Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Zanzibar: A drug-fuelled paradise?

Crouching in small fishing boats and dugout canoes on the shore of Malindi, Stone Town's port are a number of young men injecting themselves with a cocktail of heroin and cocaine.

It is a scene at odds with Zanzibar's image of an exotic beach paradise for well-heeled tourists, but for a growing number of Zanzibaris this is the reality of life on an impoverished island off the coast of Tanzania.

The BBC reports.

Beer in Tanzania

There was a time in Tanzania when having a beer with friends meant standing in line for hours. And even then you weren't guaranteed a drink. Then the government began to remove decades-old state controls on the economy and privatize state-owned companies. Beer and other goods became more readily available and the government saved the $100 million it spent each year subsidizing state-owned companies.

Read more here.

Tanzanian coffee policy (article)

Stefano Ponte, "The Politics of Ownership: Tanzanian Coffee Policy in the Age of Liberal Reformism," African Affairs 103 (2004): 615-633.

Globalizing Coffee in NW Tanzania (Book)

Brad Weiss, Sacred Trees, Bitter Harvests: Globalizing Coffee in Northwest Tanzania (Westport, CT: Heinemann, 2003).

Smokers kick the habit, but tobacco firms buck the trend

The smoking bans that have been introduced in countless countries around the world would presumably bode ill for the global tobacco industry, yet shares in major cigarette companies have performed well over the past year, and some are trading near all-time highs. The Independent explains why.

Elephant Kinjia Coffee Stampedes into Starbucks

Business Wire reports (2 May 2005) that Starbucks Coffee Company has introduced Elephant Kinjia, an east African coffee as lucky to be here as it is remarkable in flavor. "Elephants don't intentionally trample coffee plants, but they don't really sidestep them either," laughs Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice president of Coffee. "The Blackburn Estate, from which we bought this extraordinary coffee, had to come up with a creative solution to make sure people, elephants and coffee can all thrive in the same geographical area."

The Blackburn Estate stands just outside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the western slopes of Mount Oldeani, an extinct volcano in northern Tanzania. Until recently, indigenous elephants regularly walked through the fertile coffee farm on their way to the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest unbroken caldera and an impressive game preserve. Their commute was a disaster for coffee plants. Instead of engaging in an ultimately futile attempt to re-route the elephants, the farmers created a wide, natural trail directly through the middle of the farm, hoping the elephants would choose the trail instead of continuing to trample the coffee plants.

The elephants began to use the "kinjia," or "pathway," almost immediately, and Starbucks sixth Black Apron Exclusives(TM) coffee was able to grow and flourish. Named for this new road, Elephant Kinjia is a coffee with medium to full body and flavor marked with wonderful black currant notes and a chocolaty softness in the finish.

Find the full story here.

Minister says Tanzania is growing GM tobacco

The Science and Development Network reports (22 April 2005) that Tanzania's agriculture minister has said that genetically modified (GM) tobacco is being grown in the country for research purposes. Yet, Tanzania's planned regulatory framework for GM crops has still to be debated by parliament. Find the full story here.

Mugabe snuffs Zimbabwe tobacco, fueling Zambia boom

ZWNews.com reports (17 March 2005) that Zimbabwe's neighbors are profiting from President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution program, which has ravaged the world's second-biggest tobacco export industry since 2000. More than 340 commercial farmers have relocated to Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania, creating jobs and boosting exports from some of the world's poorest countries. Find the full story here.

Narcotics Readily Available As Abuse Rises in Tanzania

The East African (Nairobi) reports (14 March 2005) that Tanzania is experiencing an increase in narcotics consumption, the United States warned last week. It attributed the rise to economic liberalisation and an upsurge in tourism, especially in Zanzibar. The new US report on the international narcotics trade implies that use of illegal drugs is growing more quickly in Tanzania than in Kenya or Uganda. Find the full story here.

Illicit Drugs Put Tanzania's Workforce At Risk

A paper by Anaclet Rwegayura, entitled "Illicit Drugs Put Tanzania's Workforce At Risk," for the Panafrican News Agency (20 December 2000), can be found here.