A Better Planet for Whom?

On Sept. 20, the University of Guelph awarded an honorary degree to Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania. In a news release, the university announced he was being recognized for “his contributions as a politician, negotiator and humanitarian.” In the same release, Vice President of Research Kevin Hall states that  “President Kikwete truly exemplifies what it means and what it takes to build a better planet,” referring to BetterPlanet Project used by the university for a few years now to promote its latest funding drive, and the idea that through its academic and research activities, the University of Guelph is at the forefront of the effort to improve living conditions across the planet. Hall went on to state that President Kikwete “is a model and inspiration for our university as we strive to improve life in Canada and beyond.” Following the World Hunger contest, this ceremony was another initiative the university took to bolster its reputation as a global citizen working for the common good, while associating itself with powerful individuals and organizations.

Beyond the glamour and the praise lies the more complex reality, which all too often the university administration tries to obfuscate from the eyes and ears of students. As usual, the story they are telling us here is beautiful and hopeful, but it misses some critical elements, including the perspective of the Tanzanian people themselves. One would probably be surprised to learn that the main (and fastest-growing) economic sector in Tanzania is mining. Far from the idyllic vision of a country of small family farmers, Tanzania has turned into an Eldorado of mining for multinational corporations, including Canadian giants such as the infamous Barrick Gold. These companies, through their dealings with the government, have overtaken Tanzania’s once thriving artisanal mining sector, which used to sustain nearly 500,000 families. In 1996, 62 artisanal miners were even buried alive in a Bulyanhulu mine during a conflict with Canadian mining company Sutton Resources, which saw the forced eviction of 200,000 families. The bodies of those missing have never been recovered, and people speaking out about the issue have been prosecuted for doing so. President Kikwete was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, and remained in that position until he became president. Since then, no independent inquiries have been permitted by the Tanzanian government, with international investigators often harassed and turned away by authorities.

A report sponsored by Christian Aid concluded that Tanzania “is failing to benefit from its gold resources,” with companies like Barrick and Anglo Gold Ashanti paying only a small fraction of their profits in royalties due to a generate tax scheme, while being allowed to employ unlimited foreign nationals. While he pledged to review mining laws after taking power in 2008, all Kikwete ended up doing was to shelve yet another parliamentary review of the mining laws, while the Parliament suspended an MP who wanted to investigate the secret agreements signed with mining companies. As a result of these lenient laws, communities fail to reap the fruits of mining, but the negative effects don’t fail to materialize. A 2009 report from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences found dangerous levels of arsenic and other contaminants in the environment surrounding Barrick’s North Mara gold mine. This contamination threatens the livelihoods of farming communities in the area.

This selling out to mining companies on such a large scale is enough to be skeptical about the discourse supporting small-scale agriculture. It becomes even more doubtful when we look into the details of the Grow Africa initiative. Supported by G8 countries and multinationals such as Cargill and Unilever, it seeks to raise private investment to optimize agricultural production in Tanzania, where 75 per cent people live off farming. What the private groups supporting this initiative have in mind however differs from the interest of small-scale farmers. These companies are competing in a global scramble for land, to benefit from speculation and export profits in an increasingly food insecure world. In Tanzania, as in countless other countries, they make deals, or often collude with government officials to grab vast tracts of land held by villagers. In Bagamoyo district for example, thousands of farmers are being forced out to make way for a Swedish firm that wants to plant sugar cane.

The government of Tanzania is complicit in this scheme by the world’s richest corporations to appropriate key resources and strip entire populations of their livelihoods and autonomy. These shady dealings may be cloaked in discourses around sustainability or “a better planet,” but they must be exposed for the masquerade they truly are.