DESCRIPTION OF MUSOMA DISTRICT/EDUCATION/POLITICAL ACTIVITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00926A007500270003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 1, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY Tanganyika
SUBJECT Description of Musoma District/Education/
Political Activity _
PLACE ACQUIRED
(BY SOURCE)
DATE ACQUIRED
(BY SOURCE)
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THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTIMG THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES. WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS. SECTIONS 703
AND 704. OF THE U.S. CODE. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE-
LATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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It 54
LOCATION
1. Musoma District, Lake Province, is located on the east coast of Lake Victoria
in the northwest section of Tanganyika.
POPULATION
2. The Basukuma tribe comprises 14.90 of the population, the balance being divided
between the Bashashi, the Bajita, the Luo and other smaller tribes, as well as
a few Indians. The Bashashi tribe is on the wane because of certain rites
which they practice, one being female circumcision which brings the birth rate
down to about one and one half child per couple. The Luo tribe is a fairly
recent arrival in the country from Kenya. This tribe is being permitted to
come in'because the rise of water in the lake due to the dam at Jinga, which
is almost 100% completed, will take some of their land. It has been estimated
that at one place 10 thousand people will be dispossessed and relocated..
Many of these are already coming down into Tanganyika before that happens.
This is causing some resentment on the part. of the local tribes.
HOUSING
Housing in Tanganyika depends upon climatic conditions and in this area, due to
heavy rains, thatch houses are the most practical as there is sufficient grass
and leaves to rebuild them should they be washed away. In the southern section
of the country they are going in more for mud houses with stone foundations
and floors and in all areas tin roofs are becoming quite popular. Sanitation
is nil.
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4. The basic diet is millet, sorghum and kafir corn.. Because an interest in
"commercialism" is growing amongst the natives, fostered by the Government
and the Indians, they are killing more cattle and selling the meat for cash.
From 1937 and up until 1945, in the rural areas, it was only possible to
secure beef, mutton and goat once a month or so. Now it is readily available
and the price per head has risen from US5.00 to US$25.00, an increase of 50096
in 15 years. Thereat chicken and fish, the latter-both dried and fresh. Sweet
potatoes, squash, pumpkins, mangoes, custard apples, oranges, pineapples,
tangerines and. grapefruit are available on a seasonal basis. Very little
sweet milk is drunk by the natives, as they prefer it sour. Pae supply, how-
ever, is limited., as the cows give very little milk.
FACILITIES AND SERVICES
5, While some Government facilities, such as the port authority on the lake
and private establishments, such as hotels, may have their own small generating
plantss;* electricity is not available to the public. Telephones are not
available in this area and the nearest one to the city of Musoma would be
60 miles. Radios are becoming increasingly popular with the Africans, par-
ticularly with the teachers, and are on sale in large quantities and at
low prices. They are a saucepan type and the lowest price 1 have heard
is 170 Shillings. While I have heard that broadcasts from India have
been received on these sets, the majority of the programs come from Leopold-
ville in the Belgian Congo, Lusaka in Southern Rhodesia and Dar es Salaam
in Tanganyika. Programs are broadcast in Swahili as well as other dialects.
ECONOMY
6. The economy of the area is agriculture and cattle raising. Cotton is the
primary cash crop although rice is also grown, which crop in the past five
years has been very poor. Boran cattle, a hump backed breed, are raised
although the Government is experimenting in crossbreeding Brahma and Guernsey
cattle in an attempt to produce'a type of cattle that will be more resistant
to the East African diseases, including East Coast Fever. It is estimated
that in the Lake District there are four million head of cattle and only
one million, three hundred thousand people. Due to the badly eroded soil
conditions, the Government is raising the cattle tax in an effort to force
the Africans to cut down on the size of their herds.
7. The people who live on the lake are very clean living, but those inland are
not because water is scarce hree quarters of the year. In November and
December there may be plenty of water, but from January until May it is
very scarce. Water comes from springs and river beds although the Government
is drilling wells in many places to bring in more water. The Government also
has a program for damming up natural water courses and has an engineer
:visit the site and advise the African where to put' the dam so it will
get sufficient water.
GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE TO AFRICANS
8. The Government has many plans and programs to assist the African. On-, of the
best of these is known as the Sukumaland. Federation located at Malya, Shanwa
District,.the ides, for which I understand came from the wife of a District
Commissioner some years.ago. The Federation has a council comprised of Sukuma
chiefs supervised by an assistant provincial officer (white) and its idea is
to develop a self government from this little pattern. The area has a man-made
lake which has some two or three million gallons of water in it continuously
and with which they are doing some irrigation. European specialists have been
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the Government is devising a scheme to set up
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each family bring in so many bushels of grain each year to be stored for possible
famine and when a reserve has been built up to sell off the excess; the money.
going to the African who brought it in. Unfortunately, corruption is growing
by leaps and bounds among the Africans and this plan could cause trouble. For
instance, if a man brought in five bushels of grain, the African bookkeeper
might put down only three, and then whea.the man came the next year expecting
to be paid for five, he would only receive payment for three.
EDUCATION
10. Education in Tanganyika follows the UK system and falls into three categories:
Standards One through Four (primary),. Standards Five through Eight (middle)
and Standards Seven through Ten (secondary) and into which those exceptional
students who-have completed sixtla standard are placed. Upon completion of
10th Standard a student may enter teacher training. At the present time there
are very few of these secondary schools which were begun only in the last three
years, and very few teacher training schools. All of these schools are known
as "registered" schools. In addition to these, there are many bush schools
and adult literacy schools which do not have to conform to Government standards.
11. Education is provided by the Government and by Roman Catholic and Protestant
missions, the latter following curriculums as laid down by the Education De-
partment of Tanganyika, except as regards religion. Classes in religion may
be conducted, without Government interference, in all schools. By 1956 the
Government expects that 33-i/3 percent of the people in Tanganyika will be
literate. Schools are supported 95% by the Government and five percent by the
volunteer agency or mission operating the school. kost of the five percent
Comps from -P c- ,,n4A i.... .i.u- _ ---'- - - - -
brought in to teach the African various trades, such as blacksmithing, carpentry,
etc., and to help them in their agricultural work, animal husbandry, etc. This
Sukumaland Federation is .a splendid example of what can be done to advance the
African. -
things in Africa. I have heard figures about the value of food destroyed by
rats, weevils, etc, which run into the millions of dollars. A man may have
five bushels of corn, of which one and one half bushels will have been eaten
by rats or weevils before he can use it. While DDT and other insecticides
are available they are too expensive for the average African to buy. The only
African means of keeping out pests is to build small houses made of cattle dung
w
mined ith d
only some means of stor evise and this is one of the most needed
While the Government assists reatl b brie ing in kafir corn and other. foods
during times of famine, this aid would not be necessary if
mu which, while they do help, are not too practical.
m
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the fee; including tuition and board, is about US$50sto US$60 per yea schools r. . Ts Teacher
training schools are about the same. Schools are carefully supervised by'the
Government and inspectors make periodic visits to schools, sit in on classes
to observe the teacher's ability, and'if a teacher starts to fall down he is
severely reprimanded. Kiswahili is taught up to and including Fourth Standard
after which English becomes the official language.
-t+F y "'d'y o%-;"u u rum from
U41-00 to US$5.00 per year. other schools are"` al
12. Expansion of the educational system is planned and within a 20 year period
there should be practically 100% literacy among the youn eo le. ether it
will be carried out as planned is difficult to tell. it depends 2 5X1X
to a great extent on how long the people will be able to pay the increased
taxes. I have heard that the Government plans to raise the annual head of the
household tax from 20 Shillings to 30 Shillings, whereas two years ago it was
between 12 and 20 Shillings. In addition, each African is required to pay a
tax on each goat and sheep and each head of cattle. An African may keep up
to seven head of cattle without paying tax, but on each head over that number
he pays US$.50 per year. I do not know how many goats and sheep he is permitted
to keep tax free, but on each head over the stipulated number he must pay
US$.10 per year. Now the Government is talking of collecting an income tax.
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While in some districts the Africans are willing, at least to the extent that
anyone is willing to pay taxes, to be taxed to support education. In
.hc
poorer distri4ts they are not.
25X6 13. rovides financial aid to education in Tanganyika, I
believe this goes more toward the administration of the education department
rather than into the actual school buildings. I believe as time goes on
this financial aid will be reduced as the Africans.themselves, through taxa-
tion, are able to carry it without outside help. To the best of my knowledge
there is no financial support of education from the US or other foreign
countries. Industry does contribute to local educational facilities and I
know that J T Williamson, the diamond mine owner, has given hundreds of
thousands of pounds to different projects, including a geology department
to Makerere College, a football stadium in Mwanza, etc. On the other hand
I have heard of groups in industry desiring to donate money for a school
in a particular area, but the Government has said they could not designate
it for a specific project.
14. In the primary schools all teaching is done by African teachers. While. the
objective is to have all African teachers in the middle schools, with a white
supervisor, as yet there are insufficient first-class African teachers to
fill the demand; missionaries are now filling these posts. I am not sure
about the secondary schools, but I rather imagine these are in,the hands of
European teachers. Teacher training is done by Europeans entirely. Textbooks,
all of which come from the- UK, are improving all the time and every course from
hygiene to handcrafts has its own textbook.
15? I would say that only one half of one percent of those enrolled in school are
girls. Education is not compulsory for either boys or girls, except to the
extent that if a new school is opened and has a capacity of 45 pupils and
only 25 turn up on opening day, the chief of the village will make it a point
to'see to it that 20 more children are recruited from his village.
16. The Africans in the Musoma area have;. mixed feelings toward -the Government.
While there is widespread anti government feeling, just how deep it goes I.
do not know. Their attitude is usually one of general dissatisfaction or of
complete disregard of what the Government does. If the African thinks a certain
program is good for him he is for it, but if he thinks a program is not to his
best interests he is against I . The white man must be careful in his deal-
ings with the African fbr if anything goes wrong the African is quick to say it
was the white man's fault. The Europeans of course favor white supremacy in
Government although there are those with forward thinking, both in and out
of Government, who realize that there should ultimately be a society with
co-equality among Europeans, Indians and Africans. Three quarters of the
Indian population are against white supremacy in Government. The other
quarter, the Ismaili group, , are followers of the Aga Khan who has told
his people that they must become an integral part of the country to which
they have migrated-and that they must conform to the policies set forth by
the Government in authority.
17. The Africans in Musoma district are aware of what goes on in the Gold Coast
and Nigeria through pictures and articles in publications coming into Tanganyika.
One in particular is a monthly magazine, published by the Kenya Government,
.called "Tazama", which contains pictures of many of the fine buildings and
beautiful homes in the Gold Coast and Nigeria as well as articles written in
Swahili telling how the people in these countries rule themselves, which
give the erroneous impression that these things are "typical" of conditions.
25X1X there. the Government makes a mistake in-circulating this
type of information as it simply plants the idea in the mind of the African
that if in other countries the Africans rule themselves, why not in Tanganyika,
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thus giving added impetus to the already too active rise of nationalism.
Events in Central and South Africa have had little or no effect on the
natives in the Musoma district.
18. The Indian is the economic factor as the whole economic lifeline of East
Africa is in his hands. There are some 300 thousand Indians in East Africa,
60 thousand of whom are in Tanganyika. Many of them.are extremely wealthy
and very few of them are trustworthy. Relations between the Indians and
Africans are polite but there is no trust either way between the two. The
Africans are being encouraged by the Government to open small shops and
"hotelis" and while the Indians resent this competition, their resentment
is not to the point of antipathy or hatred, but they will try, to devise
schemes to force the Africans out of business by offering the same goods
and services at a reduced rate. While it is illegal for Indians to
finance Africans, they will do this secretly and set an African up in
business alongside his (the Indian's) own shop.. This looks like competition
but actually most of the money goes into the pocket of the Indian. They
will also finance Africans in sections were Indians are not permitted to
set up shops.
19.
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and its attitude,and against the white settlers, he did go out of his way
to say that the missionaries were fine people and not out to "do" his fellow
countrymen. This particular Meru tribe was living on land that was badly
eroded and the Government, acting in good faith, decided to move these
people to a new area. The Africans deeply resented the Government's intrusion
and their case is still being discussed by the L.N. I-believe they are
to ha' e another hearing in October of this year. While the Government did
make some mistakes in their handling of the situation, such as bulldozing
their homes out from under them, nevertheless the new territory is so such
better - better housing, better land, etc - that they should be thankful
instead of resentful. I have heard the Government feels there is some
communist infiltration in this organization,
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