(08/08/2008) Andreas Dittmann, Professor for Geography at the Justus-Liebig-University at Giessen, handed out to the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) six large boxes with books worth 10,000 euros.
These books are dedicated to the Sebastian Kolowa University College in Magamba, Tanzania. The United Evangelical Mission supports this college financially and by counselling, for instance by establishing a library since its foundation in October last year. The Sekuco, as the college’s name is abbreviated, is part of the Tumaini-University of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
The books come from the private library of a professor emeritus of Geography. Technical literature in English for Geography, Ecological studies, Ecotourism and Natural Resources will soon fill the shelves of the Sekuco library. Also a collection of maps on climate issues and Africa changes hands. However, Professor Dittman points out that this is not the first donation of books. Already in March last year he had delivered twelve boxes with English professional literature to the United Evangelical Mission.
The initiator of the partnership between the two colleges is Sönke Wanzek, says Prof. Dittmann. At that time Wanzek had taken lectures in Geography in Bonn held by Dittmann and had gone into raptures over how interesting his one year’s stay in Lushoto, Tanzania, had been in the framework of the volunteers programme of the UEM. Wanzek had worked there as a teacher in the North Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
First contacts between the two universities were established in October 2006. At that time Dittmann, who was still a lecturer at the Faculty of Geography of the Bonn University, and Dr. Anneth Munga, Dean of the Sebastion Kolowa University College, met in Bonn in order to talk about concrete possibilities of a cooperation between both universities.
Besides the exchange of lecturers and training as part of the partnership of the two universites, Dittmann mentions two other focuses of the future cooperation. »Since at the Giessen University we are giving lectures almost exclusively in German, the Faculty of Geography offers a three terms study course in English language for gaining the Master of Science ›Transition Studies‹, together with the German Centre for international development research and ecology (ZEU)” Prof. Dr. Andreas Dittmann reports. As the third item of the cooperation he mentions the exchange of students of Geography for studies and research. »The students of Geography in Giessen have to participate in a compulsory excursion. The old Ujamaa Forest next to the Sekuco in the Usambara Mountains is especially attractive for excursions «, the Professor says. “This forest can be divided into three different zones: one with the focus on agriculture, another one where hunter-gatherers had lived, and a third region, which is still untouched. There the students can do wonderful geographic studies on site”, Dittmann goes into raptures. In 2010 the study course Geography/Eco Tourism shall be offered at the Sekuco.
The University is called after Sebastian Kolowa, the former Bishop of the North Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, who died in 1992.
The specialty of this university training in the Usambara Mountains is on the one hand the college being the first one in Tanzania where the course of Special Education is offered. On the other hand, students of all faculties at this university have to take a course, which makes them get used to the situation of handicapped people in their own society. Thus, the idea of diaconia shall soak the whole Tanzanian society.
Translation: Katja Romanek
