Tanzania elects first female president

By Cynthia Akanaga ’25

Staff Writer

Last year on March 19, Tanzania joined the cohort of African countries with female leaders with the swearing in of Samia Suluhu Hassan, a Muslim Tanzanian woman, as head of state. In Tanzania, Hassan is widely referred to as Mama Samia. 

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “As the country’s former vice president, Hassan became the constitutionally mandated successor of late president John Magufuli after he allegedly died from COVID-19 in early March 2021.”

In her interview in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, Hassan talked about the challenges with assuming the role of president in the country. “Most of the people couldn’t believe that we can have a woman president and she can deliver. The challenge was to create a trust in the people that yes, I can do it,” Hassan stated, as reported by The New York Times. 

Hassan has taken measures to make leadership in Tanzania more accessible to other women. According to The Conversation, “Nine of her cabinet ministers are women, which represents 36 percent, a six percentage point rise from the previous cabinet.”

Sarah Chohan ’24, a student from Tanzania, echoed the idea of the challenges women face in authority positions. “I’m a Muslim Tanzanian woman, and it’s nice to see the representation, especially as a president. … Right now, things are getting better as people are getting educated. But there’s still a lot of backward mindset. Tanzania is still quite, I’d say, conservative. So, I’m not going to lie — we didn’t see this coming, getting a Muslim president woman especially.”

In the same vein, Vanessa Dickson ’25, a first-year from Tanzania spoke about the double standards facing women. “As a woman, you have to do double the work than what the man does to show that you’re capable of delivering the tasks. I think for the longest time, the majority of the people didn’t believe that a woman could lead,” Dickson said. “By Mama Samia now being the person who is leading us as a nation, it’s proving that women can actually lead, and they’re capable of doing it. There is hope for the rest of the women in Tanzania because they have someone that they can look up to,” Dickson added.

Chohan and Dickson both emphasized the improvements Hassan has made for the tourism industry in Tanzania.

“Mama Samia is definitely opening up Tanzania to the world, especially with her recent trips to the U.S. and meeting with Kamala Harris. She’s advertising tourism in Tanzania, which I think is great because we do have amazing things. She’s trying to put Tanzania on the international map, ” Chohan said.

Dickson also highlighted how much Hassan has done for the country’s tourism. She stated, “Personally, I really love [her]. I love what she’s doing for the nation, and one of the things that I really like that she’s doing is within the tourism industry. One of the things she talked about … [was] that many people, when you meet them and you tell them where you’re from, … don’t know it. They’re like, ‘Where’s that?’ Now, she’s made this new film called [Tanzania: The Royal Tour]. It’s a way to promote tourism in the nation and people are able to see Tanzania for what it is.” 

Hassan met with Harris on April 15 in Washington, during which she announced this “Royal Tour program … to showcase Tanzania’s touristic and investment potentials,” according to the White House. Hassan’s meeting with Harris also yielded “the investment of nearly $1 billion from American companies in Tanzania’s tourism and energy sectors,” as reported by VOA News.

“On April 18th, I attended the premiere of the Tanzania: [The] Royal Tour documentary in New York,” Hassan wrote in a Twitter post. “The one-hour documentary shot in Tanzania will promote our country’s unique and unrivaled tourism attractions and investment opportunities to a global audience.” 

In addition to her focus on tourism, Chohan also shed light on how Hassan responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, including how she publicly received her vaccine dose to encourage the citizens to also get vaccinated. 

Chohan stated, “Mama Samia is accepting that vaccinations are out there, [that] we need to get them, [that] they’re necessary, and [that] she believes in the science of it. I believe in the science of vaccinations too, so I agree with her. Tanzanians, for the most part, were very hesitant, and they were resisting the vaccinations.” Chohan continued, “I think her openly taking the vaccinations was more of showing support that, like, ‘I’m also with you guys.’ We’re all in this together,’ kind of thing. I think that was a really good initiative from her because [Some didn’t] believe in the science of it.”

According to CSIS, “As of March 2022, approximately 4.5 percent of Tanzanians are vaccinated against COVID-19. This is impressive given Tanzania’s late start to COVID-19 precautions as well as the pervasive public resistance toward the vaccine.”

Dickson stated, “We’re building relationships with various countries, which is a good thing because it helps both economies and the people of both nations.”

Rokhaya Diallo speaks on Black French culture and identity

Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Ferré for UN via Flickr. Rokhaya Diallo talked about her experience as a journalist and anti-racist activist in France.

By Sarah Bell ’25

Staff Writer

“Where do you come from?” is a question that Rokhaya Diallo has received all her life, despite being born and raised in France. According to Diallo, this complicated question normalized in French culture ignites a battle of proving one’s French identity while preserving one’s Black identity. 

On Tuesday, March 29, Smith College welcomed Diallo, a French-Senegalese journalist, filmmaker and author, to speak on a panel entitled “On the French Elections and Beyond.”

According to Mehammed Mack, associate professor of French studies at Smith College, “Rokhaya Diallo is the only prominent woman of color to have become a fixture of the nightly news talk shows and radio programs in France. … She brought intersectionality into general public discourse, and has drawn the ire of the right as well as a section of the left that adheres to rigid secularism.” 

“One of France’s most prominent anti-racism activists,” according to The New York Times, Diallo is a notable public figure in television and media. Born in Paris, Diallo graduated from Pantheon-Sorbonne with a degree in International Law, according to BlackPast. Her background in journalism stems from 15 years of coverage of the past three French elections. Diallo is also a published author, with a newly released book with her colleague, Grace Ly, titled, “Kiffe ta Race.” She has also written “Afro!” a picture book about the appreciation of Black natural hair, according to Goodreads. A true triple-threat, she has her hand in filmmaking, too, directing “De Paris à Ferguson: Coupables D'être Noirs” (2016) translated to English as “Paris to Ferguson: Guilty of Being Black,” and “Où sont les Noirs” translated as “Where are the Black People,” according to TV5 Unis. She is currently a researcher in residence at Georgetown’s Gender Justice Initiative in Washington D.C. 

“Prepare to face adversity and lose opportunities,” Diallo said during the panel, speaking on the downsides of speaking out within the journalism world. Diallo has been fired from previous jobs due to her outspoken nature, but has also gained many opportunities from it.

“Language is a real tool of intimidation,” she said to the crowd. She advised young female journalists to be confident in what they are speaking about. Diallo doesn’t spend time on people who don’t want to take the time to learn from her regarding racism in France, though she emphasized that she is explicit with people who do want to take the time to educate themselves. 

Carolyn Shread, senior lecturer in French at Mount Holyoke and faculty exchange professor at Smith, an attendee of the panel, looks to Diallo as a trailblazer in disrupting that pattern of the male-dominated discourse. “Diallo’s voice helps correct the erasures and bring us to a more equitable space, in which we hear from more than the happy few. We need — as soon as possible — for other people to join her so that she is not left to carry the burden of speaking alone.”

Diallo presented a clip she edited called “Qu’est ce que le Manterrupting,” meaning the interruption of female journalists and politicians by male voices. Diallo spoke on “preserving the art of speaking.” She felt like she wasn’t taken seriously in workspaces — however, speaking in a more assertive manner has helped her debate and assimilate in these spaces.

She also spoke on the candidates of the French presidential election, specifically on Marine Le Pen, the current president of the National Rally, and Eric Zemmour, who has made openly racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim remarks, according to The Economist. It is unprecedented in recent years for France to have two far-right candidates so high in popularity.

One question for the panel was about the importance of inclusivity, particularly regarding the underrepresentation of African and Caribbean female and nonbinary voices from Francophone and Lusophone countries. Diallo stated that the preservation of these works by diverse writers and the recentering of today’s notable Francophone African and Caribbean voices, such as Françoise Verges, Awa Thiam, and Paulette Nardal can bring attention to this.

Diallo and Mack recommended several Francophone contemporaries, activists and historical figures, including Louis Delgrès, Toumi Djaïdja and Albert Memmi.