Tag: Tanzania stamp

America with it’s wide open spaces used supersonic training jets since the 1960s. Europe stayed with simpler slower trainers to go with their crowded skies. African countries weren’t having much luck keeping Mig or Mirage supersonic fighter bombers in service for long. Copying South Africa, they began to eye the European trainers as attack aircraft. Simple easy to fly planes and remember it is not likely the other guys Mig will get off the ground. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Here we have a nice portrait of an Italian made Aeromachi MB339 looking ready to do more than train pilots. The MB339 was an improved version of the MB 326 with a raised rear cockpit to give a better view. The MB 326 was the huge African success with over 200 used by South Africa and dozens more used by Zambia, Congo, Ghana, Togo, and Tunisia. The MB339 was less successful in Africa but a few went to Eritrea, Ghana, and Nigeria. Notice I did not mention Tanzania. Their Air Force relies on China to provide thier copies of Mig fighters. China earlier attempt at jet trainers failed, see  https://the-philatelist.com/2020/04/17/china-1958-dreams-of-a-future-in-aviation/  . So Tanzania tries to keep their 40 year old Migs operational.

Todays stamp is issue A181, a 70 Shilling stamp issued by Tanzania on April 25th, 1994. This was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. None of the aircraft models displayed were used by Tanzania. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 75 cents cancelled to order.

South Africa faced a unique problem in the 1970s. The Air Force had a large fleet of French Mirage fighters and British Buccaneer and Canberra bombers. There was a bush war in in South West Africa where there was no air opposition. With sanctions meaning the expensive planes would be hard to replace, it also meant they would be hard to use. Before sanctions bit, South Africa had acquired a license to manufacture the Italian Aeromachi MB326 jet training plane. The South Africans called them Impalas and built over 200 with the capability to drop bombs, strafe, and fire light rockets. Many third world nations saw this as an answer to their inability to maintain expensive supersonic fighters. Casa in Spain. BAE in Britain, Aero in Czechoslovakia, Soko in Yugoslavia in addition to Aeromachi in Italy began to offer their training planes fitted out for combat. Many offered single seat versions, but it was felt it was better to keep the back seat to enhance training functions and even to act as bombardiers in combat.

The South African war in Southwest Africa eventually outgrew the Impalas, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/01/28/south-west-africa-1981-put-down-your-crowbar-and-we-will-throw-out-the-cubans/   . Angola acquired a force of Cuban flown and maintained Soviet Mig 23s and South Africa returned to using the expensive Mirage fighters. After the change in government, South Africa did not maintain the large fleet of Impalas. Instead they bought a small fleet of quite advanced Swedish Saab Gripen fighters. that rarely fly in the Tanzania style.

China eventually got into the act with the Hongdu K-8. It was much delayed because at the last minute the Chinese had to substitute a Russian engine for the American turbofan the plane had been designed for. So finally Tanzania was able to acquire a modern jet trainer 20 years after this stamp.

Interestingly the South African experience probably held back sales of the improved MB339. It was decided to retain the old Rolls Royce Viper turbojet instead of moving to more efficient turbofans as most new trainer by then offered. This was done in hopes of South African orders, South Africa would not have been allowed the British/French Adour turbofan.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

The hope that existed in 1960s era independent Africa was contagious. There was a belief that without colonial oppressors things would get better through a system of brotherhood called Ujamaa. What if the colonial system stays in place, now with a black face and corruption, but lacking the colonials competence. Then you get Wabenzi, a modern oppression named after the Mercedes autos so favored by the corrupt new black elite. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is of a type that is sad to me. A cartoonish topical of an elephant. Tanzania was supposed to be a center of Ujamaa. It was a system designed by Africans influenced by Christianity and Socialism where the people bring themselves up by working together. If that had worked even half way, imagine the interesting stamps possible that really teach you about a far off place. Instead desperate revenuing by an almost non existing postal service with farmed out stamps. Other issues that year was a stamp for not Tanzanian Elvis and the paintings of not Tanzanian Vincent Van Gogh.

Todays stamp is issue A123, a 15 Shilling issue of the one party state of Tanzania. It was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations featuring elephants. There was also a much higher denomination souvineer sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents cancelled to order. The sovineer sheet is up at $7.25.

Tanzania formed in 1964 upon the merger of the former British colony of Tanganyika and the Arab offshore island of Zanzibar. The African former slaves of Zanzibar rebelled against their post independence Arab King who was related to the Omani royal family. After the uprising, Arabs were forced into exile. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/ This had also happened in Tanganyika when many whites and Indians were forced to leave, often with only 24 hour notice. Blacks themselves lost the previous ability to seek work in more prosperous South Africa. The first President consolidated power in one political party.

That does not mean everything was down trodden. People got their hopes raised that Africans working together through Ujamaa could get things moving. It was proposed that all laborers contribute one day a week toward community projects. There was nationalization of not just large organizations to bring them into black hands. There indeed was a great increase in literacy especially among women over colonial times.

Many mistakes were made. Collective farms concentrated on export cash crops instead of food. This left the country reliant on food aid. The administration left over from colonial times was now manned by incompetent locals who figured out how to enrich themselves by selling the permits required for everything.

To his credit, Julius Nyerere the first President, when he saw Ujamaa was not working, retired from government in 1985. At this point he was still somewhat revered for achieving independence and for not being personally corrupt. His ministers continued to govern without him with ever more corruption. Eventually most sources of foreign aid except old friend China cut off Tanzania. Zanzibar requested a vote on continued union with Tanzania in 1990 but was ignored. Aid started again after the first multiparty elections in 1995, but all parties proved corrupt. There is a new Bantu work called Wabenzi that refers to the corrupt new elite in Africa. The new oppressors. There is now some nostalgia for the optimism of Ujamaa. You hear the term popping up in African rap music and it is the fourth principle of the Kwanza holiday. Hope for the future is hard to sustain.

Well my drink is empty and I will smash my glass in frustration with the reality of Wabenzi. Let us hope it proves no more sustainable than Ujamaa. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019

Ngorongoro Crater is a large grassy plateau in the crater of a long dormant volcano. This provided a food rich home for thousands of animals. As long ago as 1921, laws have been passed to protect the animals habitat, but getting the Maasai tribe to listen is ever the challenge. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue celebrated the national parks of Tanzania. For Ngorongoro Crater, we get a fun view of a rhinoceros. The rhino has been particularly hard hit since Tanzanian independence with numbers down 95 percent to just a few dozen. The international community declared the area a world heritage site, but getting poor, desperate natives to value their heritage is not easy. Money is handed to the government for protection and none gets passed to the tribe who are the ones that actually have to leave the animals alone.

Todays stamp is issue A187, a twenty Shilling stamp issued allegedly by Tanzania on October 29th, 1993. The stamps of this issue were not actually available until late 1994. This was a seven stamp issue in various denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the full set of the seven stamps is worth $4 whether unused or cancelled to order. No value is given for the stamps individually but simple division gets you 57 cents each. There is also no value specified for an actual postal cancelation. Do any exist?

The grassy plateau of the crater is thought to have formed about 2 million years ago over a pool of dried lava. The crater floor is two thousand feet deep and covers an area of 100 square miles. Still the crater floor is 6000 feet above sea level. The name Ngorongoro comes from the Maasai and describes what a cowbell sounds like in the crater with the echo.

Tanzania was first in the area of German East Africa. The first European to visit the crater was Austrian explorer and cartographer Oscar Baumann. Baumann had had a rough time in Tanzania where he was exploring his theory of the source of the Nile River. Baumann and his assistant were taken by Arab traders that were unhappy that the Sultan of Zanzibar had sold the area to Germany. They were beaten, robbed and even stripped and held till Austria Hungary paid a ransom. Despite the setback, Bauman continued to explore the area until Austria Hungary named him consul to Zanzibar. The Zanzibar of the day was quite an unhealthy place to live and Baumann died a few years later of a bacterial infection at only 35.

With the natives being nomadic, it was two German brothers, Adolf and Friedrich, that first set up a farm in the crater in 1898. They hosted hunting parties and tried unsuccessfully to drive the herd of wildebeests out of the crater. The wildebeest is the most common animal in the crater. In 1921 all hunting was banned in the crater except on the former German farm.

The next challenge came in 1951 when the then British colonials set aside the Serengeti Wildlife Park. This meant moving the Maasai nomads out and them going in large numbers to the crater. In 1959 Britain tried to limit the damage being done to the crater  by also making  Ngorongoro crater a national park. Soon enough Tanganyika was independent and in 1979 it was the UN coming in to try to save a few of the animals by declaring it a world heritage site. The area is considered by them to be endangered by human intrusion.

Well my drink is empty and hears hoping the UN is successful in saving the wildlife of the Ngorongoro Crater. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

When stamp designers working for Tanzania decided to honor the UN’s International Peace Year in 1985 with a stamp issue, they had a problem. Inexplicably, Tanzanian President for life Nyerere had somehow been denied a reputable award for peace. Doomsday cult Beyond War had given him their award. So why not just jazz that award ceremony up with some UN emblems and call it good. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist,

This stamp has some well done visual distortions. They do list the reward as Beyond War but then put a squished down and blacked out UN emblem next to it. President for life Nyerere is dressed more like Mao than an African leader but his look is definitely third world rising. The presenter displaying both European pomposity and fake deference that is very 80s UN. How could the less informed philatelist come away not thinking the UN gave this warmonger a peace award.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a 1.5 Shilling stamp issued by Tanzania on December 22, 1986. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the UN declared International Peace Year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents whether used or unused.

The Beyond War movement started in Silicon Valley in California in the early 1980s. It was inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein, “With the unleashed power of the atom, everything has changed, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” The movement believed that war was obsolete and the people of the world are one, and life on Earth was at a crossroads. Followers would host interest evenings where an audience heard a highly detailed description of a nuclear bomb blast would be like for a major city. They then were asked to close there eyes and listen while 10,000 BBs were loaded into a metal bucket. Each BB represented one of the 10,000 nuclear bombs in the world at the time. At it’s height the movement had 24,000 followers worldwide. They handed out their peace award between 1983 and 1991.

President Nyerere was perhaps not a great recipient of a peace prize. In 1964 after independence, Tanganyika supported an African insurrection in Zanzibar that lead to the fall of the Arab Sultan and the ethnic cleansing of long tern Arab and East Indian residents, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/. Whites on Zanzibar were left alone so not to attract a British military response. In 1979, Tanzania invaded Uganda with the goal of toppling President Amin. Upon taking the border town of Mutukula, the town was leveled and many civilians were killed. The last sounds they heard were not the sounds of BBs.

After the end of the cold war the Beyond War organization renamed itself Global Community and started taking more interest in the doomsday  prospects of climate change. Membership dropped dramatically. After the USA invasion of Iraq some former members of Beyond War tried to get the band back together. They were by then retired and had traveled up the Oregon trail to Portland and Eugene in Oregon. They opposed the War on Terror and for old times sake they thought that the USA and Russia should further cut their stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Nyerere never got a proper peace prize. After his death, his fans have lobbied for the Catholic Church to declare Nyerere a Saint. So far the Church has not done that.

Well my drink is empty and I am thinking about the early Silicon Valley incarnation of Beyond War. Their early principles included being non political and nonsectarian. Yet their policy goals that their members probably thought were came at scientifically were very political. No wonder the group tried to recast itself about climate change. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.