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Tanzania: Chasing Stories or: A Quest to Discover Agricultural Jihad |
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Wednesday, 20 May 2009 |
As a regional analyst, Rachel Keeler spends a fair amount of time sifting through Google news alerts and following what sometimes turn out to be bizarre East African media trails. This week a puzzling bit of reporting caught her eye from the op-ed columns of Tanzania’s Daily News.
“Govt should maintain focus on agriculture”, asserts business writer John Kulekana in the Daily News: “Last week… senior officials from Iran and their Tanzanian counterparts, signed an agreement for establishment of what was called ‘Agricultural Jihad.’ The so-call ‘Jihad’ seems to be in line with the government's goal of bringing about ‘Green Revolution.’ It is the goal that must be aggressively maintained.”
The article does not offer any further clarification, and I’m not sure if an agrarian holy war is what Kofi Annan had in mind when he set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa; but my curiosity was certainly piqued. Another search brought up a report from Iran’s Fars News Agency (the country’s leading independent news service):
“Iran’s First Vice President Parviz Davoudi who returned to Tehran Wednesday [May 12] morning after a 6-day tour to South Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar said Iran is to establish agricultural jihad offices in Zanzibar City and Dar es Salaam. Davoudi has met Tanzanian President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and the two sides reviewed bilateral and international topics, private sections investment and their common stances in global scene.”
This appears to be the sole source of information available on the topic online, and has been reprinted on the Iranian Chamber of Commerce’s website. Ignoring for a moment that Julius Nyerere is neither any longer the president of Tanzania nor even alive, I decided the issue deserved some digging.
I began by calling all three numbers listed online for Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. No answer. Not unusual. I also called the number listed for the Daily News on its site: out of service. Also not unusual. I eventually found a press release on the ministry’s site in Swahili with another number that led me to an ebullient woman working in the department of research and development. I tried to explain what I was calling about, which resulted in some confusion: “Ji-jihad what?” My Californian accent didn’t help. But the woman was wonderfully (surprisingly) helpful and gave me the mobile number for the ministry’s communications officer, Richard.
To my delight, Richard picked up on the second ring. After another attempt at explaining the nature of my call (and by this time I was sure the CIA was listening in), Richard said he suspected it might be best to speak with the president’s (Kikwete, not Nyerere) director of communications. To get that phone number, I would have to speak with the prime minister’s spokesperson. He also picked up his phone and wonderfully, surprisingly, texted me the number for the president’s office. With just a little cajoling, the receptionist there transferred me to the director of communications. Unfortunately, his number is temporarily out of service.
I was beginning to fear that I might never know the truth about agricultural jihad. And then, finally, I came across the website for Iran’s “Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture”, which I assume must take its name from the less Western, more literal translation of “jihad”, meaning a struggle for improvement. I’m still not sure precisely what this translates to for Tanzania, but I do wish them the best of luck.
When not in pursuit of agricultural jihad, Rachel has been more successful with inquiries into other agricultural and land issues. Read more here: Uganda: Madhvani Sugar Investment Test Case for New Land Policy? and here: Africa Agenda: Standard Bank Ventures into Smallholder Agricultural Financing
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