On Friday, 14 November 2025, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Hon. Samia Suluhu Hassan inaugurated the 13 Parliament in Dodoma amidst a tense political situation in the country following the infamous violent events in the week following the October 29 polls.
In her remarkable speech before the House, she reiterated the unwavering commitment of her administration to rebuild the nation and bridge deep-seated sociopolitical divisions by pursuing a broad-based inclusive national dialogue to facilitate reconciliation and substantive political reforms in order to heal the nation, promote national unity, democratic order, and consolidate politics of smiling as opposed to democracy of tears. The ultimate objective of her government is to maintain a peaceful democratic order that has legitimacy in the eyes of many Tanzanians.
In this way, the stated commitment to the dual mandate of promoting sustainable peace and inclusive development in Tanzania as set out in her towering speech to the House reflects the country's enduring political imagination that preoccupied the minds and efforts of post-independence political elite and that which the country has been grappling with ever since.
For critical observers of Tanzanian politics like myself, after listening to her excellency's speech yesterday, I would be tempted to reimagine a new Tanzania. A Tanzania that is founded on pillars of peace, justice, and responsive institutions that would cater for the diverse needs of all Tanzanians. My hope is that such revivalist agenda embodied in Madam President's visionary leadership would close the widening frustration gap among Tanzanians built around such baseline problems as abject poverty, inequality, and perceptions of exclusion, especially among our youthful population (the Post- Millennials).
But my imagination, whilst remaining firm, prompted me to cautiously take a step back to problematize her excellency's revivalist agenda anchoring my analysis in a rather unusual peacebuilding lens. For I believe that without sustainable peace there can be no inclusive development, and without inclusive development there can be no sustainable peace. Apparently, the two are undoubtedly mutually reinforcing.
Well, “Peace Studies is research into the conditions for moving closer to peace or at least not drifting closer to violence”, so said the Father of Peace Studies, Johan Galtung nearly six decades ago. For the past 64 years of political sovereignty, Tanzania's global reputation of being an 'Island of Peace' has positioned the country at the center of global discussions around successfully nation-building projects in post-colonial societies. This enduring stature has not only profiled the country as a global peacemaker and peacebuilder, but also suggests a relatively remarkable achievement of state-building, especially in an African context. A context characterized with the stability of instability.
Peace itself is a multifaceted concept. Thus, it has often been used, and at times abused. However, in Peace Studies, the concept of peace has four facets as Michael Banks' (1987) "Four Conceptions of Peace" controversially postulates. The first facet considers peace as harmony or tranquility. The second one views peace as justice. The third perspective sees peace as order, stability, or absence of direct violence. But narrowly viewing peace as order or stability runs the risk of ignoring other invisible forms of violence (structural violence) that might be bumbling underneath the perceived stable political order waiting for the right time to explode and fuel direct violence. The fourth account of the concept regards peace as conflict management.
It is the last conception of peace, peace as conflict management, that I intend to anchor this writing. For I am of the view that conflict is a natural outcome of human interaction. As correctly remarked by Aristotle, humans are naturally political animals. Put it this way, politics in essence is essentially characterized by the phenomena of conflict and cooperation resulting from competing values and divergent interests. Such contradictions are not only inevitable but also desirable for social and economic progress as they represent competing and alternative policy choices. It is in this context that peace becomes a conflict management problem.
For many years since political independence and right up until around 2015, Tanzania managed to relatively maintain social and political order as well as a cohesive national identity by promoting governance values founded on pillars of human dignity and human equality. Such values have been the hallmark of the country's governance architecture and statecraft. Subsequently, the country developed a non-confrontational civic culture that nurtured and cherished dialogue, inclusiveness, mutual toleration, understanding, and peaceful coexistence among different social groups across the country.
This was by all metrics a conflict management framework that worked for the country. Why? Because it created conditions for moving closer to relative peace or at least helped the country not drift closer to protracted civil strife defying the growing regional trend of protracted conflicts. Of course structural violence continued to manifest in visible and invisible forms marked by increasing abject poverty and socioeconomic inequality ever since the onset of forced liberalization following the Washington Consensus.
Now, as the country gradually emerges from the short-lived darkness of the October 29, it is imperative that peacebuilding efforts currently underway should aim at consolidating an inclusive democratic order that embodies humanistic principles that prioritize human dignity and human equality, in form and in intent.
From a democratic peace perspective, democracies are inherently peaceful internally because of pursuing civilized and inclusive mechanisms to resolving political differences among power contenders. In other words, pursuing conflict management approaches that fit the particular context. Although the caveat is that for a democratic order to endure the process of democratization should be organic not transplanted. Ideally, an organic democratic order is shaped and reshaped by the historical and material conditions of the polity in question. What this entails is that democracy is both context-dependent and perspective-dependent.
Of course, an inclusive democratic order may not be a panacea to all our pressing problems as a developing economy, but it may help redress baseline problems that have for years been frustrating average Tanzanians. Thus, exposing them to radicalization as well as making them easy prey for predatory extremist groups that pose a serious threat to national security and national unity.
Therefore, a key lesson that Madam President communicated to all of us yesterday in her address to the House is that a political order that excludes significant voices in the general population is a ticking bomb. The boldness tone and conciliatory language that defined her speech suggests to all of us that public communication should always aim at building bridges among people and not erecting fortified walls between people. For when communication fails, it may result in a range of negative outcomes.
So, as we embark on the path of the national accord, national healing, consensus-building, and national reconciliation as well as rewriting a new constitution that is reflective of the aspirations of Tanzanians, we should constantly be reminded that an ideal and sustainable democratic order is the one that is founded on pillars that promote popular power, popular livelihoods, and popular participation. The noted initiatives should coincide with the fact that reconciliation, as John Paul Lederach correctly idealized, as the meeting place of truth, peace, justice, and mercy. The Tanzanian way is dialogue and reconciliation not destructive confrontational politics. Our efforts towards reconciliation should be mostly directed towards restorative justice not retributive justice in order to heal the nation and restore broken relationships, trust, and general public confidence.
Charting this path would make us and our succeeding generations outlive our lingering political imagination of a peaceful, inclusive, and developed Tanzania. An island of peace and opportunities for collective advancement. Let us extend the olive branch to each and everyone of us and shake our hands and collectively embrace the future.
May almighty God bless Tanzania, bless Africa, and bless humanity!
