As if gold weren’t bad enough, now they have found oil

Ever since press reports indicated several years ago that commercial deposits of petroleum had been confirmed in Zanzibar off the shores of Pemba and surrounding areas, things have never been the same.

Before you could say “Petroleum-Ho!,” the Union government of Tanzania and the government of Zanzibar were already locking horns on the find.
If the two governments cannot see eye to eye on such a “small” matter as commercial oil reserves, what is the world coming to? Brother denying brother; brother betraying brother; brother killing brother just because of oil?

I am not aware of the latest developments on the issue, as such matters are state secrets in Tanzania, but, with hindsight and abundant evidence of the strife and general mayhem that goes on in mineral-rich African countries — Angola, Nigeria, Sudan, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, DRC, etc — one can understand why I am not excited by mineral finds in Tanzania.

The East African