Britain’s new High Commissioner to Tanzania presented his credentials to President Mkapa on August 9. He is Richard Clarke who has served previously in Caracas, Washington DC and Dublin. Immediately prior to his new appointment he was Head of the Policy Planners in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He replaces Bruce Dinwiddy who bade farewell to President Mkapa on July 25. There has also been a change in the position of Tanzania Desk Officer in the Foreign Office. Claire Lewis who recently returned to the UK from the political section of the High Commission in Delhi has taken over from Jennifer Townson. Meanwhile, six months after the departure of Tanzanian High Commissioner in London, Dr Abdul Shareef, there is still no news about his replacement.

At the end of the three month long trial in New York of four followers of the Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, allegedly involved in the bombing of the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi US embassies that killed 11 Tanzanian, all were convicted on May 29. The jury was out for 12 days before reaching its verdict. The Tanzanian who was involved, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27), who admitted helping to make the Dar bomb, got life imprisonment after his mother had flown to America to plead for his life. He was said by his defence counsel to have acted out of ‘deep, deep religious beliefs’ thinking that it was part of a holy war. Among witnesses at the trial were: a former Nissan service manager who is Japanese; a Tanzanian driver who reported that he had sold the Nissan truck used in the bombing for $6,000 to Ahmed Ghailani and Skeikh Ahmed Swedan; a Tanzanian welder who said that Swedan had hired him to alter the truck, make containers for batteries to be stored in the back and drill holes to attach partitions that he was told were for storing fish; and a cleaner who cooked and cleaned for some of the accused at their Amani Road residence. After the bombing Mohamed told an FBI agent that he was not sorry that Tanzanians had been killed. He said “Allah will take care of them.” The US has offered $5 million reward for Osama bin Laden and other fugitives.

The Guardian reported that the government has banned eight magazines and suspended three tabloids for allegedly publishing indecent photographs that corrupt the society and thwart campaigns to combat HIV/AIDS in the country. The Swahili tabloids which have been banned for six months include Cheko, Zungu, Kombora, Mama Huruma and others. The statement cited five issues of Cheko which showed half­naked women. This demeaned them, he said. ‘Publishing pictures of half naked persons seen making love shows that it promotes amorous behaviour and frustrates the move by the government and the society to fight against the killer disease, AIDS. However, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the Association of Journalists and Media Workers and the Tanzania Union of Journalists jointly expressed serious concerns about the ban and said that the Minister’s action had been “draconian and a negation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression which are core pillars of any democratic and tolerant society.”

Mtanzania reports that the government has decided to supply hospitals and dispensaries with the anti-malaria drug FANSIDAR instead of Chloroquine which is being phased out.

The government has started registering special villages for the Hadzabe community in Arusha region. The community has for many years been living in the bush. Government hopes to educate the Hadzabe Community so that they realise the importance of farming and livestock keeping ­Guardian.

Under the heading ‘Turning henna painting into an art’ Ashura Kilungo writing in The Express (August 5) described the work of Zanzibari artist Shawana Mohamed, who earns her living by painting women with henna, a type of dye used to decorate women with figures and patterns. Extracts from the article: ‘Shawana Mohamed, who was born in Zanzibar and now lives in Dar es Salaam, started enhancing female beauty with henna seven years ago after she had curiously studied older gurus excelling in the intricate art of henna decor, and shot to fame at a very young age. The steep fees for henna demands that the painter be careful, as most people expect to have value for their money after coming out of the painting session with nothing less than what bewitches the male eye ….. the dye gives a reddish-brown finish. Henna, like other traditional cosmetics including wanja, for eye lashes and mdaa which reddens the lips and tongue, is widely used by women living in Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Kilwa and Zanzibar. Although it has nowadays gained a liberal use among different types of women, it was originally used by female Muslims brides out to attain a gorgeous look during their wedding ceremony. Shawana charges brides Shs 10,000 to Shs 15,000 and women coming to be decorated as a matter of routine between Shs 5,000 and Shs 7,000. In most cases, Shawana creates the designs herself to marry the complexion of the woman.

During celebrations in March on the 50th anniversary of the British Council in Tanzania, Parliament thanked the Council for its assistance. The paper quoted Speaker Msekwa as saying that he was satisfied with the cooperation between the Council and the House and wished it to continue. Council Assistant Director Sharon Crowther launched a ‘Directory of Tanzanian Alumni in the UK’ and said that more than 700 Tanzanians had studied in Britain over the last 50 years – The Guardian.

Minister of Defence Philimon Sarungi told MPs in June that some 15,000 Tanzanians joined the Army during the Second World War of whom 2,225 died. He said that in 1999 the Tanzania Legion with the help of district commissioners had collected the names of 426 surviving veterans. They were given Shs 29.5 million by the British Commonwealth ex Services League.

The School of Oriental and African Studies hosted an exhibition in June entitled ‘Princess Salme – Behind the Veil: the Life and Writings of Sayida Salme’ put together by Said El Gheity, Director of the Princess Salme Institute. The Princess was the only known woman in the 19th century Zanzibari Court, who breaking the tradition, taught herself to write, which she did in secret by copying calligraphy from the Koran onto a camel’s shoulder blade.

Tanzania has been officially admitted to the International Cricket Council (ICC). This means that the national team will now compete in the world championship as an independent team in the same arena as such cricket giants as Australia, Pakistan, India and South Africa.

The Guardian reported on July 20 that during recent months a special police crackdown had identified 103 stolen cars, many stolen in South Africa. Some Tanzanian owners of the cars were protesting that the cars were being identified by South African Insurance agents rather than the legitimate South African owners who had probably claimed the insurance and then sold the cars.

Majira (August 6) reported that young Muslims were trying to take over the management of mosques in Dar es Salaam. The paper quoted leaders of the mainstream Muslim Council (BAKWATA) as saying that the youths were extremists influenced by Iranian ideology and were accusing BAKWATA of being government puppets. Meanwhile, in Zanzibar, according to Mtanzania women have been warned that they would be flogged in public if they were to wear short dresses. The message came in a clandestine letter circulated by a Muslim group calling itself “Lions of God”. In early August this group cordoned off Darajani Street and started attacking women wearing short skirts saying that they were indecently dressed. They beat up one woman and tore her dress before she managed to escape into a shop. She was rescued by police.

Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete has told Parliament that the government had purchased 66 buildings for its embassies to avoid heavy rental payments. Arrears of rent had reached $550,000 in New York, $192,000 in Moscow and $40,000 in Lagos -Mtanzania

An item in the Guardian on August 10 indicated that the MP for Muhambare, Mr Chrisant Mzindakaya’s interests were not confined to sugar (see articles above). He pointed out in the House that research in some countries had revealed that boys grow big breasts after eating chicken because the chickens are fed with drugs meant to be taken by women for birth control. Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye responded by advising poultry keepers to check the feeds they were using for chickens so as to avoid the side effects experienced by men in other countries.

There will be a concert of sacred music in aid of the Mazinde Juu Girls School in Lushoto on September 30th at 3pm at the St Joseph’s RC Church in Wembley. The soprano Una Barry, who has raised money for water and educational project in Tanzania over many years, will give the recital with organist Tim Story. Details: 020 8902 008.

Amongst those given awards by the Queen recently are sister Maria Lia Schwarzmuller for services to leprosy relief (OBE) Catherine Joan Allen for services to education (MBE) and Dr Elizabeth Annie Hills for services to health care in Tanzania (MBE).

A modern Shs 13.6 billion office building to accommodate the British High Commission, the embassies of Germany and the Netherlands, the EC Delegation and Britain’s Department for International Development, is being built at the corner of Mirambo and Garden Avenue in Dar es Salaam. According to the British High Commission’s Ian Gleason, quoted in the Guardian, this would be the first time worldwide that the four partners had developed a shared building.

Certain US Scientists have come to the conclusion that the famous snows on top of Mount Kilimanjaro will completely vanish within two decades because of global warming, felling of trees, forest fires and overpopulation.

‘Panic hit the streets of Tabora yesterday as the tall, menacing figure of Idi Amin was seen marching down the main drag … he was accompanied by an entourage of fully armed semi-naked Kakwa warriors …. 37 of his children brought up the rear. .. ‘ – from the Guardian (April!).

The idea of a ‘village museum’ seems a curious paradox ­is it a village, or is it a museum? Perhaps it is neither in the conventional sense. It is certainly not a living village, but rather a collection of authentic furnished homesteads representing some of Tanzania’s many different rural cultures. Nor is it a museum in the traditional sense (there is not a glass case to be seen). All 16 houses can be entered, and there are plenty of objects to see and handle. The Kiswahili word ‘makumbusho’, ‘reminders’, is more apt here than the English ‘museum, with its classical muse associations. Herein lies not only the unique charm of the place, but also the real importance of the site.

The museum was founded in 1967 by two anthropologists, Tom Wylie and Peter Carter. The idea was not original, but in the Tanzanian context it had a particular significance at that time. By representing the diverse cultures of the newly-independent nation, it was like a microcosm of the country as a whole. From the start, the museum was built by Tanzanians, for Tanzanians. Representatives of the different ethnic groups built their own distinctive houses on the 8 ha site. The location in Dar es Salaam (next to the New Bagamoyo Road) was also significant, enabling people who had moved to the city to retain contact, and take pride in, their rural roots.

Since its inception, The Village Museum -in common, it must be said, with most rural life museums in the UK -has had its ups and downs. By the early 1990s, it was apparently suffering from a serious shortage of funds and qualified staff and was threatened with closure. Since 1993, however, there has been a remarkable revival in fortunes. Staffing arrangements were restructured giving The Village Museum access to greater expertise. A grant through the Swedish African Museum Partnership (SAMP) enabled repairs to be carried out and new houses to be constructed. More recently, responsibility for the museum has passed from the Education Ministry to Tourism and Culture showing a new awareness of the site’s potential.

So what of the museum today? Undoubtedly it is in very good hands. The Director General and staff of the National Museums of Tanzania have a strong sense of the museum’s responsibilities to the wider community and are keen to support its future development. The Curator, Jackson Kihiyo, who is a social anthropologist, has energy and imagination as well as a clear vision for the museum. It was a great pleasure to welcome him to Norfolk for a week’s visit in September. He has recently franchised the operation of the museum cafe to a first rate caterer who specialises in traditional dishes. Dance displays are now presented every week-end, while artists and craftspeople (such as Petre Paulo Mawige, a clay sculptor of striking originality) work on site on a commission basis.

More significantly, perhaps, has been the development, since 1994, of the Ethnic Days programme, when, for two or three days (and attended by thousands), groups of people from particular ethnic groups present a cultural festival of music, dance, popular crafts and foods. They also bring with them records of their own lives, histories and traditions, which museum staff will compile into books for posterity. The Maasai book will be published soon. The museum’s Education Officer, Lucina Shayo, runs an imaginative programme for schools and has also raised funds and organised special events for some of Dar es Salaam’s ‘hidden’ children -the blind, disabled and mentally handicapped.

So what of the future? Clearly, The Village Museum has a great deal going for it. But it also has its difficulties. Shortage of funds can cramp new initiatives. There is no photocopier or printer, no OHP or slide projector and only one computer with E-mail but not internet access. The overall visitor experience could be enhanced by improved interpretation on site -the existing panels are informative, but brief, and lacking the photographic references which could help ‘people’ the houses. A new guidebook is needed. The many different species of trees and shrubs on site could be labelled, and trails devised to focus on natural history or maths activities. A themed adventure playground would help to cater for family needs, and everyone would benefit from more seats around the site.

Some of these projects have already been costed by museum staff, and business sponsorship is being sought to help with funding. The museum’s impressive thatched hall could provide an ideal venue for business conferences, training events and presentations, which would all help with funding (it recently made an atmospheric setting for a film festival). Next year, I plan to work at the museum in a voluntary capacity from July to December, helping with fundraising, educational resources and displays. I hope that during 2002, we will be able to host an exhibition about Tanzanian village life in Norfolk, including residencies by museum staff and craft makers. Meanwhile, some useful contacts have been established through the British Council and local Rotary clubs (who have funded a promotional leaflet).

Website http://www.homestead.com/villagemuseum/index.html is also under construction. Please take a look at it -and, of course, be sure to visit the museum when you are next in Tanzania!
Richard Wood

SHARK ATTACK
28-year old medical student Godfrey Msemwa of the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences, was killed by what was believed to be a shark in July. He had had gone swimming with friends at Coco Beach in Dar es Salaam and cried out for help frantically waving his hands in the air but was gradually pulled out to sea. Colleagues saw the water filled with blood a few minutes later. Following this horror, the marine specialist Hugo van Lawick , Director of Ocean Safaris, set off to sea in a special shark hunting boat. He took with him a bucket of frozen cow’s blood to attract the shark. This son of the renowned British chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall said the blood can attract a shark even from two miles away. He continued to hunt the shark and eventually managed to catch one on his line. After some hours of tussle he managed to land it. It was a Zambezi shark noted for its killer instinct. Last year the Express had reported another shark attack which had involved an official of the Japan International Cooperation Agency who had had three fingers bitten off. Coco Beach has been placed out of bounds for swimming by Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Yusuf Makamba who also announced that a base station with satellite antennae and fast patrol boats to chase off sharks is to be established at Oyster Bay -The Express, the East African and the London Financial Times.

A RARE TOAD
Tanzania is facing an archetypal environmental issue. At stake is the future production capacity of a major new electric power station and the survival of a tiny toad scientifically known as Aspergnus nectophty. The new Kihansi Hydro power project is designed to generate electricity desperately needed for the national grid but it will only be able to operate at full capacity if it can use enough water. The tiny toad is found only in the Udzungwa ranges in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands. It is said to give birth to young ones rather than lay eggs and occupies an area of about 200 metres wide. However, if the power station were to operate at full capacity it would deny the toad sufficient water supply. It needs 20 cubic metres per second and if it doesn’t get it the environment could be destroyed leading to its extinction. TANESCO has therefore devised a temporary artificial water spray that delivers two cubic metres of water per second and has also agreed to participate in an international forum on the subject involving the National Environmental Management Council, foreign donor agencies like NORAD and the World Bank. -Daily News.

COPYRIGHT
Following the passage of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 1999 a new ‘Business Registrations and Licensing Agency’ has been set up. Persons found guilty of infringement of others rights will be fined up to Shs 5 million or get imprisonment for up to five years -The East African which headed its article: ‘Tanzania Copyright Act is Music to Artists’ Ears’.

SLEEP
A few days after President Mkapa called upon MP’s to help him to awaken sleeping ministers, the MP’s requested the Speaker to bring in new regulations to stop journalists from taking photographs of sleeping MP’s -The Guardian.

RICKSHAWS IN DAR
An Indian Company, David Piereis International has introduced three-wheel hooded vehicles called Rajaj or more familiarly rickshaws in Dar es Salaam.

In Swahili culture, a poet’s role is ordained by his ability to reciprocate the needs and wishes of his community. In order to perform this duty to the fullest extent, a poet must have a highly intimate rapport with his own context and therefore he must occupy a position from which he has access to various edifying sources from within the community. According to Swahili ideology, a poet can be described as one of the Mlozi wa mji (proverb meaning, ‘pillars of the town’), signifying that his presence is fundamental to the maintenance of civilised society. Poets are known within the community as Shaha or ‘Shah’, a sign of their high status; they understand more of God than ordinary people, and it is said, ‘poets go deep into the sea to find secrets’. Thus the social position given to poets in the Swahili community is one of respect and high status, defined by the acquisition of the dual qualities of heshima, ‘respect’, and elimu ‘knowledge’.

Through the use of various different modes of presentation, which the poet employs, he may challenge any of the existing hierarchies and institutions that form the nucleus of changing Swahili society. In order to accomplish this nature of social commentary without causing offence or even potentially endangering himself (especially in the case of political poetry), a poet relies upon a wealth of enigmatic and metaphorical language in order to make himself understood to his audience. Through the use of such richly metaphorical language and cryptic or encoded imagery, the poet’s message may remain ambiguously hidden, and in many cases an understanding can only be achieved through the application of specific social or political circumstances onto the poem’s patchwork of language and imagery. Only then will the poem’s inner discourse become clear to the audience. Indeed, in Swahili society, where the importance of speech and words is paramount, people naturally strive to cultivate speech into art, and a Swahili is often judged by his linguistic skill.

Contrary to the opinions of several non-Swahili scholars who have described Swahili poetry as ‘dull’ and unattractive, it must be emphasised that its function is not to be beautiful but to be useful. At the same time let there be no confusion that Swahili poetry, whether traditional versification or modem free verse, exemplifies the Kiswahili language in its most aesthetic form.

Swahili poetry has suffered further at the hands of foreign scholars with the constant reference to its ‘ethnic or local form’, or in the use of the term, ‘traditional poetry’. The term ‘traditional poetry’ implies that the form and content have become outmoded by another form of self-definition. The reality is quite opposite, and in fact Swahili poetry serves as functional a purpose in a modem context as it has done throughout history.

In Swahili poetry, both form and content are of equal importance, and a Swahili poet must adhere to numerous structural criteria in order to produce a piece of work that can be regarded by the community as high quality. With growing access to Swahili poetry in the media there has been an increase in poems written by amateur poets and consequently much of the poetry published in the newspapers stands accused of being mere versification at the expense of meaningful content.

Free verse has gained considerable popularity on the mainland despite strong opposition from Swahili poets who feel it represents a loss of poetic artistry and is a product of euro­centric scholarship. The debate continues until today.
Jonathan Donovan

Africa’s biggest internet service provider ‘Africa Online’ has arrived in Tanzania with exchanges in Dar, Arusha, Mwanza and Zanzibar where customers can now dial up by paying local rather than national call charges. Ten new e-touch centres are being opened every month – Guardian

Former Tanzanian High Commissioner in London Anthony Nyakyi was appointed Chairman of the National Construction Council on April 4 ­Daily News.

The Deputy Minister of Education and Culture has told parliament that corporal punishment in schools will continue “until we think of another suitable way of punishing offences in learning institutions” -Guardian.

Tanzanian botanist Sebastian Chuwa has been awarded a Lindburgh Foundation Grant for his research project ‘Balancing Ecological Diversity with Art and Music -a Community-based Program to Replant African Blackwood’ (which is used for carvings and to make musical instruments but is facing extinction). Chuwa raises and replants the Blackwood and educates young Tanzanians about its conservation -Guardian.

Some 5,000 women underwent contraception by surgery in the Lake and West Zones during the past six years. But only 25 men agreed to vasectomy -Guardian.

Following several years of good rainfall, a low infant mortality rate and the continuation of the international ban on sales of ivory, the elephant population in the 2,600 sq km Tarangire National park is picking up after the heavy poaching of the 1980’s. The number of elephants in family groups has increased from 250 in 1993 to 420 now. One female produced six infants in seven years with three consecutive sets of twins -East African.

British High Commissioner Dinwiddy was present on July 23 when Tanzania’s WBA Continental Super flyweight boxing champion Mbwana Matumla beat Andy Roberts from Britain in a technical knockout in the second round. The fight was given massive coverage in the local press.

Of the 16 people being accused of involvement in the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar on August 7, 1998 one, 26-year-old Khalfan Khamis Mohamed from Tanzania, is destined to be the first defendant in an international terrorism case to be tried on capital charges in the United States. He is charged with helping to build the bomb used in Dar and to load it on to a truck which he rode part of the way to the embassy. The defence is arguing that he played only a minor role and was the least important member of the conspiracy and therefore should not be facing the death penalty -New York Times.

According to General Secretary Prof. Sebastian Sawatt of the Rural Foundation for Sustainable Development, Tanzania is now second only to South Africa in the list of African countries with advanced bio-gas technology. His organisation was now providing consultancy to other countries and was encouraging the use of a simple $100 tubular plastic biodigesters to provide domestic energy and reduce the demand for wood -The Guardian.

The Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) (through a subsidiary) opened a shop in Dar es Salaam on May 12 for the sale of light weapons and explosives. Consumers, who include licensed hunters, miners, construction companies and foreign markets, are able to buy locally (in Morogoro) manufactured ammunition and imported guns. Another of the five shops licensed to sell arms is the YMCA.

The Chumbe island (Zanzibar) Coral park has won the British Airways ‘Tourism for Tomorrow’ award (Southern region) for its concerted efforts in preserving the marine and coastal environment -Daily News.

Tanzania’s cashew nut producers did well in 1999. Exports reached 48,700 tons which brought in about $51 million -the export price has increased from $700 per tonne in 1997 to $900 per tonne in 1999.

There have been a number of serious accidents recently. Nine people were killed and 43 injured when a bus overturned in Handeni in January. On March 19 in Rungwe an oil tanker overturned and in the fire which followed 33 people died. A Sudanese owned Boeing 707 cargo plane on its way to Mwanza to collect 40 tons of fish for export to Europe crashed into Lake Victoria, four kms from the runway on February 13. The crew were saved. On March 19 five people were killed and 21 were injured when a bus overturned in Morogoro.

In view of the 52% failure rate in the treatment of malaria using chloroquine, Tanzania has cleared for use two new drugs, both derivatives of ancient Chinese medicinal plants. The new drugs are Arsumax (also recommended by the World Health Organisation -WHO) produced by a French manufacturing company and Beta Artmether from China -The East African.
At the meeting in Nairobi in mi-April of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) a worldwide ban on the sale of ivory was re-imposed for two years. Tanzania was one of the countries pressing for this decision -The Times.

The Ministry of Defence has issued a statement on the ‘streamlining’ of the Tanzanian army. No new recruitment was being carried out except for replacements following deatl1 or compulsory retirement -Daily News.

Public opinion aided by the press and the National Environmental Management Council with support from Vice-President Omar Ali Juma has been successful in causing the Ilala Council to remove a massive billboard advertising cigarettes which had been built at the Palm Beach end of the Selander Bridge in Dar es Salaam -Guardian.

Tanzanian Vice-President Dr Omar Ali Juma has appealed to donors to give maximum support to private institutions like the Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) to enable them to provide better services to the people. He congratulated the university, which began in 1997 and whose Vice Chancellor is Britain-Tanzania Society member Professor Esther Mwaikambo, on being the first private university in the country to be given a certificate of permanent registration.

Over 6,000 reptiles were exported from Tanzania in 1998 -a tenfold increase compared with 1991. Three quarters were spiny-tailed lizards, geckos and chameleons. The Coordinator of the Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) said that these exports were beginning to pose a danger to some species -Daily News.
The rule under which new recruits to the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces are expelled from the army if they marry within six years is to continue -Guardian.

Agreement was reached on a new policy on Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) at a meeting of 150 participants in Morogoro in November. A new Act of Parliament is expected to streamline NGO registration procedures and to create a new co-ordination board and registrar to supervise registration. There will be a new code of conduct and an NGO data bank.

According to Radio Tanzania quoted in the Sunday Observer, two inmates of the Ngwale Prison in Chlmya District escaped recently. However, a few metres from the prison, which is surrounded by a dense forest, they suddenly came face to face with lions. They climbed a tree but the lions sat down under the tree. Eventually the prisoners managed to hail a passing vehicle carrying tobacco which rescued them. But as they were still wearing prison clothes the driver took them straight back to jail much to their chagrin.

Fast moving vehicles on a mile-long road stretch in Zanzibar’s Jozani Forest Reserve have killed about 150 of the endangered red colobus monkeys since 1996 according to an article by Simon Kivamwo in the Tanzanian Guardian. Quoting from the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY JOURNAL, he wrote that most of the monkeys were being crushed to death by fast cars when trying to cross the road to get to trees on the other side. But after the installation of bumps to check the speed of the vehicles only one monkey had been killed. Jozani forest reserve is home to the world’s remaining 2,000 Zanzibar red colobus monkeys.

The government has declared illegal the breakaway (from Pare Diocese) Mwanga (Kilimanjaro) Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT). There have been clashes between church followers.

1,900 local people with the help of environmentalists are suing the Irish investor in the proposed 10,000 hectare multi-million dollar prawn project in the Rufiji delta claiming that this would cause them to be evicted from their ancestral land. It appears that the prospective financiers have now lost interest -East African.

Uganda has paid Tanzania $64.39 million out of the originally agreed total of $132.3 million as compensation related to the war involving the two countries in 1978-79 -Daily News.

Extracts from an article in The Times by Matthew Parris presented here with his permission.

Toilet paper festooned the poles supporting the makeshift canopy, in a gay new year display. Winding the rough, pink Tanzanian tissue neatly round and up the wood produces an effect of orderly merriment, like a barber’s pole. The ceremony for which these preparations had been made was our send-off on a millennial climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. We were at the Machame gate to the national park, on the edge of the forest at the mountain’s foot.

We nine were among the 800 expected on Africa’s highest mountain for the turn of the century. Our guardians, the Kilimanjaro National Park, would see us gathered at the gates to leave, and again when we returned a week later in a new century. In between, we would be throwing ourselves upon the mercy of the forests, tundra and snows.

We knew about the send-off party when we heard the drums. Labouring up the slope towards the gate in the Marangu Hotel’s Land Rover, followed (in a bus named the Mwika Express) by an embarrassingly large contingent of guides, porters, tents, equipment and food expertly organised by the hotel, we were overtaken by a fleet of top-of-the-range Toyota Land Cruisers containing men in suits, and police in uniform. The ladies wore expensive sarongs.

In the Congo they call them the waBenzi but here in rural Tanzania a new Toyota Land Cruiser is the more reliable indicator of membership of Africa’s ruling elite. The waToyota consisted of the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, a Permanent Secretary, the Regional Commissioner, the District Commissioner and the chairman and trustees of the Board of the Kilimanjaro National Park. Reader, before you mock, remember the plumes and the memsahibs, and ask where these habits were learnt. True, for a fraction of the cost of the official procession, which had lurched here and there at the walking pace dictated by an atrocity of a road, that road could have been repaired.

But we were greeted with a warmth which no colonial administrators’ party would have extended. The lavatories, on the other hand, were incomparably worse. The ceremony was Africa in vignette. It was hours late. Half the climbers were too. But somehow everyone eventually turned up and caught the spirit of the occasion. This too is Africa.

Proceedings had been further delayed by the most appalling traffic snarl-up. You might think that in the East African plains, where there are few cars and much space, a traffic jam would be improbable. But the park authorities had managed to produce, with fewer than 20 vehicles, a jam of spectacularly neurotic quality. Manhattan could not match it. Everything happened -as everything around Kilimanjaro must -on a 30-degree slope. Nobody could turn round. The waToyota were trying to arrive, the climbers to depart, porters’ lorries to advance, escort vehicles to withdraw, and everyone else to park. There was nowhere to park. Vehicles trying to execute three-point turns -into the mud bank became stuck; and all this was serenely observed by the platform party slowly assembling beneath its special canopy. A ring of brightly robed African women danced around a man thumping a skin drum, a group of Maasai dancers leapt rhythmically as though from a trampoline, and Toyotas revved and hooted, wheels spinning in the mud.

Somehow the vehicles sorted themselves out. The last arrival contained a television crew. A loudspeaker system had been rigged up. Ladies in sarongs watched imperiously from the podium. There is something about an African woman of consequence, something about her bearing, the way she moves, that declares she’s of account. How do they do this? English women have to announce their importance by their hat.

“Distinguished guests, honoured tourists and climbers,” began a dignified looking gentleman, “may I say good afternoon?” He paused, then introduced the podium party. “And now” he continued, “for the chairman of the board of trustees: me.”

“You will notice” he went on, “that eminent colleagues have each brought a spouse. I have not. This is because I have a number of wives. In the spirit of Tanzanian democracy I asked them to decide among themselves, by voting, which should accompany me today. By the time I departed they had still reached no decision.” He looked a nice man, but we climbers were restless. If we left it much longer we might not make it up through the rainforest to the campsite above, before dark. “A little light music, please,” called the compere.

The regional commissioner spoke next, in Swahili. “A professor,” whispered my guide in tones of respect. We checked our watches. But the main event was still to come: A speech from the Vice-President of Tanzania, read by the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism. Mrs Zakhia Meghij, a Zanzibari, was an imposing woman. The wife (I think) of the Permanent Secretary was European. Feelings of ethnic hostility are less marked in Tanzania than in much of Africa. The late Julius Nyerere may have almost wrecked his country’s economy with his dreams of village socialism, but no man in Africa ever did more to inspire a sense of co-operation in disregard of race or tribe. Tanzania is a good country and getting better.

The Vice-President’s speech was witty and well crafted. It mentioned the millennium bug. “Tanzania has worked hard to minimise this problem, and there is no worry for you climbers. Even our support services are free of computerisation.” We laughed at the joke but we were champing at the bit. And at last we were dispatched to the mercies of the mountain: “By a miracle of the Almighty, snow at the Equator,” said Mrs Meghij.

Balloons over the podium bounced and the toilet paper rustled in the afternoon breeze. Mrs Meghij shook many hands, including that of my niece, Christina, astonished that she was only 11. Christina became briefly a media sensation as local journalists dived to interview her. “I wish you all the best in the next century,” cried Mrs Meghij as we surged up the hill into the jungle. In the best political tradition, she accompanied us for the first hundred yards, wisely halting when the mud got deeper, and waving us cheerily onward.

“Every success,” she called again. The African women ululated, a feature sadly missing from official occasions in Britain. We disappeared into the undergrowth, observed by monkeys. Ululations died behind us as we were hit by the most monumental downpour.

Seven weary, happy days later we returned from the summit snows, Christina victorious, covered in mud. We slithered down through a sunnier rainforest through a different gate, Mweka, observed by different monkeys. Different women were ululating, a different drummer drummed, and there was even beer and t-shirts provided and a portable satellite telephone operated by batteries. The energy that had gone into our welcome was touching.

Sadly, the same energy had not been put into the organisation of our climbers’ exit register. The system was in complete chaos. The numbers had overwhelmed the single officer with an old exercise book, a ballpoint pen, and a pile of certificates. Nobody seemed to have anticipated this. Nobody had the nous to react to it and improvise.

After two hours we gave up. One alternates between hope and despair in Africa; sometimes before lunch.

It was another couple of miles walk down to our waiting vehicles. Some 20 lorries, Land Rovers, Toyotas and minibuses had parked along the rutted dirt road. But nobody was going anywhere. The blue lorry blocking the road at the head of the queue was driverless. Rage mounted among the rest. The driver of a minibus behind stormed off up the hill, accompanied by furious passengers, to seek out the truant driver. We sat.

A distant roar came from up the hill. The driver had been found and was being chased back. Down he sprinted, running for dear life, pursued by an angry crowd. As he passed, all the Africans waiting in the road yelled and kicked at him. He looked absolutely terrified. Had he stumbled, he might have been lynched or kicked to death by the mob. He really might, such was the mood; a flash-fury, frighteningly violent.

The violence passed. The driver made it to his cab and now another traffic drama, with much hooting, hysterical shunting and one collision, as vehicles tried to manoeuvre past each other to get away first.

And we were off -our open lorry bucking and rearing down the dreadful track, the wind in our faces. Behind, a struggle for precedence between a Toyota, a minibus and two Land Rovers, teetered on the edge of catastrophe. But the fragrant gardens and friendly staff of the Marangu Hotel -Tanzania’s welcoming face -beckoned.

It was Sunday. We passed a packed Lutheran church, doors open, the congregation all singing. Back at Marangu, the Minister had sent a medal for Christina.

Oh, Africa.