natural resource use, this has not yet delivered better outcomes for local communities.

The findings led to the publication of a book titled “Contested Sustainability: The Political Ecology of Conservation and Development in Tanzania.” The authors argue that to a large extent, the results of those partnerships have been beneficial for the elite class. According to the research, village groups around natural resources, especially in coastal areas, face governance challenges related to structural, financial and participatory failures.

They propose that in the formation of community groups, the local community are sometimes involved at the beginning, but the process ends up being captured by the central government and local elites. ‘’Financially, most local groups such as Beach Management Units (BMUs) are poorly equipped and the funds accrued from fines and fees are not enough to facilitate the setting up of alternative livelihood activities,” reads part of the report findings. Despite deliberate, evolving and persuasive efforts by government, NGOs and companies to raise awareness about the relevant rules and regulations, the results suggest that sustainability partnerships have struggled to gain and maintain legitimacy. They argue that “local communities are yet to perceive these partnerships as responsive, accountable and trustworthy arrangements that strike the requisite balance between community welfare and conservation goals”. The findings indicate that much of the economic benefits are primarily realised at the community level rather than the household level.

Prof. Christine Noe from UDSM, one of the report authors, says that they aimed to have evidence to advise the improvement of various government policies. “To whose benefit do we conserve?” she inquired, adding that many community members have been seen as enemies of conservation and recommending that alternative sources of livelihood that make sense to local communities should be facilitated. According to Prof. Noe, greater efforts should be made to facilitate contact between local communities and other key actors before the establishment of sustainability partnerships, to maintain them during their operation and to ensure that the benefits accrued from the income resulting from partnerships need to be distributed evenly and avoid elite capture.

by Donovan McGrath
In the blood: why diabetes is the scourge of entire families in Tanzania
(The Guardian online – UK) Elisaria has had diabetes for decades. Her husband died of it and five relatives live with it. Yet millions in this fast-growing country cannot afford to get the treatment they need. Extract continues: … The 70-year-old retired Tanzanian businesswoman from Dar es Salaam has been living with type 2 diabetes for decades, and she is one of six in her extended family with the chronic illness… Government health sector reports show that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes are on the rise and now account for about 40% of Tanzania’s disease burden… Older Tanzanians are disproportionately affected by NCDs, yet nearly 90% of people over 50 do not have health insurance and have little access to medical services. The state health insurance scheme can cost between £70 and £350 a year, and healthcare costs are prohibitive for many… Victoria Matutu, 35, is shouldering a double burden. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two years ago, Matutu spends about £35 a month on insulin, and the same amount on clinic visits every two months. Her mother also has the condition, so Matutu has to help her with medical bills. She earns the equivalent of £140 a month, which is not enough to pay into the government’s scheme… Mary Mayige, coordinator of the National Survey for Non-Communicable Diseases, says that conditions that once mainly affected the elderly now affect people in their 30s who are “the production engine of the country”. Healthcare has always been thought about in terms of spending, she says. “It’s high time that countries begin to look at the situation as a threat to the economy and human capital development.” … Tanzania allocates less than 5% of its GDP to health, which is below the international threshold for provision of basic services. Donor funding contributes to about 60% of total public spending, but the health programmes it pays for are heavily skewed towards infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, despite data which suggests that cases of infectious diseases are falling, while NCDs are on the rise and account for nearly half of the country’s deaths… (28 December 2022)

Now that’s petrifying! Bizarre lake in Tanzania instantly turns animals that touch it into ‘STONE’
(Mail online – UK) Extract: The idea of a lake that instantly turns animals that touch it into stone may sound like a concept from Greek mythology. But it’s a reality in Tanzania, where animals live in fear of one of the world’s deadliest lakes. Lake Natron is a key mating ground for lesser endangered flamingo, but animals risk being frozen forever in its salt if they dare to go near its shores. Bacteria, which give the water its blood red tone, are some of the only organisms that can tolerate its average 78°F (26°C) heat, fatal salt concentration and alkalinity. Bodies that fall into the water decompose rapidly while those which fall on its edge are ‘encrusted in salt’ that ‘stays forever’, according to ecologist David Harper of the University of Leicester… The lake’s hostile conditions can be blamed on the nearby Ol Doinyo Lengai – also known as the Mountain of God – which is the only active volcano to emit natrocarbonatites. These feed into the lake through stream channels that cut through the volcano, contributing to its harsh alkalinity of over pH 10. Only flamingos, which eat up the water’s nutrient-rich cyanobacteria, flock to the area for mating. But even they cannot escape the salt lake’s merciless conditions, and can fall victim to being encrusted at the shore… (22 March 2023)

From Maasai warrior to YouTube star! Son of Tanzanian tribe chief gains more than a MILLION views online as he tries pizza and takes a flight for the first time
(Mail online – UK) Extract: … Kanaya Kolong Parkepu, 38, is the son of the 95-year-old chief and has become the first Maasai warrior to have YouTube and Instagram. He created the Maasaiboys channel a year ago, with his videos gaining up to 700,000 views as he and his friends try out burgers and pizzas for the first time. He revealed that part of his motivation to start the channel was his fear that his tribe and culture will be lost in the future. The 38-year-old influencer told The Times social media is ‘good’ for the tribe, adding: ‘My dream is to teach people how the Maasai live. ‘The Maasai all communicate as a group. We pass down songs. We help each other…’ Kanaya created the page with his friend Arman Alamdar, 20, who appears alongside him in videos with other friends, Kili, Simba and Kanaya’s girlfriend, Sally. Meanwhile his father, the chief of the tribe, Arooni, also appears on screen at times. Kanaya said his father has ‘embraced’ the new technology in the tribe, adding he ‘likes to laugh’ and sees the clips as ‘educating people.’ They have amassed 14,700 followers on Instagram and 17,300 subscribers on YouTube. Their top video, African Tribe tries Burger for the first time, has almost 750,000 views, while another African Tribe tries Pizza for the first time has over 200,000. A third showing them embarking on their first ever plane journey has over 40,000 views on YouTube… (16 March 2023)

Finding a brighter future for Tanzania’s child domestic workers

(CNN online – USA) Extract: … Raised by her grandmother in rural Tanzania, Mercy Esther and her siblings were born into poverty, sometimes without money for food, let alone schoolbooks. When their grandmother was approached with a job offer for Mercy Esther in Kenya, and the promise that money would be sent home, she accepted… The job offer turned out to be a lie – the first of a string of broken promises that would deprive a young woman of her childhood and her family. Mercy Esther was born with a deformity in one foot, causing a pronounced limp. On the streets of Nairobi she and other children were forced to beg. She was told to pretend she could not walk, to elicit sympathy from the public. Each day, what money she collected was taken from her. One day, while begging, Mercy Esther was approached by a woman who offered her domestic work and more promises: a new home, a wage and good treatment. She went with the woman, but instead Mercy Esther was abused and received no money for her labour. It would be six years before she ran away. With the support of the Nairobi police and Kenyan and Tanzanian governments, Mercy Esther returned to the country of her birth, but without details of the village where she was raised, authorities put her in the care of WoteSawa Domestic Workers Organization, which runs a shelter for trafficked children in Mwanza … in the north of the country… “Tanzania is a beautiful and peaceful country, but there is a dark side,” said Angela Benedicto, the organization’s founder and executive director. “Many people live in poverty, and forced labour is a very big problem,” she added. “The most common form of human trafficking in Tanzania is domestic servitude, young girls forced into domestic work. They face abuse, exploitation, and are not paid for their work.” Around one million children – mostly girls – are engaged in domestic work in Tanzania, according to the non­profit Anti-Slavery International. WoteSawa was set up in 2014 and every year takes in around 75 children who have escaped trafficking… So far, the non-profit has helped hundreds of survivors, but the needs are greater than the resources available. Benedicto dreams of building a bigger haven for more children. Her mission is to empower domestic workers and advocate for their rights. It’s an issue that’s close to her heart; she is herself a former domestic worker… WoteSawa means “all are equal” in Swahili. At the shelter children are housed and provided with counselling and legal support. They also receive an education in literacy and numeracy, and vocational skills such as needlework. Reintegrating children back into education works in step with efforts to reunite children with their loved ones, “so that when they go back to their families, they can help not only themselves, but they can help their families,” said Benedicto… (18 March 2023)

Ancient DNA Confirms the Origin Story of the Swahili People
(Smithsonian Magazine online – USA) Medieval individuals in the coastal East African civilization had almost equal parts African and Asian ancestry, a new study finds. Extract continues: A new analysis of medieval DNA has revealed that around the turn of the first millennium, Swahili ancestors from Africa and Asia began intermingling and having children, giving rise to a Swahili civilization with a multicultural identity, at least among its elites. The discovery matches local stories passed down through generations that were previously dismissed as myth by outside researchers… Members of the medieval and early modern Swahili culture live in towns and villages along the coast of East Africa, shared the Kiswahili language and largely practiced a common religion of Islam. The new research published … in the journal Nature, sheds some light on how this culture formed. To start, the research team—made up of 44 scientists, including 17 African scholars—worked with locals to excavate cemeteries along the Swahili coast. They gathered DNA samples from 80 people who lived between 1250 to 1800 C.E. and compared that data with saliva samples from modern-day coastal Swahili-speaking people, as well as individuals living in the Middle East, Africa and other areas of the world. Afterward, the team ensured the exhumed bodies were replaced in their cemetery plots. They found that about half of the DNA from the medieval individuals came from African women, while the other half primarily came from Asian men. Of the Asian DNA, about 80 to 90 percent revealed Persian ancestry, while approximately 10 percent was linked to India. The genetic material from modern-day individuals supported this mixed ancestry, though people who identify as Swahili today have inherited varying amounts of DNA from medieval peoples… Essentially, the paper reveals a timeline of intermarriage that matches a narrative told by the Swahili people called the Kilwa Chronicle… The Kilwa Chronicle tells a story of mixed Asian and African ancestry, suggesting that an influx of Persian sultans helped give rise to the Swahili culture. But prejudiced researchers have cast doubt on the story, assuming that the thriving East African port cities were built by Europeans, writes Popular Science’s Jocelyn Solis-Moreira. It has also been questioned by some African natives, who accused the elites of exaggerating their Asian connection to raise their social status, per the publication… The researchers intend to gather more samples to continue to fill in the missing pieces of Swahili ancestry… “These findings bring out the African contributions, and indeed, the Africanness of the Swahili, without marginalizing the Persian and Indian connection.” (31 March 2023)

African rats are being used to sniff out wildlife crime

(Mail & Guardian online – UK) Extract: The multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade poses a major and growing threat to biodiversity, pushing species including pangolins, African elephants and rhinos closer to extinction. Now an unlikely little hero is being trained to sniff out smuggled wildlife products stashed inside shipping containers— the African giant pouched rat. The innovative Belgian non-profit, APOPO, in partnership with the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), a conservation NGO in South Africa, has been researching the abilities of the rodents to detect illegally trafficked wildlife products at APOPO’s base in Tanzania. The rats, which weigh between 1kg and 1.3kg, have a highly developed sense of smell, are intelligent and easy to train, locally sourced and widely available. The non-profit already uses these scent-detection animals, nicknamed HeroRATS, to find landmines in countries such as Mozambique and Cambodia and for tuberculosis detection in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Obeid Katumba, the wildlife and law senior project officer at the EWT, said one of the core focus areas of its Wildlife in Trade Programme is the detection of trafficked wildlife and wildlife products… Standard screening methods are expensive, time-consuming, and potentially disruptive to operations, especially if customs officials have to open up and visually search shipping containers for suspected wildlife contraband. Coupled with this, organised criminals are innovative and find ways to circumnavigate these screening methods, he said. The EWT considered alternative, complementary screening methods to detect and deter wildlife smuggling. “We knew about APOPO and the work they did with the African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and to screen for tuberculosis using the rats’ incredible sense of smell and we thought that this ability might be transferable to the detection of wildlife contraband, much like dogs are used to find wildlife products.” … There are 16 rats in the project, which are trained at APOPO’s training facility on the campus of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro … said the project’s lead researcher, Izzy Szott, a behavioural research scientist… The rodents are a potential asset in the fight against wildlife crime. They have a “fantastic” sense of smell, comparable to dogs. Another plus is the rats work with any trained handler and, unlike dogs, are not focused on a specific person… (15 March 2023)

Jane Goodall: ‘People are surprised I have a wicked sense of humour’
(The Guardian online – UK) Extract: … The scientist in me was evident early on. At four, desperate to know how eggs come out of chickens, I hid inside a hen house waiting to witness it. When I finally returned, Mum had called the police. I’d been missing for hours. Instead of punishing me, she listened to my discoveries. I was jealous of Tarzan’s Jane as a child. Yes, I know they were fictional. But I still felt spurned he didn’t pick me. From the age of 10, I dreamed of living with animals and writing books. In my early 20s, I travelled to Kenya. Out in the Serengeti, the palaeontologist Dr Louis Leakey was impressed with me. He offered me the opportunity to study chimpanzees like nobody had before. It was destiny. I don’t remember my father much. War broke out when I was young, then he was gone for good. Mum, meanwhile, encouraged me to follow my dreams. On my first expedition, in today’s Tanzania, the authorities wouldn’t let a woman work solo in the wild. My mother volunteered and joined me. After four months they all agreed I was crazy enough to go it alone. People often assume I’m stern and serious: Dr Jane Goodall PhD DBE. They’re surprised I’ve got a wicked sense of humour. When I started out I was told animals needed numbers not names, that mind, personality and emotion were unique to humanity. To me, this was so obviously not the case. A fact anyone with a pet could attest to… Before the pandemic, I travelled 300 days a year. Slowly I’m returning to that number. I’ll be 90 in a year – who knows how long I have left? Yet there’s so much left to do. As long as my mind and body obey, I’ll keep at it. (18 February 2023)

Young Africans are logging in and clocking on
(The Economist online – UK) The internet creates new kinds of work, but patterns of inequality persist. Extract continues: His home is Bungoma, a small town in western Kenya, but his workplace is the world. Kevin, who asks that his real name be withheld to protect his credibility, has written about casinos in China without ever going there. He has reviewed weightlifters’ barbells, headphones and home-security systems he has never seen. Africa’s digital workers are rewiring the old geographies of labour. Freelance on online platforms can reach clients around the world, harnessing skills from blogging to web design. Others are hired by outsourcing companies, sifting data used to train chatbots and self-driving cars. Optimists hope that online work can set Africa on the path of services-led growth trodden by countries such as India and the Philippines. Pessimists worry such work will entrench injustices… Freelances, like the wider outsourcing industry, “are fighting against a reputation of Africa as somewhere where you would not expect digital work to take place,” says Mohammad Amir Anwar of the University of Edinburgh, who co-wrote a book about Africa’s digital workforce. Some African freelances use virtual private networks and fake names to pretend they are somewhere else. Power cuts and competition for gigs from cheaper workers in Asia and beyond create other challenges. The available data suggests that it will take time for Africa to become a continent of digital freelances… (23 February 2023)

by Donovan McGrath

What the price of Zanzibari coconuts says about African development
(Economist online – UK) Islanders are chopping down trees as cities expand. Extract continues: Musa Haidar holds a coconut to his ear and shakes it from side to side. Its sloshing pleases the market trader, who puts the large brown ovoid back atop the pile at his stall on the outskirts of Zanzibar City, the main one on the east African island. His customers are less happy, however. A coconut going for 500 Tanzanian shillings ($0.20) a few years ago today sells for 1,500 shillings. That makes it more expensive to whip up curries or other dishes using coconut milk. “The prices you see,” says Mr Haidar, “they’re not normal. Coconuts have become expensive for local people.” Why have prices gone nuts? “People are chopping, chopping,” explains Omar Yusuf Juma, another coconut seller, swinging his machete for effect. A count in 2013-14 found just 3.4m coconut trees, down from 5.7m in the late 1990s. Since hungry Zanzibaris still demand creamy fish curries and beans in coconut milk, falling supply has led to higher prices. Nuts from the mainland are pricier because of high transport costs. The felling of coconut trees reflects how Zanzibar and the rest of Africa are urbanizing… As Zanzibar City has spread farther into erstwhile countryside, when people move to their new plots they chop down the coconut trees to make space for their new homes. Moreover, some houses, as well as many island hotels, have furniture made from coconut wood. Emmanuel Elias, a carpenter, explains that it is cheaper than imported alternatives. By law farmers cannot chop down fruit-bearing trees for furniture; in practice it is hard to stop them… (20 December 2022)

What Tanzania tells us about Africa’s population explosion as the world hits 8bn people
(Guardian online – UK) Dar es Salaam, which is heading for megacity status, typifies a region growing three times faster than the global average. Extract continues: As the global population reaches 8 billion … the effects of Tanzania’s rapid growth are evident. The population has increased by 37% over the past decade to almost 63 million according to the latest UN figures, and, projections suggest, is expected to grow between 2% and 3% a year until 2050. Tanzania will be one of eight countries responsible for more than half of the increase in global population over the next three decades: five of those countries will be in Africa… Dar es Salaam, the former Tanzanian capital, is one of the world’s fastest growing cities, and the number of people in the economic hub is expected to double by 2050 to more than 10 million, ranking it alongside such megacities as Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lagos in Nigeria and Cairo in Egypt. The country’s leaders have raised alarm at the numbers… [President] Samia Suluhu Hassan, called for better family planning, saying the high number of births will put pressure on education, healthcare and food… Hassan’s predecessor, John Magufuli, who died in 2021, had discouraged the use of contraceptives, saying Tanzania needed more people… For years, Magufuli suspended significant donor funding for family planning. “Family planning was not appreciated for that period of time,” said Suzana Mkanzabi, executive director of Umati, a sexual and reproductive health rights organization, adding that support for family planning has improved significantly under the new administration. But Magufuli’s policies will have a long-term impact… Tanzanian women have an average of four or five children – the global average is two. Larger families are culturally valued, and among poorer families, children provide security in old age in a country with few social protections. But with nearly half of the population under 15 or above 65, Tanzania is grappling with high dependency rates. It has fewer tax-paying citizens … The UN cites rapid population growth as a “cause” and “consequence” of slow progress development… As Tanzania grapples with its population spike, family planning will probably become a higher priority for the government. It currently spends only about 14bn shillings (£5m) on birth control each year, relying on dwindling donor resources to fill the gap. The government has pledged to increase that amount by 10% a year by 2030. Rights groups say that much more needs to be done. (15 November 2022)

‘Means of survival’: Tanzania’s booming charcoal trade drives unchecked deforestation

(Guardian online – UK) Extract: Large swathes of Ruhoi forest reserve in eastern Tanzania now lay bare … The forest is being cut down at an alarming rate to meet the growing demand for charcoal in the nearby city of Dar es Salaam. As a result of high gas prices, about 90% of Tanzanian households now use charcoal or firewood to cook, which is fueling rapid deforestation across the country. Between 2015 and 2020, the country lost almost 470,000 hectares (1.16. acres) of forest a year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The situation mirrors what is happening across much of Africa, where wood collection and charcoal production account for nearly half of the continent’s forest degradation. Deforestation is contributing to the climate crisis, says Saidi Mayoga, an army reserve officer who patrols Ruhoi’s 79,000-hectare reserve. “We’ve had a real problem with the heat and there’s very little rain.” For many loggers, however, environmental concerns take a back seat to more immediate economic needs. Almost 45% of Tanzanians live on about $2 (1.70) a day. “If I clear all the trees over here,” says Muharram Bakari, an illegal logger, pointing to the edges of the reserve, “I’ll just have to find another forest where I can harvest [them].” … Loggers can earn about 8,500 Tanzanian Shillings (£3) for a large bag of charcoal from brokers, who then sell it to wholesalers at a profit. But it’s the wholesalers who make the most money. They can sell the bag for up to 82,000 shillings in Dar es Salaam: almost 10 times the price it was bought for. As well as supporting families, the charcoal trade provides the government with a significant income stream. Local leaders say this is one of the biggest barriers to conservation efforts. According to government sources, the Tanzania Forest Services Agency makes about 11,300 shillings from the sale of a bag of charcoal. In 2019, earnings from the forestry sector – which includes trade in charcoal, firewood, logs, poles, honey, seeds and seedlings – contributed about 3% to GDP, with charcoal accounting for 44% of that figure. As such, the government gives out permits to loggers and has set targets on the number of bags each area of the country needs to produce each year. “We are being told on the one hand, that we need to meet certain thresholds of charcoal production, and on the other, to protect the forests,” says Mayoga. There are few checks by local or central government on how many trees are felled… Sixbert Mwanga, the executive director of Climate Action Network Tanzania, says: “If someone has a permit to harvest five tonnes, there is no mechanism to crosscheck whether that person has harvested five tonnes or 25, especially at the source.” The government attempted to ban charcoal production and trade in 2006, in an effort to reduce deforestation, but failed… However, the country’s leaders are now exploring ways to address the issue at its roots, by reducing the country’s dependency on biomass fuels… (13 December 2022)

Tanzania drops murder charges against 24 Maasai leaders
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: The officer died in June during protests against government plans to evict them from their ancestral land in Loliondo, in Ngorongoro District, to make way for conservation and a luxury hunting reserve… [C]harges for trespassing were dropped against 62 Maasai involved in the protests. The men’s lawyer, Paul Kisabo, said their detention was “politically motivated” and that there was “no legal justification” for it. “The charges and detainment were a misuse of the public system,” he said, adding that the director of public prosecutions gave no explanation for the decision to drop the charges. Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s regional director for east and southern Africa, said: “They should never have been arrested in the first place. Their only ‘crime’ was exercising their right to protest while security forces tried to seize land from them in the name of ‘conservation’.” Reports from the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders coalition said the Maasai leaders were taken into custody under false pretences, interrogated and then detained in an Arusha prison… The land in Loliondo has been subjected to a long dispute between the Maasai and the Tanzanian government. The government says that it falls within the boundaries of the Serengeti national park, and that the Maasai’s growing population is encroaching on its wildlife habitat. The Maasai dispute both claims… (25 November 2022)

Tanzania’s president calls for better birth control in country
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of Tanzania, has called for better birth control in the east African country in a dramatic reversal of the stance of her authoritarian predecessor, John Magufuli… Magufuli had described users of contraceptive as “lazy” and said that birth control was unnecessary because “education is now free” and food cheap. A committed Roman Catholic, the former president also banned young women from returning to school after pregnancy. Samia’s call for more birth control came after a visit to the west of Tanzania, where she learned that more than 1,000 children had been born in a single clinic in one month… Low levels of contraceptive use is one reason for high birth rates in Tanzania, where women have almost five children each on average, according to the World Bank. The number has dropped dramatically over recent years, down from nearly six 20 years ago and seven in 1980, but is still considered far too high… (19 October 2022)

‘Monstrous’ east African oil project will emit vast amounts of carbon, data shows
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations. The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)… Richard Heede, at [the Climate Accountability Institute], said: “It is time for TotalEnergies to abandon the monstrous EACOP that promises to worsen the climate crisis, waste billions of dollars that could be used for good, bring mayhem to human settlements and wildlife along the pipeline’s path.” Heede described EACOP as a “mid-sized carbon bomb”… [T]he Guardian revealed that world’s biggest fossil fuel firms were quietly planning scores of carbon bomb oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits, with catastrophic global impacts. Omar Elmavi, coordinator of the Stop EACOP campaign, said: “EACOP and the associated oilfields in Uganda are a climate bomb that is being camouflaged … as an economic enabler to Uganda and Tanzania. It is for the benefit of people, nature and climate to stop this project.” … Some African countries argue they have the right to use fossil fuels to grow their economies, as rich western nations have done… EU lawmakers called for EACOP to be stopped … (27 October 2022)

Kate Ritchie awards Ramadhani brothers the Golden Buzzer after breath taking acrobatic act on Australia’s Got Talent leaves judges stunned
(Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: On … Australia’s Got Talent, two acrobats left the judges stunned and saw them awarded the Golden Buzzer. Tanzanian-based performers Ibrahim and Fadi Ramadhani, known as the Ramadhani Brothers, wowed the audience with a death-defying acrobatic act. The judges were visibly shocked by their feats, with Kate Ritchie grabbing her face in amazement… Kate was unable to keep her excitement to herself, slamming the Golden Buzzer and pushing the acrobats through to the Semi Final. ‘I can’t even string a sentence together because I’ve never seen anything like it ever in my life,’ Kate said to the pair… Ibrahim, 36, and Fadi, 26, have previously said they hope to win AGT and help children in their community. The pair are also aiming for a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive stairs climbed while balancing a person on the head… (16 October 2022)

State Department BLOCKED arrest of Peace Corps worker in Tanzania over drunk driving spree that left woman dead after he spent night with prostitute: US officials ‘thought he had diplomatic immunity’
(Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: Bombshell documents have revealed how the State Department blocked the arrest of a Peace Corps worker who left one woman dead and another seriously injured after a drunk driving spree – by claiming he had diplomatic immunity when he didn’t. John Peterson was ushered back to the US hours after fatally slamming his Toyota Rav4 into street-food seller Rabia Issa on the morning of August 24 2019, avoiding arrest by authorities in Dar es Salaam. He had spent the night before with a prostitute before embarking on the drink-driving spree, which also saw Peterson strike and injure a second woman. Now hundreds of pages of documents seen by USA Today give the clearest picture yet of the carnage Peterson caused and how the State Department falsely claimed he had diplomatic immunity from a breathalyser test after the drunken rampage. Peace Corps workers are not automatically granted diplomatic immunity while working abroad, unlike State Department workers. The US State Department claims its officials were confused about a diplomatic identification card he was issued by the Tanzanian government… Peterson was driving a sex worker he had paid $50 in exchange for oral sex from his US government-rented home back to her neighbourhood shortly after 5am when he claims a woman suddenly jumped in front of the car. Tanzanian authorities claim the unnamed victim was left ‘crushed and severely injured’ by the impact. That unidentified woman was not killed, with the woman Peterson did kill struck shortly afterwards. Escaping an angry crowd around his car after the first impact, Peterson claims he was heading for the nearby US embassy when he barrelled off the street and fatally struck another woman. That victim was Rabia Issa, a married mom-of-three who was setting up her food stall for the day. Her body was thrown over the hood of Peterson’s car, which continued to smash through a fence and other roadside stands. Despite the multiple collisions, Peterson carried on about half a mile further before his vehicle slammed into a light pole and came to a final stop. Furious bystanders gathered around the car and a tow truck repeatedly lifted and dropped the mangled Toyota Rav4 while a blood-soaked Peterson was still inside. Issa’s devastated brother even reached through the window and punched Peterson in the face. At the police station, Tanzanian police prepared a breathalyser test and shoved the tube into Peterson’s mouth while he resisted. However the US embassy staffers that joined Peterson at the station insisted he was a diplomat who did not have to comply, sensational records obtained by USA Today show. Peterson was told he was free to go as long as he returned to the station two days later. But Peterson was quickly flown back to America on the grounds that he needed surgery to his injured hand. This was despite one embassy worker noticing Peterson did not have immunity before his flight and raising it as a ‘point of clarification’ with an agency worker. He faced a grilling from federal state department investigators. But they could not charge him over lack of evidence, because other state department colleagues had allowed Peterson to leave the country before Tanzanian police could complete their investigation…. Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, blamed the confusion over Peterson’s immunity on a diplomatic identification card Peterson had been issued by the Tanzanian government… Peterson even continued to collect pay checks from Peace Corps for 18 months. His salary, unused vacation time and bonuses totalled more than $258,000. His victims – who signed settlements with Peace Corps to receive pay-outs for not making legal claims against the company of Peterson – received a lot less. Rabia Issa’s family were paid just $13,000. Her death certificate recorded just one word for her cause of death – ‘unnatural’. The first woman Peterson hit was paid roughly $6,500. The sex worker received about $2,200. (25 October 2022)

Tanzania scraps independence celebration, diverts funds to kids
(Al Jazeera online – UAE) Extract: Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has cancelled Independence Day celebrations … and directed that the budget instead be used to build dormitories for children with special needs. The 61st Independence Day event was to cost $445,000, money that will be used to build eight dormitories in primary schools around the country. Tanzania’s Minister of State, George Simbachawene … said that instead of having parades and other national celebrations, the East African country will commemorate Independence Day by having public dialogues on development… This is not, however, the first time Tanzania has cancelled the celebrations. In 2015, then-President John Magufuli cancelled celebrations and diverted funds towards the building of a road in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. In 2020, he did the same and directed that the budget be used to buy medical facilities… (6 December 2022)

by Donovan McGrath

‘I stumbled across it’: the push to help Tanzania’s untapped football talent
(Guardian UK – online) Michael Noone went to Africa looking for a change and now has an academy for boys and girls in one of Tanzania’s poorest areas. Extract continues: When Michael Noone set off on his solo walk from Old Trafford to Wembley Stadium … to raise money for his football academy in Tanzania, it wasn’t the first time he had taken a journey into the unknown. A youth coach with experience of working in schools in Manchester, the United States and Canada, the 37-year-old was “looking for a change in my life” when he arrived in east Africa in March 2020. “I just kind of stumbled across it,” he says. “I came over with just a backpack and had nothing organised so I sort of just wandered around. I started volunteering in this orphanage, joined in a few games and found the football culture unbelievable. I’ve been coaching for many years and I’d played with some guys from east Africa before and they told me that there was so much hugely untapped talent here… Noone started coaching a group of players in Mivumoni, a small town about 300km north of Dar es Salaam in one of Tanzania’s poorest regions. He was so impressed with the standard that he set up the Route One Academy, which caters for 150 boys and girls from under-eights to under-18s. “Every week there were more and more who kept joining our group,” he says. “What started off as something casual has ended up with me wanting to stay and help.” … Noone adds: “My aim is now to try and improve that environment and showcase the ability that these players have. The skill levels here are really high… Mbwana Samatta’s short spell at Aston Villa in 2020 made him the first Tanzanian to play in the Premier League but Noone believes there is every chance plenty more could come if local players are given the right opportunities… (23 June 2022)

Meet Tanzania’s Lion Defenders: the hunters-turned-conservationists of the Barabaig tribe

(CNN USA – online) Extract: There are 18 Lion Defenders in Ruaha. They monitor local lion populations and help to implement safe herding practices and fortify livestock enclosures. Lion Landscapes also provides technology to improve the safety of tribal communities as lion populations recover… Tracking and monitoring big cats through smartphones helps the lion populations to grow without increased risk to tribespeople… According to Lion Landscapes, since it began its work the killing of lions has decreased by more than 70% in the area of Ruaha National Park in which it operates. The Barabaig tribe in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania traditionally hunted lions that endangered their community – but with populations of the big cat dwindling, Barabaig warriors have become their protectors. Tanzania is home to roughly 50% of the lion population in sub-Saharan Africa, and around 800 of those lions live in Ruaha National Park. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa live in conflict with lions… In Ruaha National Park, warriors working with Lion Landscapes are known as “Lion Defenders.” The role is usually given to young hunters with good knowledge of the area and a comprehensive understanding of lion behaviour and how to track them… They monitor local lion populations and help to implement safe herding practices and fortify livestock enclosures… “The challenges Lion Defenders face is with some people in the community who are not in support of the project,” … says [Stephano Asecheka, who is from the Barabaig tribe]… According to Asecheka, taking tribespeople on tours in Ruaha National Park endears the community to the lions and helps them understand the value of the animals as a tourist draw that can boost the local economy. “They feel a sense of ownership and get to understand the right reasons to why we are protecting the lions,” he explains… (21 April 2022)

Rats to the rescue: Rodents are being trained to go into earthquake debris wearing backpacks with microphones so rescue teams can talk to survivors
(Daily Mail UK – online) Extract: Scientists are training rats to find earthquake survivors while wearing tiny backpacks with inbuilt microphones so rescue teams can locate and speak with them. Research scientist Dr Donna Kean, 33, from Glasgow, has been working in Morogoro, Tanzania over the past year for non-profit organisation APOPO on the project titled ‘Hero Rats’… Kean said: ‘Rats would be able to get into small spaces to get to victims buried in rubble… The rodents are trained to respond to a beep, which calls them back to the base… ‘We have the potential to speak to victims through the rat,’ Kean added… So far seven rats have been trained… (3 June 2022)

Greener pastures: Can ancient ecoengineering help fix our degraded landscapes?
(CNN USA – online) Extract: By removing trees and installing cell bunding – which creates water-tight pockets – Northern Ireland Water tried to determine if bunding could restore peatland, which naturally filters the country’s drinking water… Northern Ireland Water is already implementing cell bunding elsewhere… Bunds are simple structures that have been used for thousands of years to keep liquid in or out… The most basic consists of mounded earth. In terms of geoengineering, they’re about as low-tech as it comes, but when built strategically, their impact on the environment can be profound. Separate programs in as disparate climates as Tanzania and Northern Ireland are demonstrating bunding’s regenerative power – and the results could benefit both humans and nature. In Tanzania, a collaboration between non-profits Justdiggit and the LEAD Foundation is working with local communities to dig tens of thousands of bunds on arid land to harvest rainwater, as part of a massive regenerative effort backed by the UN. Angelina Tarimo, a coordinator at the LEAD Foundation, has been working with local communities in places such as Pembamoto, village in the Dodoma region, where desertification is a growing threat… Semi-circular shaped bunds trap water running off the ground and allow it to penetrate the earth. Grass seed sown inside the bunds grows, and over time greenery extends beyond the bund. Agriculture has had a negative impact on land in Tanzania, Tarimo says, with farmers clearing trees and native plants in order to grow crops, or allowing grassland to become overgrazed. This damages the soil structure and makes it more prone to erosion. As the ground is drier, when rain falls it is more likely water will run off the surface instead of infiltrating the ground, washing away fertile soil and perpetuating a drying cycle… Between sites in Tanzania and southern Kenya, over 200,000 bunds have been dug to date… (18 July 2022)

British hotelier locked up in Zanzibar ‘hell hole’ prison and his wife are freed after judge throws out money laundering charges
(Daily Mail UK – online) Extract: … The couple [Simon Woods and Francesca Scalfari], who run the four-star Sharazad Boutique Hotel in Zanzibar, faced 20 years in jail over money laundering charges after they fell out with two investors who had invested in their hotel. Police shaved Simon’s head when he was taken into custody before putting him in a cell with 200 other dangerous inmates, including murderers, at the Kilimani Prison, Wood’s family said… They also said the couple, who have lived on the island for 20 years, were denied basic needs – including access to water – and relatives weren’t allowed into the jail to see them on several occasions… (23 June 2022)

Tanzania identifies deadly outbreak of mystery disease as leptospirosis
(ABC News USA – online) Extract: A deadly outbreak of an unknown disease in Tanzania has been identified as leptospirosis, health officials said. More than 20 cases, including three deaths, have been reported in the southern Lindi region, with patients exhibiting symptoms similar to Ebola or Marburg virus diseases – fever, headache, fatigue and bleeding, especially from the nose, according to health officials. Preliminary results from laboratory testing … ruled out Ebola and Marburg viruses as well as COVID-19, making the illness a mystery – until now. Tanzanian Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu announced at a press conference … that samples from patients tested positive for leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease that affects both animals and humans. “I would like to inform the public that sample testing from patients has confirmed the outbreak is leptospirosis field fever or ‘homa ya Mgunda’ as it is known in Swahili,” Mwalimu said… Leptospirosis is transmitted directly or indirectly from animals to humans, mainly when people come into contact with the urine of infected animals or a urine-contaminated environment… Human-to-human transmission is rare, according to the WHO… (20 July 2022)

Why women in Tanzania face jail when their naked pictures are leaked to social media
(ITV UK – online) Extract: Mobile phone use in Tanzania has rocketed over the past 10 years, mostly due to the availability of cheaper smartphones. Millions in the East African nation have grown used to socialising, banking and learning wherever they want – but Asha Abinallah feels “lucky” she came of age before the smartphone boom. As connectivity increases, so does the amount of people seeking help from Ms Abinallah’s organisation, complaining they’ve had naked pictures leaked without their consent. The subjects are overwhelmingly young, female, “naïve and in love”, Ms Abinallah, head of digital empowerment organisation Women at Web explains. “But the perpetrators are usually people they love.” For victims of non-consensual intimate image abuse, consequences can include isolation, suicide and even a criminal conviction. Strict anti-pornography laws introduced in 2016 mean publishing pornography online, or “causing” it to be published, is punishable by a fine of not less than 20 million Tanzanian shillings (around £6,900) or at least three years in jail. Thanks to the liberal interpretation of the law, there’s a trend of [the women] being punished, rather than the person who leaked [the images]… (26 May 2022)

In Tanzania, karate classes imbues vigour in people with albinism
(Al Jazeera Qatar/UK/USA – online) Extract: Now that he’s learned to fight, Hassan Farahani doesn’t feel the need to do so anymore. “When people make jokes or harass me in the street, now I just leave. I have the confidence of martial arts—my strength is here,” he says, gesturing towards his chest. Farahani, 29, is part of a group of Tanzanians with albinism learning karate in Dar es Salaam, their country’s largest city… Their goal is not just to learn self-defence, but to one day become karate instructors themselves, teaching future generations of Tanzanians with albinism about karate, discipline, and self-confidence… In Tanzania, an estimated 1 in 1,400 people in the country have albinism, compared to a rate of about 1 in 20,000 in the United States. So people with the condition there are subject of daily discrimination with their light skin instantly setting them apart as targets. Myths and superstitions surrounding Tanzanians with albinism: that they are immortal, that they aren’t human but instead ghosts, or that they are cursed by a deity. Many have been attacked, mutilated and even killed for their body parts, which are believed to hold magical powers. Witchdoctors use these body parts for potions and spells meant to heal sickness, grant political power or bestow wealth and success… The training programme was founded by Jerome Mgahama, a karate instructor for over 20 years and founder of the Japanese Karate Association club in Dar es Salaam… He was inspired to start it after demonstrating martial arts for children with albinism at summer camps organized by NGOs and religious groups in Tanzania… (8 July 2022)

Visiting Dignitary: Mission Creep
(The New Yorker – USA) Extract: Mission: Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, the sixth President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and its first female head of state, desires a stroll through Central Park. Objective: To correct certain impressions advanced by Hassan’s predecessor, John Magufuli (nickname: the Bulldozer), who largely closed off Tanzania to the rest of the world and whose COVID strategy centered on three days of national prayer, after which he proclaimed, “The Corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God.” … Hassan, who was vaccinated publicly, is on a good-will tour of the United States, declaring Tanzania again open to visitors, investors, and science. … [S]he attended a summit with Kamala Harris. In New York, she will appear at the premiere of “The Royal Tour,” a PBS program in which Hassan guides the host, Peter Greenberg, around her country for nine days—Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro. She hopes to attract American tourists… (16 May 2022) – Editor: Thanks to Elsbeth Court for this item.

Award given to UN Biodiversity Chief

(Kew Magazine – UK) Extract: Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has been awarded the 15th Kew International Medal for her vital work in championing the importance of biodiversity conservation… For over two decades, Elizabeth, a Tanzanian biodiversity leader and lawyer, has held various positions at the UN Environment Program (UNEP) focusing on environmental laws. She will be leading efforts to secure ambition and agreement on a critical new framework for halting biodiversity loss and promoting sustainable development at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, later this year. In a keynote lecture at Kew to accept the award, she highlighted the importance of plant science in finding solutions to urgent crises in nature. ‘Biodiversity loss is our shared burden. It’s also our shared responsibility,’ said Elizabeth. (Summer 2022) Thanks to Elsbeth Court for this item – Editor

Record-breaking Tanzanian ruby exposed in Dubai
(Africa News Republic of Congo/France – online) Extract: The magnificent gemstone which weighs 2.8 kilograms was presented to the public for the first time … in Dubai…. According to mineral experts, the greenish and purplish stone could be auctioned for 120 million dollars. In Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania are one of the main ruby producing countries… (17 April 2022)

by Donovan McGrath

War in Ukraine: Why Vladimir Putin couldn’t have trained fighters in Africa

(BBC online – UK) A black and white image which some people falsely claim shows Russian President Vladimir Putin training liberation movements in southern Africa, has been circulating. Extract continues: It has been used by some to justify why African countries should support Russia in the war in Ukraine… The photograph was widely shared online after it was posted in Zimbabwean blogs at the end of 2018. The posts claimed it shows Mr Putin in a Tanzanian military training camp for southern African independence movements in 1973… “Putin stayed in Tanzania training freedom fighters for four years from 1973 to 1977,” the blogs also claim. However, there is no evidence either from Russian or African records of Mr Putin, who was born in 1952, having been to the continent during the 1970s. Mr Putin’s profile on the Kremlin website show that he was studying at the Leningrad State University at the time, and graduated in 1975. Also outside training offered to Mozambican freedom fighters in camps in Tanzania was largely conducted by Chinese instructors, not Soviet ones… Although the man pictured is thought to be a Soviet official, so far no-one has been able to confirm his actual identity… (15 March 2022)

Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island Helps Ukrainians Stranded by Russia’s Invasion
(VoA news online – USA) Extract: Zanzibar’s President Hussein Mwinyi on Monday said they were helping about 900 Ukrainians who were there on vacation when Russia invaded their country … Authorities said the Ukrainians are not able to safely return home but cannot stay on the Tanzanian island as local media reported they are running out of money. In comments sent to the press, Mwinyi said they have initiated talks with hotel owners on how they can help these people. He said they will help the Ukrainians until their government is ready to come to their assistance… Officials with the Ukrainian Embassy in Kenya said, “Zanzibar is a pretty popular tourism destination for Ukrainian nationals, so it was clear that there would be an issue. We contacted the tour operators who sent the tourists to Zanzibar. We realize that we have about 1,000 people – we got in touch with Zanzibar to see the possible measures and possible ways how the Tanzanian government can cooperate with the Zanzibars to protect our nationals.” … Zanzibar’s tourism ministry says the country received more than 2,300 Ukrainian tourists and more than 18,000 Russian tourists in 2020… Tanzania … [has] ordered its few hundred citizens living in Ukraine to leave the country. (1 March 2022)

International students trapped in Ukraine appeal for urgent evacuation
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: International students trapped in a Ukrainian town near the Russian border have made desperate appeals for evacuation, as the number thought to be stranded in Sumy has risen to between 1,200 and 1,500, and they are running out of basic supplies… [l]t emerged that 500 foreign students were stuck in the city, including almost 400 Nigerians, three Irish students and pupils from Rwanda, Lebanon and Tanzania… (4 March 2022)

Landmine-hunting hero rat dies in Cambodia after stellar career
(Guardian online – UK) Extract: A landmine-hunting rat that was awarded a gold medal for heroism for clearing ordnance from the Cambodian countryside has died. Magawa, a giant African pouched rat originally from Tanzania, helped clear mines from about 225,000 square metres of land – the equivalent of 42 football pitches – over the course of his career… Magawa was the first rat to receive a medal from British veterinary charity PDSA in the 77 years of the awards, joining an illustrious band of brave canines, felines – and even a pigeon… (12 January 2022)

9 million children to be vaccinated against polio in Africa
(Washington Post online – USA) Extract: … The urgent vaccination campaign has started in Malawi where drops of the inoculation are being placed in the mouths of children across the country, including in the capital, Lilongwe, and the country’s largest city, Blantyre. The vaccination campaign will be expanded … to include the neighbouring countries of Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, according to UNICEF which is working with the governments and other partners… In Tanzania, UNICEF has trained more than 2,000 health workers, 5,128 social mobilizers and 538 town criers, and facilitated the procurement of 3,000 vaccine carriers and 360 cold boxes, expected to be delivered in April 2022 for use in the upcoming rounds of campaigns… (22 March 2022)

U.S. will ‘surge’ vaccine support to 11 African countries
(Washington Post online – USA) The initiative aims to protect Americans and the world from new coronavirus variants. Extract continues: The Biden administration will “surge” more that $250 million in coronavirus vaccine assistance to 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including several where the omicron variant was first identified, as it ramps up efforts to help vaccinate the world, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post and confirmed by global health officials… According to a Global VAX initiative “field guide” shared with diplomatic contacts, the United States will prioritize countries in sub-Saharan Africa – starting with Angola, Cote d’lvoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia -to “receive intensive support” for their vaccination campaigns through in-person staffing, technical assistance and more diplomatic engagement. Those countries have generally vaccinated fewer than 40 percent of their populations against coronavirus, according to the Our World in Data tracking project at the University of Oxford … (17 February 2022)

A jaw-some find! Scientists discover the fossilised remains of a new species of ‘crocodile-like beast’ that roamed what is now Tanzania 240 million years ago – and had ‘powerful jaws with knife-like teeth’
(Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: … Palaeontologists at the University of Birmingham said the beast, or ‘Mambawakale ruhuhu’, would have reached more than 16 feet long. Its newly-assigned name means ‘ancient crocodile from the Ruhuhu Basin’ in Kiswahili, one of the two official languages of the East African region… Stalking ancient Tanzania, M. ruhuhu ‘would have been a very large and pretty terrifying predator,’ Professor Butler said. Walking on all fours and sporting a long tail, he added, this archosaur is ‘one of the largest predators that we know from the Middle Triassic.’ The fossils were first unearthed from the Ruhuhu Basin back in 1963 – just two years after Tanzania (then known as Tanganyika) gained independence from Britain – as part of a joint British Museum (Natural History) – University of London expedition. The type of specimen comprised a 2.5-foot-long skull with a lower jawbone and a largely complete left hand. It was located and recovered with the aid of Tanzanian and Zambian individuals who went unnamed in associated field reports… [l]n using words from Kiswahili – honours ‘the substantial and previously unsung contributions of unnamed Tanzanians to the success of the 1963 expedition.’ … (10 February 2022)

Tanzania revives stone arch bridge construction for river crossings

(New Civil Engineer online- UK) Extract: It is common for residents of the Kigoma region in north west Tanzania to make dangerous crossings of rivers to reach workplaces, schools, hospitals and markets during the rainy season. But for many, such journeys will soon no longer be necessary as a result of a new bridge construction programme. Removing the inherent risks involved in crossing rivers could also bring global benefits. Safe year-round river crossings are being delivered with the construction of 70 stone arch bridges, as part of Belgian development agency Enabel’s Sustainable Agriculture Kigoma Region Project (SAKiRP). [C]o-funded by the Belgian and Tanzanian governments… The aim of the project, launched in 2016, is to upgrade agriculture value chains but it also resulted in a new approach to bridge construction… “One of the interventions in the value chain is to improve the access to markets for smallholder farmers and that’s where the bridges come in,” says Enabel junior expert rural infrastructure Willem van der Voort. In a country where reinforced concrete bridges are the most common form of river crossing, a decision to construct stone arch ones is unconventional. Enabel opted for this bridge type because of experience gained in Congo and Uganda in its previous incarnation as the Belgian Technical Cooperation. Projects in those countries showed that stone arch bridges are cost efficient, allowing for more to be built with available budgets. Tanzania’s stone arch bridge construction programme started in early 2018 and already 44 have been completed. There has been no shortage of expertise among local engineers and craftsmen, thanks to a detailed construction manual compiled by Enabel… (25 February 2022)

Internet blimps are coming to Zanzibar. But can a UK company succeed where Google failed?
(CNN online – USA) Extract: The Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are about to become a test site for a mobile internet network its creators hope will not just revolutionize lives there, but possibly across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Only around 20% of Tanzanians use the internet, according to the World Bank. That’s low, even for sub-Saharan Africa where usage is affected by limited internet coverage and compounded by high data costs and low digital literacy. However, change will soon be written in the sky… UK company World Mobile is launching a hybrid network using aerostats- blimp-like tethered balloons that it says will provide near-blanket coverage across the islands. Two solar-powered, helium-filled balloons will float 300 meters (984 feet) above land and have a broadcast range of around 70km (44 miles) apiece, using 3G and 4G frequencies to deliver their signal… “We get the sharing economy right in Zanzibar, we prove that at scale in Kenya and Tanzania, and then the rest of the world is ours,” [World Mobile CEO Micky Watkins] says. (12 January 2022)

by Donovan McGrath

Tanzanian opposition leader Freeman Mbowe in court to face charges
(Aljazeera online – UAE) Extract: Freeman Mbowe, leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party, has appeared in court to face “terrorism” charges, in a case denounced by his supporters as a politically motivated move aimed at crushing dissent. The 59-year-old chairman of the Chadema party has been behind bars since July 21 when he was arrested along with other senior party officials in a night-time police raid just hours before they were to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reforms… The opposition has denounced the arrests as a throwback to the oppressive rule of Tanzania’s late leader John Magufuli who died suddenly in March. There had been hope that [Salmia Suluhu] Hassan would bring about a new era of democracy after the increasingly heavy-handed rule of Magufuli but Chadema leaders say the arrests of Mbowe and his colleagues reflect a deepening slide into “dictatorship”…. (31 August 2021) Thanks to John Rollinson who informed me of two brief mentions of Freeman Mbowe’s court appearances published in the weekly politics section of the Economist – Editor

‘No power to stop it’: optimism turns to frustration over east Africa pipline
(Guardian online – UK) Promised an income, those affected by $20bn oil project are losing their land and resources instead. Extract continues: The villagers in the Kijungu settlements welcomed the project when the route was announced in 2017, hoping that the government and companies involved would buy their land and change their lives for good. Their optimism has since given way to frustration. Adrin Tugume, 53, depends on her land to feed her 10 children and sell bananas, cassava, beans and maize. Although construction is not yet under way, she has been asked to stay off the portion of land where the pipeline will be built. “I was stopped from using my land for three years. It is where we get food for our children… The opposition to the project is not just about humanitarian concerns. The east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil 900 miles (1,450km) from the shores of Lake Albert on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Tanzania to the port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean… Uganda and Tanzania signed agreements with the French oil and gas company Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The pipeline will pass through the habitats of at-risk species. It could jeopardise community water sources and pollute the air, and its construction will be intrusive and noisy. In Shinyanga in Tanzania, local government authorities have admitted that environmental disturbance is inevitable. The $20bn (£14.8bn) project … comes as world leaders are aiming to divest from fossil fuels. The pipeline will contribute to the climate crisis, locking in more oil use and planet heating emissions for decades to come. Total did not respond to a request for comment, while CNOOC’s spokesperson said it was committed to avoiding environmental damage… In Tanzania … an environmental impact statement prepared for the companies noted that vulnerable or endangered species had been found in the pipeline’s path, including elephants, hippos and lions… (7 November 2021)

Tanzania: Seven die in Zanzibar after eating poisonous turtle meat
(BBC online – UK) Seven people, including a three-year-old, have died on Tanzania’s Pemba Island after eating poisonous turtle meat. Extract continues: The meat is a common delicacy among those living on Tanzania’s islands and coastal areas but the authorities have now banned the consumption of turtles in the area. In rare cases turtle meat can be toxic because of a type of food poisoning known as chelonitoxism. Its exact cause is not known but it is thought to be linked to poisonous algae which the turtles eat, according to the Turtle Foundation charity. At least five families on Pemba, which is part of the semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands, ate the turtle meat … local police commander Juma Said Hamis told the BBC. The effects were first felt the next day and the three-year-old was the first to die. Two others died that night and then four more [later on]. A further 39 people were admitted to hospital… [I]n Madagascar, 19 people, including nine children, died after eating turtle meat, the AFP news agency reported at the time. Cases have also been reported in Indonesia, Micronesia and India’s Indian Ocean islands. (29 November 2021)

Twitter removes more than 3,000 accounts related to state-linked operations from countries including China, Russia and Mexico
(Mail online – UK) Extract: …The Twitter accounts that were removed were linked to operations attributed to six countries: Mexico, China, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda and Venezuela. In a blog post, Twitter said that ‘every account and piece of content associated with these operations has been permanently removed from the service.’ … It is not yet known how Twitter knew which accounts to remove, but the blog post did outline that: … [in the case of Tanzania] A network of 268 accounts dedicated to filing bad faith reports against free speech platform Fichua Tanzania were removed … (2 December 2021)

In conversation with Jane Goodall on climate change – and remaining hopeful for the future
(Washington Post online – USA) Extract: A half century ago, Jane Goodall was spending months at a time sitting in the Gombe forest in what is now Tanzania waiting for wild chimps to approach her so that she could observe their behaviour. Her superhuman patience paid off. The young researcher discovered that chimps are more like us than we had imagined – lavishing affection on their young, forming social hierarchies, making tools and even warring with rival bands. But Goodall says that her most vital work began when she left the forest and started traveling across the globe to talk about climate change and the tragic loss of biodiversity. The pandemic has kept the 87-year-old naturalist at home in Bournemouth, England, where she continues to speak out online, especially with young people participating in “Roots & Shoots,” a volunteer program which she organized that empowers young people in 60 countries to work in their communities to improve the lives of humans, animals and the environment. She’s also been working on “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times” [published October 2021]. In a series of dialogues with co-author Douglas Abrams, she spells out her four reasons for hope: the amazing human intellect; the resilience of nature; the power of young people; and the indomitable human spirit. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Goodall spoke on climate change, the state of the planet and why she has not yet given up hope on the human species… Q: Isn’t it a bit audacious to come out with a book about hope at this moment when so many are feeling anxious and fearful? What makes you hopeful? A: I was 5 years old when World War II began. There was a time when Britain stood alone in Europe against the might of Nazi Germany. The rest of Europe was overrun and defeated, or they capitulated. Actually there was no good reason for hope. We didn’t have the defenses. We hadn’t built up an adequate army, navy or air force. But we did have some very brave young men, and we had [Winston] Churchill saying “We’ll fight on the beaches, we’ll fight in the cities, we’ll fight in the lanes and we will not be defeated.” I think we can prevail now with the same spirit… “We will defeat covid, we will fight to prevent another pandemic.” Q: Some people say that we need to go through a period of real destruction before humans are moved to actually change the way we operate. A: Well yes, when I say “good news” don’t get me wrong, but the good news for climate change is that no longer is it mainly in the news about countries like Bangladesh, but it’s hitting the Western world. Think of the recent Hurricane Ida in the U.S., think of the flooding in Europe. It’s when people get personally hit by these things that they start to realize – “Wow, this is really terrible we need to do something about it.” Q: Much of the land around Gombe forest has been deforested. You speak in the book about how you’ve been inspired by young people and others are helping to restore it. A: Years ago I flew over this bleak landscape, the Gombe Forest surrounded by bare hills because there were more people than the land could support struggling to survive, cutting down the trees on the slopes in a desperate effort to get more land for crops and to make charcoal. That’s when it hit me: If we don’t help these people to find ways of making a living without destroying the environment, we can’t save chimps, forests or anything else. Now we don’t have bare hills around Gombe thanks to our TACARE [or “Take Care”] program, which has been planting trees and working with the villagers to help improve their lot. Alleviating poverty is a major task. But we need to do it if we are going to save the environment… Q: You say in your new book that humans are intellectual but not necessarily intelligent. What’s the difference? A: The intellect solves problems and it can do intricate mathematics and work out what’s out there in the universe, galaxies and solar systems and so on. But if your intelligent, you don’t destroy your only home, that isn’t intelligent. We seem to have lost wisdom… (19 October 2021)

Britain moves to ban big-game hunters from bringing trophies back into country
(Washington Post online – USA) Extract: Trophies of endangered and threatened species killed by hunters will soon be banned from being shipped to Britain, according to a government proposal that has been called one of the toughest in the world. The proposed ban … would cover nearly 7,000 animal species, including lions, rhinoceroses and elephants that many big-game hunters seek. It would be notable for including some 1,000 animals with “near-threatened” status. Over the past half-century or so, the world’s wild animal population has dropped by an average of 68 percent across different monitored species, according to a World Wildlife report from 2020. The decrease is primarily attributed to the loss of natural habitat, although some species, such as the Plains zebra, are threatened by hunting… Big-game hunters say that they contribute to local economies, a point disputed by conservation groups, which regard the activity as cruel and bad for biodiversity… British hunting enthusiasts often travel abroad – top destinations for trophy hunters globally include Tanzania and Zimbabwe – where they can obtain licenses to shoot wild animals according to animal welfare advocacy groups… (11 December 2021)

Fossil footprints hint at mystery hominin with unusual walking style
(New Scientist online – UK) Extract: Ancient footprints that were originally thought to have been made by a bear walking on two legs were actually made by an extinct human species. The discovery means there are now three known sets of hominin footprints from the same locale in Tanzania. It isn’t clear which hominin species made the prints. The authors of a new study say they don’t match the other sets of footprints at Laetoli, a site in Tanzania, so were probably made by a different species. If this is true, it would mean that two hominin species coexisted in the same region at the same time… (1 December 2021)

Bidders for Unilever’s tea business pulled out on plantation concerns
(Business Fast online – UK) Extract: Two of the three final bidders for Unilever’s tea division baulked at taking on the company’s plantations because of concerns about working conditions, according to people familiar with the matter. The tea division, which included PG Tips and Lipton brands, was sold … to CVC Capital Partners for €4.5bn. But the Luxembourg-based buyout group was left as the only bidder willing to buy the whole division after Carlyle and Advent International decided they could not take on tea plantations in east Africa, which face difficult questions over human rights and fair pay… Advent had grown increasingly concerned about accepting responsibility for the health, welfare and security of thousands of plantation workers, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Bosses on the plantations have power not only over workers’ jobs but also their housing and medical care, as the sites are often in remote areas and rely on workers brought in from elsewhere… Around 8,500 people are permanently employed on the Unilever plantations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, and this rises to about 16,000 when temporary workers are added in peak season, Unilever said… (19 November 2021)

Climate change will melt Africa’s last glaciers ‘within two decades’
(Times online – UK) Extract: Africa’s last mountain glaciers will disappear within two decades, the United Nations has said. The UN World Meteorological Organisation’s latest annual report said that the glaciers on Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Rwenzori range along the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are receding faster than the global average and will have melted entirely by the 2040s. The glaciers of all three ranges have shrunk by more than 80 per cent in the past 100 years as a result of rising temperatures caused by man-made climate change. Mount Kenya is expected to be the first peak to lose its glaciers completely, with the ice at its summit forecast to melt away within the next 10 years…(24 October 2021)

Fastest growing cities in Africa 2021
(Business Insider Africa online – Nigeria) This article gives a top ten list of the fastest growing cities on the African continent in 2021, according to the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) research. Tanzania, which is of interest here, is listed in tenth place (Ghana’s capital, Accra, is listed in first place, and Nairobi in ninth place). Extract: According to Brahima Coulibaly, director of Brookings’ Africa Growth Initiative, “About half of the world’s fastest-growing economies will be located on the continent, with 20 economies expanding at an average rate of 5% or higher over the next five years, faster than the 3.6% rate for the global economy.” By 2050, Africa’s population is anticipated to reach about 2 billion inhabitants, and more economic activities are taking place, counterbalancing the increasing population. … Dar es Salaam has more than 6 million inhabitants making it the largest city in the country… Considering the population of 3.4 million from the census data obtained in 2005, it is projected that by 2025 the population of Dar es Salaam will be about 6.2 million [a rise of] 82%. (3 December 2021)

by Donovan McGrath

Lions kill three children near Tanzania wildlife reserve
(Guardian online – UK) Youngsters went to look for cattle near Ngorongoro conservation area … Extract continues: The youngsters, aged between nine and 11, had arrived home from school … and gone into the forest near the Ngorongoro conservation area to search for [lost cattle], Arusha police chief, Justine Masejo, said. “That is when the lions attacked and killed three children, while injuring one,” he said … Ngorongoro in northern Tanzania is a world heritage site that is home to wildlife including big cats such as lions, cheetahs and leopards. “I would like to urge the nomadic communities around the reserved areas to take precautions against fierce animals especially when they task their children to take care of the livestock. That will help protect children and their families,” Masejo said. Tanzania allows some communities such as the Maasai, who graze their livestock alongside wild animals, to live within national parks… (5 August 2021)

Petra Diamonds pays £4.3m to Tanzanians ‘abused’ by its contractors
(Guardian online – UK) Firm settles over allegations claimants were shot, stabbed and beaten by guards at mine that produced one of Queen’s favourite gems. Extract continues: … The 71 Tanzanian claimants, represented in the London high court by the British law firm Leigh Day, alleged grave violations by the company … The abuses were allegedly carried out by security personnel contracted by Petra’s local subsidiary, Williamson Diamonds Ltd, which has a majority share of the mine, and by Tanzanian police who worked at and around the mine… In a statement, the London Stock Exchange-listed company, which says it is an “ethical diamond seller”, noted that it had appointed a new security contractor, closed the on-site lock-up where the UK corporate watchdog Rights and Accountability in Development (Raid) claimed to have found evidence that local residents had been detained and beaten, and launched an independent grievance mechanism to resolve future complaints transparently and quickly. The company said it would also fund community projects and establish a medical support programme. “Petra acknowledges that past incidents have taken place that regrettably result in the loss of life, injury and mistreatment of illegal diggers,” the statement said. “The agreement reached with the claimants, combined with the other actions put in place, are aimed at providing redress and preventing the possibility of future incidents.” Petra had agreed the settlement on the basis of “no admission of liability”, it said. George Joseph Bwisige, leader of a group seeking compensation for abuses at the mine, said: “I have been waiting a long time for Petra Diamonds to recognise what its operations did to me and fellow members of my community.” Anneke Van Woudenberg, executive director of Raid, said: “Petra Diamonds should allow effective independent monitoring of the security and human rights situation going forward. Without this, it will be hard to have faith that the company has truly changed its ways.” (18 May 2021)

Tanzanian MPs demand apology for ‘tight’ trousers incident
(BBC News online – UK) Female MPs in Tanzania have called for an apology to an MP who was ordered to leave parliament because of her trousers. Extract continues: A male MP said the way some women dressed invited ridicule to parliament. “Mr Speaker, an example there is my sister seated on my right with a yellow shirt. Look at the trousers she has worn, Mr Speaker!” Hussein Amar said in parliament … The Speaker then ordered the MP, Condester Sichwale, to leave. “Go dress up well, and then join us back later,” said the Speaker Job Ndugai. He added that this was not the first complaint he had received about female Member of Parliaments’ attire, and told chamber orderlies to deny entry to anyone who was inappropriately dressed. While Mr Amar did not elaborate on what he found wrong with Ms Sichwale’s outfit, he quoted the parliamentary rules which allow women to wear trousers but stipulate that clothes should not be tight-fitting… (2 June 2021)

‘It could have been made this morning!’ Incredibly well-preserved hoof prints left two million years ago in volcanic ash by prehistoric antelope or gazelle are discovered in Tanzania
(Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: Researchers from Heriot-Watt University have found three well-defined, albeit ancient, animal foot prints in Tanzania that are believed to be almost two-million years old. The animals left hoof prints on what was then fresh ash from a volcanic eruption some 1.8 million years ago. It’s believed the fossilized footprints were made by either a prehistoric antelope or gazelle. The discoveries were made in the Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania, an area that has been ripe for discovering evidence of ancient human ancestors. The three tracks are approximately 7 centimetres (2.8 inches) in length and according to the study’s lead author, Tessa Plint, they were stumbled upon by accident. ‘We weren’t there to prospect for fossil tracks, so finding them was 100 percent a matter of looking down in the right place at the right time! It was a very exciting moment,’ Plint said in a statement. The fossilized footprints are in such great detail because they were made in very fine volcanic ash, the study’s co-author, Clayton McGill, added. ‘One of the tracks is preserved in stunning detail, it’s so crisp and clear, it looks like it could have been made the morning we found it.’ … (23 June 2021)

Mrs Livingstone, I presume? Her husband took the credit for exploring deepest Africa. But, as a major new exhibition reveals, it was all thanks to his even more fearless wife (Daily Mail online – UK) Extract: For generations, the people of Tabora in what is now Tanzania told stories of the legendary Scottish explorer, Christian missionary and anti-slavery hero, Dr David Livingstone. How, in 1855, he had discovered a spectacular waterfall which he named ‘Victoria Falls’, and subsequently reached the mouth of the Zambezi on the Indian Ocean to become the first European to cross the width of southern Africa. ‘Livingstone was like a man that had three wives, and yet none of them were women,’ they liked to say. ‘One was a river. The river they call the Nile. The second was the struggle against slavery. The third, religion.’ But there was also a real wife, whom Livingstone once described in a letter to a friend as ‘a little thick-black-haired girl, sturdy and all I want’; and, to another, as ‘like an Irish manufactory’ in her ability to produce children. Mary Moffatt, however, was far, far more than that. She was strong, educated, fearless, spoke six African languages and was a seasoned traveller. Crucially, as the daughter of missionaries, she was renowned in South Africa. In fact, it was her father, Robert Moffatt, famed translator of the Bible into Setswana (spoken in Botswana and South Africa), who inspired Livingstone to become a missionary in the first place. So it was Mary who, in remote areas, opened doors for her singularly driven husband with her languages and connections. And Mary to whom tribal leaders would often insist on addressing first… So what a shame this amazing woman—once described as ‘Livingstone’s greatest asset’—was all but wiped from the annals of history by macho biographers. [W]hen the David Livingstone Birthplace museum in Lanarkshire reopens … after a £9.1 million revamp, Mary’s contribution will finally be given due credit. As Dr Kate Simpson, a Glasgow University academic and museum trustee, puts it: ‘She was determined and independent and had a rod of iron. She did everything Livingstone did, and a lot more. Such as keeping house, producing baby after baby, running a school—as well as being the first European woman to cross the Kalahari Desert… Some tribal leaders refused to speak to [Livingstone], unless Mary was present. So when, in 1849, he set off on a 1,500-mile trek across the Kalahari, she went too—pregnant and with three children in tow… (23 June 2021)

East Africa’s ‘lucrative’ conversion therapy industry
(Mail & Guardian online – South Africa) Extract: Hospitals and clinics across East Africa have offered or provided referrals for controversial ‘anti-gay’ therapies to ‘change’ individuals’ sexuality, according to a six-month special investigation coordinated by openDemocracy. More than 50 LGBT people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda described their own experiences of what is often called ‘conversion therapy’ – including electric shocks and hormone ‘therapy’ – to local researchers working with openDemocracy. In addition, openDemocracy undercover report­ers identified 12 health centres across the three countries – including those that specifically seek to reach gay men with health services – where staff offered help to “quit” same-sex attraction. In Uganda, our reporters who visited three hospitals were told that being gay is “evil”, something “for whites” and a mental health problem; and for a 17 year old gay boy, to try “exposure therapy” with “a housemaid [he] can get attracted [to]”; and to give a gay teenager a sleeping pill to prevent him from masturbating… Efforts to ‘cure’ homosexuality are “inherently degrading and discriminatory” said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, Africa director at the International Commission of Jurists human rights organi­sation, in response to openDemocracy’s findings. But they are “a lucra­tive business opportunity for individuals and organisations who are profiting out of humiliating, demeaning and discriminatory actions,” she said. In many cases, openDemocracy found people asked for pay­ment for such ‘therapy’… Three countries – Brazil, Ecuador and Malta – have banned these practices, while Germany has banned them when applied to minors. The UK government has also recently committed to banning ‘conversion therapy’… Anal sex is criminalised – and punish­able with prison sentences – in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Uganda’s recently passed sexual offences bill more broadly bans “sexual acts between persons of the same gender”, but it is not yet law… (7 July 2021)

Development is for and of people; it cannot be inflicted on people
(East African online – Kenya) This article by Jenerali Ulimwengu is in the form of a letter addressed to ‘Julius’. It was summarised in the question: ‘Was the price of this “development” to be measured in the zombification of parliament, the neutering of the Press, the killing of the still fragile systems of accountability and the imposition of a culture of opacity wherein the president became the chief procurement authority? Extract: I thank you for your views about how I have been writing about the late John Pombe Magufuli and I think your views are not only sound but also shared by many people in Tanzania and Kenya, and even beyond. Please understand me. I don’t intend to claim JPM did nothing good. I would be blind and deaf if I did. All I’m saying, as with any one of his predecessors, is that a lot of what every elected official claims to have achieved usually falls within the purview of what he asked his people to allow him to do and, in most cases, what he is charged with doing constitutionally.
But, think about this: If you employ a gardener to set up your orchard and he does a good job of it, is that a reason for not reprimanding him if in so doing he runs your water bill through the roof, or he demolishes part of your house, or plants some shrubs you have no interest in, or tells you to shut up while he is working because you are disturbing him? Think about it.
Tanzania is a nation in the making, it is not a construction site. The type of building she needs is that of an ethos of love, solidarity and empathy, not that of a bulldozer. Our people are not granite, iron bars and aggregates. They deserve to be treated with empathy, to be listened to and consulted continually. ‘Development’ speaks of the amelioration of the lives of the people, and as such it cannot be inflicted on a people, or it will be rejected. Concrete structures will crumble with time, but the human spirit, carefully nurtured and nourished, will survive the test of time.
Let me ask you a couple of things about the projects you laud so much: Supposing all these projects were really great, and even supposing they did not include Air Tanzania, which is stillborn, are they in any way worth the wanton killing of innocent Tanzanians? Was Azory Gwanda the price we were supposed to pay for this type of bizarre ‘development’? Or Akwilina? Or Ben Sanane? Or the sixteen bullets that hit Tundu Lissu while attending parliament?
Was the right price for this ‘paradise’ the silencing of any voice of dissent, the proliferation of trumped-up charges against government critics and the turning of the Judiciary into a pack of lap dogs? It is most strange that the man who claimed to fight corruption should be the same man who fought transparency and promoted opacity in governance structures, such as parliament, the office of the controller-and-auditor general, and the press. For anyone who is determined to fight corruption these should be the first-line allies and partners, but Magufuli saw them as enemies.
There is a simple rule of thumb here: greater transparency, less corruption; greater opacity, more corruption. That is the way our rulers must be judged. I am not superstitious, and do not believe that one man can single-handedly fight corruption.
You state that maybe the man had too much self-confidence. I may agree with that, only adding that this kind of self-belief borders on the delusionary, and may suggest a difficulty in relating to reality as lived by ordinary mortals, which should call into question our ability to lead others. I will grant that Magufuli was passionate about building structures, but in my heart of hearts I cannot agree that this was his role as top leader of his people; he chose the wrong things to build and ended up looking like a site foreman rather than a builder of a national ethos… (29 April 2021) Thanks to Elsbeth Court for this item – Editor