With Egypt setting up a ‘Nile Basin Tournament’ for countries across the region, Chambi Chachage considers football’s political role and the broader diplomatic stakes surrounding the tournament.
Anna Tibaijuka, until recently the executive director of the UN Habitat, has been appointed to the Tanzanian cabinet. Chambi Chachage writes to her and offers some sage advice.
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Pambazuka News has fostered debate about the 'whole spectrum of political colouring' and in so doing played a crucial role in turning ideas into pro-African action, writes Chambi Chachage.
Tanzania's general elections are slated for October. One presidential candidate has changed the political landscape in more ways than one, writes Chambi Chachage.
A political scrap between a young challenger and a veteran politician points towards a possible candidate for future Tanzanian president, writes Chambi Chachage.
A report released by the East African literacy project Uwezo shows that educated parents – even just at the primary school level – make for better-educated children, Chambi Chachage writes. As well, the Tanzanian system has focused too long on education ‘inputs’ such as teachers and classrooms, rather than ‘outcomes’ such as high literacy, critical thinking and creativity.
Drawing on the works of intellectuals Issa Shivji, Kwesi Kwaa Prah, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Paul Zeleza, Chambi Chachage discusses competing concepts of Africa. ‘Those who claim to be of Africa ought to truly seek its intellectual and material prosperity,’ he argues, ‘It is such an Africa-centred progress that will surely undo the yoke which has continually left us fragmented.’
As part of a broader effort to consider who’s who in Tanzanian society, Chambi Chachage discusses the reproduction of the country’s elite class and stresses that if you want to understand the underprivileged, you must also study the privileged.
‘Any attempt to strictly define Africa and Africans in terms of one race or culture without acknowledging its diversity is discriminatory,’ writes Chambi Chachage. ‘What we now know as Africa is such a complexity. A cursory look at its history shows that it has always contained a variety of practices and peoples. Its dynamic nature – for every cultural and geographical entity is not static as the theory of relativity shows us – has allowed it to give and take from other continents.’
