Membe was at home with regional politics

The passing on of Tanzania's former foreign affairs minister, Bernard Membe, was regional news. In a region where presidents and stubborn opposition politicians hog the spotlight, that was no small feat.

A local newspaper described his legacy as 'complex', and a regional magazine wondered whether he was a rebel within Tanzania's ruling party, CCM, envoy or under-achieving leader.

There were reports which focused on whether he was one of Tanzania's longest serving former foreign affairs ministers, testaments to what brought him to the regional stage where few other foreign affairs ministers had the same political clout.

But what kind of a region did he operate in during his time as Tanzania's foreign affairs minister?

It was a region that was in the hands of securocrats who had come to dominate regional politics starting with events in Uganda in the 1980s which ended with President Yoweri Museveni rising to power.

Then there was the 1993 civil war in Burundi which ended with a president being assassinated, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the civil war in the D.R Congo (then Zaire).

Global and regional powers were sucked into the whirling vortex of Great Lakes politics.

Burundi was under Pierre Nkurunziza, and the DR Congo was under Joseph Kabila. In Kenya, it was Mwai Kibaki.

South Sudan was still four years away from being the newest republic in the region.

Angola was ruled by Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Zimbabwe was still under Robert Mugabe. These two were consequential in the civil wars in the DR Congo.

Tanzania’s relations with some of her neighbours, especially on the Western borders were dicey.

Membe had a background in the intelligence services. It was also true of Tanzania's president at the time.

Regional politics was dominated by hostilities and suspicions.

Tanzania was accused by some of her neighbours of being up to no good; claiming that the country either harboured rebel leaders or provided moral and material support to some of them so as to destabilize some of the neighbours. These accusations were strenuously denied.

It was a time when in the DR Congo the country was still experimenting with power sharing through a peace agreement which brought to power several former rebel leaders. Further afield in Somalia, Al-Shabaab was the law.

It was also the time when one of Tanzania's quietest borders in the South with Malawi made headlines regarding the ownership of “Lake Malawi”.

Uganda was coming out of a long and brutal war against the murderous Lord's Resistance Army-which was chased into the jungles of Central Africa-giving it more room to manoeuvre into the DR Congo and later Somalia.

There was also that ill-fated ‘Coalition of the Willing’ where some countries in the East African Community (EAC) argued that Tanzania and Burundi were dragging their proverbial feet on matters of integration.

Tanzania also tried its hand at regional diplomacy with the president suggesting peace talks between some rebel groups with some regional governments. This was terribly received with some neighbours who thought the country failed to appreciate the sensitivities of the matter as some of the rebel groups stand accused of genocide.

Securocrats still tower over the region today but they are in the minority compared to the time when Membe came to the fore.

The nature of regional politics dictate this to be a continued reality, after all some of the security issues have troubled the region for more than three decades and counting.

Membe’s legacy on the domestic front maybe complex, one which will continue to attract opposing views and thoughts of an individual who at one time attempted to punch well above his weight but when it came to regional politics, he belonged with the rest.

He was passionate each time he talked about regional affairs, especially regional security.

He was at home.