Politics in Tanzania

A few thoughts about politics in Tanzania

Bush in the Bush?

President Bush came to Tanzania last week. And although we may be in the relative isolation of Songea, most Tanzanians that we talked to knew that Bush was in country, and knew exactly what he was doing.

For those of you in America who are wondering what our President was doing over here, I’ll tell you. He was donating $600 million to build a road that goes the entire way across the country, from Mtwara, through Songea, to Mbamba Bay (where we got engaged!). That journey would currently take about three days in the dry season, and up to a week in the rainy season (see picture for example of roads in rainy season). With this new, paved road, it might take only 8 hours. But what are we, the American taxpayers, doing funding this road? Does it sound to you like a waste of our money? Not to worry, there’s a new uranium mine west of Songea, so having the road will allow the US better access to the uranium, which will in turn help nuclear energy in the US. More importantly, someday you too will be able to visit Mbamba bay.

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2008 US Presidential Primaries, Africa style

We have been surprised at how aware Tanzanians are of our our Presidential primaries. The results are always broadcast in Swahili on the local radio stations, and people routinely stop us to talk about the race. The questions and comments that we get illustrate how Tanzanians perceive Americans, American politics, and the democratic system in general. Here are three our favorites:

“Do you really think that America would elect a woman?”

“You like Obama? You think he could win? But he’s African! Americans would never elect an African.”

“Maybe Bush can just change the constitution and remain in power?”

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Tanzanian Politics… Just Outside the Market

Since Tanzanians seem to be so well versed in the details of American politics, I thought I’d help some of you Americans learn about Tanzanian politics.

Tanzania has been independent since the early 1960’s, but only had legal multi party elections for the last decade. The first President, Julius Nyerere, was famously socialist and tried to implement some policies that did not work very well for the Tanzanian economy or for its political system. It also took him quite a long time to leave office (in fact, just the other day we met a man who said that he was involved in a coup attempt in the 1980’s, and who swore that the attempted coup was the only reason the president actually did leave office). But he (Nyerere) is loved, mostly because he successfully unified the country after independence. His party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, or Party of the Revolution) is still dominant, and in the most recent elections its candidate for President, Jakaya Kikwete, won with about 80% of the vote.

Nevertheless, multi party politics have become more than just a novelty here, as evidenced by the rally (see picture) for a non CCM political party that occurred outside of our market, blocking my attempt to buy bananas.