INTRODUCTION
    It is no very easy to give a unified theme to our present issue. A cursory glance at
the contents will show that the articles are miscellaneous and depart quite a bit from
tho&e of the last issue. But the difference is only superficial, there is quite an
interesting connection although not as direct as one would wish. The first two
articles focus on Tanzania and the political framework under which it operates. The
factors which influence the economic and social developments in any country are
not haphazard, at least they are not supposed to be, especially in a country like
Tanzania with a well formulated political framework. But the danger with such
clearly enunciated policy is that people tend to dwell on the papers embodying those
policies, instead of constantly focusing attention on the way those policies are
actually carried out. Such a tendency leads to 'sloganeering' and has the effect of
blinding people to the truth of what is happening. It is important to stress that
declaring a policy is not such a difficult task, but upholding it is another thing
altogether. So sometimes we need to subject ourselves to a critical evaluation in
order to determine whether we are really following the "right path."
     It is in the light of the above comments that we welcome Katabaro Miti's "Party
and Politics in Tanzania." In this article, Miti analyses the different role that a party
which struggled for independence from a colonial power is expected to assume after
independence is won. Taking as his point of departure the three developments as
envisaged by Fanon, he goes on to look critically at the role of TANU/CCM after
 Independence. TANU (and now CCM) claims to have assumed the third
development. That is, the Party is supposed to have turned itself into "a tool of the
people, through which they decide on the policy that the government carries out."
This is considered to be the ideal but in practice, the most unlikely development. To
what extent the Party in Tanzania today has managed to effect that development is a
question which Miti discusses at lenght and comes out with quite interesting
observations
     The second article examines the role that Tanzania plays at the United Nations.
K. Mathews is of the opinion that it is the "small and weak nations" which most
need the U.N; and Tanzania being among these seems to value highly her
membership in that International Body. But how far has her role been effective at
the U.N. and in what way has she benefitted-from that membership? It is becoming
increasingly clear that the U.N. is sometimes rendered ineffective because of "Big
Power" rivalry, and it may be that the salvation of that Body will ultimately depend
on the role of the "small and weak nations". The U.N. is the only International
Body where people of very diverse political confessions meet and actually talk to
one another. An evaluation of Tanzania's role is therefore timely as it will offer us
the chance to weigh the possibilities for success of the U.N. in solving pressing
problems which are threatening the peace and welfare of the whole world.
    It is common knowledge that in dealings between the underdeveloped countries
and the western industrialised countries, the former always stand to lose. This has
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  always been the case, from the time of the first incursion into Africa by European
  Adventurists in the 15th century, to the Berlin conference of 1885 which partitioned
  Africa into European 'holdings', right through the colonial times and down to the
  present day. The third article looks critically at this unequal relationship through the
  treaty making Practice. A. T. Nguluma focuses on the cessi~ of laild in particular
  and argues with many examples thai in the making and sigrung of tqose treaties, the
  African parties did not know or were not aware of the implications of wtUtt they
  were doing. The European 'counterparts' took advantage of this ignorance and were
  always able to interpret them to their own advantage. TIlls "ignorance" was
  particularly acute during the pre-colonial and colonial times: The article discusses
  the factors behind such treaty making and the legality of such contractions. But
  while ignorance played a part in the unequal relationship~ it was only one of the
  factors, because the same inequality exists to-day lmd we cannpt say that to-day's
 African Governments suffer from similar limitations. Nguluma loo~ at the root
 causes of this continuity of unequal relationship.
     The fourth article picks up the theme of our last issue in that it deals with the
 "Productivity Crisis". Jerry Jedruszek writes on "Policy Implications of the
 ~yelopment in the Productivity of Labour in Tanzania". In this article the writer
 examines the old income and wage policy which tended to "concentrate almos'
 exclusively on the reduction of income differentials without recognising tht
 importance of proper incentive schemes." He then goes on to compare the old
 policy to the new policy on productivity, incomes, and prices introdpced in July
 1980. The latter policy takes the issue of incentive schemes quite seriously. Through
his own research of one of the parastataIs, he cautions that planners should not
over-emphasize the productivity of labour alone as a "sufficient criterion for
evalUlltfng the effects of tho labour factor treated as a basis for tJte level ~f wages," .
For in the final analysis, the overall productivity will depend on two cruciai factors:
the labour productive capacities, and the productivity of a worker. A pOlicy which
aims at improving a worker's status can have the opposite effect if relevant factors
are not taken into consideration. Jadruszek shows bow this can easily happen in
TlUlWlia.
     The fifth article takes us to the manufacturing industries in ~~udan. It is good
to be able to share the experiences from another u.nderdevelopoo country in their
effort to grapple with economic problems. M.M.M. Abamed studies "C8ptaI -
Labour Substitution Possibilities in the &~               Manufacturing Sector. Of :Bu.ina
his discussion OIl four types of manufacturing industries. be conclucks tJlat
manufacturers there have opted for capital Imensive technology and analyses the
factors which led to that decision. )t 'seeIllS that this option has resulted in increased
production although he leaves open the question of the implications of such a
strategy for general unemployment and the standard of living of those emj>loyed.
     The last contribution   is a Review article by B. Swai. He surveys the emergence of
Africanist History and      the Cambridge History Series on AfriCa. ~e does this by
Reviewing J. Iliffe's A     Modem HIStory of Tanganyika. Swai argues that Iliffe's
work. in ~,theoretical     presuppositions does not- differ very substantially from the
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other Mrican Histories written before. He concludes: "Things do not merely
happen, as is implied in Iliffe's work. What occurs has to be explained in relation to
other events. and such phenomena have in turn to be explained in relation to
capital". It seems to the reviewer that Iliffe cannot undertake such explanation
because he does not understand the "nature of capital itself" : In this he says Iliffe's
work, useful as it could be to.fellow Africanists falls short in its goal of presenting a
new synthesis of African history because it does not attempt to integrate "historical
knowledj!e Vl~th an awat~n~<, d the dotninant material processes of our time."
   T1nee r.10re book review" ~nd our Utafiti Notes complete this issue. Be with us
agah, fe' ~\" '1e"t issue 'vhirh .,,;11 focus on "Agricultural Production: The Crisis."
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