OPINION: East or south? We belong to both!

As is the case with this president, every time he travels beyond our political borders, it becomes newsworthy and gets many people excited for all sorts of different reasons. There are those who believe that when the president visits other countries there are so many things he can draw from such experiences. Others are excited just at hearing that President Magufuli has travelled abroad.

How things change!

President Magufuli travelled to attend the inauguration ceremony of South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa. Even Ramaphosa’s immediate predecessor in office could not manage to be at the event, claiming that he was “fighting to stay out of jail”. He could not afford his immediate successor whay his own immediate predecessor accorded him despite the rivalry between them for he understood the symbolism of such public appearances. From there he visited Namibia and then Zimbabwe. Before, he had visited Malawi, another neighbor to the South.

Every president of this country, past and present have always been very comfortable when visiting the South, or when hosting another president from the South. Even in countries where power has changed hands like in Zambia, there is still that camaraderie from the past. To this country with its deep ties to the South forged during the liberation struggles, it is not an overstatement saying that the South is where our heart is. The country sacrificed so much for that part of Africa.

Contrast that with the East where geography placed us.

From the early days of post-independence, the “original” East African Community (EAC) member states had deep underlying tensions which are yet to be resolved to this day. The “new” comers arrived with another dimension of tensions whether it is the endless tensions between Rwanda and Uganda, or Burundi and Rwanda, or the strategic alliances and support for South Sudan from Kenya and Uganda, there is never a single dully moment.

That does not include the wars which have been fought in the past, or the skirmishes and border conflicts of today.

With the exception of a few leaders and countries in the region, like Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni to Tanzania, the rest, regardless of who is in office are guarded in their speech when they visit a neighbouring country. There is too much history, some of which has stubbornly refused to remain in the past to the point that it is easy to rub other countries the wrong way regardless of what was intended. Consider the tense Rwanda-Tanzania relations in the last years of former president Jakaya Kikwete’s time at Magogoni.

Tanzanians are considered the most stubborn in the region when it comes to the efforts of regional integration. They are wary of everything from being “dragged into someone else’s wars” to land, regardless of whether such fears are justified or not, it is powerful enough to drive passions high every single time there is talk of political integration.

The region is largely in the hands or under the influence of securocrats. There is a complex web linking these countries and events in one country easily spill into neighboring countries.

President Magufuli has invested much of his foreign engagements in the East and the South. A friend remarked that he does “not see him going to Europe anytime soon”. The president has said just as much by insisting that he will travel in his retirement.

Within EAC, he has met all the presidents and has visited most countries except two. There are more countries to the South but he has done far better there as well. This means that to him, it is about where the head and the heart are. The East requires careful balancing acts, and certainly one cannot choose their neighbors.

This is the reason no political leader of this country will ever choose between the East or the South. Geography placed us in the East, we chose the South, we belong to both!