JULIUS NYEREE IN LONDON

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Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had a very busy week in London at the beginning of June. Even though he was suffering from malaria he fitted in three public engagements at which he delivered three speeches.

On June 3rd he spoke to a glittering audience including four high commissioners, almost fifteen diplomats, several members of parliament, a large number of big businessmen and many others assembled by the European- Atlantic Group under the chairmanship of Lord Judd of Portsea. His subject was ‘Africa Today and Tomorrow’ and he pungently attacked many of his favourite targets like the IMF and the World Bank (“the bank created wealth and poverty at the same time”), neo-colonialism etc.

His Michael Scott Memorial Lecture June 4″ at the School of Oriental and African Studies, under the auspices of the Africa Education Trust, on the subject of ‘Africa and Education in the 21st Century’ was less inspired and rather sombre as he presented a bleak picture of what had happened to education in Tanzania in recent years and the terrible debt burden the country was facing. He attacked selection in education and said that the growth of private education was encouraging class differences.

During questions Mwalimu said that when the British ran East Africa they wanted to make Swahili the main language in all three countries. Kenya said no – it would mean an inferior education; Uganda said no because the Baganda wanted Luganda as the national language. Tanzania was very backward. “We had no view!” he said. So Britain decided to make Swahili the language of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The language which was then developed was that from Zanzibar and not Swahili of Mombasa. On the ongoing debate about whether Swahili should be used at all levels of education in Tanzania, Mwalimu said that he was now having to defend the use of English. English had now become the Swahili of the world!

By the time he spoke to an enthusiastic audience at the London School of Economics on June 6th Mwalimu was on top form. He gave a fluent and inspired address on the future of the world in which he distinguished between those parts where developing countries were within the economic orbits of developed nations – the Arab countries and Europe; South East Asian countries and Japan; Latin America and the USA – but Africa South of the Sahara was different. It was isolated and would have to be more self-reliant. Countries would need to cooperate better with each other. “I share responsibility for the foolish action we took in dismantling the East African Community” he said. He discussed the present position in all the countries south of the Sahara and was pleased that almost all of them (except some in West Africa) now had multiparty rule. The days of military rule were coming to an end. He appealed to Europe and America not to meddle in Africa. “Let Africa make its own mistakes” he said. “I have complete confidence in the future of Africa” he concluded.
A questioner asked “What became of socialism?'(laughter). Mwalimu replied “Is there a trap in that question?’ and went on to say that capitalism was now triumphant everywhere. During the Cold War capitalism could not afford to be arrogant – it had had to assume a human face. Now it was becoming arrogant – capitalists now feared nothing. But arrogant governments would be pushed out by their own people. If the people succeeded in giving capitalists a human face “I don’t mind whether they call themselves socialists, neo-socialists or something else!”

On nationalisation and privatisation in Tanzania, Mwalimu said that he had no choice at independence. If he had left the economy to the private sector it would have become entirely Asian and there would have been racial conflict, Now, with plenty of trained &can businessmen, things had changed. But there should be some hesitation before privatising everything. “Privatisation now means foreignisation” he said.

After taking about the way some African leaders had looted their countries he was asked why he hadn’t looted Tanzania (laughter). Mwalimu replied “Perhaps there wasn’t much to loot!” (loud laughter).

He received a lengthy standing ovation.

HONORARY DEGREE
Mwalimu has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. It was in recognition of the immense contribution he had made to the struggle for the liberation of the African continent – Daily News.

NYERERE AT 75
Calling on the government to find ways to improve national life expectancy in Tanzania from the current 52 years to at least 70, Mwalimu Nyerere said, at celebrations in Dar es Salaam for his 75th birthday, which were attended by more than 1000 people, “I don’t see why I should not be able to reach 100 if my mother has managed it”

COLONIAL ZANZIBAR – RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST

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Writing a novel set in a time more than a decade before I was born is an intriguing challenge. Living in Zanzibar, I know the present-day town and islands well. Having access to the National Archives here (a national treasure!) has given me a good insight into the past. But what I wanted was the ‘pepper and salt’, the seasoning to help bring a vanished colonial past back to life. Happily, through ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ I came into contact with two excolonial officers: Brim Eccles (DO, Chake Chake, Pemba 1952-54) and Ethel Biron, nee Hardes (Nursing Sister, Zanzibar 1949-52). On ‘home leave’ last summer, I went to track them both down.

I found Brian Eccles sitting at a pavement cafe table in the ancient town of Venice in the south of France. Ethel Biron I found in her garden in the town of Worthing in the south of England, together with her husband Hugh, who had worked in Zanzibar for Cable & Wireless.

Brim Eccles comes from a long line of colonial servants, his great grandfather having been the first unofficial member of the Executive Council in Trinidad. When he joined the Colonial Service, “What was significant”, he recalls, “was that I was asked, ‘Was I prepared to make myself gracefully redundant?’ and that was in early 1952. It was reckoned that anyone who came into the Colonial Service should be prepared to leave, for the whole thing to wind up”.

Ethel Biron had no family history in the Colonies, “When I applied, they said there’s a vacancy in Zanzibar and another one in Hong Kong. I liked the sound of Zanzibar, so I chose to go there”. Hugh Biron had an overseas history, his father having been abroad with the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1886.

Brian travelled out with the Union Castle Line, and on arrival in Zanzibar Town remembers, “…it being infinitely more civilised and congenial than my father had suggested Sierra Leone and the Gambia were in his time. It was an agreeable surprise, I liked it, but when I got up to Pemba, it was very much more how I expected it to be”.

Ethel Biron flew out, from a small Heathrow in a York transport plane. It took her all day to fly to Tripoli, where they spent the night, the next day flying on to Cairo for lunch and then Khartoum. The Thud day she flew on to Nairobi, and then took the overnight train to Mombasa. From there she flew in a ‘Dominie’, touching down in Tanga and eventually on the grass airstrip in Zanzibar.

Not to be outdone, Hugh Biron told that he had first flow to Zanzibar in 1943 by flying boat down the Nile!

Brian’s work as District Officer involved touring, “I used to spend four nights a week out travelling somewhere, and the other three nights I’d be back in Chake Chake. I would go in a car to some central point, and then walk around for four days”.

“The District Supervisor, Sultan Issa, was in charge of getting the tent to where I was going to stay. It was a magnificent thing, and in fact had everything for an old style District Officer, even something purporting to be a Persian mat. It was totally unrealistic – I just felt embarrassed that so much was involved with one person staying in the shamba – so after the first or second expedition I had done with it. After that I used to sleep on the teacher’s desk in a school, put a Dunlopillo mattress on it and rig a mosquito net from the rafters”. “One of my jobs was to listen to all the different cases being put to me about the issue in hand, and then make a decision. We were discussing one day who owned the land. We knew who owned the clove trees and who had been cultivating between the trees, but who actually owned the land? Well, the Kadhi (Muslim judge) gave his opinion of what was Muslim law on the subject and the Mudir (junior administrator) gave his opinion as to what was local law, and I eventually made a judgement. And, when I did so, someone said ‘That’s the decision the last European DO came to’; it had all been decided before! And it was being re-hashed just to see if my opinion was the same – which by good luck (and judgement) – it was”.

Ethel Biron commented, “people think it was a soft option, but it was hard work. You only had one month local leave in a two and half year tour. And as Nursing Sister, you found yourself in charge of a whole hospital”.

Both Brian and Ethel learned Swahili in Zanzibar, “It would have been very easy to spend all your spare time playing tennis or swimming”, explained Ethel, “but it seemed essential to me to get on with learning Swahili, which I did, and got my exam in ten months. So I did speak the language fluently, and that’s one of the reasons they asked me to be Nursing Tutor when I was back there in 1957 with Hugh.

“The common diseases,” she said, “were malaria, leg ulcers, hookworm, chest infections, and falling out of coconut trees – not exactly a disease – but very common”.

There was also leprosy in Zanzibar then. Brian found himself charged with the task of handing out Eid-el-Fitr presents to the lepers in the colony at Wete, “I can remember I went up with the District Medical Officer, who said ‘It’s perfectly alright, they’ll all want to shake hands with you though they may not have hands, but whatever they offer; shake it”‘.

Another lost aspect of colonial life – which looms large in the fiction and mythology of the times – is ‘The Club’. “There was what was called the English Club”, explained Ethel Biron, “to which one belonged as a matter of course. Somebody else on the staff would sign about your good character although you’d only been there for a few days, and you joined. It was somewhere to meet people not connected with the medical department. The Sultan’s band used to play there once a week and that was great fun”.

Brim “never” came a member of the English Club. Why? “Well because it seemed to me to be totally remote from Zanzibar and Zanzibaris. When the Karimji Club started (a multiracial club) I became a member of that”. Both Brian and Ethel remember the Sultan – Seyyid Khalifa – Ethel being nurse to him on occasions during her first tour of duty, “He was very nice, a dear old chap and a great influence for good. Brim later became Seyyid Khalifa’s private secretary, and remembers him with great affection, “He was a dear old man. I never knew any of my grandparents, but I could not have wished for a better grandfather”.

As was envisaged at the time of Brim’s recruitment, the empire, of course did wind up. What perhaps was not envisaged was the posthumous widespread denunciation of colonialism as being unremittingly bad. But speaking to two old colonial officers, what impressed me was the sense of public duty with which they worked; probably the most essential missing ingredient in the civil services of Africa today.

I asked Brian how he felt when, after two years, he had to leave Pemba, “Oh, I didn’t want to leave at all, because I so much enjoyed my work, really enjoyed my work. I was just very happy there”.

Neill Soley

** Many thanks to Brim Eccles and Ethel & Hugh Biron **

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CORRUPTION IN AID?
Under this title, in the June issue of Transparency International’s Newsletter, Brim Cooksey blamed foreign aid for much of the corruption found in developing countries. He wrote that one of the main reasons for the disappointing performance of structural adjustment programmes was systematic corruption. An extreme example had been Tanzania’s import substitution programme which had allowed local manufacturers to import raw materials and finished goods. Some companies stopped paying counterpart funds. Import duty and sales taxes were not paid on some imports. Neither the Treasury nor the commercial banks had the administrative capacity or the integrity to handle large volumes of free foreign exchange and the donors ignored the problem.. . . ‘in December 1996 the IMF started disbursing a US$240 million structural adjustment loan but to date not one private or parastatal company has been put in receivership for the hundreds of millions of donor dollars which went astray ….pressure to spend (donor money) has led to unbelievable over funding.. . .well known examples are NGO’s, many of which are created with the sole objective of embezzling donor money’.

The writer went on to say that the picture emerging from the recent Warioba Report on corruption was that of an oppressed people largely at the mercy of an incompetent and corrupt state apparatus. Unfortunately, the report had not mentioned corruption in aid and this matter should be explored (Thank you Ron Fennel1 for this item – Editor).

ELEPHANTS
AFRICA (July-August) reported that singing of Ishe Konzberera (God Bless Africa) greeted the 74-21 vote at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Harare to relax the protection of the African elephant in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe and allow regulated sales of ivory in 1999.

SPARTAN SPLENDOUR
Dr. Adbayo Williams, wrote in AFRICA TODAY (July/August) about what he described as the ‘new generation of visionary African leaders’ now emerging on the continent. It contrasted former President Mobuto of Zaire who ‘will spend his last days in lonely exile’ on the one hand with Nelson Mandela ‘who will be granted his last wish to die with a smiling face’, Leopold Senghor of Senegal who was spending his last days in ‘refined retirement’ and Julius Nyerere who, ‘in spartan splendour, still continues to function as the father of his nation’.

HELL ON EARTH
Tanzanians figured prominently in a two-page article in the July/August issue of NEW AFRICAN under the heading ‘Turkey: Hell on Earth for African Immigrants’. Istanbul was said to have less than 1,000 African immigrants but half of them were currently in detention, rotting away on trumped up charges. The trouble had started, the article said, when a Tanzanian was caught with heroin stuffed in his back-pack in June 1996. ‘This gave the Turkish police the excuse to raid the apartments of other Africans in the city…. Later, 43 Africans (mostly Tanzanians) were caught crossing illegally into Turkey from Greece. The immigration police promptly put them in detention. A week later the narcotics police arrested a Tanzanian with 500 grammes of heroin. The police then went straight to the African hostel, took out 13 other Africans, and planted heroin on them. A year later they are still in detention….another group was found in the apartment of a Tanzanian who had a postcard photo of a famous Turkish model singer, Hulya Avsar. The police mistook the postcard for a real photograph and thought the Tanzanian (“a monkey from the African jungle”) had had the cheek to take the beautiful model as a girl friend. The police gave the Tanzanian a good beating before realising that it was merely a postcard….’

‘JENGA’
This is the name of the second-best-selling game (after Monopoly) in the world and is, of course, the Swahili word ‘to build’. The object of Jenga, is to take wooden bricks from the bottom of a tower and put them on top without making it fall over. Last year 3 million people bought it. The SUNDAY TIMES (July 6) explained how the inventor of the game, Leslie Scott, who now lives in Denmark, spent the first years of her life in Africa and her first language was Swahili (Thank you Randal Sadleir for this item – Editor).

THE CURATE’S EGG
‘Tourism. The definitive curate’s egg, the pre-eminent mixed blessing’ – so began a recent article in THE SCOTSMAN by Julie Davidson. She went on to say ‘This week I thought of Nasser K. Awadh … whose gene pool is Zanzibar’s history, who draws his pedigree from the Yemen, from Indonesia and also from sub-Saharan Africa … and who recently slapped an Italian visitor. Crowning tourists, rather than hotels, is not one of the traditions of Zanzibar hospitality, but Nasser was defending his island’s dignity. “I asked him several times to stop throwing sweets at the children and then photographing the ensuing scrum of human monkeys but he went on doing it. So I smacked him’. Later we were standing outside the Persian Baths at Kidichi, a relic of the Omani Sultanate, when we saw the same disagreeable device practised by two German men. This time Nasser controlled his itchy palm. He scolded the children instead while I scowled and muttered at the Germans…. The curate’s egg. Nasser knows the merits of its good parts. He is much in demand for his guide’s eloquence and authority, the valued employee of Abercrombie and Kent, the only British tour operator which maintains an office in Zanzibar. But A & K’s exclusive foothold will soon be challenged by Britain’s largest tour operator, Thomson, who will be the first mass market holiday company to go into Zanzibar…..’ (Thank you Fiona Scott for this item – Editor).

INDUSTRIES REVIEW
The INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE (June 11) contained a ‘sponsored page’ written by Richard Synge, who is based in Cambridge, Extracts: ‘Practically every sector of the economy is being transformed. The new Government policies are attracting investor interest from all over the world……analysts say that the first results of foreign direct investments made in the past five years will show over the coming months in the form of a rapid rise in gold exports and a sharp revival in the production of goods and services for the domestic market….evidence of the benefits of reform can be seen clearly in Dar es Salaam where a construction boom is under way. Mwanza is also developing rapidly with banks and other services moving in…. over the next three to five years Tanzania will begin to score some successes that will be noticed internationally…..if Uganda has done it, then Tanzania can do it……’ (Many thanks Ronald Neath for sending this item – Editor).

‘WHAT THE WITCHDOCTOR ORDERED’
This was the heading of a serious article in the DAILY TLEGRAPH (July 2) about how rich Tanzania is in medicinal plants and in people who say they can use them in medicine. With panic in the West that the African repository of potential future drugs will disappear as agriculture spreads across the continent, Tanzania is launching a pioneer project (through the Missouri Botanical Garden) which will try to document this plant world before it is too late and through training of local people, attempt to quell the fears of local scientists about the drug company scientists who, they say, fly in, whip some exciting looking plants from the bush, and then jet home again without benefiting the host country. The author of the article had visited the corner of the market in Dar es Salaam where the healers sell their exotic wares and went on to describe the work of the Tanzanian Institute of Traditional Medicine and of botanists at the university. Mention was made of a pile of gnarled ebony roots in the market used to relieve pain; elephant dung – ‘its smoke treats children’s fits’; and, lion oil ‘which relieves an inflamed leg’ (Thank you Liz Fennel1 for this item – Editor).

CORPORATE AMERICA
‘Kiswahili has found its way into the highest level of corporate America, sort of’. So began a note in the Spring 1997 issue of Mbegu za Urafiki (the Newsletter of (American) Friends of Tanzania) which is based in Maryland and has many former Peace Corps volunteers among its membership. The note continued: ‘The Miami-based Burger King Corporation has appointed Tanga born Dennis Malamatinas (41), the son of Greek sisal farmers as its Chief Executive…. although he left Tanzania at the age of six he still speaks a few words of Kiswahili and is believed to be the highest ranking American business executive who is from Tanzania (thank you Trevor Jaggar for this item – Editor).

BEAUTY CONTESTS
The September issue of NEW AFRICAN contained an article under the heading ‘Tanzania Bans Beauty Contests’ in which it wrote about what it described as the ever growing controversy over beauty contests. Organisers of a MSS Eastern Africa contest in April were warned that they were not to allow competitors to compete in swimsuits. Arguing that all beauty contests in the world allowed swimsuits, the non-Tanzanian entrants threatened to boycott the contest and the organisers backed down. But the government was said to have been furious. Arts and Languages Director Elinkunda Matteru said “We cannot allow our culture to be spoilt. We cannot allow the aping of shameful things with Africans walking in halls”. But former culture minister Philemon Sarungi was said to have defended the wearing of swimsuits as they are worn universally. The debate seems likely to continue.

SUKUMA SINGERS AND THE STATE

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Among recent study visitors to London has been Mr Elias Songoyi, Lecturer in Oral Literature and Drama at the University of Dar es Salaam. He has described to Tanzanian Affairs the fluctuating fortunes of two Tanzanian singers in their relations with the Tanzanian state during the last 40 years. One, known as Kalikali, who has since died, was from Kwimba; the other, known as Mwinamila, who is now 67, is from Tabora. Their lives and their art have gone through four distinct phases according to the political climate at the time, Mr Songoyi said.

In the pre-independence period singers were popular figures, both through their singing and though their position as medicine men. Kalikali used to sing about work, about politics, about people’s problems. The language of the songs was figurative, full of light hearted jokes and wit. The songs were also narrative, containing elaborate descriptions of people, things and events. Society was criticised. During the colonial period this freedom of expression was constantly threatened, but nevertheless, it managed to survive. When the independence struggle began, singers like Kalikali, and especially Mwinamila, joined with enthusiasm with their songs praising Nyerere and the TANU party he had established. But three years after independence, Kalikali became disillusioned. His songs reflected what the peasants were thinking (translated from the Kisukuma):

My skin is itching
I cannot stop scratching myself
I had harvested much cotton
But the price fell
Paul, the son of Bomani
Never turned to look back
He does not care for the peasant

Another of his songs spoke of ‘Area Commissioners/ your buttocks getting fat’ – a reference to their getting fat on the money collected for public works. Kalikali was seen to have gone too far. In 1965 he was detained in Butimba prison where he was kept incommunicado for two months before being released by order of President Nyerere. We don’t know exactly what happened during his detention but Kalikali learnt that the state was not a thing to be played with. When he came out, his songs were very different. A new phase had started which continued until the eighties. The song he sang soon after his release sounded repentant and resigned:

I brought suffering
To my children and my wives (4)
When I spoke about the price of cotton
That was my mistake
I shall not say it again
I shall never repeat……

By 1967 Kalikali was singing the praises of the Arusha Declaration and Nyerere. But his audience had changed. It was no longer the peasants. He was more and more addressing party and government officials. He started singing in Swahili as well as Kisukuma. One of his songs – a very long and detailed one – coincided with the visit in 1971, on the invitation of President Nyerere, to former British administrators:

Welcome back Englishmen
Come and see how Tanzania has become
We parted peacefully
We did not quarrel Englishmen
Schools are in every village…..

Kalikali’s counterpart, Mwinamila, was not detained; instead he received rewards for his singing. A house was built for him and he was given employment by the TANU party. He still works in the Cultural Affairs Department of the CCM even though he had also been very critical of the government in the 70’s and 80’s. By 1988 he was singing about the Walanguzi (the racketeers) who, in his view, were among the party and government executives.

Why was one artist detained and not the other? Mr Songoyi said that the relationship between artists and the state is often complex. In these two cases timing was important. Kalikali became critical in his singing when the state was still insecure, not long after the army mutiny in 1964. Mwinamila’s criticism coincided with the campaign against ‘economic saboteurs’ in the early 1980’s. Mwinamila also benefited from his close association with Nyerere whom he had known since 1954. Kalikali had no friends in high places. Their audiences differed. Following Sukuma dance tradition, Kalikali performed in the open where many people could attend. His songs were seen to be contagious, and, in the view of those in power, he had to be stopped from acting ‘in a manner prejudicial to peace and good order’. He had to change the nature of his songs; jokes, provocation, insults were no longer there. Mwinamila, being close to the party, was not a threat. He became a professional singer – the ‘crude’ language was out.

Next came the period of ‘liberalisation’ in 1985. Socialism seemed no longer to be the ideology. The gap of the state on artists was relaxed. Singers could express different ideas. Themes were no longer primarily political. Social relationships came to figure more prominently in the songs.

Now, in the 90’s, there have been more changes. Almost a full circle but in a different way. Party politics is now widely featured. But the main difference is that most singers are young and have been through primary education. They are no longer as conversant as the older singers with the artistic use of Kisukuma in their songs. Swahili words appear intermingled amongst older style phrases.

One wonders – could the next step be singing in English?

(Someone else who is closely involved in Sukuma and other cultural pursuits is Dr James Matunga, the owner of a herbalist clinic in Dar es Salaam, who is the chairman of a Society registered on January 25, 1997 under the title ‘Jumuiya ya Kuhifadhi na Kuendeleza Mila na Desturi za kiTanzania’ (to preserve and maintain Tanzanian customs) He has recently been touring Sukumaland and meeting vast crowds enthusiastic about restoring respect for traditional music and dancing. Among those who have been supporting this initiative have been the then Minister of Health, Mr Mayagila and Prince Rohert Lega, the son of the former Paramount Chief Majebele Masanja – Editor)

TOPICAL TIPS ON TRAVEL TO TANZANIA

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COMMON SENSE, awareness, vaccination and avoidance is the self-evident message. Knowing your own blood group could be useful. Taking needles and syringes and having a good travel insurance are important.

VACCINATION should be taken against Tetanus, Diphtheria, Polio, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and Yellow Fever. Vaccination against Hepatitis B, Rabies and Meningitis A & C may be indicated for longer term travellers and backpackers. Cholera vaccine is not very effective.

MALARIA has no effective vaccine so anti-malarial tablets must be taken. Three regimes are suggested: a) chloroquine 2 tablets weekly and paludrine 2 tablets daily (75% effective); b) mefloquine 1 tablet weekly (90% effective); c) doxycyline 1 capsule daily (75% effective). There is a lot of publicity surrounding mefloquine (Lariam) but it was our choice for a recent trip. Side effects are quite rare and usually show early, so start 3 or 4 weeks before going to see how you tolerate it.

PREVENTION OF BITES is also vital. Mosquitoes bite at night and prefer sweaty feet! Use screens and a pyrethrum impregnated sleeping net. Cover exposed areas. Use DEET insect repellent. Avoid sluggish water (Schistosomiasis) and fast running water (river blindness) so, no swimming, except in the ocean! Wear walking boots (snakes, bites, blisters).

TRAVELLERS DIARRHOEA is extremely common. It is normally self limiting with full recovery within a few days. Wash your hands, avoid untreated water, ice cubes, ice cream and raw fruit and vegetables unless they have been peeled. The mainstay of treatment is taking plenty of clear fluids (bottled drinks, clear soup) but powdered proprietary preparations of salt and sugar for reconstituting in boiled water are best (e.g. Dioralyte). The anti-biotic Ciprofoxacin is effective in helping most causes of the problem. Loperamide (imodlum) is a good anti-diarrhoreal.

Michael and Jo Nelki

STOP PRESS – RELATIONS WITH BURUNDI

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Following the reported killing of three Tanzanians by Burundi soldiers and in the light of Tanzania’s continued determination to exert economic sanctions against the government of Burundi leader Pierre Buyoya, who took power in a military coup on July 25 1966, relations between the two countries are said to be deteriorating as this issue of TA goes to press.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

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Tanzania usually gets a fairly good report from Amnesty International but the Annual Report for 1996 was highly critical. Extracts: ‘The authorities in Zanzibar were responsible both before and after the elections for harassment, sometimes violent, of supporters of the Civic United Front (CUF) which was repeatedly denied permits to hold meetings; after the elections hundreds of Pemba islanders working in Zanzibar were dismissed and their houses demolished….criminal charges such as sedition, vagrancy and involvement in acts of violence, often accompanied by the denial of bail for periods of two weeks or more were also used as methods of intimidating government critics and opponents. Scores of anti-government opponents were tortured and ill-treated by police and Anti-Smuggling Unit personnel…including shaving prisoners’ heads with broken glass, spraying prisoners with motor oil and forcing them to eat faeces…

On the mainland in August over 50 gold miners were killed … during evictions from disputed land in an operation involving the police, regional authorities and a Canadian mining company…the men were buried alive when small scale mines were bulldozed in advance of the company taking possession of the mines for industrial mining….criminal investigations appear to have been discontinued.

Amnesty international strongly criticised the government’s decision to impose a 31 December deadline for the return of Rwandese refugees and appealed to the government to ensure protection for refugees who had a wellfounded fear of human rights violations’.

In a strongly worded 16-page response, quoted in the Daily News on August 8, the Government attacked the Amnesty report for being one-sided and derived from hearsay and wild accusations by some disgruntled members of the Tanzanian community. On refugees, Amnesty had blamed Tanzania for arresting seven refugees for engaging in political activities against their state; in doing so Tanzania had been upholding UN regulations. Amnesty had exhibited an absolute lack of appreciation and gratitude for Tanzania’s positive attitude towards refugees and the great efforts made by Tanzanian citizens in handling refugee problems. On Zanzibar the statement said that Amnesty had relied on complaints made by the opposition CIJF party without considering the Mews of the government or ruling party. On the demolition of houses near an electric transformer, Amnesty had not mentioned the sabotage of a key electrical installation that had prompted the removal of people residing in its vicinity. On the Bulyanhulu mines episode in Kahama district, the government said that the story was fabricated. An investigation had reached the conclusion that no one was either intentionally or inadvertently killed in the exercise to stop further exploitation of the mines.

OBITUARIES

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Dr. RUTH ELLMAN, who, with her agriculturalist husband Antony, had a long standing association with Tanzania, died on June 6 after a courageous struggle against cancer. She taught at the Muhimbili Medical School from 1967 to 1970 and from 1994 to 1996 conducted research on malaria and anaemia at the Amani Medical Research Institute. This research is leading to important advances in the search for low cost approaches to prevention and treatment of malaria including the use of insecticide-treated bednets and combinations of herbal and modem remedies. There will be a memorial service later this year and a fund is being established in Ruth’s memory to carry forward the medical research she initiated – details from Antony Ellman, XXXX.

OSCAR KAMBONA (68) has died in London. Originally a close friend of Julius Nyerere and Secretary General of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) which brought the country to independence, Kambona held five ministerial portfolios in the post independence government. He was the son of the first African Anglican priest and in 1957 was admitted a member of Middle Temple in the UK. He and his wife Flora were the first black couple to be married in St Paul’s Cathedral; Julius Nyerere gave the bride away. He played the main role in the army mutiny of 1964 and was quoted in the obituary in the Daily Telegraph as saying “After I had calmed down the soldiers I went to fetch the other leaders (who had been in hiding) in my Landrover to bring them back to the city”. Mwalimu Nyerere praised him for his bravery but within a year, had fallen out with Nyerere because, according to the Telegraph, of the latter’s enthusiasm for socialism on the Chinese model – and for the one-party state. Kambona went into exile in 1967 (for 25 years) and plotted against Nyerere from abroad. When multi-party democracy came back to Tanzania in 1992 Kambona set up his own party TADEA but this has enjoyed little support, (Thank you Kim Keek and others for providing this information – Editor).

LETTERS

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BARRED FROM ANIMAL KINGDOM
The paragraph published in TA issue No. 57 under the above heading summarised an article published in the London Observer on April 5th. That article named the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and contained a number of grossly distorted facts and half truths.

I do not intend to comment on the Maasai claim to grazing rights in the Mkomazi Game Reserve since the Trust is not a party to the dispute but the statement that there are ‘…fly infested, stinking animal carcases, children with distended bodies …’ around the boundaries of the reserve is false. The lot of the local villagers is no better and no worse than that of most of the rural population in Tanzania. The famous ‘glass-fronted house with a satellite dish’ in which the Trust’s representative, Tony Fitzjohn, lives, was a one-room building constructed of local stone until a small nursery was added recently. Alas there is no satellite dish. Until he built his house, Fitzjohn lived for many years under canvas….

The Mkomazi Reserve is not privately run by the Trust and Fitzjohn is not the manager. It is a national reserve managed by the Tanzanian Government and has a Tanzanian manager. The George Adamson Trust was asked by the Government to assist in rehabilitating the reserve and it has acted strictly within its remit. It does not, as might be inferred from your comments, have the authority to negotiate with the Maasai.

The Trust and its sister trusts have raised millions of dollars for the building of roads and airstrips, equipping the ranger force, constructing the only purpose-built rhino sanctuary in Africa and for the Mkomazi Outreach Programme which funds resources and educational facilities for those living near the reserve. The Duke of Kent is not the patron of the trust. The trust has no such officer.

Most of the original Observer article is incorrect and indeed libellous …
Dr. S K Eltringham
Chairman of Trustees
The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust

FREEDOM AND UNITY OR TRIBALISM?
Hasty, narrow research leads to shallow conclusions. The article ‘Barred from animal’s kingdom’ (Observer 6th April) which was referred to in your last issue, demonstrates both.

I am a Tanzanian. I have been working in rural extension for 23 years.. .I have worked in and around the Mkomazi Game Reserve for more than two years researching community conservation ….I and my colleagues have had considerable dialogue with villagers of all ethnic groups…we have lived there. From this research I have come to realise that the area is not just a Garden of Eden for Maasai that you fancy. There are other ethnic groups such as the Pare and Sambaa who have historical roots with the area inside and outside the Reserve, before the Maasai arrived…. Where was the voice of other ethnic groups in the article?

Another group whose viewpoint seems to have been omitted is that of the Tanzanian Government. Since the Reserve was gazetted there has been a great deal of consultation between the people and the government.. . .of course, where movement was not voluntary some force was used. Which government does not use force like this? Ask Swampy!!

…… It is vital that we Tanzanians solve our conflicts between different ethnic groups and between ethnic groups and the Government. This can only be done with good information and careful, broad research. Please do not antagonise and aggravate conflict between the government and the people, and between NG07s of the North and the South, with such poor information. Tanzania has 120 ethnic groups…. Groups in the Mkomazi area have coexisted for many years, they have intermarried, they have traded. They were and are still able to solve conflicts and have organised utilisation and management of rangelands and irrigation water together. It is wrong for outsiders to pick on one ethnic group, fancy it, sponsor it and promote it at the expense of other groups’ inclusion in debates.. . .
Yours, in love with my country,
Hildegarda Lucian Petri Kiwasila
University College, London

(I regret that it has been necessary to slightly abbreviate the above two important letters. I think it should be pointed out that our column headed ‘Tanzania in the Media’ is intended to tell readers what the international press is writing about Tanzania. What is written is not necessarily the view of the Britain-Tanzania society or of myself- Editor).

LAKE NYASA
Thank you for letting me have the address of Mr Clarke following my recent letter. On page 9 of Tanzanian Affairs No. 57 you refer to CCM’s candidate at the Magu vacant seat as being ‘a well-known local businessman who had been the NCCR candidate for the seat during the general elections’. If this refers to Dr. Festus Limbu, then our records show that Dr. Limbu is a member of staff of the Department of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. Dr. Limbu did contest the seat through the NCCR-Mageuzi during the general elections and lost. The description of the well-known local businessman I suspect fits one of the other contestants.
On page 12 there is a reference to Lake Malawi which is called Lake Nyasa by this side of the border!
Professor Geoffrey Mmari
Vice Chancellor, the Open University of Tanzania

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT
One of the main tasks of a reviewer, dealing with writings on a controversial subject, is to place those writings in their context and let his readers know that there are two sides to the argument. John Budge, in issue No 57, simply fails to do this. There IS a debate on structural adjustment, but all he has done is to take a couple of writers from the ‘anti’ side and tell us how much he is in agreement with them.

Both Kaiser and Schatz, as he quotes them, draw their conclusions from shaky evidence. Tanzania’s admirable social cohesion was already there (in contrast to Kenya and Uganda) when Julius Nyerere took over the reins, and was not created later. Whatever you think about structural adjustment, the country’s economic and social decline dates from long before Government took to measures of economic liberalisation. It began as a spin-off of the one-party state and the centralisation of power; it continued with the policies of ‘nationalising everything’, pressures for people to leave their homesteads and migrate to ujamaa villages, and the unrealistically low producer prices fixed by Government which shattered national food production in the 1970’s. Crime and corruption went into a steep rise then, not after the adoption of IMF/World Bank policies.

Where WERE Messrs Budge, Kaiser and Schatz when all this was going on?
Dr Philip Mawhood
University of Exeter

‘SIXTY YEARS IN AFRICA: THE LIFE OF A SETTLER 1926-1986’
Thank you so very, very much for your wonderful review of Werner Voigt’s book in the last issue. I have long felt passionate about how great the story of Werner and Helga’s life is. You may not be aware that Werner died last February 8th. It is very unfortunate that we were not in touch just a year earlier because we stopped in England on the way to Tanzania and you could have met Werner and Helga (and myself and Evelyn, their daughter)……
Gordon Breedyk, Ottawa, Canada

‘PASTURES LOST’
I was delighted to read the kind review of my book about the Barabaig in your last issue. I am pleased to advise the reviewer, Christine Lawrence, that the book was published in Kenya…..but is also available from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) 3 Endsleigh St. London WClH ODD.

The quotation with which Christine ends her review is most apt. At this time in Tanzania the whole question of how land is to be administered is under consideration with a new land policy in place and a new land law to be passed by the Bunge in the near future.. . .Indications from the draft legislation suggest that customary tenure will be accommodated and the interests of pastoralists will be satisfied to an extent by its provisions. If this comes to pass then it will be the result of the efforts of many including pastoralists, a triumph of reason and as a result of good governance. I have made regular comment on this process in the IIED Bulletin Haramata.
Charles Lane

Reviewer John Budge has responded to the letters from Julie Jarman and Dr Astier Almedom in our last issue by writing to say that he is thoroughly ashamed of his ill-considered and inconsiderate comment about the handwashing of African children. He goes on ‘I suppose that foremost in my mind was the plight of country people in places where saving water is of paramount importance… I regret any implied devaluation of the magnificent work of WaterAid UNICEF, The Dodoma Hygiene Evaluation Study and the Tanzanian Government and above all, of devoted relief workers in close contact with village people. Perhaps I can take some consolation in the fact that their letters can play some small part in shedding even more light on a vital Issue of African rural life – the connection between water and killer diseases’ – Editor