Driving past Makumira, a suburban area along the Arusha–Moshi highway, always brings back memories of some of the great and historically significant figures of our country. This was equally true some 30 years ago when I used to make that journey at least twice a week. It was in 1994–95, when I was running errands…
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were yesterday expected to sign a peace deal. It promises an end to hostilities, respect for borders and a separation of armed groups. But here’s the catch: It’s being brokered by the United States and observed by Qatar. Not by the African Union (AU). Not by the…
Having adopted the conviction that old people do not climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, I came to a startling realisation a few years ago that I am considered an elder – a label made clear when a salesperson abruptly ended a call upon learning my age, even after I had listed a health insurance package they only…
It starts off calm – support and love,“Good morning” this and dawn above.Rising devotion, the tone less formal,With many more less formal.And sisters fighting every hour. Aunt Mary posts in CAPS ALL DAY;Uncle Joe texts jokes from May.Grandma says “Am in” to silence,While cousins plot in football schemes.Summer uncles miss a well.The space name perhaps…
Tanzanian laws relating to the environment can be grouped into two main categories: land use planning and management laws, pollution-related legislation, and laws promoting conservation and environmental protection. Tanzania’s environmental legal framework acknowledges the interrelationship between the environment and other vital sectors, notably public health (for both animals and humans), agriculture, climate resilience, livelihoods, and…
Two weeks ago this column featured personal experience of life in JKT (the compulsory National Service), in 1973. Some esteemed female readers wanted to know how it was for women. To put a perspective reader, most were 18 by the time camps for girls began. Yes, it is a long time. Today we have more…
That is a centuries old maxim Native Americans teach. It is a wise saying that cautions the powerful to be careful in the use of their power. When I was growing up, I was often puzzled as to how we use our everyday lives. We never discuss our lives and yet do not in many…
There’s a health crisis quietly growing along the Kenya–Tanzania border and it’s about time we started treating it with the urgency it deserves. Wild meat is being hunted, traded and eaten in many border areas, while it has in many sense become a matter of food or culture, the truth is much scarier: Wild meat…
At the end of our two-week incarceration in a cell at the Oljoro National Service (JKT) Camp in Arusha – punishment for going AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) during transit from Mtwara line – the late Aanei Laiser and I were finally released and rejoined our fellow recruits in the daily tasks at the camp….
Do postgraduate students burn more calories than undergraduates? Should they eat more, live better and therefore receive a higher stipend? During a meeting of a scholarship trust fund where I serve as a trustee, we were overhearing views when I half-jokingly raised the question of whether postgraduate students don’t have other undergraduates beaten in burning…
