YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS: ‘To enjoy Mt Kilimanjaro, come to Tanzania...’

During a training course in Holland in 1968, I was staggered by the poor geographical knowledge among the natives. Telling them I was from ‘Tanzania,’ their response was almost invariably: ‘is that in Nairobi? Is that South Africa...?’

Clearly, it wasn’t (yet) etched on their minds that ‘Tanzaina’ was a nation-state recognised by notable international/multilateral institutions the likes of the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, etc, etc...

Sheesh!

Surprisingly, the locals knew of ‘Nayaerere’ (Nyerere) – but NOT of ‘Tanzania,’ the nation-state that Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had helped found and administer for nearly a generation, becoming an iconic, exemplary leader who today hovers on Canonization, so to speak...!

It gradually became clear that my Dutch/European hosts – and, indeed, foreigners in general – got to ‘know’ of Mwalimu Nyerere principally from his instant notoriety (for lack of a better word) as the force and brains behind the ‘Arusha Declaration & TANU Policy on Socialism & Self-reliance!’

Proclaimed by President Nyerere (1962-85) on February 5, 1967, the Arusha Declaration led to a Nationalisation Programme that transferred Land, Industry, Commerce, etc, from private to state control, ownership – thereby putting the so-called ‘Commanding Heights of the Economy’ under public (read ‘National Government’) control!

In due course of time and altercation here, there and over there, privately-held assets were by a stroke of the ‘nationalisation’ pen transformed into public assets!

Major assets – mostly foreign-owned: Land, Estates (Real and ‘Other’), Banks, Insurance, Manufactories, etc – were taken over virtually overnight... And, as the Sisters of Fate would’ve it, Nyerere acquired instant fame/popularity at home – and infamy abroad, especially among the foreign investors who were deprived under the Arusha Declaration and their associates, including their Governments!

So, was it any wonder that my Dutch hosts knew of ‘Nayaerere’ – but not of the United Republic of ‘Tanzania’ less than a year post-Arusha Declaration?

In like vein, ‘Nairobi’ became better-known in foreign lands on the back of the Mau-Mau Uprising (1952-1960) by Kenyans seeking freedom from British colonial domination. The Mau-Mau attrocities gained global publicity, no doubt fueled by foreign settlers and other stakeholders fleeing Kenya...

Ditto for ‘South Africa,’ which gained unwanted worldwide notoriety from its Apartheid System. Adopted in 1948 by the National Party, the Apartheid Regime entrenched an all-White Government that enforced racial segregation every which way in favour of Whites – and at tragic cost to other races, especially Blacks...

So, tragedies like the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre (67 Blacks shot dead by security forces, >180 injured) perforce etched an ‘Ugly South Africa’ on the minds of the likes of my 1968 Dutch hosts!

I’ve gone to great lengths here to dramatically demonstrate/illustrate the Power of Publicity– for better or for worse... If Mwalimu Nyerere first gained global publicity on the back of the ‘Arusha Declaration;’ Nairobi (Kenya) on the ‘Mau-Mau Uprising’ – and South Africa from ‘Apartheid’ – then Publicity (alternating, or in combination, with ‘Advertising’) is a most powerful tool, I say!

Just look at the way Kenya virtually next-door has been drawing tourist hordes by most-cleverly advertising: ‘Come to Kenya and SEE/CLIMB Mount Kilimanjaro!’ Mark you, no where do they aver that the world-famous Kilimanjaro – at 5,895m/19,341ft above sealevel: Africa’s Roof and the world’s highest stand-alone mountain – is in Kenya.

In fact, ‘Kilimanjaro’ is squarely in Tanzania, a goodly-20km from the common border. But, that’s never stopped tourists from seeing the Mountain by simply looking at it from Kenya – or ‘touring’ (climbing) it from there by travelling from (say) a Nairobi Hotel to the Climbers’ Gates in Tanzania across the common border!