Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania over the weekend.

Tanzania offers training for Somalia’s civil services and security apparatus as Somalia’s president discussed border disputes with neighbors

Tanzania has offered to train Somalia’s civil service and security apparatus. This commitment was disclosed today, April 27, 2024, during the official state visit of Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Speaking during the joint press conference, President Samia Suluhu said the country supports Somalia in its process toward national building.

“As you know, the situation of our colleagues is not very good, so we have assured them of our support in building their capacity as a country to defend themselves,” said President Samia.

She added: “We have expressed our readiness to provide training in various fields, whether in the defense and security sector or other areas of civil services.”

This is not the first time Tanzania has offered capacity-building support for Somalia, in 2014 Tanzania agreed to train 1,000 Somalia’s soldiers following a request from Somalia and a discussion that started in 2007 as the country expressed its hesitancy to deploy its army to Somalia.

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Without organised citizenry, strong institutions, Tanzania’s democratic ambitions will remain far-fetched

I guess we all think we know that democracy is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. And we have all been led to believe that that means political parties and periodic elections, right? 

And yet we see time and time again that, yes, we the people elect others to represent us but after that are those representatives of the people and for the people? We have been taught to believe that elections, therefore, have the power to bring change but how often do they only bring the illusion of change? 

We might change some of the people driving our MaVee 8s (ours?) but has there been any real change for the people?

And I think this is because we have been cheated. Right from the so-called push for democratisation across Africa by our wafadhili and mafedhuli, we have been led to believe that the essence of democracy is multi-partyism, or, as the Malawians so rightly described it, matea-partyism. 

Because mateaparty on their own very rarely brings democracy. Indeed, they very rarely bring any real change either because, while political parties are important, they are not the greatest guarantee of democracy, as they can be so easily marginalised, as we saw in the last election, without an array of other key things in place which are equally important.

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Do I Have Children?

A key text among the reading in a course I took for Human Rights in 2017 had a catchy title, Are Women Human? It’s not an Academic Question.” At first, I thought it was a Socratic irony, only to feel disoriented by the time I finished reading it because it poked holes into my sense of femininity, womanhood and humanity.

Now, I know I am a human to some extent: born and raised in the city with university degrees, and I have had a job from which the government claimed taxes. Now, even my femininity and womanhood are questionable because these two notions are tied to motherhood.

I am in my mid-30s. In a pleasant and friendly Tanzanian context, the question slowly shifts from “Do you have children?” to “How many children do you have?” I would respond to total strangers on the bus, “Yes!” I don’t know how I came up with the number two, but my children are a boy and a girl.

To someone whom I am likely to continue meeting, I tend to say I do not yet have biological children. Many friendly people instantly remark, “Don’t worry; they will come when they come.” I wholeheartedly receive their blessing with an Amen! Then there are eyebrow movers who ask, “You don’t have children?” as if they have just found out I am surviving without a liver.

Read the full analysis here

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