Coastal Tanzania, and notably the city of Kilwa, was to play a prominent role in the trade in gold, ivory and slaves from the African interior while Zanzibar, which traces its history back for many centuries, was a major pre-colonial trading point. Set just south of the equator, the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro is 5,895 metres (19,650 feet) and Africa's highest point.

In 1885, as a result of the "scramble for Africa" by European colonial powers, mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika) was declared a German protectorate known as Deutsch-Ostafrika (German East Africa).

The Maji Maji (Swahili for "water water") rebellion of 1905/6, involving peasants in the southern part of the country, challenged German rule. The uprising, caused by the Germans forcing smallholder farmers in the south of the country to grow cotton, was brutally put down by the Germans with as many as 300,000 people estimated to have been killed.

Defeated in Europe in the First World War, Germany was forced to surrender the territory in 1919 to Britain as a protectorate under the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations (UN). In 1947, Tanganyika was placed under the UN Trusteeship Council. It was still administered by Britain.

The Tanganyika African Association (TAA) was formed in 1929 as the country's earliest organised political protest movement. It sought greater African participation in government where Africans were discriminated against in favor of whites for appointments to senior posts. In 1953, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the son of a minor chief from the northwest of the country and a secondary school teacher, was elected its leader. In July 1954, he became a founder and was elected as the first president of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) which replaced TAA.

In 1955, faced with the choice between teaching and politics, Nyerere chose the latter. TANU won Tanganyika's first general election in September 1958 which elected Nyerere as a Member of Parliament. He was unopposed in the 1960 elections after which he became Chief Minister. In the 1960 elections, TANU won 70 of the 71 seats in the National Assembly. The single seat the party did not win was won by a loyal TANU member who opposed the official candidate and who immediately joined the TANU ranks after his victory thereby making Tanganyika a de facto one party state under British colonial rule even before independence.

Self Government
Tanganyika became self-governing in May 1961 with Nyerere as Prime Minister. But six weeks after independence, Nyerere resigned as premier to work on bridging the potential gap between TANU and the elected government. He was succeeded by Rashidi Kawawa. A year later on Republic Day (9 December 1962), Nyerere became Tanganyika's first President with Kawawa as his deputy.

Nyerere shaped Tanzania and his legacy lives on well after his retirement in 1985 as President of the country and five years later as official leader of the ruling party. He united the country's more than 120 tribes who use the common national language, Swahili (the world's seventh most spoken language), thereby overcoming potential ethnic and religious divides. Beyond that, the country has enjoyed internal peace since independence while the union with Zanzibar and Tanzania's unrivaled support for liberation movements fighting to rid southern Africa of minority rule, remain Nyerere's and Tanzania's most enduring legacies.

Ali Hassan Mwinyi was elected as Tanzania's second post-independence President and Benjamin William Mkapa as its third. Under the constitution, the Presidents of Tanzania and Zanzibar are now limited to two five-year terms in office. A further constraint on incumbents is that Presidents must choose their Cabinet from elected Members of Parliament and they can no longer nominate outsiders to fill these jobs.

Zanzibar
Zanzibar was declared a British Protectorate in 1890 as part of the European "scramble for Africa". The British politically and economically favoured the Arab minority (the second largest ruling minority in Africa after South Africa's whites) placing the Sultan and his Arab government in power at independence.

Thirty-three days later the Zanzibar Revolution occurred. This brought to power the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) led by Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume. In the pre-independence elections the ASP had won 54.21 per cent of the popular vote. But, as a result of constitutional gerrymandering by the British and Arabs, it won only 13 of the 31 elected seats.

The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar followed three-and-a-half months later on 26 April 1964 with the unified sovereign states now known as Tanzania. Under the articles of union both countries retained a degree of sovereignty with their own Presidents, governments and responsibility for specified domestic affairs. Other areas such as foreign affairs, defense and security became union subjects. Nyerere was elected as President of Tanzania, Karume the First Vice-President and Kawawa the Second Vice-President. In February 1977, TANU and the ASP merged to form the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party) with Nyerere as its chairman.

Ujamaa
In January 1967, Tanzania adopted a policy of Ujamaa (self-reliance) under the Arusha Declaration. This was widely known as a brand of "African socialism" which endeavored to eliminate poverty, ignorance and disease through community participation. The declaration also enshrined party supremacy over parliament. However, the shift to a multi-party constitution on 1 July 1992 automatically restored the British-based supremacy of parliament.

There is no constitutional restriction on Parliament's authority. The role of the courts is to enforce the laws Parliament passes and all other law-making bodies in the country such as councils exercise their powers to make by-laws, through the authorisation of Parliament.

Recent Political Developments
The growth of multi-party democracy in Tanzania, in common with other countries in the region, is inhibited by the weakness of the opposition. Power struggles and bickering beset opposition politics further undermining their weak power base and they rarely offer new faces or policies to arrest Tanzania's economic and social malaise and inequalities.

In the rural areas, where 85 per cent of the population lives, the CCM structures remain virtually unchallenged even though only the more strident voices of the urban minority are heard by the media and donors. Election results are routinely challenged in the courts as being "rigged" by government and there is an unwillingness to accept defeat which is an inherent component of any democracy.

Tanzania's constitutional debate, and those in other countries throughout the region, offers a classic insight into opposition politics. Few (government or opposition supporters) question the need for constitutional amendments which were mooted well before opposition politics were legalised. But the underlying assumption remains that anything advocated by government is suspect and should be automatically challenged.

On 24 April 1998, the government proposed a "White Paper" which would allow everyone to express their views on possible constitutional change. Automatically this proposal was rejected by the opposition. With the next Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled for the year 2000, the government may have little choice but to proceed alone thereby leading to further domestic opposition and external protest.

Tanzania today is a multi-party democracy with 13 legally registered political parties, five of whom have places in Parliament. The CCM remains the dominant political force winning 186 of the 232 (182 mainland, 50 Zanzibar) elected Parliamentary seats in the 1995 elections. A further 24 were won by Civil United Front (CUF), 16 by the National Conference for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi), and three each by the Party for Democratic Development (CHADEMA) and the United Democratic Party (UDP). The other parties did not win any seats. A further 36 seats in Parliament are nominated, one reserved for the disabled and the remainder for women, thereby ensuring they are better represented in the nation's legislative body.

There were three major elements in the 1995 elections, one of which continues to haunt Tanzania. All candidates ran on an anti-corruption ticket and this issue dominated questions during campaign rallies, reflecting the public's disquiet. Secondly, a regional voting bloc emerged. The WaChagga from Kilimanjaro voting overwhelmingly for their home candidate in the Presidential election and for the NCCR party. Regional politics, common elsewhere in southern Africa, were a new experience for Tanzanians, making the elections in the year 2000 an important test as to the nation's cohesiveness.

There are fears that the longer term issue involving Zanzibar and the ongoing political stalemate on the islands could have repercussions on the mainland. CUF continues to dispute the outcome of the 1995 elections in which the CCM Presidential candidate, Salmin Amour, was awarded a narrow majority over his rival. This result, CUF insists, was rigged, a charge denied by the CCM. Several major western aid donors are perceived as supporting CUF while the Commonwealth and several other bodies have sought a solution to the impasse which has resulted in elected CUF members boycotting sessions of the island's House of Representatives. Theoretically, President Amour is serving his final term but there are pressures on Zanzibar for him to abrogate the constitution and stand again. A decision to do so would threaten the Union.

Governance
After the 1967 Arusha Declaration, Tanzania saw the pre-eminence of the ruling party in all matters relating to governance as well as in running the socio-economic affairs and the political direction of the nation. Now the constitution decentralises that role establishing local government authorities and prescribing their roles and functions. Tanzania is trying to attain good governance through instilling managerial and organisational efficiency, accountability, legitimacy, responsiveness to public aspirations and needs, transparency and pluralism. There are, however, a number of structural and managerial distortions (such as the civil service) which have been recognised as deep-rooted causes of inefficiencies in the area of governance. Under President Mkapa, the country is committed to continuing the trend towards more openness, greater freedom of choice for the individual and the emergence of institutions of governance committed to the needs and aspirations of Tanzanians.

Gender
The government has been striving to promote decision-making that benefits all social groups. However, despite all the measures taken to bring about gender equality and equity, girls and women are still a disadvantaged group. Women lag behind in every sector, be it access to education and training, health, or to means of production such as land and credit as well as formal employment and participation in structures of power, including decision-making. Women participation in governance, politics and decision-making has, however, been increasing. Women MPs now constitute 15 per cent of all legislators, up from 11 per cent in 1985. Women in government form 9 per cent of the total. Thirty-six seats in Parliament are reserved for women and, while in some western circles such legislation attracts criticism, the decision is defended by Tanzanian leaders on the grounds that without such a system fewer women would have Parliamentary seats. Efforts to empower women in decision-making, politics, governance and socio-economic activities include enhancing women's legal capacity, women's economic empowerment as well as improvement of their access to education, training and employment. The National Women in Development Policy of 1992 provides for all social actors as far as gender and development are concerned.

Legal Status
The constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania provides equal rights for both men and women. However, there is still some legislation that tends to undermine the welfare of women, especially with regard to inheritance and access to means of production such as land. The government is reviewing these laws in a bid to improve the welfare of women. Moreover, in an attempt to protect women and children against widespread sexual offences, the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act came into force on 1 July 1998. Zanzibar is also introducing similar legislation.

In 1985, Tanzania introduced a Bill of Rights to guarantee the freedoms of all Tanzanians. In 1992, the Nyalali Commission had found 40 laws inconsistent with the rights inherent in the constitution. These laws were adjudged by the Nyalali Commission as "bad laws", some unconstitutional and other outdated. The Law Reform Commission has already reviewed 28 of the 40 laws. Now the Attorney-General must present proposed amendments to Parliament. The remaining 12 laws fall under Zanzibar's ministry responsible for Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Civil Society
Until 1982, the government was perceived as the nations provider. The global economic crisis of the 1980s was among other factors which forced the government to shed some of these social responsibilities as well as disengage from the direct running of socio-economic activities. This left room for the growth of the civil society as manifested by the proliferation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs), some of whom are trying to cultivate development from the grassroots.

Human Rights Commission
There are currently moves towards the formation of a Human Rights Commission in Tanzania. This follows a decision to that effect announced in the National Assembly during the 1996/97 and 1998/99 budget sessions by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Media
The Tanzanian government encourages the growth of a "responsible" press. In recent years private newspapers, magazines and television stations have mushroomed. The Media Council of Tanzania was registered on 22 May 1997 after being formed at a mass media general convention on 28 June 1995. This is an independent NGO established by journalists, publishers and media service-oriented organisations to foster and maintain freedom of the media.

Local Administration
For administrative purposes, the United Republic of Tanzania is divided into 25 regions (provinces) - 20 on mainland Tanzania and five on Zanzibar.

Regional Impact
Tanzania, given its economic and geographical realities, is caught on the horns of a dilemma in post-apartheid southern Africa and the factors which determine its direction are often misunderstood. As the northern most Southern African Development Community (SADC) state it is somewhat peripheral to the regional grouping it championed. Rather, its focus is closer to home: on the Great Lakes area (it provides sanctuary to 300,000 refugees from those areas of conflict) and the restoration of the defunct East African Community (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). Its political stability and prevailing peace, lack of internal ethnic tensions, and the respect in which it is held, offer important prospects for regional peace-making which can be tedious, time-consuming and fraught with potential misunderstanding. Its peaceful transition to multi-party democracy is an example for the region.

MEDIA SCAN

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