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Isles, Mainland linked in their history, destiny
2009-04-28 12:37:26
By Editor
The novel idea of forming a continental government that was being floated by newly independent African governments in the early 1960s did not materialize, save for two countries, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, that chose to unite under one sovereign state-Tanzania.
These are the two countries that went farther than protecting the Berlin Conference boundaries that set up the African states as we know them today.
The borderline of the United Republic of Tanzania was not made in Berlin, but right here in this country.
The United Republic has endured all the tests that have to do with a political marriage. Much as there are grievances on both parts of the Union in relation to certain issues, taken in their totality, the people on both sides of the Union are proud of their identity as Tanzanians.
This Union did not simply come out of the blues. The people of Tanganyika and Zanzibar have interacted, lived together and traded with each other for centuries.
They have suffered common historical tragedies of slavery and colonialism. There is nothing that unites people like common suffering.
Our forefathers who were kidnapped in the hinterland and forced to march for hundreds of miles up to the Mrima Coast, from where they were shipped to the Zanzibar slave market, did not know that their seed would live on in both sides of the coast.
At a certain point in our history, Arab rulers who were headquartered in Zanzibar were collecting levy in large areas of the hinterland. In fact, there was a time when a 10-mile coastal strip of the Mainland was ruled directly by the Sultan in Zanzibar.
The founders of the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, much as they were confident of the feasibility of uniting their countries, must have been fully aware of challenges that come with cementing a union and merging two separate structures.
Luckily, the United Republic of Tanzania has weathered many storms since its inception and is in fact getting stronger, and the strength, like all blessings, has brought problems of its own. In spite the challenges, the Union is now 45 years old.
Other African countries had tried to unite but failed. One of the earliest attempts was the merger between Egypt and Syria. The two countries formed the Socialist Arab Union in 1958 but it collapsed in 1961 when Syria decided to get out.
Another example is the Senegambia Confederation comprising Senegal and Gambia.
In the confederation, the two countries chose to integrate their military and security forces, and form an economic and monetary union.
However, the confederation, which was established in 1982, collapsed in 1989.
The Senegambia experiment has shown that a three-tier government system is difficult to operate.
All in all, the failure of unity in the above example and others reveals just how myopic and ego-centric nationalism can work against unity.
But the reality is that many more states in the world are seeking unity, knowing that it offers more benefits than costs.
In Tanzania, we should be open for constructive adjustments and behave as one people.
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