FROM COAST

Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has challenged the Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) to establish joint venture with local peasants in cultivating barley, an important ingredient in beer processing. Launching the new TBL Dar es Salaam’s fourth packaging line in the city yesterday, Mr Pinda said such contract farming could also benefit local people by improving their socio-economic lives.

He said there was no need for TBL to continue importing barley, because Tanzania has plenty of arable land suitable for cultivating the crop. The prime minister said there was need for TBL to establish pilot barley farms, to set an example for the rest of the farmers in the country to learn from.

He added that a research done recently had showed that land in Rukwa region, for example, could be suitable for barley. “Tanzania has 44 million hectares of arable land out of which only 10.8 million hectares are currently under cultivation. We could engage our people to cultivate barley as an alternative cash crop,” he said.

Mr Pinda called on local industries to use local materials in producing their goods and services, saying such a system created employment, thus, reducing poverty margin among the people. The prime minister said green revolution in the country was possible, if agricultural experts could play their part dutifully.

Speaking during the event, the TBL Managing Director, Mr Robin Goetzsche, said the company would, in the next four years, spend over 350bn/- in expanding its activities countrywide. The Minister for Industries, Trade and Marketing, Dr Mary Nagu, has, meanwhile, urged TBL to honour its contract with the East African Breweries Limited, and sell its product in Kenya like Safari and Bingwa beer brands.

Tusker is sold in Tanzania but why is Safari and Bingwa not sold in Kenya?” she queried. In 2007, TBL made 346bn/- profit and paid tax amounting to 31bn/- to the government. Last year, the industry got a profit of 383bn/- , remitting 24bn/- to the government as tax.

The company will this year buy about 9,000 tonnes of barley in beer-making from farmers in Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions, for processing at its Moshi-based malting plant. The expansion of plantings to the southern regions of Iringa, Ruvuma, Rukwa and Mbeya could boost production of the grain to about 50,000 tonnes over five years.

US President Barack Obama has assured President Jakaya Kikwete that his country would continue to support Tanzania’s poverty alleviation drive and efforts to enable its people to lead a better life. Mr Obama directed the Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton, and other aides to follow the pledges closely to ensure their implementation. Apart from Mrs Clinton, other high-ranking US officials present at the talks were Obama’s economic adviser, who was once Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, defence adviser General James Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Ambassador A. Carson. Mr Carson had in his youth days served in Tanzania as a volunteer teacher at Malangali in Iringa Region. Mr Obama told Mr Kikwete that his decision to invite him to the US, being the first African head of state since his inauguration in January, was done in recognition of Tanzania’s leader impeccable credentials and his successful policies. ‘’I want you to succeed in your leadership. Tell me how you would like us to assist you to continue with your successful path. You are the first African head of state to meet me since I became president. This is a clear sign of my own confidence and that of my government in your leadership.I am really pleased with your leadership,’’ President Obama told Mr Kikwete. The US leader praised Tanzania for laying emphasis on education, which he described as a pinnacle of good leadership. He promised to step up American assistance in the Millennium Challenge Corporation projects in Tanzania to ensure more prosperity. President Kikwete requested the Obama administration to help Tanzania reduce maternal deaths and help Africa to cope with the effects of the global economic downturn. Mr Kikwete also briefed his US counterpart on the efforts to bring about political reconciliation in Zanzibar.The two leaders discussed about the situation in Darfur, DRC and Somalia. They also talked about the political situation in Kenya.

Subject: Remember










My dear Friends and Loved Ones

It doesn’t matter what problems you are facing right now
Whatever challenges you are confronting
Please remember one thing…NEVER GIVE UP

What matters is not how many times you fall
But rising up every time you fall and
Never ever give up!

You are not swallowed up as yet
But it seems you will be soon if and only if
You give up
So go ahead
Stretch your hands
Take strong hold of the neck
That is waiting to swallow you up
And…………….SQWEEEZE it

Victims of Mbagala bomb blasts whose houses are within 500 metres from the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) depot, will be removed from the area soon after completion of the valuation process. The Minister of Defence and National Service, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, told the 'Daily News' that the decision comes following preliminary recommendations by the valuation team.

“We’ll have no any other solution but to remove them from the area, since they have all along occupied the area illegally. This will be done soon after they are compensated,” he said. Dr Mwinyi said that TPDF had several times talked to the authorities responsible for issuing construction permits and asked them not to issue permission to people to construct near the army depot.

“However, in this case we can not hold the authorities accountable because they did not issue permits for the construction of such houses, the people had decided to trespass on their own,” he said. The Minister said that the team formed by his office to probe the matter had in its preliminary recommendations also asked the government to consider removal of the residents from the area. Dr Mwinyi referred to as baseless, the rumours that the government was earlier planning to transfer the TPDF depot instead.

Interviewed victims in Mbagala welcomed the idea of relocation, saying that the place has become unpleasant to most of them, since the incident took place late last month. “In fact we have developed a kind of phobia, many of us have proved that indeed the area is dangerous for human settlements because of what they saw on April 19,” said Mr Mustafa Muhidini, a father of five. Meanwhile, the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Mr William Lukuvi, yesterday noted that some of the houses valuated in the on-going exercise will not be compensated.

“My team of valuers has told me that some houses were valuated for the sake of record keeping and also to gather evidences of why the owners should be either compensated or not,” he said. Mr Lukuvi said that the valuation exercise was on its final stages as until Wednesday evening, only 41 houses out of 8,306 were yet to be valuated. In another development, Mr Lukuvi added that until Wednesday, at least 338 children had undergone health screening and only two were found to have health problems.

People have lived in Zanzibar for 20 000 years; history proper starts when the islands became a base for traders voyaging between Arabia, India, and Africa. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago had few products of value, Arabs settled at what became Zanzibar City (Stone Town) as a convenient point from which to trade with East African coastal towns. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first mosque in the Southern hemisphere.

During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698 Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops, with a ruling Arab elite. Plantations were developed to grow spices, hence the moniker of the Spice Islands (a name also used of Dutch colony the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia). Another major trade good was ivory, the tusks of elephants killed in mainland Africa. The third pillar of the economy was slaves, giving Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast, known as Zanj, and extensive inland trading routes.

Sometimes gradually, sometimes by fits and starts, control came into the hands of the British Empire; part of the political impetus for this was the movement for the abolition of the slave trade. In 1890 Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War, also known as The Shortest War in History.

The islands gained independence from Britain in December 1963 as a constitutional monarchy. A month later, the bloody Zanzibar Revolution, in which several thousand Arabs and Indians were killed and thousands more expelled and expropriated, led to the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. That April, the republic merged with the mainland Tanganyika, or more accurately, was subsumed into Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region. Zanzibar was most recently in the international news with a January 2001 massacre, following contested elections.

Prehistory

Zanzibar has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. A cave containing traces of microlithic tools revealed 20,000 years of human occupation of Zanzibar (Sinclair et al. 2006). These tools are common to Later Stone Age hunter-gatherer communities. Archaeological discoveries of a limestone cave used radiocarbon techniques to prove more recent occupation, from around 2800 BCE to around the year 0 (Chami 2006). Traces of the communities include objects such as glass beads from around the Indian Ocean. It is a suggestion of early trans-oceanic trade networks, although some writers have expressed pessimism about this possibility.

No cave sites on Zanzibar have revealed pottery fragments used by early and later farming and iron-working communities who lived on the islands (Zanzibar, Mafia) during the first millennium CE. On Zanzibar, the evidence for the later farming and iron-working communities dating from the mid-first millennium CE is much stronger and indicates the beginning of urbanism there when settlements were built with mud-timber structures (Juma 2004). This is somewhat earlier than the existing evidence for towns in other parts of the East African coast, given as the 9th century CE. The first permanent residents of Zanzibar seem to have been the ancestors of the Hadimu and Tumbatu, who began arriving from the East African mainland around 1000 CE. They had belonged to various mainland ethnic groups, and on Zanzibar they lived in small villages and failed to coalesce to form larger political units. Because they lacked central organization, they were easily subjugated by outsiders.

Early Arab rule

Ancient pottery demonstrates existing trade routes with Zanzibar as far back as the ancient Assyrians. Traders from Arabia (mostly Yemen), the Persian Gulf region of modern-day IranShiraz), and west India probably visited Zanzibar as early as the 1st century CE. They used the monsoon winds to sail across the Indian Ocean and landed at the sheltered harbor located on the site of present-day Zanzibar Town. Although the islands had few resources of interest to the traders, they offered a good location from which to make contact and trade with the towns of the East African coast. A phase of urban development associated with the introduction of stone material to the construction industry of the East African coast began from the 10th century CE. (especially

Traders began to settle in small numbers on Zanzibar in the late 11th or 12th century, intermarrying with the indigenous Africans. Eventually a hereditary ruler (known as the Mwenyi Mkuu or Jumbe), emerged among the Hadimu, and a similar ruler, called the Sheha, was set up among the Tumbatu. Neither had much power, but they helped solidify the ethnic identity of their respective peoples.

The Yemenis built the earliest mosque in the southern hemisphere in Kizimkazi, the southernmost village in Unguja. A kufic inscription on its mihrab bears the date AH 500, i.e. 1107 CE.

Portuguese rule

Vasco da Gama's visit in 1499 marks the beginning of European influence, and the Portuguese established control over the island four years later. In August 1505, it became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain John (João) Homere, part of Francisco de Almeida's fleet, captured the island. It was to remain a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries.

Later Arab rule

In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman, falling under the control of the Sultan of Oman. The Portuguese were expelled and a lucrative trade in slaves and ivory thrived, along with an expanding plantation economy centring on cloves. The Arabs established garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa. The height of Arab rule came during the reign of Seyyid SaidMuscat in Oman to Stone Town. He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's slave labour. Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island. After his death in 1856, his sons struggled over the succession. On April 6, 1861, Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate principalities. Sayyid Majid bin Said Al-BusaidSultan of Zanzibar, while the third son, Sayyid Thuwaini bin Said al-Said, became the Sultan of Oman. (more fully, Sayyid Said bin Sultan al-Busaid), who in 1840 moved his capital from (1834/5–1870), his sixth son, became the

The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the east African coast, known as Zanj, and trading routes extending much further across the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River. In November 1886, a German-British border commission established the Zanj as a ten-nautical mile (19 km) wide strip along most of the coast of East Africa, stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique) to Kipini (now in Kenya), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, all offshore islands, and several towns in what is now Somalia. However, from 1887 to 1892, all of these mainland possessions were lost to the colonial powers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, although some were not formally sold or ceded until the 20th century (Mogadishu to Italy in 1905 and Mombasa to Britain in 1963).

Zanzibar was famous world-wide for its spices and its slaves. It was East Africa's main slave-trading port, and in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the slave markets of Zanzibar each year.^[1] (David Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the island.) Tippu Tip was the most notorious slaver, under several sultans, and also a trader, plantation owner and governor. Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the United States, which established a consulate in 1837. The United Kingdom's early interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both commerce and the determination to end the slave trade.^[2] In 1822, the British signed the first of a series of treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until 1876 was the sale of slaves finally prohibited.

Zanzibar had the distinction of having the first steam locomotive in East Africa, when Sultan Bargash bin Said ordered a tiny 0-4-0 tank engine to haul his regal carriage from town to his summer palace at Chukwani.

British influence and rule

The British Empire gradually took over; the relationship was formalised by the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged, among other things, not to interfere with British interests in Zanzibar. This treaty made Zanzibar and Pemba a British protectoratecolony), and the Caprivi Strip (in what is now Namibia) a German protectorate. British rule through a sultan (vizier) remained largely unchanged. (not

The death of Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 saw the Khalid bin Bargash, eldest son of the second sultan, Barghash ibn Sa'id, take over the palace and declare himself the new ruler. This was contrary to the wishes of the British government, which favoured Hamoud bin Mohammed. This led to a showdown, later called the Anglo-Zanzibar War, on the morning of 27 August, when ships of the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace, having given Khalid a one-hour ultimatum to leave. He refused, and at 9 am the ships opened fire. Khalid's troops returned fire and he fled to the German consulate. A cease fire was declared 45 minutes after the action had begun, giving the bombardment the title of The Shortest War in History. Hamoud was declared the new ruler and peace was restored once more. Acquiescing to British demands, he brought an end in 1897 to Zanzibar's role as a centre for the centuries-old eastern slave trade by banning slavery and freeing the slaves, compensating their owners. Hamoud's son and heir apparent, Ali, was educated in Britain.

Independence and revolution

On 10 December 1963, Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan. This state of affairs was short-lived, as the Sultan and the democratically elected government were overthrown on 12 January 1964 in the Zanzibar Revolution led by John Okello, a Ugandan citizen. Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume was named President of the newly created People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. Several thousand Arabs (5,000-12,000 Zanzibaris of Arabic descent) and Indians were killed, thousands more detained or expelled, their property either confiscated or destroyed. The film Africa Addio documents the revolution, including a massacre of Arabs. (Ethnic difference, and the expulsion of those who had anywhere else to go, were repeated themes in East Africa, the most prominent example being the Expulsion of Indians in Uganda in 1972 by Idi Amin.)

The revolutionary government nationalized the local operations of the two foreign banks in Zanzibar, Standard Bank and National and Grindlays Bank. These nationalized operations may have provided the foundation for the newly-created Peoples Bank of Zanzibar. Jetha Lila, the one locally-owned bank in Zanzibar, or for that matter in all of East Africa, closed. It was owned by Indians and though the revolutionary government of Zanzibar urged it to continue functioning, the loss of its customer base as Indians left the island made it impossible to continue.

Union with Tanganyika

On 26 April 1964, the mainland colony of Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; this lengthy name was compressed into a portmanteau, the United Republic of Tanzania, on 29 October 1964. After unification, local affairs were controlled by President Abeid Amani Karume, while foreign affairs were handled by the United Republic in Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.

Lists of rulers

Sultans of Zanzibar

1. Majid bin Said (1856–1870)
2. Barghash bin Said (1870–1888)
3. Khalifah bin Said (1888–1890)
4. Ali bin Said (1890–1893)
5. Hamad bin Thuwaini (1893–1896)
6. Khalid bin Barghash (1896)
7. Hamud bin Muhammed (1896–1902)
8. Ali bin Hamud (1902–1911) (abdicated)
9. Khalifa bin Harub (1911–1960)
10. Abdullah bin Khalifa (1960–1963)
11. Jamshid bin Abdullah (1963–1964)

Viziers

1. Sir Lloyd William Matthews, (1890 to 1901)
2. A.S. Rogers, (1901 to 1906)
3. Arthur Raikes, (1906 to 1908)
4. Francis Barton, (1906 to 1913)

British residents

1. Francis Pearce, (1913 to 1922)
2. John Sinclair, (1922 to 1923)
3. Alfred Hollis, (1923 to 1929)
4. Richard Rankine, (1929 to 1937)
5. John Hall, (1937 to 1940)
6. Henry Pilling, (1940 to 1946)
7. Vincent Glenday, 1946 to 1951)
8. John Sinclair, (1952 to 1954)
9. Arthur George Mooring, (1959 to 1963)

The Makerere University deputy vice-chancellor, Prof David Bakibinga, faces a fresh parliamentary investigation following the collapse of a Ush2 billion wall fence at the institution.

The MPs made the decision following reports that Prof Bakibinga, who is in charge of finance and administration at the eight-decade old institution, was never punished by the University for his role in the scandal.

The Auditor General has also questioned why Ush34.4 million meant for maintenance of university houses and roads was diverted to construction of the fence that collapsed following a simple downpour.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee have summoned top Makerere managers including Prof Bakibinga to explain how the 133-metre perimeter wall under construction collapsed in September 2007 and failure to discipline some culprits.

"We have opened fresh investigations into this collapsed fence because of impunity on the part of university managers," said Mr Nandala Mafabi, the committee chairperson.

"Since September 2007, university managers have failed to implement the PPDA recommendations to have people like Prof Bakibinga disciplined. Public money wasted in the process and somebody must be held accountable."

The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), the body that oversees procurement processes of public institutions, in its November 2007 report said Prof Bakibinga, under whose docket the wall lay, was to be held responsible.

Prof Bakibinga was implicated together with the university estates manager, Eng Edson Mpango and another official, Mr Andrew Sserunjogi. The two have since been interdicted but Prof Bakibinga, who pleads innocence, remains in office.

The Citizen could not get to Prof Bakibinga by press time yesterday but in his December 7, 2007 written defence to Prof Mathew Rukikaire, the Makerere University Council Chairman, he denied any wrongdoing, insisting the University Secretary Sam Akorimo, should instead take the blame.

But MPs last week ruled that Prof Bakibinga should be the one to answer for the scandal, after the Auditor General raised more queries.

They for example query why Prof Bakibinga in August 2006 wrote to Eng Mpango proposing new estimates for the construction of the wall, in contradiction of the original costs approved by management.

PPDA publicist Dorah Egunyu told The Citizen that implicated officials had been given a fair hearing.

"Our report was based on clear findings. We are happy that Parliament has taken interest in this Makerere fence scandal because a lot of public money was put to waste," she said.

Mr Rukikaire on Saturday said the university had taken some action by interdicting and disciplining all involved, but declined to discuss Prof Bakibinga.

The ongoing global financial crisis may continue to deeply haunt Tanzania and other African countries south of the Sahara for a long time despite the already evident green shoots in Asia and Europe.

The world's top policymakers offered their most upbeat assessment of the global economy in months, saying it was stabilising and that it could start growing again as soon as late this year.

Australia's central bank governor Glenn Stevens joined the growing chorus of officials predicting that the economy should start pulling out of its worst recession in more than six decades later this year.

"Developments over recent months are certainly consistent with the view that a recovery will get under way towards the end of the year," Mr Stevens said in a speech.

His comments follow World Bank President Robert Zoellick's assessment that the global downturn was abating and growth could resume this year or next, and surprisingly optimistic remarks from European Central Bank Vice-President Lucas Papademos.

Recently, Mr Zoellick highlighted the high degree of certainty about the world economy's future, while Mr Papademos' take on the euro zone's prospects was more upbeat than the ECB's base scenario of recovery only taking hold next year.

The assessments seem to leave Sub Saharan African countries out of the picture in a report published mid May by Regional Head of Research at Standard Chartered Global Focus, Razia Khan, who says it is difficult to estimate overall African growth in the current environment because of the characteristics specific to this down turn.

She says, the repeated downgrades to Sub Saharan African growth forecasts underscores the region's vulnerability to the global crisis and increasingly, though the question is not just how deeply Africa will be impacted by the crisis, but also for how long.

Ms Khan continues to elaborate that although there have been signs of recovery for commodity prices in Asia, of which Sub Saharan Africa is largely dependant on its exports, a quick bounce-back might not be anticipated due to financing constraints faced by Sub Saharan economies.

She says, commodity prices accounting for an average of 45 percent of the GDP in the region are already staging a recovery from earlier lows following the apparent green shoots of recovery evident in Asia although a quick return to the previous growth rates of 6-7 percent may not be the most plausible scenario in Sub Saharan Africa economies.

"For Africa, it is not only the traditional commodity price channel affecting export earnings, fiscal balances and Foreign Direct Investments that matters.

The nature of the financial crisis and any drying up of external financing available to Africa, also risk prolonging the downturn, if the downturn were due solely to commodity prices, a relative quick bounce-back in African growth might be anticipated, "she says.

In her document, Ms Khan says that relative to other developing regions, Sub Saharan Africa has fewer financial linkages with the rest of the world. According to statistics released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Sub Saharan Africa receives less than three percent of total cross-border lending to developing regions.

She, however insists that these statistics contradict the regions vulnerability on the ground that the region, during the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2008 had witnessed the sharpest percentage contraction in cross border lending to any region due to high risk in the region which prompted a speedy process of de-leveraging and repatriation by many non traditional players in the region.

These are the ones who were once attracted to Africa by rising capital flows during the years of good global economic growth, easy availability of liquidity, and high levels of risk appetite.

The scenario applied as much to bank lending as it did to portfolio investment.

Elsewhere in Africa, the document says, the evidence is more mixed. While Zambia, Ghana and Uganda reduced their borrowing from foreign banks in fourth quarter of 2008, anecdotal evidence suggests that the situation may have started to reverse, with developments related to the resource wealth of these countries being a key swing factor. However, this is unlikely to make an immediate difference to growth.

"In Kenya, the revival of cross-border borrowing is likely to have been dramatic. Yet this is partly on the strength of borrowing by state owned companies, which threatens to crowd out other lending including SMEs which could provide a more immediate boost to domestic spending amid the downturn," says Khan.

In her findings she says Kenya provides an interesting illustration of the hurdles facing African economies. With liquidity from financial institutions more difficult to obtain, Africa will increasingly have to seek out home-grown solutions to fill the gap.

Echoing these remarks, is the National Micro Finance Annual Report 2008, which says Tanzanian export of goods and services account for 16 percent of GDP, while imports account for 29 percent.

The short fall in international income is almost 13 percent of GDP and is largely paid for by credit, investment and specifically development aid flows from development partners.

"Given the severity of the economic crisis in US and Europe, there is a risk that these financial inflows may not be maintained over the coming years.

To ensure high public expenditure levels for critical social services, higher domestic revenues will be necessary. Only a vibrant private sector will be able to create the required economic growth," says the report.

In order to reduce export dependency on a limited range of cash crops such as cotton, coffee, tea and cashew nuts, efforts are underway to expand into more upmarket agricultural products.

According to the NMB report, the government has also stimulated the non-agricultural sectors of mining and tourism. Tanzania now depends on gold for almost 50 percent of its export revenues.

In her paper, Khan, though doubtful believes that recent technological changes, including the rapid rise of mobile phone banking, may help to alter the picture by drawing the informal sectors into the formal economy, and bringing cash under the mattresses into the banking system, where it can be intermediated more effectively.