Editorial       v
                                      Editorial
  This is the fourth issue of urAFm (New Series). It is coming out as Vol. 3
  No.1, 1996. It is hoped that No.2 of the same volume as well as No.1 and
  No.2 of Vol. 4, 1997 will all be out by the end of 1997. From 1998 onwards
 the endeavour is to bring out the two numbers of the relevant year on time thus
 restoring the confidence of our esteemed subscribers and contributors. Particular
 gratitude has to be expressed to the Swedish aid agency, SAREC, which has
 continued to support the efforts by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the
 University of Dar es Salaam, to restore urAFm to its former academic
 publishing reputation.
     In this issue there are seven articles covering topics ranging from the human
 rights issue, the rights of pastoralists, labour migration, the land issue, drug
 abuse among the youth, aspects of engineering education, and a linguist's view
of how Tanzanians conceptua1ise the notion of being responsible. All these
 topics should be of interest to an informed multidisciplinary audience with
 special interest in development issues pertaining to Tanzania, and the Third
World in general.
     The first article discusses how the discourses on human rights may be
located in the socio-economic struggles that are raging in Third World countries.
It is written by Professor Issa Shivji of the Faculty of Law of the University of
Dar es Salaam. Professor Shivji's radical view of the essence of the human
rights debate can be said to be echoed in most, if not all, of the subsequent
articles. The second article takes up the issue of human rights in the arena of the
provision of education to pastoralists families in Tanzania. It seeks to show how
state intervention in the lives of. pastoralists could be made to relate to the
cultural heritage and the basic economic interests of the pastoralists. The article
is written by Professor Victor Mlekwa of the Faculty of Education of the
University of Dar es Salaam.
    The third article by Dr. MJ. Mbonile, who is currently the Head of
Department of Geography at the University of Dar es Salaam, offers a critical
discussion of the results of a study of how the people of Makete District in South
Western Tanzania have sought to break from what he calls "the vicious circle of
labour migration". The fourth articles is a review of the Report of Presidential


  vi         UTAFITI (New Series) Vol. 3'No. 1, 1996
  Commission of Inquiry into Land Issues in Tanzania, (popularly known as the
  Shivji Report). It discusses salient points raised both by the Shivji Report and
  other writers on the land question in Tanzania and in the Third World in
  general. These points are all linked to the struggle for self-determination, which
  is a basic human right, by peoples who have in history been subjected to
  slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. The article, written by Professor
  Horace Campbell who used to teach at the University of Dar es Salaam in
  Tanzania but is now with the Department of African American Studies at
  Syracuse University in New York in the USA, ought to prompt further debate
  on the land question in Tanzania in the light of impending legislative measures
  being contemplated by the Tanzanian state, with the apparent approval of the
  World Banle
     The fifth article, discusses the iss~e of drug abuse and drug trafficking, and
  how the human rights of Tanzanian youth could be said to be impossible to
  promote where these youths are exposed to the international web of the activities
  of drug barons. The article is written by Dr. M.K. Possi of the Faculty of
  Education at the University of Dar es Salaam who specialises in the problems of
 educating learners with special needs.
     The sixth article, written by Dr. Martha Qorro who is a Lecturer in
 Communications Skills, discusses the problems of language teaching across the
 curriculum, taking up the case of how Civil Engineering students at the
 University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania have over the years been assisted in
 acquiring engineering report writing skills. Once more, an issue such as the
 acquisition of an academic skill is shown to be linked to issues of relevance to
 those interested in empowering learners from socially disadvantaged groups,
 which is what the majority of the Engineering students in Tanzania are.
     The seventh and last article presents the results of a study by a linguist
 seeking to uncover the COgnitivemappings that Tanzania speakers of English
 seem to have of what being responsible is. The article is written by Dr. Stephen
 Lukusa who is a Senior lectUrer in the Department of Foreign Languages and
Linguistics at the University of Oar es Salaam in Tanzania and it provides
textual evidence to support his thesis that Tanzanian speakers of English
conceptualise being responsible slightly differently from its conception by native
speakers of English. A potjtk:al scientist recalling the campaigns by ex-
President Mwinyi of Tanzania calling on Tanzanians to act responsibly
(popularly known as 'kuwajibika' in Kiswahili) should fmd Dr. Lukusa's article
interesting.


                                                                  Editorial    vii
    Readers are invited to assess the articles published in this issue and send us
their critical comments in order to assist the Editorial Board to improve the
quality of the UFAFm journal. You are invited to contribute to the revival.of
the fortunes of the UIAFm journal by sending us an article or even a short
commentary on any of the previous articles or reviews published in UFAFm.
In the next issues there will be space set aside for short comments from readers.
 Let there be debate, for instance, on the land issue.
 Dr. A.F. Lwaitama
 Chief Editor