TRAVELOGUE;
A MEMORY OF JOHN MAGUFULI’S TANZANIA BY WALE OKEDIRAN
The road to Bagamoyo
from Dar Es Salam is a well laid highway running through several towns and
communities with such delectable names as Kawe, Mizimuni, White Sands,
Kunduchi, SalaSala, and Bunju among others.
The evidence of a
developing landscape was all around with new buildings, towns and access roads
sprouting like newly planted corns on a farm. In the far distance, a hovering
mist above the early morning sun gave a magical appearance to a handsome but
winningly humble country. To protect the small towns from reckless drivers, the
speed limit in the towns was 50km/hour.
In addition to the
speed limits were warning signs in Ki-Swahili, the official language of
Tanzania: as ‘Nenda Pole Pole’ (Go slowly). To effect the traffic regulations
were the ubiquitous ‘Askaris’ (policemen) in their immaculate white uniforms at
every strategic spot on the way.
As the SUV that
conveyed me from Dar (the nickname for Dar Es Salaam) glided through the early
morning traffic, the vegetation soon changed from the leafy foliage of the
south to swampy fields and sparse vegetation of the north. Soon, the tightly
packed buildings of the city centre gave way to suburban scattered buildings.
Before long, we were in
Bagamoyo where I savoured encounters with the salty and warm Indian Ocean whose
rhythmic and booming waves lulled me to sleep every night as well as delicious
freshly caught Tilapia grilled over outdoor charcoal fire.
Actually, my most
memorable stay in Tanzania was at the coastal town of Bagamoyo, a distance of
about 65 kilometres north of Dar Es Salaam. A town of wonderful beaches, palms
and ancient history, Bagamoyo is said to mean ‘’Here I lay down my heart’’ an
expression about the despair of slaves brought from the hinterland as they
reached the town and for the first time, saw the sea, which must have
symbolised the end of all their hopes.
It is easy to fall in
love with Bagamoyo with her famous ruins and white lovely beaches that ran
along the wide blue waters of the wave tossed Indian ocean. At night, in the
distant glow of the moon, I saw fishing boats scattered on the sea like black
butterflies on an apple yard as fishermen went for their nightly duties. Once
in a while the echoes of their voices and nocturnal activities came to me in my
hotel room, not far from the beach.
Sometimes I stayed up
far into the night just to watch the boats as they roamed about the fathomless
sea without a care for the giant waves, heavy rains and occasional storms that
were usually their lot. To see the fishing boats out in the sea with their
sails bellowed by the wind under the full glow of the midnight moon, with the
voices of the fishermen floating in the
midsummer’s night was one of the most magical moments of my travelling experience.
Every morning in the
light of day break, I would be at the beach to welcome the heavily laden boats.
Their catch was always awesome; sardines, lobsters, kingfish, rock cod, red and
blue snapper as well as prawns and squids. I soon made friends with the
fishermen who allowed me to pose for photographs with their lovely looking
fishes and sold me fresh Tilapia at give- away prices.
I had come to Tanzania,
the Swahili land on the invitation of the organisers of the annual ‘Mwalimu
Nyerere Intellectual Festival’ to deliver a paper on the conference theme;
‘’The Politician in the rise and fall of Africa’’. The three- day dialogue was
expected to explore the quality and nature of politicians in Africa as well as
the challenges this category of leaders are facing in the execution of their duties
among other issues. The discourse was
also expected to determine how the politician in Africa had contributed to the
development or underdevelopment of African countries.
And so for three good
days the conference was awash with erudite presentations from a diverse array
of speakers made up of political scientists, human rights activists, gender
experts, as well as former and serving Members of Parliaments.
Speaker after speaker
paid glowing tributes to the first Tanzanian President and the father of the
Tanzanian nation, Julius Nyerere to whom the conference was dedicated.
Expectedly, the politician was at the receiving end most of the time with many
paper presenters inundating the audience with gory and unsavoury political
scenarios allegedly perpetuated by African politicians as if the people
themselves are innocent bystanders.
It was indeed a
difficult time to be referred to as a politician and one of my Tanzanian
friends jokingly advised me not to introduce myself as a politician but as a
writer and physician! Luckily, the
audience seemed to agree with the focus of my presentation which was that
politics is too important to be left alone in the hands of politicians, as
such, the people have to be more responsive and responsible to politics and
politicians.
A major highlight of
the conference was Prof Patrick Lumumba’s highly entertaining and provocative
paper; ‘’’A call for Hygiene in African Politics’’ The presentation by the well- known human
rights Lawyer with its eloquence, drama and masterly erudition delivered to a
packed audience consisting mostly of students almost brought down the roof.
Prof Lumumba who heaped praises on the current
Tanzanian President John Magufuli whom he referred to as a ‘breath of fresh
air’ for his anticorruption stand, predicted that Tanzania would in a few
years’ time become one of the biggest economies in Africa if Magufuli was able
to maintain his wonderful governance tempo. Lumumba like several speakers
before him also reiterated the urgent need for Africans to de-ethnicise politics. As he put it ; ’the God I worship
is a God of diversity’ .
Dar es Salaam with a
population of 4.36 million is the commercial capital and largest city in
Tanzania. It is situated in the east coast of the Indian Ocean.
The original name of
the city, I was told was Mzizima (tremble due to cold) but the city was renamed
by its early Arab settlers as Dar es Salaam, ‘The City of Peace’. Although with
about the same land size with Nigeria (Population; 201 million) Tanzania with
just a population of about 56.9 million people is considered to be a generally
laid back country with friendly people and well organised transport, health and
educational systems,
Tanzania also has a relatively new capital
city, the central city of Dodoma, to which remaining parts of the government
are expected to relocate by the year 2017.
Many Tanzanians were eagerly looking forward
to the move to the new capital if anything else to reduce the very high rent in
Dar es Salaam. ‘’ Dar is very expensive for ordinary Tanzanians due to a high
presence of diplomats and expatriates who have driven up house rent to as much
as $3,000 per flat in some sections of the city’’ one Tanzanian writer
observed.
With an exchange rate
of about 2,200 Tanzanian shillings to a dollar, the cost of house rent in local
currency can best be imagined. However, other daily needs such as food and
transport are not that exorbitant. For a 30- minute ride in the ‘Bajaj’ the
Tanzanian tricycle, I paid about 500 shillings while a ride for the same period
of time in a commercial bus ‘Dala Dala’ was considerably less.
The Tanzanian
President, at the time of my visit; John Magufuli ‘The Bulldozer’ was known to
be an anti- corruption czar.
On my second day in
Tanzania, screaming newspaper headlines announced the results of some of his
many anti- corruption interventions. Commenting on the suspension of the CEO of
EWURA, the country’s power generating firm, the Dar Es Salaam based ‘The
Citizen’ reported the suspension as a ‘Midnight Drama’.
In its own report of
the massive plundering of the country’s mineral wealth as revealed by a
Presidential investigating committee, The Tanzanian Guardian observed thus; ‘’Even The Devil Must Be
Mocking Us’’.
As The Guardian put it;
‘’ The second presidential probe committee has revealed industrial-scale
plunder of mineral wealth from Tanzania to the tune of over 100trn shillings in
unpaid tax revenue over 20 years’’.
Coming after several cost savings measures
including the May 2017 sacking of the country’s Minister for Mines, Sospeter
Muhongo over allegations of improper declaration of mining exports, it was
obvious that Magufuli meant business.
Expectedly, it was not all Tanzanians that
were happy with the President’s style of government accusing Magufuli of human
rights violations.
I later went on a tour
of Dar Es Salaam, beginning with the National museum which was established in
1940. At the entrance to the museum was a cubicle containing an array of
twisted and burnt steel material.
Above the cubicle was an inscription; IN MEMORY
OF THOSE WHO DIED ON THE 7TH AUGUST 1998 BOMBING INCIDENT AT THE US EMBASSY IN
DAR ES SALAAM.
My guide informed me
that the twelve people who died during the bombing incident were all Tanzanians
who were visiting the Embassy at the time. Other artefacts and historical
pictures in the museum included evidence of the Majimaji war of 1905-1907, beds
and gates from Kilwafrom 1760 as well as the photograph of Dr Richard Hiddorf
who established Sisal cultivation in East Africa.
Also included was a
very massive bed that was said to have belonged to a former Sheikh of Dar Es
Salaam. The bed was so big that the Sheikh was said to have who needed the
support of a slave to climb it.
There were also
photographs depicting the killing of many Zimbabweans through hanging as the
evidence to the resistance to the German rule of the 1700s , the war against
Uganda between 1977 to 1979 as well as those about the country’s struggle for
Independence in 1961/62. Also in the museum was the stuffed version of the lion
that was presented to former President Julius Nyerere on his retirement from
office in 1985.
From the museum, Idi,
the Nigerian Embassy driver drove me to the very congested central part of Dar
Es Salam via the city’s main artery, the shop lined Samora Avenue. All the
shops were bursting with merchandise which varied from textile, shoes, bags and
electronics.
Before long, we were in Kariakoo market with
its heavy throng of shoppers preparing for the end of the Ramadan fasting.
The crowd was so thick that movement whether
vehicular or human was almost impossible. And as Idi manoeuvred the big SUV
through the crowd, he honked and swerved with the dexterity of a veteran driver
that he is.
Once in a while, I had the sinking feeling
that he was going to hit somebody but luckily, we completed our tour without
any bad incident. Later in the evening, His Excellency Ambassador Salisu Umaru
and his wonderful team from the Nigerian Embassy, hosted me to a dinner at a
posh Chinese restaurant in the highbrow Oysterbay area of the city.
The following day I was
at another dinner at the residence of the Vice Chancellor, University of Dar Es
Salaam. As scholars, students, diplomats and other guests tucked into the
barbecued chicken, potatoes, plantain and fish dinner amidst clinking of wine
glasses, laughter, light hearted jokes and merriment rented the air to the
background of melodious music under the June starry night.
As the DJ later changed the disc to a popular
music by Nigeria’s iconic musician P Square, an electrifying mood suddenly
enveloped the night as some of the students at the function immediately took to
the dance floor.
Minutes later, lured by the insistence rumble
of the percussions and sonorous voice, I soon found myself on the dance floor
much to the students’ great delight.
Before long, music, arguably the highest form
of art, broke all kinds of barriers as scholars and students, diplomats and
politicians, youngsters and the elderly danced the night away. It was a
befitting end to the three day ninth ‘Mwalimu Nyerere Intellectual Festival’ in
the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.
The following day, I
was back in Bagamoyo for a quick tour of the town especially the old part with
its narrow streets, hotels and guest houses. I also visited the ruins of the first
stone building said to have been built by the first prominent Arab settler in
Bagamoyo, Abdallah Selemani Marhabi.
The building which was originally designed as
his personal residence had changed hands in the past two centuries from the
Arab to the Germans, then to the British and now in the hands of the Tanzanian
government. From a slave camp, the building has been used as a prison,
government official residence and as a police Post. Sadly, on the day of my
visit, it was in ruins.
Also visited were the
Arab Tea House, the District Hospital, ruins of the German Customs House, the
new church as well as the cenotaph to commemorate the landing of the first
Christian missionary to East Africa.
On my way back to my hotel, I branched at the
local market where I made some purchases of the local fabric, Kanga and some
souvenirs. At the fish market despite my difficulty in understanding Ki
-Swahili, I was still able to bargain for two tilapia fishes for 15,000
shillings.
On my last day in Tanzania, I made my way to
the beach in Bagamoyo. The morning was warm and clear, the sky blue, so also
was the ocean.
Even at that early hour, the beach was already
active with joggers, swimmers, lovers and singers and fishermen and traders.
Sitting round an abandoned old boat, some fishermen were resting while others
were repairing their fishing nets in preparation for another nocturnal trip.
Next to the foamy waves
at the shore, a large trawler from Zanzibar was discharging its cargo of
gallons of ‘Oki’ vegetable oil. All around me, the seductive sounds of
Ki-Swahili floated in the air as labourers waist deep in the shallow water
shouted and swam as they herded hundreds of the floating gallons to the beach.
A young man approached
me; he wanted me to buy some paintings. I politely declined. Another came, a
photographer. I posed with the fishermen and the labourers, my feet in the
warm, salty Indian ocean smiling faintly, knowing fully well that my time was
up.
In a stretch of the
long white sand, a group of boys were playing soccer. Their ball strayed to
where I was sitting listening to the ocean. I picked it, tossed it up and
kicked it back with an old instep I learnt several years ago. The ball flew
into the air in the direction of the boys.
It seemed to have flown in the direction of
Addis Ababa, my next destination.
