SALIM AHMED SALIM THE NEW OAU SECRETARY GENERAL
Describing how Mr Salim Ahmed Salim (47), Tanzania’s Deputy Prime Minister and, at different times, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence and Prime Minister (as well as former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations) had been elected by the Organisation of African Unity as its new Secretary General WEST AFRICA magazine stated in its August 17-30 issue that this heralded the ‘dawn of a new realism’. He was considered amply qualified for the post and, being from a front-line state, would enhance his credibilty given the organisation’s present focus on Southern Africa. Despite the usually clannish nature of the Francophone states within the OAU and their apparent stranglehold on the Secretary Generalship, Mr. Salim’s qualifications and commitment were such that he was able to win on the third ballot the article said. He succeeds Mr Ide Oumarou from Niger.

The FINANCIAL TIMES reported that Mr. Salim had obtained 38 votes – more than the two thirds majority needed from among the 49 member states.

BUDGET DISPLEASES DONORS
The AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST in its issue of July 3rd stated that donors have reacted coldly to Tanzania’s latest budget. Sticking points continued to be exchange rate policy and the speed of structural reforms. Donors had been hoping for a faster depreciation of the Tanzanian Shilling than the 4.8% devaluation announced in the budget. The Government was said to have consistently stated that it would restructure the export marketing boards but the likelihood of this taking place soon was being treated with some scepticism by donors according to the article. An investment code expected since mid – 1988 was apparently not now expected before late 1989.

THE GREATEST SPECTACLE ON EARTH
‘The Serengeti. Even its name resounds like a drumbeat from the heart of Africa. How can one convey the majesty of its immense plains. The light is dazzling. The smells of dust and game and grass – grass that blows, rippling, for mile after mile in the dry highland wind, with seldom a road and never a fence; only the outcropping gaunt granite kopjes and their watching lions, the thorny woodlands, the water-courses with their shady fig trees and the wandering herds of game.

Since the Serengeti became a national park nearly forty years ago, the wildebeest have multiplied until there are now one and a quarter million. Together with half a million gazelles, 200,000 zebra, 50,000 topi and 8,000 giraffe – to say nothing of 1,500 lions – they offer a last glimpse of the old, wild Africa as it was before the coming of the Europeans; and when the wildebeest embark on their seasonal migrations, stampeding across the rivers, stretched out from horizon to horizon in endless marching columns that take three days and nights to pass, they transform these vast Tanzanian plains into the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth’. (Extracts from an article by Brian Jackman in the SUNDAY TIMES of 25th June 1989).

TANZANIA TO DOUBLE CASHEW AND COCONUT PRODUCTION
Such is the intention behind a new World Bank IDA Credit of US$ 25.1 million recently agreed. WORLD BANK NEWS in its issue of June 29, 1989 noted that Tanzania’s production of cashews and coconuts had declined by 85% since the 1970’s as a result of inappropriate pricing, ineffective marketing policies, lack of production supplies and plant diseases. The project will establish seven cashew development centres and three coconut seed farms to grow plants and seeds for distribution. Research will be expanded and training will be provided for extension and research staff. Credit is included for farmers and t raders. Annual production is expected to double to 45,000 tons of cashews and one billion coconuts by the year 1999.

ONE CAMPAIGNER SALUTES ANOTHER
In the INDEPENDENT magazine of July 1st Glenys Kinnock, wife of Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, paid tribute to Archbishop Trevor Huddleston who leads not only the Anti-Apartheid movement but also the Britain-Tanzania Society. ‘At 76, still sparkling with fun, still spreading vitality, still fierce for freedom, my hero, Trevor Huddleston, is very much alive’ she wrote. She went on to quote Archbishop Tutu as saying: “He is so un-English in many ways, being fond of hugging people, embracing them and in the way he laughs. He does not laugh with his teeth, he laughs with his whole body, his whole being”. Glenys Kinnock went on to write ‘Trevor Huddleston is a man of action. He has retained his fighting spirit, his resolve ….. action not words is his continual message everywhere ….. Last summer the Archbishop was one of the first to arrive early on Saturday morning at the huge Nelson Mandela Birthday Concert in Wembley and one of the last to leave late on Saturday night. As he sat in the front row of the Royal Box throughout the day thousands of young people turned away from the stage to greet him. His face glowed with smiles as he returned the waves whilst the music thundered out across the stadium and across the world. He was having a lovely time – not diminished one bit by the fact that he hardly heard a single note through the ear plugs that he had firmly fixed in place throughout much of the day. It’s about the nearest that Trevor Huddleston has ever come to compromise’.

TANZANIAN COFFEE
Writing in the SUNDAY TIMES feature ‘A Life In The Day Of’ Naomi Mitchison, the traveller, adventurer and prolific writer, described some of her tastes. She obtains muffins from Marks and Spencers and eats jam made from Japanese quinces. When in Botswana, where she is the adopted mother to the Ba Kgatla, Chief Linchwe arranges for her to get coffee from somewhere other than South Africa. When she is in Britain however “I have coffee from the Chagga Cooperative in Tanzania” she wrote.

JAPANESE AID
The JAPAN TIMES devoted a full page to Tanzania on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Union. Greetings from advertisers included contributions from Nippon Koei Co. Ltd, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and the Konoike Construction Co. Ltd. Mr. Kikuo Ikeda, Chairman of the Japan–Tanzania Association wrote about current Japanese aid schemes which include an Agricultural Storage and Transportation System Improvement Project in Iringa and feasibility studies on agriculture in the Lower Hai and Lower Rombo areas and on urban development in Dar es Salaam. He also reported that some 35,000 visitors had attended the Tanzania Exhibition in Tokyo in February 1989. (This was described in Bulletin No. 33 – Editor).

DAR SEEKS A CROW BAR
Under this rather imaginative heading, SOUTH magazine in June reported that Dar es Salaam is at war against an invasion of rapacious Indian crows. ‘They steal food, kill chickens, cause commotion in the early hours, and steal buns, tomatoes, fish and meat from street markets. Now they are said to have begun attacking people. Tanzania’s Game Department tried to eliminate them last September and killed more than 4,000. But the birds are now adept at dodging bullets. In January they attacked a man who was 15m up a palm tree trying to pull out a crows’ nest. By the time he reached the ground his feet were bleeding and swollen.

The crows were introduced to Zanzibar about a century ago from India to provide a sanitation service by eating garbage. Despite government rewards for collecting eggs and destroying nests they spread to the mainland where Dar es Salaam’s poor waste disposal system offered an inviting feast’.

DEFINITE SIGNS OF RECOVERY
‘Tanzania’, wrote AFRICAN CONCORD, on July 17th, ‘once known as the sick man of Africa, is responding to IMF medicine and a transfusion of Western aid. The country has just completed a three-year overhaul which has breathed new life into its stagnant economy, pleasing Western donors and Tanzanians alike’.
“The Economic Recovery Programme is a resounding success” said IMF Director Richard Erb during a visit in May. As one African diplomat remarked: “People can now get their essentials, from food to clothes, without queuing or resorting to the black market”.

AN UNUSUAL UVEITIS
A report in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL on August 5th by Dr. Yorston of Mvumi Hospital and colleagues at the Institute of Opthalmology in London described a five year survey into Uveitis (inflammation of the iris and related structures in the eye) in children at Mvumi. Of the 254 children seen with the disease half were under two years old. No consistent abnormality accounted for the uveitis but there appeared to be a geographical distribution with many cases in Iringa, Shinyanga, and Dareda but few in Mbeya and Sumbawanga. Most children recovered within six to twelve weeks. It was suggested that the disease might be a response to either parasitic, viral or spirochaetal infection in early infancy.

CULTURE BAZAAR
Under this heading the INDEPENDENT in its June 20th issue reported on the WOMAD World Music Festival which took place ‘among the fish and chip shops and stunning sunsets of crumbling, jolly Morecambe …. The African content was threefold in type. Delicate, melodic filigree from traditional Ugandan acoustic instruments, the venerable Gambian kora maestro Amadou Jobarteh and loping electric guitar and drum dance-floor pop, ‘soukous’ -influenced but with an East African choppiness, from the Tanzanian Remmy Ongala and his orchestra Matimila who appeared to be playing everywhere the whole time’.

NO NEW TAXES FOR ZANZIBAR
Reviewing what it described as Zanzibar Minister of Finance’s cautious budget for 1989/90 the AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST (May 29) wrote that the removal of subsidies, cuts in the civil service and higher revenues following trade liberalisation had allowed income and expenditure to balance in 1988/89. Recurrent expenditure was projected at Shs 2,779 million against Shs 1,74-0 million in 1988. Development spending was to increase from Shs 5,000 million to Shs 5, 398 million (4-6.9% for communications) but 92.7% of this would need to come from external funding. GDP growth in Zanzibar last year was unchanged at 1.3% compared with mainland growth of 4%. A popular announcement was that there would be no new taxes this year because of the rise in income.

THE STRANGE DOUBLE LIFE OF A SCUTTLED GERMAN WARSHIP
Truth, said the FINANCIAL TIMES on June 28th, is sometimes stranger than fiction. The former German naval steamer Graf von Goetzen on Lake Tanganyika which was scuttled by the Germans during the First World War and subsequently refloated under British rule and renamed the Liemba, continues to sail Lake Tanganyika today. Her career is ‘as swashbuckling’ as the Humphrey Bogart character in the film the ‘African Queen’ – a drinker, smuggler and all-round reprobate.

The article went on to explain that the Liemba still carries Germans – tourists – as she plies the 420 miles of blue, crystal-clear water that stretch northward from Zambia to the former Belgian colonies of Burundi and Ruanda. But the Liemba’s 4-inch gun has gone and it s place on the upper deck has been taken by less lethal contraptions – safari Landrovers bristling with dried sausages and piled high with cases of beer.

Carrying tourists and their vehicles up to gorilla country in the mountains of Rwanda, however, is only a sideline. The Liemba is, above all, ‘a floating den of smugglers who successfully manage to break every import, excise and exchange control in the region’. The lengthy article described how subsidised Zambian goods, dried fish, gold and various currencies change the ship into a ‘mobile market place and trading floor’ with profits sometimes as high as 400 per cent. As one of the smugglers said: “The Government calls it smuggling; we call it business”.

DAR ES SALAAM PORT FACILITIES MUCH IMPROVED
Describing the completion of the US$ 18.0 million port development at Dar es Salaam the AFRICAN ECONOMIC DIGEST (July 24) stated that some observers were now suggesting that it could compete with Mombasa where efficiency has deteriorated sharply. The Finnish financed project involved the conversion of three general cargo berths into a 13 hectare container terminal with ship to shore gantry cranes and several rubber tyred container carriers. Tractor and trailer units have been introduced as well as a rail-mounted gantry.

TANZANIAN TROOPS WITHDRAW
According to AFRICAN CONCORD Tanzania’s estimated 5,000 troops which were sent to Mozambique nearly two years ago, although the agreed period was six months, have been withdrawn. Mozambique’s Defence Minister, Alberto Chipande commented “They did their job of freeing the entire Zambezi Valley (from MNR rebels) and have therefore returned to their country with the merit of having fulfilled their liberating mission in Africa”.

Tanzanian Defence Minister Salim Ahmed Salim told a parade of returned soldiers that they had succeeded in preventing the MNR from cutting Mozambique in two at its narrowest point between the southern tip of Malawi and the port of Quelimane.

OF CHICKENS AND ACADEMICS
“It’s early morning in a sleepy African Village. The mooing of cows punctures the morning silence. Those in the surrounding low-lying houses turn in their sleep. The cows become more audible, more insistent. No doubt someone has been remiss in their milking. The mooing of the cows is joined by the cackling of dozens of fowl. This blissful ‘rural’ awakening is not taking place in some remote corner of the African world. It is right in the heart of the ‘developed underdeveloped’ University of Dar es Salaam. The early morning bovine sounds come from no other than the academic’s cows”. So began an article in the January 1989 issue of AFRICA EVENTS.

The article goes on to say that President Mwinyi, who is also Chancellor of the University, had urged University leaders to raise chickens, cows and pigs to supplement their income. But, the article asked, should it be the business of academics to raise chickens and cows in order to make ends meet. And the conditions under which academics work hardly leave room for raising chickens. Everything has to be sought for long and hard. Public transport is tortoise-slow and public officials unhelpful. Academic’s work is bobbled down by lack of facilities; large classes, limited staff and work-shy students, all make academic life at Dar es Salaam a pretty hard slog.

The article went on to discuss research and what it described as the extraordinarily myopic attitude of the government towards Tanzanian academics compared with ‘jet-in, jet out’ experts which it preferred.

MAN-EATERS SHOT IN BAGAMOYO
The DAILY TELEGRAPH in its April 10th issue reported that wildlife officials had shot two man-eating lions which had killed three people near Bagamoyo, on Tanzania’ s Indian Ocean coast. The hunt had been organised after hundreds of people had fled their homes.

NEW MALARIA CONTROL INITIATIVE
AFRICA HEALTH has reported that a new Japanese grant is being used to finance a five-year programme of vector control in Dar es Salaam and Tanga. The programme began in July 1988 and involves indoor residual insecticide spraying, larvicide spraying of breeding habitats and the spraying of residential areas with ultra-low volume machines. Dar es Salaam had a malaria control programme in the 1960’s and 1970’s but its staff was dispersed about the country following a decentralisation drive in 1972. By 1981 there were only a dozen malaria assistants left and the youngest of them was fifty years old. Nearly 5,000 Tanzanians died of the disease in 1985 – a particularly bad year – and 386 died in 1986.

TAARAB – THE MUSIC OF ZANZIBAR
The GUARDIAN in its issue dated January 6, 1989 reviewed a collection of Zanzibar music recently released on two records. It wrote: ‘Zanzibar’s unique island location off the East coast of Africa has produced an intriguing musical melting-pot where Arabic, Indian and African influences converge with exotic results. Taarab describes both the music and the social occasions on which it is played.

In the case of Ikhwani Safaa, Zanzibar’s most popular orchestra, founded in 1905, this consists of a mesmeric mix of western violins alongside eastern instruments like the ganoon (a kind of zither) and the oud. It is these two instruments, in the capable hands of Abdullah Mussa Ahmed and Seif Salim Saleh, which are featured on the other record … strange and seductive sounds’.

EXPLOSIVE BREW
Under this heading NEW AFRICAN in its February issue wrote that local brewing is becoming so popular in Tanzania that it is threatening the survival of the beer industry as well as the only industrially brewed local beer, properly known as ‘kikuku’ or ‘tikisa’. As little as five years ago, local brews were only drunk at traditional celebrations and other rural-based rituals.

In Dar es Salaam alone there are now about 19 types of local brew including ‘kindi’, mbege, tembo, mnazi, njimbo and kangara which are made mostly of grains, sugar, baking powder and molasses. Thousands of people who want to get drunk quickly drink illegally distilled ‘gongo’, ‘kill me quick’, or ‘supu ya mawe’ (soup made from stones) !

The burgeoning business is a reflection of the rising inflation. A half litre bottle of beer now costs about one US dollar, an increase of more than 1,000% since 1980 compared with about eight US cents for a local brew.

GOLDEN RULES
SOUTH magazine in its January issue had a 5 page Survey on Tanzania, one of the articles in which described how the government is now offering licenses to small-scale gold miners in an attempt to crack down on organised gold smuggling which has depleted foreign exchange reserves. The miners are being tempted to go legal by being offered a 70% retention scheme on their foreign exchange earnings. Twelve licenses have been offered so far and there are hundreds more in the pipeline. Less than a quarter of the gold output from the half million small miners is passing through the State Mining Corporation.

Other articles in the Survey covered the ‘tight economic corner’ that Zanzibar has been pushed into because of its reliance on cloves, ‘another dose of IMF medicine’ and the problems of the Tanzania Zambia Railway.

TANZANIA INTRODUCES CORDLESS TELEPHONES
AFRICAN BUSINESS in its March 1989 issue reported the decision of the Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation to ‘leap into the electronic age’ by introducing portable cordless telephones. They are expected to prove popular in urban areas where 25% of residents have access to telephone lines.

POLICE DISARMED
According to the March 15 issue of AFRICAN CONCORD President Mwinyi has said that criminals were stealing so many guns from policemen that he had decided to most constables on daylight patrol. In future only policemen guarding strategic buildings would carry firearms. The rest of the force would carry short hand batons he added.

CHAPTER AND CLAUSE
Under this heading, Africa Events commented on the statement made by Mrs. Sophia Kawawa (Bulletin No. 31) concerning the rights of women which is alleged to have been the cause of the recent riot in Zanzibar in which a number of people were killed. Mrs Kawawa, the article said, had been the top lady of Tanzania’s UWT, the Association of Tanzanian Women, for many years. As such, the article went on, the UWT wields no power. ‘But in back stage politics some UWT leaders are known to be accomplished bridge builders, freelance power brokers and generally provide charm and glamour to the ruling Party the CCM. However, every Tanzanian woman knows that none of their number stands a chance of climbing to the Party’s summit to engineer real change for the rest of her lot. The path is blocked. All key positions have been taken – for keeps. Pro-woman sloganeering apart, CCM is male, chauvinistic and macho. In a predominantly Muslim nation, which Tanzania is, Mrs. Kawawa urged the abrogation of an Islamic law, in a speech which was candid in the extreme. Zanzibar burst into the streets to protest’.

HANDS ACROSS THE EQUATOR
Under this heading the British Medical Journal in its issue dated September 3 1988 wrote an article by John B. Wood and Elizabeth A. Hills, two physicians, one at Hereford County Hospital and one at Hospitali Teule, Muheza, Tanga Region, who have been trying to learn something about each other’s way of life and arrange for some practical help to be given by the richer community to the poorer. Each year four health workers from each community visit the other for six to eight weeks. The article contains accounts of their experiences by a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, a hospital engineer, a laboratory scientist (who returned home with hepatitis B infection), and a non-travelling histopthologist from Hereford.

For the Tanzanian visitors, the main rows of wards at Hereford seemed familiar because they consist of corrugated huts like those at Muheza, only older. Most were surprised that methods of treatment, delivery of babies and the giving of anaesthetics were much the same as they were used to.

‘What changes had been made at Muheza as a result of the visits? There had been small changes in the operating theatre (a different routine for skin cleansing) but the biggest change was as a result of the visit of a medical assistant to the casualty department. She went home with a list of requirements concerning resuscitation, and changes have been made. A dressing room has been converted, a hole knocked through the department wall and a covered way is nearing completion.

AN INTEGRATED ROADS PROGRAMME
The African Economic Digest, in its October 28 issue, stated that donor agencies are expressing enthusiasm about the prospects for an integrated 3,000 kilometre roads programme for Tanzania. Consultants from the UK, West Germany, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and in particular, a US$ 1.0 million study on the administration of an integrated programme being financed by Denmark are under way. The report on the latter is expected to recommend that financial responsibility for the programme should be centralised in the Communications and Works Ministry rather than, as at present, spread across several government departments according to the classification of road involved. The studies need to be ready for a donor meeting planned for February 1989 in Dar es Salaam. After the meeting the World Bank seems likely to begin preparation of a detailed integrated road project to which US$ 100 million has been provisionally assigned.

WHY ARE ITALIANS NOT COMING TO MAFIA?
Under this heading the November/December issue of Tantravel explained how a prominent Italian businessman, Mr. Gian Paulo Benini, a few years ago, shocked his fellow Italians by advertising in newspapers inviting them to ‘join the Mafia Fishing Club’, What MAFIA club was this? he was asked. To the readers, the Mafia was an ‘omerta’ meaning not to be mentioned. He had to carefully explain that he was talking about a fishing paradise in the waters of the Indian Ocean. In 1973 Mr. Benini had founded the club. It ‘became very popular with international tourists interested in deep sea diving, snorkelling and goggling.

Nowadays however, according to Tantravel, tourism has declined in Mafia because of the lack of efficient transport to the island. Extension of the airport to carry bigger aircraft like the Fokker Friendship has been underway since 1980 but is still only 60% completed. Passengers often have to wait two weeks to get a place on a plane to the island.

Tantravel, in the same issue, also stated that Tanzania hopes to host over 270,000 tourists in 1989. This would represent an increase of 102,802 over the 1988 figure. Tanzania had earned Shs 400 million from the hotel levy in 1987/88.

SYMPATHY
Thailand’s English language newspaper The Nation gave Thai readers an account of the long negotiations going on between Tanzania and the IMF in its issue of August 19th 1988. It reported that Western donors were pleased with the results so far from three years of Tanzania’s economic reform programme and were in sympathy with the government IS dilemma over devaluation (as described in the first article in this issue of the Bulletin – Editor). “They are doing very well and for an economy which was in such bad shape you cannot change things overnight” one ambassador had said.

SIR GEOFFREY FINDS THE SPICE HAS GONE FROM ZANZIBAR’S ISLAND PARADISE
The Guardian in its September 16th issue wrote that “one of the better routes to paradise, short of dying, used to be to take the short boat journey across the Indian Ocean from Dar es Salaam to its island neighbour …. Zanzibar is bathed in the aromas of cinnamon, lemon grass and cloves. It was the favourite posting of every 19th century Western diplomat in Africa. The modern diplomat-explorer, Sir Geoffrey Howe, crossed the water wedged into a tiny Cessna aeroplane to find that paradise is not what it used to be, ‘Terminal Island’ reads graffiti behind the Sultan’s Palace, now the local headquarters of Tanzania’s ruling Party. It is one of the milder expressions of disgruntlement by Zanzibaris. They regard the mainland government in Dar es Salaam and its representatives in the palace, as pernicious a potentate as their former Arab rulers and are pressing for more autonomy.

The island’s new Chief Minister, Mr. Omari Ali Juma, an economic reformer, used a lunch for Sir Geoffrey Howe to discuss the island’s problems. “It is a grim situation” he said. “There is a general deterioration in the quality of life. And I have to confess, some government policies have led to this present crisis.” But Dr. Juma went out of his way to emphasise that the Union with Tanzania was safe.

Paradise, the article concluded, is not close to separatism. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph, in reviewing what it described as a basically affectionate biography of Sir Geoffrey Howe published recently, revealed that, while on national service, Sir Geoffrey had climbed Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. He had gazed into the volcanic crater, looked out across the plains of Tanganyika – and fallen fast asleep!

KENYA, UGANDA AND TANZANIA
African Events has been giving its views on the recent visit by Kenya’s President Moi to Dar es Salaam and what it describes as the terminal stages of a slow-healing process that is about to close the rift that has kept the two ex-members of the East African Community apart for over a decade. ‘The first reason for the visit was bound up with Kenya’s rapidly changing fortunes in manufacturing and the problems she is having in developing exports. With the new economic liberation policies gaining ground in Tanzania … the Tanzanian market is beginning to look like an exporter’s paradise … Kenya is bent on getting a piece of the action and on restoring the old-time special trading relationship with its neighbour.’ A second reason for the visit, the article indicated, was to ensure that Tanzania should not be coaxed into allowing the various dissident groups which are making the Kenya government distinctly uneasy, to use Tanzania as a base for cross-border raids.

The article went on: ‘If Kenya is keen an getting into Tanzania’s good books, Uganda must be anxious that Kenya does not replace it as Tanzania’s most favoured East and Central African state. It was perhaps the need to allay Ugandan anxieties that Chairman Nyerere of Tanzania was in Kampala when President Moi was in Dar es Salaam. Chairman Nyerere heaped praise on Uganda President Museveni with a trowel. He told Ugandans that Tanzania had cut its ties with ex-President Obate and would never lend him a hand to hop back to power. ‘The Ugandans feel enormously grateful to Tanzania for evicting the tyrannical Idi Amin. They have shown some of this gratitude by putting a fair amount of trade on Tanzania’s plate. Uganda would now buy consumer goods from Tanzania rather than from Kenya if they were available and the price was right. Tanga is gradually replacing Mombasa as landlocked Uganda’s main port for its goods …. in Kenya’s eyes therefore, Tanzania is the key to its peace of mind on regional trade. Kenya wants to stalk into the sanctum of the evolving Tanzania/Uganda axis before it properly gels. Otherwise it might find itself out in the cold.’

In its October 21-27 issue African Concord reported that, during his subsequent return visit to Kenya, President Mwinyi, speaking to Tanzanians living in Kenya, called for the revival of the defunct East African Community. He said that the original community had broken up because of mi nor difficulties between member states.

AIDS AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
According to the November 3rd issue of African Concord, Tanzania’s Traditional Medicine Research Institute has encouraged traditional herbalists to continue treating victims of AIDS but has advised them not to do so by guesswork. The Institute’s Director, said that herbalists should only provide treatment after the AIDS victim had been scientifically proven to have the virus. He said that since a cure for the disease had yet to be discovered, herbalists were free to treat patients who came to them.

THE GHASTLIEST PLACE ON EARTH
Such was the description of the blotchy pink waters of Lake Natron on Tanzania’s border with Kenya given by Clare Hargreaves in the November 5 issue of the Daily Telegraph. She explained that the lake took its unearthly colour from the algae that thrive in its corrosive soda waters and provide food for its only inhabitants – millions of pink flamingoes. She went on; “these desolate, but hauntingly beautiful landscapes and the rough, dusty roads that go with them are not for travellers who need their home comforts abroad; here, ice-cold gin and tonics are as rare as Daimlers and baths are more often than not poured from a jerry can ….

But as Kenya becomes the Benidorm of safaris, visitors who really want to feel the pulse of Africa without competing with scores of other white mini-buses, will find Tanzania superb. Back at the camp, our Tanzanian driver had just killed a 4ft long red cobra, which still writhed in the dust beside our camp fire. The cook was busy hacking a freshly slaughtered goat which he threw into a huge cauldron of stew, watched by 17 pairs of hungry eyes ….. a day and a half away at Ngorongoro, waking in the night to a cacophony of roaring lions and ‘whooping’ hyenas …. this was the ultimate African adventure.”

JAPAN AND TANZANIA
The Japan Times featured Tanzania in three successive issues during September 1988.

The first reported that the Matsushita Electric Company, the only Japanese company running factories in Tanzania, was facing ‘production stagnation’. It cannot import raw materials for its products which include radios and batteries because Tanzania is short of foreign currency. Some of the 561 employees were said to be cleaning the floors, some repairing machines and some were doing nothing but chatting. The factory utilisation rate had dropped to 30%. But despite this, the factory manager was reported to have said that ‘some’ profits were still being made although he refused to be specific. The factory had not fired any of its employees. “If we do that, employees who are exempted from dismissal will not be able to concentrate themselves on their work thinking that they may be fired next” the manager had said.

The second article described how Tanganyika Tea Blenders Ltd. a government corporation selling tea and coffee wants to increase exports to Japan. However, Japanese trading companies were reluctant to import because of unstable supply and because they felt that the packaging was unattractive. Japanese importers “who are very punctual” do not tolerate delays said the head of liaison of a company specialising in trade with Africa.

In the third article the Japan Times gave the story of two Japanese agricultural specialists working on the strengthening of irrigation banks for rice in Bagamoyo. A photograph was published showing the Japanese agriculturalists helping Tanzanian farmers to operate a homemade cement mixer which can also act as a roller to consolidate the compressed soil on the banks.

NEW ARMY COMMANDER
The appointment by Tanzania of a new Army Commander, General Ernest Mwita Kiaro and a new Chief of Staff, General Tumainiel Kiwelu, has brought comment from two African journals. The African Economic Digest quotes observers in Dar es Salaam as stating that the changes will strengthen President Mwinyi’s control of the army, a ‘traditional Nyerere power base’. But New African went further in stating that many officers were asking why President Mwinyi should appoint such a man to head the army. The article was critical of General Kiaro but noted that he originated from Mara, the region from which both Mwalimu Nyerere and Prime Minister Warioba came. The article further claimed that Tanzanian soldiers would have preferred other candidates for the post of Army Commander and that their favourite would have been Major-General J. Walden.

TUSK AUCTION
The Independent on September 6, 1988 reported that some 2,600lbs of elephant tusks were on sale in Dar es Salaam. The auction was open only to trophy dealers who were not black-listed by Cites, the Swiss-based convention on international trade in endangered species. The ivory had to be paid for in foreign exchange and exported.

THE MERCHANT OF HOPE
In its 14 page, illustrated main cover story Africa Events (June/July 1988 issue) referred to President Mwinyi’s “cuddly, man-next- door persona, full of caring, tact, humility and, above all, like the merchant of hope, an almost oleaginous knack of making one see only the positive”.

In an interview the President was reminded that it was almost three years since he had assumed the presidency. Apart from reviving the economy, what other tasks had been occupying his mind. President Mwinyi replied: “When I was elected President I was handed a peaceful and united country. So, besides making sure that Tanzanians do not go hungry, my other preoccupation is to consolidate our unity. I found the country in a peaceful and secure state and I wish it to continue to be so – if not more – when my term expires”.

The next question concerned Zanzibaris who are apparently not in favour of the Union (with the mainland), President Mwinyi replied that the islanders are very much in favour of the Union. “It is possible that there are a few people who are opposed to it; and it’s not that they do not love the country but it is because they love themselves more …. after the revolution, very many young people, especially from Pemba, migrated to Dar es Salaam where they ventured into business and were very successful …. So some of these young Pembans nowadays have fleets of taxis, some own beautiful houses in Dar es Salaam. For example, the majority of houses situated at Sharifu Shamba are owned by Zanzibaris, especially from Pemba. They are not interfered with, they are not harassed and they are doing very well. These opportunities were not there before the revolution .. so is it true that these very people could be against the Union? … However, it is possible that there are a handful of people… who are against it. But noise and disturbances are like salt – it doesn’t have to be much for one to get the feel or the taste of it.”

The next question concerned the grievance of some Zanzibaris that they were not consulted about the Union. It had been arranged between the late President Karume and the erstwhile President Nyerere. President Mwinyi explained the background. “Nyerere had always had this idea of having a federation between Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar,… President Nyerere had gone to Nairobi to persuade the then President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, to accept the idea and to be the first head of the Federation. The idea was net dismissed out of hand but the leaders of Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya did not arrive at any conclusive agreement. So when Nyerere got back to Dar es Salaam, Karume visited him. Nyerere briefed Karume on what had happened at the Nairobi meeting and asked him to feel free, if he wished, to join in when he was ready. Karume jumped at the idea and said that he was ready to join there and then”. it is universally common for such infant ideas to be born by either a single person or a few persons … after the Union, in 1965, there was an election for the President of the Union … the Zanzibaris overwhelmingly voted yes except in one constituency in Pemba (Ziwani) where there were seven hundred no votes. We voted yes once more in 1970… and in 1980”.

The President was asked why he had said that those against the Union were following their own selfish interests. The President replied that amongst several underground publications being imported into Zanazibar from overseas at present was a red booklet from Denmark published by Tanzanians resident there. The words in the publications were the same ones being used by those few who are in Zanzibar. Even Their placards contain the same words…those who are against the Union are people like the ones who are in Denmark”.

President Mwinyi was asked finally what type of Tanzania would he like to see in years to come. He replied that he would like to see a Tanzania full of prosperity, “Because prosperity cures evils such as envy, jealousy, hatred, chaos and incitement, Prosperity brings contentment. And once one is contented, one is bound to be happy”

ENGLISH AND KISWAHILI IN EDUCATION
In a strongly worded letter to the Editor of Africa Events (June/July issue) F.E.M.K. Senkoro referred, under the heading ‘The Last of the Empire’ to what he described as a rather strange belief that the standard of education in Tanzania had fallen due the poor state of the English language in schools and colleges and to former President Nyerere’s reference to the importance of English as ‘the Kiswahili of the world’. “The British Government, through her unofficial representative’, the British Council, was, of course, very excited and overjoyed to see the old glory being rekindled. Since that time no stone has been left unturned. Scholarships have been given to young people in education to go to the former mother country to study further about the teaching of English language. Aid and grants to provide Tanzanian schools with teaching materials are coming forth like they never did before. What ecstasy it will be to see, once again, Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, Allan Quartermaine and, of course, Shakespeare, among others, being forced down the throats of the Tanzanian kids in the holy mission of trying to salvage our education from the deep pits it has fallen into …….. the state of Kiswahili vis-a-vis ‘the other ethnolects and foreign languages…do indeed show that among the culprits, English language and its presence as a medium is disruptive and an impediment to the smooth development of education in the country …as the language of colonial heritage, attitudes have turned against English since it is seen as the language of ‘kasumba’ (the brainwashed mind). An inordinate use of it may be taken to identify a person as not having been born again in the spirit of the new man that Tanzania had intended to create with the Arusha Declaration ..

Dr. Senkoro was commenting on an earlier article in Africa Events by Dr. S. Yahya-Othman in which he had stressed that the present system of education in two languages in Tanzanian schools and, in particular, the sudden change from Swahili medium in primary education to English in secondary education was not proving successful. He stated that the performance of students in English had fallen appallingly; he quoted a study which had indicated that in 1986 50% of Form IV leavers had scored F in English. Students in secondary schools were not learning when the language of instruction was English. The continued use of English at the higher levels meant that students did not have the time to devote to the conscious use of new Kiswahili terms.

The argument Dr. Yahya-Othman said, was not that it is impossible to modernise with two international languages operating in the school – experience of Canada and Switzerland squash that argument; it is not that it is impossible to modernise using a foreign language as the medium of instruction – all former colonies are doing that; the argument is that it is extremely difficult to modernise with English as medium under the present socio-economic conditions in Tanzania. And the most crucial of these conditions is the continued equivocation relating to a switch in medium from English to Kiswahili.

A HUNTER’S PARADISE
Tanzania is still the best hunting country in the world according to the American publication ‘Hunting Report’. Tanzania still has greater game populations and huge concessions that are the wildest, most satisfying to hunt in all of Africa. Safari companies in Tanzania offer the best run and most luxurious hunting experiences available today according to the magazine.

BRITISH VISIT FOR LEADER OF IMF REFORM MODEL
The Daily Telegraph was the only British daily newspaper to notice President Mwinyi’s visit to Britain. It noted on June 6 1988 that “Since he took office, British aid to Tanzania has risen from almost nothing to around £30 million per year, making it one of the biggest recipients of aid in sub-Saharan Africa. The aid followed Mr. Mwinyi’s decision to adopt IMF proposals for recovery after years of socialist planning under Dr. Nyerere left the economy in shambles …. Britain sees Tanzania as a test case for economic reform linked to an IMF plan.”

DIPLOMATS OF ROCK
It was under this heading that the Independent (July 15th) reported on the meeting in June 1988 in Bristol of WOMAD, the World of Music and Dance. The article was accompanied by a large photograph illustrating the wide girth, enormous stomach, bejeweled body and dreadlocked hair style of a 41 year old Zairean singer/guitarist named Remmy Ongala. Mr. Ongala, who moved to Tanzania 10 years ago, was described as Tanzania’s biggest star. “But in Tanzania” the paper went on “rook stardom does not mean Ferrari’s, limitless cocaine and guitar-shaped swimming pools. Rather, Tanzanian musicians occupy a lowly position in society; groups are run by businessmen who own the instruments and pay their players a salary. Financial success (or just survival) is a matter of a nightly grind of live dance hall dates ….. The delicious, irresistibly danceable musical concoction, strongly based on the seventies period of Zairean rumba with a zest of rougher Tanzanian rhythm, has already had audiences from Cheltenham to Dundee jumping.”

PEOPLE FORGET
Under the heading: Tanzania – Three Faces of Change’ World Bank News (June 23, 1988) interviewed a lady co-manager of an agricultural Extension programme in Morogoro, a university professor and a Maasai village chairman and asked them for their impressions of Tanzania’s Economic Reform Programme. All felt it had brought much benefit. The Professor said “Yes, prices seem high now; but I don’t agree that, in real terms, that they are higher than they were prior to the programme. People forget” he said “that a few years ago it could take you a week to find a bar of soap, a month to find a kilo of cooking oil, and, if you were lucky enough to find the goods, you had to pay exorbitant, black market prices.”

The comments made in the extracts from the media which follow – and indeed articles in other sections of the Bulletin – do not necessarily represent the views of the Britain-Tanzania Society. They are published to illustrate the impressions of various writers on what they have seen and heard about Tanzania.

TANZANIA PURGES PARTY FAITHFUL
Under this heading the Independent stated on December 14th 1987 that three staunch socialist ideologues of Tanzania’s ruling party had lost their ministries in a cabinet reshuffle and had been replaced by men more sympathetic to President Mwinyi’s pragmatic economic policies. ‘The three ministers have been identified for some time as obstructing the liberalisation policies of President Mwinyi and their removal will allow those policies to reach the vital areas of industry, trade and tourism which they controlled.

The ministers are Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru, Minister for Local Government and Cooperatives, whose wish to concentrate on Party work partly prompted the changes, and who is replaced by Mr. Paul Bomani; Daudi Mwakawago, Minister for Industry and Trade, who is replaced by Joseph Rwegasira; and Gertrude Mongella, Minister for Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism who is replaced by Arcado Ntagazwa’.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT RESULT OF THE DODOMA CONFERENCE
The American publication Africa Report in its January-February 1988 issue wrote that “Foreign bankers and diplomats remain critical of Tanzania’s Economic Recovery Program (ERP). The program took a major jolt at Dodoma when the newly elected National Executive Committee decided to exclude the ERP’s architect, Cleopa Msuya (Minister for Finance), from the Central Committee.’

‘It was the most significant result of the conference,’ commented one Western diplomat in Dodoma. ‘Msuya will be left to argue his complex theories from the backstalls of the NEC where, quite frankly. few people will understand, and even less will care.’

Msuya never suffered fools gladly and his attitude, along with his theories, finally cost him his seat on the central committee. Remaining as Finance Minister – unless Mwinyi decides on a reshuffle, which is unlikely at this stage – Msuya will continue to negotiate with the IMF and pursue the government’s liberalization policies.

After the Dodoma conference, life returned very much to normal. Nyerere and Mwinyi dominated the newspapers like nothing had happened. However, political analysts are attempting to decipher what lies ahead for Tanzania. With the reformers rejected by the party hard1iners who held sway in Dodoma, the socialist path will be pursued with ‘moderate to hesitant’ reform. With Msuya on the outs, nothing is certain in the long term regarding the IMF, although the new loan 1s encouraging news. The big question now is who will lead the new vanguard of Tanzanian politics into the next century. The finger has been squarely painted at Joseph Warioba, present Prime Minister and a Nyerere stalwart, who, like Salim Ahmed Salim, is favoured by the boss. However, unlike Salim, he will win universal appeal as a mainlander if he is nominated for the presidency. A common theory is that this will occur in 1990 when President Mwinyi finishes the first of his two-year terms’.

THE FORGOTTEN MUSLIMS
Africa Events in its March 1988 issue devoted 24 of its 82 pages to features on Tanzania. Most concerned Zanzibar but on article “In Praise of Ancestors” quoted from a forthcoming book by Mohamed Saidi on the ‘forgotten’ Muslims who contributed so much to Tanzania’s fight for independence. It stated that there was a large body of Tanzania’s political history which had the effect, if not the avowed goal, of writing down the role of Muslims. yet….. their enterprises were not only crucial but daringly imaginative”

TANZANIAN TROOPS IN MOZAMBIQUE
Peter Godwin of the Sunday Times has been visiting Tanzanian troops in Mozambique. He said that he was the first foreign newspaper journalist to do so and wrote as follows on January 24th 1988.

‘A contingent of 6,000 Tanzanian soldiers 1s all that prevents rebel troops in Mozambique overrunning the strategically vital province of Zambezia and slicing the country in two. As the struggle to control (Mozambique) continues refugees are streaming into heavily fortified towns to look for food, shelter and protection.

Privately the Tanzanians admit that they have no hope of winning the war.

Mopeia, which used to be a prosperous district capital and centre for sugar estates was captured by Tanzanian troops a year ago. Today the only safe way in is by air landing at a rough landing strip covered in hip-high grass.

From the air the Tanzanian defences are clearly visible; deep trenches and bunkers forming a circle round the ruined town centre. The refugees build grass shelters around the town centre and try to grow maize to help feed themselves.

Tanzanian officers, speaking on condition that they would not be identified, said they estimated that 80% of the civilians supported the guerrillas. They do not cooperate with the Tanzanians, with whom they have no common language, and often deliberately mislead them.

‘Half the women and childreen who take refuge here probably have sons and fathers fighting with the rebels’ said one officer. ‘We trust none of them. It’s difficult to tell who are rebels and who are civilians’.

‘This is a civil war – we can’t win it for Frelimo’ one soldier said.

More than 500 troops defend Mopeia and its swelling population of 22,000 ‘dislocados’. The only school and hospital have been destroyed and the few buildings still standing are used by soldiers.

HINTS OF BIGOTRY
A. K. Babu referred in the March 18th issue of African Concord to the Islamic revival movement which he described as taking Tanzania by storm. “Muslim’s were well known for their lethargy in community activities …. But now this is a thing of the past.”

“When Ali Hassam Mwinyi, a devout Muslim, took over the presidency he followed more or less the same tolerant approach as Nyerere, a devout catholic.

His only apparent departure was to appoint a Muslim Minister for Education, a post to which Nyerere traditionally appointed a Christian, presumably because of the many missionary schools in the country. But this alarmed the bishops and they started to wonder aloud if Mwinyi was not promoting Islam. During October’s CCM Party conference in Dodoma, a letter was written to the chairman of the party, Nyerere, by the Rev Christopher Mtikila. It openly and maliciously attacked Mwinyi and his administration, accusing him of being anti-Christian, of conspiring to promote the spread of Islam at the expense of Christianity and to the detriment of the people of Tanzania. He all but accused Mwinyi of being under the influence of Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran’.

But, as A.M. Babu pointed out in the article, the regime in Tanzania cannot be anti-Christian when the chairman of the ruling party is Nyerere. “To accuse Mwinyi’s regime of being anti-Christian is to accuse Nyerere of being anti-Christian as well, which is absurd”.

“But the Reverend seems to be echoing the universal fear of the established churches. It is futile to blame Mwinyi for what is developing almost spontaneously. It is far better to explore the reason for this new Islamic movement, not only in Tanzania but also throughout Africa.”

HEMINGWAY SAFARIS
In a lavishly illustrated article the December 1987 issue of Travel and Leisure Asian Edition, wrote that “Ever since American President Teddy Roosevelt strode manfully into the African bush followed by 260 porters, safaris have been regarded as luxury outings. It seemed that nothing more was demanded of the pampered sportsman than that he fling down his Champagne flute, take up his high powered rifle,
mutter ‘good show’ and pulverise whatever unwary beast was driven into his sights. In truth, however, East Africa tormented travellers with mosquitoes, snakes and tsetse flies, to say nothing of biologically complicated water and roads that defied reason. Few tour companies have so successfully overcome the discomforts of the safari as Abercrombie and Kent International (well known in Kenya), a firm which is now offering the (Kenya) style of travel in neighbouring Tanzania. They have named the trips after Ernest Hemingway, a committed big-game hunter who thought himself as much a marksman as an author.

Tanzania looks and feels like a country little changed from the way it always was, less familiar and more elemental than Kenya. ‘You go into a park in Kenya’ says the A and K boss in Tanzania, Sandy Evans, and you are likely to see one lion and twenty mini buses. In Tanzania you get 20 lions and one vehicle!. It may well be that only one in 20 vehicles survives the Tanzanian roads …

(In the Serengeti) at sunset, the sun takes on colours from cherry-pop red to iridescent orange, lighting the sky like a forest fire, and then the wind comes up, the heat drops and the animals start moving, heading wherever animals go in the night”.

Readers of the magazine were advised that they could obtain further information from the Tanzanian Mission in Tokyo, 21-9, Kamiyoga, 4-chome, Setagaya-Ku, 03-425-453103.

THE SOUL OF TANZANIA
According to Richard Dowden in the Independent IS TANZANIA SO SPECIAL?
A reader in African Concord’s March 1988 issue took to task a contributor in an earlier issue who had written about corruption under the heading ‘Tips and Handshakes’

“It is true that there are problems prevailing in our country. There are drunkards, executives who think they own public institutions, people who build houses randomly etc. This is not strange! Even in thoroughly developed societies you find some big people are accused of taking heroin; some responsible people in Government are gay; some even involved in dangerous scandals. This is not new in developed countries like the USA. Then what is so special for a poor country like Tanzania!

What the writer wrote was just a repetition of what the Government is trying to remove. Remember President Mwinyi’s Iron Broom and other related actions taken by the Mwinyi administration. Does the so called Mwananchi want the Tanzania Government to hang people in order to remove tips and handshakes? Or is he interested in Sharia laws or firing squads?

DAR ES SALAAM PORT AIMING TO BE MORE EFFICIENT THAN MOMBASA
According to New Africa’s January 1988 issue, Dar es Salaam Port is already on a par with Mombasa Port in terms of efficiency and it could soon overtake its Kenyan counterpart.

“New construction well underway and a new streamlined method of cargo handling is speeding throughput”.

Until recently the port’s biggest drawback was the lack of cranes which could lift the containers carrying most of the cargo. Only ‘self-sustaining’ ships with their own cranes on board could load or unload containers in the port. Now, two ship-to-shore cranes are being installed and there is provision for a third.

Many other improvements are planned including a new dhow wharf. Several donor agencies are assisting in the work in view of the importance of the port, not only for Tanzania, but also for other countries of southern and central Africa which use some 50-60% of the goods passing through the port.

ARMED GUARD AT THE PHARMACY
African Concord’s cover story on Health Care Delivery (February 12th issue) included three stories on Tanzania.

The first stated that “An armed guard with a machine gun pointed towards the pharmacy door is kept around the clock at the army barracks in Dar es Salaam. Armed police also guard the national medical stores following several break-ins. The stores have been gutted by fire twice in circumstances believed to be attempts to cover up evidence of thefts. This highlights the obstacles the Government faces in its concerted efforts to rehabilitate the health system.”

GREAT STRIDES IN CHILD IMMUNISATION
The article went on to explain that the main thrust of Tanzania’s ‘Health for All by the Year 2,000 Programme’ is the laying down of a sound mother and child health care service. “The Health Ministry estimates that a child dies every 15 minutes in the country – a victim of the six preventable diseases measles, tuberculosis, polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diptheria. All in all, for every 1,000 births, 137 children die before the age of five.

The Universal Child Immunisation Programme was launched in Tanzania in 1986 by President Mwinyi. Pilot schemes have since been started in selected urban and rural areas and 54% of the children have been covered. ‘If the enthusiasm shown to date is maintained all children below five years of age will be innoculated by the end of 1988′ says Health Minister, Dr Aaron Chidua. ‘By so doing, we shall have made great strides in achieving the nation’s long-term goal of slashing the child death rate from 137 to 50 per 1,000 live births’. This year, 6,000 child weighing scales are being distributed to rural clinics and 7,500 bicycles have been given to auxiliary staff to enable them to cover the villages:’

AND IN DISTRIBUTION OF CAPSULES FOR GOITRE
In a second article African Concord stated that Tanzania has launched a campaign to cut the spread of goitre, which authorities estimate affects one in every four Tanzanians. Goitre is the enlargement of the thyroid gland due to an inadequate intake of iodine. Under the programme everyone under 45 living in an area where goitre prevalence is 60% or more will be given two capsules containing a total of 380 milligrams of iodine. Some 60,000 capsules are to be distributed

SISAL ESTATES SOLD
According to the 4th March 1988 edition of the African Economic Digest the Tanzania Sisal Authority has completed the sale of 10 of the 13 sisal estates it put on the market in 1986. The estates, which have mostly gone to local companies, cover a total of 20,300 acres. The sale agreements are believed to stipulate that a percentage of the land remains under sisal. Many buyers had been keen to obtain the estates in order to grow other crops. Joint venture partners are still being sought for 24 other estates.

Exports of raw fibre have remained stable but the market for finished products such as baler twine and carpets has increased significantly and much better results are anticipated from the sisal industry this year.

DUCKS AND TILAPIA
Fish Farming International in its December 1987 issue discussed the various attempts being made by foreign donor agencies and churches to help in the development of fish farming. Agencies mentioned included the US Peace Corps (14 volunteers working with Fisheries Officers), the Lutheran Church and the Christian Refugee Service (helping with extension), the Anglican Church (a fish farming development programme including a demonstration farm near Dodoma), the Church Missionary Society, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Methodist Church of the USA and others.

Since 1984 the Dodoma demonstration farm has used integrated duck-fish ponds where Peking ducks live in slatted floor houses over the ponds. The ducks thus fertilise the pond water with a resulting improvement in Plankton and algal growth on which the fish feed.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR GOLD IN THE ROOM.
African Concord in its October 1st issue wrote about gold mining in the Lake region. It reported that in a hotel lobby in Mwanza there is a notice warning residents not to leave gold in their rooms and to deposit it with the hotel cashier. Mwanza, it reported, had become the trading centre for thousands of local and foreign fortune seekers combing lake region hills and valleys. They dig pits six to eight metres deep; two or three strong men enter with pick axes and begin to tackle the hard layer. A guard, armed with a club, bush knife or gun keeps an eye on the gravel shovelled out of the pit. Large caves have been made underground without any supporting pillars for safety.

The miners are said to sell their finds to both legal and illegal dealers at five times the price of Shs 27,000 an ounce offered by the State Mining Corporation. The local ‘godfathers’ use couriers at aiports, seaports or on donkey back to transport the gold to overseas ‘goldlords’ through a watertight ring founded on trust. The gold business accounts for a large part of the imported goods now abundant in the region – goods imported under the guise of liberation of trade. The once empty shops are full of commodities but at sky high prices to make up for the high risk in earning the dollars.

FIRST LOAN SYNDICATION AGREED
The African Economic Digest in its October 16th issue states that Tanzania has reached an agreement with commercial banks for a £50 million revolving credit to support coffee exports. The initiative, led by the US Bankers Trust, is the first internationally syndicated loan to be made to Tanzania. The loan, made to the National Bank of Commerce at 1 3/8 % interest margin over base rate will be drawn down in tranches according to shipment and contracts of sale. The African Economic Digest stated that donors have regained confidence in Tanzania’s economy and that commercial banks were impressed by Tanzania’s recent economic performance.

AIDS – WHERE DOES TANZANIA STAND?
African Farming in its October/November issue published a table comparing the number of aids cases currently reported in 20 countries. The worst affected, on a per capita basis. is Bermuda with 1,071 per million of population followed by French Guiana. Based on a reported figure of 1,130 cases the proportion for Tanzania is 48 per million compared with 173 for the USA, 113 for Uganda and 56 for Zambia.

IMPROVING AUDITS
According to the October 9th issue of Marches Tropicaux, the
accounting situation in Tanzania’s para-statal bodies is beginning to show a ‘tendance encourageante’. The journal recalled that President Mwinyi instructed the para-statals in 1985 to get their accounts into good order not later than November 1987. Rumours were said to be circulating in Dar es Salaam to the effect that some 400 institutions are now showing positive progress but a further 100 were still showing deficits.

NEW CHAPTER FOR TANZANIAN INVESTORS
Under this heading African Business in its November 1987 issue stated that the Government is planning legislation which will clearly spell out the areas of investment open to foreigners and the policy on repatriation of dividends and profits by foreign companies and individuals. Economists at the Treasury were said to be blaming part of Tanzania’s ills on the wholesale nationalisation of private property in 1967 which some experts say led to a flight of capital and skilled personnel.

Party Chairman Nyerere was said to have acknowledged recently that in many socialist countries the state was withdrawing from direct control of the sensitive agricultural sector by giving a role to private firms. He had said that this is what he thought Tanzania should do to revamp its agricultural sector.

However, the journal reported that restive and growing adherents of Ujamaa, Party cadres known as “watoto wa chama waliolelewa na chama” (Party cadres who were brought up by the Party) were said to be unhappy with the Government’s flirtation with the West – “This noisy group who have made inroads into the Party’s top decision making bodies may derail President Mwinyi’s drive to attract foreign investors”. “The talk about making tactical reverses is nothing but an excuse for the capitalists to re-coup and settle old scores they suffered after the Arusha Declaration” one youthful Party cadre was quoted as having said.

MENACE OF DESERTIFICATION IN IRINGA
Marches Tropicaux in its September 4th issue quoted Iringa’s Regional Planning Officer as having stated that unless rapid action is taken to control deforestation in Iringa, one of the country’s main agricultural regions, it will become a desert within 20 years. The case of Ismami, one of the districts in the region, was quoted. It was said to have been rich and fertile in the 1970’s, but then to have attracted large numbers of new people who had cleared off the trees to build their houses and to find a place to cultivate. Now the district could only be described as sterile, bare and dry. The Government was having to force people to cut down on the cultivation of maize and an Irish organisation, Concern, had been brought in to help reafforest the area. Some 340,000 trees had been planted in 1986 and 500,000 in 1987.

SISTER AND DAUGHTER INDUSTRIES
The Norwegian publication Sor-Nord Utvikling (No, 5 of 1987) had a lengthy article on a Swedish ‘Sister Industry Project’, This is a cooperative venture involving FIDE, a consulting firm, the official Swedish aid agency, SIDA and the Small Industries Development Agency in Tanzania. Some 20 Swedish firms have been involved in helping to set up about ten Tanzanian small firms during the last ten years, The article went on; “It is not often that sisters have children but the sister industry project defies the usual biological laws. With FIDE as midwife, three of the Swedish-Tanzanian sisters plan to produce daughters. The intention is that the Tanzanian sister firms are to help to start up further new small firms,”

A NEW TYPE OF TRACTOR
Tanzania is now producing a new type of tractor – the Valmet 604 4WD. It has 4-wheel drive and is designed for rice farming where it has to operate in wet conditions and also for steep hillsides where extra traction and stability are important. The first of the new models came off the assembly line on October 18th 1987 midst much jubilation at the TRAMA plant in Kibaha, near Dar es Salaam.

NO MORE TRUCK SAFARIS
The Tanzanian Government intends to ban truck safaris because they are economically not viable, ‘Tourism experts’ had advised that persons participating in these safaris brought their own food, drinking and sleeping facilities (thereby interfering with facilities provided by the Government) and contributed little in foreign exchange while damaging safari routes.

No sooner had this news been published in the Daily News than it brought an angry letter from a reader to the effect that the ‘tourism experts’ were making ridiculous allegations. It would be better if they thought more about improving the present hotel facilities and thus tried to ease the problems faced by tourists.

The comments made in the extracts from the media which follow – and indeed articles in other sections of the Bulletin – do not necessarily represent the views of the Britain-Tanzania Society. They are published to illustrate the impressions of various writers on what they have seen and heard about Tanzania – Editor

TOURISM African Business in its May 1987 issue indicates that big changes in Tanzania’s tourism policy may be underway. Some sources contend that the Government has decided to go for mass tourism with the private sector playing a big role in the promotion of the trade. “According to the General Manager of the Tanzania Tourist Corporation (T.T.C.), Mr. Timothy Kassela, the policy would contain, among many other things, a code on investment and repatriation of dividends by foreign firms.

In a move to improve tourist services, the Government has accepted a proposal by the T.T.C. to relinquish day-to-day management of the 15 state-owned tourist hotels and lodges to foreign management agencies which are expected to give better services to the tourist.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors at the T.T.C., Mr Iddi Simba, confirms that negotiations have reached an advanced stage with foreign hotel management agents, so that the change of management should be effective by January 1988.

However, ardent adherents to African cultural values fear that a decision to go for mass tourism will open the flood gates for the destruction of the country’s ecology and national culture. Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mrs Gertrude Mongella, has stated recently that “We will not destroy our ecology. We will not disturb the habitat of our wild animals, and we will not disfigure our virgin coastline for the sake of tourism”.

RETURN OF INVESTORS
According to African Business’s June issue, Lonhro has acquired a
second tea estate near Njombe. Lonrho – one of the first major investors to return to the country after a 7 year absence – is now understood to be strongly positioned to proceed with its development plans in Tanzania.

The re-acquisition in 1985 of a 75% stake in its previously owned Mufindi Tea Company, with the Tanzania Tea Authority (TTT) retaining the Balance, marked Lonrho’s first major re-involvement in Tanzania under the new “liberalised” foreign investment policy initiated by the Tanzanian Government 18 months ago. “We now intend to present a comprehensive 10-year re-development programme to be partly funded by enhanced export earnings retention through the Bank of Tanzania”, said Lonrho Tanzania Ltd Director J. L. Platts-Mills in Dar es Salaam.

The Luponde Estate near Njombe already has 500 hectares of tea but
this was in a ‘seriously neglected’ state when Lonrho acquired it in February 1987. according to Platts-Mills. In 1986 production from Luponde was 285 tons of made tea. “Lonrho plans to more than double this”, he said. Lonrho is currently negotiating for a third tea factory and an estate near Mufindi so that by 1991 it plans to have nearly tripled its existing area.

A SLUM
A scathing interpretation of recent East African history filled 16 pages of the June 20th edition of the Economist. The feature began by stating that “In a quarter of a century colonial British East Africa has diversified into three utterly different nations – one slaughter-house (Uganda), one slum (Tanzania) and one risky success (Kenya). The article went on to examine “tragic Uganda, failed Tanzania and upwardly mobile Kenya”. “The three nations bicker all the time and behave as badly towards each other as, until very lately, neighbours in Europe did”.

On the subject of Tanzania the Economist had much to say including the following: “Stable government, say some wise people, is what Africa needs for its development. It would be hard to be stabler than Tanzania. Mr. Julius Nyerere was its President from 1961 to 1985 when he handed over the reins to his former juniors. As party chairman he is still hampering his successor’s efforts to bring Tanzania into the real world …..

Mr. Nyerere is a persuasive, eloquent man, the leading spokesman of the third world and articulator of its proclaimed injustices. He has toured the world preaching what his friends half-affectionately call the Gospel according to Saint Julius. It includes the parable of the Tractor and the Bale of Sisal, concerning the relative prices of industrial goods and of a Tanzanian crop that was unfortunately rendered unprofitable thirty years ago by the invention of synthetic course fibres …..

Aid donors have picked Tanzania as a show-place for grand and often grossly inappropriate projects. The pattern was established in the late 1940’s when the British Government’s huge scheme to grow groundnuts became a by-word for well-intentioned extravagance. Chairman Mao’s engineers completed a new railway and hoped to hand it over to local control. …. but it still does not haul the copper out and works at all only because 1,000 Chinese engineers are still employed on it …. Zanzibar town contains a disgraceful little replica of East Berlin’s Stalinallee; roasting six story flats without running water or electricity, overcrowded, filthy, unfinished as they were when Mr. Ulbricht’s men walked away in 1972. The army’s barracks are junkyards of unrepaired vehicles from every imaginable producer in the world from Brazil to Albania.

Arusha was designated in the 1960’s as the headquarters of the East African Community; high rise buildings paid for by kindly Scandinavians litter the landscape, their maintenance a pointless burden on the national exchequer. Not far off the Canadians who run a huge wheat-growing scheme must find each year a fresh excuse for not meeting their production target…. Aid has done good service to many recipient countries …. Tanzania shows aid at its worst. Donors complete project after project, the expatriates leave and the hardware starts to rust. Mr. Nyerere, in his passion for equality, denied his people the incentive to work …….

NEWS AND VIEWS
Colin Legum took the International Herald Tribune to task in a letter published in the paper on July 30th.

What has happened to the crucial teaching of C.P. Scott on the Manchester Guardian that newspapers should not mix factual reporting with comment in the same news story? In your issue of July 20 you published an agency report stating ‘Former President Nyerere whose socialist policies plunged his nation into bankruptcy, has confirmed he will retire as chairman of the ruling party ….’

This is a glaring example of mixing news with comment. It is debatable whether Mr Nyerere’s ‘socialist policies’ did indeed plunge Tanzania into bankruptcy. The country’s situation was no worse than that of many other African countries that did not practice socialism. Distinguished academic economists have identified seven reasons for Tanzania’s economic setback since 1973, of which five involve external factors (for instance, the impact of the fourfold increase in the price of commodities) and climatic conditions; only two have to do with wrong government policies. Some of us would argue that, mistaken as some of the policies were, the rural transformation in Tanzania has in fact laid the foundation for the country’s rapid economic recovery, depending mainly on good rainfalls and the correction of some past errors …

However, the purpose of this letter is not to argue the case in favour of Tanzania’s ‘Socialist experiment’ but to express disappointment that a newspaper of distinction such as the International Herald Tribune should have offended against Scott’s cardinal rule.

SALE OF CLOVES
The Paris based ‘Marches Tropicaux’ in its August 7th issue reported that the Zanzibar clove season commenced at the beginning of July. Zanzibar is the world’s fourth largest supplier of cloves, but the world market has shrunk drastically during recent years. 14,500 tons were bought in the 1960’s but in the 1985-86 season only 1,548 tons were bought.

The Zanzibar Trading Corporation is offering prices to producers very similar to those of last year. ‘A’ quality cloves fetch Shs. 65 per kilo; ‘C’ quality Shs. 47. This year the harvest is expected to be lower than last year in quantity. .. Indonesia remains the main market.

CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE
Under this rather surprising headline the spring issue of Oasis, the WaterAid journal featured a number of articles about problems of water supply in Tanzania. Chocolate and cheese turn out to be the only things missing from the lives of two Britons, Tyrone and Cynthia Barnes from Wrexham who are working in Tanzania under the auspices of WaterAid.

The article goes on to explain how Tanzanian water and sanitation installations, sometimes dating from colonial times, have been particularly prone to breakdown due to lack of spare parts. Many of WaterAid’s projects therefore concentrate on ‘rehabilitation’ – on repairing existing installations, on providing spares for the future and on training staff for proper running and maintenance. Projects costing about £100,000 have been funded so far and these are said to have helped some 45,000 people. The low unit cost, not much more than £2 per person, reflects the fact that most of the WaterAid projects merely re-activate or build on other people’s earlier investments.

The Barnes’s live at the Mvumi hospital. When they first arrived there were eight projects on the books. Mr Barnes now reckons that there are over a hundred. His job is to get other people to help themselves through self-help methods.

MWALIMU NYERERE
The magazine New Africa is much exercised about the future of former President Nyerere. The subject has been raised under various headings in three of its most recent issues. Under the heading ‘What Next Nyerere?’ New Africa stated that “There is growing political controversy in Tanzania and particularly within the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party, over the political future of former President Julius Nyerere. After he stepped down from the Presidency in 1985 Nyerere concentrated his undiminished energy on a party revitalisation campaign and retained the post of Chairman of the C.C.M. It was widely expected that he would then relinquish his party post without a fight when the C.C.M. holds its electoral conference in October. But there are now signs that sections of the party are interested in him staying on and his maintenance of a high political profile suggests that he might not be averse to the idea ……

Nyerere’s most trenchant criticisms have been of what he has termed ‘unplanned retreats from socialism’ and the increasing role being given to the private sector in economic activity. In one particularly scathing attack on the greater leeway given to the private sector, the veteran leader said that ‘these moves to help the private sector forced people to steal from the state to enable them to acquire foreign exchange with which to import goods …….

Journalists in Dar es Salaam believe that there is considerable support for Nyerere among ordinary party members and that if Nyerere himself decided to stay on and implicitly challenge Mwinyi for the job. then there might be a snowball effect.

One factor in Nyerere’s favour is that rumours now abound that further austerity measures are on the way as part of the IMF influenced economic reforms. These could threaten living standards.”

IODINE DEFICIENCY
Some 80 million people suffer from iodine deficiency in Africa. The German magazine Afrika in its July – August issue states that a relatively high number of victims of this disease, manifested externally by an enlargement of the thyroid gland, are to be found in Tanzania, where about nine million people – 41% of the rural population – show symptoms of this disease.

The most seriously affected are women and children. The deficiency in the supply to the body of vital elements can lead to miscarriages or underweight among newborn children. Congenital diseases like deaf-muteness and mental retardedness are also ascribed to iodine deficiency.

The National Commission for Control of Iodine Deficiency Diseases (N.C.C.I.D.D.), has launched two campaigns to fight iodine deficiency. Statistical surveys to establish the distribution of the disease have so far been conducted in one third of the country’s 106 districts. In areas with an especially high incidence of the sickness, like the mountainous regions of Mbeya and Iringa in the western part of the country, people are being given iodine by injection or in capsule form.

According to the authorities, half a million iodine capsules have so far been distributed, with considerable success. After two to three weeks of treatment the enlargement of the thyroid, a result of the deficiency, generally recedes.

MWINYI AND CORRUPTION
The journal Afrika in its April – May 1987 issue had much praise for President Mwinyi. He was said to have …”taken a tough stand on corruption and says he is determined to restore accountability in public offices. He wasted no time in summoning his cabinet and warning ministers that he would not tolerate a rotten administration and has already begun to prune out deadwood.

“Those eliminated include heads of a number of parastatals. Several corrupt public officers have received their marching orders. Five senior army officers who were alleged to have swindled more than $5.0 million at the Arusha-based Artillery Training School are in jail awaiting charges of theft.”

TANZANIA TRACTORS
African Business in its May issue discussed Tanzanian tractor Manufacture. Apparently a private firm in Mwanza wished to enter into competition with the Tanzanian Tractor Manufacturing Company (TRAMA) in which the Government holds 90% of the equity. Valmet of •Finland, which supplies imported kits, holds 10%. The Tanzanian Industrial Licensing Board refused to grant a license to the Mwanza firm on the grounds that TRAMA is capable of meeting the country’s demands for tractors.

TRAMA has assembled 1,500 tractors from imported kits since 1983, of which 50 were sold to Sudan for $244,000 last year, for refugee settlements.

TRAMA uses 17% local components for its tractors, such as Radiators, ballast weights, paints, batteries and cabins. It has an installed capacity, at the associated Tamco plant at KIBAHA near Dar es Salaam, to assemble 800 units per year, but Tamco confirms that ‘this can easily be changed.’ Actual production is well below that level in most years; Trama assembled 83 tractors in 1983, 414 in 1984, 729 in 1985 and 257 in 1986. Trama plans to utilise the whole capacity this year.

IN TANZANIA A WOMAN CAN GET PUNCHED
The International Herald Tribune has been featuring an article by Eileen Stillwagon highlighting examples of what it describes as the oppressive conditions under which woman still have to live in Tanzania.

One example was said to come from the University of Dar es Salaam. Women at the University can apparently get ‘punched’ if they are too visible. Not punched with a fist, but punched with intimidation, lies, public humiliation and shunning. The ‘punch’ used to be a political tool, the article states, by which students criticised state party and university leaders who, in the students’ view, had abused their positions or made bad decisions. The ‘punch’ was subsequently taken over by a secret group of male engineering students. Since then it has been used exclusively to punish university women who are too visible, successful or outspoken.

The woman’s likeness and biographical information are posted, along with lies about her sexual relationships. She is then shunned by women and men students, both for the fabricated charges and for fear of being punched themselves for not cooperating, according to the author of the article.

The comments made in the extracts from the media which follow – and indeed articles in other sections of the bulletin do not necessarily represent the views of the Britain-Tanzania Society. They are published to illustrate the impressions of various writers on what they have seen and heard about Tanzania. – Editor

THE CHAIRMAN’S DILEMMA
Africa Events in it’s January/February issue referred to what it described as the agonising dilemma facing Chairman of the CCM Julius Nyerere. “It is as excoriating as that of Deng Xiaoping;, Not quite though. Deng at least has Chairman Mao to point an accusing finger at. Nyerere hasn’t. He is both his own Mao and his own Deng all rolled into one.

What could he say to justify his new pro-IMF stand after years of a gallant, well articulated campaign against the Fund? But shrewd politician that he is, he has not said a word in public on the agreement as yet. He has left it to President Mwinyi to sell it to the country, conservative ministers to implement it, and the disciples of the New Enlightenment of Hayek and Friedman at the Economics Department of the University of Dar es Salaam to rationalise it.”

INFORMATICS TECHNOLOGY
In Volume 1 Number 3 of the Oxford University Press publication “Information Technology for Development” 1986, Christopher Ndamngi traced the history and indicated the present status of computers in Tanzania.

The first modern electronic computer (an ICL 1901 magnetic based system) was installed in 1968 at the Ministry of Finance. Since then expansion has been rapid.

Analysts have broadly identified four stages of computer activity development:
(1) Inception Stage: Very little knowledge and understanding of computer technology.
(2) Basic Stage: Reasonable understanding in the use and application of computers at the operational level of management.
(3) Operational Stage: Wide understanding and application of computer technology in most administrative activities at top management level.
(4) Advanced Stage: Extensive managerial dependence on computers for decision making as well as strategic planning.

Tanzania is at stage (3) the operational stage of the computer activity development.

A fair guess at the number of computers in Tanzania in 1976 around 400 units with the following approximate distribution:
Micro computers 64%
Mini computers 23%
Mainframe computers 10%
other (Terminals etc.) 3%

The table below shows the approximate suppliers market share.

Supplier Product Type %Micro %Mini %Mainframe %Overall
B.M.L. Olivetti Computers Apple Computers Agents 55% – – 36.8%
CCTL Agents for Wang Computers and Osborne Micros 21.8% 14.1% 27.3% 20.5%
ICL ICL computers – 31.5% 63.6% 14.1%
NCR NCR computers 7.0% 31.5% – 13.2%
IBM agents IBM computers 7.7% 7.0% – 6.8%
others 7.9% 15.9% 9.1% 8.6%

(N.B. BML = Business Machines Ltd. CCTL=Computers Corpn. of Tanzania Ltd)

Amongst the latest applications of computer technology are;

– The Fujitsu Fedex 100, installed by the Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications. It is an automatic telex message switching system for the control and routing of all message traffic to, from, and via the Tanzania Telecommunications System.

– The on-line traffic control and passenger reservations system operated by Air Tanzania via a hook-up to the International network based in the USA.

– The weather forecasting system in the department of meteorology.

– The on-line wagon control system developed by Tanzania Railways Corporation as phase one of the larger and more complex Railways Traffic Control System. The wagon control system is due for implementation in the second half of 1986.

THE PRICE OF STABILITY
The ‘Independent’ in its February 6th Issue. under the heading “Tanzania Pays the Price of Stability” wrote that: “One year after stepping down as President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere has seen the country embarking on a course radically different from the one he steered since leading Tanzania to Independence. Some Tanzanians see these changes as a rejection of the high ideals for which Nyerere gained world-wide respect; others are relieved to see curtailment of policies which they believe turned Tanzania into one of the poorest countries in the world.

Even Mr Nyerere’s critics, however, do not see the shift in the country’s priorities under President Mwinyi as an occasion to blame the former President for the dire state of the country’s economy.

Mr Nyerere is regarded by many Tanzanians as a man who managed to establish a degree of political stability in his country that contrasts sharply with the chaos and unrest that reigns in some of its neighbours. However this unity does not appear to have produced many economic benefits. The poverty of Tanzania is startling.

But if poverty and debt are the legacy of Mr. Nyerere’s socialist experiment, few blame him for it. Twenty five years after independence he is still seen as the Mwalimu or teacher.

MALAIKA
“Malaika” is one of the most famous songs to come out of East Africa. The Kenyan, Fadhili Williams claims to be the author of the legendary lyrics. But, as ‘New African’ in its January 1987 issue pointed out, a Tanzanian, Adam Salim, now claims to be the original lyricist. He claims that his “inspiration” came from 60 year old Halima Marwa. Salim said that a passionate love affair with Halima had ended dismally when he discovered that she was his uncle’s daughter and kinship laws forbade marriage with close relatives. Later, a wealthy Indian proposed to and married Halima. Heartbroken, Salim found solace in composing the now historic lines of the song.

Halima confirmed that the story was very much part of her past and recalled that Salim had composed it between 1945 and 1946. If this is true, how did Fadhili Wllliams come to claim authorship?

Adam Salim explained that he once led a band in Nairobi and here he met Williams, “Williams was only a kid at the time’; he joined my band briefly to play the mandolin. At this time we were already playing Malaika in dance halls and bars” he said. Salim, who worked as a motorcycle mechanic during the day, said he made a recording of the song with the now defunct Columbia East African Music Ltd. “I was paid a flat fee of Shs 60. There was no copyright”

Some time later, an accident at the workshop left him with deep burns and he had to spend three years in a Nairobi hospital. On his return home to Moshi his musical career was at an end and he worked at the Kilombero Sugar Factory until his retirement last January.

Adam Salim, now 70 years old, says that he bears Williams no grudges. He has however, charged Halima’s grandson, Hanif Aloo, to legally represent him in a late bid to claim the copyright from Williams.

So, two decades later, the elusive Malaika is still being ardently pursued by her suitors.

THE ZANZIBARIS OF DURBAN
‘Africa Events’, in its December 1986 issue revealed that it had located (to its surprise) some Zanzibaris in Durban. Where had they come from? Apparently they are descended from slaves of Makua origin who had been liberated by the British navy along the East African coast. They initially disembarked in Zanzibar. During their time with the Swahili and Arab Muslims they had adopted the religion of Islam. Through an arrangement between the British Consul General at Zanzibar and the Lieut. Governor of Natal they had then been sent to Natal rather than being resettled within the domains of the Sultan of Zanzibar where it was thought they might be recaptured by other slave traders. The real reason however seems to have •been the serious labour shortage on the new plantations in Natal. The documents show that the liberated slaves were intended for these plantations, partially to replace the programme of indentured labour from India which had been set up in 1860 but had run into problems.

Being under contract of indenture under the Protector of Indian immigrants the new arrivals quickly discovered fellow Muslims among the Indians who had arrive before them. Their contracts were similar but differed in details. Thus their free accommodation, food rations and income were the same. Neither group was able to chose its employer. But whereas the Indians were restricted by the pass system, the Zanzibaris were free to go wherever they wanted. The contracts for the Indians were for five years; the Zanzibaris three. Gross injustices were perpetrated against both groups. It was therefore natural that these people who often worked together, developed an affinity for one another.

As their contracts expired and they were able to settle down where they wanted their background and contact with Swahili society proved important. In Swahili society the village is the focal point as is religious allegiance. These two aspects combined to develop in the Zanzibaris a strong sense of community, which led them to establish a separate community at Kingsrest on the Bluff south of Durban. Here they concentrated on market gardening or accepted employment as domestic servants.

The manner of their original arrival from the domains of a Sultan considered “Asiatic”. their identification with the indenture system and their close association with Indians, but above all their Islamic faith, distinguished them from the local Bantu. The first Zanzibari families moved to Chatsworth (where the majority of Indians were resettled) at the end of 1962.

Today the Zanzibaris form a clearly definable group at Chatsworth with their own Mosque, their own religious leaders. Their faith and practice is coloured by their background. They retain many of their Makua practices, particularly those relating to rites of passage. At the same time their “Zanzibari” identity is discernible in their dress, language and law. Whereas the Indian Muslims follow the Hanafi school of law, the Zanzibaris are Shafi’i. The most obvious form of their identity is seen in the retention of the distinctive Zanzibari kanzu, kofia, kimau and kanga. Perhaps more important still is their claim and ability to speak and understand good standard Swahili.

COLOUR FILMS
‘Business Traveller’ continues its series of articles on costs of goods in different parts of the globe. Concerning the price of a roll of film it wrote: “Tanzania seems to have it in for business travellers. It has already figured prominently at the very head of previous lists comparing the costs of taxi rides and whisky around the world. Now it adds another scalp to its collection. Anyone who has decided to invest in ammunition for his trusty sure shot in Dodoma or Kilwa Kivinje (an undeniably picturesque part of the World) at the time of the survey, would have found himself paying close to $1 per shot for the privilege in film costs alone.

In fact however, such is the weakness of most major African currencies including the Tanzanian shilling, that film and other costs have probably dropped between then and now”. At the time of the survey the cost of a roll of film was estimated to be seven times the British price.

PRESIDENT MWINYI’S FIRST YEAR
In its appraisal of President Mwinyi’s first year in office, New Africa’s Paula Park (in the December 1986 issue) wrote that “in a cautious, low key, pragmatic way, the President has already set Tanzania on the path of reform.” She went on, “At the end of his first year in office, President Mwinyi gave a press conference for no specific reason, and promised to open more dialogue in the future. In his discussions with journalists he repeated his request to the public to help him in his campaign for financial discipline by reporting to his office Government officials involved in bribery, mismanagement and embezzlement.

Mobilising the public to report on Government officials rather than Government officials informing on the public is revolutionary in Africa where intelligence police and Government informers have been an integral part of independent rule.

The President does not, however, depict himself as a revolutionary. In his campaign for discipline and financial controls, he urges Government officials to follow rules already established by the previous President. While he has exhaustively lobbied for the country’s Economic Reform Programme, which brings initial hardship to the populace, he has not tried to console people with promises he cannot guarantee. Rhetoric is not in his style. When interviewed he describes himself as a Government official duty-bound to the public, not a vanguard.

And yet he has spearheaded real reform in Tanzania. Free of Government support and the yoke of Government controls, top managers in state corporations have become self-critical and self-analytical. Even the Government owned press has become a bit more courageous in its editorials, reports, and analysis. A recent Sunday News columnist criticised corruption and cruelty among police officers. The widely read workers weekly, Mfanyakazi blasted the Government over its handling of the Kilombero sugar riots. Corruption and suspected embezzlement cases have featured regularly in the news. The President has shown remarkable confidence in the political maturity of Tanzanians to allow a subtle but substantial freeing of information and debate. In his foreign policy and statements to international forums, President Mwinyi has followed Julius Nyerere, while adding a few nuances of his own. Outspoken against apartheid, he has urged frontline states to be practical in their campaigns against South Africa, to replace ‘lipservice’ with action. He has offered to divert domestic import and export activity to Mtwara and Tanga ports leaving the larger Dar es Salaam port free for land-locked southern Africa. He has strengthened moves towards closer links with Kenya, started under Julius Nyerere. He has opened his arms to Uganda.

While in his foreign and economic policy he has shown courage, determination, and concern for Tanzanians, the Field Force Unit shootings of 20 sugarcane workers in Kilombero remain a stain on his positive first year in office. When confronted on the issue by local journalists, he promised a full report would be released soon to the public.

Some observers have noticed that despite Mwinyi’s programme of reform, he has failed to make substantial changes in his cabinet to prove his commitment to change. While his cabinet adjustments have been mainly reshuffling of ‘old boys’, some of the longest serving political leaders have led reforms.” The writer mentions Minister of Finance, Cleopa Wsuya, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Paul Bomani, and Getrude Mongella, “who has been the first Minister to aggressively campaign for tourism. It is to Mwinyi’s credit that he has left top party committees alone, and allowed staunch socialist ministers to remain in the cabinet, thus balancing the group of reformists……

Prices of everything are up, though wages have remained low; students have boycotted University classes demanding better book allowances (which they were granted). Perhaps despite his caution and hesitance in initiating reforms, President Mwinyi has changed too much, too quickly. Only the future will tell.”

TANZANIA – TOP IN AFRICA FOR STABILITY
The Economist in its issue of December 20th 1986 noted that “any big bank worth its deposits has a risk analysis department to tell it which countries it should not lend to because they are not likely to repay.” The Economist then looked at what it described as 50 developing countries which are at the greatest risk of becoming unstable during the rest of the 1980’s. It admitted that its comparative table was deeply unscientific and explained that it had selected the 50 countries by eliminating the superpowers, rich OECD countries, any country with a population of less than 5 million, and what it described a s those already ruined (eg. Afghanistan & Mozambique). Each country was scored on a 100 paint scale: the closer to 100, the more unstable.

Tanzania is in the centre of the table – the 21st most risky with a score of 51 out of 100. But of the 10 African countries South of the Sahara quoted in the table Tanzania receives the best score for stability.

There are 16 “Points of instability” – 33 points for economic factors, 50 for political factors and l7 for the state of society, Tanzania scored well because of its good relations with its neighbours, its absence of militarism, Islamic fundamentalism, and ethnic tension, its relatively low rate of urbanisation and its food production. It is given an average score on the legitimacy of its Government and its GDP growth. It is assessed as potentially unstable because of the authoritarianism of its Government, its level of corruption, its rate of inflation, the size of its foreign debt and its dependence on commodity exports.

The four least stable countries in the table are Iraq, Ethiopia, Iran and Sudan. The most stable are Brazil, Portugal, China and Hong Kong.

WILY TANZANIA SOFTENS IMF
Under this beading, New Africa, in its September issue referred to the IMF negotiations in these terms: “Ujanja is the Swahili word for cleverness and it has ruled the day in Tanzania’s juggling act between the country’s socialist party leaders and the IMF. The result has been a pragmatic three year plan for economic recovery, supported by IMF funding, the World Rank, and a host of donor countries. While Tanzanians have compromised their socialist principles to an extent by promising support for private business, and a further slimming of the country’s parastatal marketing boards, they have been able to score real victories against IMF conditions. Chiefly the Government bas retained its power to devalue, at its own rate, and to increase minimum wages to offset the effect of devaluation and budget slimming. In the 1986-87 budget, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Cleopa Msuya announced 7-25% ‘cost of living allowances’ for civil servants and is looking into more substantial permanent wage increases expected to be announced soon…. Despite donor hesitations, the Economic Recovery Programme and the external finance to support it represent a victory on behalf of the Third World countries, the Tanzanians are claiming. From the negotiations with Tanzania, a diplomat said, the IMF has learnt to be more sensitive. It has learnt to be more flexible.”

THE NYERERE COMMISSION
The appointment of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere as chairman of the new “South-South Commission” has been widely publicised. South in its October issue related how Julius Nyerere first suggested the setting up of a South Commission in December 1977 at the end of a conference sponsored by the Third World Foundation and four years later elaborated the idea in a speech in New Delhi. He then felt that a commission of broadly based, high calibre membership and technical staff could be of great service in promoting Third World co-operation. The commission would examine the many different ideas which have been discussed over the years, the current and probable future organisational needs, and the priorities of intra-Third World action which are appropriate to dealing with the problem of world poverty.

Commonwealth Currents in its October issue reported that, “At the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, in early September, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, announced the establishment of the ‘South-South Commission’ for cooperation among developing countries and the acceptance of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, to chair it. The invitation to chair the Independent Commission of the South on Development Issues had previously been communicated personally to Dr Nyerere by Dr Mahathir.

The Commission, to consist of 20 international politicians and intellectuals acting independently from governments, will initially function as a ‘Think Tank’ along the lines of the Brandt Commission and other such bodies. It is expected not merely to identify the causes of under-development but to produce common strategies for developing countries to combat poverty, hunger, illiteracy and economic stagnation.

West Africa in its September 27th issue took the matter further in writing that “The Nyerere report, which may take a couple of years to complete, looks like being for the ‘eighties what the Brandt report was for the ‘seventies and the Pearson report was for the ‘sixties. Pearson now seems a very long time ago, and was largely composed of aid gurus, while Brandt enlarged the field, and included more political figures including several from the Third World. It is a reflection of the way in which developed countries have totally ignored the Brandt report, in spite of a considerable promotion around it, that the poorer countries are now falling back on their own wisdom…..It will be interesting to see who Mwalimu brings with him on his quest. Will the membership for example, be strictly from the “South”? One notes that he is also a likely member of the committee of wise men set up at this years OAU summit in Addis Ababa, which is especially supposed to include former heads of state who have stepped down with dignity. He is definitely not available for just any committee of worthies going: for example he declined to be one of the Commonwealth’s “eminent persons” on South Africa, nominating his former Agriculture Minister John Malecela to take his place.”

IVORY SALES BAN
Readers will recall that we referred in Bulletin No 25 to growing concern about ivory poaching in Tanzania. According to the Financial Times on December 3rd 1986 the Government has acted. It had announced a total ban on Ivory sales to curb poaching of elephants, with dealers ordered to hand in their trading licences by December 30th 1986.

1000 GRADUATES
Development Forum in its September 1986 issue reported that: “since its establishment in 1963 the Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania has produced over 1000 graduates from l6 African countries. Located on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro the college is open to students from any nation. It offers courses in the natural sciences, wildlife and estate management and conservation education. The graduates are now working in virtually every protected area throughout Eastern and Central Africa. According to Robinson HcIlvaine, former President of the African Wildlife Foundation, “If Mweka didn’t exist, it would have to be invented – it is a glowing tribute to the far-sighted Government of Tanzania.” A number of graduates now occupy senior positions within their respective Governments including the Directors of Wildlife in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi.

MOTHER TERESA
Mother Teresa, aged 76, escaped unhurt when a light aircraft she was travelling in slewed off the rough airstrip at Hombolo near Dodoma on October 12th, 1986. Five people in the crowd lining the airstrip were killed. According to the Times, “The dead were two boys aged 8 and 12, sister Serena, an Indian missionary nun, the director of a leprosy centre, and another Tanzanian man. The pilot, Mr Rolf Klemenson, a Norwegian, said the plane slewed off the runway as it was gathering speed for take-off and he was unable to lift it over the crowd. Two were injured by the propellers of the plane and at least one of the dead was decapitated.
Mother Theresa subsequently attended the funeral of sister Serena. She was deeply affected by the tragedy, saying: “My coming is behind this accident.” She at first said that she would abandon the rest of her tour, but later decided to continue and flew to Tabora, where she attended a ceremony at which seven members of her Missionary Sisters of Charity took their first vows.”

THE KILOMBERO KILLINGS
In its September issue, Africa Events had three articles on the
Kilombero sugar estate incident. It referred to the official reports to the effect that on July 25th 1986 three people were killed, seventeen seriously injured and thirteen arrested during a riot by sugar cane cutters. It went on to describe how “sugar cane cutters are employed on a minimum wage of TShs.810 per month. The way they are treated is reminiscent of the colonial plantation practice derogatorily called MIAMBA (“numbers”) or migrant labour. Indeed cane cutters all over Tanzania come mainly from Mbeya region, from the poorest peasantry called Wasafwa. When they arrive on the plantation they are given an advance to buy cooking utensils, clothes, and a panga, their only tool of trade. These loans are then deducted from their meagre monthly wages. Cane cutters live mostly in unlighted labour lines or quarters in deplorable sanitary conditions.
At the end of July, the cane cutters found that after deductions they were left with some TShs 100-200 each. Apparently they had not been paid their overtime earning and bonus. Some deductions were mysterious or unexplained. This infuriated the workers. On Sunday at dawn they surrounded the factory gates barring other workers from entering and reportedly after remaining the entire day began dispersing around 5.00 pm when the Field Force Unit arrived at the scene. Workers rallied against the Unit. It’s likely that FFU commanders at the site believed the machetes carried by the workers for cutting cane were weapons; it is not yet publicly known. Someone threw a stone and the firing began.” The Sunday News reported that the Government had set up a six-man Commission of Enquiry, chaired by Justice B. D. Chipeta.

THE BIGGEST 600
South published in its August issue its list of the biggest 600 companies, in term of sales/turnover, in 48 Third World countries, Two Tanzanian companies were included. The National Textile Company (US$ 628 million) which came in the 102nd position and Tanzania Breweries (US$ 225 million) which came in the 283rd position. Top of the list was Mexico’s oil company (US$ 20,873 million).

WOMEN AND THE LAW
In an article headed “On the Wrong side of the Law” New Africa in its September issue claimed that although Tanzania may have a constitution guaranteeing women’s representation in Parliament, women generally find little protection under the law. It quotes a number of examples: “In June the Dar es Salaam City Council vowed to close down vendors selling food on the streets in order to combat cholera. It was a welcome initiative, but the victims are the women who sell bread and chapatis to boost their meagre incomes.

Another incident occurred last October, when 23 women were rounded up by the police for appearing on a Dar es Salaam street at 9pm. They were taken to court where 19 were sentenced to between 3 months and a year in jail. The Daily News reported that when one woman showed her cinema ticket as proof that she had not been loitering, the magistrate responded that she should not have been going to the cinema at night and then pronounced her guilty.

The police arrest women for loitering because prostitution laws are too general and convictions too difficult to push through, according to legal expert Malingumu Rutashobya. If the Government wanted to crack down on prostitution, it could begin today, Rutasahobya said because the places where the prostitutes live are well known By convicting women for loitering, the Government can punish innocent people.

The law regarding rape is also weak. Since there is no minimum sentence for rape, the magistrate or judge determines the punishment. A man convicted of a violent rape can spend less than three years in prison, complains Rutashobya, and when he gets out, perhaps he’ll rape again, since the punishment is not really a deterrent. Police procedures in rape cases are not standardised; a woman who has been raped must often prove her case using circumstantial evidence. The police are supposed to establish medically whether the woman has been raped, but they do not always do so As a consequence, the evidence is often weak and a rapist can be sentenced for a lesser crime”

THE PRICE OF A SUIT
Business Traveller in its October 1986 issue examined in an article headed “Suit Yourself” as part of a regular series comparing the cost of living in different parts of the world, the price of a man’s suit in 36 different countries. Using 100 as the base cost of a suit in Britain it found that a suit in Tanzania would cost the equivalent of 360 on the same scale – the highest figure in the table. It commented that “absent-minded business travellers are advised against forgetting to pack the trusty three piece on visits to Tanzania. Any visit to the friendly Dar es Salaam clothier would only be hidden by the most lavish of expense accounts!”

GERMANY’S LAST ASKARIS
According to a German newspaper, there were in 1983 some 119 surviving askaris of the German force serving under General von Lettow- Vorbeck in World War 1. Each year around Christmas those few who can still manage the journey assemble at the German war cemetery in Tanga for a ceremonial wreath-laying beside the memorial stone under an ancient baobab tree. After placing the wreath at the foot of the memorial, one of the old gentlemen cries “Kaiser Vilhelm lebe hoch”, whereupon the others reply “Hoch” three times. Then there follows the singing of the German Imperial anthem “Heil dir in Siegerkranz, Herrscher des Vaterlands, Heil Kaiser dir.” After the ceremony, the veterans resort to the house of a German lady resident since 1934 in Tanga, Hargarete Scheel (known as ‘Mama Askari’), where they enjoy a good meal and no doubt share many recollections of that remarkable campaign.
Towards the end of their service in the ‘Schutztruppe’ the askaris received only promissory notes by way of payment and they had to wait until 1964 – the year of von Lettow-Vorbeck’s death at the age of 93 – for these obligations to be redeemed by the West German Government Thereafter, each year each surviving askari has received from the Government in Bonn a present of DK50 around Christmas time, raised in 1984 to DM 100 (£38)

FARMER TAKES IRRIGATION PIPES TO TANZANIA
The Farmers Weekly in its November 21st, 1986 issue reported how an Essex farmer, Mr Simon Collins is appealing to farmers for redundant irrigation pipes for Tanzania. Mr Collins told the Bulletin that he originally read an article about a Roman Catholic Mission farm at Himo, near Moshi and then met Father J. Massawe during a visit by the latter to Britain. Mr Collins then launched an appeal for donations of irrigation pipes and in 1985 was able to take some l40 lengths of pipe with him to Tanzania.
Mr Collins now wants East Anglian farmers to donate further unused pipes and sprinklers. Anyone with spare irrigation pipes can contact Mr Collins on 0279-731205, who will arrange collection.