Estonian Minister met with the Minister of Home Affairs of Tanzania
Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts met with Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, the Minister of Home Affairs of Tanzania on Wendesday. Economic relations and possible cooperation between the two countries were discussed at the meeting. Until now, Estonia has had only brief but good relations with Tanzania, a country with a population of 42 million. The areas of cooperation have been trade and tourism. The Minister of Tanzania saw, however, opportunities for developing the economic relations between the two countries also in several other areas. The Minister emphasised the richness of Tanzania in natural resources, above all the existence of natural gas reserves. Also possible assistance of Estonia in organising e-government in Tanzania was talked about at the meeting.
According to the Minister of Tanzania he had known until know the location and importance of Stockholm and Oslo but will now appreciate highly also Tallinn and Estonia.
Estonia as a EU Member State has participated also in the development of the EU-Africa Joint Strategy and found its place in cooperation in the IT area. Estonia as a country successful in information technology is looking for cooperation partners and is ready to participate in providing training in IT area and building up e-services and solutions in African countries, including in Tanzania.
Tanzania as well as several other African countries are only starting to build their e-government solutions. The experience of Estonia may be beneficial in that respect as we are recognised in the IT area and competitive both in quality and prices. We regard above all the cooperation process as one of our strengths, with the objective of training specialists of partner countries so that they would be able to maintain the developed solutions later and continue their further development, if necessary.
The relations between Estonia and Tanzania historically date back to the 19th century, however. An Estonian Johannes Hans Tiismann (1829–1886) lived for several months in Zanzibar in 1866 on his way to continental East Africa. Having got a permission from the Sultan’s government, J. H. Tiismann went to Rebe Village near Mombasa (currently in Kenya) where he worked as a missionary and learnt local languages (Kiswahili, Galla). Due to financial difficulties, enmity of muslims and health problems he was not able to stay for more than two years in the nyka area (1866–68). He wrote down his impressions of these years in his letters to homeland (published in Eesti Postimees) and in the book Aafrika õis (African Blossom) (1882).
Missionaries had an important role in stabilising Tanganyika which became a German colony in 1891. Also Evald Ovir (1873–1896) was among them. He started work with the Jagga tribe at the Majame Mission Station near Kilimanjaro. He was the first Estonian to learn the Kijagga (Jagga) language and he studied the grammar of the Kiswahili (Swahili) language. His travel diary in Estonian (1896) contained a lot of information on Eastern Africa. Also Aleksander Eisenschmidt later worked near Mount Kilimanjaro.
Karl Luckin worked as a missionary in Tanganyika at the beginning of the 20th century, first in the settlement area of Akambas, later that of Jaggas. At the same time, the Baltic German Ernst Martin Bruzzer (with Akambas) and Leonhard Blumer (with Masais in Arusha) worked in this region. L. Blumer wrote the first children’s primer in Masai in 1925. Letters of L. Blumer were published in Misjoni lendleht (Mission Leaflet) in Tallinn once a year. There were also publications on Kilimanjaro (1901) and Nyasaland (1902). In 1912, Minu tuttavaks saamine Wakamba rahvaga (My acquaintance with the Wakamba people) by Bruzzer was published. His work was continued by his son Wilhelm Blumer.
K. Nurk and E. Märks who had also hiked through Sahara in 1925–26 stayed near Arusha in Tanganyika for a longer period (working in a coffee plantation). During the period before World War II, Estonia imported coffee beans and sisal from Tanganyika and exported plywood products to that region.
