Thinking Citizen Blog — Tanzania
Thinking Citizen Blog — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’ s Topic: Africa XI: Tanzania — what should every thinking citizen know?
Perhaps most famous for Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Ngorongoro crater, and the Serengegeti National Park, Tanzania is on Africa’s east coast, south of the equator, in the “Great Lakes” region of Africa. It is a very poor country with an astronomical population growth rate. Tanzania merged with the island nation of Zanzibar in 1964. A German colony before World War I, Tanzania became a British colony afterwards and gained its independence in 1961. Its founding father was Julius Nyerere. It is a one-party state ruled by the Cha Cha Mapinduzi Party. During the 19th century, the island of Zanzibar was the center of a booming slave trade. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
GEOGRAPHY, DEMOGRAPHICS, ECONOMICS
1. Geography: Kenya, Uganda, and Lake Victoria to the north. Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (and Lake Tanganyika) to the West. Zambia, Malawi, Lake Malawi, and Mozambique to the south.
2. Demographics: 56 MM up from 7.9 MM in 1950!!!! The fertility rate is 5.4 children per woman. Concentrated on the coast and northern regions. Most of the country is sparsely populated. 70% rural. 61% Christian, 35% Muslim. Swahili is the national language but only 10% of pop speak it as a first language. 90% as a second language.
3. Economics: 68% of population live below poverty level of $1.25 per day. 32% are malnourished. GDP per capita (nominal) $1172 versus $6193 for South Africa, $2645 for Nigeria, $2151 for Kenya, $768 for Uganda, and $246 for South Sudan.
THE SLAVE TRADE IN ZANZIBAR AND THE ZANZIBAR REVOLUTION OF 1964
1. Under the rule of the Omani Arabs in the 19th century, 65–90% of the Arab-Swahili population of Zanzibar were enslaved. “One of the most infamous slave traders on the East African coast was Tippu Tip, who was the grandson of an enslaved African. The Nyamwezi slave traders operated under the leadership of Msiri (above) and Mirambo…. Figures record the exporting of 718,000 slaves from the Swahili coast during the 19th century, and the retention of 769,000 on the coast. In the 1890s, slavery was abolished.”
2. In 1964, African revolutionaries overthrew the Sultan of Zanzibar and merged with Tanzania.
3. During the massacres that followed the flight of the Sultan, whites were spared but Arabs and south Asians were slaughtered with knives, spears, and machetes. “The killing of Arabs was genocide, pure and simple” wrote American diplomat Don Petterson.
NB: Zanzibar Independence Day is celebrated every year on January 12th and is a national holiday in Tanzania.
JULIUS NYERERE (1922–1999): FOUNDING FATHER OF TANZANIA
1. The son of a Zanaki chief, Nyerere attended Edinburgh University in Scotland, and returned to Tanzania as a teacher. His non-violent anti-colonial campaign was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.
2. After coming to power he pursued a socialist policy of nationalization of industries and established close links to China. He has been condemned as his dictatorial one-party rule and ethnic suppression and praised for establishing order and stability.
3. In 1978, Nyerere led a Tanzanian invasion of Uganda and overthrew Idi Amin. Nyerere had had close ties to Milton Obote, whom Idi Amin had deposed. Today, the overthrow of Idi Amin is celebrated in Uganda as Liberation Day. (This pattern does not seem that dissimilar from the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire by Rwandan invaders led by Paul Kagame in 1996.)
NB: In a rare move by a one-party “dictator,” Nyerere stepped down to be succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who reversed his socialist policies.
This is the eleventh in a recent series of posts on African countries. Prior posts covered: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5/4), the Republic of the Congo (5/11), Cameroon (5/18), Chad (5/25), Niger (6/1), Burkina Faso (6/8), Mali (6/15), Mauritania (6/22), Senegal (6/29), and Kenya (7/6). In 2019 there were posts on South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Sudan, and Algeria.
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest or most important thing you learned in the last week, month, or year related to foreign policy. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in our life related to foreign policy.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is the key to depth of thought.
The prospect of imminent publication, like hanging and final exams, concentrates the mind. A useful life long habit.
