Sure, there is a rise of discussions, hot debates on the Tanzania union than ever before. The hot violence that happened in Zanzibar in the past few days I believe are a result of a long internal grieve and luck of enough forum for discussions on union issues.
As a strong supporter of Pan-Africanism processes I don't believe in disintegration of African states as what happened in Sudan, I support more integration that may ultimately lead to unification of more African states.
Therefore the rise in talks of disintegration of Tanzania union that was founded in 1964 do sound scary to most people in Tanzania mainland and other people who want to see more of African unions than separations. But its also a bitter truth that we need to help the people with a different view give their opinions on the state of the union. Even the United Kingdom throne is opposed by a group of people in UK, but they are using peaceful ways in addressing their concerns and also the government provides a conducive environment for these people to air their views such as in demonstrations.
Therefore their is nothing bad with people in Zanzibar or Tanzania mainland to raise their voices against the union but they should use proper channels and ways and furthermore the police force should encourage peaceful ways to do so.
The union has its strengths and weakness, but its through allowing dialogue/discussion I believe we may use it as a tool to strengthen it where we see weakness. I remember few weeks ago after the violence in Zanzibar, as we were discussing this issue on Twitter platform one Zanzibar spoke against the union though maintaining he has no hate for the mainland, he has no problem with the union but he has a problem with the place Zanzibar is in the union. He called it a 'Big Brother' scenario. I believe what he meant here is that Zanzibar is playing a young brother role in the union as Tanzania is the big one. We can all agree that where we are now we have to discuss and solve some of these serious obstacles/ threats to the union.
Few solutions, firstly I believe what is needed to bring a equal feeling with the union was to have a 3 governments system, a Zanzibar government and a Tanganyika government, with one Central government for the union matters. This is only way we may remove the 'colonial feeling' that is spreading allover, because we are in a union but people identify themselves differently, the first thing if you are born in Zanzibar is that you will be identified as a 'Zanzibari' by the society, but coming to the mainland Tanzania born here you a Tanzanian. Unless these issues wont be resolved we will see more young people in Zanzibar getting up against the union and this more than anything might bring even an ugly situation to the union.
And another solution is the referendum, but the question is how many unions/states in the world have survive a referendum of this kind? Scotland is looking forward to have a referendum to get independence out of the United Kingdom ( England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), and there is nothing to hide that the results are unpredictable. And thats why its a stage that I don't want Tanzania to rush into, lets work hard to solve it first and try to rebuild it up which I believe a 3 government solution is the best. Cause with it, union and non-union matters will be easly managed and at the same time removing the view that 'Tanzania' is for the mainland. The faster we agree that we have a problem, and the faster we will solve this the better!
God bless Africa,
God bless Tanzania.
