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Three decades ago, when I was a college student in East Africa, Tanzania’s major city, Dar Es Salaam, was still an overgrown small town, lacking the posh hotels and western investment of African metropolitan centers like Nairobi, Kenya or Cairo, Egypt. Today, Dar is a growing city of 2.6 million, with a score of luxury hotels and even casinos. I spent several afternoons walking through downtown Dar, and could scarcely recognize it. Everywhere one looks, there is new construction for commercial enterprises. Nearly all of these new businesses are privately owned, or involve some kind of government-private corporate partnerships.
A typical example is the public-private partnership at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, near Arusha, Tanzania’s largest northern city. In 1998, the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO) was established, consisting of four partners: Madt MacDonald, a British firm, which owned 41 percent interest in the consortium; Infrastructure Fund of South Africa (30 percent); the Tanzanian government (24 percent); and a local firm, Inter Consult, Limited, at 5 percent. Since its founding, KADCO has invested roughly $8 million into improving the airport’s facilities and operations. It has attracted international airlines to Kilimanjaro, greatly expanding tourism into Tanzania. Today, 650,000 tourists enter Tanzania annually, many thousands arriving at Kilimanjaro Airport. However, KADCO’s “concession” on Kilimanjaro Airport, which runs until 2023, means that British and South African interests will continue to largely control Tanzania’s second-largest international airport for years to come.
Visiting Tanzania today also provides a unique window into humanity’s past. I spent several days camping outside at the crest of Ngorongara Crater, one of the largest calderas in the world. About 10 miles across, the crater contains over 30,000 elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras and other wild animals. Traveling northwest, I also spent time at Olduvai Gorge, an archeological site where in 1959 Mary Leakey discovered the skeletal fragments of “Australopithecus looisei,” better known as “zinjanthrapus man” or “nutcracker man,” from 1.8 million years ago. In recent years, the Tanzanian government has done an excellent job stamping out poachers who would slaughter protected wild animals. Tourism now represents approximately 16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Government officials project that by 2010 perhaps 25 percent of Tanzania’s GDP will be based on tourism.
Under the pressure of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Tanzania’s leaders after Julius Nyerere have largely capitulated to external demands for privatization. Nyerere’s immediate successor as president, Ali Hasan Mwinyi, dismantled the government-run agricultural cooperatives, and sought to increase foreign investment. But the United States, and other critics weren’t satisfied. They demanded that Tanzania get rid of its one-party government, and establish “free elections.” In 1992, Tanzania complied, amending the country’s constitution to create a multi-party, electoral system. In October, 1995, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s candidate, Benjamin Mkapa, won the presidency, but the CCM party only received 62 percent of the national vote.
In neighboring Zanzibar, which in 1964 merged with then-Tanganyika, to create the independent Tanzania, most election observers believed that the opposition party, the “Civic United Front,” defeated the CCM. Through election fraud, CCM was awarded the victory. Protests ensued, and most foreign investment and aid programs to Zanzibar ground to a halt for years. Five years later, in the 2000 elections, the Civic United Front again charged fraud, sparking protests culminating in several dozen deaths.
Under Mkapa’s presidency, Tanzania’s economy rebounded. Between 2000 and 2006, Tanzania’s annual gross domestic produce averaged 5.8 per cent, one of Africa’s highest growth rates. As of 2005, Tanzania’s exports amounted to $1.6 billion, with most of its trade shipped to China (10.2 percent), Canada (8.6 percent), India (7.3 percent), the Netherlands (5.2 percent), and Japan (5 percent).
Unfortunately, like the United States, Tanzania imports far more goods - $2.4 billion in 2005 – than it exports, creating a serious trade deficit. Most of Tanzania’s imports, consisting mainly of consumer goods, transportation equipment and machines, come from South Africa (12.2 percent), China (9.6 percent), and India (7 percent).
Despite recent economic progress, Tanzania has serious social and economic problems. The strong commitment to literacy and universal education embodied by Tanzania’s first president, Julius K. Nyerere, no longer exists. I spent one morning visiting a rural school on the outskirts of Arusha, where nine hundred children were being taught by seventeen overworked and unfunded teachers. The principal showed me two cattle stalls with dirt floors and thatched, grass-covered roofs, where scores of African children attended instruction because the school lacks enough classrooms. Fewer than one-half of the children have textbooks, paper or pencils. Yet all of the children appear eager to learn. Like the rest of Africa, Tanzania’s economic development and future are compromised by serious healthcare problems. The median life expectancy at birth in Tanzania is only 45 years for males, and 46.4 years for females. That’s because infant mortality rates remain astronomically high – about 106 deaths per one thousand live births for males, and 87 deaths per one thousand live births for females. HIV/AIDS claims over 150,000 deaths annually, in a nation of only 40 million. About 2 million Tanzanians are estimated to be HIV-positive or to have AIDS.
For many African Americans, South Africa is the one African nation that most closely resembles the struggles we have experienced within America’s racial hierarchy. It’s not surprising that since the fall of apartheid, black American political, cultural and economic interests have concentrated disproportionately to South Africa. Yet along with West Africa, our ancestral “homeland,” I find Tanzania a remarkable, beautiful and “unfinished” country, with a vitality and energy that bears closer attention. Nyerere’s spirit of “ujamaa” – “familyhood” – still exists, in thousands of Tanzanian villages, small towns and urban centers, where African people continue to struggle and sacrifice to enhance their children’s lives, and to build a newer, stronger nation. Whether that can be accomplished through economic privatization “partnerships” and “neoliberal” policies recommended by the U.S. and international banks, however, remains to be seen.
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Dr. Manning Marable is Professor Public Affairs, History, and African-American Studies at Columbia University, New York City. “Along the Color Line” appears in over 400 publications internationally, and is available at http://www.manningmarable.net.
A typical example is the public-private partnership at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, near Arusha, Tanzania’s largest northern city. In 1998, the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO) was established, consisting of four partners: Madt MacDonald, a British firm, which owned 41 percent interest in the consortium; Infrastructure Fund of South Africa (30 percent); the Tanzanian government (24 percent); and a local firm, Inter Consult, Limited, at 5 percent. Since its founding, KADCO has invested roughly $8 million into improving the airport’s facilities and operations. It has attracted international airlines to Kilimanjaro, greatly expanding tourism into Tanzania. Today, 650,000 tourists enter Tanzania annually, many thousands arriving at Kilimanjaro Airport. However, KADCO’s “concession” on Kilimanjaro Airport, which runs until 2023, means that British and South African interests will continue to largely control Tanzania’s second-largest international airport for years to come.
Visiting Tanzania today also provides a unique window into humanity’s past. I spent several days camping outside at the crest of Ngorongara Crater, one of the largest calderas in the world. About 10 miles across, the crater contains over 30,000 elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras and other wild animals. Traveling northwest, I also spent time at Olduvai Gorge, an archeological site where in 1959 Mary Leakey discovered the skeletal fragments of “Australopithecus looisei,” better known as “zinjanthrapus man” or “nutcracker man,” from 1.8 million years ago. In recent years, the Tanzanian government has done an excellent job stamping out poachers who would slaughter protected wild animals. Tourism now represents approximately 16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Government officials project that by 2010 perhaps 25 percent of Tanzania’s GDP will be based on tourism.
Under the pressure of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Tanzania’s leaders after Julius Nyerere have largely capitulated to external demands for privatization. Nyerere’s immediate successor as president, Ali Hasan Mwinyi, dismantled the government-run agricultural cooperatives, and sought to increase foreign investment. But the United States, and other critics weren’t satisfied. They demanded that Tanzania get rid of its one-party government, and establish “free elections.” In 1992, Tanzania complied, amending the country’s constitution to create a multi-party, electoral system. In October, 1995, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s candidate, Benjamin Mkapa, won the presidency, but the CCM party only received 62 percent of the national vote.
In neighboring Zanzibar, which in 1964 merged with then-Tanganyika, to create the independent Tanzania, most election observers believed that the opposition party, the “Civic United Front,” defeated the CCM. Through election fraud, CCM was awarded the victory. Protests ensued, and most foreign investment and aid programs to Zanzibar ground to a halt for years. Five years later, in the 2000 elections, the Civic United Front again charged fraud, sparking protests culminating in several dozen deaths.
Under Mkapa’s presidency, Tanzania’s economy rebounded. Between 2000 and 2006, Tanzania’s annual gross domestic produce averaged 5.8 per cent, one of Africa’s highest growth rates. As of 2005, Tanzania’s exports amounted to $1.6 billion, with most of its trade shipped to China (10.2 percent), Canada (8.6 percent), India (7.3 percent), the Netherlands (5.2 percent), and Japan (5 percent).
Unfortunately, like the United States, Tanzania imports far more goods - $2.4 billion in 2005 – than it exports, creating a serious trade deficit. Most of Tanzania’s imports, consisting mainly of consumer goods, transportation equipment and machines, come from South Africa (12.2 percent), China (9.6 percent), and India (7 percent).
Despite recent economic progress, Tanzania has serious social and economic problems. The strong commitment to literacy and universal education embodied by Tanzania’s first president, Julius K. Nyerere, no longer exists. I spent one morning visiting a rural school on the outskirts of Arusha, where nine hundred children were being taught by seventeen overworked and unfunded teachers. The principal showed me two cattle stalls with dirt floors and thatched, grass-covered roofs, where scores of African children attended instruction because the school lacks enough classrooms. Fewer than one-half of the children have textbooks, paper or pencils. Yet all of the children appear eager to learn. Like the rest of Africa, Tanzania’s economic development and future are compromised by serious healthcare problems. The median life expectancy at birth in Tanzania is only 45 years for males, and 46.4 years for females. That’s because infant mortality rates remain astronomically high – about 106 deaths per one thousand live births for males, and 87 deaths per one thousand live births for females. HIV/AIDS claims over 150,000 deaths annually, in a nation of only 40 million. About 2 million Tanzanians are estimated to be HIV-positive or to have AIDS.
For many African Americans, South Africa is the one African nation that most closely resembles the struggles we have experienced within America’s racial hierarchy. It’s not surprising that since the fall of apartheid, black American political, cultural and economic interests have concentrated disproportionately to South Africa. Yet along with West Africa, our ancestral “homeland,” I find Tanzania a remarkable, beautiful and “unfinished” country, with a vitality and energy that bears closer attention. Nyerere’s spirit of “ujamaa” – “familyhood” – still exists, in thousands of Tanzanian villages, small towns and urban centers, where African people continue to struggle and sacrifice to enhance their children’s lives, and to build a newer, stronger nation. Whether that can be accomplished through economic privatization “partnerships” and “neoliberal” policies recommended by the U.S. and international banks, however, remains to be seen.
___
Dr. Manning Marable is Professor Public Affairs, History, and African-American Studies at Columbia University, New York City. “Along the Color Line” appears in over 400 publications internationally, and is available at http://www.manningmarable.net.