Letter from Butiama: Everything is new

As Tanzanians wait eagerly for newly-elected President John Magufuli to unveil his new cabinet in the next few days, I share an old article I wrote over ten years ago when Tanzanians, in quite similar circumstances, were attempting to make sense of newly-elected President Jakaya Kikwete's campaign slogan.

The article, from my column "Letter from Butiama", was published in the Sundays News of 15 January 2015.

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There are an overwhelming number of new names that Tanzanians have to begin to get used to. We have a newly elected president and we still have to get used to hearing “President Kikwete”; we have a new former president, and I was amused recently to hear someone say “Mzee Mkapa”, suggesting that only former presidents deserve that title; there is the new cabinet with new ministers and ministries.

What is probably not as new is President Jakaya Kikwete’s campaign slogan which first surfaced during the campaign period and left me, as one who writes in English, caught totally unprepared.

Ever since I first heard the slogan, I have attempted to translate it into English and it hasn’t been a pleasant exercise. It leaves me, as an English-language columnist with a sense that this government feels that English-language journalists should put in more hours of work than their Kiswahili-language colleagues. It is quite clear where the priorities of the administration lie. Kiswahili is on the rise while English is in for a rough five years, at the very least.

The Swahili words of the slogan, ari mpya, nguvu mpya, kasi mpya, which now has become a rallying call and is entering the day-to-day conversation of ordinary Tanzanians, convey pretty straightforward meanings. From a political standpoint the phrase has a clear and unambiguous meaning.

My interpretation of the slogan is an affirmation by a presidential aspirant and, later, presidential candidate that, once he gets hold of the steering wheel, he will apply  a little more power behind the engine of a car which is already in motion. Or was he, perhaps, thinking of fitting-in a new turbo-charged 12 cylinder monster of an engine to the vehicle? It would still amount to the same effect, just a difference of the power applied. The point, as I understood it, is he is looking at adding some impetus to a process that is already in motion. Any person, who understands Kiswahili and understands something about the political process, will undoubtedly understand the general intended meaning of the slogan.

The problem with language is that we always try to find the equivalent meanings in other languages, but sometimes it is not easy. I have heard a non-Tanzanian translate mapinduzi in Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) with the English word “revolution”, and so CCM to him was the Revolutionary Party. The images I get of a party that has “revolutionary” as part of its name is one that has spent years waging a war against an occupying force, with the AK-47 assault rifle as its weapon of choice. I suggested that the translation could have been improved.

In English ari is also zeal, enthusiasm, eagerness, initiative, and spirit, while kasi is less ambiguous and is the equivalent of speed. It is when I looked up the English equivalent of nguvu that I was left with a feeling that this administration probably wants English-language columnists to spend more time doing their homework. Nguvu is also force, power, strength; it can be authority, or supremacy; and it can be impetus, pressure, or solidarity.

The Swahili version of the slogan has a neat rhythmic sound to it. In English, depending on the words you use, the slogan can sound awkward, and produce an equally awkward meaning. From the several equivalent English translations provided of ari, nguvu, and kasi consider, “New (or is it renewed?) zeal, new pressure, and new speed”. I admit that translators and interpreters will, and probably already have, made a tidy sensible equivalent slogan in English.

Although, as I said, I feel excluded, I feel it is perfectly all right because the intended audience of the slogan is Tanzanian and Tanzanians understand Kiswahili better than any other language. Those who don’t understand Kiswahili can go to Kiswahili language schools. And those writers who do not want to spend too much time translating can switch to other subjects. To me it’s not even necessary to translate the slogan into English.

Perhaps a lesson can be learnt from the French. I know that one aspect of their culture that the French will defend, especially against English, to the last survivor is their language.

For all the love they have for their language I learnt from a fellow Tanzanian student in Canada, more than twenty years ago, that there is an English name that the French continued to use in speech: hot dog, that hot sausage enclosed as a sandwich in a roll of bread, the archetypal American food.

He told me that while the French in France continued to order their “hotdogs” using the original American name, the irony was that in Canada some staunch French Canadians from the province of Quebec would not have a single word of English in their discourse, and so to them the hot dog was chien chaud, literally “hot dog” – in French!

Letter from Butiama: The origin of language

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 11th February 2007.
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There is a Biblical passage about the tower of Babel (Genesis11: 1-9) which reports that humans once had a single language, and that we agreed to build a tower to reach heaven. The Almighty God was monitoring the scheme, and stepped in to intervene after deciding we had gone too far.

God created languages, making it impossible for those at the construction site to understand and cooperate with each other. Unable to continue, humans dispersed around the earth to indulge in other mischief.
In the scientific study of languages, experts group those languages with similar characteristics in groups. Genetic or typological characteristics are used for the classifications. Genetic classification, in lines similar to the story of Babel, looks for evidence of linkages to a common language, while typological classifications look for similarities in structure.

The study of language assumes that the groups of languages and the families they belong to are derived from a “parent” or “proto-“ language, the mother of  all languages. Bantu is one such group from which most of the languages spoken in the eastern, central, and southern African region originate, while the Germanic subfamily is known to have spawned several European languages including English, German, Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian.

Science has not and will not be able to determine whether all languages originated from one particular language because the available written records are not consistent across all languages and, even when they are available, cover only a fraction of the estimated thousands of years in which human speech has existed.
However, it is instructive to note that, in some languages, there seems to be some trace of the Biblical account on the tower of Babel.

I believe that Swahili and Italian speakers can make a strong religious claim to being one of the first two language offshoots from Babel, and a scientific claim for being two of the world’s earlier proto-languages.
Take the example of the Italian word giu’ whose pronunciation closely resembles that of the Swahili word juu. Giu’ means “down”, juu is “up.” Imagine the confusion created each time the Swahili speaking bricklayer asked the Italian stores clerk for additional bricks to be sent up.

Although these two words have opposite meanings, if you look at them as representing one of two extremes they are strongly connected on a scale of height, and would give some credence to the Biblical account of the Divine intervention to curtail the effectiveness of communication, at least between Italian and Swahili speakers.

To the northern Chinese ma can have three meanings depending on the intonation you use when pronouncing those two letters. On a flat tone it means “mother”, on a falling tone “to curse.” In Italian the same word means “but” and several other meanings associated with that word.

There are several examples of words that has one decent meaning in one language and a different and obscene unprintable meaning in another. Again, a few Italian words that can be used in normal conversation share the reputation of having obscene Swahili meanings.

While some religions preach that we shared a common language in the past, and scientific study points to a shared common origin of languages in language groups, there is a great likelihood that the advances in human knowledge existing today would have changed the story in the Bible.

I have had the chance to observe Chinese technicians working on a Tanzanian construction site. They could not speak a word of neither English nor Swahili. In comparison, the only Chinese word that their coordinator knew was the word for “beer”, which was of little help even if they were constructing a brewery.

In little time a communications system was developed and used. To order more nails, they showed a nail to the coordinator, and wrote down the size and quantity using the number system familiar to any literate Tanzanian. It worked well for most situations. Thanks to easier communication nowadays, when communication completely broke down, they would place a call to an interpreter in China to resolve the matter.

Human knowledge today would have probably changed the story of Babel. Construction would have continued until the tower would have collapsed from its own height, but while construction lasted, religion and science would have found common ground.

Letter from Butiama: CCM at thirty

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 4th February 2007.

The political landscape has changed since then, but I believe that some of the points I raised in 2007 could still be valid today in light of the leadership battles that have recently surfaced in one of the opposition political parties. 

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Tomorrow Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the ruling party turns thirty.

In those thirty years Tanzania has changed considerably. The most significant of the changes is the fact that when the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) merged with Zanzibar’s Afro Shirazi Party (ASP) to form CCM in 1977, Tanzania was a one-party state.

Today, CCM shares the political platform with several other political parties after Tanzania adopted a pluralist political system in 1992.

That after we adopted a multiparty system CCM has won three general elections suggests that it is doing something that the opposition parties cannot.

CCM members will say that their victories are a measure of the strength of their party, and the articulation of their policies to the electorate, which finds meaning with the voters. They will also say that it is a measure of the weakness of the opposition.

CCM’s results could also be explained by an event from the past. Only 20 percent of CCM members told the Nyalali Commission, which was mandated by President Mwinyi to collect the views of Tanzanians on their preferred political system, that they want a pluralist political system. CCM decided that it was significant enough to warrant adoption of a multiparty system, given the fact 56 percent of those who preferred a singly party system had some reservations about CCM’s performance.

Although skeptics always maintain that CCM’s views are not representative of the wider views of other non-CCM Tanzanians, election results seem to suggest that CCM member’s views are decisive.

I suspect that the 80 percent against and the 20 percent for pluralism ratio from the Nyalali Commission findings remains constant. Those views remain in the subconscious of voters; when they are dissatisfied with CCM they shift allegiance to the opposition, but when CCM seems to live up to their expectations, they shift back to CCM, showing their true colours – green, yellow, and black.

There is phenomenon in the soft drinks market that suggests that when a new soft drink is introduced in a market, consumers temporarily switch to the new drink, and after the novelty wears off they return to their usual drink.

I have no intention of belittling the opposition parties, but I believe that the same analogy applies to Tanzania’s political landscape. I recall the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding the first multi-party elections in 1995. It looked like CCM would loose.

CCM mounted a counter campaign that included recalling to active duty some retired cadres, including Mwalimu Nyerere, and succeeded in winning the Mainland presidential elections by more than 60 percent of the vote. It also won 214 parliamentary seats compared to the opposition’s 55.

The opposition parties have never recovered from the gains registered in that first election in 1995. The leadership in the opposition parties spent a great deal of their time squabbling between themselves, the voters went back to the party they had been used to since 1977 and the voter’s political choice was limited.

The Mainland presidential elections results in 2005 saw CCM emerge the winner, capturing over 80 percent of the vote. The opposition seats in parliament were reduced to 43.

Even if the influence of Takrima, campaign hospitality, is taken into consideration, with CCM candidates usually taking the larger blame for throwing the more lavish parties, the results, in my view should not have been different. In fact, if it is generally accepted that Takrima was widely used in the recent elections then it is fair to say that it was a multi-party phenomenon. CCM candidates did not have a monopoly in their generosity to voters.

Winning elections is one thing, and probably the easier part. Transforming that victory to improving the lives of the voter is the difficult part.

In some African countries where political parties that won independence have been removed from power through the ballot box, those countries have gone through periods of turbulent politics, with the new governments, formed out of coalitions of differing political groups, turning on each other and turning the task of governing to one of infighting and of betraying the trust of their electorate.

To wish that such political turbulence should not unfold in Tanzania is to wish CCM should rule forever. It’s not an easy choice.

It would be radical to suggest, particularly in this newspaper, that it is in our national interest that the organizational and leadership capacities of opposition parties should be strengthened. But I believe it is wise to try out this suggestion.

Such a provision would be an insurance policy for the majority of Tanzania’s voters that should they decide to do away with the usual and try the new that the change will not spring up unpleasant surprises.

The only problem is how to stem the one-way traffic flow of opposition party converts to Chama cha Mapinduzi.

Letter from Butiama: Racism should not be allowed in today's society

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 21st January 2007. 

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There is an on-going debate in the United Kingdom and India sparked off by offensive comments made by one participant of a reality television programme against another.

Jade Goody, a former dental nurse and currently participating in Big Brother UK, is reported to have made racist remarks against fellow contestant Shilpa Shetty, a famous actress from India.

Goody is apparently also not a very well informed person. A while ago, she thought Saddam Hussein was a boxer. So perhaps it is no accident that such an ill-informed person will make racist comments without considering the consequences of what she says.

One consequences of her foul language has been the decision by a company called Carphone Warehouse to suspend its sponsorship of Big Brother. Another company, The Perfume Shop, has decided to withdraw Goody’s perfume, “Shh..,” from its stores.

She was also sacked from her position as a spokesperson for an anti-bullying campaign, a responsibility that she clearly does not have the character to uphold.

By most standards, both the victim and the perpetrator are extremely wealthy; these are not individuals who go to bed today with worries about whether they will have a meal tomorrow. Shetty is an actress with over 30 films to her credit, while Goody has made a fortune simply from being famous after participating in an earlier episode of Big Brother.

There are far more serious problems in the world than the racist sentiments of a Big Brother contestant: the threat of Global warming to human survival, the threat of another possible confrontation between Iran and another coalition force, and the problems brought upon the world’s poor by malnutrition, incurable diseases, and unhygienic water supply.

Why should we care? It’s simple: when we allow bigoted attitudes to prevail unchallenged within society, we provide space for them to grow and we can risk allowing them to mushroom into dangerous mutations, especially when they find sympathetic supporters in politics.

It is noteworthy that British leaders, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, have condemned the racist remarks.

If you hear a bad record long enough, it gradually becomes acceptable. Racist remarks, heard repeatedly, can change attitudes and the attitudes can sometimes become strong convictions. When a large enough group of people adopt those convictions, it is only a step away before desperate politicians step in to represent those convictions.

The basis for racist attitudes is the belief that there is a link between a person’s inherited physical qualities and certain features of personality, intellect or culture. The ultimate conclusion of the racist mind is that some races are superior to others.

One of those minds from the 19^th Century was of Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau, a French writer and diplomat. He taught the superiority of the white race over all others, advancing the hypothesis that the fate of civilisation would depend on preventing “contamination” of that race by others.

Joseph-Arthur had some admirers, one of whom was an Englishman called Houston Stewart Chamberlain who expanded his mentor’s theories and generated such a huge following in Germany that even Adolph Hitler praised Chamberlain for providing the “scientific” basis for the superiority of some races over others.

A part of Hitler’s policies were founded on the extermination of “inferior” races, and singled out the Slavs as a first step towards achieving his objectives. If successful, his extermination campaign would have moved to Africa.

In more recent times the Apartheid policy in South Africa, based on racial segregation, shut out the majority of South Africans, restricting their access to land and economic opportunities, as well as political representation, because of the colour of their skin.

So we have many good reasons to condemn what has happened to Shilpa Shetty. While condemning racism, we should also be aware that sometimes what appear outwardly to be racist attitudes can, in reality, be more a reflection of the perpetrator’s insecurity than a statement about her preferred skin colour.

The photos I have seen of Shilpa depict a beautiful woman, who has a black belt in Karate and speaks several languages.

Even with her hands tied, by looks alone, she beats Goody.

Relevant links:
Shilpa Shetty images

Letter from Butiama: If Taifa Stars can, we all can

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 24th December 2006. 

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I rank Daladala commuter bus drivers as some of the most news conscious members of society. If anything is on the news it will soon be written behind a Daladala.

In the past, I recall seeing “Kandahar” and “Torabora” when bombs were falling on those two Afghanistan cities. Recently, I have seen “Maximo” on one Daladala and it is a name that has been in the news often this year.

I believe that many children born this year of parents who are football fans have been named “Maximo”.

One of the most remarkable news items in Tanzanian football this year is the transformation of Taifa Stars into a team that also wins football matches, lately against the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national team during the 45^th anniversary celebrations of Tanzania’s independence.

The big lesson from Taifa Star’s transformation is that the Brazilian Marcio Maximo is not fielding players from Brazil, he is using Tanzanians who have been around all along and who, as he says, just need to rediscover their inner abilities by gradually building up their confidence.

This brings out the fact that it is leadership that makes the difference. The combination of a new leadership in the Tanzania Football Federation, a new government that has promised to place greater emphasis in sports, and the arrival of a coach from Brazil arising from that promise has made a difference.

Brazil is a magic word in world football, and that juju may have worked up to build that confidence in our players. I suspect if the coach were from Vanuatu we would still be wondering why it was necessary to build the new stadium.

Today, we just have to commend the government for possessing such forward vision. Taifa Stars tops group seven in the African Cup of Nations after whooping Burkina Faso and drawing with Mozambique in Maputo. They face Senegal in March and if after that match Senegal’s Lions of Teranga will be aware of a more ferocious lion from the Serengeti masquerading as Taifa Stars, I will begin looking for tickets for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa 2010 in the firm belief that Tanzania will be playing in the first round matches.

There is still the question of whether our national team will make it to the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana, but even if it does not, we have some time to prepare for 2010.

What has happened in football can happen elsewhere. There is a lot that can be said about the barriers to development that developing countries face against developed countries and so there is a valid argument that however hard an individual in poor countries works to transform his life to a better level, his chances are limited by the opportunities open to his country in international trade.

However, the confidence to take on other nations cannot be built upon people who are not confident to face their part of the responsibility of transforming their lives. You can bring a Maximo and even an Arsene Wenger, but, in the end, someone has to believe that it can be done.

While we continue to seek out those who can help us from the outside, we have to begin looking inwards and build from our own resources, from our own history, and from our cultural heritage.

We cannot build confidence in the future generation of Tanzanians if the reality is that youngsters today continue to look beyond our borders for their role models. Cultural influences from outside shape the minds and aspirations of young Tanzanians today more than ever.

We can blame the proliferation of outside media – the internet especially – for having these strong influences on those who have a greater probability of becoming  Tanzanian’s future leaders, the urban-based youth. But we should also do as much as possible to ensure that our youngsters learn as much about Tanzania as they do about the rest of the world, but especially instilling a sense of pride in our country and its heritage. If the aspiring footballers plait their hair they should know that it did not originate from David Beckham, but closer to home.

We cannot and should not control the Internet, but it may be helpful to look at the media content in radio and television to help maintain a greater content of local programmes to assist this process of confidence building and moulding young Tanzanians from an early age to also look inward.

If Taifa Stars can do it, we all can.

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Letter from Butiama: Dual Citizenship is a weak proposition

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 1st October 2006. 

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A few years ago I posted a comment on a web site with a forum on dual citizenship in Tanzania saying I did not see its merits, that it will provide no significant benefits to the country, and that the single group of beneficiaries will be those who have to pay a $US50 dollar visa fee to travel to Tanzania.

A foreigner staying in Tanzania on a tourist visa can pay over $US2,000 annually in visa fees. An investor pays an average of $US800 per year for a residence permit.

I received such a lashing from someone abroad that I refrained from making further comments against dual citizenship.

In its “Final Report on the Introduction of Dual Citizenship” the Law Reform Commission has recommended that Tanzania amend the current laws to permit dual citizenship.

I have not been able to obtain a copy of that report, so some of the doubts I have about dual citizenship may have been answered in that report.

Although I do not believe that dual citizenship poses the national security concerns raised by some, I fail to see its significant advantages.

The basic argument for the introduction of dual citizenship has been economic, specifically, how much the Tanzania economy stands to gain financially from dual citizenship. It is argued that once the system takes off, there should be a rise in investments from former Tanzanian nationals. I do not see how that would happen.

First, the maximum savings enjoyed by an individual holding two passports will be $2,000 dollars each year. An investor with two thousand dollars will be lucky to get an appointment with the Director of Tanzanian Investment Center (TIC) where the minimum amount that qualifies a Tanzanian investor to receive a Certificate of Investment is $US100,000 in a new, rehabilitation, or an expansion project.

One can argue that it is easier to access investment funds abroad, so an individual does not necessarily have to invest from personal savings. If that is the case, it is difficult to understand how a person with $US100,000 to invest would have a problem raising $800 annually for his residence permit.

Anyone with that kind of money would probably see Tanzania as one of many other investment options competing with other investment opportunities worldwide. This talk about affection for one’s country of birth is more theoretical than near to the truth. Patriotism is a concept of the sixties and seventies, although I am not saying that there are no patriotic Tanzanians today, here and abroad.

My point is that individuals who seek a good return on their investment will not invest in Tanzania because they hold dual nationality, but rather because, after considering the risks involved, Tanzania provides a good return on their investment compared to other places. Patriotism is not necessarily compatible with making money.

In fact last year I heard a Tanzania was in Iraq seeking business opportunities. That is more characteristic of individuals looking for a good return on their investments. No amount of citizenships would have forced that man to invest in Tanzania.

Perhaps what should be done is that parallel with the campaign to attract foreign investments to Tanzania there should be a special drive to attract Tanzanians abroad to invest in Tanzania. It is easier to attract this group than individuals who do not even know the difference between Tanzania and Tasmania.

What can be argued in favour of dual citizenship is that many of those abroad cannot invest large sums but, given the possible savings from visa and residence permit fees, these individuals may be able to set aside some money for smaller investments either for themselves or members of their families in Tanzania. Or they could increase the amounts remitted annually to family members in Tanzania. Though these amounts may not produce a significant growth to the economy, they remain important to the individual beneficiaries.

It has also been argued that Tanzania should not be left behind because many countries have adopted the system and many will soon. This is a weak argument. President Kikwete recently revealed in a speech that he declined the offer from his hosts in a European country to join them in a sauna because he felt it was not right. I do not believe he would have changed his mind even if the entire world population went to saunas.

Let us adopt these changes if they are right but not because everyone else is doing it. Whatever is decided, I doubt whether the increase in foreign investments will be significant.

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Letter from Butiama: No more letters

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 17th September 2006. 

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I realised some years ago that I hardly received letters anymore. After some reflection it was evident I was getting the output of my own input. I hardly write letters.

Yet for several years since I made those two discoveries, I routinely went to the post office to look for responses to letters I had not written.

Sometime last year, a team from the Tanzania Posts Corporation (TPC) visited Butiama to evaluate the performance of Butiama’s only post office. They wanted to confirm what they knew already, that stamp sales were falling because there were less people writing letters.

They told me they would recommend closure of the post office, and when they sought my opinion I agreed with them. The post office at Butiama seemed then like a place of worship, its doors were closed more often then were open.

For the more than five years I have been at Butiama I probably have received less than 15 letters from that office. If there were any letter writers remaining at Butiama, they would be using the Musoma post office, 42 kilometres away., but even their number should be falling.

While Butiama’s post office has now closed, the mobile phone company, Celtel, has recently constructed a new cell site at Butiama, joining Vodacom and Tigo who share a tower.

You may not agree with me, but I would say that the proliferation of mobile phones have contributed to the closure of Butiama’s post office.

And it will further contribute to some other changes in society. First, since there are less people writing on paper rather than typing short messages on their phones, the quality of handwritings is falling drastically and will continue to fall until technology helps us to change poor handwriting into good handwriting.

Second, and what could be an advantage for those who were born with a Nokia mobile phone next to their ear, we’ll have a generation of people with lightening typing speeds because they would have learnt how to write from a computer keyboard and a mobile phone keypad.

Third, we soon will have a generation of youngsters who have never seen an old-fashioned letter. They would visit museums to see some of the masterpieces of letters written in the past.

I remember growing up and writing to my brothers and sisters who were in boarding school. When that was not enough I would begin to write to some of their friends who were in the same schools.

I have kept some of the letters I wrote in those days. Some of these letters were quite lengthy, of several pages long. They should rightly be called newsletters instead of plain letters. I imagine that in those years, I must have similarly lengthy replies, although I just cannot imagine where all those words came from. The postal authorities did not care; they were selling a lot of stamps.

Receiving letters was also such a special event. My cousin Jackson, who had moved to Dar from Bumangi, a village close to Butiama, to complete his primary education would not open a letter before eating his supper. The reason? A letter could contain tragic news, such as a death in the family, so precautions against losing one’s appetite had to be taken.

While I long for the past and I place some blame on the mobile phone for the gradual disappearance of the personal letter, I cannot help but marvel about how far letter writing has come. In a 1983 article titled Historia ya Maendeleo ya Kiswahili Zanzibar, (The History of the Development of the Swahili Language in Zanzibar) Mohamed Seif Khatib quotes a letter written by King Kabaka Mutesa of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Governor of Zanzibar:

             “…ahsante sana kunipelekea barua yako, uliyoniandikia katika Agosti 24, 1888. Ilinifikia katika Oktoba 1889” (“..thank you so much for dispatching to me your letter, that you wrote August 24, 1888. It was received by me in October 1889.”)

It took ten months for the letter to reach Uganda from Zanzibar. These two were extremely important people in East Africa in those days. One represented the British Empire, the other the Buganda Kingdom. It is safe to say that their mail service was the fastest in East Africa in those days. It would be the equivalent today of President Amani Karume sending by government jet a special envoy to Entebbe where that envoy will be driven straight to the Kabaka’s Palace (Lubiri) in Mmengo.

I cannot imagine the length of time it took to deliver letters between ordinary Ugandans and Zanzibaris.

Letter from Butiama: It wasn't me

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 27th August 2006. 

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I have a friend in Dar who once called me and thanked me, mockingly, for being in Dar without calling her.

I tried to explain unsuccessfully that I was not in Dar that, in fact, I was in Butiama. I had not been to Dar for about a year when she called me. She was not convinced. Someone had seen me at the Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere airport, apparently having disembarked from a Mwanza flight, and struggling under the weight of a bucket full of Tilapia from Lake Victoria.

Whatever I tried to say, she remained unconvinced. I realized it was case of mistaken identity, and I recall years back when another friend told me that there was someone in Dar who looked identical to me. The friend tried to arrange a meeting with my “twin”, but I ran into my “twin” before the pre-arranged meeting. It was true that we shared some likeness. My “twin” even seemed to have a preference for batik shirts, same as I do, and kept a beard like mine.

By some strange coincidence he happens to be a scholar in some aspect of the law at the University of Dar-es-salaam. I also am trying, through the Open University of Tanzania, to become an expert in some aspect of the law.

Cases of mistaken identity range from the laughable to those with potentially serious consequences. A number of people around the world end up in jail for crimes committed by others. Some lucky individuals wrongly sentenced to death have been released before execution.

Just imagine the dire consequences of mistaken identity and yet there is one Turkish parent a few years ago in Germany who wanted to call his son Osama. German authorities refused to register the name, based on some law that prevents giving children names that could be offensive or bring ridicule.

I am often mistaken for one of my brothers who is a politician, and I usually let it pass when it is off-season. But during elections when political tempers and temperatures are unusually high, I become exceptionally proficient in saying that I am someone else.

The trouble with political campaigns these days is that some supporters and opponents always find reason to use force, and I do not want to be on the wrong side of a “forceful” argument.

Sometimes cases of mistaken identity turn to be embarrassing. I once approached someone I thought I knew, with a greeting and my hand stretched out for a handshake but he kept his hand to himself. After realizing my mistake, I apologized but the man was unruffled and did not see any problem in his reaction, which I found most impolite. Instead, he began to interrogate me to find out who I had assumed he was. It was during the last election campaigns and I resigned to the fact that strange things happen during elections.

You never know what apparently friendly people stretching out their hands to greet you can have hidden in their palms. That is what I assumed prompted that strange behaviour, especially after the man asked me whether I had mistaken him for some famous politician. It dawns on me today that he was probably taking the same precautions that I was taking against being mistaken for my brother.

When Professor Li Baoping of the University of Beijing visited Butiama for a few days in June 2003, I was having lunch with him and one of my nieces when he asked me to take a photo of him “with Mwalimu Nyerere’s granddaughter”. Later I told him I had visited China in the past and when the opportunity arises, I expect to re-visit his country.

As we exchanged addresses, he asked me whether I was related to Mwalimu Nyerere’s family. When I said I was he told me that he had assumed that I was “one of the Secretaries”.  I am still not sure if that is a positive or negative comment, but I have since been extra careful about what I wear when hosting visitors.

That friend who thought she saw me with about 20 kilos of Tilapia concluded the telephone conversation by saying something that resembled like “I hope you choke on your fish.” I had almost missed the point. It was all about the fish, I realized, not the friendship.

Letter from Butiama: When and how to say "sorry"

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 2 July 2006. 

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There are proportionally far fewer people who will commit a mistake and say, “I am sorry”, or “I made a complete fool of myself.” You are likely to hear a far greater number of people justifying their mistakes.

To err is human, but to make excuses is even more so. Humans make errors, and are experts at making excuses.

We learn from childhood that we are likely to face serious consequences when we admit mistakes. The result is that we grow into adults who instinctively make excuses for our mistakes so that blame is shifted to some other person or factor.

Considering some of the problems we may encounter by admitting mistakes, it is understandable that we do not readily accept blame. If you break the law, the consequences of admitting guilt in a court of law are known: a fine or a jail term - or a one-way ticket to heaven or hell for the serious offences. It seems that the more serious consequences of admitting fault are permanently registered in our memories from childhood and so, in adulthood, we spend a great deal of time disassociating ourselves with our mistakes.

The excuses are sometimes ingenious. The whole World except Argentina believes that footballer Diego Maradona scored with his hand, while playing for Argentina in a FIFA World Cup match against England on 22 June 1986 at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium. His excuse: “It was the hand of God.”

The football matches we see on television show some of the players praying each time they score, or when they enter the pitch. It creates the impression that many of the players are extremely religious individuals, but Maradona’s excuse had the effect of elevating excuses to an unprecedented level. There are few who would attribute Maradona's goal to God. The more conventional justification would have been to blame it on the devil.

To be fair to Maradona, footballers have no mechanism for admitting fault on or off the pitch. Maybe FIFA, the World’s football federation, might want to add confessions to its “fair play” campaign.

By spending time in excusing ourselves we end up lengthening an extremely short story with only three words, “I am sorry” (only one word in Kiswahili, samahani) to one containing hundreds of words.

Sometimes apologies are not enough and people demand to know the reasons for committing a mistake. There are many reasons for making mistakes, which are often grouped under the heading, “reasons beyond my control”. If you are tempted to utilise this overused phrase, you might consider leaving that judgement for others to make. A reason beyond control is not a good excuse, a Tsunami is.

The simple advice is, unless you are not facing a judge, when you make a mistake just say you are sorry, don’t make excuses. However, there should be a limit to the number of times one can apologise. If you begin to sound like an old phonograph record, stuck on the same three words all the time, then you do not become believable anymore, but may only reveal that you are addicted to those words.

When you find you just have to make an excuse, try and make them believable. I failed that test years ago during a visit to Washington D.C. I phoned for a taxi and waited for an extremely long period outside the house I was staying in. When I called the company again to find out the reason for the delay, the dispatcher pointed out to me that I had provided her an erroneous house number, which did not exist on that street. The taxi driver had been driving around for a long time looking for house number 2065, when he should have been looking for house number 2056.

When after my second call the taxi driver was given the correct house number he arrived at the house furious. I was quick to apologize, but made the error of justifying my excuse. Instead of providing a three-word apology, I transformed the apology into an excuse of about ten words. I told him I was actually a visitor to Washington D.C., suggesting that was the reason why I made the error.

He told me he didn’t care where I came from because “…twenty fifty-six was twenty fifty-six, even in Chinese!” Even in Kiswahili script, 2056 was and remains 2056, and I should have not had a problem translating that into English.

To be fair to myself, I only had a few seconds in which to come up with a believable excuse.

Under normal circumstances I would have immediately laughed at myself for making such an amateurish excuse, but I had no wish to further provoke the taxi driver.

Letter from Butiama: How not to forget

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 4 June 2006. 

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Children spend a considerable amount of time pretending they are adults. They can be doctors, nurses, drivers, and even parents.

When they do become doctors, nurses, drivers, and parents, they sometimes long for the days when they were children, without the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood. And when they grow old, they long for the youthful energy and vigour of younger generations.

I recently pretended to be “old”, as old as a grandfather of about seventy years of age, and someone who is a grandmother reminded me that I was far from even being considered joining the senior citizens’ club.

I find myself increasingly preoccupied with growing old because of the frequent signs I get that I associate with ageing. If I were a car I would probably be approaching the reconditioning stage. New is out of the question.

In the recent past, whenever I misplaced my cell phone and could not find it, I would dial my number using another handset and when it rang I would unearth it from a pile of books or clothes. Recently, I misplaced my handset, called my number, and it rang from the pocket of a trouser I was wearing.

Science is yet to conclusively establish how human memory functions, but one thing that is certain is that older people are affected by memory loss. The good news is that it is a gradual process. We do not suddenly go from having normal memories to none. We begin by forgetting where we left the house keys, and progress to more serious memory deficiencies.

Fortunately, there are many aids that can help to counter the effects of age and memory loss. When I once complained to someone about my poor memory, she told me that glucose intakes improve memory, but I have a problem remembering to buy the glucose. I am not a doctor so you may want to consult one if you consider that option.

Frequent participation in memory exercises also helps those who are affected with memory loss. Some of these exercises involve looking at a large list of names or numbers and then attempting to recall as many as possible.

Improvements to electronic gadgets and accessories may also help to reduce incidences of forgetting. Cell phones and computers contain personal reminders that will remind us of an appointment next year as long as we remember to feed in the information beforehand.

I have other suggestions. If you happen to be one of those people who remember the right thing at the wrong time, such as remembering that your birthday is next August, but actually forget it is your birthday on the day itself, then what you probably have to do is get used to carrying a small notebook. The procedure is that each time you remember some errand, task, or appointment you note it down on the notebook and later transfer it to a diary.

If remembering is crucial to your daily activity it is quite helpful and convenient and will save you from a lot of disappointments. One important point is you have to develop the habit of opening that diary first thing every morning before you begin work; otherwise, whatever you record will be of no use.

A common problem I encounter is forgetting an item I have to carry out when I leave in the morning. To remember I place that item at the door in such a manner that the only way I would leave the room is to step on it or over it.

If you have stick-on papers they are extremely convenient as reminders. You jot down your reminder and place them where you cannot miss them: on the monitor of your computer, on your desk, on your bedroom mirror, on the toilet door, or on the first bottle of your favourite beer when you sit down to relax with your fellow “stakeholders” of the beer industry. Normally, one’s memory should not be affected by one beer.

There are some memory problems that may not have immediate solutions. I once opened a file to inspect some documents and placed my car keys on the open file. I believe I turned over a few pages of the file, forgetting to remove the keys, closed the file and returned it to the shelf. I discovered the keys some years later on opening the file again. I do not remember the file subject, but I suspect it was my employees’ pay rise applications.

Letter from Butiama: the downside of budget travel

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 12 March 2006.

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Budget air travelers once used to sit in the economy class of airplanes. Today I understand there are several creative names given to classes with passengers who are not in first or business.

The market niche of budget travelers has existed and will continue to do so and various airlines have targeted this group, consisting of people who demand minimum service, fight for elbow space amongst themselves, occupy a relatively smaller area per passenger compared to other classes, and are mostly interested in getting from point A to B, even when they have to travel by way of Mars. They reach their destination drained of energy.

Passengers willing to pay a higher fare demand space, comfort, and the shortest possible route to their destination. When they get off the plane they seem like they have returned from a long holiday instead of having arrived at the end of a long journey.

I took advantage of economy travel in the past and it has its ups and downs, mostly downs. Ethiopian Airlines used to offer a morning departure from Dar-es-salaam to Tokyo, via Kilimanjaro International Airport, Entebbe in Uganda, and a stopover of several hours at Addis Ababa. In the afternoon passengers took a flight with the same airline to New Delhi, India, with an overnight stopover. The next day, in the afternoon, passengers would take an Air India flight to Singapore, arriving late in the evening and later, at night, board a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo and arrive the next morning.

Three airlines, four transit countries, and two days later one would arrive in Tokyo in need of a short holiday.

I took that flight once, and switched back to the more expensive option of the defunct Swissair that involved one airline, one transit country, and one day later, arriving in Tokyo energized.

The trouble began when I presented my ticket to board the Air India flight out of Delhi. I was told my name was not on the passenger list, economy class was full, and had to wait for the next available flight in two days. I protested that I had a confirmed ticket from Dar, but was asked to stand aside for the next passenger. I raised such a commotion that I was given a seat in business class.

I once heard the same story about my name disappearing from the passenger manifest of an Alitalia flight in Milan, Italy, but, as a student, it did not bother me to spend an extra day to see Europe. At the New Delhi check-in, I was a young busy businessman with a lot of outstanding work on my desk.

Apart from disappearing names, the other down side of budget travel is the limited range of accommodation one can choose from. I once stayed in a hotel in Tokyo that had such small rooms that if I had to stretch in the morning I had to stretch parallel to the bed’s length. If I stretched sideways, I would touch the walls.

The compact room was nothing compared to the treatment I received from staff at a hotel during a stopover in Zurich. When checking out I asked for the bill and was told that “the computer was malfunctioning” and it would not be possible to issue a bill. I asked to speak to the Manager and was told I was speaking to the Manager, so I insisted that I had to account to for my travel expenses and that I had to have some document showing my expenditure. That was also not possible.

When I persisted, she turned to a colleague at her side and made a racist remark in Italian, a language I understand and which is one of the official Swiss languages.

I reacted, In English, beginning with the words, “Madam, with all due respect…” What followed had nothing to do with respect. I went on to reveal to her my honest unreserved opinion of what I believed she was. It was too much for her and she lamented, in Italian, to her colleague. I then took the trouble to repeat, in Italian, my honest reserved opinion of what I believed she was. For my honesty, I returned to Dar without the bill.

After my disappointing experiences with budget accommodation, I have tended to choose internationally recognized hotel chains when in transit. They are used to handle clients black, white, pink, and orange skins. If they are racist they, at least, are sophisticated enough to suppress their attitudes.

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Letter from Butiama: an answer to our prayers

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 12 March 2006.

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After a long period without rain, Tanzania and other parts of the African continent are experiencing excessive rainfall.

A few days ago I drove through Nyamikoma village and what I saw prompted me to track down a man affected by the recent rains.

Shepherd Andrea Fransisko, who is a mason, is the religious head of the Lake Zone under the Magu sub district of the New Apostolic Church. He also heads the Nyamikoma church of the same congregation.

When I saw the church he heads partially submerged in rainwater I felt I needed to talk to him. I had this feeling that since Prime Minister Edward Lowassa recently asked religious congregations to pray for rainfall, many heeded his call and I was convinced Shepherd Andrea was one of them.

It appears those prayers were answered and by biblical proportions. Large areas which suffered under drought have now experienced periods of rainfall which have caused flooding and also brought extensive damage to property. In Magu district alone 30 houses are reported to have been swept away by floodwater.

I had many questions lined up for him, all with the basic purpose of finding out whether faith still abounded under such conflicting signals from above. After my first question he told me God's actions cannot be criticized and I was effectively silenced. At least for a while.

I wanted to know if he could reconcile the fact that their prayers were answered in that manner, with his church under one metre of water. The response was predictable, but it would have been interesting to find a man who has decided to abandon religion altogether in frustration and stay with the more predictable occupation of masonry. That is a situation that newspapers love to expose.

But I was still curious enough to ask some not so direct questions.

For that much rain to fall he must have contributed to a lot of praying, I asked him. He told me that throughout the 20 centres under his authority he did lead a lot of prayers to ask for an end to the dry spell. That I was expecting. What I suspected was unexpected was not only the excessive rainfall but also the the floodwater causing part of the church to remain under water.

He told me apart from the flooding of the church some religious texts and church registers were also damaged. The damage resulted from a heavy downpour on February 24.

I planned my interview with an intent of testing Shepherd Andrea's faith in his Creator and came out with the impression that he was not only steadfast in his faith, but he also found some positive aspects to the incident.

This became apparent when I persisted in trying to dig out a weak link in the chain under his leadership when I asked, "Didn't any member of the congregation wonder why the prayers could not have been answered in moderate proportions?"

"No," he said, "they were happy to scrub clean the Church and clear it of the dirt and mud. Besides, now that the rains have come people are busy planting rice and sweet potatoes." I could tell he did not become Shepherd for nothing.

I went out in search of a dent in the faith of a human being but only ended up discovering other weaknesses in humans which have nothing to do with religion. According to Shepherd Andrea, the person who was given the task of constructing the church chose a low-lying area in a floodplain. To compound the situation, the church stands next to the Mwanza - Musoma road whose low bridges are not adequately cleared of debris and prevents a fluid flow of rainwater.

The result is, during excessive rainfall, the road becomes a dam allowing water to accumulate on one side of the road and preventing the water to flow freely to Lake Victoria, and eventually, to the Nile in Egypt where the Egyptians of centuries past suffered enough damage from floods to devise effective mechanisms for managing the heavenly responses to human suffering.

Letter from Butiama: Science and scientists

Sometimes I feel the pair comprising science and scientists is similar to an imagined joint venture between the KGB and the CIA, whose agents I believe at one time were the World's leading gatherers of information. For the latter pair, every piece of information sought had a purpose. For science, it is different.

Scientists are interested in the occurrence of natural regularities. So they investigate these regularities and tell each other and others who are interested, outlining the causes for these occurrences. As a group they have an appetite for understanding every phenomenon in the universe, seen and unseen. The curiosity is important, otherwise humans would still be afraid of venturing too far into the seas and oceans for fear of falling off at the edge of the horizon.

Arthur Koestler, in an article for Encyclopedia Britannica in 1989 wrote: "Spontaneous laughter is a motor reflex produced by the coordinated contraction of 15 facial muscles..." He was discussing the psychological and physiological factors which elicit laughter in humans.

I admit knowledge is important for the survival of humans, but the necessity to know how many muscles it takes to laugh sounds to me irrelevant.to man's survival and advancement. Surely, absorbing such information can be a potential cause for information overload for the average human. Not even computers, one of science's great inventions, have come close to dealing with information overload.

In some instances scientists seem to be so involved with what they do that they fail to provide a convincing link between their work and the 'real' world. These people are principally interested only in knowing why things happen and they leave to others to determine whether the discoveries have any useful application on Earth.

When the North American Space Agency (NASA) launched the New Horizons spacecraft on 19th January 2006 it was the beginning of a nine-year journey to the planet Pluto. Today* New Horizons is on its ninth day of a voyage, having already covered 12.6 million kilometres. At its launch, a man of science, leading a team of other men and women of science, explained the importance of the mission: "...scientists hope to look into the formation of the solar system, how the majority of it operates, and perhaps if the water and organic molecules ubiquitous on Earth and other inner planets might have originated in its vast gloomy reaches."



The launch of New Horizons. According to NASA the craft will make its closest Pluto approach in 1,219 days and 22 hours. [Photo: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech]

Invariably the objective of these missions is to locate clues about the origin of the solar system. How will the discovery of the clues to the origins of the solar system help me make enough money this year to reduce a large component of my debts? It requires a long stretch of one's imagination to always find the link between science and the solution to our problems.

But to be fair to science and scientists, there is normally a long incubation period between discoveries made in science before those discoveries make a meaningful contribution to humanity. It is also not usually easy to predict where one discovery may lead to. Sometimes, a combination of discoveries leads to something that was unplanned. The roots of computer science can be traced to work carried out by scientific minds in the field of electrical engineering and mathematics.

A long period passed before some other people put together this invention with that discovery and assembled a computer. Today, computers are used widely in every conceivable sphere of human activity, from the creation of music to business logistics, from aerospace design to use in modern warfare, not to mention being extremely convenient to columnists who find reason to criticize the impractical minds of some scientists.

But I am yet to find reason in the discovery of the number of facial muscles the human being requires  to execute a serious laugh. What I might find extremely useful is the day science will enable people to transform an existing debt into a virtual debt at the press of a key on a computer keyboard.


*28th January 2006. This article was originally published on 29th January 2006 in the Sunday News.

Letter From Butiama: The Uhuru Blockade

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 30 July 2006.

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A few days ago and for the second year running, I found myself driving behind the motorcade of the Uhuru Torch on the Mwanza – Musoma road.

For those who have not had the privilege, or misfortune - it depends on your circumstances - of driving behind that motorcade, it contains several cars stretching for about a kilometre. The one I encountered had a three-car police escort. One of the police cars was driven on the right hand side, forcing on-coming traffic off the road.

It is the last motorcade you would want to meet if you are in a hurry. Apparently, motorists are not allowed to pass the motorcade and are constrained to trail for kilometres on end until the motorcade turns off the main road.

I was in a hurry to pick up a visitor at Mwanza Airport – or, at least, I thought I was. So I overtook two slower cars at the end of the motorcade, and was behind a pick-up truck when two of its passengers began to point at me with threatening gestures, warning me to not to overtake. For a while, we exchanged a few unfriendly universally recognized gestures in sign language but in the end, I obliged, although reluctantly.

Historically, the Uhuru Torch has been an important national symbol. At the eve of Tanganyika’s independence, it was carried up the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro as an icon that heralded a new era of self-determination for the people of a new nation. It was also meant to be a symbol of hope to encourage other Africans whose countries remained under colonial rule to intensify their independence struggles.

Although the Torch was historically linked to the ruling party’s predecessor, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), in the recent era of political pluralism the Uhuru Torch race was transformed from that political historical link and has adopted a national character, each year adopting a cause that transcends party politics.

Whether in the past or now, the Uhuru Torch Race still serves an important role. What is questionable is whether its motorcade should rule the roads and prevent others from going about confronting life's challenges.

It is true that we may assume we are in a hurry to get somewhere even when we are not, but there are genuine cases where the motorcade must give way. A car could be carrying a critically ill patient to hospital and those thirty-or-so minutes held up behind the motorcade could make the difference between life and death. There are far more private cars than ambulances carrying patients to hospital, a fact that may not be easily apparent to a police officer who has orders to block all traffic from passing through.

There was a bus behind my car, and it was possible it had passengers with onward connections to Shinyanga and beyond. We all know how a few minutes' delay can make a difference between succeeding in traveling from one place to another, and when one misses a connection because of the Torch, we can imagine how difficult it may entail meeting unexpected expenses.

Just as the objectives of the early Uhuru Torch Race have changed under the prevailing political system, so should other aspects of the Race. Recent times have brought great social and economic challenges that place significant pressure on the individual to survive and and contribute towards society. Some of those challenges, such as the prevalence of AIDS and HIV, are addressed by the Race each year. Other challenges are confronted daily by many Tanzanians.

It should be important to remove all possible obstacles to allow everyone to effectively meet those challenges. “I was held up by the Uhuru Torch”, should not prevail as an excuse.

For security reasons, I can understand why we should be held up by presidential and other VIP motorcades although I have to admit that sometimes one’s understanding of security precautions and one’s loyalty and fondness for one’s leaders can be subjected to some serious re-thinking when put through a test.

I was once on a bus from Dar es Salaam to Arusha that was stopped for more than four hours by Police at Segera for a president who was travelling on a section of that road.

I imagine the Police began blocking traffic even before the president got out of bed that morning.

Letter from Butiama: Heroes and villains

This is one of numerous articles I wrote for the Sunday News (Tanzania) column "Letter from Butiama" between 2005 and 2011. Publication date: 23 April 2006.

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There was a time in the 1970s when Kung Fu films were tremendously popular with Tanzanian audiences.

These films were poorly written scripts and were popular only for the proficiency with which leading characters eliminated their opponents in fights.

One aspect that distinguished the earlier martial arts films from recent ones is the amount of blood that the opponents of the leading character spilled each time they received a fatal blow. Bleeding is an understatement; they vomited blood.

Many Tanzanian youngsters enrolled in martial arts classes at the time. I recall doing the same under an American martial arts instructor who held a black belt; the highest level one can reach. Together with many of my teenage mates, we were looking ahead to the day when we would also have black belts in Karate like our instructor. While the enthusiasm lasted – which was not long – we endured tough training sessions combining the Karate lessons with some rigorous physical exercises.

On our own, we also experimented with weapons that we saw used by our movie heroes. One of these consisted of a pair of wooden sticks of about an inch thick and about a foot long that were connected together with a metal chain of about two feet long. In combat, one stick would be held in one hand and the other dangling stick would be rotated in rapid circular motions and would be used to strike an adversary with violent blows.

To a novice the most difficult part of using those two sticks and a chain – we called it a nunchaku although I have no idea whether the name is originally from the Japanese language or whether it was a local creation – was to ensure that the rotating stick did not hit the user. Unfortunately it did, quite often, and was extremely painful. It was made of ebony, with assistance from the Makonde sculptors at Mwenge in Dar.

A lasting impression I have of those days, apart from the fact that I still remember to count in Japanese from one to ten, is the common belief that we would not only become holders of black belts in Karate like our instructor, which was quite possible, but more important to us youngsters was the possibility that we would also acquire the skills to enable us to beat the senses out of a dozen-or-so people simultaneously and single-handedly, which was a normal dream for our age.

Martial arts were not, to us, concerned with placing emphasis on the practitioner’s philosophical and spiritual development; we were interested in developing the gut spilling and bone crunching skills we saw on film.

I believe that in every generation of teenage film enthusiasts there is a group of fictional characters that stands out as heroes. It is likely that some of these heroes leave their mark on their audience, maybe even permanently. There have been cowboy heroes and war heroes and even gangster heroes.

I recall seeing a few films in which criminals, after executing successful robberies or other criminal activities, successfully evade the long arm of the law and are depicted, at the end, living off their criminal gains at a small island nation in the West Indies.

Following last Thursday’s fatal shooting of a policeman and a bank employee in a robbery attempt in Dar-es-salaam, I am beginning to wonder whether the gangster and criminal movies that are widely-available may have bred a generation of individuals who are trying, in real life, to emulate criminal movie characters.

Only if such a scenario exists would it be possible to attempt to understand the new breed of armed robbers who seem to be equally interested in taking the money as well as the lives of individuals who seem to be standing in their way.

“It was like in the movies,” I heard someone comment of the incident. The reported response by one Corporal Mkwawa, a traffic policeman, and three other policemen who mounted a counter-attack and forced the attackers to retreat and later flee also sounded like stuff from movies.

If we can pin some blame on Hollywood and Bollywood for influencing criminal behaviour then we must also look at the other side of the coin which also replayed itself in real life: the few heroes whose actions foiled the plans of the attackers. It was not exactly Rambo, but nevertheless, a few uniformed officers who, lately, have tended to receive more criticism than praise did some courageous work.