Out of Africa with hope

Like all other politicians, I have moments when I wonder why I do it. Other occasions bring back the exhilaration of politics with great force. Then there are the occasions, like my work in Tanzania and Zanzibar at the beginning of this month, which somehow blend both feelings.

Tanzanians went to the polls on October 31 to elect a President and the National Assembly. Zanzibar, which last July held a referendum that mandated a power-sharing agreement with Tanzania, had separate elections for its President and the House of Representatives. I was selected to join a European Parliament delegation of election observers.

These elections had their share of tedium. I do not have in mind so much that I had to wake up at 5 a.m. to be present when polls opened at 7 a.m. (although I have not quite put that memory away, yet). It is rather the round of meetings with officials, candidates and members of the electoral committees. They were usually cordial but uninteresting.

Whether the elections would be the same was unclear. Some ruling party candidates were confident of another overwhelming victory. The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) had, after all, won the only three elections in Tanzania’s post-independence (1964) history. In 2005, the opposition was left with only a fraction of the seats.

However, the body language of some candidates said something else. The word was out that this time the opposition Chadema candidate, Willibrod Slaa, could give President Jakaya Kinwite a run for his money.

My interest in Tanzania and Zanzibar stemmed from other reasons too.

During my years as a student, Tanzania was sometimes hailed as a beacon of African socialism. Its President, Julius Nyerere, was a Christian socialist who wanted to build a country that rejected both capitalism and the Soviet alternative. He wanted to build a modern country with a modern economy around a traditional sense of African solidarity.

What he actually did, despite all good intentions, was run the economy into the ground. Tanzania today is an economy with recent growth rates in the five per cent region. Even so, because of the low average income it still falls within the 10 per cent of the poorest countries and average life expectancy is 52 years. Its exports are 80 per cent agricultural but tourism, mining and communications also contribute to the economy. However, it is still largely dependent on foreign aid.

The nature of the aid is itself subject to much discussion. A substantial proportion goes directly into the Budget (making up a third of it) rather than into projects. Some say this widens considerably the scope for corruption, accusations of which are rife in Tanzanian politics. It is indeed a country of extremes. Of great opulence and poverty. But the capital, Dar Es Salaam, is also vibrant with bumper to bumper traffic, enticing (and not so enticing) fish stalls and industrious people all striving to earn something – setting up a trading stall on pavements, pushing or pulling carts with merchandise.

Culturally and ethnically the people are mixed. One can see Asians, Africans and an occasional Masai warrior in a striking red cloak and round earrings purchasing some necessities not available at the Masai Mara. Zanzibar is similarly vibrant.

It was once the seat of an extensive empire. Oman’s rulers, which had largely controlled the coastal areas from the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa extending to Tanzania, set up Zanzibar as their centre of power. They built a “stone city”.

This is the most interesting part of the urban area. It is typical of a medina with arabesque houses noted for their fine sculptured solid wooden doors. Traders from the Indian Peninsula together with indigenous people all left their mark on the stone city; the Arab houses, square the top of the carved wooden doors while the Indian ones are semi-circular.

Found in narrow roads, alleyways and streets no wider than five or six feet, the buildings were either dilapidated, housing numerous families, or magnificently restored. The stone city is a living city with shops interspersed, small and cramped. Open spaces suddenly emerge where men congregate to drink coffee, play domino or a traditional game with copper semicircles and pebble-like stones. In one square we came across something which turned out to be a political meeting.

Although Zanzibar was in time colonised by the Portuguese and the hollow structure of a stone fort still bears witness to this episode in Zanzibar’s history, over 90 per cent of the population are Muslims. In Zanzibar, notwithstanding the burqas and veiled women in colourful headscarves over black dresses, there is a welcoming environment.

The spectacle of communities and peoples somehow jostling together in a single society is difficult to capture. I find it difficult to dissociate it from my memorable experience of the 40-minute flight between Tanzania and Zanzibar. Flying over the sea one travels over innumerable reefs and lagoons. The waters change colour, the most astounding being the turquoise shallows.

So, while the election result tediously returned the ruling CCM to power in both countries (despite contrary indications up to the moment when I was departing) and although the Tanzanian opposition candidate has not accepted the result, my memory of both countries is also filtered by an exhilarated feeling. A hope that some way can be found to build a society that respects the historical richness and diversity of the peoples that make it up and which also shares that wealth.

Dr Attard Montalto is a Labour member of the European Parliament.