The Wayward Press

As we get closer to 9th of December, the day that will mark Tanzania’s semi-centennial, I have been thinking a lot about the nature of patriotism and what it means to be a nationalist. What does love of country mean? Why should one feel pride at being an accidental part of an abstraction? And finally, what does it mean to belong to this ‘thing’ called Tanzania? 

The more I reflect on these questions, the more I find myself going back to the English writer George Orwell’s seminal piece, ‘Notes on Nationalism’. Orwell published the essay while his country was in the midst of the second World War. It was a time of great moral crises and, as is usually the case in those moments in history, one cannot help but think deeply about what it means to be part of a side. And for Orwell, defining what it means to be British and be part of Britain, was one crucial way of grappling with the uncertain times of his age. He wrote:

[Nationalism is] the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. 

I have always found it uncomfortable to root my sense of identity with the mythical narrative of a nation. And yes, I am suggesting that the concept of a nation is always imagined and is fueled and made vivid by myths. I have tended to define myself in patriotic terms, as Orwell conceived it, finding expression of who I am in individual expressions of identity, styles of being and a very personal sense of existence. This sense of who I am has roots, I believe, in a vaguely Tanzanian, but not exclusive to it, sensibility of ‘Upwani’.

What does this mean? For me the Tanzanian ‘Upwani’ identity can be found in its food, language, music and general style of being. When I lived in Britain, whenever I would say to friends that I missed ‘Tanzania’ what that meant to me was I yearned for the comfort of ‘chapati na njegere’, ‘halwa’, ‘Taarab’, the particular lilt of Kiswahili that can only be found amongst the Pwani peoples, its playfulness and its almost always flirtatious pitch. This is what defines my Tanzanian-ness. And I forever will love and feel devoted to this sense of being Tanzanian.

My sense of patriotism does not mean that I see no value in a country having its sense of collective nationalism, a unifying vision of what it means to be a part of it. Right now, our country finds itself at a moment of transition and great uncertainty. Our politics lacks a sense of direction or grand ideological vision anchoring us forward. Our leaders seem to be making it up as they go along. Our knowledge of our history is fragmented and rooted in skewed nostalgic visions of the past. Our cultural identity is confused, informed more by foreign forms than any sense of a local aesthetic. To be a contemporary Tanzanian at the moment is to be a person of great potential unclear about what the future holds for him.

But I feel that we have hit a critical mass. What form this awareness will take is still unclear to me. What I am certain about is on Friday, the 9th of December, as we rightly celebrate this momentous day, let us take a moment and reflect on what is Tanzania and what it means to be a part of this nation. The answer to this question will be a crucial first step towards shaping our country’s next fifty years.

(Photo: PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete hands the Uhuru Torch to the Chief of Defence Forces  General Davies Mwamunyange, in Dar es Salaam on Thursday. General Mwamunyange will in turn give the torch to a team of soldiers who will hoist it atop Mount Kilimanjaro in a replay of a similar exercise that took place 50 years ago when Tanzania Mainland gained independence. By State House via the Daily News)