Violent Paul Makonda who was involved in violent on new constitutional dialogue in Dar pictured attacking former Prime minister of Tanzania Joseph Warioba.
Tanzania cracks down on LGBTQ community
On 31 October, Dar es Salaam’s Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda announced the creation of an anti-gay surveillance squad. He simultaneously called on the public to report members of the LGBTQ community, promising his team would “get their hands on them”.
In Tanzania, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 30 years in jail.
In the days since his announcement, Makonda said he has received more than 5,700 messages with the names of more than 100 people. Activists in Tanzania said there are reports that members of the LGBTQ community have already been arrested and they worry that Makonda’s announcement will spark anti-LGBT violence throughout the country.The national government has taken some steps to distance itself from Makonda, pledging to respect the international treaties on human rights it has signed on to.But President John Magufuli’s government has not actually condemned or halted the effort. In a country that was once at least semi-tolerant toward the LGBTQ community, Magufuli has resurrected anti-gay rhetoric since he took office in 2015. Administration officials have threatened to prosecute or deport LGBTQ rights activists and the government has shut down HIV programmes aimed specifically at supporting gay communities.
Most tellingly, 12 people were arrested last year after the government accused them of participating in a gathering to promote same-sex relationships.Activists have encouraged people in Tanzania worried about their safety to reach out to organisations like , which can help extricate them from dangerous situations.
Trolls in Tanzania
Since 1977, Tanzania has been ruled by the same party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). Over those forty-plus years, there have been several different administrations. They have all had their own distinct approaches, but each has introduced some elements of progressiveness, whether economically, socially or both. The current administration under President John Magufuli, however, may just buck this trend.
Some of his government’s reforms are certainly welcome. The previous approach to economic liberalisation brought with it corruption, cronyism and inefficiency. Enforcing a stronger work ethic in the civil service and increased investment in infrastructure are much needed.
However, there is a much less welcome trend of reforms driven by conservative social values that has been detrimental to, in particular, women and dissenters. Since coming to office in 2016, President Magufuli has publicly women to “pop out” babies. He told citizens in the south that if they protested he would start their punishment by “beating the Prime Minister’s paternal aunts” (the PM is from the south) if he could. He has that schoolgirls who fall pregnant be expelled from school.
President Magufuli has made women’s place in public and private life more precarious. And this has, in turn, emboldened chauvinists to bring their misogyny online now too. Whereas we used to argue on Twitter about which policies and ideals were best for the nation, we are suddenly being divided into those who are for the president and those against. Women are punished for speaking out, while men who dissent are told their opinions are umama – “womanish” in the worst kind of way.
Tanzania’s new dispensation – combined with a post-truth world of Trump, Cambridge Analytica, and Russian Troll Farms – has meant that our mellow online space is losing its chill. We suspect we are being monitored more closely than is comfortable – or constitutional – by authorities ready to impose hefty fines or jail time for new regulations. Meanwhile, online trolls – we call them bots here – who have emerged in the past two years have soured our mood considerably while muddying all rational debate.
It has got to the point that I recently found myself pathetically grateful when a fellow tweep tweeted something about women that was funny, insightful and warm. That’s when it dawned on me that something is wrong. When did I become so exhausted, timid and beaten down that the smallest civilities are enough to move me to tears?
Last year, I found myself embroiled in the most frightening Twitter fight of my life against a pro-establishment account. That handle has since disappeared, but I am still worried that the person or persons behind it will read this piece and get satisfaction from knowing I remain afraid. You never forget the first time you’re told “we can find you”, especially in an era when people, friends, have been detained, abducted, worse. We only just got the kidnapped billionaire back and are deeply relieved even while we note how his long-time friend and ruling party MP January Makamba received some interesting pushback for demanding he be found as quickly as possible.
The Resistance
I came of age online in Tanzania at a time when the youth, arts and ICT were all getting love from the government. A time before the advent of Russian troll farms and professional chaos-mongers. A time before our protected spaces were angry enough for real fights or for the kinds of soul-destroying insults now regularly cast at women; Kiswahili swearwords are infinitely more severe than can be conveyed in English.In that sense, I had a sheltered upbringing. And so, in the last two years I have had to steadily learn to be quieter, more “amiable”, to occupy less space, to hide my bruises and say “don’t worry about it, my blog just walked into a door, how clumsy of me…”
Sound familiar?
There are many ways I could live in peace: silence, sycophancy, slavery to the worst aspects of the patriarchy, self-pity. But, like I said, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Tanzanian Twitter. And along with the bots, misogynists and mouthpieces, there they are too: The Resistance. The irrepressible smart-asses who turn tragedies into comedies to shame their oppressors, who crush bots with facts and brutal sarcasm.
The resistance is diverse. There are those like the cartoonist , who remains fearless in his commentary on current events. There’s the head of the Tanzania Law Society , who has appropriated the title of Paternal Aunt to take on all comers, especially the professional chauvinists. (Read her timeline if you want a small taste of how ugly the bots can get.) The resistance also includes old-school Nyerereists turned Twitter poets like . It counts among its numbers young blood scholars like who keeps the lyrical tradition strong in our generation while making pan-Africanism contemporary, woke and up-to-date in its reading list.
There are also all the accounts I cannot name out of respect for their privacy in these trying times, who remind us that kind words and evidence based on facts are capable of reclaiming the Twitterverse from the Dark Side.
Tanzania’s longstanding peace isn’t some lucky coincidence or the result of a rustic naiveté. It is a complex and calibrated social construct whose maintenance and vulnerabilities have always required hard work to address. This work has been done, and continues to be done, in the “real” world, but now we have – of necessity – taken this ethos online. I’m not going to lie to you. This post-truth, Google-spies-on-you world is scary. But when has anything progressive, “kind”, or worth doing ever been easy?
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