By Goran Hyden
February 14, 2008Originally published in the Gainesville Sun
President Bush is on his way to Africa this week. One of his destinations is Tanzania. He will be the first American president to ever visit the country.
Unlike its northern neighbor Kenya, Tanzania is relatively little known in the U.S. although it is the location of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain on the African continent, Serengeti, the richest endowed wildlife reserve in the world, and – for all Valentine lovers – the exquisite Tanzanite gemstone.
There are reasons why no U.S. president has visited Tanzania and why the country remains little known to Americans. For a long time, Tanzania was devoted to building a socialist state – an experiment that collapsed in the 1980s leaving the country to rebuild its economy along market economy lines.
There was no love lost between the United States and Tanzania during those socialist years, although, paradoxically, according to a study of foreign aid to Tanzania, Republican presidents – Nixon, Ford and Reagan – gave more money for its development than their Democratic counterparts Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter did.
Today socialism is history in Tanzania. President Bush will visit a country that is an African economic success story. Its growth rate in recent years has averaged over 6 percent. Its mineral and natural gas resources are drawing in foreign investors. Its large tracts of unused land are being developed for agriculture and cattle ranching. Its beautiful beaches on the islands of Zanzibar as well as the mainland are attracting increasing numbers of tourists.
Some of these developments may be met with mixed feelings by ordinary Tanzanians but there is little doubt that Tanzania is now on the move.
Rapid changes like those taking place in Tanzania now have caused social and political upheavals in other African countries. No one can rule those out even in Tanzania. Yet, it has a record of political stability that none of its neighbors, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo or Mozambique can match. It is a true haven of peace in Africa living up to the name of its largest city. Dar es Salaam means exactly that.
Governments in Africa have been difficult to hold accountable. Despite corruption and misrule they have stayed on, a shortcoming that afflicts these countries as they try to democratize. President Bush will come to Tanzania just a few days after it struck a political first in Africa.
Its Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, was forced to resign after parliamentarians in his own party revealed his involvement in a scandal involving misappropriation of government funds. President Jakaya Kikwete immediately dissolved the cabinet and has just appointed a fresh one with a new Prime Minister, Peter Mizengo Pinda.
This change of government is all the more remarkable as Lowassa was a very close ally of the president. Kikwete’s decision to let him go is an indication that he is ready to tackle the issue of corruption that has eluded so many of his fellow African heads of state. It raises eyebrows among investors and foreign donors alike. It augurs well for Tanzania.
The country’s political stability is not a coincidence. Ever since independence, the ruling party – Chama cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party) – has been careful in choosing presidents who come from small and insignificant ethnic groups rather than from the larger and more prosperous ones. This has spared the country from the tensions that have afflicted Kenya and Uganda where the largest ethnic group has tried to rule the country and ignored the interest of other groups.
Tanzania was for a long time the darling of European donors. Ever since its socialist days, China has also been an important investor and donor.
In the past two years, Tanzania has gone out of its way to lure Americans to take an interest in the country. President Kikwete has visited the U.S. three times and not only attended the odd meeting at the United Nations as his predecessors did. Kikwete has been as interested in Washington as in New York.
President Bush will get a warm welcome in Dar es Salaam when he arrives this week. He will see for himself an African country that is a genuine haven of peace; one that has turned its economy around and is now a showcase of what other African countries should aim for.
Goran Hyden is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. He can be reached at ghyden@polisci.ufl.edu