Independent consultant and blogger in Dar es Salaam
Over the long weekend, I went on a trip to visit a part of the country just because it is there, and it is beautiful, and I can. Also, I went because I needed to shake off The City for a bit.
Dar es salaam is the quintessential Primate City — everywhere else in the country is our hinterland, with no disrespect meant to the other notable urban centres.
Dar is growing at an astonishing pace and you can feel it even if you live here. Sometimes a break from the exhilaration is necessary.
I left the city with a small bagful of worry — the local government elections will be held in late November, and I hadn’t seen anything about registering to vote yet in my neighbourhood.
This did not sit well with me. Of all the methods that can be used to restrict access to elections, delayed registration is particularly vexing. I am a planner by nature, I don’t like sloppy work. Elections are a big project, and I still expect my government to put its best foot forward.
As fate would have it, I didn’t need to wait too long. Registration had started after all, and along the way to the pretty place I spotted lonely little registration desks by the roadside, usually at the front of a red mud hut with a sleepy official in a white polo shirt.
On Sunday I ended up on a bench at a shop in a small and lovely town. Everything I wanted to know about registering to vote was there on a piece of paper plastered on the wall for me to read.
This gave me more hope and courage than the massive banners of Philip Mpango’s smiling face stretched across every major intersection upcountry. The right information had made it all the way out there, on time.
I hope we turn out to vote.
Away from the cynicism of the city, it is easier for me to remember why this is so important. I was watching kids playing football in the red soil, wearing sweaters and looking clean and round.
The young men in the small and lovely town were getting lots of work as boda drivers, driving everything from tired hikers to large metal security doors up and down steep hills.
There was electricity and good strong mobile phone signals out there. This was such a gorgeous present when I looked at it in light of the eighties and nineties that I remember. We have come so far…
… and lately we have been doing this nation-building project in spite of and despite our leadership. Maybe it is time we rewarded ourselves with a more vigorous democracy that will deliver us the leaders we deserve? Or to be more precise, the leaders who deserve us because Tanzania is a magnificent country.
Back in the city and awash with our defensive cynicism as usual, I am finding it hard to convince people to register to vote. But it is the season, and you bet I am going to give my recruitment drive my best effort, having been refreshed in the high and lovely towns and villages that are so helpful in reminding me just how valuable this national project of ours is. I hope you are registered to vote, ndugu mwananchi. Let’s do this.
