Muslim women speaks out in defense of their rights

There are over 750 million Muslim women in the world and the question that often crops up is who speaks for them? Who leads them? This October about 200 Muslim women leaders from about 40 countries attended the ‘Muslim Women Leaders at the Frontline of Change‘ in Istanbul, Turkey, a conference organized by the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE). 

In attendance at the third WIS E gathering were women human rights activists, members of parliament, judges and scholars. Also gracing the event were female religious leaders from other faith groups keen on inter-religious dialogue in an increasingly intolerant world. A number of men, mainly Muslim, were also at the gathering including supportive husbands and imams from Afghanistan and USA, one of them being Imam Faisal who is the partner of the main engine behind WISE, Daisy Khan.

In Muslim women’s organizing, WIS E is relatively youthful as an initiative. In many respects WIS E is a post 9-11 initiative germinating from the undue attention the status of women across the Muslim world received prior to the military incursions in Afghanistan and Iraq. This, however, is but one aspect of WISE.Essentially, WIS E is the Muslim women’s response to global and political development geared at improving the status of Muslim women through activism and movement building.

It is an example of how Muslim women are actively changing their predicament and taking charge of their destinies.Another emerging transnational movement among Muslim women intellectuals, activists and social justice advocates is Musawah, a campaign for equality in Muslim personal law. Perhaps Musawah is one of the first initiatives to be started and or located outside the Arabian Peninsula or the West.

In West Africa, Muslim women organize themselves in national federations as well as through a regional federation. East Africa does not have an overly centralized form of representation for Muslim women and there are a number of organizations, like Sahiba Sisters Foundation and Womankind Kenya that work on development.

Perhaps because of its history, South Africa has some dynamic forms of Muslim organizations addressing an array of social and advocacy issues including HI V/AIDS.While not visible to many social movements in Africa, Muslim women have tried to forge solidarity among themselves and with others with varying amounts of success.

There are initiatives like the Sisterhood is Global Institute founded by immigrants and refugees from Iran and Afghanistan; Karamah, a rights based initiative mainly by lawyers and human rights advocates in the US; the International Committee for Women and Child which was an attempt by the International Council of Da’wah and Relief to engage women post the Fourth World Conference on Women; and Women Living under Muslim Laws, a solidarity network established in the 1980s which deals with the impact of the implementation of Islamic laws on women.

While there are national Muslim women’s organizations or councils in many countries with a sizeable Muslim population, the key difference between these and the organizations being featured is the level of agency women assume in initiating them. At the national level most organizations catering for Muslim women are appendages or wings of mainstream religious bodies.

They were not created with the intention to radically address the needs or position of women. Rather, they were structured very much in line with the structure of mainstream political parties with social functions, not advocacy concerns.New initiatives Muslim women have launched are aimed at recasting the role and status of women in Muslim societies especially after the passage of the Convention on the Elimination of all types of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Thus many Muslim women’s groups and organizations, like other organizations in the larger women’s movement, assumed a right based approach to their identity and work. Locally and internationally this saw the emergence of independent women’s groups or organizations not affiliated to national councils or transnational Muslim bodies.

At the international level, however, women from the Arab world and South East Asia are overly represented in Muslim women’s movements, making them come across as the ultimate representation of Islam and Muslims. Yet there are millions of Muslims in Africa; in some countries they number more than the entire populations in individual Arab countries. At the WIS E meeting, Africa was represented by Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Libya, Senegal, The Gambia, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa.

East Africa, particularly Tanzania, has one of the oldest Arab and Asian migrant populations in the continent. Yet it is rare for women, let alone Muslim women, from across these communities to meet, socialise and strategise as they would when in international spaces. This poses a challenge to women’s movement building, which ideally should begin from the ground and at a national level before it progresses as a regional or global movement.

Muslim women in Africa often have to contend with the perception that they are new converts to Islam and thus not authentic enough when compared to non-Africans. Such perceptions are prevalent among Muslims and non-Muslims alike even though Islam spread to other parts of Africa around the same time it spread to North Africa or the Indian subcontinent.

Such a perception has probably prejudiced donors as well as Islamic foundations from giving to independent Muslim women’s groups in African countries the way they do in the west or in South East Asia.Assistance directed at Muslim women in the present reality has mainly assumed the face of military incursions.

Participants at the WIS E Conference noted how military actions in most Muslim majority countries were justified in the name of liberating oppressed Muslim women, but more often than not invading forces and countries have actively compromised the rights of women and relegated women to subsidiary status even in nations that previously pursued progressive agendas for women such as Iraq and most recently in Libya.

Iraq was once recognized as having one of the most progressive Family Codes in the region and many Muslim majority countries tried to emulate its provisions. Libya too adopted a revolutionary ideology to bring women into public life and Gadaffi’s female bodyguards communicated strongly the vision for women folk in a Revolutionary state.

Yet both countries, immediately upon the fall of the old regimes, took steps that effectively compromised the rights of women. Under regimes backed by western nations constitutional framework which privilege sectarian interests were introduced. In a fragile political truce, women become the bartering chip with which communities bargain their cultural autonomy and regimes gain some acceptability.

Grace Naburi: Lady behind essay competition

Tanzania had hardly won any international secondary schools essay competition award before 2002. But things started to change gradually thereafter when officials from the Ministry of Education and Culture looked at reasons behind the trend and sought remedy measures. 

After a thorough study of the problem, Grace Naburi, 55, an official in the ministry drew a plan and forwarded it to the Permanent Secretary for scrutiny and action. The following year Tanzania become third in a East Africa Essay Competition for Secondary chools, and the rest is history.

A pusher for things to happen or change as she describes herself, Grace had worked for the Tanzania Family Planning Association (UMATI) community based youth programmes for four years before calling it quits. At UMATI she worked for a reproductive health rights programme for youth in colleges, universities and national service.

“At that time (1992-1996) there was an out cry from girls that they were being abused in universities at the national services camps, so we set up a peer counseling and common rooms at the University of Dar es salaam. These rooms were equipped with all relevant materials on gender and featured educative television programs,” she said.

It was Grace’s initiation that led to the establishment of these common rooms, which did not only provide counseling on gender based violence, but also provided contraception information and services as well as information on HIV/AIDS. In her position at UMATI, Grace was able to advice parents and guardians on any gender related problems.

“I was able to encourage parents who felt that their daughters had lost everything when they fell pregnant – we encouraged parents to take their children to private schools after giving birth and for those who could not afford to do so, we encouraged them to join adult education, or vocational training centres” she says. Grace provided them with guidance on how they could access various alternative education opportunities, and sometimes connected them to the placements.

In 1996, she moved to the ministry of education to continue work of dealing with young people. Between 1996 and 2000, Grace worked at the commissioner of education office as a project manager and collaborated with others in establishment of gender desk as part of government resolve to mainstreaming gender in the public service. The project focused on all gender related issues in the ministry.

The project organised seminars and training sessions with various key players in the ministry including curriculum specialist, mainly to put more emphasis on gender mainstreaming in the curriculum and introduced gender segregate in the education sector. Grace, a single mother of two children is currently the Principal Education Officer at the Ministry, who is also known as a negotiator.

Her main task is coordinating international relation on education matters between Tanzania and other countries and international organization. “Apart from working with the Ministry of Education, I also work closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation mostly on matters that need negotiation,” she said. She has held the position for nine years and enjoy it, She added.

She says her job is pinned with serious responsibilities and she refers to negotiating skills as an art. “Negotiation is an art since one does not know what would come out of any talk and if it will favor your country or not,” she said. Her job involves a lot of reading and doing research, so she says she spends most of the time reading. On how she reached the position of Principal Education Officer, she says her experience is what lifted her up in the ladder.

“I have been a teacher for 10 years, I taught Weruweru, Kilakala and Solomon Mahlangu secondary schools before joining UMATI. So I have climbed through the ranks to be where I am,” she said. As we are about to clinch 50 years of country independence, Grace says the education sector has grown. She says that the number of schools has increased; there is enough room to accommodate all those who could not go to school. She admit that way back it was the brightest that went to school, but now everybody has an opportunity to learn.

“The Ministry of education has made sure that there are enough schools for everyone. I remember while I was a teachers I knew all the head teachers of most secondary schools because they were few but today, there are so many schools it is hard to keep up,” she said. However she is advising parents to be realistic and not force their children to go for certain levels of education. “Parents are making mistakes by thinking that every child must reach university, even though the child has some other interest and talents,” she says.

“One does not need to go to university to be successful, parents should try to identify talents of their children and try to nurture them. We have seen people with ordinary education doing wonders. And we have seen professors who are not successful in life. The most important thing is to know where one belongs,” she said.

She calls on the government and other stakeholders to help people identify and be able to nurture their talents, those of family members and the community at large. As a career woman she is mostly disappointed that her section doesn’t have a pool of negotiators. “We should have negotiation unit that is filled with negotiators,” she proposed. On her future plans, she had this to say; “I have not thought of what I want to do in the future.

I cant say I will go to politics, although when I was young I was an active member of TANU Youth League,” she said. Grace has high inspiration from the late Mwalimu Nyerere. She says whatever he aspired is what is carrying us now. “I feel lucky to be where I am today, and I call myself the rural lucky woman because where I come from, there are no many educated people or wealthy people,” she says.

Soap making, tailoring skills bail Mbeya mother out of poverty

For Pauline Shitenge, 24, life of his family is not the same after acquiring entrepreneurship and management skills through the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) supported Women Entrepreneur Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) programme. 

Pauline, who lives with her husband and her baby girl at Ituha area in Mbeya City, was in a soap manufacturing business that she says did not earn her enough to cater for the welfare of her family.She completed her primary school education in 2002 and joined CARITAS in 2004 for a certificate in tailoring.

In 2005, she joined Kituo cha Huduma Majumbani Mbeya (KIHUMBE) for training on soap making using ‘mbosa’ oil, and her life began to change for the better.In 2008, she participated in entrepreneurship training that was organized by the Federation of Associations of Women Entrepreneurs Tanzania (FAWETA) -Mbeya bramch and sponsored by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (TCCIA) -Mbeya and ILO.

The training had double impact on her life; the entrepreneurship skills and financial capital.Just after training, she decisively bought sewing machine worth of 81,000/- using savings from per diem amounting to 250,000/- that was paid to her as a participant.

With the sewing machine, she started tailoring business and applied the skills she acquired more than three years ago from CARITAS. That was a big change in her life as she was just staying at home without doing any income- earning activity.

Through entrepreneurship skills, she managed her business well and eventually accumulated enough savings that she invested in soap making business. Through soap business, she got herself opportunity for applying soap making skills obtained from KIHUMBE. She has been producing bar soaps and toilet soap using ‘mbosa’ oil.

With such diversification of business her income became more stable as they are both seasonal business with low and peak seasons. Now, she is earning about 55,000/- per month from soap business and about 65,000/ - per month from tailoring business.

Pauline is optimistic with the soap business because, she says, people like her soap products as they are made of natural ingredients which make user skin soft and have no side effects on users and the environment.

Pauline is still facing challenges especially on sourcing of raw materials for soap making as are not easily available. She also faces challenges in managing credit sales of her soap products as “customers don’t pay on time. I have allowed them to pay in installments but they don’t honour their promise, she said.

She considers market for soap products as important factor for her business to grow, but she does not make enough money to meet costs for exhibitions and trade fairs where she could show case her products. Despite the hurdle, she says her family benefits a lot as she can support her husband in providing basic needs such as food, clothes, house rent, paying school fee for her young sister and supporting her mother who is dependent on her.

She has also trained other 6 girls on soap making at Jacaranda area, in the city but they have not yet started any business because they are lacking capital.“I would urge fellow young women to learn and share entrepreneurship skills so they can improve their income and eventually their lives through self employment” she said.

Women’s empowerment in Commonwealth vital but still wanting

Commonwealth Leaders contend that women are central to peace, security, development and nation-building, thus, they must strive to raise the profiles of women in politics and decision-making in their respective countries. 

The 54-member nations of the Commonwealth are also members of the UN family which have set a host of resolutions, since 1945, aimed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW ). They also form part of regional bodies that have set and agreed on time frame to reach between 30-50 per cent gender parity in decision-making levels come 2015.

But, while the UN and regional instruments have been signed by member countries of the Commonwealth little has been achieved to realize this goal.The Commonwealth 80 years ago embraces three aspirations of Democracy, Development and Diversity while offering global wisdom and value by striving for equity and in service of the people. In the history of 80 years of the commonwealth, three out of the 54 Heads of Government are women, accounting for 3.75 per cent of the Commonwealth Leaders.

They are: Ms Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina. In an unexpected move, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and Head of the Commonwealth took a souvenir photograph with “the rare species of the Commonwealth.”

Both Ms Hasina and Kamla, in the key notes address to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHO GM 2011) held in Perth, the Capital City of west Australia ast month, talked of “The need of empowering women and “women as agents of change” in the Commonwealth.Sheikh Hasina said women’s empowerment is central to progress and economic development of the Commonwealth.

“I feel it is vital for adequate progress and development, and yet achievable within a reasonable time, is women’s empowerment,” she said in her address to CHO GM 2011. She added: “Women’s empowerment is a global challenge, and in the Commonwealth, it needs a more fundamental role as it is at the crux of the Commonwealth’s core values of human rights.

In fact, the Commonwealth success in upholding its ideals and principles would largely depend on how innovatively it assimilates women as equal partners in governance and development activities.”The Commonwealth, on the other hand, dedicated this year’s Commonwealth Day to “women as agents of change.” In addition, on March 8, 2011, the world community observed the centenary of the International Women’s Day.

The Commonwealth Day was this year celebrated under the theme “Women as Agents of Change” in recognition of the fact that empowering women and girls is an essential prerequisite to achieving sustained economic development. Great strides have been made, at international and regional levels to raise the status of women and, thus, raised the profiles of several countries social, political and economic developments.

“We celebrate the great strides that women have made ever since the first women’s suffrage women’s movement when they (women) had raised their voices against exploitation, low wages, hostile working conditions about 100 years ago. “The progress encourages us to aim for equal partnership of women and men in transforming the social and political landscape of the world,” noted Sheikh Hasina.

Ms Kamla Persad-Bissessar became the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Togabo and the first female chair-in-office of the Commonwealth, said empowering women and girls is an essential prerequisite to achieving sustainable economic, social and political development.

She handled over the mantle to the Australian Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard as the new chair of the Commonwealth until 2013.She said women must be given a voice through representational politics “if we are to achieve gender equality in and outside of the Commonwealth.”Ms Kamla expressed optimism that the Commonwealth Heads of Governments are fully aware of the potential and successes that could be unleashed in countries where there is greater gender parity “yet there is a lot to be done to overcome the pressing inequalities still confronting many women in the Commonwealth.”

But, despite the political will on the part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government on the important of empowering women in the Commonwealth, the general picture indicates a different scenario. For the 80 years of the Commonwealth only 3.75 per cent of the 54 leaders are women.The Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentarian Association (CPA) Dr William Shija, admits that this is an area where the Commonwealth has not done enough-to empower their women in decision making particularly in the political leadership.

“The area that we have not been very successful is to encourage member nations of the Commonwealth to elect more women into their parliaments. It true there are several countries that have made good progress in this area such as Rwanda by involving more women to participate in the leadership of their country through their parliament. “Tanzania and South Africa started well but they seem to be stagnant.

They should do more. But there are countries whose women representation in their parliaments is only one to two per cent. This is not encouraging, we need to do better in this,” Dr Shija said recently in an interview in the sidelines of the CHJOGM 2011 in Perth, Australia.

According to Dr Shija, parliamentarians in Commonwealth member countries need to encourage their women to seek elective positions in their respective countries.

“More importantly, there should be a level field in political activities to ensure both men and women get fair deal in the process-but this is lacking in many countries because of corruption in politics,” he noted.Women in Tanzania, like anywhere else in the Commonwealth, are facing a host of challenges that impede their empowerment.

Outdate and obsolete traditions are major contributing factors to disparity between men and women in politics.The Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children Affairs, Ms Sophia Simba said this during celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the International Women’s day that outdate norms and customs that are still practiced in Tanzania are major impediments to women’s development.

Are our people aware of World Toilet Day?

COULD you imagine not having a toilet? What if for one day only, no-one in our country had a toilet - it’s pretty unthinkable isn’t it? Yet for 2.6 billion people in the world having no toilet is a daily reality. Children are literally dying for the toilet, in the developing world a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases. 

November 19th each year is set for the celebration of World Toilet Day (WTD). Since its inception in 2001 by the World Toilet Organisation. WTD has been observed globally by member organizations raising global awareness of the struggle faced by 2.6 billion people every day without access to proper, clean sanitation.

According to WaterAid Head of Research, policy and advocacy Ms Abella Bateyunga, Tanzania has marked this day over the years with issues of press releases, media workshop among other activities. In order to commemorate the same day this year, says Bateyunga, WaterAid in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and social welfare and other WASH stakeholders have organized a Media Training Day on Friday.

"The main purpose of the training is to raise awareness on the Sanitation crisis among media professionals, to encourage them to increase media coverage on toilets and to create a network of journalist who can report on water, hygiene and sanitation in the country," she says. The power of the media can be used to inform and advocate for the rights of Tanzanians who have to live without the basic necessity of somewhere safe to go to the toilet.

In 2001 WTO declared 19th November World Toilet Day (WTD). Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events being hosted by various water and sanitation advocates. World Toilet Organization created WTD to raise global awareness of the struggle billions face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation. WTD also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation.

WTD's popularity is gaining momentum, and in 2010 there were 51 events spanning 19 countries. The "Big Squat" campaign generated 24 "Big Squats" globally and in Singapore over 600 squatters joined the cause in six locations island-wide. WaterAid in Tanzania would love to see the day becomes "The" event that represents the sanitation crisis countrywide, and strongly encouraging members, volunteers, the community, media and partners to get behind this cause and support the day.

Last year, a group of concerned private citizens of the world under the aegis of World Toilet Organization (WTO) decided to draw global attention to the dire consequences of neglecting man's toilet needs. WTO is dedicated to drumming up awareness and providing supportive action plans on the vital need to provide majority of humanity today access to a holistic and sustainable sanitation regimen.

The organisation works on the premise that the lack of functional toilets among the world's poor, contributes to about 40 per cent of the diseases that kill them yearly. On the other hand, WTO maintains, the elimination of the contagion associated with poor hygiene and social sanitary habits, which lack of toilets exacerbates will reduce deaths and personal and national economic costs by the same margin of 40 per cent.

In most of the developing countries like Africa, many people and their governments pay more attention to eating than they do to the disposal of the inevitable wastes they generate from their food intakes. This inexplicable disregard for the laws of polarity in nature is even noticeable among the affluent in Nigeria.

But the more blame goes to physical planners, our urban and town planners and the architects who formulate policies and design our cities and towns. It is the height of existential myopia to design any living place without a thought given to the disposal of human and other domestic wastes.

This has nothing to do with the level of development because even animals - dogs and cats, make elaborate efforts to dispose and conceal their waste products. In Tanzania today, it is common sight and practice to see citizens defecating right in the open fields, into public water ways or simply utilizing the ubiquitous plastic bag to relieve themselves - which they haul anywhere it is convenient to do so.

Facts on the ground seem to support the WTO's claims: Of the 2.5 billion global poor with no state comprehensive sanitation system (including the management of human fecal matters), 1.8 million, mostly children, die yearly due to diseases related to unsafe disposal of fecal matters.

Even in developed, affluent societies, sewage disposal sometimes ends up destroying the water sources. Associated with this water pollution, and direct contamination, are diseases like diarrhoea which kills 5000 children daily, more than five times the number that die of HIV/AIDS daily. Lack of efficient disposal of human wastes and the taboo placed on openly discussing the issue was one of the reasons why one Mr Jack Sim started the World Toilet Organization in 2001.

There is a need to applaud the initiative of Mr Sim in forcing the issues of global toilet insufficiency, which has only ended up costing the world more than it could reasonably bear, to public notice. What is needed today, as much as potable water, is a government-ordered provision of functional toilets in all private and public places.

Perhaps this policy will energize government's efforts to provide potable water for citizens which will cut national and global health bills by as much as 40 per cent. Because of the comprehensive lack of clean, potable water, one of the major sources of diseases that cause more deaths than other sub-headings combined, is the lack of efficient toilet facilities to dispose of human wastes for a majority of peoples of the world.

It appears short-sighted to think only of eating and not of how the natural by-products would be eliminated and disposed of. Government should, indeed, see this initiative as a call to action not only to build and maintain more public toilets but to ensure that all houses, private and public have functional toilets.

Biting cost of living riles most women

Several women have mentioned corruption and the “unbearable” cost of living as their most serious concerns as Tanzania Mainland readies to mark 50 years of Independence. 

The women, ranging from housewives to professionals and those in business, said corruption and the high cost of living coupled by massive unemployment were taking this otherwise peaceful nation in the wrong direction.

“Corruption is a very big problem in our society. For us women especially, one cannot get even ante-natal service without having to bribe in one way or the other. It is a very big problem given that mothers are the ones that bring into the world new life that society finally boasts about as the sons and daughters of the land,” said Ernestia Chaula (20), who is a stay at home married woman.

The mother of one child, Ms Chaula said the cost of staple foodstuffs had recently shot to all time highs making many families unable to afford basic needs, which was what most Tanzanians wanted, she emphasized. Tanzania, she said, was by and large, still very much a peaceful country but leaders were not quite accountable to the people.

“When seeking votes, they come to us but once in power, leaders forget the people altogether,” she said. Her views were echoed by Pastor Imelder Sanga (43), who said today’s leaders have forgotten the nation’s motto of “love, peace and unity” and many have instead embraced the inferior biases of gender, tribal and religious discrimination.

She prays that such leaders stop their biases as a nation divided can never flourish, she said. “To know that economic times are hard, one has just got to look at the quality of life today. People can hardly afford one meal a day. That cannot be in a country that God has blessed with almost everything,” she said and added: “It sometimes seems like there is no central authority.

Every shopkeeper hikes prices at will.” No country can have peace if the people do not

live on the hope of a better tomorrow. “Yes, we can say there is peace but there are quite disturbing signs on the horizons,” said the mother of three grown up children. Ms Nasphat Hamis Balige (39) said prices of essential foodstuffs were no longer predictable “and that hurts.”

If she were to meet the President, the mother of three would urge him to be firm in taking tough decisions on behalf of the nation, she said. Multilevel Marketing Executive, Ms Joyce Sevelin Ng’ombo (48) was very bitter about the selfishness of officials both from the ruling party and the government. “These people behave as if they are the only ones who deserve to have the good things in life,” she said.

She said she had been trying hard to invest in areas that would make life easy for all Tanzanians but met with an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy to the point that she had come to believe that this country “belongs to all in theory only” but in reality, “it has its owners,” she said. If she were to meet the President, she said, she would pour her heart out to him about the evils of grand corruption and the direction this country was headed.

“Failure to act on accusations of grand corruption is a very serious weakness on the part of the government,” she said. She would tell the President, she said, to learn from Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who used to take firm action and everybody saw that steps had been taken. Mwalimu had no other weapon except that he “genuinely took the interests of the people and the nation at heart,” she said.

She was bitter that the Richmond ghost still haunted the nation almost six years after the President genuinely wanted to solve a crippling power crisis, which he inherited. “The Richmond scandal issued out of the President’s genuine desire to solve a crippling power generation crisis. We all thought Richmond had followed all the legal requirements to be awarded the tender but it has since transpired that they did not.”

“So the big question is: How did they land the tender in the first place?” she asked. That was why, she said, she had since come to appreciate the benefits of the multiparty system of democracy. “You know we grew up under single party democracy and for a long time, we came to believe that that was the best and only way for running a decent democratic nation.”

“At first, I did not like multiparty politics but as days went by and opposition parties helped to point to the weaknesses of the ruling party, I too woke up from my slumber. The system is a challenge for the ruling party not to go into sleep mode,” she said. Like all the other women, she also decried the difficult economic times.

Hotelier, Ms Hawa Hamidu (23), married with one child also had the same cry about how difficult life had become. She said employment was also a kind of mockery as wages were too small. No ordinary worker can claim to earn a living wage, she said. However, she had not been touched by corruption, she said.

“But there are just too many petty criminals in Dar es Salaam. We now live in constant fear of being jumped or mugged by thieves at home, on the streets and even at bus stations,” she said. She was also of the opinion that Dar es Salaam was full of too many beggars, “which is shameful especially in the eyes of foreigners,” she added.

She called on more streets in Dar es Salaam to be paved to release congestion on the few traditionally jammed streets. If she were to meet the President, she said, she would urge him to find a way to reduce the number of vehicles on Dar es Salaam streets as vehicles “were too many.”

She was thankful that there was now a Government of National Unity in Zanzibar “otherwise many of us had come to associate multiparty politics with heightened insecurity and violation of human rights,” she said. Owing to the chaos that once characterized politics in Zanzibar, many people had reached the conclusion that they did not want to cast their votes any more “because it was useless if the outcome was death and rape.”

Ms Hamidu also said provision of education in Tanzania was taking on a clear class structure, which was lamentable. “In most government schools, children go through the seven years of primary education without knowing how to read and write.” Therefore, for children to access quality education that depends on the financial ability of the parents or guardians to send them to private schools, which she equated to a hatchery of selfishness.

However, women should also change and engage in whatever income generation activities. “They should not just stay at home but work. If you work, you will get money, she said. Nevertheless, women need to be empowered and if empowered, “Yes, we can”,” she said.

In last Tuesday’s issue, we inadvertently mentioned Ms Jackline Simon as a standard III pupil at Wisdom Pre and Primary School. The fact is Ms Jackline Simon is a Standard VI student. The error and inconvenience is highly regretted.

TBS widens services as demand surges

TANZANIA Bureau of Standards (TBS) joins the rest of the globe to celebrate the World Quality Day this week amid intention to open more new offices at the country’s entry points to cope with surging demand for its quality verification services by industries, businesses and consumers. 

The standard body has since 1999 embarked on the Batch Certification (BC) scheme for imports to authenticate the quality of all products entering the country and check importation of substandard goods. The scheme entails collection of samples of

imported products from a consignment at the port of entry or at agreed premise by the bureau’s inspectors for testing and issuance of a test certificate.

“This scheme leads to TBS issuing the BC to certify that a particular import shipment of commodity conforms to specified Tanzanian standards,” says TBS Director of Quality Management Kezia Mbwambo.

TBS conducts quality verification at the points of entry at Dar es Salaam port and the border posts of Namanga, Holili, Horohoro, Sirari and Tanga port. But, increasing demand

for the services has compelled the standard body to consider opening new border offices at Tunduma, Mtukula, Rusumo and Mtambaswala as well as zonal offices at Arusha, Mbeya,

and Mwanza.

The compulsory BC scheme of imports covers imports falling into the compulsory standards. TBS started implementing the scheme in close collaboration with Tanzania Revenue Authority in June 1999. The standard body issues batch certificate upon being certified with the import standards and 12,133 certificates have been issued so far.

The compulsory batch certification scheme is one of several strategies that the country’s standard body applies in ensuring that only quality products get entry into the local market. Other strategies are the ‘TBS’ mark and tested product certification schemes as well as quality management systems registration.

“Let more companies, small and medium enterprises in particular, bring their products for quality certification to enable them compete in local and foreign markets,” advises Ms Mbwambo, noting that the TBS mark guarantees quality of the product. The TBS mark is gradually gaining popularity among ordinary people, with marketers using it as their product marketing niche.

And, it’s not uncommon to hear people on the streets demanding the TBS standard mark on consumables like oranges, apples or vegetables even though some ask for the mark as a mockery to the bureau. But, Ms Mbwambo appreciates the trend as a sign of growing public awareness about the country’s standard watchdog.

“The fact that people mention TBS, regardless of what they mean, is itself a success to us because that means they know and appreciate our existence.” The standard mark certification scheme, the largest and most popular, enables manufacturers whose products have passed the standard tests to use “TBS” mark, which indicates that samples of that product are independently and routinely tested and certified by TBS against the relevant Tanzanian standards.

Unfortunately, qualifying for the mark has remained an uphill task for small entrepreneurs in particular as the licence is exclusively granted to manufacturers conforming to rigorous quality auditing requirements of the standards mark licensing procedures.

Ms Mbwambo admits being aware of ensuing criticism against the strict licensing procedures but rules out any likely chance of softening the process: “We understand the difficulties small businesses encounter to qualify for the standard mark but that is it — there is no shortcut.” Manufacturers embrace the mark, which they say protects them from competing with inferior products, proving to the market that those products with “TBS” mark have satisfied all the requirements specified in the standards.

TBS has to date issued 1091 TBS mark licences. Besides standards for tangible products, TBS operates Management System Registration Scheme that is essentially for service organisations. The quality management system is a set of coordinated activities to direct and control an organisation to continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its performance.

An organisation uses the system to ensure that operations achieve the organisational goals and objectives. Ms Mbwambo says the standard bureau was doing its best to control quality of the products and get away with substandard products flooding the local market: “We are determined to ensure that Tanzania is not turned into a dumping site for low standards products.”

With one of the key objectives of TBS being to educate the public on standards issues, the bureau conducts training and offers consultancy services to business firms. The training and consultancy services offered are categorised into company standardisation, quality assurance, management systems, quality improvement, laboratory techniques and accreditation as well as packaging technology.

TBS has also launched a toll-free hotline to be used by the businesses, consumers and the general public for information on suspected substandard products in the market. TBS chief Charles Ekerege says that the move was part of the Bureau’s initiatives to involve the public in spotting and fighting inferior goods.

“Bearing in mind that TBS staff are stationed in fewer areas of the country, experience has shown we can effectively fight the war against substandard products by drawing full attention of the public, hence introducing this hotline,” he explains. The hotline number 0800 110 827 can be accessible anytime from now for customers connected with TTCL, Vodacom and Sasatel while arrangements are being made for those connected to Tigo, Airtel and Zantel to access it in the near future.

He reaffirmed that TBS would always act swiftly on information provided and maintains strict confidentiality. TBS was established under the Ministry of Industry and Trade by an Act of Parliament, the Standards Act No.3 of 1975 as the National Standards Institute and became operational in April 1976. It was subsequently renamed Tanzania Bureau of Standards through an amendment to the Act by Act No.1 of 1977.

The Standards Act No. 3 was later repealed and replaced by the Standards Act No. 2 of 2009, which gave the Bureau more powers in carrying out its mandate. The Bureau was established as part of the efforts by the government to strengthen the supporting institutional infrastructure for the industry and commerce sectors of the economy.

Specifically, TBS was mandated to undertake measures for quality control of products of all descriptions and to promote standardization in industry and commerce. TBS undertakes measures for quality control of commodities, services and environment of all descriptions and to promote standardization in industry and trade;

The Bureau also makes arrangements or provides facilities for the testing and calibration of precision instruments, gauges and scientific apparatus, for the determination of their degree of accuracy and traceability by comparison with standards approved by the Minister of Industry and Trade on the recommendation of the Board of Directors, and for issue of certificates in regard to them; TBS usually makes arrangements or provide facilities for the examination and testing of commodities and any material or substance from or with which, and the manner in which, they may be manufactured, produced, processed or treated;

To approve, register and control the use of standard marks in accordance with the provisions of the Standards Act; In the performance of its functions the Bureau keeps an eye on the health, safety, environment and general welfare of the people of the United Republic; and

maintains, as far as may be practicable, a system of consultation and co-operation with any body established by or under any written law and having functions similar or relating to industrial or commercial standards generally.

Challenges facing safe, clean water provision

The Water Sector Development Programme was commissioned four years ago aimed at trying to find solutions to a long standing challenge of providing clean and safe water to the majority of Tanzanians. 

Despite progress made since the establishment of the programme, provision of water supply remains one of the biggest problems especially in the rural areas. The immediate aim of the programme was to increase access to clean and safe drinking water to at least 90 per cent of urban dwellers and to 65 per cent rural people.

Access to safe water is essential for addressing poverty and health problems. Data collected by Unesco last year on the incidence of waterborne, water-related and water washed

diseases indicated that these were mostly prevalent where people used contaminated water or had little water for use.

It is unfortunate that access to water and sanitation remains low in Tanzania where only slightly over half the population is estimated to have an improved water source with gaping differences between urban centres (about 81 per cent) and rural areas (about 46 per cent). In rural areas access is defined as meaning households have to travel less than half a kilometre to a protected water source in the dry season.

Both as a whole and on average, Tanzania has extensive water resources, however, water sources are distributed unevenly both in time and space. During the dry season, for example, even large rivers can dry up or heir flow declines substantially. Some parts of the country receive on the average up to 3,000mm of rain per year while in other regions annual rainfall averages 600mm.

And projections indicate that by 2025 Tanzania will experience water stress due to population growth and the resulting increase in consumption. Water stress is defined as average per capita water resources below 1,500 cubic metres. Lakes alone cover about 7 per cent of the country’s land surface.

On the orders here are three African Great Lakes of Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa. Inland lakes include Lake Rukwa, Lake Eyasi and Lake Manyara. There are also nine major basins in the country divided according to the recipient water body. Further, there are big rivers flowing to the lakes.

Ground water is also another source of water for both urban and rural areas. The current situation of sanitation and hygiene in the country is not conducive for supporting a disease-free and happy living environment.

Access to basic sanitation is estimated at 93 per cent but access to improved sanitation is 35 per cent according to the definition of Joint Monitoring Programme of Water Supply and Sanitation. Only 3 per cent of the population has access to flush toilet.

The present situational framework for water and sanitation is based on the National Water Sector Development Strategy of 2006 which sets out a strategy for implementing the National Water Policy (NAWAPO) of 2002. The policy aims at achieving sustainable development in the sector through an ‘efficient use of water resources and efforts to increase the availability of water and sanitation services’.

The National Water Sector Development Programme (WSDP) of 2006 is centred on commercial service provision including private sector participation in urban areas and community ownership and management in rural areas. It also sets out to implement ‘demand driven approaches’ and the programme promotes the integration of water supply and sanitation with hygiene education.

The programme has four components: l Water Resources Management; l Institutional development and capacity building; l Rural water supply and sanitation – as part of this component, comprehensive district water supply and sanitation plans are to be developed; l Urban water supply and sanitation – which aims at the execution of utility business plans in regional and district capitals, as well at the implementation of national and small towns water schemes.

The programme was also supposed to address infrastructure improvements as well as other top priority areas that previously did not receive significant funding and urgently require assistance to upgrade water supply and sanitation systems. The main interventions would include refurbishment, upgrading and extension of existing water supply systems including development of water sources and treatment plants.

Water and sanitation policies in the country are developed in line with the Development Vision 2025 and the National strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, popularly referred to by its Kiswahili acronym MKUKUTA. Universal access of safe water is one of the objectives of Vision 2025, to be realised through the involvement of private sector and the empowerment of local governments.

One of the primary goals is to achieve increased access to clean, affordable and safe water, sanitation, decent shelter, a safe and sustainable environment. The legislative framework for water supply and sanitation is based on Water Supply and Sanitation Act number 12 enacted in May 2009, which outlines the responsibilities of government authorities involved in the water sector, establishes Water Supply and Sanitation Authorities as commercial entities and allows for their clustering where this leads to improved commercial viability.

It further provides for the registration and operation of Community Owned Water Supply Organisations and regulates the appointment of board members. Despite significant achievement in the provision of clean and safe water supply and sanitation to the people general, the sector faces many challenges including deterioration of water supply schemes caused by inadequate management; inadequate availability of spare parts due to non-standardised investment; inadequate investments for development of water schemes due to high capital requirements.

Other challenges include scattered settlements in rural areas make costly investments for water supply services; improper and uncontrolled allocation of water resources to different users; inadequate involvement of beneficiaries in managing and controlling water supply

schemes resulting into communities lack of sense of ownership; climate changes and rainfall variations; environmental degradation as a result of increased human activities; and inadequate management of competing needs of water resources for various requirements.

CHC makes the extra mile in meeting its tasks

The Consolidated Holding Corporation was established as NBC Holding Corporation necessitated by the government move to re-organise the National Bank of Commerce but later new tasks were added to the Corporation and its tenure extended. 

As part of celebrations marking Tanzania Mainland’s 50th Independence Anniversary, MANGENGESA MDIMI conducted the following interview with the Acting Director General of Consolidated Holding Corporation (CHC), Mr Dome P. Malosha on the Corporation’s functions and challenges…

Question: What is the historical background to the Corporation’s establishment? Answer: The Corporation was established on 1st October 1997 as the NBC Holding Corporation (NBHC)

under the National Bank of Commerce (Re-organisation and Vesting of Assets and Liabilities) Act No. 23 of 1997 or Cap. 404 (R. E. 2002).

The move resulted from the Government decision to re-organise the then National Bank of Commerce. In year 2002 the Corporation was granted an extension of its tenure for another five years up to September 30, 2007 under a Parliamentary Resolution No. 20 of 2002 that was passed on 31st July, 2002 by virtue of Section 5 (1) of the establishing Act.

However, before this tenure elapsed, CHC experienced two other changes through Act No. 10 of 2007. In the first place it was vested with additional tasks that remained after the tenures of the Loans and Advances Realisation Trust (LART), Air Tanzania Holding Company (ATHCO) and SIMU 2000 Limited came to an end.

Following this important development, the Corporation’s life span was accordingly extended to June 30th 2011. In November 2007 all the remaining tasks of the Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission (PSRC) were also vested to CHC when the Commission’s mandate expired on 31st December, 2007.

And when CHC’s tenure came to an end on 30th June 2011, the Parliament passed a resolution to extend its tenure for another three years up to June 30th 2014. The various amendments of the establishing law have also brought about major developments in the nature and scope of the Corporation’s operations, especially judging from the impact it had on its overall performance from year 1997 to 2011.

A notable feature in these changes is that the CHC has legally been entrusted with the task of undertaking monitoring and evaluation of all privatised public enterprises to determine their performance as per the respective divestiture agreements.

It is also worth noting here that in performing the tasks it inherited from the defunct Presidential Parastatal Reform Commission (PSRC), the Corporation has been exposed to more risks and challenges than before.

Q: The Corporation appears to have changed its original name, that is NBCHC to CHC. What happened?

A: Following the privatisation of the National Bank of Commerce (NBC 1997 Ltd), the Corporation was given the name of Consolidated Holding Corporation (CHC) through the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act No. 10 of 2001, in order to avoid confusion in the eyes of the public on the application of the word/name “NBC” as the same was being used by the bank.

Q: How much have you achieved in meeting the set objectives?

A: The Corporation has, to a greater extent, managed to perform its duties and responsibilities successfully. The achievements are mainly in debt collection relating to the ex-NBC and divestiture transactions; sale of landed properties as well as finalisation of about 1,496 cases out of 1,928 cases which the Corporation has been handling.

Also conducting monitoring and evaluation of 180 entities out of 330 privatised public entities. Another achievement refers to benefits accrued to the nation from privatisation of parastatals which include increased production of goods for local consumption and for the export market; creation of more employment opportunities within the entities themselves and in the economy as a whole; introduction of new and modern technologies in production and service delivery; and increased Government revenue through taxes paid by the privatised parastatals which, prior to privatisation, heavily depended on subsidies from the Government. CHC has also been making remittances to the Treasury since its inception.

Q: What are the challenges your Corporation has faced?

A: Despite the achievements we have realised over the years, the Corporation has faced several challenges which are being tackled on a case by case basis to ensure that they do not undermine the laid down objectives.

Some of the challenges include:

(i) Loan recovery: Some investors delaying to pay balances of the purchase prices of divested entities; some debts are not easily collectable because they are linked with court cases or do not have collaterals; other debts are tied to procurement of title deeds; ex-NBC debts are scattered all over the country, making the debt collection exercise difficult/ cumbersome and costly.

(ii) Liquidation: Endless claims for retrenchment/ retirement benefits from exemployees of either privatised or liquidated parastatals.

(iii) Litigation: Endless filing of court cases makes it difficult to discharge or reduce the number of pending cases at any given time.

(iv) Privatisation: Some enterprises are sensitive to privatise thus requiring more time and resources to handle them judiciously and effectively. Also Lack of public awareness on the general public about the reforms that are taking place in the country.

(v) Monitoring and Evaluation: Some investors hesitate to cooperate with CHC officers who are responsible for undertaking the monitoring and evaluation task; some investors are reluctant to provide information pertaining to the operations of entities divested to them.

Q: What measures have you taken to deal with these challenges?

A: We wish to assure you and the general public that the Corporation is determined to undertake its responsibilities effectively, timely and transparently for the overall benefit of the nation.

Some of the measures the Corporation has taken to deal with the challenges are as follows:

(i) Making strategic and thorough follows ups on divested entities in close collaboration with the respective sector Ministries; recommending to the Government to repossess divested parastatals where investors have proved beyond doubt that they are incapable of fulfilling the divestiture agreements.

(ii) Strengthening the Corporation’s Publicity Unit to ensure public awareness education is imparted to the people so that they can properly understand and appreciate the benefits of the on-going economic reform programme within the context of the nation’s socio-economic plans.

(iii) Aggressive follow ups on procurement of title deeds.

(iv) Strategically strengthening the Litigation Department through recruitment of legal experts who are diligent and experienced advocates.

(v) Fully involving all key stakeholders including the Government in all divesture

transactions to ensure accountability and transparency.

(vi) Building a strategic relationship with the respective investors with a view to educating them on the importance of the monitoring and evaluation exercise to their companies and the economy as a whole.

Julius K. Nyerere: The pacifier

Julius Kambarage Nyerere, son of a chief of one of the smallest tribes of Tanzania, the Zanaki, of Mara Region, started his career as a teacher – literally – at what was known as Pugu Secondary School, a Catholic institution in the suburbs of Dar es Salaam, after graduating from Edinburgh University in 1953. 

Those he taught at Pugu, who include former President Benjamin Mkapa, are quick to point out that Nyerere had exceptional talents that were not being fully exploited. As widely expected, Mwalimu, the teacher, did not last long at Pugu, as the officials there realized that his future was not in the teaching profession but elsewhere.

Mwalimu was already at loggerheads with the colonial Government in what was then Tanganyika. The missionaries did not want any trouble with Britain, so they advised him to quit his job, which he did, and he became a full-time politician as President of the newly formed Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).

His leadership of TANU was vibrant. He confronted the colonialists head on. He was prosecuted and convicted of sedition for agitating for the independence of Tanganyika. His peaceful but powerful methods were such that within a period of about five years of active politics he managed to secure the independence of Tanganyika in December 1961, without shedding blood.

Nyerere, being a Pan-Africanist, was not content with the independence of Tanganyika. He believed in wider unity. He was even ready to delay the independence of Tanganyika if the result would be to expedite the independence of neighbouring Kenya and Uganda, so as to form a Federation of East Africa together.

However, noting some hesitation on the part of certain political circles in Kenya and Uganda he gave up the idea of delaying the independence of Tanganyika. Mwalimu probably spent as much time agitating for the independence of other African colonies as for Tanzania. The Pan-African Freedom Movement for East Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA) was launched in 1958 at a meeting in Mwanza, a town in northern Tanzania.

Mwalimu never turned his back on the question of independence for other African countries. Soon after the independence of Tanganyika he offered the country as a base for all movements fighting for the independence of their countries in Africa. Political movements and parties were offered facilities in Tanganyika.

These included the Afro Shirazi Party of Zanzibar (ASP), the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELI MO) of Mozambique, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Kenya, the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), of Uganda, the Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) of Angola, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, the South Western African Peoples’ Organisation (SWAPO) of Namibia, the United National Independence Party (UNIP) of Zambia, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), both of Zimbabwe, to name but a few.

All these political movements established bases in Tanganyika. So when most of the countries of these political movements achieved independence within a few years of Tanganyika’s independence, Mwalimu was extremely gratified. Believing in African unity, Mwalimu had worked hard for the Union of Tanganyika and its offshore neighbour of Zanzibar and unity was achieved in 1964, with the formation of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964, whose name was later changed to the United Republic of Tanzania, a union which has survived to date.

That was Mwalimu the Pan-Africanist. Late in 1995 Mwalimu was asked by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations if he would help mediate in the ethnic conflict of Burundi – a conflict that had lasted almost four decades and that had claimed the lives of more than two hundred thousand Burundi. Mwalimu’s reaction was cautious. He had met many Burundi leaders who had made him wonder whether they were really ready for reconciliation.

Sceptical though he was, he decided to accept the challenge but conditionally. He had two conditions: firstly, were the Burundi really ready for reconciliation? And secondly, did the Burundi accept him as their peace negotiator or facilitator? Mwalimu decided to go to Burundi to ascertain these factors. To assist him in this very tricky mission Mwalimu appointed me as his principal assistant (Facilitator’s Representative).

Together we assembled a team of advisers and assistants, including the incumbent President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, Father Mateo of St. Egidio in Rome, General Andrew Masondo (late) of the South African Defence Forces, Dr. Philips, Ambassador of Austria (representing the European Union), Professor Haysom, legal adviser to President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Mr. Joseph Warioba – former Prime Minister of Tanzania, Minister Francisco Madeira of Mozambique, peace negotiator for the Comoros, Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, former Secretary General of the OAU Liberation Committee, among others.

Mwalimu made two exploratory visits to Burundi at the end of which he was satisfied that the Burundi appeared to be ready for peace for their country, and secondly, that they appeared to accept him as peace facilitator. Mwalimu faced the problem of the deep bitterness and suspicion between the two main ethnic groups – the Hutus, who made up 85 per cent of the population, and the Tutsis, who made up 15 per cent of the population – as well as the ongoing struggle for power between them.

This had not been made easy by the tragic events of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, in which about 800,000 people of the Tutsi ethnicity as well as moderate Hutus had been massacred. In Burundi Mwalimu met all segments of the Burundi leadership, who included religious leaders, political leaders, former presidents, military leaders, etc.

The last was a particularly sensitive group to talk to. Mwalimu wanted to extract from the military a promise that they would stay out of politics and that they would accept any of the political leaders elected by the people. Having satisfied himself that these essential elements of the peace negotiations seemed to exist, Mwalimu then embarked on the peace talks in earnest.

At first the talks involved only the Government and the two main political parties: FRODEBU and UPRONA. The talks started at Mwanza, a town in northern Tanzania. Mwalimu soon abandoned the restricted participation approach as he came to the conclusion that all political parties in Burundi needed to be involved – altogether more than 12 groups, to ensure longlasting peace.

The venue for the talks which had originally started at Mwanza was shifted to Arusha in order to accommodate the large number of delegates involved. Mwalimu’s technique was to give all the participants as much opportunity as possible to air their grievances and fears. Several rounds of talks were allowed for this, as a matter of fact from July 1996 to July 1998.

The second stage was structured talks according to thematic committees. The pace of the talks was extremely slow. However, by the time Mwalimu died in October 1999, the stage had been reached for detailed and focused negotiations. When former President Nelson Mandela took over the talks in December 1999, it was clear that a solution was on the horizon. President Mandela took a no nonsense approach.

He himself had been a victim of discrimination in apartheid South Africa, in spite of which he had pursued the South African negotiations without bitterness and with a spirit of give and take. He therefore held the moral high ground. He guided the talks with a firm hand and the approach worked. A peace agreement was finally signed at Arusha in August 2000.

This does not in anyway suggest that Mwalimu’s diplomatic approach would not have succeeded. It only means that with Mwalimu’s solid foundation it was easier for Mandela to clinch a deal much faster. Two things had given Mandela the clout in this endeavour.

First, he was a retired president with no political ambitions. Secondly, he had succeeded in uniting a range of hostile forces of South Africa. So he had the authority and the experience of bringing adversaries together. l Judge Bomani was the first indigenous Attorney General of Tanzania.

Improving lives through wildlife management

HE wore a grey German style moustache looking simple, humble but sharing the same table with high profile dignitaries including Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Investment and Empowerment, Dr Mary Nagu. 

Noah Teveli was recently in Dar es Salaam to witness the official launching of a 25 minutes documentary film showing progress of 14 Wildlife Management Areas which have benefited from a 6 million US dollars (approx. 9.6bn/-) project funded by United States Agency for International Development.

“The WMA has benefited us a lot by not only helping us earn income to fight poverty but also avoid cutting down trees, charcoal making and poaching, we had serious problems before,” said Mr.

Teveli, a former Burunge WMA official. Teveli said conservation has helped the 20,000 people of Burunge attract private investment in infrastructure and hospitality which has also created jobs to hundreds of people in the village of Babati district in Manyara region.

“We have managed to reduce cutting down of trees and poaching by more than 70 per cent,” he argued saying Burunge WMA has also assisted to protect Lake Manyara from drying and Tarangile National Park from destruction.

Increasingly WMAs are becoming an important investment through which rural communities which take care of the wildlife that attracts tourists, get direct benefits from their resources. Support received from institutions such as USAID, are an important aspect that does not only help with fighting rural poverty but also promote conservation.

Before the idea of starting the WMA at Burunge was hatched with USAID support in 1998, residents of the village had very little direct benefits from tourism earning from Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park both property of Tanzania National Parks Authority.

Earning for the village peaked over 400m/- last season thanks to growing tourism business and private investment made by agents and hospitality owners. According to Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, the 14 legally recognized WMAs generated over 7.2bn/- in 2006.

“That revenue has been reinvested into anti-poaching efforts, and community projects such as construction of schools, dispensaries and paying school fees for orphans,” said US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Robert Scott who attended the film’s launching ceremony.

Mr Scott noted that at the centre of the WMA program success is a strong partnership of communities, the government from local to national levels, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in support of conservation work while enabling people’s livelihoods to prosper.

“This is important because too often environmental concerns are seen an impediment to growth but we see here that this does not have to be the case,” Scott noted. Minister Nagu who hails from Manyara region, was full of praise of the American people’s support express government commitment to ensure that more WMAs are legally recognized to benefit from resources in neighbouring protected areas.

At the PM’s home, Mr Maige paid tribute to his parents for promoting conservation work which is now in the process of turning a buffer zone between the village and Katavi National Park into a Wildlife Management Area (WMA).

“Through WMAs, communities can benefit directly from tourism, tourism photography and tour guiding which is not the case with conservation areas which are under authorities such as TANAPA,” Dr Nagu said while launching the documentary film. Dr. Nagu said currently there are 33 WMAs of which 19 are in the process of being legally recognized while several others will follow as communities realize the benefits of establishing such facilities for conservation but also income generation.

WMAs are buffer zones between villages and official conservation areas such as national parks, game reserves, game sanctuaries and wildlife protection areas which are normally administered by separate institutions other than neighbouring communities. Currently, 350,000 people are benefiting from the WMA programme.

Based on the success of the WMA pilot activities, the government of Tanzania has now embraced the WMA programme as a national policy priority for critical wildlife areas outside core protected areas. World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Country Director, Stephen Mariki said since 2004, the Fund has been implementing a policy support program with funding from USAID.

The policy change led to formation of WMAs after enactment of Environment Management Act of 2004. “Wildlife Management Areas provide an important avenue in devolution of wildlife management in Tanzania towards its sustenance and plays a critical role in the country’s poverty reduction efforts,” said Mr. Mariki.

WWF’s future focus is to enable more WMAs get official recognition by continuing to facilitate implementation of various policies that support integrated conservation and development issues focusing on improving natural resource governance. “We recognize the dire need to have effective governance systems that provide for transparency, accountability and equity in the natural resources management which will be our focus,” Mariki noted.

The Fund has already opened an office in Mpanda district where a WMA between Uwanda Game Reserve and Katavi National Park is being planned. Mariki said the process of getting the Uwanda WMA may take another three years before getting matured.

While on a recent visit in Rukwa region, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism touted the WMA idea at Uwanda after seeing the devastation which poachers, farmers and pastoralists have done to both areas of wildlife protection. “The best way to deal with this kind of distraction is to establish a WMA which will directly benefit the people who will see the importance of conservation,” Mr. Maige noted.

With US support which has also introduced a ‘Cash for Work Program,’ to help communities develop infrastructure in their WMAs, more progress is bound to be made in this area which will bring harmony among ordinary people and conservation agents. The US has so far paid over 450m/- in salaries to WMA community members who work under the Cash for Work Program in five places countrywide.

Mwanza fish dealers seek support to boost trade

WALKING just a distance of three kilometres from Mwanza city centre, you will find an ultra modern Mwaloni Fish Market. The facility, located in Nyamagana District, was established in early 2003 with the support of the Japanese Government. 

This market is one of the busiest areas in Mwanza city and it brings together hundreds of people who are involved in the fish trade. Upon arrival at the area, dozens of trading dhows are seen drawn up along the shore, offloading cargoes of fish, firewood, charcoal and farm produce.

The other common and a well known trade that takes place there is that of dried sardines or dagaa as commonly known in Swahili language. Piles of dagaa are stacked there in long rows, while others are piled as high as small houses.

The Mwaloni market is full of hundreds of small scale related fish traders, while others have specialized in bulk consignments of the dried sardines.Thus a selling of dried sardines is very prominent and can be witnessed at this market. Officials say there are more than 300 fish traders, mostly retailers, at the market.

Experts say dagaa is one of a very few fish species that can still be found in large number in the the Lake Victoria. Most of the traders who spoke to this paper explicitly say that the dried sardines trade has lucrative returns though there are certain periods when it keeps on fluctuating due to weather change.

One trader Richard Vedasto (41) has this to say: “As you can see right now, we have a very few customers here, but this doesn’t mean the situation has always remained the same. Sometimes we get plenty of customers to the extent that we cannot even meet their demands,” explains Mr Vedasto.

Many traders claimed that they handle one to over five hundreds bags every week when supplies are high (supplies decline during the March –June and October-December rainy seasons because fishing falls off and sun drying is more difficult.

For sure the business at this period seems to be not doing very well and this is substantiated by Mr Vedasto, who was simply found playing cards with friends along the shore of the Lake: “The business as you can see here is very sluggish at this period of time...Sometimes it happens the sardines can be found in the lake, but a major problem in this period is lack of a reliable suny energy to dry them up,” he narrated.

“During the peak period, especially in a period between February and September, you will find piles of dried dagaa here and you can hardly get a space to pass across this market,” he narrated. Sources said that the fish shipments reach the Mwaloni Market from these points aboard large sailing dhows with cargo capacities of from 10 to 15 tones and it bustles with activity. Many suppliers come from the Ukerewe Islands in Mwanza region.

The traders always receive consignments of dried and smoked fish from myriad artisanal processors in outlying areas and channelling them through other agents for distribution in Mwanza city and inland, to virtually all regions of Tanzania and into neighbouring countries as well.

One trader who identified himself as Mohamed Ally (36), says most of the customers are not the city residents, on the contrary, they come from other areas such as Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Arusha, Kilimanjaro regions and neighbouring Kenya, “ If you happen to get ten customers a day, for example, you will find at least seven of them are outsiders. Most of them pay cash and there is always scant room for discount or argumentation,” he revealed.

Observers say some of the larger scale businessmen at market handle two hundreds to over three thousands bags of dagaa a month. Each bag weighs between 60 and 100 kilogrammes. Most of them use their own dhows to ship fish from Ukerewe or elsewhere and their own lorries to transport loads inland.

One of the larger scale businessmen Mahmood Hussein (55), says the use of one’s transport, as he puts it, is more reliable, lucrative and minimizes costs of running the businesses. “Experience shows that if you hire a dhow, for instance, you are likely to incur huge costs and this ultimately reduces your profits,” says Mr Hussein who has over 15 years of experience in the same business.

A survey conducted in the area showed that prices of dried dagaa, specifically those for human consumption, stand between 2,100/- and 2,500/- per kilogramme and this, say experts, highly depends on quality of the product. Some traders think that the prices of 2,500/- has high returns and this is because of increased demand of the product at both the local and outside markets: “It is very unlikely to find prices of dagaa falling down at this market...It has always been increasing at a significant level every year.”

Last year, for example, one kilogramme of dagaa stood between 1,400/- and 1,700/- only, but now the same amount costs over 2,000/-,” says Mr Vedasto. Mr Vedasto, a father of three, says the prices of lower quality dagaa, mostly for poultry consumption, range from 1,500/ to 1,800/- per kilogramme.

These kind of sardines, however, are not fit for domestic consumption. Such dagaa are always displayed on the ground along the shore waiting for potential buyers. Several people, however, expressed concern for foul play saying, "There are unscrupuluos traders here who tend to mix both good and lower quality dagaa for sells...We are appalled by this outrageous and irresponsive behaviour because it ends up driving aways potential customers,” lamented one trader who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He adds, “I believe the customers are not fool at all and whenever they discover such kind of a dirty practice, they will always tend to react in a negative way. So the perpetrators always suffer consequences of their own action by losing such customers.” Asked on the major challenges facing the small scale dagaa dealers, one trader overtly replied, “A major challenge facing a vast majority here is just a meagre capital to run our businesses.

We always operate with a staggering capital and therefore we even fail to export the product to neighbouring countries where the profit is substantially higher as compared to the local markets.” The traders appealed to relevant authorities and other key players to provide them with a practical support and “We are seeking soft loans to boost our trade. In most cases the financial institutions charge exorbitant interest rates for the loans to the extent that only a majority of large scale traders can easily have access, while the small scale ones are left to grapple with meagre capital,” he lamented.

Others claimed that the local authorities there tend to charge the traders with ‘exorbitant’ levies. They explicitly pointed out that the authority requires each trader to pay at least a levy of 800/- per one bag of dagaa that weighs a hundred kilogramme: “Whenever we offload the products from the dhows, the tax people are always there asking for the payments.I think 800/- levy is too much for us. But there is nothing we can do about it,” says one trader Josephat Mleke.

Others have varying and opposite reactions as, “The current levy of 800/- per bag is just lower as compared to the year 2008 when we used to pay double taxes of over 800/-, that is, we were supposed to pay during off-loading of the cargo and also as soon as you sell the product to the customer,” said Mr Vedasto.

The challenges are there but Mr Vedasto feels satisfied with a general trend of profits accrued in the trade itself, “I don’t contemplate to quit this business because it pays me a lot...I have been able to fulfil all the basic necessities to my wife, four children and other members of the extended family,” he added.

Do we know these facts about Mount Kilimanjaro?

TANZANIANS got shocking news over the weekend, when it was officially declared that Mount Kilimanjaro had failed to make it to the New Seven Wonders of Nature, losing the coveted "Canon of Seven" to its only African rival; Cape Town's Table Mountains. 

The first count of the global vote to elect the New 7 Wonders of Nature was announced in the night of Friday, November 11, 2011 in Switzerland.

Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, and the highest mountain in Africa at 5,895 metres or 19,341 feet above sea level - the Uhuru Peak.

The mountain is composed of three distinct volcanic cones: Kibo 5,895 m (19,341 ft); Mawenzi 5,149 m (16,893 ft); and Shira 3,962 m (13,000 ft). Uhuru Peak is the highest summit on Kibo's crater rim. Kilimanjaro is a giant stratovolcano that began forming a million years ago, when lava spilled from the Rift Valley zone.

Two of its three peaks, Mawenzi and Shira, are extinct while Kibo (the highest peak) is dormant and could erupt again. The last major eruption has been dated to 360,000 years ago, while the most recent activity was recorded just 200 years ago. Although it is dormant, Kibo has fumaroles that emit gas in the crater. Scientists concluded in 2003 that molten magma is just 400 m (1,310 ft) below the summit crater.

Several collapses and landslides have occurred on Kibo in the past, one creating the area known as the Western Breach. It is unknown where the name Kilimanjaro originates, but a number of theories exist.

European explorers had adopted the name by 1860 and reported that it was its Swahili name,with Kilimanjaro breaking into Kilima (Swahili for "hill, little mountain") and Njaro,whose supposed origin varies according to the theories—according to some it is an ancient Swahili word for white or for shining,or for the non-Swahili origin, a word from the Kichagga language, the word jaro meaning "caravan".

The problem with all these is that they cannot explain why the diminutive kilima is used instead of the proper word for mountain, mlima. The name might be a local joke, referring to the "little hill of the Njaro" being the biggest mountain on the African continent, since this is a nearby town, and guides recount that it is the Hill of the Njaro people.

A different approach is to assume that it comes from the Kichagga kilmanare or kileajao meaning "which defeats the bird/leopard/caravan". However this theory cannot explain the fact that Kilimanjaro was never used in Kichagga before in Europe in the mid-19th century.

An alternative theory is as follows: On November 10, 1848, the German missionary Rebmann wrote in his diary:"This morning we discerned the Mountains of Jagga more distinctly than ever." Jagga was the pronunciation of Chagga by Europeans. Kilimanjaro may also be the European pronunciation of the Chagga phrase that "Kile-lema-irho", meaning "we failed to climb it" in Kiuru, Kioldimoshi, Kimarangu, Kivunjo, Kikibosho, Kimachame and Kirombo, Kichagga in general.

If so, name itself, Kile-lema-irho/Kilimanjaro, would have been the Chagga way of explaining to kyasaka (newcomers) when they asked about the shining mountain top of Kibo and Mawenzi Peak. Kibo peak is more visible from the Kibosho Area, and Mawenzi from Marangu.

The Ki- prefix in Swahili has several underlying meanings. The old Ka- diminutive noun prefix (found now only as Kadogo - a small degree), merged with the Ki class. One of its meanings was to also describe something unique of its kind: Kilima, a single peak, as opposed to Mlima, which would better describe a mountain range or undulating country. Several other mountains also bear this prefix, such as Kilima Mbogo (Buffalo Mountain), just north of Nairobi in Kenya.

People with disabilities are also placed in this class, not so much as a diminutive idea; but a unique condition they possess: a blind or a deaf person, Kipofu and Kiziwi. This prefix "Ki-" in no way implies a derogatory sense. The name Kibo in Kichagga means "spotted" and refers to rocks seen on snowfields.

In the 1880s, the mountain, at that time spelled Kilima-Ndscharo in German following the Swahili name components, became a part of German East Africa after Karl Peters had persuaded local chiefs to sign treaties (a common story that Queen Victoria gave the mountain to her grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II is not true). When in 1889 Hans Meyer reached the highest summit on the crater ridge of Kibo, he named it "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze" ("Kaiser Wilhelm peak").

That name was used until 1918, when after World War I the German colonies were handed over to the British empire. When Tanganyika gained its independence in 1961, this summit was named "Uhuru peak", meaning "Freedom peak" in Swahili. In 1861, the German officer Baron Carl Claus von der Decken and the young British geologist Richard Thornton (1838-1863) made a first attempt to climb Kibo, but "got no farther than 8,200 feet"(2,500 meters).

In 1862, Von der Decken tried a second time together with Otto Kersten. They reached a height of 14,000 feet (4,280 meters). In 1887, during his first attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the German geology professor Hans Meyer reached the base of Kibo, but was forced to turn back, not having the equipment necessary to handle the deep snow and ice on Kibo.

The following year, Meyer planned another attempt with cartographer Oscar Baumann, but the mission was aborted due to consequences of the Abushiri Revolt. Meyer and Baumann were captured and held hostage, and only escaped after a ten thousand rupees ransom had been paid.

In 1889 Meyer returned to Kilimanjaro with the celebrated Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller for a third attempt. Their climbing team included two local headmen, nine porters, a cook, and a guide.

The success of this attempt, which started on foot from Mombasa, was based on the establishment of many campsites with food supplies so that multiple attempts at the top could be made without having to descend too far.

After Meyer and Purtscheller pushed to near the crater rim on October 3, exhausted from hacking footsteps in the icy slope, they reached the highest summit on the southern rim of the crater on Purtscheller's 40th birthday, October 6, 1889. They were the first to confirm that Kibo has a crater, which was filled with ice at the time.

After descending to the saddle between Kibo and Mawenzi, Meyer and Purtscheller attempted to climb the more technically challenging Mawenzi next, but could only reach a 5096 m high subsidiary peak (later to be named Klute Peak) before retreating due to illness.

On October 18 they reascended Kibo to enter and study the crater, cresting the rim at Hans Meyers Notch. In total, Meyer and Purtscheller spent 16 days above 4,200 m during their expedition. The summit of Kibo wouldn't be climbed again until 20 years later (by the surveyor M. Lange in 1909), and the first ascent of the highest (5149 m) summit of Mawenzi was only on July 29, 1912, by the German climbers Edward Oehler and Fritz Klute, who christened it Hans Meyer Peak in Meyer's honour.

Oehler and Klute went on to make the third ascent of Kibo, via the Western route over the Drygalski Glacier. In 1989, the organizing committee of the 100-year celebration of the first ascent decided to award posthumous certificates to the African porter-guides who had accompanied Meyer and Purtscheller.

One person in pictures or documents of the 1889 expedition was thought to match a living inhabitant of Marangu, Yohani Kinyala Lauwo. Lauwo did not know his own age nor did he remember Meyer or Purtscheller, but he remembered joining a Kilimanjaro expedition involving a Dutch doctor who lived near the mountain and not wearing shoes during the 8-day affair. Lauwo claimed that he had climbed the mountain 3 times before World War I.

 The committee concluded that he had been a member of Meyer's team and therefore must have been born around 1871. Lauwo died on 10 May 1996 at the thus reconstructed world-record age of 124 or 125 and is now even often suggested as co-first-ascendant of Kilimanjaro.

Memorial recognizing Hans Meyer as the first European to "conquer" KilimanjaroThere are six official trekking routes by which to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, namely: Marangu, Rongai, Lemosho,Shira, Umbwe and Machame. Of all the routes, Machame is by far the most scenic albeit steeper route up the mountain, which can be done in six or seven days.

The Rongai is the easiest and least scenic of all camping routes with the most difficult summit night and the Marangu is also relatively easy, but accommodation is in shared huts with all other climbers.

As a result, this route tends to be very busy, and ascent and descent routes are the same. People who wish to trek to the summit of Kilimanjaro are advised to undertake appropriate research and ensure that they are both properly equipped and physically capable.

Though the climb is technically not as challenging as when climbing the high peaks of the Himalayas or Andes, the high elevation, low temperature, and occasional high winds make this a difficult and dangerous trek.

Acclimatisation is essential, and even then most experienced trekkers suffer some degree of altitude sickness. Kilimanjaro summit is well above the altitude at which high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) can occur.

Kilimanjaro has a large variety of forest types over an altitudinal range of 3,000 m (9,843 ft) containing over 1,200 vascular plant species. Montane Ocotea forests occur on the wet southern slope. Cassipourea and Juniperus forests grow on the dry northern slope.

Subalpine Erica forests at 4,100 m (13,451 ft) represent the highest elevation cloud forests in Africa. In contrast to this enormous biodiversity, the degree of endemism is low. However, forest relicts in the deepest valleys of the cultivated lower areas suggest that a rich forest flora inhabited Mt Kilimanjaro in the past, with restricted-range species otherwise only known from the Eastern Arc mountains.

The low degree of endemism on Kilimanjaro may result from destruction of lower elevation forest rather than the relatively young age of the mountain. Another feature of the forests of Kilimanjaro is the absence of a bamboo zone, which occurs on all other tall mountains in East Africa with a similarly high rainfall. Sinarundinaria alpina stands are favoured by elephants and African Buffalos elsewhere.

On Kilimanjaro these megaherbivores occur on the northern slopes, where it is too dry for a large bamboo zone to develop. They are excluded from the wet southern slope forests by topography and humans, who have cultivated the foothills for at least 2000 years.

This interplay of biotic and abiotic factors could explain not only the lack of a bamboo zone on Kilimanjaro but also offers possible explanations for the patterns of diversity and endemism. If true, Kilimanjaro's forests would serve as a striking example of the large and long-lasting influence of both animals and humans on the African landscape.

The period from 1912 to present has witnessed the disappearance of more than 80% of the ice cover on Kilimanjaro. From 1912-1953 there was 1% annual loss, while 1989-2007 saw 2.5% annual loss. Of the ice cover still present in 2000, 26% had disappeared by 2007.

While the current shrinking and thinning of Kilimanjaro's ice fields appears to be unique within its almost twelve millennium history, it is contemporaneous with widespread glacier retreat in mid-to-low latitudes across the globe. Unless trends change, Kilimanjaro is expected to become ice-free some time between 2022 and 2033.

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Zanzibar: The sky is the limit

With its romantic aroma of spices, memories of its extraordinary past of Sultans and Slaves,

colourful underwater garden and life, untouched shiny white sand beaches, lush plantations,

an incredible history and fascinating culture, and the magnificence of the Historical Stone Town, Zanzibar is an experience that will certainly be a highlight in your life.

Zanzibar is a unique coral island lying in the Indian Ocean a short distance from mainland Tanzania. With Pemba, Mafia and about 50 other islands, Zanzibar originally was an independent country until 1964 when it was united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania.

Going back many centuries, the country has a rich, fascinating history having been influenced by Arabs, Britons, Indians, Persians, Portuguese as well as Africans from the mainland. Its heyday came in the early 19th century when the Sultan of Muscat moved his court to Zanzibar.

Spice cultivation - particularly the clove tree - was developed, and the slave trade was at its height as Zanzibar became the most important town in East Africa. Today, many of the winding streets and high townhouses of old Stone Town remain unchanged and visitors can talk between the Sultan’s Palace, the House of Wonders, the Portuguese fort and gardens, the merchants’ houses, and the Turkish baths of the old city.

Day-long spice tours to working plantations offer visitors the chance to observe the cultivation of cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and other spices that have made the island famous. Sand and surf vary depending on what side of the island you are on. The east coast offers waves that break over coral reefs and sand bars offshore, and low tide reveals small pools of starfish, small minnows, and anemones.

Up north, ocean swimming is much less susceptible to the tides, and smooth beaches and white sand make for dazzling days in the sun. The port city of Stone Town dominates the west coast, and although the beaches of Mangapwani, where slave caves are visible at low tide, and nearby Bububu are less than half an hour’s drive away.

A night or two spent on the east or north coast is well worth the extra hour it takes to drive there. Chole Island Marine Park just off Stone Town and nearby Prison, Grave, and Snake Islands make refreshing day-trips and a good break from exploring the winding passageways of the old city.

On the south coast of Zanzibar lies the Menai Bay Conservation Area, a sea turtle protection area for the endangered species that come to breed on the island. Roads to the southeast coast take visitors through the Jozani Forest, home to Zanzibar’s rare Red Colobus monkeys and a number of other primate and small antelope species.

From international standard hotels and resorts, to more humble but comfortable lodgings, Warrior Trails works with the best Zanzibar has to offer. Please Contact Us for more details.

At the point where the Pangani River empties into the Indian Ocean, lies Pangani, a village that has grown from its historical development as an Arabic settlement and slave trading centre, and is now known as the “Zanzibar of the Tanzanian coast”.

The Pangani River, flowing from the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, passes through the north side of the town, separating the old buildings and the present-day market on the north from the

farms and small houses on the south side. Pangani town elders serve as knowledgeable guides who can impart their vast knowledge of local history and culture going back to the 15th century.

Both Arab and German influences are evident in the colonial and Swahili architecture, giving the town a unique appearance. Many historical sites exist to commemorate various important

events in local history. In the streets, carpet makers, woodcarvers, basket weavers, painters and other artisans sell a wide variety of hand made items.

Pangani is truly a tropical and unspoiled paradise. Nowadays it is mainly a fishing town dotted with coconut trees, providing beautiful beaches for a quiet vacation. Maziwi Island is a newly designated marine reserve, and rests on a coral reef just of the shores of Pangani. It provides

snorkeling and deep sea diving opportunities, which can be arranged with local fishermen.

These Swahili fishermen, who spend 12 hours at sea seven days a week, are also more than willing to offer their services as a shuttle to and from the sandbanks offshore for a picnic in

the sun.