Tanzania: The vibe of being in a big country
Author: Mr Karoli Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate.
What you need to know:
In their impeccable manners, Tanzanians have achieved a measure of social stability allowing them to tackle more of their economic problems
It is very probable that our southern sleeping neighbour, the United Republic of Tanzania, may rise as a microcosm of the African dream that eluded its founding father Julius Kambarage Nyerere and his peers. Tanzania’s history, poverty, sparse resources and shaky finances are well-documented in all corners of the country. Boy, the Tanzanians took many photographs all over the country capturing many key moments and milestones. He had improbable wisdom, taking in Zanzibar as a special partner in 1964 and avoiding the political instability of an island nation just 15 minutes by air from the capital Dar es Salaam. India passed on this option to take in Sri Lanka, much bigger but with the same chain of political instability, rebel uprisings, political unrest, mismanagement that afflict them to this day.
Every morning, planeloads of Tanzanians board aircraft heading for different corners of the country. Air travel in Tanzania is remarkably cheap, an American innovation that has been implemented without losing the cargo convenience of rail transport. Tanzanians remarkably respond to questions about the train system, asking which “train”? There is standard gauge, normal gauge and the Tazara railway system. In the broadcasting services sector, Tanzania produces many more films than the rest of her neighbours combined. For tourism, they have a devoted channel, Safari Channel operated by the public service broadcaster, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation. Cable nerds know how effective BBC4 documentaries have promoted tourism in the United Kingdom or the legendary National Geographic and Discovery Channels. A minor detail, 70 percent of the movies are love and romance affair flicks, not very different from Nigeria but perhaps speaking of other abilities of the large population groups. The Wazalamu who inhabit the Dar es Salaam region, a huge metro area with more than 9 million people which CCM captured from the opposition in the 2020 elections, are majorly Muslim and polygamous.
Nyerere did a lot of social engineering in Tanzania, promoting de-tribalisation. Coming from a small tribe, he fit in the British format of preferring to the extent possible handing power to smaller communities over larger ones that gave them a lot of trouble in the dying days of colonial rule.
Of course recently unclassified papers in the British archives illustrate the revenge the British made on Muteesa II who died penniless in the United Kingdom in 1969 in exile in partial retribution for the troubles he caused the British in the 1950s. No longer king, he couldn’t even access members of the Royal Family. Nyerere made the large country, Tanganyika very mobile, civil servants, students were moved all over the country resulting in a very notable rate of intermarriages. Its only in the smaller communities where people speak local languages during business hours. Ujamaa socialist villages that were an idea of his Swedish advisors were an economic disaster but accomplished national unity.
Something else is remarkable in Tanzania, a sound road infrastructure. Casual visitors in Tanzania may fail to hit a single pothole during their entire stay. Mainland Tanzania only got television broadcasting in 1999. This seeming aspect of backwardness was part of Tanzania’s uniform response to all big questions, we are not ready. It also masked a very effective radio broadcasting framework. Where his peers, Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Kamuzu Banda and others occasionally received favours from the South Africans, Nyerere was steadfast in his support of African liberation movements. Even the Ugandan exiles whose war almost bankrupted Tanzania and led to his early demise from power in 1985 was a Nyerere project. The comfort of Dar es Salaam International Airport is similar to any other international aerodrome. Only 20 years ago a small terminal building was all that marked bulk transport.
In their impeccable manners, Tanzanians have achieved a measure of social stability allowing them to tackle more of their economic problems. Magufuli simply heated up the engine that was in the making transferring wealth to a bigger middle class. Of course his clash of the wills posed a threat to a consensus based political system, hence like Nyerere his premature political demise.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
