Travels and Travails

A lot has happened since my last blog. I joined Nya Kaunda in Zanzibar for a few days before we travelled back across Tanzania on the Tazara railway.  We spent our last seven days in Mzuzu, with me trying to complete the work I was doing and saying our goodbyes to the many friends we have made there. We’ve now left Mzuzu and travelled south.  We're in Blantyre, the commercial capital of  Malawi, and will be moving on to Thyolo near the Mulanje massif, which rises to over 3,000 metres,  Zomba, the colonial capital of what was then Nyasaland, and Liwonde, which is Malawi's premier game reserve.  Our final night will be in Lilongwe, followed by a flight back to the UK via Addis Ababa. So quite a packed schedule. 

Zanzibar is a fascinating place.  Its history is dominated by its role as a trading post between east Africa and the Middle East and Indian sub-continent.  For much of its recent history it was ruled by the Sultan of Oman; but there are also major British influences - and even after it joined Tanganyika to form Tanzania, it followed its own very distinct path. Whilst mainland Tanzania under Julius Nyrere was a leading member of the non-aligned movement, Zanzibar developed close relations with the East Germans. 

This history is reflected in the eclectic mix of architecture in Stone Town, its capital – narrow streets with bazaars of the kind you find in north African souks, sultans’ palaces, late 19^th century buildings that reflect the then sultan’s wish to modernise Stone Town (the House of Wonders was one of the earliest adopters of electricity in Africa and the first building in East Africa to have a lift), an Anglican cathedral built on the site of the former slave market and, in the outskirts of Stone Town, flats that look as if they were transplanted from Soviet era Berlin or Warsaw – although unlike many in Berlin or Warsaw, they have never had any repairs or renovation.  

The House of Wonders in Stone Town - built in 1883 for Sultan Barghash bin Said

Christ Church cathedral in Stone Town - built on the site of the former slave market

The political climate in Zanzibar remains fraught.  There is still a huge pull toward Oman and this is reflected in deeply divided political views between the governing party, which is a sister party to mainland Tanzania’s governing party, and the opposition party which would like to strengthen links with Oman.  There is a history of cancelled elections or elections in which the opposition does not take part because they say the polls will be rigged.  When we were there, an election was due on 12^th March and every time we were in a taxi the taxi driver would be attentively listening to the news to hear the latest update on the election.  And not surprisingly people are fearful of what might happen – thousands of people were killed and thousands of others (including the family of Zanzibar’s most famous son, Freddie Mercury) fled shortly before the amalgamation with Tanganyika; and political violence during which people have been killed has erupted sporadically since.

Jaws Square in Stone Town- a Speakers' Corner where topics of the day are hotly debated

Zanzibar is of course a beautiful place as well.   The beaches stretch for miles, the sea is an extraordinary turquoise, there are coral reefs where you can snorkel and see a range of colourful fish.  Our lodge, Villa Kiva, was on a wonderful stretch of beach which was practically empty.  The tourism industry is however a mainstay of the economy (along with export of cloves) and there are other beaches which seem to be overrun by visitors.

Another sunrise - this time over the Indian Ocean

The journey to and from Zanzibar took us through  Dar es Salaam, which is a bustling cosmopolitan city with a busy port, modern office buildings, and what seemed like an efficient and effective infrastructure.  But it was not just Dar where we noticed significant differences between Tanzania and Malawi. After travelling across Tanzania on the Tazara train, we spent our last night in Mbeya in the west of the country.  It’s not far north of Mzuzu and the countryside around it is very similar – hilly, green and fertile.  It’s also a similar size and acts as a regional hub.  But whereas Mzuzu has no proper town centre, a hotchpotch of buildings in varying states of disrepair, and mostly dust tracks for roads, Mbeya is a modern planned city, with  buildings generally in a good state of repair, a network of decent roads, and a centre with a range of shops and commercial premises that reflect its status as a regional hub.  To a large extent these differences reflect the access to the Indian Ocean that Tanzania has, with the relative prosperity this brings to the coastal areas trickling out to other areas of the country.   But I am talking about relative prosperity here.   The GDP per head of Tanzania is double that of Malawi’s which means it is around $600 per year compared to Malawi’s of under $300.  And we could see the extent of poverty that exists in the shanty towns around Dar es Salaam as we travelled through them on the Tazara train. 

Dar es Salaam port

Modern office buildings in Dar

Selling fruit in Dar

 

The Tazara railway was built in the early 1970s by the Chinese and does not seem to have been updated since.  It was a 24 hour journey from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya which at times became alarming when the train was going full pelt and hopped along the track – it felt slightly like one of those cartoons where an engine is dragging train carriages flying through the air behind it.  It certainly didn’t help us sleep.  We were told by an Australian that the man he was sharing a carriage with informed him that the track we had just travelled along was where the train usually derails!  But it was a great journey through varied Tanzanian landscape.  The track goes through the middle of a wild life reserve and apparently you can get good views of the animals from the train.  Unfortunately it was dark when we passed through so we didn’t see anything.

Nya Kaunda on the Tazara drinking Kilimanjaro beer

View from the Tazara - rice fields in western Tanzania

Our journey back from Mbeya to Mzuzu was also interesting.  We got a bus at the busy and chaotic Mbeya bus station but were told a few kilometres from the border that we would have to change to motorcycle taxis.  The conductor, who was very helpful, paid the taxi drivers the fare and we changed, suitcase and rucksack and all, onto the motorcycles.  A couple of kilometres from the border the drivers stopped and told us that they had only been paid to get us that far; we would have to pay 1,000 shilling (all of 30 pence) each for them to take us all the way to the border.  After the border we got onto a minibus which was meant to take us to Mzuzu.  But at Karonga we were asked to change into another minibus and again the conductor in the first one paid for the rest of our journey (in this case, there was no request for further money!).  The police in Malawi are clamping down on overcrowding of minibuses and ours were certainly overcrowded – the first one had about 18 people in it when there were seats for 14;  the second had up to 16 people on it – plus bags of maize, buckets of fish, our luggage – when there were seats for 11.  There are police road blocks between every municipality and we passed through at least half a dozen on our way down and were stopped at all.  On each occasion, the conductor went and had a chat to the policemen and we carried on.  Good business for the policemen, not so effective at stopping overcrowding of minibuses.

Nya Kaunda - with luggage - looking somewhat apprehensive

It was difficult to get a true impression of just how crowded the minibuses were

My last week at Temwa was busy.  Temwa’s focus is on delivering services in the Nkhata Bay North community and it has limited capacity in its finance and administration office.  They carry out day to day work but they struggle to find the time to develop policies and procedures or do detailed financial planning.  So I was able to add this capacity. I needed to ensure that as far as possible the policies and procedures and new budget process are agreed and become embedded in the organisation. 

There were interruptions.  We had a swoop by the local Mzuzu immigration office to check that Jo and Sheena, who were over from the UK office, and I had the appropriate visas to work in the Mzuzu office – me as a volunteer and Jo and Sheena in their capacity as full-time staff in the UK who have oversight responsibility for the work in Malawi.  There were threats of confiscating passports and taking us down to the Immigration Office.   The immigration officers became particularly exercised when I told them that I had been asked to pay 20,000 kwacha (20 pounds) to an immigration officer in addition to the normal $100 fee for a Temporary Residence Permit and I had not received a receipt. This kind of thing should not happen in their office!  They said they would investigate it if I liked but pointed out that in Malawi both sides of the transaction would be investigated – not just the recipient.  The outcome was Jo going to meet the top official at the Immigration Office and getting advice on the correct arrangements that needed to be put in place. 

On the coach to Lilongwe, in the outskirts of Mzuzu, Nya Kaunda saw a sign which said “Trust Nobody Partnership”.  It is an interesting approach to partnership working which possibly has some parallels in the UK.  It probably is something that could be added to management text books alongside the “best laid plans o’ mice and men gang aft agley”.  And it has a special resonance in Malawi where there is an understandable lack of trust.  But it is not inevitable. The culture that has developed in government, in officialdom, in business and in management circles is not one shared by the majority of people.   The programme and project managers, project and field officers, drivers, watchmen, cleaners and others that I have worked with in Temwa are the most trustworthy people you could come across.   They represent by far the majority of people in Malawi.   We had great fun at the leaving meal we had last Friday.  We will miss them all!

Our leaving dinner at A1 in Mzuzu- a truly great team