A few weeks ago Mr. Zitto Kabwe wrote an article on his blog “Kabwe na Demokrasia” entitled “The Bottom 30 Millions”. This article gave a succinct analysis of the deliberate policies and priorities put forth by the government at Magogoni that aim to keep the 30+ millions of poor Tanzanians in the rural areas in abject poverty. It is not rocket science to see the facts in their misplaced policies and priorities. If you look at education, the expansion of school buildings and enrollment at the secondary level is commendable but it has failed to meet the quality education delivery expectations of the students and the country. This misplaced policy alone is leaving millions of poor children at ward schools unprepared, uneducated, and unemployable each year. This is what I call a deliberate “mis-education” process of the poor masses in rural Tanzania.
Targeted policies are needed to reach the bottom 30 millions
The education policy is just one among many policies put forth by the Magogoni government. Other policies include the famous “Kilimo Kwanza.” This beautiful policy on paper has not been well executed in the rural areas. There are very good languages in the policy like lending farmers tractors and farm implements to help them increase productivity. However, the realities in the villages are quite different. Very few farmers (peasants) can afford to buy a tractor outright at Tshs 30,000,000. Furthermore, many do not know and/or have the information on how the banking system works.
kids left behind
For the banks to lend you money, you need to have collateral. Collateral can be a house or a titled deed of your piece of land. Since many peasants don’t have titles to their land and also don’t have houses that are valuable for the loans—they end up not receiving the tractor and farm implement loans. In addition, it is hard and sometimes completely impossible for the ministry of land employees to come to a village and issue land titles to these poor souls. Therefore the whole policy is self defeating.
Kilimo Kwanza
To sum this all up, only the rich and the well connected can actually take advantage of the Kilimo Kwanza policies. And they are doing just that. Thus supporting Kabwe’s saying that these policies are deliberately designed to leave behind 30+ millions real people that would otherwise benefit from these policies and in return benefit the nation as a whole. My point here is that–we have seen these shenanigans over and over again. When id enough is enough for gods’ sake? What are Tanzanians doing to change the status quo?
Targeted policies are needed to reach the bottom 30 millions
Here is the finalized brochure for our Kibogoji Experiential Learning, Inc in Turiani, Morogoro–Tanzania. If you have old desktop computers (laptops are also accepted) that you would like to donate–I will personally come to pick them up if you live in the Atlanta area. We are also accepting books, magazines, educational dvds, and any educational equipment you may have. Spread the word!
Education can change people’s lives. And for many, it has done just that. The trans-formative power of education especially for poor rural children is surreal. Numerous examples exists of people climbing the economic ladder due to education in a single generation. The examples are too many for the poor in rural areas not to notice.
But, is this still the reality of today’s education system in Tanzania?
Discussing education opportunities for their childrenIn Tanzania and much of the developing countries, children are looked at as investments. The more education one acquires, the better the chance to land a lucrative job afterwards. This in turn, guarantees a good living wage, retirement (plan) for themselves, and their parents.
Unfortunately in the past decade, this line of reasoning has turned into a trap for many families in Tanzania.
Many rural families spend a lot of capital to send their sons and daughters to schools following this fallacy. In other words many parents are hoping for a good return on their investments–that is not actually there. They hope to create a “safety net” for themselves because none exist through the government. This is especially true for peasant families that don’t receive any type of retirement income after many years of hard work.
walking to school
For most of the rural kids attending ward secondary schools, the prospect of ending up with a division zero and/or four “if they are luck” is hanging at 85% according to statistics from the Tanzanian Ministry of Education’s data on form IV pass rates for the past 3 years. All of these failing kids are a retirement investment plan that has gone sour for themselves and their parents. If this was a bank doing this kind of business(education utapeli)–many people will be heading to jail for selling a fake product. The parents are losing money twice in this scheme: (1) a shot at a decent life for their kids and (2) a retirement investment for themselves.
Pupils sweeping the ground in the morning
The pathetic state of the schools and the schooling conditions is killing the dream that many Tanzanian families have for their children. And the sad thing is–this was not the case from independence all the way to the nineties. Most of the people you see occupying the high-rise offices in Dar came up from poor families through education. Education then, was a much flatter playing field than it is today.
This debate come and go every year when the dismal pass rates of our secondary and primary school students are announced. This year, this same debate came with a twist. The guardian newspaper reported recently that the Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training Philipo Mulugo and the government of Tanzania are in the process of drafting a new policy to make Kiswahili the language of instruction in both primary and secondary schools in Tanzania.
It is indeed true that the current system is not working. Everyone agrees with this premise. To make this situation worse, there is no ideal solution to the problem. This problem is so complex and multi-faceted.
While I see the value of a Kiswahili only model in improving students’ scores and comprehension for all the subjects matter, I fear that this new system will only perpetuate the already existing stratified education system in Tanzania between the very few “ the haves” and the majority of the “have-nots”. The “haves” will continue to send their children to English Medium Schools while the poor will be stuck with the Swahili only schools, creating a country of masters and slaves in the not too far future. If we are not already there?
Is this what we really want?
the path to improving the system relies on a strengthened bilingual education system model. A strengthened bilingual education system model will put enough resources to colleges to be able to teach teachers the current research based teaching methods which will not only benefit educators but, students as well. To provide professional development opportunities for teachers by improving their working conditions, to pay them a livable wage, and to attract more people to become teachers. Furthermore, to encintivise the good teachers to stay in the profession for a long enough time for them to become competent and efficient educators. Without those kinds of incentives, the change of language of instruction alone will not yield anything worthwhile.
The argument that changing just the language of instruction will yield the desired results is flawed. Don’t we already have English teachers in these schools? Why then are the students not learning English proficiently?The problem impacting the education system in Tanzania is not largely due to the language of instruction. If that was the case, we would see a huge pass rate in primary schools where mostly everything is taught in Kiswahili. The TWAWEZA report on this matter last year point to the contrary. Kids are not learning anything worthwhile in primary school either.
Resources needs to be improved, from teacher quality, the teaching environment, and to teaching tools.
I realize that there is a huge difference between learning English and being taught in English. Switching just the language of instruction will not be the solution to the massive failure rates in both primary and secondary schools. The problem is deeper than that. Huge systematic and policy changes need to happen before we see a real and meaningful uptick in the pass rates. Maybe pairing our existing teachers with teachers from abroad over a long time “ten years” could be something to be explored. The East Asian countries used this model and they are doing very well. Maybe we can learn from them this time around.
Once again, it is that time of the year when the Form IV results from the Tanzania National Examination Council comes out. To be specific, the 2011 Form Results were officially announced yesterday. This is the time when I post the snippets of what has happened with the numbers. My prediction looking to the future last year was that, the pass rates percentages will remain largely low in the foreseeable future.
The major factors contributing to the low performance are many. I will list just a few: 1) The Ward school’s lack of well qualified staffs and resources and 2) The social promotion of those who failed Form II Examination is catching up with the ill-advised policy, 3) Lack of English proficiency for the language of instruction for both students and teachers, 4) Lack of content knowledge and pedagogical skills for the teachers (quality instructional practices).
Here is the breakdown (Tanzania Form Four, Pass Rates 2011a) of the number for the 2011 just announced results. Out of 459,324 students who registered to take the examination, 426,314 students took the exams and 53.37% of them passed it. There was a 2.63% uptick in pass rates for this year comparing to last year’s results of 50.74%. The 2011 results are still approximately 20% drop from the 2009 pass rate of 72.51%.
Just looking at the numbers on the attached Excel graph, there is no significant performance improvement graphically speaking. Failure rate stabilization is the correct term to use in this year’s characterization of the Form IV results.
The results provided by NECTA did not provide a meaningful disaggregation of the 53.37 pass rate for this year. Meaningful numbers of the 53.37% who passed the exams; how many got division Ones, twos, threes and fours? Those numbers would offer a better picture than the pass rate comparison that is currently used. Here is graphical representation of the(Kwiro Center Form IV Results 2011 ) in Mahenge-Ulanga, Morogoro.
Maybe the failure rates have hit the bottom, but I would not say that there was a performance improvement in exams results this year. The numbers will largely stay at this level for years to come until the four factors I mentioned earlier have been addressed.
I will be teaching a 90 minutes Swahili lesson for beginners in Atlanta on July 11th, 2012 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Come join me and other international language LOVERS from across this lovely city of Atlanta. This lecture is part of the CASIE Atlanta Language Meet-Up. The Speakeasy is a monthly meeting showcasing a model language lesson taught entirely in the target language.
A Swahili Child Picking Up Crabs During a Low Tide, Zanzibar
It scares me a little to be speaking and teaching Swahili for 90 minutes to a group of 23 people who have never heard a word of Swahili before other than Simba, Pumba, Rafiki and/or Hakuna Matata while watching the Lion King.
I know it is going to be a challenge. Engaging a huge number of grown-ups for that length of time and building interest in them to learn Swahili beyond the basic greetings is going to be hard to say the least. I do love the challenge though and I will make sure that my first impression will last long enough to make them want to come back and learn Swahili to conversational level of proficiency and beyond.
This is a quote from the CASIE Atlanta website: “There are many organizations who promote languages, but no organizations who offer face to face instruction with a focus on communicative approaches for learning language”. For this and other reasons, I feel it is very important for me to get involved in Atlanta to put Kiswahili language on the map. I know there are many African and other world languages that are spoken in Atlanta, but Swahili is left behind due to lack of promotion on our part and the fact that there was no a real platform before for that to happen.
Sailing Party in Nungwi, Zanzibar
Therefore, the Speak-Easy Meet-Ups are a great opportunity for Swahili to get the attention it deserves. There are many people who would love to learn Swahili, but the lack of organized classes for them to take and practice with a native speaker sometimes is getting on the way. I believe with this opportunity; we can change all that.
I need help to do this correctly though. If you know anyone who teaches Swahili to beginners let me know. I will be happy to have a phone conversation with them so that I will be better prepared to deliver a good session. Let’s Put Swahili in the ranks with other major international languages here in Atlanta.
An Evening Full of Life in a Swahili Street, Dar Es Salaam
According to credible reports, “MV Spice Islander” had a maximum human loading capacity of 600 passengers. However, at the time of its sinking, it was carrying 2470 passengers. That is four times the maximum allowed. Further reports says, 941 passengers survived, 203 passengers lost their lives and 1326 passengers are still missing. I’m saddened by the magnitude of human loss.
The report further states, the cause of the accident was “severe levels of negligence.” Nine (9) people have been arraigned in connection to the accident. The dead and survivors of this accident will be compensated at a rate of Tshs 125,000 for 80 months which is equivalent to Tshs 10,000,000 per person.
The suggested figure is what I have issues with. I feel like the figures are too low and will not work as a deterrent for future man-made accidents. My understanding is that human life is priceless. To save it, stiffer penalties must be imposed as a deterrent.
My questions are:
Why payments are based on the basic salary levels?
What made the commission to assume that all these people were going to die in the next 6 years and a half (80 months)?
Why not use established income earning potentials for each of the passengers and life expectancy figures to figure out the payment?
This was an opportunity to severely punish those involved so that it will be a lesson to them and for others currently benefiting from this kind of behavior. Don’t let this incident be another missed opportunity like MV Bukoba. This should be a wake up call to shipowners, bus owners, and everyone involved in the transportation business. They needs to understand that “if you cause an accident due to negligence” leading to a loss or loss of lives; severe consequences will follow. The “kazi ya mungu” excuse should not be be the norm.
Once a person purchase a ticket, it’s a contractual agreement between the two parties and that the latter will transport the former safely from point A to point B. These contracts need to be honored. Maybe in the future (“that means now”) the government could implement a system that forces bus, ship and any kind of transportation business owners to declare the insurance value of a passenger and luggage on the back of the ticket in case an accident happens.
My belief is that if the owners are subjected to stiff penalties whenever accidents happens and are starting to see that their profits are being eroded; they will make sure that accidents due to negligence will not be a daily occurrences in Tanzania. To make them change their minds and put safety measures before profit, you have to hit them where it matters most—profits.
In addition to a deterrence on the part of the ship, buses, and any-other type of transportation owners. Citizen awareness campaign regarding overcrowding in public transportation needs to be carried out. It seems people are not learning from these incidence. More campaigns on road safety and problems associated with overcrowding are severely needed.
I will end you with this, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome.”
How can a student cheat under these conditions?. Leaking exams–maybe the culprit.
There is a Swahili saying that goes like “when elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers”. This saying came to my mind today as I was reading articles and comments related to the release of the 2011 Standard Seven Examination results in Tanzania. A total of 983,545 students sat for Standard Seven Examination in 2011. It is true that some gains have been made on the pass rate of standard seven graduates from 2010 to 2011. There has been a 4.76% jump over the one year period from 53.52% in 2010 to 58.28% in 2011. That in itself is commendable.
On the flip-side, cheating incidents have increased 78.5 times over the same period. From 124 cancelled student’s results in 2010 to 9,736 cancelled student’s results in 2011. Student cheating during examination in the Tanzanian education system is not a new phenomenon. Leaking of examination papers goes way back since the time I was in primary school.
The question is “who is leaking exams at the Ministry, the regional, and the school levels?.” There is no need to be complacent. Leaked examination papers always shows up each year close to the testing period. It is a huge business and almost everyone in the education field in Tanzania knows this. At times, three to five exam papers maybe circulating all over the country. Do we also blame the pupils for that? I also find the mass punishment of the pupils and parents caught up in this mess is excessive. Adults need to be held accountable here and not children. However, I do agree with the suggestions to establish a “Form One” entrance exam to all incoming Form One students to assess their abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics.
This was an incredible year. I finally had the opportunity to visit Soweto. It was an incredible moment for me to see the houses of both my favorite South African leaders, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.
I also had the opportunity to work with my co-workers to organize an event to raise funds for the Mutombo Dikembe Foundation. I have always thought that I was of a decent height, until Dikembe Mutombo towered over me at the event. The whole experience resulted into a sore neck at the end. Is this how short people feel standing next to me?
I just had to take this photo. The girls were such a beauty along the side of the beach in Nungwi Village, Zanzibar. Aren’t they cute?
This is the view over a window at the Zanzibar Museum in Stone Town, Zanzibar. It was too beautiful. I had to grab my camera and shoot this amazing scenary.
I had an amazing walk in those sweaty and humid narrow streets in Mji Mkongwe (Stone Town), Zanzibar. The shops are everywhere and the shop keepers are eager for you to unzip your wallet.
I took the three shots below in the Rock City (Mwanza), Tanzania. I fell in love with Mwanza. The temperature was just right and the price was also right. The city was very gentle to my wallet. I will be here again in the near future.
I just could not resist remembering this small restaurant just on the outside of the main bus stop in Shinyanga. The menu tells it all. I had to test the “LOST KUKU” and amazingly it was really good for the price. I will indeed eat there next time. Hopefully, I will find myself in this party of the country soon.
These three shots were taken in Meatu, Shinyanga, Tanzania. This is the only superstore in Town. Despite the lack of necessities in Meatu, I met the friendliest people on earth.
Kibogoji, what else can I say about it. This is the village that I humbly borrowed the name for my blog. The village is located somewhere between madongo poromoka in Morogoro, Tanzania.
The three shots above shows some of the residents of Kibogoji. The next two pics below shows the mountains surrounding the village of Kibogoji.
Back in Dar Es Salaam. It was such a joy to meet and take photos of the people I love and remember as the year comes to an end. Merry Xmass, hear!!.
Enough with Tanzania and now back to reality-my reality that is.
This woman wanted to take a picture of me at the DICOTA convention in Washington D.C. and I was like ooh no babe! I have to take yours as well. I have no idea who she was, but her image is still fresh in my memory.
Tanzania turned 50 years old yesterday. I should correctly say—Tanganyika as there was no Tanzania during the 1961 Independence Day. Tanzania is just a union between two independent states—Tanganyika and Zanzibar (Pemba and Unguja) in 1964.
Tanzania turns 50
Enough said. Progress is engulfing my mother land. If car ownership is an indication of how we’re progressing as the country’s president said a year ago, then there are no need for those grim statistics by the world-bank ranking Tanzania as one of the poorest nations in the world—just close to and/or next to Mozambique. The roads are filled with them. Puffing and smoking in their rears. At most times, in a city like Dar Es Salaam—the roads turn into parking lots.
The Tanzania @ 50 UHURU celebrations was nothing short of a short-lived distraction from REALITY. F**ckreality man—let show them how we party despite our poverty, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating educational system, the lack of proper health care system and the list goes on and on.
Anyhow–who cares if our pregnant women give birth on filthy floors, no stationary at most police posts, operations are suspended in Muhimbili hospital due to lack of oxygen, kids are seating on the floor in roofless buildings in an attempt to learn something worthwhile in their tiny lives. Who the f**ck cares!!!
In addition, we continue to borrow without knowledge of when and how we are going to pay for the debt. The next generation is already in debt up to their eye brow. But, despite all this, let’s go on and spend billions we don’t have to throw a party of the “Kings and Queens” of Zwangendaba –just because we can.
Who cares—-next week we will send our leaders all over the world’s capitals to beg again from countries that are themselves struggling economically. Countries that are themselves cutting wasteful spending through various austerity measures. Any-who, let celebrate.
Who is stupid? It’s the wanainchi stupid!
How do you look to other world leaders in the face asking for money to implement your country’s developmental projects under these circumstances. These other countries collect taxes like you do. It’s the tax money from gays, lesbian, transgendered and straight people who support your budget. You also want to have big balls when you are asked to uphold the rights of gays, lesbians and transgendered people in your society? You can take the cash from gays, but, giving gays protections under your laws is against African culture? What hypocrite?
I would be very embarrassed to wear your shoes, however nice or Italian personally designed they may be.
Today, I am taking time to reflect on what is happening to the new order of leadership in Tanzania. I remember when I was little. I mean, when I was very little. Back in the day. The days in the early 1980s.
In those days. A young energetic prime minister tragically died on a terrible car accident close to Morogoro. He died on the-then-newly opened paved/tarmac road from Dar Es Salaam to Dodoma.
I was just a child, thus, my recollection of the events surrounding the accident may not be entirely correct.
However, I have a vivid memory of it all.
Picha kwa Hisani ya Bongo Pixs
Mr. Sokoine passed away from injury sustained after the car he was traveling-in collided with Dumisan Dube’s at Dumila, Morogoro. Dumisan was a young South African freedom fighter living in Tanzania at the time. In the 70s and the early 80s, many South African freedom fighters lived in camps in Tanzania where they learned general life and military skills aimed at equipping them with necessary life and military skills to fight apartheid once they returned back to their home country.
I have no idea what the court rulings for case were. I do not know whether Dube was found guilty or not.
I sometimes ask myself whom was at fault?
or whom was found guilty for causing the accident?
The accident that caused the eventual death of the Prime Minister.
I have no answers to my own questions.
The whole investigation and court ruling was kept secret.
What I know is this–there is still a huge cloud of suspicion onto the manner in which the accident happened.
The accident happened at the heat of the war against economic saboteurs.
Vita dhidi ya walanguzi.
Was the war against economic saboteur the reason for his death?
or was it just a coincident?
I don’t know.
The one thing I vividly remember to date is this:
When Sokoine died.
The whole country was in tears.
Real tears.
Not crocodile tears we often see now-days.
Everyone was mourning the death of a great promising young leader.
At the time.
It was information overload in a sense. Talking about information overload back then–it was kind of weird.
There was only one radio station on the dial.
Radio Tanzania Dar Es Salaam (RTD) and in some occasions the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).
You had no choice but listen to the never-ending four weeks of the Nation in Mourning.
I mean this in a good way.
I could still remember man’s burial ceremony on the radio.
It was like the biggest super-ball game.
The event is imprinted forever on my mind.
The song “kila mtu atauchukua mzigo wake mwenyewe” was in our 277 Panasonic radio (Radio Mkulima).
The only radio we had in the house.
The burial ceremony was broadcasted live on the radio.
It felt like I was in Monduli that day.
Watching his casket lowered to the ground.
It was surreal.
I was young.
A child.
Like many young minds. I was wondering what happened to dead people.
Do they go to hell (motoni)?
or do they go to heaven (peponi)?
The dichotomy that religion teaches us.
Are there no middle grounds for the dead?
Like.
Half hell.
Half heaven.
The gray area so to speak.
What is it with young people’s mind and death?
Death is sometimes scary to the young mind.
The thought of laying in the grave and being eaten by termites.
I had those thoughts.
The undeveloped thought.
Lack of maturity.
And death is sometimes fascinating to the young mind.
The “goods” of not knowing “too much” of and about what is happening around you.
Of not entirely comprehending the laws of nature.
The laws that suggests the natural cycling of matter in the universe.
That matter is neither created nor destroyed.
That matter has to return back to the ground.
To release the essential elements of life.
Through decomposition.
With maggots
Worms
Bacteria.
Fungi.
So now I wonder.
I wonder what would happen if a leader on the same stature as Edward Moringe Sokoine was ever died on an accident today.
Would the Tanzanians of today.
Full of udaku.
Would they cry?
Laugh?
Celebrate?
Or will they just be consumed with indifference?
I know the current leaders are smart people.
At least that is what they believe.
The Tanzania contemporary leaders.
They have great solutions for everything.
I wonder.
And ask myself.
Would those in power today parade people on the street to show emotion that isn’t there?
How would they do it?
Think of how they buy votes.
Perhaps, they could buy people to cry.
on the street.
For the dead.
Like they do in Ghana.
The crier for hire.
Or will they do what happened in Ethiopia a few years ago when the not so beloved Prime Minister passed away.
Shame.
I feel ashamed.
of myself.
of the people who are being corned.
With the crookedness of the human nature.
corruption.
All for me attitude.
The capitalists attitude.
Materialism.
Wanting more for self.
Nothing else matters.
What happened to human descence
Is it all gone?
I wonder.
And.
I feel like the connection between leaders and their subjects has disappeared.
That connection has completely evaporated.
Disappeared and never to be seen again.
Is it because most of the new leaders have lost touch?
Touch with the people they pretend to lead.
Leadership
In the old day.
In the Ntemi days.
Was being with the people.
Listening to the people.
Working on the people’s ideas.
Finding solutions.
Together.
Nowadays.
Leadership.
Is.
Imposition of external solution.
Solution with no real meaning to the intended communities.
Not organic solution.
Imposing.
Forcing.
Coercing.
And.
The contemporary leaders.
Chose to serve themselves.
Rather than the people who entrusted them with the office in the first place.
Again.
Just me wondering.
Of.
What.
Has.
Gone.
Wrong.
My mind sometimes goes in circles.
Thinking.
Analyzing.
Troubleshooting.
However.
I do not wish for any of you leaders in Tanzania to die.
Of course not.
I am just interested in seeing what will the reaction be?
pharmaceuticals in drinking waterLast week I attended Advanced Placement Environmental Science Educators Training at Kennesaw State University. Kennesaw University is located in the north-western part of the massive metropolis called Atlanta. During the training I learned different inquiry (lab) based methods of teaching advanced placement environmental science to students. It was a great week filled with fun experiences.
As a part of the experiential learning for the training, the training participants visited the Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) sewage treatment plant. While there, we discussed the advantages of an MBR over traditional sewage treatment plants. In the middle of this discussion, a person asked a question about pharmaceuticals. I vividly remember the question: Do MBR sewage treatment process remove pharmaceuticals in the treated water?
That question actually made me think twice about where the medications (such as pills, injections, topical creams, etc) that millions and millions of people take everyday ends-up. In fact, it is a known fact that what goes in must come out. Which conforms with the law of conservation of mass. Only a small portion of the medication that we ingest is actually metabolized. The rest is released to the environment through our urine, fecal matters, through perspiration, and many other means. The questions I asked myself while reflecting on this issue was: where do the by-products go to after we flush the toilets and/or when dumped in landfills after they expire? Are there microbes or natural phenomenon that break these pharmaceuticals down?
Pharmaceuticals are the biggest incoming environmental and health challenge of our time. There are millions and millions of people taking a variety of medication each single day. All these pharmaceuticals finally end up in our waterways. In addition, most of the pharmaceuticals have long half-lives (Brausch et al.2012). Furthermore, there are few natural microbes capable of metabolizing these toxic chemicals. Thus, they stay in the environment longer increasing the likelihood that their concentrations in our waterways will continue to increase each passing year and possibly reaching toxic levels in a not so distant future.
The effect of pharmaceuticals to human and other animals is not very well documented as of yet. However, several studies done on fish have shown negative effect to fish population exposed to elevated levels of pharmaceuticals in rivers, streams, and lakes (Daughton & Temes, 1999; Boxall et al. 2003a; 2004a; Floate et al. 2005). Furthermore, some studies have confirmed that in some species male fish have actually turned into female when their habitats were exposed to high levels of pharmaceuticals for long durations(Brodin et al. 2014).
What the low concentrations of pharmaceuticals found currently in drinking water doing to the human body is currently a mystery.
Admittedly, the pharmaceuticals are in minute concentrations right now. However, since none of the water treatment plants can remove them off of our water supply–we are running the risk of their concentration increasing over the next few years to toxic levels and harming us if they are not doing so already.
No Government Plans to Eliminate Pharmaceutical in Our Drinking Water
Right now in America there are no legislation to deal with pharmaceuticals in drinking water or the water that goes into the streams, rivers, and lakes. At the same time, trace amount of pharmaceuticals have already been recorded in many urban and suburban water supply systems.
What is America going to do with this impending health and environmental problem?
I do not know about you, but I would rather not drink unprescribed pills in the water I drink. That’s just me.
With all the hormones, antidepressants, and other different types of medications in the drinking water supplies; no wonder–people can no-longer stand each- other.
And you are wrong even if you drink bottled water–you are still taking in pills!
I read with interest the article by Charles Krauthammer on the www.nydailynews.com today about the discovery of neutrino particles that travels faster than the speed of light.
If this experiment and the discovery happen to be correct, then most–if not all of the Einsteinian theories in physics will be absolute. It will set a precedence to the dawn of new physics laws and theories.
It is hard to imagine that what we have been made to believe for almost 100 years was (or might be) fundamentally incorect. What is next for physics? Are there other flaws to other sciences that we’re unaware of?
It is the waiting game now for more scientists to replicate the experiment and come up with same or different results.
At the end, we will always love you Einstein (in Whitney Houston’s Voice).
Another maritime tragedy in TanzaniaIt is with sorrow I write this as my countrymen and women are grieving the loss of another too many lives wasted. My deepest condolence are to those who lost their loved ones.
A word of mouth from the survivors ……..” many of the people who died in the accident are children and women.” Thus, many of the died are going to an early grave.
I write with the realization that it is hard to supervise and monitor all marine and fresh water means of transportation in Tanzania. But, the facts still remain — we should at least have learned our lesson from the MV. Bukoba accident that killed over 1000 people in 1996.
While all this is happening, and after the fact–we hear that the Tanzania government is thinking about creating a “National Emergency Preparedness Task Force”. Don’t we have one already??? This should have been created and/done with — in 1997 after the MV. Bukoba catastrophic accident. Did we learn anything from accident?
In my views I do not see the need for another bureaucratic organ. It is indeed not needed considering the amount of resources available. We do have a traffic police force and road accidents are happening in a daily basis. The issue here is not lack of an organ to rescue people but lack of enforcement of the preventive steps to insure accidents do not happen in the first place. That is what is lacking!
What needs to be done is concentrate more on the prevention side of the preparedness and enforcement of the already established prevention measures such that accidents rarely happens. Having routine ship engine checks, ship body checks, life boat checks, making sure that ships owners adhere to loading capacities of their vessels etc, etc should be the first priority.
Always–prevention is better than a cure and it is cheaper at the same time. Most of the accidents that are happening in Tanzania are avoidable. It’s just common sense. Why do they allow un-maintained, over-loaded-ships to operate on our waterways?
How many accidents will it take for the “senses” to be “common” again?
Maybe ship-owners need to carry high premium insurance for the cargo and human life they waste every now and then. That would put them on notice and on the right path thinking-wise. They need to be taken to court and if found guilty–spend time in jail and pay both the dead and the injured handsomely.
I believe their bottom-line (profits) is merely affected when these types of accidents happens—because when people die due to negligence the people who profit from these types of negligence are not taken to account. This in turn creates no incentive to change what they are currently doing–that is killing indiscriminately in the name of accidents.
It is not Allah or Jesus that kills in most of these accidents, it is just negligence and negligence needs to be seriously confronted.
This accident has happened in the Zanzibar route which is a much safer route than the Mtwara –Dar Es Salaam route. It is quite common for ships in this route to stall (engine actually lose power in high seas) sometimes two times in a one way journey from either Mtwara –Dar or vice versa. Ill-maintained ships, over-loaded passengers and excess cargo are a norm in this route as well.
It is just a matter of time an accident like the one in Zanzibar will happen in this route as well if necessary preventive steps like the ones mentioned above are not going to be taken sooner.
In Pictures: The Zanzibar Ferry Disaster–Source BBC News.
Note: I use the word accident very lightly here as most of these so-called accidents are avoidable.
Last week I conducted several interviews with Swahili speaking students at a local community college in Atlanta. Amongst the interviewees: three were from the Democratic Republic of Congo, one from the United Republic of Tanzania and four were from the republic of Burundi. The eight students spoke Swahili with different dialects.
By definition, Swahili or Kiswahili is a “Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups inhabiting a large Indian Ocean Coastal stretch from Mozambique to Somalia”. The countries include: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Comoro, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, and Congo DRC.
I learned from the interviews that Standard Swahili has 5 vowels phonemes. The vowels are: a, e, I, o, u. And that the vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. The vowels are pronounced as follows:
“a” is pronounced like the “a” in pasta
‘e’ is pronounced like the “e” in bed
‘i’ is pronounced like the “i” in ski
‘o’ is pronounced like the “o” in “or”
‘u’ is pronounced like the “oo” in “bassoon”.”
I also learned that like in numerous Bantu languages, Swahili arranges nouns into a number of classes. The ancestral system had 22 classes. Counting singular and plural as distinct according to the Meinhof System. Most Bantu languages share at least ten of these noun classes. Swahili employs sixteen nouns classes: six classes usually indicate singular nouns, five classes usually indicate plural nouns, one class for abstract nouns, one class for verbal infinitives used as nouns, and three classes to indicate location.
Some examples of the nouns classes are presented below:
“class semantics prefix singular translation plural translation
1, 2 persons m-/mu-, wa- mtu person watu persons
3, 4 trees, natural forces m-/mu-, mi- mti tree miti trees”
As seen above, Swahili is a very complex language and differs significantly from the English language. The vowels are pronounced the way they are written while in the English language the vowels carry different sounds from the written expression. This difference in particular causes a huge challenge to students who are learning English as a second language from the Swahili speaking cultures. Students from Swahili speaking countries struggle with intonation and word sound relationships in English because this is a very different system from that of Swahili or Kiswahili.
Implication in the classroom instruction
It is very important for educators to understand the linguistic similarities and differences between Swahili and English to have an opportunity to help students like the ones I interviewed. In addition, Swahili has a different system for singular and plural to that used in the English language. The addition of vowels to words does not exist in the Swahili language. Thus, making it harder for Swahili speakers to learn the English language.
Opportunity in classroom instruction:
It would be helpful to educators who teach content specific course to understand the linguistic similarities and differences between Swahili and English. This understanding will help them to anticipate when and where Swahili speaking students will have challenges learning the English language. This understanding will provides educators with an opportunity to help students for Swahili speaking nations to be engaged in their own learning and also in using the new language for other content specific courses.
Educators need to develop lessons that will focus more in helping students new to the English language understand the differences and similarities between the two languages and use the opportunity to highlight how to overcome those differences. For example, educators can start by teaching the students the English alphabet, vowels and word sounds. This will help the students to understand where the two languages are similar and where they differ.
After students have mastered word sounds, educators can go further into reading, writing and comprehension of the English language. The step by step instruction will help many ESOL students to become fluent English speakers and writers and in turn this will have a significant impact on how the ESOL students excel in the content classrooms.
References:
1.Prins, A.H.J. 1961. “The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast (Arabs, Shirazi and Swahili)”. Ethnographic Survey of Africa, edited by Daryll Forde. London: International African Institute.
2.Prins, A.H.J. 1970. A Swahili Nautical Dictionary. Preliminary Studies in Swahili Lexicon – 1. Dar es Salaam.
3.Whiteley, Wilfred. 1969. Swahili: the rise of a national language. London: Methuen. Series: Studies in African History.
4.Brock-Utne, Birgit (2001). “Education for all — in whose language?” Oxford Review of Education 27 (1): 115–134.
Once again the government of Tanzania is embarking into Uranium mining without a sound environmental impact assessment. While environmental impacts associated with the construction of a highway through the Serengeti National Park have not been completely and dully resolved, the same government is now proposing the mining of Uranium in the Selous Game Reserve which is one of the very few world heritage sites in Tanzania.
Monkeying around
Just to recap the facts. When mining uranium, even the utmost grade deposits have less than 1% . Therefore, to obtain enough and useful amount of uranium, a vast amounts of ore have to be processed. In addition, the leftover (waste) rocks also known as tailings are nearly as radioactive as uranium itself. These tailings need to be secluded from the environment to avoid a cancer epidemic for 25,000 years or more.
roads to the park
I guess the minister in charge is not aware or chose to forget the facts.
Moreover, one of the elements along the uranium radiation chain is radon, a radioactive gas which can travel for hundreds of kilometers prior to decaying. Radon gas contamination issue actually happens at the mining site and its surrounding environment and not when uranium is enriched. Mine workers, villagers and animals near the mining site who breathe in this gas risk developing lung cancer and other kinds of lung diseases. Some vivid examples of health issues associated with uranium mining “tailings” are still evident in the Grand Canyon Region of the United States today.
One member of the so called big five
In addition to polluting the air, water and earth with radioactive chemicals and heavy metals which can never be completely cleaned up, Uranium mining is also related with poisonous process chemicals, heavy metals and the use of vast quantities of water (read my previous article entitled “Uranium Mining Resource or Curse for Tanzania” to understand more about the water issue).
In the short-term, uranium mining sites ruin the ecology of the local region; in the long-term they pose a risk to a much wider area for thousands of years to come.
elephant zone
The health risks of uranium mining are by now fairly well-known, although still highly disputed by governments and the mining industry itself. It is a known fact that, uranium miners, the locals and the animals near the site suffer the maximum radiation doses of all in the nuclear fuel chain.
The major problems are inhalation of dust and radon gas, which leave alpha radiation emitters lodged in the body where they can do serious harm. As the pollution from the mines spread away from the mine site, local people and animals are also exposed to contamination. While uranium mining is highly related to cancer, low-level radiation is also associated with birth defects, high infant mortality rates and chronic lung, eyes, skin and reproductive illnesses.
What plans does Tanzania have in place to make sure that all these dangers are addressed, avoided or minimized before mining commences? What are the short and the long-term plans to mitigate or reduce the impact to human health, the environment and the beauty of the Selous Game Reserve?
Again…..just me thinking!!!!! What are your thoughts?
The king of the jungle eatingSerengeti Road No More: Victory or Not? The letter presented to UNESCO by Mr. Ezekiel Maige clearly states that the SERENGETI HIGHWAY will be constructed on both ends of the Serengeti National Park (click the link above,for the letter and the proposed Serengeti Highway Map at the bottom of the linked document).
According to the letter, the only portion of the road that will not be paved is the 53 kilometers through the Serengeti and will remain under the supervision of TANAPA. This means in layman’s term that only TANAPA vehicles and tourists related transportation would be allowed to use the roads within the park.
Some of the questions I have with this new plan are: 1) why build a highway that is cut in the middle? 2) What will happen to the cars and trucks on both ends of the highway?(since only TANAPA and tourists vehicles will be allowed in the park), 3) Are the cars and trucks going to fly to get to the other paved side of the highway so that they don’t interfere with the already fragile ecosystem?
I feel like this (kiini macho) is just a joke! It all means that the highway will in some way get completed sooner or later. The cars and trucks on both ends will be allowed to circulate within the TANAPA supervised roads (the unpaved portion of the highway) and hence dramatically affecting the wildebeest migration and the Serengeti Ecosystem as a whole.
This road will have even a higher impact on the Maasai people living traditionally on the Serengeti plains. More people will move in, near or close to the park and therefore adding pressure to the subsistence means of living that many of the Maasai people in this area depend on. The gradual diminishing of the subsistence means or lack thereof, will force most of them to leave or join the ranks of many Maasai working as guards (Walinzi) in many cities and hotels across Tanzania. I can’t wait for the time to come (very soon) when the proudest tribe in Africa is turned into beggars by blind governmental policies.
English language learning in the Tanzanian Education System can be characterized as being “problem-solving” oriented. The type of problem solving that does not include exercises that cultivate higher-order thinking skills.
The main goals are: 1) to obtain enough knowledge of English to reach a minimal level for a specific purpose, such as obtaining a position doing menial work, 2) to help students pass standardized exams. Noticeably absent is the goal of real learning and/or authentic learning.
Fixating on Standardized Testing
When students focus on passing exams, they lose sight of authentic learning. Especially for those that English is their second, third, or fourth language. Most students in Tanzania falls in this group.
Equivalently, when educators fixate on having their students pass exams, they may neglect authentic teaching. Educators should certainly work to comply with the country’s learning standards and prepare students for standardized tests, however, these formalities should be placed in the background and place authentic learning in the foreground. If students are truly learning, they will pass standardize tests ANYWAY.
As educators, one question we need to ask ourselves is this, “Do we want to teach our students to just survive, or to flourish?”
The Cycle of Learning is Important
Along similar lines of reasoning, educators need to grasp the need for cycles of Question-Answer-Question instead of merely Question-Answer. For that matter, educators should not be the only ones asking questions. Instead, students should be afforded the opportunity to ask and answer own questions. If educators are to treat students as “explorers”, rather than “plants” that absorb information, and provide space for their voices, students should be able to pose their own questions and problems and seek solutions themselves with the facilitation of the educator, as needed.
The idea is to break the orthodox of what is called in education as “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” in which educators control learning and “deposit” knowledge into students. This is quite rampant in the Tanzanian education system.
Sharing the Expertise Stage
Similarly, educators cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to dis-empower them. Let the students ask and answer their own questions.
When working with English Language Learners, it is especially important to help build students’ confidence. Adapting these ideas would hopefully create an environment rich in learning. In that students would learn from each other and the teacher and the teacher would learn from the students.
Competing Ideas in Resource Poor Countries
These ideas may be difficult to accept and implement in teacher dominated classrooms. They require educators to relinquish some or most of their powers. Implementing these ideas sometimes leads to classroom management issues in the beginning. Thus, such classrooms and students would need adequate practice in instructional conversation and class discussions. I do realize the fact that most classes in Tanzania are extremely overclouded. This could lead to other issues including how to group students for group activities. Moreover, enrichment activities that feature language learning would likely require increased efforts on the part of the teacher to construct and execute, as compared with implementing lessons grounded in straightforward test preparation and grammar drills.
Ideological Shift
Yes, fostering real and authentic learning will require a lot of work. However, instructional practices and broad structural changes are necessary. Real change cannot occur until we drastically modify our ideological framework.
Expectations make all the difference. That is, if all that is expected from the educator is that students pass the standardized exams or obtain jobs in the menial labor industry, than learning goals and instructional practices will reflect such aims, and at best, that is merely what students will learn and do.
Should Tanzania change the language of Instruction? In my humble opinion, I believe that there is no need to switch from all English instructional delivery in secondary and tertiary schools as of yet. However, changing the way we teach English to second, third or fourth language learners in Tanzania will take us a long way, modifying our ideological framework will also help, and raising our expectations for what our students can learn and do will increase tremendously higher-order-thinking skills of our students. In my view, at present time, the Swahili only educational delivery model is flawed to say the least.
After spending three weeks in Tanzania and seeing people from all walks of life, I am taking this opportunity to reflect on my experience. Generally, Tanzania is a great country with tremendous potential and opportunities. The country is endowed with a vast amount of natural resources (lakes, oceans, rivers, trees and minerals) and huge chunks of untapped land that is readily available for all sorts of development activities. It can be used for tourism, agriculture, fishing, and all other sorts of entrepreneurship.
However, a small group of Tanzanians are getting richer beyond recognition. Some of the rich Tanzanians are actually vacationing outside the country to far lands such as Europe and the United States. Whereas the majority of Tanzanians face serious hardship putting a roof over their heads and food on the table. It is an interesting contrast.
I care less how people spend their hard earned cash. But, the issue here is that most of these rich Tanzanians actually work for the government. With government salaries alone, these people would not be able to afford to take their families to Kigamboni(FunCity), not mentioning Stone Town, Zanzibar. It is the corruption and embezzlement of public funds that is so open and publicly accepted that allows for all this to happen.
Actually I somewhat believe it does not matter how well you pay a Tanzanian (a grain of salt here), s/he will definitely find a way to embezzle public funds anyway. In my views, low wages is not the singular reason for why people steal from wherever position they have. The culture of corruptness and the societal expectations that comes along with it contribute directly to this problem. For example, it is openly accepted that if you have a good position in the government or wherever; you should be able to have a nicer car, a gorofa, and many other stuffs. If you won’t do that people in Tanzania will start asking questions. Does s/he have a mental problem? Why is s/he not stealing?
Everyone is.
Fact of the matter is when you steal the allocated funds for development projects to build your lavish gorofas and beach front three storey houses, the expected development projects remain idol and incomplete. The people who suffer the most are those who depend on government social services who are indirectly reinforcing this societal norm. No wonder, there are no roads to accommodate all the cars in Dar Es Salaam not to mention the hinterlands, no stationary to write statements at most police posts (you have to provide your own 10 sheets of paper to write a police statement on), no gloves for midwives to deliver babies in most, if not all hospitals and the list goes on. It is a pathetic situation.
Changing this culture is one of the solutions to Tanzania’s problems. Issues like the Members of parliaments (MPs) having to receive three salaries {regular salaries (Tshs12, 000,000 per month), seating allowances and per diems) is absurd, but it all stems from the same societal culture of expecting too much from little to no work at all.
And, all this is happening at the time when the government is completely and entirely bankrupt. The government cannot afford to carry out its obligation due to lack of funds. Donors please help my fellow Tanzanians to finance their misplaced priorities and expectations. LMAO all the way back to the ATL.
After spending a week on the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar (Nungwi in particular), you would think that nothing can top those amazing “wow” moments. However, Mwanza is stunning on its own right.
Arriving in Mwanza, you fly on top of Lake Victoria. The first things you will see are those cropping up rocks on hills around the city.
It is very beautiful here.
The city is very relaxed. As opposed to Dar ES Salaam, the traffic is light and the temperature is just right. It feels like you are in a place worth visiting. You can reach any part of the city in moments’ notice.
Mwanza
In addition, most people are very friendly and welcoming here. They want to show you where the “it” in Mwanza is…..places for good foods, night clubs, swimming, and the likes. Furthermore, the way they cook Samakis (fish) here is just beautiful; nothing compare to a lake fish…nicely cooked!!!.
I played “draft” with this guy and lost
Pictures of Mwanza will be coming as soon as I find a place to download my pictures. Enjoy…!!!!!!
I met Abel Manyanza in 2011. I did not know him at first. He was actually recommended to me through a mutual friend. But, after I spent a few days with him – taking me from one place to the next in Dar Es Salaam. I came to know him very well. Abel was a nice young man. Full of energy, fun to be with, and a great company. He used to drive a Bajaj in the Mbezi beach area of Dar Es Salaam. He knew Dar Es Salaam’s night life very well and would take you anywhere in Dar safely.
I am very saddened to hear that Abel passed away a few days ago. He was probably 30 years old living on his own, making a living as a bajaj driver. I am shocked that he passed away too young. I am sending my words of condolence to his family, relatives, and friends. Rest in peace Abel. This is my tribute to your short life.
Below is a old ad I wrote for him in 2011.
If you find yourself in and /or live in Dar-es-salaam and you need to run through the horrendous traffic jams, a Bajaj maybe the best option. The guy on the picture (top and bottom) operates one. His name is Abel M. Manyanza. He is a nice young man and does his job diligently and safely. Unlike most Bajaj drivers, Abel will charge you a very reasonable fare for your trips and you will get there alive and on time.
Abel is vey knowledgeable about Dar-Es-Salaam, its streets, night life and everything in between. You can reach him at 0773-589879. You will be very happy to use his services. Tell him that “Kibogoji sent you”!
Finally I am in Morogoro. Further away from the hustle and bustle of the Tanzanian economic engine, Dar Es Salaam. Before I left Dar I attended the E-Learning Conference at Mlimani city. A very nice set-up for people interested in e-learning. Most of the discussions were centered around the theme “how e learning is going to shape education delivery in the Africa of tomorrow?.”
Participants represented the entire African continent and beyond. The place was packed and there was a lot of enthusiasm from the different stake-holders.
As usual, many of the African conference participants were absent. They took this paid opportunity to come to Dar Es salaam to indulge themselves and buying gifts and touring the city. I saw many of them spending at Mlimani City Mall and not attending the sessions. Another, donor’s money wasted.
Many many years ago I had an opportunity to read a book called Mine Boy by Peter Abraham. The book was one among several other books on the reading list of the Secondary School English Curriculum in Tanzania. Since reading Mine Boy, I have had an u-n-d-i-m-i-n-i-s-h-i-n-g thirsty too see the Soweto township.
Today I am glad I took the time to see the township where 4 millions South Africans call home. I had the chance to walk proudly in the city where Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu still have homes from the apartheid era. I am not sure if they live in them at the moment or not, however, it was an exhilarating experience none the less .
If you find yourself in Johannesburg (Jozi) and have time to burn, call Chipo Chibememe. She is a South African tour-preneur and also a SOWETO native. She arranges tours to visit the township (half day and full day) on any day of the week. She is very knowledgeable about SOWETO (she lives in SOWETO). I truly enjoyed the tour she gave me of the township. For more info click her website
Speaking to an Ethiopian American friend of mine over the week end I came to know that there are more doctors of Ethiopian descent in Chicago alone than in the entire nation of Ethiopia. I did not believe my ears when I heard this, so I went and looked some sources to confirm if that was really true. I am afraid to say that it is indeed true according to estimates made by the International Organization for Migration, a Swiss group that examines migration trends and issues.
“It is not that Africa does not have the talent; it’s just that a lot of it isn’t resident in the continent,” says Richard Cambridge-who is the director of World Bank’s African Diaspora Program. Dr. Cambridge Program aims to harness the skills and resources of the millions of people of African descent living around the world.
According to estimates by the World Bank’s African Diaspora Program, diasporas from sub-Saharan Africa sends as much as $40 billion a year back to the continent in the form of remittance or cash transfers to relatives. This highlights the fact that beyond expat talent, there are also finances that could be tapped.
African nations need to create and develop mechanisms/policies to channel at least a portion of these billions into developmental projects. In addition, a conducive environment need to be created to allow for some of these African expats to give time (volunteer their know-how) or money back to their homeland.
The bottom line is that the diaspora is an important integral of any strategy to deal with the development of the African continent. We often time hear that Africa don’t have the people, don’t have the institution needed. But, the truth is that we have well educated people with resources that can be used as a catalyst for development.
Let us eliminate that notion that Africa cannot develop because of lack of capacity. We have both (well- educated and skilled personnel scattered all around the globe as well as the resources to go with it) if you follow my line of thinking.
Here is a link to the African Diaspora Program, courtesy of Kate Bomz.
JULIUS NYERERE: THE LEGEND OF AFRICA’S ELDER STATESMAN.
Compiled by Nina Mbabazi Rukakaire
PART 3: The move to the left of Center.
In March 1959, Governor Turnbull proposed an increase in TANU’s role in the government. His first move was to appoint five members to the twelve man cabinet. Julius Nyerere of course was against this. He insisted that since Tanganyika majority were blacks, the majority cabinet must be held by black Tanganyikans. Turnbull conceded and Nyerere’s gamble before the elections vis a vis Mtemvu’s position paid off. The wisdom to know what fight to pick was one of Nyerere’s strengths. When asked by JR Bailey about independence Nyerere’s response was; “It is up to the people of Tanganyika – Europeans and Africans and Asians – to say when and in what form. We want to set an example from which Rhodesia and Kenya can learn” And with this spirit, he set on the task of designing Tanzania’s way forward. “You are my brother” the words that they said carried an age old message of love and hope. Nyerere certainly believed in those four words and it would shape his message to Africa. With the mindset that Africa had a lot to offer, Nyerere designed what he thought would be Africa’s gift to the world. An African socialist state where every person was a worker, equal in stature and able to contribute equally.
“Our first step must be to re-educate ourselves” he wrote “To regain our former attitude of work. We took care of the community and the community took care of us”. We neither needed or wished to exploit our fellow man – the basis of Ujamaa must be that a member of society is entitled to a piece of land on condition that he uses it. True socialism is an attitude of mind” And with those words, movement towards the Ujamaa began.
Tanganyika’s greatest problem towards movement to Ujamaa was the fact that the rural population was greatly dispersed and Nyerere’s new ideology was not coherent. His message also came at a time when Kawawa was emphasizing party discipline and was not speaking the same language as Nyerere. His (Nyerere) heart was in the right place, but he didn’t have the mental faculty to design it properly. He was after all a simple man. The ideology was a great hit among the people of Tanzania. By early 1964 the Tanganyikans on their own initiative and from what they perceived as the word of delivery from the President formed 300 embryonic collective farms. Within a year, almost all had collapsed. The problem? There seemed to be no clear plan to follow other than the call by the President to Ujamaa.
Nyerere in turn responded by setting up the rural settlement commission whose duty was to approve plans for new schemes and finance those new schemes. Israeli experts were brought in to help make these village cooperatives viable. The village settlement program was key in the first five year plan for the move towards prosperous Tanzania. But by 1966, it had failed.
Nyerere said “ To burden the farmer with heavy debts at the outset and at the same time to make it appear that government can provide all services is not the best way of promoting activity.” In 1966 he abandoned the idea of village settlement schemes.
Why did the scheme fail, the design of the scheme though simple would not have been so disastrous? Well, what Nyerere designed between 1962 and 1965 was what we called development committees and ten house party cells. In Uganda we still use this system in Northern Uganda. It is called “Nyumba Kumi”. Nyerere wanted to build a two way all weather road between the political centre and the rural masses. What happened was the reverse, with government dictating to the villages what they thought best and ignoring the requests by the farmers. What government failed to understand is that every society grows with its own science and if they are not allowed to explore their own homegrown solutions, the ideas that they are asked to implement will fail.
It didn’t help that in January 1964, Zanzibar was held hostage by a raving Ugandan lunatic calling himself Field Marshal John Okello whose origins are in Lira. So Nyerere was implementing a scheme while having difficulties settling Zanzibar’s political issues. He was also beset by a mutiny in the army in 1964 that was to rock his government.
While the Ujamaa was failing, the Tanzanian economy was growing. Nyerere had also embarked on an industrialization plan whose main focus was import substitution. The plan was to be financed through the sale of agricultural goods coming out of the Ujamaa villages, foreign direct investment (FDI) and aid. However, Tanzania was not able to attract that much needed FDI because of the risk factor attached to our African states at that period of time. Also the fact that world prices in sisal had dropped drastically, probably a European attempt to destabilize the African economies that were no longer providing markets for their goods, but still, because of Nyerere’s message of import substitution, they registered a balance of payment surplus and were able to cushion some of the Ujamaa failings. But few jobs and private investment were forthcoming.
Nyerere said in 1966; “The amount of private investment which has taken place over the past year is quite frankly a disappointment to us. We have special tax concessions to encourage new investments; we have investment guarantees for bringing capital into the country; and we have many arrangements designed to encourage private enterprise of a character which will serve our nation. Yet the level of private investment does not appear to be as great as that provided for in the plan” A very honest speech from the leader.
Tanzania at this time was heavily dependent on aid and Nyerere felt that his vision of an egalitarian and democratic African society was slipping away. President Nyerere then called a party conference and on 5th February, 1967 unveiled a carefully written document that had far reaching implications. Written in his very blunt and vivid style, Nyerere unveiled the Arusha Declaration. The Arusha declaration introduced a move to nationalize all Industry and productive institutions. The justification in Nyerere’s words? “ the major means of production and exchange to be under the control of the peasants and workers”.
The plan was for a radical reform of the rural areas, improvement of rural standards of living, improved productivity by collective villagisation and increased productivity through self help groups. It was no longer voluntary villagisation like before but was now compulsory. By mid 1970’s most citizens had been moved to these villages and Tanzania’s food production had taken a drastic drop. Tanzania then had no choice but to import staple foods to stave off hunger.
Nyerere in the Arusha declaration asserted: Socialism is a way of life, and a socialist society cannot simply come into existence, a socialist society can only be built by those who believe in, and who themselves practice, the principles of socialism. The first duty of a TANU member and especially of a TANU leader is to accept these socialist principles and to live his own live in accordance with them. In particular, a genuine TANU leader will not live off the sweat of another man nor commit any feudalistic or capitalistic actions.
Because of our emphasis on money, we have made another big mistake. We have put too much emphasis on industries. Just as we have said, “without money , there can be no development, we also seem to say, Industries are the basis of development” without industries there is no development. The mistake we are making is to think that development begins with industries. It is a mistake because we do not have the means to establish many modern industries in our country. We do not have either the necessary finances or the technical know-how.The development of a country is brought about by people, not money. Money and the wealth it represents, is the result and not the basis of development”
Thousands marched though Dar Es Salaam in support of the declaration. The old Ujamaa model as well as colonialism had bred a state of haves and have nots; Foreigners still owned a large section of Tanzania’s economy.
The Black Tanzanians rejoiced; the Europeans and Asians were not happy, but for once Nyerere saw how deeply impoverished his people were and it shook him to the bone. He hated the kind of leaders that TANU leaders had become, each owning shares in business in foreign companies, he stated that rich men can’t be asked politely to give up their shares, it must be taken away from them. No foreign aid was coming; people had to work hard if they wanted to improve themselves. How could TANU allow the repatriation of funds anyhow? Unemployed had to be sent back home to the rural area, the government made it clear; there was no room for slackers. The youth were turned into “Green guards” to ensure the success of socialism. The people were happy more so with the new leadership code that forbade and leaders of government from doing business and earning two salaries.
Although the idea was wonderful and welcomed by all, nobody had planned for the communal income. How as it supposed to be shared? What was the milestone for a day’s work? What happens if someone does not meet the desired target? If they are lazy? What about those who decided to work privately after work. How would they share income? The response to this new Ujamaa was slow despite the incentives of building schools, running water, clinics and investment.
In 1973 due to the slow response, TANU committed themselves to actively relocating people into villages. Nyerere said; “This huge task TANU committed itlsef to involved the forced relocation of millions of people” The response of the people was not so nice. Nyerere used the police, army, national service and militiamen to move people to the villages. This they did with brutality.
By 1974, 2 million out of Tanzania’s 9 million were in Ujamaa villages and in 1976 they were 13 million. What happened next was catastrophic. In 1970 Tanzania exported 540,000 tons of surplus maize, in 1974, it imported 300,000 tons of maize. TANU had been exposed as being ignorant of what the citizenry wanted.
But for all the failure to understand the peasantry, Ujamaa had done four wonderful things. There were drugs in the hospitals, and the classrooms had been built. The people of Tanzania were no longer 120 ethnicities; they were now one people, united for the good of country. Ujamaa paved the way for a brighter prosperous Tanzania and Nyerere built the Tazara railway to tap the potential. It was called “Freedom railway”. The Nationalization of industry had yielded tremendous achievements for Tanzania and for this Nyerere had reason to smile; Government parastatals had increased from 64 to 139. But 1979 was to see the beginning of a six year drought that would rock Nyerere’s faith in himself. It did not help that the neighbor Uganda was misbehaving.
Nyerere described the achievements in Agriculture as such; “Since the Arusha Declaration was passed, we have talked a very great deal about rural development and the expansion of agriculture as the basis for Tanzania’s future. And we have spend large sums of money on rural development. However, the truth is that the agriculture results have been very disappointing”
Nyerere’s speech to celebrate ten years of the Arusha Declaration was not only sincere, it was telling in what he was going to do. His speech showed a leader who had grown with country and who was willing to accept where he had gone wrong. His speech showed that despite all his efforts, he had realized that country was bigger than him and he had brought them thus far, but would not lead them to the Promised Land. He had set the foundation for a prosperous Tanzania but the time had come for him to advance Tanzania one step further on its democratization goal.
As Nyerere prepared for a new future, he quietly relieved Kawawa of his duties. He had used Kawawa as a scapegoat for his failings but Chama Cha Mapinduzi was all too aware of where the real problem lay and by 1983, it was very clear that Nyerere would not be seeking re-election.
As he announced a new leader of government business, Mr. Sokoine took over as Prime Minister. Sokoine stated quite clearly ; “ In Tanzania, it is the party which is supreme” and with his speech began a movement towards a new leadership in Tanzania, and change in regional policy towards other East African countries.
With a solid leader in charge of government business, strong critics in Oscar Kambona, Babu and Bibi Titi Mohammed, Julius Nyerere moved to build a great legacy in his foreign policy that would earn him worldwide title of “unblemished hero”. What was his foreign policy?
As written by various contributing critics. JR Bailey, Mohamed Amin, Kanyama Chiume, Sir Thomas Hopkinson, Haji Konde, GR Naidoo, Alan Rake, Abdulla Riyami, Robert Ryamamu and others.
JULIUS NYERERE: THE LEGEND OF AFRICA’S ELDER STATESMAN.
PART 1: How he saw it in the end.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, founding father of Tanzania and often times defined as the “Elder Statesman” of Africa was by far the most interesting of all African leaders. Not only did he lead Tanzania to independence and unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, he set upon a path of equality among the citizens or Ujamaa; that was to produce the greatest policy disaster in Tanzania history since the departure of the Germans in World War I.
But through this disaster came a higher conscientious of what needed to be done to put Tanzania on the right path. Nyerere had the wisdom to lead his country to this path of steady growth before bowing out. By putting country and party first, he was able to speak with such openness and sincerity to his people in what is probably one of his greatest speeches. This speech defined his entire legacy and achievements as head of state. Nyerere said;
I am a very poor prophet. In 1967 a group of youth who were marching in support of the Arusha declaration asked me how long it would take Tanzania to become socialist. I thought 30 years. I was wrong. I am sure it will take us much more than that… Ten years after the Arusha declaration Tanzania is certainly neither socialist nor self–reliant. The nature of exploitation has changed, but it has not been altogether eliminated. There are still great inequalities between citizens. Our democracy is imperfect. A life of poverty is still the experience of the majority of our citizens.
We have not reached our goal; it is not even in sight. But that is neither surprising nor alarming….We have made reasonably good progress towards providing basic health, education and transportation facilities for all the people of this country…The measure of our success is that these fundamental achievements are generally taken for granted. We are now much more conscious of the difficulties in our daily lives than of fundamental exploitation….Today such difficulties and frustrations make us forget where we came from, and even make a reminder seem like an irrelevant impertinence. It is quite true that when our shops were full of a large variety of goods, the vast majority of people had no money to buy them…But people have now developed a little; they have higher expectations of life.
Over the last ten years we have done quite well in spreading basic social services to more and more people in the rural areas. More remains to be done; but we shall only be able to do it if we produce more wealth. And we have not been doing very well on that front.
Political and public service leadership has undoubtedly improved over the past ten years, in both commitment and efficiency. But still leader too often forget the purpose of government and party and of ALL the laws and regulations in this country to serve people….The truth is that despite our official policies, and despite all our democratic institutions, some leaders still do not LISTEN to people. They find it much easier to tell people what to do. Our leaders at all levels must make more effort to reach decisions by discussion. They must encourage the people to criticize mistakes which have been made, and they must be willing to work with people in rectifying past mistakes and avoiding new ones. Leadership by intimidation is not leadership. And it will work for a short time only.
The real danger to Ujamaa in this country does not come at all from people’s criticism of leaders. It is arrogance, incompetence, and slackness among leaders which we have to guard against, and we must do so. Every leader should privately examine his own behavior to see where he/she has fallen down. Leaders are not gods; they are able to be effective and to serve the people; only on the basis of mutual respect between themselves and those who have entrusted them with responsibility.
We have cause for great satisfaction in our achievements of the past ten years. But we have no cause at all for complacency….As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Arusha Declaration, let us determine that the twentieth anniversary (of his leadership) will find us more productive, and therefore more free as a nation and as individuals.
And with these words, Julius Nyerere began the end of his chapter of leadership in Tanzania. As he moved to unify Tanganyika and Zanzibar in his final decade of leadership, Nyerere who was obsessed with the cult like image of Chairman Mao Zedong, prepared to build for himself the greatest legacy of leadership in Africa.
Nyerere led his people quite successfully to independence. From the onset, he was beset with all sorts of conflicting interests in the country. His vision of a prosperous socialist Tanzania had failed. Ujamaa had yielded more hunger and anger from the public and a level of disillusionment that he could not fix. Nyerere had survived two coup attempts, hostilities from Kenya and Uganda, bloodshed on the Island, still his people loved him.
He had displayed a tendency to wobble on important issues and though the people that started the struggle with him had left him, it was of his own making and his own character weaknesses. But still through all of this, Julius Nyerere recognized his pivotal role in the history of a nation that he had helped build and he gracefully bowed out.
This is the beginning of a serialization of Nyerere’s leadership. As we reflect upon his leadership, let us understand just how effective he was in preparing Tanzania for the current prosperous state that it is today. His weaknesses notwithstanding, understanding his depth of commitment to country is important in any assessment of political development in East African Federation, because his vision still defines Tanzania’s social, political and economic policies and their perception of an East African Federation.
Mwalimu as he so fondly was called once said; “We have learnt this hard fact of life, that there are no shortcuts to our aspirations”
What was it that drove the elder statesman of Africa?
I am sharing two videos today. The first video is really nice and talks about issues related to high failure rates in the Tanzanian Education System and it is particularly so for the sub-county (ward) secondary schools. The first video is in Swahili and the second is in English. Please watch both videos and help change the life and future of a Tanzanian child, if you can!
I am not sure who recorded the first video but thank you anyway.
It is very interesting to see the old guy in the video (Swahili one) pointing out one of the rotten cultural taboos in Tanzania. Many people understand the root causes of the high failure rates but no one will stand up and speak out about those issues. For Tanzania to succeed in the education front, Tanzanians need to change (speak out) to confront myriad of issues that confront them. If you don’t speak out, people in the leadership positions assume everything is okay and there are no needs for improvements.
The second video is by the organisation called SEED and they sponsor children to receive education in Tanzania. Please support this organization if you can. The Tanzania education is considered to be free with a lot of strings attached to it. Because of that, many poor families cannot afford to pay for it. From school fees to numerous everyday contributions to a childs education, it amounts to a high sum that thousands of Tanzanians parents are unable to give.
The African Regional Manager for the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Mr. Gelrald Bigurube, confirmed that the German government will finance construction of tarmac roads that will link dozens of rural villages adjacent to the Serengeti National Park.
He also said that the World Bank and the German government are also ready to finance southern route that will link the Arusha region with the Lake Victoria regions without crossing the Serengeti.
According to an interview with the Daily News, Mr. Bigurube said, “Linking rural villages in Serengeti and Loliondo districts with their district headquarters is the best way of addressing economic needs of the communities living near the park.”
The news article says Mr. Bigurube “disclosed that the German Federal Ministry for Development was ready to finance feasibility study of the rural roads in the districts if the idea will have blessings from the government of Tanzania.”
He said the “international community is also concerned with the needs of the people in an environmental friendly way but the road should not be close to the park because it will have serious impact that cannot be mitigated.”
The next step is up to President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete who recently turned down an offer from the World Bank to fund the alternate route.
While I agree wholeheartedly with Generali Ulimwengu’s words of wisdom to poor Ugandans, the same words need to go around to Kenya with their political families as well as Tanzania.
Jenerali, your own neck of the woods is indeed practicing the same in case you haven’t noticed. Or was this just a way of sending home a message through a neighbour? Just wondering.
If you take a carefully look to what is happening in Tanzania, the BMWs are replicating everywhere. There is no need to mention names here; majority of the Tanzanian knows who these people are. If one of your parents worked as a Minister in the past, you will have a ministerial position, Ubunge, Mkuu wa Wilaya and so forth.
To quote Mr. Ulimwengu “ The uncreative mind of the African ruler — creative only when devising means of looting — limits him to the immediate family as a source of both continuity and security”.
But, why do these leaders resort to doing all this? The answer lies on the fact that they are not doing a good job for the majority of their people. If you do a good job, you don’t have to have anybody (croonies or otherwise) to watch your back when your term is over.
The—Presidents–wa—Muyaya-types and political genetic incumbency all over Africa are just ways for these ruler to protect themselves for underperforming or looting public funds.
While working for Frontier Tanzania in the late 1990s I saw firsthand the devastating impact dynamite fishing had on coral reefs, the lives of the fishermen, and fish abundance in southern Tanzania. As an Asistant Marine Reserach Coordinator, I collected baseline data on the levels of biodiversity and habitat destruction using various marine survey techniques. The data collected was used to propose and finally lead to the opening-up of Mnazi Bay Marine Park in Luvura, Msimbati, Mtwara.
During my time with Frontier-Tanzania, together with Dr. Vicki Howe, Dr. Jean Luc Solandt, Dr. Jennie Mallela, Simon, Ian, Paul and many groups of research assistants from across the globe–we organized and facilitated a marine environmental education program for 12 primary schools 2 secondary schools and 1 teachers college on marine resources and conservation methods that included 365 students and 76 teachers.
In addition, we organized and facilitated a marine environmental education program for 19 local fishermen and 2 fisheries officers on marine resources and conservation, coastal zone management, power boat handling, and the collection and handling of fisheries data.
Furthermore, we developed the first bilingual (Swahili and English) environmental education teaching and learning manual for secondary schools. The teaching and learning manual hard information on coral reefs, mangroves, and sea grasses. The manual was intended to spear-head marine and environmental awareness in the coast areas of Tanzania.
The program target was environmental awareness to children who were more likely to become fishermen when they grew up. It helped the coastal resources users to understand why destructive fishing methods such as dynamite fishing are not good for the environment and to themselves. It also provided experiential learning and teaching materials to teachers and fisheries officers. The hope was that these efforts could be replicated elsewhere in the coastal communities.
It is very disheartening to hear that after all efforts and money from various donors and commitment from various organizations (Tanzania Coastal Management Partnership and the like) that dynamite fishing has returned to Tanzania with a vengeance.
To read more about dynamite fishing in Tanzania, click here.
Mr. Mahadev Desai Receiving Gandhi Foundation Award from late Giriraj RaoI had a virtual conversation with Mr. Mahadev, Desai over the week-end here in Atlanta. He is a prolific Tanzania (Tanganyika) born writer and a freelance journalist of Indian decent. He writes for various Atlanta newspapers including the Atlanta Dunia magazine, Khabar magazine or NRIPULSE newspaper. To read more about Mr. Mahadev’s biography and the numerous accolades he has received over his long career, please click here.
Mr. Mahadev told me in one of his e mails “I left Tanganyika in 1942 when I was nine years old. I have not visited Tanzania since.” I wish Mr. Mahadev could have the opportunity to visit Tanzania and see for himself the contribution of Tanzanian of Indian decent to the economy, education and political system in Tanzania. Dar Es Salaam of 1942 would be quite different from today’s Dar Es Salaam, I can imagine.
In Addition, Mr. Mahadev recently reviewed the inspiring memoirs of J.K.Chande a Tanzanian of Indian descent who was born and raised in Bukene, Tabora, in Tanzania. Such a coincidence, as I myself was born in Mabama, Tabora and was raised both in Tabora and Morogoro.
To read more about the review of Mr. J.K. Chande and his magnificent contribution to Tanzania click here. By the way, the book is called A Knight in Africa: Journey from Bukene. I have ordered a copy for myself from Amazon.com. Anyway, my book just arrived today.
This book is something. If you like reading books about Africa, don’t miss this one. It is an incredible memoir.
There are so many talented children in Tanzania, but most of their potentials is being wasted before it can be realized. This kid in the video below could be the next Will Smith. The lack of resources and programs to foster children talents in science, arts, acting, story telling and the like will result to this kid’s dream to not being realized.
“The headline you won’t see in the Tanzanian media today, “JK Sack Defense Minister and Army Chief.” And what you will see is JK visits “Munitions Victim in a Hospital”. With photo of His Excellence kissing an injured baby. BUTIAMA TUMEZIKA MENGI.” A quote from- Henry Suffa.
The leadership in Tanzania is very predictable. Meetings will be held over this incident but none of the top people responsible will have a sweat over what happened twice over the course of two years. Nobody will voluntary resign or be sacked over their own incompetence, and/or gross irresponsibility.
What you will hear from these meetings are empty promises of never to happen again, “return to your homes…..the place is very secure now”…..the same words heard two years ago. Did it not happen again just the day before yesterday?!?
It is understandable that terrorist acts are actually pretty rare in this part of the globe except for the 1998 Embassy bombings in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi, but incompetence, irresponsibility and ignorance are horrifyingly common place.
I will end with this quote I saw on one of the daily news channels here “I guess when we sold them the weapons we forgot to include instruction manuals on how to store ammunitions”. It really cracked me up despite the seriousness of the whole issue
The toll from last night’s blasts at the army amory in Mbagala military base in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, is 20 people dead and 184 injured. Similar incident like this one happened in 2009, in which dozens of people were killed and several more were seriously injured.
I guess it is time to start asking questions. Who is reponsible here? And, who dropped the ball twice? Does someone in the ranks need to resign or at-least held accountable? The “it was an accident” excuse is so yesterday and lame. This is how people avoid their responsibilities by blame allah, jesus and/or god. Kazi ya Mungu (god’s will) has nothing to do with repeated and avoidable incidences.
Click the link below to see a pic of exploding bombs by cnn ireport from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. If you are in Dar don’t hesitate to share your experience here even in Swahili. We would like to hear first hand account from people living in Dar and especially those close to Gongolamboto and other closest spots to the bomb explosions. I hope everyone survived these never ending explosion in that part of town.
Rwandan Minister Enjoying the Girls!!!Rwanda’s Minister of Culture and Sports, Joseph Habineza, resigned yesterday after pictures of him in suggestive positions with women were published on the Internet.
There have been a spate of these pictures recently. First, with Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete playing hanky panky. Then there was that Liberian minister, in his naked magnificence–except that one was published in a newspaper in the country.
Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is to be tried for consorting with an underage prostitute, and when she got in trouble later, good old Silvio used his office to spring her from a police jail! That Berlusconi must be an African president in white skin.
Having said that, I think in some of these cases, like Habineza’s, there is too much puritanical hysteria. He is shown dancing with a grown woman, holding her close, then with a larger group of women all squeezing him. At no point is any of them naked.
Evan Rubara Speaking in the U.S.As an investigative journalist in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, Evans Rubara deals mostly with social justices and human rights. He is most passionate about his work with the mining industries in Tanzania. The multinational mining industries use potent cyanide to flush out the gold specks, and even have their own private airstrip to take the gold straight out of the country, he says. Tanzania is soaked with profitable natural resources: diamonds, gold, rubies, and tanzanite which is only found in Tanzania. With all these riches in the soil of their land, why is Tanzania a Third World country?
“It’s not about African pride. It’s about heritage. That’s what we’re fighting for,” Evans Rubara says. The answer lies within Western multinational companies like Barrick Gold Mines, Anglogold Ashanti, and a corrupt government, he says. “Colonial attitude has carried over, like they were the king-makers,” Rubara says. Corporations have re-instilled rule through colonization, he suggests. These companies are looting our country and killing our people, Rubara says. “We do not have a history in Tanzania of fighting with ourselves, but it is coming,” he says. “If we are not careful, we will have a civil war.”
There are many gold mining companies in Tanzania, but Rubara only takes issue with the inhumane. The worst is Canadian-owned company Barrick Gold, Rubara says. Amnesty International accused Barrick of killing 70 miners by burying them alive. The company has denied the claims, but Rubara isn’t satisfied. “I say allegedly because of my journalism demands,” he says, “but personally I know it’s true.”
Natural resources are a nation’s pride; and, when you take this away, you unclothe the nationals of their pride and heritage, Rubara says. “I get pissed off when I talk about mining issues,” Rubara says. “They [mining companies] rape everybody—economically and culturally speaking; they take our wealth to build their own country.”
A voice for the voiceless
When Rubara was 15 years old, he was orphaned, left to care for himself and his two younger brothers. Rubara held several odd jobs so he could send his brothers to school. He taught himself all that he could before getting involved with missionaries who helped send him to school in Kenya. He underwent some journalism training, but got an intensive six-month training on investigative journalism while working for an Tanzanian investigative paper. “I became a journalist to speak on behalf of the voiceless,” he says.
Rubara says not much has changed in the policies of Tanzania since he began his investigations. He admits, however, a lot of the cases he reported on are either in court or the people at fault have stopped. The article that landed Rubara in jail was picked up by the Legal and Human Rights Centre; it dealt with the illegal eviction of six villages for a rich Arabian investor looking to start a farm. Land is the only equity Tanzanians have; when it is taken away there is nothing left to do but to beg, Rubara says. “It’s not about African pride,” Rubara says. “It’s about heritage. That’s what we’re fighting for. Good heritage is when all is equal in the face of the law.”
A few weeks ago an executive of Barrick approached Rubara at a seminar and said, “Evans, I want you to stop talking,” according to Rubara. Rubara has been thrown into custody, received death threats, and been beaten for his investigative reporting, but still says he will never stop. “If the liberation of my country will come from my death, I would rather not see results than die begging on my knees,” Rubara says. Tanzanian land is being raped and plundered while the majority in Tanzania are unemployed, Rubara says.
Due to extremely high unemployment, prostitution is prevalent for men and women, Rubara says. This creates a dangerous situation for the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. In 2005, Tanzania had the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in East Africa, Rubara says. “[The unemployed] have nothing else to do, they are hopeless,” Rubara says. “They are waiting for their death
To read more stories about Evans Rubara go to AfricaJournalists.org
Serengeti High WayI am not going to discuss the pros and cons of the recently approved road that will cut through the Serengeti Nation Park in Tanzania. This road (the northern circuit road) is only projected to serve about 2 millions Tanzanians compared to the Southern route which will serve about 10-12 millions Tanzanians. If the main reason for building the road is to impact a bigger segment of the Tanzanian population, then why not build the southern route? It’s a no brainer to me.
If you want to learn more about the negative impacts this road will have on the Serengeti and Maasai Mara National Parks, click here and here and here. These websites have a collection of the projected pros and cons and I do not see the reasons to waste my energy duplicating the same information.
One serious impact of the just approved Mara-Arusha Road through the Serengeti would be the cutting off of the wildebeest migration. This is one of the major factors that attract tourists across the globe to come and spend their hard-earned cash in Tanzania and Kenya every year. The road will not only impact the Serengeti ecosystem and tourism industry in Tanzania but also in Kenya. I am just wondering what the Kenyans are doing to influence a different outcome?
I thought we are building an East African community that is going to embrace and protect the interests of its fellow members. Building this road will not help to foster the East Africa integration which is the aspiration of many East Africans. It will actually damage Tanzania’s standing on that regard….. Period!!!
Happy Faces.It took me a minute to organize the Kibogoji Educational Resource and the About Kibogoji pages of the blog today. It’s a work in progress therefore keep visiting these pages in the future for more updates. If you are in College/University or have relatives, sons, daughters and/or friends who are still in secondary schools, high schools——direct them to these pages as they contain information that might be useful for them. And it’s all free.
Anyhow, I was surfing various blogs and came across a beautiful post about the starting of the second phase of the secondary education initiative in Tanzania last week. Click here to learn more from the lenana.net blog. The questions the author poses in this post are very interesting and could open the door for freedom of information for the citizens of Tanzania.
Finally, thank you my readers for commenting on the posts and for your participation on the social vibe banner. You helped me raise close to 80 hours for the Invincible Child Charity Organization that help pay school fees for displaced children in northern Uganda. I will appreciate if you could take a few minutes of your time today…and play a few activities in the social vibe banner to raise more money for those kids. Asante Sana!!!!!!
I welcome your ideas on various issues pertaining to the lives of our brothers and sisters in Tanzania and the rest of East Africa.
This is a once a year event that brings the best of African artists from across the continent at the Old Fort, in Stone Town, Zanzibar. This year’s festival will start on February 9th and commencing on February 13th, 2012.
The festival’s slogan for this year “african music under the african sun and skies” will have more than 40 musical bands from accross the continent. The festivity this year will also include parades, other nicer and more enhanced entertainments in Stone Town.
If you live in the east African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique) or planning to visit the region around those dates make all efforts not to miss this incredible opportunity to listen to the great sounds and voices that Afrika has to offer.
Check the life-in-dar.com blog for more details on the event or you can click here to access the Busara Music Festival official website.
Ugandan Gay Rights ActivistI am very disgusted by the news coming out of the beautiful city of Kampala. The killing of an innocent human being should be forcefully condemned. I just do not understand why some people kill others just because those people hold a different world view . The killing of a gay rights Ugandan is utterly incomprehensible. What do you gain by hating and killing gays and lesbians in your society?
What do you think of gays/lesbians in your own city? Should they not enjoy their sexual rights the same way you enjoy yours? Gays/lesbians don’t produce gays (they don’t make babies)—it is the straight parents that give birth to gays? Should they be killed too?
Fancy Nkuhi has been appointed to be the new D.C. for the Manyoni District in the Singida region, Tanzania. It’s great to see the youth rubbing elbows with the old in the Tanzanian leadership positions.
I am pleased to see a young woman taking a public position, hopefully the youth in Tanzania will have some hope for a great future. What are your views in the president’s decision to appoint a fresh from college lady to lead Manyoni District?
There is a huge divide between the two groups that is masked by skin color.
For the two groups to get along, they need to understand what divides them
and make efforts to bridge it.
There are vast differences between the two groups relating to culture,
attitudes, mentality, behavior and general outlook on life. The only thing
the two groups have in common is skin color.
There is no question that black Americans were subjected to the most
inhumane treatment during slavery. Even abolition did not bring much relief.
They were denied their political and civil rights; the struggle for these
rights was long and arduous. They faced discrimination in jobs, housing,
police harassment; you name it. Much progress has been made in America but
racism still remains a problem although not as severe as it used to be. Jim
Crow laws have been repealed and equal rights are vigorously enforced.
Nonetheless, much more work still needs to be done. Racial discrimination —
like crime, unemployment, poverty, or inflation — cannot be eradicated
completely; only minimized. The benefits of their struggle, however, have
flowed disproportionately to other groups; for example, black Africans and
white women.
Most black Africans in the U.S. are *foreigners, *whose experiences are
vastly different from black Americans and are not likely to be able to
relate to those of black Americans – especially, the younger generation of
black Africans in the U.S. They do not relate to the civil rights movement;
they were not even born during the civil rights era. Nor are they likely to
be exercised over instances of racial slights.
Black Africans in the U.S. are either here to seek education, as political
refugees, to seek economic opportunity. They speak with a *different accent,
*which makes it easier for whites to distinguish them from black Americans.
The reasons why whites treat black Africans differently are due to the
following:
1. Black Africans are foreigners and, as such, are more approachable to
whites. I have had many whites, upon knowing that I am from Ghana, approach
me and say, “Oh, I have been to your country” or even attempt to speak to me
in one of Ghana’s native languages. Well, he may not speak it perfectly but
it is an ice-breaker.
2. Black Africans are not likely to use incendiary racial vitriol or
cuss words and, as such, do not pose a threat to them.
3. Black Africans are not of the complaining lot. Most of them seek
economic opportunities in America or have escaped oppression and social
miserly at home. If a white boss asks a black African to do some dirty job,
he is not likely to complain because he is thankful he has a job. Back home,
he might be starving. White bosses find black African workers to be more
reliable.
It is for exactly the same reasons why whites found President Barak
Obama *acceptable*to them, rather than, say, Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton. There is
an ocean of difference between either one of them and President Obama. Obama
was not part of the civil rights movement. He made known the fact that his
father was Kenyan, a foreigner. That did not discourage white Americans.
Obama does not play the race card and he is not always complaining, using
vitriolic language. He speaks good English too.
There are also other differences between black Africans and black Americans.
The first is *culture. *Most Africans are strongly attached to their culture
and homeland, even if they become naturalized U.S. citizens. By culture is
meant their traditional culture, food, dress, music, language, etc.
Traditional culture imbues Africans with certain *values;* for example,
strong community or family ties or awareness, respect for elders, social
behavior, mannerisms, how to speak to strangers, the elderly, etc.
For black Americans, sadly, there is no discernible culture besides the
hip-hop culture. The black family has disintegrated. Most black households
are headed by single mothers. Then there are teenage pregnancies, school
drop-outs, etc. I can go on but I guess you know what I mean. There are many
black Americans who are in limbo, as far as culture is concerned. It is
difficult for them to accept the white culture that oppressed them for so
long. That is perfectly understandable. They would like to return to their
“African culture” but they do not have a good understanding of African
culture. They left Africa too long ago and have lost it. There are some
black Americans who are making serious efforts to re-connect with Africa and
re-claim their lost culture, though.
The second difference is attitudinal. Black Africans in the U.S. make the
quest for *education* a priority. There was a case of a Sierra Leonean who
lost his High School Diploma. He went back to school, retook the entire
examination again to get another diploma, instead of just asking for a copy
of the old one. Unfortunately, education doesn’t seem to be a priority for
young black Americans. I am speaking from experience, as a University
Professor. Of course, I encountered really sharp black American students
too.
Then there is differing attitudes toward *government. *In their struggle, it
was the government which gave black Americans their civil rights, voting
rights, affirmative action, welfare, etc. As a result, black Americans tend
to see the government as the *solution* to their problems. Black Africans,
on the other hand, have this ingrained cultural contempt for government,
which they see as *the problem. *A Lesotho traditional chief expressed it
the best: “Here in Lesotho, we have two problems – rats and the government.
Most black Africans will affirm that their governments are
*dysfunctional. *Tell a Nigerian to rely on the government to supply him with electricity and he
will probably slap you.
The area that I have clashed most with black American leaders, including
Rev. Jesse Jackson, is that of *relations or policies toward Africa. *Black
Americans originally came from Africa but do not understand contemporary
Africa. They tend to project racism and white supremacy as the source of
Africa’s problems. Therefore, they tend to see oppression only when it wears
a white face. They were very instrumental in the struggle against
colonialism in 1950s and 60s, as well as the campaign against white
apartheid in South Africa. These campaigns were against *white oppressors.*But there are *black oppressors *in Africa too, which black Americans tend to ignore. They
were nowhere to be seen mounting a campaign against Hutu tribal apartheid in
Rwanda, Tutsi apartheid in Burundi, or Arab apartheid in Sudan. In fact,
black Americans seldom spoke out against the enslavement of blacks in
Mauritania and Sudan even in these modern times.
Again, I do not hold that against black Americans. I just try to understand
them. You see, throughout their history and experience, they have only seen
white oppressors and exploiters. They never lived under such brutal tyrants
like Samuel Doe, Sani Abacha, Idi Amin, etc. So black tyranny is something
black Americans cannot relate to.
They also tend to analyze Africa’s problems through a racism/white supremacy
prism, which is not relevant. Racism is not particularly relevant in Africa,
except in some southern African states such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Namibia. The more relevant issue in Africa is *tribalism,* which, again,
black Americans can’t relate to.
Finally, if the black race is to make it, it won’t be through racial
solidarity through skin color. Rather, it will have to be through *positive
action. *It involves replacing the entire *black leadership – in both
America and Africa!* These leaders have served their usefulness and
over-stayed their welcome. But they stay and stay and stay, even when their
ideas are obsolete and no longer relevant. Yet, they keep recycling
themselves – appearing, disappearing and then appearing again and again.
Enough. We need *new leaders. *The Rev. Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons, the
Mugabes, the Ghaddafys, the Mubaraks, etc. have done their bit. We are
grateful. Now vanish. Haba.
This is important because the progress black Americans have struggled hard
for is being undercut by the buffoonish and murderous antics of black
African leaders. Since 1960, they have caused the deaths of more than 20
million people. In the Congo DR alone, more than 5 million people died from
war and war-related diseases. In Sudan, the civil wars claimed an estimated
4 million lives. Then there were the civil wars in Angola, Mozambique,
Biafra, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, and on and on. And get this: The 20
million lives lost since 1960 *exceed *the total number slaves taken through
West African slave trade ran by the Europeans (10 million) and through the
East African slave trade operated by the Arabs (8 million). Think about it.
How should we react when a white racist tells us that we were better off
under slavery and colonialism? In fact, the black American journalist, Keith
Richburg, was so disgusted by the Rwanda genocide that he wrote he was *glad
*his forefathers were taken out of Africa as slaves!
I hate former Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, but in 1996, he made a
remarkable statement that I will never forget for the rest of my life. He
said: “Black people will never gain the respect they crave with the
condition of Africa as it is.” Remember the Japanese in the U.S. were
interned and treated like slaves in the 1930s. And today?????
The definition of freedom of expression goes like “ The right to express one’s ideas and opinions freely through speech, writing, and other forms of communication but without deliberately causing harm to others’ character and/or reputation by false or misleading statements. Freedom of press is part of freedom of expression’’.
But, do some people go overboard with their interpretation of freedom of expression? Look at the picture below and don’t forget to let me know what you think?
I was in a meeting yesterday and what came up in the agenda? Cell phone use in the classrooms. I was like, are these people out of their minds or what? I have heard a lot of ideas tossed up in these meetings before but none had made my mind to start racing and thinking like this one. The potential benefits are vast and the cost of implementation would be very low. After a careful analysis of the pros and cons of having cell phone as technology support for the best practice delivery of instruction, I came to the conclusion that it might as well be a very good idea indeed.
Have you thought about what a cell phone (smart phones) can do these days? My goodness!! Other than the obvious uses of cell phones like communication during emergency situation, cell phones are more like computers, you can search the World Wide Web to complement course instruction, you can use them for gizmos, tests, instructional videos, quizzes, polling purposes and the potential usage are limitless.
In addition, cell phones are much cheaper comparing to computers—for countries like Tanzania this would be very cost effective. It could potentially be a game changer in terms of technology catch up for Tanzania. It could eliminate the need to go through the computer age to catch up with other nations. Instead of buying computers for each school, you can cut the cost tremendously by buying cell phone mobile labs for each school, cutting the cost for shipping huge computers and the cell phones would provide the same experience as computers.
There are a few pitfalls of cell phone use in classrooms. Some people say it might create an environment that would be conducive for students to cheat during testing. For example, students could easily Google for answers while testing. Classroom management especially for issues like texting, sexting, and cyber bulling can potentially be difficult to manage for the seasoned and the less seasoned educators alike.
What do you think about adopting cell phone technology in the Tanzanian education system? Will it work and save money that the government does not have? What do you foresee to be the main challenges? Opportunities?
This is a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. Land issues are very sensitive in Africa and all over the world. What are your thoughts on this plan…Public Private Partnership with South Korea? Do you think it is a golden opportunity for Tanzania as the officials involved are taunting it? What will happen to the people who are currently residing in the Rufiji Basin? What kind of support and compensation will they need to let their land go? Click the link on the post to listen to the interview. Leave a comment to let others know what your views are on this issue. Enjoy Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
www.kibogoji.com 