PRAISE FOR NEGOTIATING SKILLS
Tanzania and its embattled former Minister of Trade and Industry Iddi Simba (see above) got a mention in both the FINANCIAL TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL on November 15 when the newspapers reported extensively on the 142 -member World Trade Organisation’s ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar. ‘In Doha’ the FT wrote ‘the developing countries …. came of age. Led by Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, they proved adept at building coalitions, formulating goals and co-ordinating tactics. They won praise for their negotiating skills and for getting results’. The USA made many concessions on trade and on allowing poorer countries to manufacture their own drugs regardless of patent rights. The Wall Street Journal quoted Minister Simba as praising US delegate Mr Zoellick “He put this whole thing together” Simba said (Thank you Benu Schneider for sending us these two articles -Editor).

WELCOME FOR THE AGREEMENT
The media generally warmly welcomed the agreement between the main parties in Zanzibar but had some reservations as to whether it would be successfully implemented. AFRICA ANALYSIS (October 19) asked whether Seif Shariff had become Tanzania’s ‘man of the moment’ or ‘was he a sell-out’? Had he forged a new way ahead or backed into a dead end? The agreement fell far short of CUF’s main demands for the elections to be re-run and for President Karume to step down. But the release of imprisoned CUF leaders had placated restless CUF militants. Hamad’s detractors, who included Tanzania Labour Party leader Augustine Mrema, made much play of the fact that the deal had restored to Hamad certain benefits -a pension, a car, security detail, an office and house servants. On the other hand, Hamad’s supporters as well as foreign diplomats had hailed him as a ‘statesman’ for his flexibility in agreeing to the accord.

GRIM LIFE FOR TANZANITE MINERS
The daily life of small-scale Tanzanite miners at Mererani, near Arusha was graphically described in a recent article in the EAST AFRICAN by Kate Gehring. The area being mined is a 5-square-mile area of graphite rock. Extracts from the article: ‘Mererani is full of young men. Its muddy streets are lined with bars, shops and stores selling provisions. A series of painted rocks faces traffic along the twisting rocky approach road. The first one says in Swahili ‘God is Great’; the second, a kilometre later, this says that ‘God exists’. There is also a local version of Dante’s inscription on the gates of hell ­ “abandon hope, all ye who enter here”…. It’s bleak and menacing. The miners, in essence, are gamblers and their desperation is palpable. There are 310 small companies and two large holdings, Kilimanjaro Mines and AFGEM”. The article describes the marketing: The stones pass through several channels between Mererani and international dealers. Looking like a field of desert blooming poppies, red blanket clad Maasai traders set up small tables along the hillsides facing the claim covered hills. They act as middlemen between the miners and Asian dealers in Mererani and other towns…… In January 10 miners suffocated when the air from a compression hose was interrupted by groundwater……Fights are another serious threat. 33 people died in fights last year. The most dangerous brawls break out underground when one group’s dynamite blasts into another’s territory’.

The WALL STREET JOURNAL quoted on November 16 the legend that Maasai tribesmen discovered the Tanzanite gem when a bolt of lightening set fire to the plains and some crystals on the ground turned blue. In 1967 an Indian geologist identified the stone as a rare form of the mineral zoisite and determined that it turned a velvety blue when heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. New York’s Tiffany & Co. named it Tanzanite and it soon became a marketing phenomenon. Its popularity soared when film fans learned that the sapphire heart­shaped pendant Kate Winslet hurled into the sea in the film ‘Titanic’ was actually Tanzanite. By then the US was selling $380 million worth of the gems -but Tanzania’s receipts were said to have totalled only $16 million last year.

The South African publication SUNDAY BUSINESS REPORT (2nd September) reported that African Gem Resources (AFGEM), the year -old gemstone mining company, which has taken over one of the four blocks, expected its Mererani mine to be fully operational by the end of the year now that it had seen off a legal challenge in the Tanzanian High Court. By the end of the year AFGEM expected to have invested $20 million and hoped to get a yield of more than 20 million carats by the time its lease expired in 2020. Since the late sixties the trade in Tanzanite had been dominated by artisan miners working diggings in poorly ventilated shafts. When cut and polished the US market for Tanzanite jewellery was estimated to be worth $300 million a year (Thank you David Leishman for sending this item and the two below -Editor).

AND GOLD MINING
The Malawi NATION (October 16) reported on a controversial video, said to include interviews with local miners at the Canadian­run Bunyanhulu mine in Kahama, in which they allege that some of their colleagues were buried alive in 1996 during the filling in of mining pits. The NATION reported that human rights organisations were calling for an independent enquiry but that the government and the past owners of the mine had repeatedly denied the allegations and the veracity of the video. (Since then the matter has become a political issue with Tanzania Labour Party leader Augustine Mrema claiming that he has a copy of the video and refusing to hand it over to the police -Editor).

South Africa’s BUSINESS DAY wrote on September 27 that hawkers at traffic junctions in Johannesburg were absolute amateurs compared with their innovative cousins in Tanzania. ‘Pull up at a crossroads in Dar es Salaam and you can buy pillows, an electric food blender, a tennis racquet with balls and a reflective red triangle for your car – all from one hyperactive hawker’. The article went on to describe the remarkable success of Vodacom in selling cellphones -120,000 in its first year (Mobitel has 90,000, Tritel 20,000 and Zantel 26,000.

FIGHTING BACK
‘Thoroughly gripped by the Aids pandemic, Tanzania is fighting back with all it has. Artists and other professionals have rallied behind the nation in the war against the disease.’ So began an article in NEW AFRICAN (October) which went on: “The deceased made a blunder. He did not wear a condom” sings a musician in a Swahili rap beat….. The Arusha Regional Commissioner has threatened to prosecute owners of guesthouses who do not supply condoms to their guests….. AIDS is punching Tanzania so hard at that its once staunch religious fundamentalists are thinking twice about their rejection of the condom. “If people cannot control their desire, they should wear a condom to check the spread of HIV”, Bishop Sam Baiano of the Anglican Church said recently.

‘HE WAS LUCKY’
‘The soldiers came at night. 15 year-old Donacie Buchimi heard screams and gunshots, and the next morning his neighbour was lying beheaded in the dirt. Donacie fled, running barefoot through the Burundian rainforest for two days until he stumbled into Tanzania. He was lucky. Had he fled in the opposite direction, he would have ended up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country as wracked as his own. Tanzania, in contrast, has been peaceful for as long as anyone can remember and is unusually hospitable to those in need’. So began an article in the August 25 issue of the ECONOMIST under the heading ‘The penalty of kindness’ – ‘In some areas, refugees outnumber locals by as much as 5-1. Everywhere in Western Tanzania the influx has been disruptive. When there is a hiccup in the delivery of food, many refugees rob nearby villages. That this has not led to bloodshed is a testament to the mildness of the local people….’ But as one farmer said “They cause trouble. Every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, on their way back from the market, they enter our homes and steal things. Bored with their monotonous rations, they trade them for bananas and meat….local subsistence farmers have suffered because the prices of maize and beans have plunged because of the free supply doled out in the camps. The wages they can earn working for their neighbours have fallen, because refugees, though officially barred from working outside the camps, do so in large numbers…. (Thank you Jill Bowden for this item – Editor).

CASE COMPLEXITY
TRAVEL AFRICA (surely the most captivating of all travel magazines – Editor) surprisingly had only two items on Tanzania in its bulky Summer 2001 issue -there are usually several. The first, under the heading ‘Jurassic Safari’ said that Brachiosaurus, the heaviest of all prehistoric animals (possibly up to 100 tons) and the heaviest land vertebrate of all time, used to roam near Tendaguru in southern Tanzania 150 million years ago. The article speculated that, because of its weight, it probably spent less time on land than in the Rift Valley lakes where its bulk (up to 27 metres length above ground) would be buoyed by the water. The second article recounted the complexity of some of the cases dealt with by AMREF’s Flying Doctor surgeons -third degree bums covering large parts of the body, leprosy patients missing parts of ears and noses, cleft lips and horrendous skin cancer melanomas. At Bukumbi Hospital in Northern Tanzania, where hygiene is described as good and staff well-organised, on January 20th ‘a woman is brought in with leprosy who cannot close her eyelids. Two surgeons open up her scalp and twist some muscles behind the ears until they meet at the bridge of her nose. When they are stitched in place the woman is told to close her eyes. She does. Everyone is electrified and the woman’s fingerless hand tries to clutch the surgeon’s arm as a smile of joy and thanks trembles at her paralysed lips’.

THE ‘MAGIC CORNER’
Under the heading ‘Trunk line to the spirit world’ Karl Vick, writing in the WASHINGTON POST (12th November) described what he called the ‘Magic Corner’, a strip of land between the turquoise sea and a row of luxurious white villas north of downtown Dar Salaam. Extracts from the article: ‘In this corner there is a huge and ancient baobab tree … It is as much a wall as a tree and people remove their shoes before kneeling in front of it, their eyes closed, their backs to the Indian Ocean, and their money in the pocket of the ‘witch doctor’ who invariable brings them to this enchanted confluence of sea, earth and commerce. “This place is like a mosque” said Ali Selengia, standing barefoot in the shadow of the great tree on Kenyatta Drive. His wife, a traditional healer, passed a coconut around and around the head of her kneeling client. When she handed him the coconut he hurled it onto a stone. It shattered, releasing his problems to the winds. “Today, myself, I have some evil spirits that are making me ill” he explained “so I came here”. The article went on to say that Arab traders did not introduce Islam to Africa until the 10th century and Christian missionaries had little success spreading their message until the end of the 19th. Neither faith has quite managed to overcome the spiritual connections fashioned in the previous l30,000 years … The tree shows evidence of very heavy use. Hundreds… of iron nails protrude from the trunk, a few still holding in place folded squares of paper bearing wishes – some for relief, others for revenge. But the writing is legible only to the spirits … Other tokens are more cryptic. Feathers stuffed in a sea shell and left on the ground; a broken clay pot containing ashes and rusted razor blades; the dried carcass of a puffer fish dangling from a high branch, a scrap of paper in its mouth……. (Thank you Nick Westcott for sending this and another item from Washington -Editor).

POPULATION GROWTH
Writing in a recent issue of WHITE FATHERS – WHITE SISTERS, Father Martin van de Ven described his many years of work in Mwanza and the surrounding area. He said that when Tanzania got independence in 1961 the population was 30,000 but it had now reached 700,000 with an annual natural increase of 3% and another 8% through immigration. Every hill in the town was full of houses. The fishing industry was said to be booming with eight fish processing factories employing more than 4,000 employees and thousands of private fishermen. Estimates were given in the same issue of the number of people of different faiths in Tanzania (1998):
Catholics 11,643,000 (34%)
Protestants 6,107,000 (18%)
Muslims 11,916,000 (35%)
Hindus 10,000
Other faiths 3,954,000 (12%).
(Thank You John Sankey for sending this item -Editor).

GENDER BUDGET PROTESTS
Britain’s Department for International Development has issued a special edition of ‘DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION UPDATE’ under the heading Civil Society and National Policy in which some prominence is given to the successful Gender Budgeting Initiative in Tanzania, described in an earlier issue of TA. It quoted the presentation by Agrippina Mosha at a recent workshop which set out some of the opportunities and challenges arising from the involvement of civil society in the initiative. The full version of her paper includes a description of the objectives and achievements of the programme, an analysis of focal areas for donor support and the opportunities created by social and political reforms in Tanzania. Details from: Tgnp@muchs.ac.tz.

The Gender Network received further publicity when Agrippina Mosha and others were quoted in WORLD DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT IN ACTION (Winter 2000) as having been angered when they learnt that when the heads of the World Bank and IMF were in Dar, only one hour of their time had been scheduled for meeting NGO’s. They therefore organised a demonstration at the Sheraton Hotel and unfurled placards with strong messages: ‘We want total debt cancellation’, ‘IMF and World Bank stop exploiting Africa’ …. They were arrested and held for six hours.

VIRODENE
Three prominent articles in South Africa’s BUSINESS DAY and MAIL AND GUARDIAN in September (Thank you David Leishman for these -Editor) reported that two South Africans had been deported from Tanzania for allegedly illegally testing ‘Virodene’, an anti-AIDS drug, on 64 Tanzanian army personnel. Zigi Visser and Themba Khumalo had entered Tanzania illegally and the trials were said to have been registered with the Tanzanian authorities. The couple were alleged to have left behind a string of debts including a $7,780 telephone bill, a similar unpaid account with local cellular telephone companies and the rent of their Dar es Salaam house. Tanzania’s National Institute of Medical Research was said to have declined authorisation for human testing. A defiant Visser said from his Pretoria home on returning to South Africa that the deportation was part of a plot by global pharmaceutical companies afraid of the potential impact of Virodene. Tanzanian Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Bernard Mchomvu was quoted as saying that Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research never gave permission for the Test at Lugalo Barracks and also at a private clinic owned by the country’s Inspector-General of Police. The consignment was alleged to have been imported by the Chief of Defence Forces. The drug had caused a major political scandal in South Africa in 1997 when then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki had publicly denied that the African National Congress (ANC) had been funding the development of the drug.

GETTING RID OF AIDS?
‘Tanzania has in recent years experienced a lethal twist to the ancient traditions of consulting witchdoctors; clients, many of whom are desperate to get rid of Aids, are told to go to bed with a virgin. The Act, the witchdoctors claim, will rinse the deadly disease away’. So reported the COURIER ACP-EU (September -October 2001). The article went on ‘This advice now undermines the country’s attempts to stop the spread of HIV/Aids and ruins the lives of thousands of young girls….. Six-year old Bahati in Kilimanjaro Region was no longer a good student at school. She was falling asleep during classes and eventually she was taken to the doctor. He cried after he’d carried out the examination. She had been sexually molested. Her father is now in jail. He claimed that he believed that sex with a virgin would end the dreaded Aids which he may have got when visiting one of his many casual female acquaintances. The NGO ‘Envirocare’, with funding from the Danish government, has published a booklet and it is hoping to make a video about this story to show to other children who may be affected. Bahati (not her real name) has been tested several times for HIV but fortunately she is not infected. (Thank you Nasor Malik for sending this item -Editor).

‘BLACK GERMANS DO NOT EXIST’
In an article under this heading NEW AFRICA (May issue) published extracts from a new book by African-American Paulette Anderson revealing that Africans had been living in Berlin since the mid-1880’s and that some 2,000 were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Individual case studies referred to a Josef Mambo, born in Tanganyika in 1885 who became a Sergeant in a Prussian Infantry regiment, fought in World War 1 and later became a performer employed by the Deutsche Afrika Schou. Another Tanganyikan mentioned was M’toro bin M’wengi Bakari who was a Swahili language assistant at the College for Oriental Languages, Friedrich­Wilhelms University, Berlin from 1900 to 1903 and was the author of the book ‘Customs and Traditions of the Swahili’.

A TRAIN JOURNEY
‘On a train journey to Tabora which should have taken ten hours we limped into Tabora 24 hours later. The train had broken down, so I had to spend the night sitting outside a third class carriage, in the middle of the Tanzanian bush, chatting to about twenty Tanzanians on every subject – life in Ulaya (Europe), Christianity, mission, even the current performance of the Euro in the world monetary system! Tanzanians are so warm, welcoming and friendly. In fact I enjoyed chatting with people I had never met before so much that I think I’m quite glad the train was delayed’ – Peter Ferguson, a participant in the Crosslink’s ‘Smile Programme’ writing in CROSSLINKS (August). (Thank you Mary Punt for sending this item -Editor).

NEW WORDS
‘Sikudhani Mohamedi Jalala earns her living repairing shoes in her home here, a cinder-block shack in the sprawling, unpaved outskirts of Tanzania’s capital. In her spare time she writes poetry’. So wrote Burton Bollag in an article in the American publication THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION (May 25) Extracts: ‘Some of her poems beseech thieves to return to the path of righteousness. Others warn of AIDS, counselling monogamy or the use of condoms. And in the great tradition of Swahili poetry, a few form part of a dialogue with other bards …. As Ms. Jalala sings her poems, Shani Kitogo, a student at the University of Dar es Salaam who is pursuing a master’s degree in Swahili poetry, hurriedly pulls a notebook out of a handbag to jot down the words. The text will be shared in a research project at the university’s Institute of Kiswahili Research. Established in a different form in 1930, it is, with 15 scholars, one of Africa’s oldest and most important centers of language research …. Swahili poetry, which traditionally has a certain form and number of beats to each line, is often sung -­either to repetitive, Koran-inspired melodies or to modem African ones. Around the time Tanzania gained its independence, in 1961, “poets wrote about political themes,” says Ms. Kitogo. “Now they write about love and day-to-day problems.” …. Scholars at the institute have been collecting poetry and biographical information about Swahili-language poets, past and present, for 10 years. For centuries, Swahili speakers have composed poetry to mark the great and small things of their lives: sycophantic verses to honour local princes and potentates, earthy odes to celebrate village weddings and funerals, philosophical or playful reflections on the meaning of life.

When Kenya and Tanzania were British colonies, the poetry’s ambiguity often made it the only legally publishable way to attack colonial rule. In his poem “Siafu Wamekazana” (“The Ants Have Mobilized”), Saadan Kandoro, a renowned poet, used the symbolism of ants attacking a snake to evoke the idea of a colonial power’s being overwhelmed by the militarily weaker but determined Africans:
Nyoka anababaika, shimoni kwa kujikuna,
Siafu wamekazana, nyoka amekasirika.
(The snake raves, in its hole scratching itself,
The ants have mobilized, the snake is angry) .

….. Today, verse remains a vibrant means of expression in Tanzania. With 270 poets in Tanzania and Kenya interviewed, the poetry project, which Mr. Mulokozi leads, is only half­finished. Written poems and tape recordings of poets reading their works are collected, and biographical information is noted ….. The Swahili institute is playing an important role in a renaissance that has been under way since colonial rule ended. The news media, the university’s vice chancellor, and government ministries call to ask if the researchers have Swahili translations of terms like “e-mail” and “Web site,” says John Kiango, the institute’s deputy director. The institute recently proposed three or four possible renderings for each, and will choose one depending on the feedback it gets.

Every year the institute gleans from the news media, or creates on its own, several hundred new Swahili words. For example, a Swahili word for “globalization” sprang up last fall: utandawazi. It comes from two words: utanda, or “open,” and wazi, or “spread out.”

TANZANIA 8%
The UN publication AFRICA RECOVERY (June) included a map of Africa indicating the prevalence of HIV in various countries. Botswana had the highest rate at 36% of the adult population affected followed by Zimbabwe at 25% and South Africa (19.9%). By contrast the prevalence in Tanzania was 8%, the same as Uganda. In Senegal the figure was less than 2%. This was due, it was said, to the country’s early response to the disease, vigorous preventive action, the mobilisation of people at all levels and free discussion following Senegal’s long experience with democracy and the freedom of its press which made it possible to openly discuss the problem.

“NO SERIOUS TROUBLE, BUT…”
The first words in a feature headed ‘Security in Africa’ in AFRICAN DECISIONS (May/June) were as follows: “I don’t like answering questions about things going wrong -it feels like you’re tempting fate” -Simon Mears, Assistant General Manager of the Security Group in Tanzania, a company specialising in securing homes, businesses and cash-in-transit. “Touch wood, we haven’t had any serious trouble in Tanzania, although there was one incident in Arusha where our guy managed to dash through the door of a bank with his cashbox, followed by a hail of bullets from six attackers. One of them followed him into the building with a pistol and knelt down to pick up the box, but our guy kicked him in the face and he ran away”. The article went on to explain how the private security industry had mushroomed across Africa in recent years.

MINERS PROTEST
South Africa’s BUSINESS DAY (May 30) explained how the South African gemstone company African Gem Resources (AFGEM) last year acquired the rights to mine two thirds of the Tanzanite reserves at Merelani in northern Tanzania. It seemed like a perfect deal. Construction was said to be proceeding according to plan, the aim being to extract some 22 million carats of Tanzanite over the next 20 years. The government was keen to see an end to decades of smuggling and finally to see some tax revenues from Tanzanian exports. Exports of Tanzanite had been estimated at no more than $10 million each year while annual imports into the US alone were worth about $300 million. The article went on the describe the opposition of local miners to AFGEM as explained in another article above. (Thank you David Leishman for this item -Editor).

ONE OF THE LAST FRAGMENTS
The people of Msolwa took some persuading that planting trees would be good, not only for the environment, but also for their own pocket. Yes, they could see that trees could provide them with firewood. Okay, so some of the varieties seemed to be good for the soil and, certainly, they were useful for preventing erosion and providing wind-breaks for their homes. But that’s what we’ve got the forest for, they were quoted as saying in the WORLD WILDLIFE NEWS (Winter 2001). Msolwa is one of dozens of villages strung out along the eastern boundary of the 1,900 sq km Udzungwa National Park in southern Tanzania. Msolwa lives in the shadow of a vast mountain range blanketed in a forest of ‘almost unbelievable richness and variety’. Yet WWF and the Tanzanian National Parks Service (TANAPA) have been talking thousands of farmers and homesteaders into planting more and more trees. The need for more tree planting is acute -there may be a vast forest on their doorstep, but it can only take so much deforestation. When the population was smaller, the amount taken for firewood and house building could be sustained, but since a new electricity supply and massive sugar plantation combined some 20 years ago to attract new people to the area by the hundreds of thousands, the toll on the forest has become unbearable. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for sending this item -Editor).

GHURKHAS ON GUARD
The EAST AFRICAN (May 21) reported that former British army Ghurkhas with terrier dogs have been employed to provide security at Dar es Salaam port. Between November 2000 and March 2001 four containers disappeared from the port soon after being offloaded from ships.

ON NOT MARRYING
Liv Haram writing in the May issue of NEWS FROM THE NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE described her new research project ‘Modernisation and Stress in Men’s and Women’s Lives: African Experiences’ The study is to be conducted in Arusha and the surrounding Arumeru district. She writes that, as in many other African countries, an increasing number of women in Tanzania have chosen not to marry. This option is part of a more general quest for freedom and a desire to pursue their individuality and to live a modem life in town. By avoiding marriage, women refuse to comply with gender ideology, which subordinates women to men, in their capacity as fathers, brothers and husbands. However, to remain unmarried has wide ranging consequences, economically, socially and emotionally. As women traditionally have limited access to scarce resources, such as education, and job opportunities and land, the options for economic independence are few. In contrast to their unmarried mothers and sisters, the ‘unattached’ or ‘single’ women cannot draw on the social and economic support of their in-laws. Nor can they take parental support for granted ….

‘JOSEPH COOL’
This was the nickname given to Congo President Joseph Kabila
(30) when he was at school in Tanzania. His recent official visit to the country was described in the EAST AFRICAN (May 21) as more of a ‘home-coming’ to the land where he was raised and educated. The press baptised him ‘Mtoto wa nyumbani’ and he was given a rousing welcome. He went to school in Mbeya, and served for a while in the Tanzanian National Service. He recalled being dropped off from a bus on one occasion at Mikumi National Park where he barely survived being mauled by a lion. During his visit he went to Butiama to lay a wreath on the grave of Mwalimu Nyerere.

‘POSITIVELY SMUG!’
As our boat rounds the headland, a couple of dug-out canoes skim out of the bay, tell-tale lines trailing. “People are not supposed to fish here” says Aaron Conrad, one of Chumbe Island’s two resident managers. If local fishermen can’t be here, then what am I doing? I’m scarcely sure and already I’m experiencing twinges of that guilt familiar to weedy liberals who holiday in fragile Eden. But Chumbe, eight miles off the coast of Zanzibar’s Stonetown, is different. It offers its visitors that rarest of tropical holiday luxuries, the option of a conscience that is not merely clear, but positively smug. Declared Global Winner for 1999 in British Airways’ Tourism for Tomorrow Awards’, Chumbe Island Coral Park has created a model in which small-scale eco-tourism funds the island’s conservation and research projects as well as an education programme introducing local schoolchildren to marine biology, ecology and environmental management. In doing so, it turns its foreign visitors into the goodies rather than the villains of the eco-saga. What’s more, it manages to pull this all off without any of the dampening worthiness that so often hangs over a conservation project. “Paradise” peppers every page of the island’s visitors book…… -Juliet Clough writing in THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH on April 29. (Thank you Donald Wright for
sending this item -Editor).

‘LUCKY TO BE ALIVE!’
The February issue of the publication COUNSEL contained an article by Andrew Hall following visits to Tanzania to speak at a course for the Department of Public Prosecution’s commercial fraud and white-collar crime section. The article began: ‘June 1999 was auspicious for Joina Siwakwi. The Court of Appeal of Tanzania allowed his appeal against conviction for murder. He was fortunate to be allowed to live, but then he was lucky to be alive having spent eight years in prison, four years on death row. The killing occurred on the 23rd August, 1991 and the victim was his sister-in-law, a widow. She had died of head injuries caused by being struck with a rock. The son later told police that there was, as far as he knew, no enmity between his mother and the accused. No scientific evidence was called to confirm the blood found at the house. Four years after his arrest Siwakwi was convicted and sentenced to death ….. The court-appointed defence lawyer would have been paid the all inclusive fee of Shs 500 -approximately 40p. No defence witnesses were called or other investigations apparently conducted. On appeal four years later the defence argued that the evidence was simply too weak for the verdict to stand. The Senior State Attorney was forced to agree ….. ‘ The article went on: “I asked the Registrar of Appeals whether such delays were uncommon”. “Not at all” he replied. “We discovered in June this year a backlog of 2000 homicide cases awaiting trial. The delay is often five or six years and in one case 11 years where the judge moved district after the trial had started. Our courts are overwhelmed. We simply have not had the funds to try these cases and to find travel and accommodation expenses for judges and witnesses”. (Thank you Mr R S Cumming for sending this item -Editor).

MUGGING
In March the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH published some articles under the heading ‘An Englishwoman abroad’ by Lindsay Hawdon in one of which she described her mugging in Dar es Salaam: ‘My feet kick out hard against the man who has just ripped my earring from my ear and is now trying to pull my rucksack from the cab. I kick him on his right thigh and he punches at my leg. I kick him in the stomach and he stumbles back with a groan. I lock the door. The cab diver is nowhere to be seen. He left me five minutes ago in the heat and dust to ask for directions for the bus to Tanga …. Next day the cab driver finds me again and assures me that he knows where to find my bus. We set off through the tangle of streets. After half-an-hour of honking and screeching brakes the cab stops. “I cannot find this bus. You must pay me now”. I give him his money. I have no idea where I am….. It is then that the motorised rickshaw appears in a cloud of dust thrown up by a passing lorry. “Where we might take you?” the driver asks with a smile that stretches his fat cheeks into two-tight balls. I shout my problem at him and climb in. “Ha Ha” he laughs. “See the wonders of Dar es Salaam” and points towards the walkways, the colourfully dressed people, the bric-a bac stalls, the open barber shops and the fruit and veg piled too high on the slanting shelves …. He takes me to the bus station the following day … I try to give him money. He refuses “Tell people my name is good luck” he says “All I ask is that you remember me to them so that they will know Tanzania is full of good people” ….. (Thank you Roger Searle for this item end for your letter in which you describe your return to Tanzania after 26 years as a sad experience and go on to say: ‘At that time Tanzanian Affairs avoided any criticism whatsoever in its reporting. At least now the articles ring true -but I have no present intention of checking them out! -Editor).

PROSECUTION LAMBASTED
The last issue of Tanzanian Affairs reported, under the heading ‘Until death do us part’, the case of Kirstin Cameron (40) a German national, who had been charged in Arusha with the murder of her estranged New Zealand husband Cliff. The SUNDAY INDEPENDENT (May 12) published the verdict, which was acquittal. The report went on: ‘In his four hour opinion Judge Rutakangwa exonerated Mrs Cameron, suggesting that her husband, a New Zealander, had committed suicide and lambasted the prosecution for failure to produce more than the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. He further implied that Cameron’s body had been tampered with once it was returned to New Zealand so that a murder scenario could be concocted -the final irony in a case laced with accusations of skulduggery and conspiracy. For two months the dilapidated courthouse amongst Arusha’s jacaranda trees had resounded with complex forensic issues such as ‘high velocity and macro blood spattering’ and ‘blood drops with gravity run off -issues never before presented in the country’s courts ….. In delivering his opinion, peppered with references to Shakespeare, the judge was meticulous in discrediting the prosecution witnesses, including its American forensic science expert and was particularly venomous in his criticism of the Arusha police, who, in failing to secure the crime scene properly, had opened Mrs Cameron to suspicion from her husband’s family. No corroborating evidence was collected and after less than two hours it seemed the CID had allowed the bedroom to be cleaned and the mattress to be burnt. Even the bullet was left to be swept away by Mrs Cameron’s maid …. The Judge’s opinion reflected the anger of many in the community and the judiciary that the outside influence of both the Cameron family and the New Zealand Foreign Office had been brought to bear on the case. Cameron had apparently been troubled by debt and alcohol; he was having an affair with his best friend’s wife and was under considerable stress. (Thank you Liz Fennell for this item ­ Editor).

SOME PICNIC!
The TIMES (4th August) reported that nine British passengers on a cruise on the ‘Royal Star’ who had disembarked for a picnic on the island of Shungu Mbili, 20 miles off the Tanzanian coast, suddenly found themselves surrounded by 30 fishermen. They formed a semi-circle shouting and threatening the passengers with a mixture of knives and cudgels. But before the fishermen could attack, a dinghy from the ship reached the shore and six crew members stormed up the sandy beach and rescued them. They had been advised not to take any valuables with them.

The FINANCIAL TIMES, under this heading, gave some prominence in mid-August to a proposal that the UK government is considering issuing a licence under which the British company BAE Systems would export to Tanzania a state-of-the-art $40 million (£28m) air traffic control system. The World Bank and IMF had criticised the scheme as too expensive (they said it should cost about $10 million) and because it had an unnecessary military capability -hence the need for a licence. It would cost about half the annual income received by Tanzania in debt relief. Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry was said to favour the scheme but other ministries opposed it so that a decision might have to be taken by the Prime Minister. Tanzania was reported to be determined to go ahead with the scheme and to have made a down payment of $5 million. Oxfam had opposed the scheme because of what it described as a ‘threat to Tanzania’s sustainable development’. Admitting that, if the British Government refused to give a licence, it could stand accused of acting as a colonial power, the Financial Times insisted that the British Government should stick by its proclaimed principles and should support sustainable development in Tanzania. (Thank you Jill Bowden and Roger Carter for sending this important and topical information ­Editor).

AFRICAN TIGER
OPPORTUNITY AFRICA (first quarter 2001) wrote that Tanzania had the potential to become one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Since the mid-1990s, strong pursuit of economic reform had enhanced Dar es Salaam’s status in the international financial community. Much of the credit for competent financial governance and the liberalisation of key economic sectors went to the Bank of Tanzania which acted as an adviser to the Government. The bank was one of the few independent central banks in Africa. Its main goals were preserving currency stability and low inflation. It had pursued a tight monetary policy which had underpinned positive real interest rates and thus provided incentives for savings. Prudent policies had also contributed to subdued inflation – this year it was projected at below 6% compared to 37% in 1994.

‘UNTIL DEATH DO US PART’
Under this heading TIME MAGAZINE (February 12th) told the story of the white woman in Botswana (Mariette Bosch) who was recently hanged for murder. It went on to state that there was another blonde white woman sitting in a cell in Arusha prison who, if convicted, could also be hanged. Kerstin Cameron, a 40 year-old German national had been charged with the murder of her estranged husband Cliff. She was initially told that she had no legal case to answer. On July 4th, 1998 her husband left an Arusha hotel where he had been staying and in which he had been drinking heavily and went to visit her and the children at their home. A few hours later, he was dead in the bedroom, a bullet in his head. The Tanzanian police twice investigated and twice concluded that Cameron, a 42-year old bush pilot, had committed suicide. But later, pressure from his husband’s New Zealand relatives had dramatically altered things and she had been arrested in May last year. The inquiry was said to be now bogged down in the Tanzanian legal system as a result of undue pressure from New Zealand politicians plus bureaucratic inefficiency, post-colonial sensitivities and murky suspicions. German officials were demanding a quick and fair resolution of the case (Thank you to several readers who sent this item and a similar story in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (February 24) under the heading ‘White mischief on an African night’ – Editor)

MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION
NEW AFRICAN (April 2001) devoted a page to what it described as Tanzania’s ‘mobile phone revolution’. This was said to be highly significant for a country where just five years ago a mobile phone was something that dreams were made of; now, Tanzania had as many mobile phone lines as fixed lines. Mobitel had 60% of the market and attributed its success to maximising consumer choice in the form of affordable handsets, extensive geographic coverage, pre-paid systems and flexible pricing structures.

CLOVEHONEY
The TROPICAL AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION’S
NEWSLETTER in December contained an article by Antony Ellman on clove honey production in Pemba. He explained how he had been recruited to undertake, with staff of the Evergreen Trust (a small NGO established in Pemba in 1995), a survey of agricultural production and marketing opportunities suitable for small scale producers. Prime emphasis was to be placed on beekeeping. He went on to explain that clove honey was one of the few commodities produced on Pemba for which demand exceeded supply (it had a high reputation in the Gulf) and that steps to raise the quantity and quality of clove honey production could not only generate increased rural incomes with relatively little investment but also gave farmers an incentive to improve neglected clove plantations by adding value to the products. He described the various types of hive, colony management and honey and wax processing and marketing.

The GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA (March) reported that Tanzania had lifted members’ spirits by increasing its legislated quota of women MP’s from 15 to 20 (in addition to those elected) with the result that the number of women in parliament had increased from 16% to 21%; the percentage of women in cabinet had increased from 13% to 15% (Thank you Joan Wicken for sending this item – Editor).

The EAST AFRICAN (12th February) devoted a page to the leading Tanzania Kiswahili scholar Professor Said Ahmed Mohammed from Bayreuth University in Germany. He was born in Zanzibar in 1947 and later studied and worked at the University of Dar es Salaam. He has authored or co-authored 16 titles in the linguistics and literature areas of Kiswahili. The article said that a critical look at his novels, plays and poems showed clearly that he was out to educate and expose the ills in society. He wondered why Kiswahili was not given the kind of status in East Africa that it had in the wider world. “Out there” he said, “Kiswahili is regarded highly; foreign students like studying it and speaking it grammatically”. In all foreign universities where he had taught he found Kiswahili extremely popular.

DECLINING SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
‘Tanzania is suffering a sharp decline in primary-school enrolment as a result of the ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Relief Programme (HIPC) sponsored by the World Bank/IMF which compels poor parents to contribute to the cost of their children’s education’ according to NEW AFRICAN (February). The article went on to explain how Tanzania, having adopted the third stage of the HIPC programme, was granted ‘nominal’ relief from its stifling debts. Part of the deal was the introduction of cost sharing in primary schools which meant that poor parents had to pay part of their children’s education; this immediately triggered a decline in school attendance. Tanzania expects to enjoy debt relief of $100 million when it ‘fully’ qualifies this year by moving to the ‘completion’ stage of the programme. The journal quoted debt campaigners as saying that in a real terms the HIPC ‘completion stage’ or ‘full qualification’ only meant that qualifying countries would ‘cough more funds’ from their dried-up treasuries for debt service. Tanzania’s annual debt service would be $167.5 million between 2002 and 2009 and would rise to $258 million between 2010 and 2018. At the moment, Tanzania spent 26 per cent of its total export earnings on debt servicing.

‘ELUSIVE, MAGICAL PARADISE BUT NOT GAY’
‘Zanzibar. It really is a place, not a cafe, bar, club or any other of the many other businesses that have used its name. No marketing firm could come up with a better word to evoke an elusive magical paradise. What is it about the word? If you were to blend the decayed grandeur of Lisbon, the commerce and religion of Morocco and the exotic spiciness of southern India and set it all on an island with Bounty-advert beaches, you might just get Zanzibar. It’s a zany place’. So wrote Paul Miles in GAY NEWS (February) whose visit to Zanzibar was arranged by the travel firm ‘Simply Tanzania’. The writer went on to say that if his readers were looking for a ‘happening gay scene’ Zanzibar was not the place. Homosexuality, as in all of Tanzania, was technically illegal. No-one in Zanzibar seemed to be working on anything connected with gay rights. Although there was a dearth of people willing to identify themselves as gay, everyone he spoke to seemed to think that it was not an issue. There was even a well known gay-run hotel in Stonetown.

NATIONAL PARKS
AFRICA TRAVEL (Spring 2001) devoted 46 pages of lavishly illustrated text to the national parks of Africa. The articles on Tanzania concentrated on walking around Loliondo with a Maasai guide (‘the kopjes – islands of tall granite rock and lush green foliage strung like an archipelago across the plains;) mountain cycling in the Tarangire National Park (‘the lodges are Tarzan and Jane style’) and diving in Mafia Island’s Marine Park (‘clouds of glassfish, groups of lionfish and violin sharks – we are illuminated within by what we see of Mafia’s beautiful, secret underworld’).

Another article in the same issue featured Fundu Lagoon on Pemba island. The article said that unlike its better-known neighbour, Pemba lacked the developed tourist infrastructure of Zanzibar which gave it a refreshing sense of naivety and a feeling of blissful isolation and tranquillity. The waters around Pemba were now regarded as one of the top diving locations in the world. Fundu Lagoon was the home of a fully qualified watersports centre. Prices were $275 per person per day which included snorkelling, discovery trips, mangrove canoe safaris, dhow sunset cruises and boat transfers.

ORGANIC COTTON WOOL
A brand new line in organic products, based on Tanzanian grown cotton and called ‘Simply Gentle Organic’ is being testmarketed through more than 1000 British Waitrose supermarkets by the manufacturer Macdonald and Taylor. Approximately 5% of the pack purchase price will be used to help Tanzanian farmers in development projects. The new organic range will include make-up removal pads, balls and loose packs. It is estimated that current cotton cultivation (nonorganic) results in 25% of worldwide insecticide use. Helped by environmental experts, organic cotton farmers in Tanzania attract beneficial insects to their cotton. The organic control methods include using trap plants (sunflower and pigeon pea), ox-driven weeding, crop rotation and the use of animal manure. Research has shown that organic cotton plots bordered by sunflowers have 10 times more beneficial ants which eat the eggs and larvae of the harmful cotton bollworm. (Thank you John Leonhardt for this item – Editor.)

COMING UP TOO FAST
“I am 23 ft under water and my heart is racing. I’m desperately trying to concentrate on my breathing, but everything feels unnatural. My mask has water in it and as I try to clear it, I keep moving my fins. Suddenly, I realise that I’ve reached the surface and start to panic. One of the things that I have learnt on this diving course is that coming up too fast could be fatal. I’m afraid that my lungs are expanding and that I am about to die in the middle of the Indian Ocean ….. Back in the boat I sit there shaking, wondering what on earth I’m doing here …. I decided to learn to dive when I became hooked on snorkelling a couple of years ago. It seemed like the logical next step. The words of the diving manuals should have rung warning bells. ‘If you live life on the edge or find pleasure in pure adrenaline, you should be a diver’. I’m no adrenaline junkie. Yet here I was at the diving school at Fundu Lagoon in Pemba. The Pemba Channel is reputed to be one of the best diving sites in the world and the resort was outstanding – pristine beaches dotted with mangroves and fabulous views of the blue, blue sea from every room – Clare Thomson writing in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH on January 7th. The same paper (March 10) reported even more glowingly about diving in MAFIA – ‘Two giant groupers, each at least 6 ft. long, pairs of huge spotted sweetlips, angelfish at least 3 ft. long and endless varieties of jumbo-sized butterfly fish, the largest black sting-ray I have ever encountered, a good 4ft.across … the diving site was Kinasi Pass (Thank you Donald Wright for this ~ Editor).

AN AFRICAN SUCCESS STORY
Under this heading the American CHRONICLE OF EDUCATION (6th April) published an article by Burton Bollag which included some very good news about the University of Dar es Salaam. Brief extracts: ‘The university’s air-conditioned internet cafe is usually packed with students checking their email, or searching the Web for scholarship information. Across the hilly, green campus, the law school is busy putting its course outlines and reading materials online. The university library is getting a new wing, and new buildings are going up to provide more classrooms and a faculty office. Dar is one of a handful of African universities winning praise — and increased financial support from the West — for their efforts to transform themselves ….. When four major foundations based in the United States announced a five-year, $100-million aid package for African higher education last year, they singled out three institutions (Mozambique, Makerere and Dar) whose own efforts made it likely that they would be able to benefit from assistance in strategic planning, curriculum development, and increasing financial autonomy. Dar es Salaam is also one of the first institutions receiving support through the program. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, one of the four foundations, has awarded the university a three-year, $3.5-million grant for new technology, for library improvements, and to study the effectiveness of the reforms adopted there ….. Dar has scored a number of significant successes since embarking on its Institutional Transformation Program, in the early 1990’s. It has begun creating new degree programs in response to Tanzania’s rapidly changing needs — for example, in public health, computer hardware and software, and transportation engineering. It has become probably the best-wired sub-Saharan university outside South Africa, with most campus buildings connected to the Internet via high-speed, fiber-optic cables. The university has cut costs by sharply reducing its non-academic staff, farming out such services as operating cafeterias and cleaning dormitories to private companies. It has generated new sources of income by offering evening degree programs in business administration for fee-paying students (all students theoretically pay tuition, but for many undergraduates that remains theory, not practice) providing consulting and training to companies and government agencies, and selling computer services and software. And on a continent with a glaring gender imbalance in higher education, Dar has instituted an affirmative action policy that has increased the enrolment of female students from 16% of the student body seven years ago to 29% today …. Courses in “African Socialism” have been eliminated, and research on such topics has been discouraged ….. (Thank you Peg Snyder for sending this article – Editor)

OLIVE BABOONS AND BLACK RHINOS
BBC WILDLIFE (December) reported that wild-caught olive baboons awaiting export from Tanzania for use in international biomedical research were being kept in the ‘worst conditions ever seen’ according to an undercover investigation carried out by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). Investigators had infiltrated two businesses in Arusha where baboons were often held for some weeks before being shipped to the USA. At one holding station, the Tanzanian Wildlife Corporation, they found an entire baboon family in one cage with the adult male desperately trying to protect his family despite the confines of his captivity. BUAV is calling on the Tanzanian authorities to place an embargo on the export of baboons.

In January the same magazine reported that the black rhino, once the most successful member of its family, was now listed as critically endangered; there were thought to be only 60 to 70 left in Tanzania compared with the estimated 10,000 30 years ago. 70% of those remaining were believed to live in the Selous Game Reserve; those which were left constituted about 6% of the world population. They had survived mainly due to their inaccessibility and remoteness. The article want went on to describe the work of the Selous Rhino Project. Tanzania’s Wildlife Division had assigned six scouts to the project in January 1996 but their task was difficult because, unlike their larger, less fierce ‘white’ rhino cousins, which were happy to eat grass in wide open spaces, black rhinos favoured very thick bush and could not be seen easily from the air. The Scouts had to walk until they found them and averaged 1000 kms for every rhino sighted. Protecting rhinos was reported to be an expensive business – some $32 per km with one ranger covering perhaps 150 kms. Future plans included the development of DNA fingerprinting from samples of dung. This non-invasive method used micro-satellite markers enabling the detection of genetic variability within the small, fragmented rhino groups. (Those wishing to support this project should contact ‘Save the Rhino International at 02073577474. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for sending these two items -Editor).

THE WORK OF SIXTY ARTISTS
THE EAST AFRICAN (15th January) featured the ‘Art in Tanzania 2000’ exhibition which was held in Dar es Salaam in December. It was described as more successful than the previous exhibitions with about half the displayed works being sold. It featured works by almost 60 artists living in Tanzania and comprised sculptures, paintings, cartoons and photographs. Prices ranged between $187 and $500. More than 1,000 art lovers attended the exhibition over the three weeks that it was on. Probably the most striking work was said to have come from Damian Msagula from Mtwara. His paintings were said to have a touch of Ethiopian art while retaining a strong individuality that set them apart from the swarm of tingatinga paintings on display. Msagula has had his work exhibited in Belgium, Finland, Ethiopia, South Africa and Germany.

GENETIC FINGERPRINTS OF ELEPHANTS
Tanzanian, Kenyan and US scientists have been collecting samples from across the African continent to establish whether there are sufficient variations in elephant DNA to identify a piece of ivory from a particular region. Mapping the genetic fingerprints of elephants (each elephant has a unique fingerprint) could provide conservation authorities with sufficient scientific evidence to secure court convictions against traffickers after seizure of illegal shipments of Ivory – The TIMES – February 24. (Thank you Simon Hardwick for sending this – Editor).

Many publications featured Tanzania’s elections but they expressed highly critical views. Examples:

The TIMES (October 31) showed a picture of an opposition supporter in Zanzibar being thrown into a truck after clashing with police. The INDEPENDENT quoted the adverse comments of the Commonwealth observers. NEWSAFRICA (November 20) headlined its election coverage: ‘Nyerere’s legacy sold out; Party political squabbling and claims of fraud and vote rigging have exposed the political vacuum left by Julius Nyerere’. The BBC’s FOCUS ON AFRICA (October-December) lamented the lack of debate during the election on policies eg: AIDS, economic restructuring, public health, the East African Community, Burundi. All attention had been directed to personalities and they all seemed to have broadly the same policies. Under the heading ‘Costly victory’ Jackson Mwalalu in AFRICA TODAY (December) wrote that Tanzania’s ruling party got the candidate it wanted into the presidency of Zanzibar ‘but the Union may suffer as a result. President Karume, promising to open a new chapter in the history of the islands, must be aware … that the new chapter could well turn out to be as ugly as the olive branch he is extending to his opponents could be pointless ….. ‘ But NEW AFRICAN (December) under the heading ‘America can learn a thing or two’ brought in a new angle. ‘What’ it asked ‘do Tanzania and America have in common? Tanzania listens while America preaches what it doesn’t practice’. It quoted adverse American comments on the Zanzibar election and went on: ‘Interestingly, two days after the re-vote in Zanzibar, ‘irregularities’ were established to have taken place in Florida; … unopened ballot boxes found in a church … results delayed …. people divided, America, the great preacher of free and fair elections had not been able to have one. .. Salman Rushdie writing in The TIMES (December 9) said that it would be a long time before America could preach to the rest of the world about electoral transparency. The American election had been about as transparent as ‘a Floridian swamp’. The ECONOMIST (November 4) headed its article ‘Not so good in Zanzibar’ and wrote that CUF had almost no access to radio or newspapers during the election period and had reason to be angry. The EAST AFRICAN’S leader (November 6) under the heading ‘Thuggery by Mahita’s Men’ (Omar Mahita is Tanzania’s Inspector General of Police) wrote that ‘a cloud of shame is hanging over Tanzania because of the brutality visited upon citizens in Zanzibar …. In the same issue Tanzanian Michael Okema said that CUF knew that CCM would not readily concede defeat … but it needed an election through which it could expose the real intentions of CCM. CCM also needed an election behind which it could act and also to portray CUF as a party of troublemakers …. CUF obviously feels it cannot topple the government democratically or otherwise because the nature of the Union is such that the mainland will always prop it up. Weakening or even breaking up the Union then becomes a priority for anyone who wants to seize power in Zanzibar. In the same issue, Tanzanian Issa Shivji’s article was headed ‘CCM Clearly Out to Steal the Election in Zanzibar’. He concluded: ‘People are said to get the rulers they deserve. I would like to believe that that does not apply to the children of the Mwalimu’. Under the heading ‘A question of democracy’ NEWSAFRICA (December 4) quoted CUF presidential candidate Ibrahim Lipumba as saying that the election process had been full of fictional goings-on that could only be found in Chinua Achebe’s novels. The article went on: ‘Given the level of acrimony, it was unsurprising that the opposition boycotted President Mkapa’s inauguration ceremony. How could one celebrate the crowning of a leader who stole votes’. President Mkapa however had dismissed the unco-operative opposition as people blinded with greed for power. The article added ‘President Karume, Zanzibar’s youngest President, is already cutting the figure of the humane and considerate President he is….. Many people, the opposition in particular, say the outcome of the last elections was depressing and disappointing. Many Tanzanians must be missing the late President Nyerere’. But FOCUS ON AFRICA’S January-March issue reported that ‘On polling day the ZEC official responsible for the Urban West Districts absconded, not reporting in until the following day. As a result many polling stations opened hours late’ thus confirming the CCM explanation ofwhat had happened.

In South Africa among the headlines in BUSINESS DAY were: ‘Victory for Mkapa will be bitter sweet. … Election Chaos as Tanzanians Vote’. An article by David Martin in the SUNDAY INDEPENDENT had a touch of nostalgia. He wrote: ‘There was much to be cherished in the old system in Tanzania: The two contestants in each constituency (both from the CCM party) had to travel together in transport supplied by the party, sleep in the same room and eat from the same plate….from their joint platform the candidates could not promise, as is the way with politicians worldwide, that if voted into power they could do this or that for the electorate … under the western multiparty system anything goes, it has spawned a new breed of politicians who are younger and often unaware of the country’s history … money counts and buys votes … ethnicity and religion are rearing their ugly heads … ‘ (Thank you David Leishman for these and other items below from the South African press ­Editor).

ROBINSON CRUSOES ONLY
Under this heading The South African MAIL AND GUARDIAN (November 10) advised readers, if they visited Zanzibar (,where the beaches are postcard perfect~ white sand, green sea’) to leave again. It recommended them to go to a tiny strip of land about 13 km away which was even better: ‘Chumbe Island’s nature reserve beat 115 projects from 42 countries last year to win British Airways ‘Global Tourism for Tomorrow’ award. . . . Chumbe Coral Park was founded by Sibylle Riedmiller, a German environmentalist in her 70’s who visited the uninhabited island in 1991 … she turned it into an eco-resort for the free education of local children … only 14 overnight guests are allowed on the island at a time and they must have ‘zero impact’ … climb the 131 steps of the lighthouse built by the British in 1904 and you get the full 24 ha. extent of the place so thick with vegetation that no one has seen its rare deer population in years …. ‘ .

The Australian CAMBRIDGE POST (October 21) featured as its main headline the arrival at the Isanga primary and secondary schools adjacent to the Resolute Gold Mine in Nzega of two container loads of books, sports gear and clothes donated by the paper’s readers. There was so much material that four other schools in the district benefited also. (Thankyou Mr Gledhill for sending this item -Editor).

UDZUNGWA
The 124~page winter edition of TRAVEL AFRICA contained an article on one of Tanzania’s least known and least visited national parks astride the Mikumi~Ifakara road -the Udzungwa Mountains. Extracts: ‘The park is renowned for its endemic species which include monkeys, the rare Abbott’s duiker, the endangered wild dog, the unusual and globally threatened forest partridge, the Rufous-winged sunbird, the dappled mountain robin and many butterflies and other smaller creatures found nowhere else. It is also the only place in East Africa with unbroken forest cover from lowland to montane. But most people who visit the area want to climb up to see the beautiful Sanje Falls’.

CONSERVATION AND THE MAASAI
Issue No 11 of DEVELOPMENTS, the International Development Magazine, contained a letter from environmentalist Dr John Henshaw complaining about criticism of the Tanzanian wildlife service for its alleged ill treatment of Maasai. He wrote that he saw no evidence of a vendetta against them by Tanzania National Parks, the Wildlife Department nor the Ngorongoro Conservation area many of whose staff were Maasai. Local people were involved in community participation programmes and the Maasai had received economic, compensatory and cultural benefits as a direct result of wildlife conservation and management programmes. The same journal also gave the story of a factory on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam -a mothballed clothing factory put out of business by second-hand western clothing imports -which had been converted into weaving mosquito nets. The factory now employed 140 people and was producing a range of nets sold on the streets where business was booming. In some regions less than 5% of the people were using nets -the only practical weapon against malaria where the drugs westerners rely on, at 20 US cents a daily dose, are prohibitively expensive.

ASYLUM SEEKERS
The political crisis in Zanzibar has turned the islands into a refugee-producing hot spot according to NEWSAFRICA (November 6) but British immigration authorities will not list Tanzania as a refugee-producing nation. The result is that the Zanzibaris are now applying for political asylum masquerading as Somalis, Sudanese, and Burundians.

STAMPS
THE SWAHILI COAST (No 7, 2000) had an article headed ‘Zanzibar: Its history in stamps’ which explained how the first stamps were Indian and sold from a little office in the British Consulate in 1875. In 1890 Zanzibar became a British Protectorate and Thomas Remington was sent out from London to become the first postmaster. The Indian stamps were overprinted with the word Zanzibar. The first set of Zanzibar stamps showed Sultan Hamid bin Thwaini but before the stamps arrived from UK the Sultan had died. The article then traced the rule of other Sultan’s represented in stamps. After the 1964 revolution all mail had the Sultan’s face crossed or blacked out in ball pen and then new Zanzibar Republic stamps were produced. Other articles in this issue featured Bagamoyo and photographs of ‘millenium’ fashion.

TANZANIAN GIRLS HANDICAPPED
The UN’s AFRICA RECOVERY (July) wrote about the education of girls. Extracts: Tanzania has been more successful than many other developing countries in achieving gender equality, with girls making up 49.6% of the enrolled primary students in 1997. But only 56.7% of primary school age children attended school in 1998 … more than a million girls were still not in school. But girls in school suffer discriminatory practices like household workloads and their performance is consistently lower than that of boys especially in science and maths ….

SOUTH AFRICAN ZANZIBARIS
The November issue of SAWUBONA contained an illustrated article about a community of people whose origin is Zanzibar but who live in Chatworth, Durban. The article recalled how the slave trade had been abolished in 1807 and the Sultan of Zanzibar had declared the export of slaves forbidden in 1845. However, the abolition merely served to increase the price of slaves since only one in four of the dhows transporting the slaves managed to slip through the British and French warships patrolling the oceans. An Arab dhow transporting Zanzibaris to Arabia was intercepted in the Red Sea by a British warship and escorted back to Zanzibar. The British Consul had heard that there was a shortage of labour in Natal and over the next three years 600 Zanzibaris, an rescued from Arab dhows, were shipped to Durban as indentured labourers. The Zanzibaris established a community at King’s Rest in Durban. They cleared the land and built homes; they planted fruit orchards and large vegetable gardens. During apartheid in 1966 they were forcibly removed to Chatsworth. The government, not knowing how to classify them, put them in the ‘other Asians’ category. But the Indian community didn’t identify with them and the Zanzibaris found themselves isolated. 34 years later the community has grown from 600 to 5,000. Many have married into various African cultures while remaining faithful to Islam. The community is campaigning to be allowed to return to their old homes in Kings Rest. Sadly, many younger men are suffering from drug abuse and delinquency but the older generation still dream about being able to visit their motherland.

It is not often that the WALL STREET JOURNAL features Tanzania on its front page. On September 25 it wrote: ‘For a Tanzanian long-distance runner the first order of business at the Australian Olympics was to bring the finish line into focus’. Restituta Joseph’s spectacles had been stolen at a track meet in Algeria but in Sydney she soon had a new pair. The day after, four other Tanzanian athletes went to see the dentist. “1 got my upper dentures refitted” said chef de mission Erasto Zambi showing off a smile. “They’ve got very good medical examinations here” he said. “Very good” …… The clinic helped over 1,000 people during the games. (Thank you Nick Weston for sending this item -Editor).

‘A GRAND OLD LADY’
Under this title REFUGEES wrote some time ago about how refugees who fled Zaire in 1996 were helped to return home by the 1,500ton lake steamer which shuttles between Kigoma and Uvira in the Congo. Originally named by the Germans ‘Gotsen’ she was converted into a gunboat during the First World War before being scuttled just outside Kigoma harbour, first taking care to oil all her machinery so as to be able to salvage her after the war. She was raised by the British and her story inspired the book ‘The African Queen’ and the 1950’s film.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A wildlife conservation scheme started by an American conservationist and a professional hunter has brought benefits worth more than £50,000 to 18 villages according to an article in the DAILY TELEGRAPH (January 3) which explained that, when Tanzania banned game hunting from 1973 to 1983, there was no one in the reserves to police them against poachers. Maswa District lost 15,000 animals a year and long lines of snares would cover every gap in the bush. Now, local people are paid £3 for each snare and much higher rewards for help in the arrest of armed poachers. Hunting clients are invited to pay up to £2,500 on top of their bills to benefit the villagers who accompany game rangers on anti­poaching patrols. Long-line snaring has become a thing of the past.

In what the CHURCH TIMES recently described as possibly the largest wide span structure to be built by the local people, a new 20 x 45 metre cathedral is taking shape in Musoma -‘the fruit of a living link: between Tanzanian Christians and the congregation of st. John’s Church, Blackheath, London’. Last July 15 church members from Blackheath went to Musoma to help erect the first of the cathedral’s 11 seven-ton roof trusses. The arched Gothic window frames were made on site by gluing and clamping together 13 separate strips of wood (Thank you Ron and Liz Fennell for sending this item and the one above -Editor).

Asha Mtwangi writing recently in the BBC’s FOCUS ON AFRICA featured Dar es Salaam’s informal trade sector: ‘There is no escaping it. Or, rather there is no escaping the machinga, the energetic young hawkers who have overrun the streets of Dar. Their talents are remarkable. They know the tastes of different kinds of potential customers. How about a sleek cordless telephone, or a handy self-wringing mop with bucket or a Rado 21 jewel watch for your girlfriend? …. the Ministry of Labour and Youth Development says that it has the interests of the machinga at heart and promises to make soft loans available … but the machinga are not interested. They get all the loans they need from the Indian merchants who lend them fancy merchandise; no financial hassles, no paperwork, no demands for collateral. Just trust and confidence in the machinga’s innate trading nous … .it certainly feels that the machinga are here to stay. The word has been extended to all petty businessmen. And that’s a tribute to the enterprise of the original machinga from the south of Tanzania’ .

London’s TIME OUT magazine (March 22) published a critical review of the new play ‘The Man With the Absurdly large Penis’ showing at the Young Vic Studio. The reviewer said it was difficult to resist saying that it was ‘bollocks’. ‘The play is a fictional monologue from a man with a 102cm penis caused by Proteus Syndrome. The play’s author, Rob Young, was quoted as saying “I am always asked if it’s autobiographical. I based the play on a visit to Tanzania where some men had testicles the size of carrier bags, after malaria caused elephantiasis”

One of the participants in a group researching the rain forests in the Udzungu Mountains, Iringa is Jennifer Walker. Quoted in the NEWCASTLE JOURNAL (April 7) she said that the forests have exceptional bio-diversity value and her research will feed into a study to develop forest management based on active community participation
(Thank you Jane Carroll for sending this item Editor).

A 16-page supplement on Arusha (‘Tanzania’s most endowed region’) in THE EAST AFRICAN (March 27) included an article pointing out that the region had the largest variety (50 different kinds) of minerals including the famed Tanzanite which represents 80% of the region’s gemstones exports. Other minerals mentioned included decorative stones like anyolite, crystalline marble, aventurine and amazonestone. Other minerals include high quality graphite, kyanite, limestone, and phosphates.

A three page article in the April issue of NEW AFRICAN by Henry Gombya, a Ugandan, headed ‘How Uganda led to Nyerere’s downfall’ presents a new angle on the Uganda-Tanzania war of 1978 and its aftermath. Extracts: ‘The Tanzanian People’s Defence Force that assisted Ugandan exiles to attack the Amin regime was mainly made up of secondary school students, school dropouts and village militias. Having spent more than a decade living under Nyerere’s failed socialist system, their entry into Uganda, a capitalist state even under Amin, was to prove a cultural shock for them …. What they found was an affluent, well-dressed society living not in … mud houses but in concrete block houses with corrugated iron roofs … this shock was first translated into envy when the Tanzanians …. went on to raise to the ground any building or house that looked beautiful. One such was the Masaka Town Hall, the most elegant building in South Uganda ……(later) Nyerere perhaps made history when he became the only African leader ever to rule another independent African country ….. one of the most important things missed by the media in its adulation of Nyerere was the effect his interference in Uganda had on his own people. In 1985 the soldiers returned home with the spoils of war. These ranged from massive stockpiles of weapons to cars and trucks loaded with household goods and they returned with loads of money. Nyerere was soon to realise that he had made a mistake by sending a peasant army into another country. He knew they had been exposed to riches his polices could not give them. He decided to abandon his polices and eventually to hand over power to another leader …… ‘

’11-year old Ledida, went with friends to draw water from a local water point. On their way back home a rogue hyena suddenly appeared and attacked the children mauling them in turn. The children’s screams and their attempts to ward off the hyena made the beast more aggressive. Ledida’s face was particularly badly mauled and she suffered fractured upper and lower jaws. She was taken to Loliondo Hospital which called the FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE for a mercy flight to Nairobi. During the journey her face was all bandaged up leaving only a breathing tube. Ledida will be in hospital for some time to undergo all the phases of re constructive surgery’.

AFRICAN DECISIONS, in its June-August issue, reported on the praise Tanzania had received from IMF officials for its steadfast implementation of macroeconomic policies and its progress in structural reform during the past three years, despite severe economic disruptions caused by adverse weather conditions. The key to the macroeconomic stabilisation effort had been a strong fiscal stance, a rigorous cash management system and the introduction of VAT supported by tight monetary policies.

The first anniversary issue of the lavishly illustrated publication THE SWAHILI COAST included articles in its fourth issue on the Mwaka Kogwa festival which ‘encompasses the many faces of Islam, Zoroatrianism and traditionalism’ in Zanzibar, a brief history of trading by dhow, what it described as the ‘hidden grace and lost splendour’ of Pangani, an article on the doors of Zanzibar plus a selection of Swahili seafood recipes.

Kate Kibuga explained in a succinct article in the COURIER (July­August) the background to and reasons for the increase in violent attacks on women suspected of being witches, especially in northern regions of Tanzania. She traced the original ceremonial and advisory roles of older women and how these had changed under the influence of their struggle for day to day survival, the refusal of young people to listen to their advice, and the loss of traditional checks against witchcraft which used to be made by councils of elders. Many more widows now lived alone and could acquire an air of mystery in the village; they often had bloodshot eyes from cooking over smoking fires all their lives. But they were also being used as scapegoats by younger people for social upheaval, new diseases, freak weather conditions and huge increases in living costs (Thank you Debbie Simmons for sending us this article –Editor).

The DALLAS (TEXAS) MORNING NEWS also published an article on August 13 on the same subject entitled ‘Old Women victims of superstition’ in which it explained that the recent increase in attacks on old women suspected of witchcraft among the Sukuma people of Shinyanga was linked to the mining boom in the area (gold, diamonds and semi-precious stones). More than 90% of the people believed in witchcraft and, near the Mwadui diamond mine, people were digging up their own plots of land looking for diamonds and tended to put their faith in witchcraft. Some old women were being killed more for reasons of greed than superstition. Some were victims of attempts by their next-of­kin to get them out of the way and inherit their property. University of Dar es Salaam Sociologist Simon Mesaki was quoted as saying that the relocation of peasants into ujamaa villages in the 1970’s had seriously disrupted traditional life and local chiefs who had dealt with community problems had been replaced by distant bureaucrats (Thank you Peter Park for this item. The Shinyanga Police Commander stated recently that 84 alleged sorcerers were murdered in 1997 -40% less than in the previous year and some 310 suspects had been charged with killings in 1997 and 1998 ~Editor).

The July 12-18 issue of the EAST AFRICAN asked what Tanzania’s musical identity was now in view of the domination of Congolese Lingala music and American Hip Hop and R&B in the country. It reported that, seeking to strike a balance, was a group of talented musicians called Tatunane which had brought about a unique fusion of traditional African rhythms with jazz, R&B and other dance beats. The leader of the group was quoted as saying that “What Tatumane had done was a sort of ‘back to my roots’ thing … we have blended different melodies from Tanzania’s 124 ethnic groups with modem instruments”. Although having an uphill battle to gain popularity amongst Tanzanians they have a strong following in Scandinavia, Western Europe, Japan and Canada and now have made 5 CD’s –Thank you Geoffrey Cotterell for sending this news ~ Editor}.

The South African BUSINESS DAY reported in September that a furore had blown up in Tanzania’s tourist industry because the Mount Kilimanjaro National Park authorities had increased the tariffs for climbers in December by 100%. Some 4,000 tourists were said to have booked to climb the mountain. Warden Michael Mombo said that raising the tariffs was a way to control the numbers and environmental damage (Thank you David Leishman for sending this item from Malawi ~ in fact, 1,154 people eventually climbed the mountain to celebrate the new millennium but two tourists died while trying to do so – Editor).

‘Unchanged for six centuries the dhow is one of the most successful and beautiful trading vessels ever created’ wrote Matt Bannerman in the November 21 issue of the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. He had gone in search of the place where dhows are still being built and found it in the Chole (Mafia) shipyard. ‘In a patch of shade, a little way from the big but still skeletal jahazi under construction (each one takes about a year to build) two small boys work industrially … I watch as their dexterous fingers assemble the rigging on a perfect replica of the jahazi their fathers and grandfathers are building. The little boat is made from balsa planks and stitched together with coconut twine and is not a toy but a demonstration of their advancing skills. Some day, they explain, they hope to be allowed to join their elders in the construction crew …. ‘ (Thank you Donald Wright for sending this item-Editor).

‘Where are you most likely to meet the man or woman of your dreams’ asked the London OBSERVER in its October 10 issue. ‘Apparently it often turns out to be Mount Kilimanjaro.’ A travel agent was quoted as saying that “Travelling with a group of like-minded people builds tremendous camaraderie. At the very least you can expect to form some lasting friendships” (Thank you Jane Carroll for sending this …. Editor).

CIVIL ENGINEERS ARE NOT BORING
NEW CIVIL ENGINEER (May 13) reported on the meeting held at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London on May 4 when the authors of a new book on Livingstone (see the Reviews Section) described to a packed audience (all 250 seats sold) their trip by bicycle, largely in Tanzania, to retrace Livingstone’s last journey. One of the authors, Colum Wilson (the other is his wife) is an engineer employed by Gibb and he described how he had managed to keep within 15 miles of Livingstone’s own route by using data from a satellite global positioning system device which “was safer than the night skies and sextant used by Livingstone”. Wilson described how they took with them a machete, a walletful of dollars (but they were frequently desperately short of money) and bicycles with four paniers into one of which a tent was stuffed. The authors were burnt, bitten and came home two stones lighter. The audience, through its loud applause, expressed its agreement with the Chairman of the evening event, Professor George Fleming, when he said “Don’t let anyone tell you that civil engineers are boring” (Thank you Dick Wailer for sending this item -Editor).

‘THE GOLDEN OLDIES’
The VSO publication ORBIT in its Third Quarter 1999 issue featured Shikamoo Jazz which it described as the ‘Golden Oldies’. The band comprises 10 Tanzanian musicians in their fifties and sixties who dance and sing everything from rumba, chacha, samba and twist to traditional Swahili music and Taarabu. Their most famous song, which was first performed at the launch of the ‘International Year of Older People’ is Wazee Tuwatunzee (Let us care for older people). The article concluded ‘It’s message is strong and simple and best encapsulates the band’s lasting legacy’ .

‘STUNNING BIOGRAPHY’
The TIMES OF SWAZILAND in a full page article by Dr Joshua Mzizi praised what was described as the ‘stunning biography’ of the late Father Trevor Huddleston, former President of the Britain-Tanzania Society. The writer was particularly pleased by the decision of the publishers, Macmillans, to launch the book in Swaziland -even though they could not expect big sales there. ‘I think the publishers are asking Swazis to take a deep and long look at a Christian Minister who made a difference in his lifetime …… Father Huddleston was a man of prayer -someone who withdrew from the crowds, like any disciplined monk, to meditate and talk with God … ‘

ZANZIBAR AND THE ‘DARK AGES’ IN EUROPE
Fascinating excavations in Zanzibar by Bristol University archaeologist Mark Horton described in THE TIMES (June 8) reveal that the popularity of carved ivory might have triggered the Dark Ages in Europe. A plague which ushered in the Dark Ages and spread across the Mediterranean during the six years from AD 541 was said to have been traced to rats brought to Europe aboard ships carrying ivory for the Romans. Dr Horton’s excavations show that the Port of Unguja Ukuu dates back to the 6th Century AD. The dig has produced typical 6th Century Mediterranean pottery together with the bones of the black rat Rattus rattus which is not indigenous to Africa and must have arrived in ships. The local rodents had become immune to the plague but may have acted as a reservoir of infected fleas and passed them on to Europe-bound ships’ rats travelling with the ivory.

MUFTI DAY
The DAILY TELEGRAPH reported on June 5 that Eton College had held a ‘charity mufti day’. The boys contributed £1 each (which went to the Mvumi Secondary School in Tanzania) and were then allowed to ditch for one day the formal tails they normally have to wear. One group dressed in drag and some wore just jock straps or bin liners. Prince William was wearing face paint and a sort of Lawrence of Arabia outfit.

HUNTER GATHERERS
In a study of the plight of hunter gatherers around the world by James Woodburn in NATURAL RESOURCE PERSPECTIVES (June 1999), a series published by the Overseas Development Institute, the problems of the Hazda people of Northern Tanzania were discussed. Their language was not related to any other in the world and they had resisted settlement over many years. During the colonial period there had been two attempts to settle them, both of which ended with measles epidemics and high mortality. Further efforts at sedentarising them involving armed police in 1964 and 1980 had caused embarrassment to the government. Meanwhile, land encroachment on their traditional hunting grounds had proceeded apace and wildlife resources had been depleted by urban hunters. There had been NGO efforts to help the Hazda with schools and clinics but these had been diverted to the dominant political groups in the area, the Iraq and Datooga.

DIABLE D’HIPPOPOTAME
AIR FRANCE’S MAGAZINE recounted in May the fascinating story of Tanzanian photographer John Kiyaya of Kasanga village in Sumbawanga. Weaved into the story was the fact that Kasanga was once called Bismarckburg; it had a fortress with crenellated walls, and a ‘strangely medieval appearance’; it is not far from where the ‘Liemba’ (which has a long story of its own) docks in Lake Tanganyika. The article went on to describe how the German army stopped in Kasanga in 1918 just before it surrendered, how the local fishing industry has declined and how Kasanga is also known as the local hub of witchcraft. As for John Kiyaya, it appears that he was returning home through a rice padi one day when he was attacked by surprise by a ‘devil of a hippopotamus’ -something he cannot forget. John had originally intended to become a priest but he met a French journalist on the Liemba who, after a long correspondence, sent him a camera. He began to take colour pictures of everything -his professors and fellow students, lovers, families, sewing machines, marriages, circumcisions, . … In 1992 ‘Arret sur Image’, a French photographic association, organised an exhibition of his photographs. He met famous photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, and was amazed to find how photography was treated with such respect in France (Thank you Roy Wilson for sending this item -­Editor).

HIGH COMMISSION NEWSLETTER
The first edition of TANZANEWS, a beautifully produced and illustrated 12-page newsletter published by Dr Abdul Shareef, Tanzanian High Commissioner in London, emphasised investment and trade opportunities in the country. It quoted from a recent speech by President Mkapa: “Two days ago I was reading ‘Business Africa’, a respected publication of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which stated that after three years of free market reforms economic growth was finally beginning to have real impact, inspiring growing interest among foreign investors …… ‘. Another article described the activities of the Tanzania-UK Business Group which was established in London in 1993.

“WHEN WE GREW UP HERE IN THIS LAND THE ANIMALS WERE AS NUMEROUS AS THESE TREES”
So said a Maasai elder quoted in a recent issue of SURVIVAL NEWSLETTER. The article said that, when the Maasai were moved from what is now the Serengeti National Park in 1958, they were promised compensation and the right to live in perpetuity in what then became the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. But this promise had been broken. A study by a human rights lawyer found that the Conservation Area Authority was acting far beyond its mandate and should be reformed. Survival had translated the study into Swahili for the benefit of the Maasai and it might help to prepare a law for presentation to the Tanzanian parliament so that the Maasai can regain control over their own land and lives (Thank you Wendy Ellis for sending this item Editor).

The South African SUNDAY INDEPENDENT reported recently that journalists in Tanzania had been calling on the government to introduce a Freedom of Information Act which would compel it to release information of interest to the public. They were critical of government for banning three newspapers for publishing articles and cartoons judged ‘immoral’. Gervas Moshiro the Head of the National School of Journalism was quoted as deploring the lack of guarantees of press freedom. (Thank you David Leishman for sending this item -Editor).

‘TANZANIA: STILL OPTIMISTIC AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?’
This is the title of a lengthy article in THE LANCET (Vol 353, May 1999) by Professor John Yudkin of University College London about his fourth visit to Tanzania -he has made one visit in each of the past four decades. It is a sad story of decline in the provision of medical services contrasting with the continued sense of optimism of the people involved in such provision. ‘The problems my Tanzanian colleagues faced were far beyond anything I could have coped with’ he wrote. ‘But the people got on with it and believed that things were going to improve’. He went into some detail on the situation in Pemba -which had suffered economically far more than the mainland during the last 20 years. The island had just two doctors for 400,000 people; of the 51 primary health care units (PHCU’s) none had a medical assistant; the nine assistants were serving doctor-type functions in the three hospitals and over half had been lost to the private sector in the past four years. The US$ 0.50 per person of pharmaceutical supplies supplied each year was insufficient to provide more than 1,000 chloroquine tablets, 1,000 paracetamol tablets and five vials of procaine penicillin. The author went on: ‘There seems to be something intrinsically wrong when powerful governments or international organisations can demand that health care spending is cut and debt repayment prioritised, especially when many of those governments have themselves benefited from international loans and debt rescheduling’. He recommended all caring health professionals to add their support to the Jubilee 2,000 debt campaign.

STREET CHILDREN
Melanie Clark Pullen, a star (Mary) in the BBC’s soap opera ‘EastEnders’ has been in Tanzania to publicise ‘Christian Aid Week’ according to CHRISTIAN AID NEWS (April-July). She wrote about the lack of respect given to street children who surround cars trying to sell nuts and bottled water. But, she went on: ‘one place they are respected is the Christian Aid­backed ‘Youth, Cultural and Information Centre’ in Dar es Salaam where they are made welcome and offered classes in reading, writing and the arts.

MISSION TODAY (Vol 8 No 1) reported on the problems faced by the St Charles Lwanga Seminary, Segerea which was opened in 1979 to cope with the overflow of vocations from the Kipalapala Seminary. Twenty-one diocesan Bishops now send their seminarians to Segerea (168 each year) but, although the seminary operates self-reliant projects with pigs, poultry, cattle and a garden, there are serious shorfalls in funding and a particular need for books and for a water pump –Thank you John Sankey for sending these items -Editor).

NEW MALARIA DRUG
The TIMES reported recently that the drug Malarone (a combination of atovaquone and progunil) which is used to treat attacks of malaria is now being considered as a preventative also. It was already licensed to do this in Denmark and might have a role akin to that of Larium which has been found to give severe side effects to one in 160 people who use it. British Airways in Regent Street, London is carrying out trials on Malarone and is offering would be travellers to Tanzania and other affected countries free material cover to those prepared to have a blood test before they leave and after they come back. In its major front page article on July 24 the OBSERVER featured what it described as the promising work in perfecting an anti­malaria vaccine (with a chemical rather than a biological base) being carried out by Colombian Scientist Manuel Patarroyo which includes testing in Tanzania. Meanwhile scientists attending a workshop at Bagamoyo in June described chloroquine as ineffective (failure rate 42%) and said that even Fansidar was showing failure rates of between 10 and 34%.

DRAMATIC CHURCH SERVICE
They were at church while visiting friends working on regeneration projects for the Salvation Army at a village in Tanzania called Rungaboro when suddenly it started to rain. “At first, people were delighted because water is short but then it became so noisy that the service had to stop. A friend joked that the roof might fall in. Minutes later there was this terrible noise and the wall I was standing next to was caving in towards me. I just ducked and ran. The next thing I remember is crawling out and thinking -I am alive!” The scene was of total devastation. “I started digging out the many people buried in the rubble”. One child died and 20 were injured. This nightmare experience of Karen Price, a staff nurse at Hillingdon Hospital and a friend, was revealed in the UXBRIDGE GAZETTE on June 30. When she came back Karen determined to raise money to build a new church for the village. The first step was a sponsored walk. Other donations would be welcome -to Jo Francis at the Gazette (Thank you Liz Fennel! for sending this -Editor).