Ndugu Wana-Jumuiya,
This is such an important day for us, our country Tanzania is celebrating 49 years of independence.
· First, let us be grateful for the resilience of our ancestors and all those who sacrificed to build the foundation of our nation, Tanzania. I know sometimes we take for granted the privileges that we enjoy as Tanzanians, the freedom, unity, peace etc. Although we also have our shortcomings, many countries still envy us. Let us continue to pray that all those who are in the positions of authority do their part to maintain the values and ideas of our independence.
· Second, we need to play our part, each of us in our own capacity to make our independence more meaningful by taking our history into account and embark on our future, the future of our children and grandchildren, our future generations. We have to prevent our future generations from inheriting the challenges that we face today, poor living conditions, diseases, illiteracy etc. The below quotation from Mahmood Mamdani somehow takes the account of our independence history and the importance of putting together a strategy that will create a promising future for our generations…
"...We were the first generation of post-independence African intellectuals. We thought in historical terms. We knew that history was moving, more or less like a train, heading to a known destination, and none of us had any doubt that we were on that train. We were certain that the future would be better than the past, much better. If there would be violence, it would be revolutionary, the violence of the poor against the rich, the oppressor against the oppressed. Good revolutionary violence would do away with bad counter-revolutionary violence. Two decades later, we found ourselves in a world for which we were least prepared. Not only was it a world drenched in blood,but the battle lines were hardly inspiring. There was little revolutionary about the violence around us: instead of the poor rising up against the rich, we could see poor pitted against poor, and rich against rich. This was hardly the final struggle promised in the International – la lutte finale – beyond which would lie the rosy dawn of socialism. It seemed more like the fires of hell....Thus, my message to you: today, more than ever, we need the capacity to imagine different futures. In 1973, in Dar and in Addis, we thought of ourselves as being in transition to an already known destination, first it was a transition to socialism; after the fall of Soviet Union, the convention was to think of a transition to democracy; after 9/11, it became a transition to modernity. Common to all three was the conviction that the journey had a fixed destination. It was a road map with a predestined goal. Our role was only to exert effort, for the train was already on course. Experience has taught us that there is no given destination. The destination is negotiable. If I am right, you will need the courage and the creativity to imagine the destination and the skill and tenacity to forge a political consensus around that imagination. Keep in mind that the journey you will embark on has no fixed destination. Where you go will depend on you and those around you. The better you understand the nature of forces defining your choices, the more you will be able to gather in your own hands possibilities of forging the future...."
– Mahmood Mamdani upon being conferred Doctor of Letters honor in cause at Addis Ababa University
I wish all of you a happy and wonderful Tanzania independence day.
Mwenzenu,
Iddy Mtango
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