A pan-Africanist talks about Tanzania’s economic potential

By Anganile Mwakyanjala

QUESTION: When did you decide to take on the mandate of educating the public about Africa?

I founded the Constituency for Africa (CFA) in 1990 in Washington, DC. The mission of CFA is to educate the public about Africa and African issues, to strengthen linkages and partnerships between African-focused organizations in the Diaspora, and to help shape and influence US policy towards Africa.

What moved you to involve yourself in promoting African affairs?

I have been involved with Africa for my entire career, spanning nearly 50 years. I started as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1973–76 in Eritrea and Ethiopia, during the time of Haile Selassie! Over the years, I have been involved in many of the major US policy initiatives in Africa, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), PEPFAR, President Bush’s global response to HIV/AIDS in Africa, President Obama’s Young Africa Leaders Initiative (YALI), for which I provided the concept, and many more!

You held a meeting with the African Diaspora together with Tanzania’s ambassador to the US, Elsie Kanza. How did that come about?

Many of the African ambassadors come to Washington with a focus on the official American institutions and channels, like the White House, the State Department, the World Bank, etc. However, they never make contact with African-Americans and the African Diaspora during their tour!

As a result, we decided some years ago to establish a programme to bring Diaspora leaders to the embassies to meet with the African Ambassadors and their staff, to discuss the priorities of the countries, and to provide a network of black people that the embassies can call on as they implement their strategies to engage the United States.

I had met Ambassador Kanza some years ago, so after she was appointed the envoy, we already knew each other. I paid a courtesy visit to her after she arrived, and in the course of the discussion, she spoke of Julius Nyerere and Tanzania’s legacy towards pan-Africanism! Thus, I offered to bring a delegation of Diaspora leaders to the embassy to meet with her.

I also informed her that I had once visited Dar es Salaam as part of a business conference, met President Nyerere in the 1990s, and hosted meetings here in the US with former President Benjamin Mkapa and President Jakaya Kikwete. As a new ambassador in Washington, understandably, Kanza certainly wanted to take some time to establish herself here, and so it took us a good year to get this meeting scheduled.

Before the meeting, how much did you know about Tanzania? And what did you learn during the meeting that gave you a better picture of where the country is heading and its priorities?

I know Africa quite well, having lived in and traveled to more than 40 countries. As I said earlier, I visited Tanzania once while participating in a business conference, but I have not yet had the opportunity to visit again.

The 35 delegates that I had invited to the meeting and the 15 that joined us by Zoom were people who, for the most part, were informed about Tanzania and, in many cases, had visited the country. Ambassador Charles Stith, who was formerly the US Ambassador to Tanzania, David Robinson, the son of Major League Baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who has lived decades in Tanzania where he is farming coffee beans, Dr Julius Garvey, who is the son of the legendary pan Africanist Marcus Garvey, Harriet Shangari, who is an official in Montgomery County, Maryland, and who is originally from Tanzania, and General William “Kip” Ward, who was the Founding Commander of the US African Command (AFRICOM), were all participants in this meeting.

So no one from our delegation came to the meeting “wide-eyed”! Thus, Ambassador Kanza, who had received the bios of all delegates in advance of the meeting, was able to focus on Tanzania’s objectives in the United States and opportunities for the African Diaspora to help promote Tanzania in the US, invest in and participate in businesses in Tanzania, and also explore ways to contribute to the development of the country.

David Robinson (the son of MLB legend Jackie Robinson) has been in Tanzania for decades as a farmer; how much of his story inspires more Americans of African roots to invest in Africa?

David Robinson is one of the humblest people that I know. His story of moving to Tanzania, raising a family there, and growing coffee beans is not widely known here! His story is a great American story that has not been fully told! I am certainly going to do what I can to change this!

How much does a flourishing democracy encourage investment and what’s your view on Tanzania in that regard?

Certainly, a flourishing democracy is important to economic development and is a real challenge across the African continent. One reality is that global powers, including my country (USA), don’t really want to encourage democracy in Africa, despite what we say. We prefer to deal with dictatorial regimes, which make it easier to access minerals and natural resources! They prefer having direct business relations with the leaders to access African minerals! This has been the case since colonial times, and it remains the case today! I think that Tanzania has a long legacy of trying to build a country for the people! I am encouraged by the efforts to build a continental free-trade area (AfCFTA), but know that this is not in the interest of world powers!

Tourism has been a major foreign currency earner for Tanzania, was that discussed and what were the key revelations and takeaways?

Tourism was a major agenda item in the meeting. Many in the room were already well aware of the tourism potential of Tanzania. One of my proposals to Ambassador Kanza during the meeting is that she consider getting the government to invite a delegation from our meeting to visit Tanzania.

You have travelled to several countries in Africa since your youth, how was that for an African American, How was your experience in Tanzania?

I spent a few days in Dar but have not been to Zanzibar, although the former AU Representative to Washington, Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, is a dear friend, and the new US Ambassador, Michael Battle, is also a great friend. I have a great interest in visiting Tanzania again!

In the aftermath of the meeting, what was the general perception of the invited guests, and is there hope that we will have more engagement and investment?

I will be taking a small delegation of 4–5 to Tanzania House in early April to meet with Ambassador Kanza and her staff as a direct follow-up. We will have had a few weeks to think about the meeting and discuss specific opportunities for following up. I think that the first meeting sparked a lot of interest among our delegates and others who learned about the meeting via social media.

Any last words?

For sure, much work remains to strengthen relations between the US, the African diaspora, and Tanzania. However, like never before, we have a lot of people on both sides who really want some things to happen. I think we can leverage the US Government to elevate the importance of Tanzania (Vice President Kamala Harris will visit on her 3-country tour soon), which is very important. To me, the best thing about Tanzania is its wonderful people! They are very pleasant, very smart, and love their country and love Africa and African people!