Livelihood is reported to have adverse effects on climate. There are many factors contributing to climatic changes. One is the clearing of forests and woodlands by human activities. Forests are not only vital to human beings for their livelihoods but they also play an important role in maintaining ecological balance. - I recently visited the Kazimzumbwi Reserve Forest located about 40 km west of Dar es Salaam. This remnant of coastal forests covers about 4800 hectares and lies at the altitude of between 120-280m above the sea level, receiving an average of 1250mm rainfall annually. Generally, the situation of Kazimzumbwi is alarming as people continually keep encroaching into it, thus reduci…

Collins Mdachi, an artist illustrator explains that Tanzania lacks training colleges for artists to be. He says, many talents get lost because they don't find fertile grounds on which to grow and develop. This has resulted in there being very few artists (in the sense of illustrators). - He recalls that there has always been very few artists ever since independence. He gives prominent names of artists in chronological order: Mohamed Raza, Juma Salum, Philip Ndunguru and Risasi (1970s - 1980s); Marco Musa, David Chikoko, Philip Ndunguru, Ibra Washokera, Masoud Kipanya, Paul Ndunguru, Abdul Gugu, Ali Masoud, Walter Lema, Cloudy Chatanda, Collins Mdachi, Gwalugano Ayoub and Godfrey Semwaik…

Art is not taught seriously at almost all levels of education in the country. Youth artistic talents meet with huge obstacles from within their families, communities and the country at large. Not many people though are aware that there are immense opportunities in art. - When people talk of art in Tanzania, the things that come to mind immediately are music, ngoma (dance), sculpturing (especially the famous Makonde sculptures) and that is almost all. In this series, we talk with two illustrators. They live on producing illustrations and are doing well by standards of the majority of Tanzanians. They own their own houses and cars and support both their nucleus and extended families. I travele…

On April 29, 2009, a suburb of Dar es Salaam, Mbagala, situated about 20 km south of Dar City Centre witnessed huge blasts of bombs that went off at a military base located in the area. Official death toll had reached 27 May 10th, 2009, with more than 4,000 houses destroyed, some in part, some completely. - Damage on other instructures and service facilities was equally big. The bomb blasts caused many more other negative effects: social, psychological, intellectual, economic and even politically. Life was almost brought to a standstill in the area, uncommon scenes such as erected tents emerged, shop stalls were destroyed, some families had to relocate to other parts of the city. The gen…

Tanzania President, Jakaya Kikwete, recently launched a 500-tonne vessel with the capacity to carry over 50 vehicles and 2,000 passengers. The ferry boat was designed and built by a team of 30 Tanzanian engineers in cooperation with a German ship building company. It took the team one year (Nov 2007 - Nov 2008) to complete the task at the total cost of TZS 8.5bn (about US$ 7.5m). - With the new ferry boat, residents of Kigamboni area, a sub-urb of Dar es Salaam, are now assured of safe, fast and reliable means of transport contrary to what they used to have. MV Magogoni, as the ferry has been Christened, operates alongside the old ferry boats of MV Alina and MV Kigamboni. Kigamboni residents…

Start up cost for buying gas stove and the gas cylinder is out of reach for most Tanzanians. At the same time, using gas as alternative source of energy has proved to be very efficient, economic, user-friendly with many more advantages compared to use of charcoal. - Meanwhile, deforestation continues at an unabated rate. Thousands of tonnes that Dar es Salaam alone receives on a daily basis amounts to more than 700,000 cubic meters of trees per annum. The loss is big. Such a huge loss in trees has noticeable effects on the environment. Discovery of natural gas in southern Tanzania, if managed well, could provide a solution to this dilemma. The government may have to make deliberate decisi…

Recent years have seen Africa turning to foreign originated foodstuffs. Not many are happy with this turn of events. Senior women are among those who want Africa to go back to consuming foodstuffs that originate from within Africa. - Regent Estate Senior Women Group (RESEWO) is dedicated to promoting indigenous underutilised foods and vegetables with a vision to improvement of food security at household level thus alleviating malnutrition and poverty. Among foods and vegetables they promote include: blackjack, hare letture, nightshades, malabar spinach, sweet potatoes leaves, pumpkin, spiderplant, roselle, yams, moringa, aloe vera, lemon grass and amaranthus. Among their activities includ…

Education helps to liberate women in many ways. Once a girl is educated, she is already empowered to bring about positive change in her own life and that of the society surrounding her. Camfed Tanzania is devoted to eradicating poverty through girls' education and empowerment. - Under Camfed, there are already several success stories, but the journey is not without hurdles here and there. We listen to players as they narrate their own stories. There are challenges that Camfed Tanzania faces in implementing its activities: 1. Drop out from school of girls they support - due to pregnancies and other reasons; 2. Poor infrastructures that make monitoring difficult, especially during the …

Women in Tanzania work hard to improve living standards in their lives. Many have organised themselves in groups that engage in production. It is in these groups that they learn more about themselves and end up realizing their potentials. - WAWABU is a group formed by women for their own development. It initially obtained support from CARE International to run self-help projects. As part of World Women's Day, the group exhibited some of the products they make and explained their activities to the general public. The group is found at Bunju Street, Kinondoni municipality, Dar es Salaam.

In efforts to control HIV and AIDS, Tanzania in 2008 passed an important law that will guide issues related to HIV and AIDS. Current statistics in the country rate male transmission at 5.6% and that of women at 6.6%. - These rates are still high. Now that the law is in force, the expectation is that transmission rates will drop for both men and women. At the same time, awareness on HIV and AIDS keeps growing, with the national average being set at 77%. Many more people now are aware of HIV and AIDS compared to the general understanding 15 years back. Discrimination is still a challenge, but with the new law there is a great possibility that stigma related behaviours will be reduced if no…

It hasn't rained for months in Tanzania. The consequence was that the prices of sample food like rice, maize, beans and others rocketed beyond the reach of masses. In the coming weeks, the prices are expected to gradually drop. - ‘The situation will be much better from May onward’, says a seller in the Kisutu market in Dar es Salaam. Agriculture in Tanzania still relies heavily on availability of rain. So, whenever there is a shortage of rain, then agriculture suffers considerably causing concerns regarding food security. Experts say that if enough capital was to be pumped into modernizing agricultural production in the country, it is possible to turn Tanzania into a maj…

For decades since independence in Tanzania, writing books has been dominated by men. However, there are women who have struggled hard to ensure that they too write books. They write books of different types. - Most of them however dwell on writing school textbooks. They have stories to tell about writing books. It is for this purpose that we will bring you a series of stories on 'Women book writers' in Tanzania. Mary Grace Kihampa is a retired educationist. It has been more than a decade since she retired. Retirement did not stop her from engaging in educating the society. She continued to do so. Some of her titles, especially for lower primary school grades, have set standards…

Dar es Salaam is growing at a great pace. The population of the city now stands above 4 million people. Just 30 years back the population was less than a million people. Growth of Dar es Salaam just like that of any other city or town in other countries can be witnessed in different ways. - One way is the direction (orientation) of growth (expansion). Dar es Salaam grows vertically and horizontally. The Central District Area is now witnessing heavy construction of high rises. Most of the high rise buildings going over 10 storeys. This is 'vertical' expansion. The city is also spreading very fast outwards. This is 'horizontal' expansion. Some thirty years back, the cit…

The book industry in Tanzania is still young. Publishers face many challenges in running their businesses. There are many marketing challenges. Recent reports from the Publishers Association of Tanzania (PATA) had it that there are books worth more than TZS 60 billion (US $50 million) in their warehouses all together. - This is not a small investment in a developing country like Tanzania. Really something needs to be done to rectify the situation and ensure that publishers get their due returns in time. The government has a role to play in this matter, especially when there are reports of book shortage in schools. So far, the government remains the single major buyer of books in the country.…

What is democracy? Our understanding of 'democracy' differs from one person to another, from one group to another, from one country to another. It is a terminology of which we hear so much almost everyday especially on the media and from political leaders. - There are times when it does not make sense to us. Therefore, if one is asked 'What is democracy?' we are likely to hear different opinions and expressions. However, this question differs from another that goes: "Is there democracy in our society?" To the second question we may hear people reflecting on what goes on in their own societies or countries. We cannot deny, therefore, the importance of discuss…

Like the rest of the world, Tanzanians have celebrated the inauguration of the first ever black president of the United States of America, Barack Obama - As this mobile report on street impressions in Dar es Salaam shows, the ordinary Tanzanian expects president Obama to increase support to Africa, and to contribute to global peace.

Water is an important commodity in everyday life. As the population keeps growing so do the requirements of this commodity. Water has many uses. In homes people use water for purposes such as drinking, cooking, washing, cleaning the house, cleaning the toilet and many other uses. - However, with population growth and limited sources of water, scarcity of this important commodity is driving its prices up, normally beyond the reach of the common people. Efforts are being made to curb the situation, but the reality shows that obtaining water in abundance is still a distant dream for the majority. A visit to Kisarawe town, about 40 km from Dar es Salaam, showed that water is getting scarce a…

The involvement of the private sector in the development of education in Tanzania has a long history. However, in recent years, there has been a huge growth in number of privately run schools, both primary and secondary schools. - This has its other side of the coin, there are many challenges facing private actors in school running. Some of the pertinent challenges include high running expenses - whereby the biggest burden to these schools is salaries for teachers and other supporting staff. This is especially so when the school has a small number of students. Secondly, competent and experienced teachers are hard to find and difficult to maintain - this comes at a time when some people i…

Small traders are not happy with sales in this festive season. At this time of the year, they would be expected to see their pockets getting filled with money from their sales. - The reasons they give include hard economic situations facing the majority of people in the country; increasing needs and decreasing incomes; the evaluation of the shilling; inflation - which recently hit 12.3%; and high prices of various commodities. This video report shows the busy Congo Street. Normally, this street crowded in the weeks and preceding major festive events like the Eid-al-Fitr and Christmas. Passing along the street is normally a difficult exercise to do and one has to squeeze his or her way th…

In recent months, the Regional Commissioner of Dar es Salaam, Mr Abbas Kandoro, issued a directive that second week of each month should be used to clean the environment in the City of Dar es Salaam. - November 8th, this year, Ilala Municipality launched a campaign to implement the directive. The campaign was christened "Nipe Fagio Niweke Mazingira Safi", meaning "Hand me the broom so that I will keep the environment clean". Launching of the campaign took place at Gerezani Ward in Ilala Municipality. The Lord Mayor of the Municipality, Abuu Juma, was there to mobilize people to take part in the city environment cleaning exercise. This demonstrates another key role to …

People have different reasons for which they remember their former leaders. Tanzanians commemorated the 9th anniversary of the death of founder of their country, Julius Nyerere (1922 - 1999). Here are some of the reasons why Tanzanians still remember Nyerere. - 1. Ibrahim Kaswa: He was a straightforward leader - in the sense that he took his duties and responsibilities seriously, and as such he did not entertain irresponsible leaders. 2. Bibiana Msuya: Nyerere was a diligent person, he devouted his entire life to the people of Tanzania, Africa and the voiceless around the world. 3. Danford Mfikwa: Nyerere was strong in figthing against graft and corruption. He wanted the national cak…

Tanzanians hold different views on what to expect out of the US November 4th Presidential election results. Most are hopeful that there will be improved relationship between the US and Africa. - However, there are those who argue that the US foreign policy has always between the same, that is, ensuring that the US and its interests are given top priority everywhere on the globe. It doesn't matter which government is in power, Democratic or Republican, the policy is the same. One, Kalist Tesha, a resident of Dar es Salaam, thinks that even though the US foreign policy is the same, still if Barack Obama is elected, his approach, when it comes to US foreign policy, will take a more dip…

- Dr Kamata explains the role that the chair will play.Keywords: tanzania education society

- Tanzanians also admit that they are learning from hard-working Chinese but insist that they should improve the quality of their products.See the whole seriesKeywords: Tanzania business society

- Locals perceive Indian business people as people willing to do things themselves while they hail Chinese's openness to local workers. See the whole seriesKeywords: Tanzania business society