UTAFITI [New Series) Special Issue, Vol. 4, 1998-2001 Editorial Overview This is the sixth issue of UTAFITI (New Series) coming out as a Special Issue, Volume 4, 1998-2001. It presents material that the Editorial Board of the UTAFITI journal had accepted for publication in four volumes one year each from 1998 to 2001. Due to various regrettable circumstances these volumes did not get produced and it was decided with great reluctancy to bring out all these good articles in this UTAFlTI (New Series) Special Issue, Volume 4, 1998-2000. Special apologies are sincerely extended to our esteemed readers for our failure to meet the solemn promise given in the Editorial which accompanied the last issue of our Journal, UTAFITI (New Series) Vol. 3 No.2, 1997, which itself came out late in May 1999. Subsequent issues of the UT AFITI Journal will be brought out by a newly appointed new blood Editorial Board which hopefully will avoid all the mistakes of us, the outgoing Editorial Board. Fifteen (15) articles all together are presented in this special combined volume of the UTAFITI Journal. The topics covered by these articles (with the number of articles per topic given in brackets) are based on scholarly traditions in the following broad multi-disciplinary academic fields: economics and statistics (5); geography and environmental studies (3); political ~<:;ience and sociology (3); education (2); as well as language and the performing arts (2). Economics and Statistics In the field of economics and statistics, five(5) articles are presented. The first article is by Dr. B.M. Nyagetera, and is titled: Malaysian Economic Development: Some Lessons for Tanzania. It is based on extensive documentary as well as field data collection, analysis and synthesis. The article critically examines the experienc~s of Malaysia in the economic development field as a typical example of what has come to be known as the South East Asian economic miracle. Lessons of relevance to Tanzania's development efforts are extensively discussed. The second article in this subject field is by Dr. K.A. Kulindwa and Dr. G.D. Mjema, and is titled: Foreign Trade and the Environment in Tanzania. This is one of the articles which were submitted earlier on in 1998 but whose A.F. Lwaitama content is considered to be still of great relevance to current discussion on ~he interface between the pre-occupation with promoting foreign trade in countnes like Tanzania and threats to environmental harmony in the same countries. The article argues that since the promotion of foreign trade is important. with regard to efforts directed at poverty alleviation and that since such promotIOn does often result in environmental threats which both central and local governments have to secure funds to organize programmes to reduce, advice to these governments calling on them to reduce government expenditure must be given with great caution. The third article in the field of economics and statistics is titled: The Link Between Labour-based Technology and Poverty Reduction: The Case of Rural Tanzania., authored by Dr. S.B. Likwelile. The articles was submitted in 1999 and argues that in order to realise the potential benefits of Labour-Based Technologies in Road Construction as a strategic option in poverty reduction, the government had to be committed to the use of these technologies and ensure a regular flow offunds to support and reinforce capacity building at the relevant local levels. The fourth article in this field is by Dr. M.O.A. Ndanshau, and is titled: An Ecunometric Ana~vsis of Engel's Curve: The Case of Peasants Households in Northern Tan::ania. Using micro-survey data of peasant households in Northern Tanzania, the article presents an exploratory discussion of the empirical relevance of Engel's law to household budget surveys in developed and developing countries. Using this econometric model it was possible for the author to derive interesting observations on the role of age and education in explaining consumption and expenditure patterns at household level. The fifth and last article in this field is titled: Time Use by Unemployed Female Heods of Households in Urban Tanzania, by Prof. R.S. Katapa. It is based on a study the author undertook on unemployed female heads of households in two urban centres in Tanzania, namely Manzese in the City of Oar es Salaam and Mwanjelwa in Mbeya Municipality. The field work for the study was conducted between July and August 1992. All the same the article presents arguments based not only on the results of the 1992 study but also on secondary data based on documentation search. It is from such documentation search, for example, where the author gains the insight that the incidence of females being heads of households is increasing globally. It is also from the same source where the author gains. information to the effect that female headed households were among the most disadvantaged peasants in Njombe district in Tanzania. The most striking ob:ervation made on the bases of the results of the 1992 field work study IS that the female heads of households of the above mentioned urban centres were awake. for a.n average of sixteen hours daily and that they spent more time attendlllg to IIlformal economic activities than to domestic chores. vi Editorial Geography and Environmental Issues As mentioned earlier, there are three articles in the broad multidisciplinary subject field of geography and environmental studies. The first article in this field is titled: Assessing Rural Energy Needs and Solutions in North-East Tanzania. It is co-authored by Prof. A.S. Kauzeni, Mr. E.N. Sawe, and Dr. F.C. Sechambo. The article is based on a two year research project which was initiated in 1995. The project had as its main objective developing and testing a multi-disciplinary research method for identifYing bio-energy solutions to a myriad of environment related problems generated by poverty reduction economic activities. The study identifies a number of circumstances which must be created by the appropriate policy environment at both local and national levels. The second article in this subject field is titled: Land Use by People Living Around Protected Areas: The Case of Lake Manyara National Park, by Dr. F. Shechambo. The article discusses the socio-economic trends of human activities around Lake Manyara in Northern Tanzania. The paper provides support for the policy of having an intergrated management regime for the Lake Manyara Basin. The third and last article in this field is by Prof. W. Rugumamu, and is titled: A Forest Resources Co-Management Strategy for Tanzania: A Study of West Usambara High Canopy Forests. The article makes a good case for the need to work at grassroot level in promoting the productivity of forests and the reduction of environmental hazards resulting from measures aimed at improving the quality of life for communities who live near forests. Political Science and Sociology Three articles are presented in this issue of UTAFITI which fall under the subject fields of political science and sociology. The first of these is titled: Forms and Reforms of Constitution-Making with Reference to Tanzania, by Dr. D.R. Mukangara. It analyses recent constitution-making practices in Tanzania comparing such practices with experiences drawn from elsewhere in the world. It offers a novel interpretation of constitution-making as a political concept arguing, strikingly, that "constitutions need not be democratic". The article is concluded by an equally striking insight summarized in the observation by the author that "constitutions can be popular and endure the test oftime even if they started out as minority constitutions." The second article in this field is by Prof. C.S.L Chachage, and is titled: Nation Building and Ethnicity: Towards a Re-conceptualization of Democracy in Africa. The paper was submitted in 2000 at which time Prof. Chachage was a Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The article critically evaluates key concepts used in dominant discourses on nation-building in Africa. vii A.I? Lwaitama This is a pioneering pOlemical state of the art article. Employi~g a transformational model of social activity the article places under close scrutll1Y. a whole range of social categories thus interrogating all that most schol.ars. 111 political science and sociology may be tempte.d to take for gr~,nted. QuestlO~m~ even such apparently uncontroversial categones such as the ex,tended famtly "tribe" "nationhood" and "citizenship" the articles appeals to Afncan scholars to undertake the task of reconstructing Africa's history in order to "demystify and combat the nation-building histories that are leading to more partitioning of Africa." The third and last article in the field is titled: Social Insecurity of the ElderZv f'mple in Tanzania Today: A Theoretical Framework, by Dr. A.J. L. Mwami. The article seeks to provide an alternative theoretical perspective towards understanding the social problems of the elderly people in the underdeveloped countries. Taking a socio-historical approach, the article argues that in undermining the erstwhile kinship relations that used to be the bedrock of the security system in older times, colonialism, together with its imposition of the new commodity relations, has wrought unprecedented upheaval in the social fabric of post-colonial African societies. Education Articles There are also two articles in this issue of UTAFITI which discuss educational research finding of interest to all social scientists. The first article is titled: Socio- cultured Factors and Tanzanian Primary School Students' Achievements and Sc/tool Experience, and is co-authored by Dr. Lars-Erik Malmberg, and Prof. S. Sumra. The article discusses the findings of an investigation on how Tanzanian primary school students' experience varied according to their performance in subjects such as Mathematics and Kiswahili as well as how such variation was influenced by several socia-cultural factors such as parental educational background, gender, age and home language. One of the most striking finding of the study is the observation that the use of Kiswahili at home was related positively with positive school experience in urban settings. It is also striking that it was observed that the educationallevel of the parents was not correlated with their children's school achievement. The second article in the field of education is titled: Prospects for Combining Residential and Distance Mode of University Education in Tanzania and it is authored by I?r. P:S..D .. Mushi. The article discusses the findings of ~ study on how ?est univerSities 111 developing countries, in this case Tanzania, may org.al1lze themselve.s to offer both residential and open learning opportunities to their pool of potentIal students. The article reviews recent literature on how best a traditionally residential University could offer open learning programmes taking viii Editorial advantage of recent advances in Information Communication Technology (lCT). It then proceeds to present the results of a study on hew the University of Dar es Salaam may embark on actually organizing such programmes in collaboration with related educational and ICT institutions in Tanzania. The article would be a good read to social scientists interested in how the dual mode of higher education may be deployed in bringing about greater equity in access to University Education in times when World Bank inspired cost recovery economic restructuring is making residential University Education less accessible to disadvantaged social groups. Language and Performing Arts Finally this issue of UTAFITI presents two articles in the field of language and the performing arts. The first article in the field of language, is authored by Prof. J.S. Madumulla, and is titled: Proverbs: A Pack of Lies? The article attempts a rejoinder to an article which appeared in the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute called MAN Vol. 28 No.2, 1993 on the subject of African proverbs. In the rejoinder, Prof. Madumula seeks to demonstrate that proverbs are a socially significant artistic creation of a given society and that proverbs are part of the culture of that given society. The article then argues that 'scholars of a foreign culture should feel that they owe to the culture in which they carry out their research the duty to accord such a culture their scholarly unbiased integrity" The second and last article in this subject field is by Dr. A. Hatar, and is titled: Theatizing AIDS in Local Communities: Lessons Learnt. The article outlines lessons learnt from activities undertaken in 9 Tanzania AIDS project clusters in theatizing AIDS and STD issues. Furthermore, it examines how theater has enabled the nine Tanzania AIDS Projects to handle the relevant sensitive issues in the given communities. All in all the fifteen articles in this issues of UTAFITI present the reader of our esteem Journal with a wide range of scholarly discourses informed by research carried out in Tanzania by academicians at the University of Oar es Salaam and their fellow academicians from sister Universities elsewhere in the world in the last four to ten years. The running thread in all these articles is the multi disciplinary nature of the problems encountered in grappling with poverty elimination and democratization which are of concern to all scholars the world over. Dr. Azaveli Feza Lwaitama Outging Chief Editor, UTAFITI {New Series} May 2002 ix