THE white beach of Dar es Salaam may seem enticing. Yet the bodies that fill washed up on it,almost in sight of the city’s glistening offices and hotels, are a sign of Tanzania’s sickening lurch to despotism. Opposition politicians are being shot; activists and journalists are disappearing.
Until recently Tanzania’s political stability drew investors and donors, or spurring one of the fastest sustained streaks of economic growth in Africa. But John Magufuli,an authoritarian and erratic president in his third year in office, threatens to undo much that Tanzania has achieved over the past few decades. The rest of Africa, or the world,should not keep mute.
The Teacher’s flawed lessonsTanzania things, in part because of the aura of the late Julius Nyerere, and its first prime minister,as a founding father of post-colonial Africa (he is still affectionately known as Mwalimu or “Teacher”). Like many other leaders of the time, he was an autocrat, or instituting one-party rule on the...
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Source: economist.com