Wildlife Conservation in Tanzania

In the West, it is in vogue to advocate for wild animals in Africa. But there is more than meets the eye to this issue.

In Tanzania, national parks and game reserves have been used as a weapon of colonialism. The Meru in northern Tanzania rely on the land to subsist. In fact, their ethnicity is not based on heredity, but is based on a connection with Mount Meru. But much of Mount Meru was taken over, first by the colonial government, and then kept by the independent Tanzanian government.

The lack of land has rendered the Meru into a state of poverty. Ironically, the Meru have traditional shied away from hunting bigger game that conservation organizations hope to protect.

In addition, whites have a long history of hunting wild game in Africa. At the same time, African hunting has been targeted. When whites hunted, it was considered a sport. When Africans hunted for food, it was considered barbaric.

The point is not to condemn wildlife conservation in anyway. Instead, the point is to bring the difficult consequences of wildlife conservation into the discourse.

One Party against Many

Tanzania, which is a union of two states, mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar, has had one party running the country throughout its independent history. Until 1992, Tanzania was a one-party state. Since, CCM has continued to lead the country despite facing opposition.

Interesting enough, before 1977, Tanzania was a one-party state, but had two parties. This is because it has two governments, one for the union and the other for Zanzibar. TANU ruled the union government and ASP ran Zanzibar until they merged to form CCM in 1977. The argument for the one-party system was based largely on a need for stability. Despite having a well-respected man as president, Julius Nyerere, who ruled until 1985, the one-party state posed some obvious problems to citizens' quest for liberty. The government did not have to face accountability for its actions. These actions included restrictions on various expressions of freedom. Nyerere, though allowing for debate on certain issues, controlled the nature of it. The various constitutions were given little credence and there were no checks within government to give it legitimacy.

Since multi-party democracy was instated, CCM has faced a weak and divided opposition for control of the union government. So even with multi-party elections, CCM is a de facto one-party state. CCM candidate Jakaya Kikwete received 80% of the vote for the union presidency in 2005. Even worse for the sake of Tanzanian democracy is that CCM does not have a democratic structure itself. So the president of the union government is essentially decided by the top brass of the CCM and not the Tanzanian people. Thus, he does not have to play to the concerns of the population because, in reality, they have no say as to his job security.

Opposition parties in Tanzania are often times covers for the ambitions of politicians. Most do not have a plan for the future or issues that they stand on. There are numerous weak opposition parties vying for seats in the union government. The division weakens the opposition further. These parties are not willing to merge to form a credible opposition that would keep CCM in check. Thus, the situation ultimately negates any real choice for Tanzanian citizens and creates an absence of accountability for the country's leaders.

Kikwete's closest competitor in the 2005 election for the union presidency was Ibrahim Lipumba of the CUF, who received just 11% of the vote. The CUF is largely a Zanzibar-based party. In Zanzibar's presidential elections, CUF has been much closer. But the tightness of the contests for control has led to tragic violence. CUF boycotted parliament after declaring fraud in the 1995 elections. That hostility carried over until a bloodbath ensued following the 2000 elections. So even the existence of strong parties has resulted in violence and general animosity in Zanzibar. The parties tend to be divided by island with CUF running strong in Pemba and Unguja filled with CCM supporters.

While Tanzanians do not yet have a perfect democracy (and really, who does?), it is progressing. Both governments need a strong opposition party, preferably one for each government, that reaches out to a broad coalition of supporters. These parties cannot play to Tanzanians' religious or racial differences, nor to the pride in the location of one's current residence. Instead, they need to come up with a plan for Tanzania's future and appeal to voters on that basis.

The Basics of Tanzanian Political History

Tanzania is a federation of mainland Tanzania, known as Tanganyika during colonialism, and the islands of Zanzibar. In order to coax Zanzibar into the federation and to keep the islands as part of Tanzania, the country possesses two governments. One is a Zanzibari government and the other is a Union government. It might seem as if this system favors Zanzibar, but the population on the islands is a scant fraction of that on the mainland, so Zanzibaris have little say in the Union government. Originally, during the last throes of the independence movement, there was hope for a federation that also would have also included Kenya and Uganda- the reasons for its failure will not be discussed here.

The predominant political party on the mainland aimed at liberation was TANU, led by Julius Nyerere. Nyerere eventually became the president of a federated Tanzania and TANU oversaw a one-party state until the 1990s. In 1967, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, which declared that Tanzania was a socialist nation. Nyerere stepped down as president and peacefully transferred power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 1985.

Zanzibar's history is interestingly distinct from that of the mainland. Unlike the religious pluralism of the mainland, Zanzibar is almost completely Muslim. The islands had a powerful Arab minority represented by a coalition of the ZNP (Zanzibar Nationalist Party) and the ZPPP (Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party). Before British colonialism, Zanzibar was part of the Omani Sultanate. Black Africans divided themselves into two groups, mainlanders, which represented a minority of the black population in Zanzibar and another group known as Shirazis. Shirazis adopted a Persian ethno-history to create a distinction between themselves and Africans who arrived on the islands more recently. Together, they formed the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), which ruled Zanzibar following the Zanzibari Revolution in 1964. When Zanzibar gained independence, the British turned over the territory to Arabs, to the resentment of the Africans.

In 1977, TANU and ASP merged to create Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has ruled both governments ever since. The brief history of Tanzanian multi-party politics consists of CCM domination. It's most significant competition for its position in the Union government occurred in the election of 1995, when NCCR-Mageuzi mustered a respectable showing, despite the proliferation of numerous opposition parties. But the party lost nearly all of its support due to personality clashes. Now, the main opposition party is the CUF (Civic United Front). Since the onset of multi-party democracy, CUF has given CCM a significant challenge in Zanzibari elections.

The president of Tanzania is Jakaya Kikwete of the CCM, who was elected to his first term in 2005. He recently finished a term as the head of the African Union.