Tanzania
Tanzania performs at the mid-range across all four categories of the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) framework. It is among the top 25 per cent of countries in Absence of Corruption. Over the past five years, Tanzania has experienced notable declines in the factors of Elected Government and Credible Elections. Economically, the country has maintained some of the fastest growth rates in Africa as a result of its strategic location as one of East Africa’s most important seaport hubs, abundant natural resources and political stability. Despite this, the economy remains chiefly agrarian; other important sectors include tourism, mining, construction, and manufacturing.
Prior to its independence in 1961, Tanganyika had been a colony first of Germany and then of the United Kingdom. Tanzania’s first president was Julius Nyerere, who had been the country’s independence leader, and governed the country from 1964 to 1985. Unlike many other African countries, ethnicity does not constitute a major cleavage in Tanzania. This is in part because of the success of a sustained policy of nation-building carried out under President Nyerere, but also the unifying influence of the Swahili language, and the country’s unusually high ethnic diversity, which has disincentivized ethnic-based resource competition (no single group constitutes more than 17.5 per cent of the population). Present-day Tanzania was formed in a 1964 union between the mainland of Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar, which remain to this day a semi-autonomous region with its own elected president.
While the country has retreated from Nyerere’s socialist policies, his influence looms large, and is evident in the significant powers that the president continues to wield. As a result, issues of democracy constitute the principal drivers of Tanzanian politics. While the country has always had a dominant-party system led by the Chama cha Mapinduzi party, recent (former) president John Magufuli further restricted opposition, including by banning political rallies, arresting opposition leaders, and enacting new media restrictions. In this context, Tanzanians express a strong appetite for democratic reform, including a two-term limit on presidents and a new constitution; some reforms are being adopted by the current government.
In 2021, former President John Magufuli passed away and was succeeded by his vice president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has since implemented a number of reforms liberalizing the country’s restrictive political system. GSoD data shows that Hassan’s ascendence to the presidency coincided with a significant improvement in Civil Society Participation.
Tanzania is divided in several matters of social identity. The LGBTQIA+ community is frequently the target of violence and discrimination, and Tanzanians have been arrested for being gay under the country’s colonial-era sodomy law. The country has the largest population of people with albinism in the world, and this population regularly faces kidnapping and murder. Rates of gender-based violence are very high, with 40 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 having experienced physical violence. Tanzania’s pastoralist Maasai community has been subjected to severe human rights abuses during repeated forced evictions from their ancestral grazing lands in the north of the country. In 2022, members of the community were reported to have been arbitrarily arrested, shot, beaten and raped by members of the security forces.
In the future, it will be important to watch the development of reforms, particularly a key constitutional and electoral reform prior to the 2025 general election. Improvements in Free Political Parties and Freedom of the Press may occur, as the government has recently moved to lift the ban on political rallies and to liberalize the country’s media laws. However, while key changes have been made, it is important to note that strong autocratic tendencies remain in play.
Monthly Event Reports
January 2024 | First political protest in years held peacefully
The first significant opposition protest in many years took place in Dar es Salaam on 24 January. In January 2023, President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced the termination of a ban on most political rallies that had been imposed by former president John Magufuli in 2016, but the government continued to repress protests, most notably in June 2023. In the event on 24 January, thousands of supporters of the opposition Party for Democracy and Progress (Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo, CHADEMA) peacefully rallied to call for reforms to the electoral laws and constitution that would decrease the power of the president, particularly relating to the independence of the electoral management body (EMB).
August 2023 | Prominent critics of government port deal arrested
In August, police arrested three prominent critics of a controversial deal struck by the Tanzanian government, under which the country’s ports are to be run by an Emirati company. Willibrod Slaa, a former parliamentarian and ambassador, Boniface Mwabukusi, a lawyer, and Mdube Nyagali, a political activist, were arrested between 12 and 13 August having publicly criticised the deal. According to their lawyers, the three face charges of treason, which carries the death sentence, although no official information about the specific charges has been released. The Tanzanian government stated that their arrest had nothing to do with their criticism of the port deal, but rather calls, it alleges they made, for the violent overthrow of the government. However, commentators say the arrests are part of a crackdown on the deal’s critics, with Human Rights Watch reporting that between June and August 2023 at least 22 critics (including protesters) were arbitrarily detained or threatened by authorities.
January 2023 | President Hassan lifts six-year ban on political rallies
On 3 January, President Samia Suluhu Hassan continued her incremental reform of Tanzania’s restrictive political system by lifting a ban on political rallies. The policy had been imposed in 2016 by Hassan’s predecessor, the late John Magufuli. The ban had resulted in frequent arrests of opposition politicians and clashes between their supporters and the police. By the end of January, Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chadema, had held its first rally in six years and welcomed back from effective exile one of its most prominent leaders, Tundu Lissu, whose return to the country was prompted by the lifting of the ban.
September 2022 | Government threatens arrests over sharing of pro-LGBTQIA+ content online
Tanzania’s Minister for Information, Communication and Technology, Nape Nnauye, warned against the online distribution of pro-LGBTQIA+ material, which is illegal under Tanzania’s highly restrictive anti-pornography legislation. According to Nnauye, it is an issue the government is now taking seriously and called upon administrators of social media groups, such as those on WhatsApp, to remove offending content or risk arrest. The warning comes in response to what the Minister described as the use of cartoon-related content to promote same-sex relationships amongst children. Consensual same-sex conduct between adults is illegal in Tanzania and LGBTQIA+ people face discrimination.
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