I’ll take this any day: That, we are a republic and a democracy

Independent consultant and blogger in Dar es Salaam

I come from a generation that takes it for granted that Tanzania is an independent nation that governs itself. This is our reality, which is distinct from that of our parents for whom Tanzania is their fabrication that they have run with a mix of intentions — some patriotic, some horrendously corrupt. Which is again different from what our grandparents experienced, which was a world in which Tanganyika was a colonial overlay and Zanzibar was... well, Zanzibar.

So, yeah. It is a weird and complicated modern history that got us here, and it is a history in which the vote has never been discussed. It just kind of happened to us.

Since the 20th Century, the default mode of a modern nation-state is ‘republic,’ because that is considered the most legit. It was and still is assumed to be the right way to do things, because we are running with the global crowd.

This default off-the-rack republic that we have adopted alongside our discount democracy is obviously imperfect. It was never designed with any internal input on the part of the citizens of Tanzania, it is an imposition of political elites who simultaneously despise voters while needing them to legitimise their rule. It lacks the organic sense of citizenship that the French might have, for example, by dint of having decapitated their nobility and worked on modernity for several hundred years.

And I think it is a pretty good deal. I will take these odds.

For all the faults I have listed above, the very fact that we are a republic and a democracy creates possibilities. If the only political duty required of me on a regular basis to keep this realm of possibility alive is to vote once every five years, then hell yeah.

Like I said, it is a weird and complicated modern history but at every step there has been a little bit more freedom, a little more infrastructure, a little more vibe. And I do think this comes down to voting.

Sure, the government will steal the votes and other crimes against the polity, but even then it cannot completely remove the small self-determination that we have managed to accrue over the years. I think that this is what Churchill really meant about there being nothing better than democracy yet. Inside that humorous quip is a very grim message about humanity we should keep in mind: everything else is worse.

And in addition to every alternative to democracy being worse, there is the African burden of continuous self-emancipation. I said that my generation can take it for granted that we are an independent nation that governs itself, and this is true.

The key is in examining who exactly is governing, and how, and to what effect. My generation’s fight is against internal forces of subjugation via authoritarian government. This automatically turns voting into an act of protest, an act of survival, and a bid to live long enough to raise another bunch of Tanzanians who will inch closer to that elusive goal: freedom.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report; E-mail: [email protected]