I recently had the chance to watch a powerful and moving documentary titled Everything Must Fall, as part of our regular Friday Youth Political Programme organised by ACT Wazalendo. The film documents the rise and intensity of the Fees Must Fall movement in South Africa — a student-led protest that shook the foundations of the post-apartheid education system and exposed the deep contradictions of neoliberalism in African universities.

The historical context of Everything Must Fall is dated in 2015-2016, which began as protests against fee increases in universities, especially the Witwatersrand University, the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and spread to others.

Then, the movement soon evolved into a national movement that challenged the entire neoliberal structure of higher education. Students raised deep political and structural demands: free, quality, decolonized education for all; end to outsourcing of university workers — who faced exploitation; transformation of university curricula to reflect African knowledge and dignity; black dignity, gender justice, and queer liberation on campuses and Accountability from university and state authorities.

Instead of listening, university managements and the state responded with repression. Police deployed on campuses with stun grenades, rubber bullets, and live ammunition; student leaders were arrested and criminalised, and media campaigns painted protesters as violent.

As I sat there watching, I could not help but reflect on the many ways in which their struggle mirrors our own realities here in Tanzania. Though separated by geography, the students’ cries in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria are echoed every semester by students in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Morogoro, and beyond.

Education: right or commodity?

In theory, education is a right. In practice, it has become a privilege. Everything Must Fall exposed this contradiction in South Africa, where decades after the end of apartheid, Black working-class students still face systemic exclusion — not by racist laws this time, but by the economics of tuition fees, loans, and an alienating university culture.

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Tanzania, too, has fallen into the trap of treating education as a commodity. Through cost-sharing policies introduced in the 1990s and the burden of student loans managed by the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HELSB), the doors of higher education are no longer open to all, only to those who can afford it or navigate the bureaucratic lottery of loan allocations. Students from poor and rural backgrounds, like myself, know this pain all too well.

Instead of being a tool for liberation, education is now another form of debt, desperation, and exclusion. This is not an accident — it is the result of neoliberal policies that have eroded the idea of public education as a universal right.

Collective action

What inspired me most in the documentary was the unity and courage of South African students. They refused to accept the logic that education must be paid for, that suffering is normal, and that silence is the price of a bachelor’s degree. They organised across universities, across race, party politics and class lines, and even built solidarity with university workers who were exploited through outsourcing.

They taught us that resistance is not only possible — it is necessary. And they reminded us of something we often forget– students are not just recipients of education; we are political actors, with the power to challenge unjust systems and demand a better future.

Here at the University of Dar es Salaam and across other Tanzanian universities, we have seen glimpses of this spirit. There have been protests, petitions, and calls for reforms. But what we often lack is ideological clarity and sustained organisation — the very things that gave Fees Must Fall its strength.

One of the most radical and urgent demands raised in Everything Must Fall was the call for a decolonised education. This is not just about changing the curriculum — it’s about changing the power dynamics within the university itself. It’s about questioning whose knowledge is valued, whose voices are heard, and what purpose education serves in our societies.

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In Tanzania, we cannot afford to ignore this conversation. Most of our syllabi still privilege Western theories and knowledge systems, often disconnected from the lived experiences of our people. As a Social Work student, I have often wondered: why are we taught to rely on Euro-American models of welfare and therapy, while ignoring African communal care systems and indigenous forms of healing?

To decolonise education means restoring the dignity of African knowledge, and linking academic work to the urgent struggles of our communities — poverty, land dispossession, gender violence, environmental destruction and neocolonial exploitation.

Vision and discipline

The documentary also forces us to ask hard questions about leadership and accountability. Movements, no matter how noble, can be undermined from within — by ego, disorganisation, or political co-optation. Everything Must Fall shows this tension clearly, as student leaders had to navigate internal divisions, political pressures, and even state surveillance.

As Tanzanian youth, especially those of us involved in political programmes and movements like ACT Wazalendo’s Youth Wing, we must be guided by principle, discipline, and long-term vision. Our fight is not only for cheaper fees or fairer loans — it is for a new society where education serves liberation, not exploitation.

We need to build movements that are feminist, democratic, Pan-African, and rooted in the masses. We must study theory, engage our communities and avoid being trapped in social media activism alone. As famous Burkinabè revolutionary Thomas Sankara once said, “A soldier without political education is a potential criminal.” The same applies to youth activists.

If South African students could shake the foundations of their post-apartheid state, why can’t we do the same here in Tanzania?

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Let us imagine a Tanzania where education is free at all levels, funded not by donor strings but by wealth reclaimed from corruption, natural resources, and tax justice.

Let us organise for a curriculum that speaks to our realities — not to the job markets of Dubai or Toronto, but to the villages of Kigoma, the informal settlements of Mwanza, and the fishing communities of Mafia.

Let us defend academic freedom and campus democracy, where students can speak, think, and mobilise without fear of police or administrative retaliation.

And let us build a Pan-African youth movement that links struggles from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam, from Nairobi to Accra. Because neoliberalism is global, and so must be our resistance.

In Tanzania, it’s time we stop whispering our pain. It’s time we organise, mobilise, and raise our voices — not just against fees, but against the whole system that makes our people poor, our education hollow and our futures uncertain.

Yes, comrades. Everything must fall. And from the rubble, we shall build anew.

Nyanjiga Peter is a third-year student at the University of Dar es Salaam, Bachelor of Social Work. She’s also a member of the opposition party ACT Wazalendo’s Youth Wing. She’s available at nyanjigapeter1@gmail.com. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.