Popular mobilization and the new politics of resource sovereignty in Tanzania

This essay examines Tanzania’s political landscape and the dynamic of popular mobilization.

1972, a resident of Tanzania’s impoverished southeastern region of Mtwara penned an angry missive to the editor of a national newspaper. “In Tanzania, there are two groups of people,” he began. “Those in northern and central regions are the ones who enjoy the country’s fruits of independence and those in southern regions are left behind without any progress.” He cited the government’s geographically lopsided investment in infrastructure and industry as evidence of this inequality, and concluded by posing a poignant question that cut to the heart of the young East African country’s aspirations of national unity: “Why are the southern people ignored?”

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) - African Futures 2013

The digital forum African Futures explores protest movements and resistance to authoritarian rule across the African continent, with particular attention to the oft-neglected democratic currents south of the Sahara.