The Mainland part of the United Republic of Tanzania, Tanganyika, is celebrating 50 years of Independence, climaxing on December 9 this year. A Golden Jubilee, if you want, a momentous moment for the people of Tanzania Mainland.
A civil servant born on Independence Day has only ten years left before his or her compulsory retirement. That is what it means to a 50-year old civil servant in Tanzania. Fifty years ago this nation was born after a long colonial domination of the Arabs, the Germans and the British.
THE TANZANIA TWANGA PEPETA BAND PERFORMED TO MARK THE CELEBRATIONS
The British were Mandated to rule Tanganyika by the League of Nations after the Second World War under the terms that the colonial power should hand over the running of the country to Tanganyikans when they demanded it.
The British were Mandated to rule Tanganyika by the League of Nations after the Second World War under the terms that the colonial power should hand over the running of the country to Tanganyikans when they demanded it.
The country is not ready for independence; the natives are not yet literate enough to govern themselves," they would say. It had to take the genius in the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere to convince the United Nations that Tanganyika was, indeed, ready for independence
There is a school of thought that argues that Tanganyika gained its independence relatively easily because of the fact that it was a Mandate, and there is some truth in it.
However, the situation on ground was different, the colonial masters were not prepared to relinquish power because that would mean risking losing a hefty amount of cheap material resources which they were siphoning away to their motherland.
The late Mwalimu was encouraged by the support of the masses for the political party he founded on July 7, 1954, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), to risk his teaching job and dedicate his time to the struggle for independence. It is under the same political party that Tanganyika got rid of British domination in 1961.
But the history of Tanganyika as a nation had to end about three years later, when in Zanzibar, the Afro Shirazi Party which emerged also in the 1950's and toppled the arab rule on the island in 1964 and formed the Republic of Zanzibar under the able leadership of the late Sheikh Abeid Aman Karume.
The Republic of Tanganyika and the Republic of Zanzibar agreed to forego their nationhood and merge into the United Republic of Tanzania on May 26, 1964.
But before the merger between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Tanganyika had made some advancement on the political front
The visionary Mwalimu Nyerere and foreseen the danger of a segmented young nation in the form of tribal chiefdoms and moved to dismantle the chiefdoms and urged the respective chiefs to rally their people for a united, strong nationhood. He also saw the need to further strengthen the unity of the young nation by popularising Kiswahili as the national language
The language is now spoken throughout the country except in a few pockets. The recent revelation in some parts of Igunga district that there are still some people who are strangers to Kiswahili language came as a surprise to any Tanzanians. This is not a small challenge to a country which celebrates 50 years of nationhood.
When Tanganyika gained its independence in 1961, there were several political parties, among them were TANU, Congress Party, which was said to have been sponsored by the British, and UTP (United Tanganyika Party) under Zuberi Mtevu, which actually broke off from TANU after the Tabora debate on tripartite voting which Mtevu was stubbornly against.
This required a voter to cast three votes, one for a black African, a second for an Asian and a third for a whiteman. Mtevu and several other TANU delegates wanted TANU to boycott the election. Again, it took Mwalimu Nyerere's logical persuasion to convince TANU delegates to agree to the system and eventually won the day
Apart from establishing Kiswahili as a national language to forge national unity, Mwalimu Nyerere believed multiple political parties, in a nation with hundreds of ethnic groups, were a threat to national unity and therefore sought ways to ensure a one party system. A referendum that followed supported Nyerere's idea of one party system.This was helped by the fact that the existing political parties then were so weak and inconsequential that they seemed to be there in name only. The country then embarked on a course of democracy within a one-party state, and TANU was the only recognised political party and all candidates for any office were TANU members.
Africa wants clear climate finance benchmarks to ensure transparency, accountabilityDURBAN, South Africa, 29 November 2011 (ECA) – The African Group of Negotiators today made a strong argument for the need to have agreed benchmarks on climate finance, so as to foster transparency and accountability in the way the money is provided and used, according a new report released on the sidelines of the COP17 that began here yesterday.
The report presents up-to-date figures on the current provision of climate finance for Africa and reveals the abysmally low levels of delivering on global climate change finance promises, according to the Information and Communication Service of ECA.
Researched and written for the African Group of Negotiators by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the report also shows that current finance available for Africa and other developing countries under the fast-start finance is not commensurate to the scale required to implement the activities agreed to in the UN climate convention.
For example, the report points to the $29.2 billion pledged since 2009, and states that only between $2.8 and $7.0 billion is “new” or not previously pledged. This means that the total amount of funds that are both ”new” and “additional”, that is on top of aid budgets, would be less than $2 billion, it states.
While 97% of the promised $30 billion has been pledged, only 45% has been “committed”, 33% has been allocated, while a mere 7% has actually been disbursed, the report further reveals.
Finance is being directed toward mitigation projects over adaptation projects, and instead of seeking a minimum of balance, “around 62% of the money has been poured into mitigation and only 25% is earmarked for adaptation and 13% for REDD+ (forestry, which should count as mitigation), the report states.
It points to several lessons that can be learnt from the current ‘fast start finance’ system, which was supposed to deliver $30 billion in “new and additional” funding to developing countries, as agreed upon at the Copenhagen climate conference (COP15) in 2009.
Launching the report, Yacob Mulugetta, Senior Energy and Climate Specialist at the ACPC said that “the experience with the “fast-start” pledges and discussions of the $100 billion promise suggests that the adequacy and predictability of climate finance may remain very uncertain if the future climate finance architecture reflects current practice.
“African countries, as well as many other developing countries, are vulnerable to climate change and are among those least likely to have the resources required to withstand its adverse impacts. Yet, there has not been any indication that the magnitude of climate finance will get to the level of what is needed”, Seyni Nafo, Spokesperson of the African Group bemoaned.
He pressed the case for long-term climate finance to be made more accountable and transparent, adding that “in Africa, we need to know how much is new, where it is coming from, and whether it will be directed towards adaptation projects that are desperately needed in Africa.”
The African Group is the group of 53 African countries represented in the UN climate change negotiations. It is chaired by Mr. Tosi Mpanu Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
