While some western media nicknamed him “bulldozer,” and one opposition politician in Tanzania called him “petty dictator,” some critics have called him the “Trump of East Africa.” His bullish and sadistic statements and actions have qualified him as a modern day dictator on the rise. It calls for an immediate local and international action in order to arrest the situation before it worsens and destabilises the whole of Eastern and Southern Africa. In a similar manner that Italy’s Benito Mussolini, Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Zaire’s Mobutu Seseseko and Uganda’s Idi Amin rose to power and used it to crash independent thought and crumble their countries, turning their citizens into subjects, John Pombe Magufuli, has made Tanzania infamous for the wrong reasons. In just three years, he has almost successfully attempted to replace democracy with a one-man rule, becoming an embodiment of brutality, nepotism, authoritarianism, grand corruption, diplomatic exclusion-ism, extrajudicial killings, abductions and arbitrary torture of civilians; turning East Africa’s most peaceful and stable country into a police state and a “skunk of the world.” His distorted approach to leadership and development, and his disregard of democracy, human rights and rule of law have turned him into a bully that seeks religious obedience from everyone, and he uses fear as his main tool of leadership. He terrorises the parliament, the opposition, the media, the diplomatic and international community, his own party, Muslims, journalists, activists, religious leaders, the business community, the judiciary and others - in a bid to establish himself as a leader that must be feared and never dared. This book exposes, through analysis, the root of this sadistic leadership. It digs deep into the dictator’s behaviour and leadership style. It encourages everyone to stand firm and overcome threats imposed by this despot. It awakens governance institutions to do their noble and constitutional task, and never allow similar mistakes that paved the way for this situation to prevail. The good news is that the dictator is timid and cowardly. His use of fear as a leadership tool testifies to his cowardice and insecurity. Proactive action from local and international partners in development will help to stop the dictator from causing further damage - putting an end to his autocratic rule as he seeks to extend it. There is every indication that, given a chance, he would never leave power voluntarily. Civilised people do not have to wait for that to happen. The world does not need another Idi Amin in East Africa. There is no need for the world to watch East Africa’s most peaceful nation sinking into irreparable, perpetual mess as it did with Rwanda prior to the 1994 genocide. With this book, I am stepping in to offer an informed analysis that may be part of the solution. I am laying a ground for a further follow up and research on the matter.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

Nigeria, despite being the African country of greatest strategic importance to the U.S., remains poorly understood. John Campbell explains why Nigeria is so important to understand in a world of jihadi extremism, corruption, oil conflict, and communal violence. The revised edition provides updates through the recent presidential election.

Since President John Magufuli came to power in 2015, the space for media, the opposition, and civil society to conduct activities in Tanzania has shrunk dramatically. The government has passed new legislation and enforced existing laws that repress independent reporting and restrict the work of media, civil society organizations and political opposition groups. The government has also cracked down on individuals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are critical of government policy. The growing restrictions on speech and association are particularly worrisome as elections, scheduled for 2020, approach.This report documents how authorities have stepped up censorship of the media and arbitrarily arrested and, in some cases, prosecuted journalists and activists perceived to be government critics. They have also exerted tighter control over NGOs and political opposition parties. The repression has effectively silenced critics and activists. The report calls on the Tanzanian government to take steps to protect the rights of freedom of expression and association, particularly ahead of elections, including by refraining from public rhetoric hostile to human rights issues; urgently reversing the pattern of repression and taking measures to stop the arbitrary arrest and harassment of journalists, NGO representatives and other activists, and political opposition members; and reforming repressive laws.

From the renowned author of The African Trilogy, a political satire about an unnamed African country navigating a path between violence and corruption As Minister for Culture, former school teacher M. A. Nanga is a man of the people, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. When Odili, an idealistic young teacher, visits his former instructor at the ministry, the division between them is vast. But in the eat-and-let-eat atmosphere, Odili's idealism soon collides with his lusts—and the two men's personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. When Odili launches a vicious campaign against his former mentor for the same seat in an election, their mutual animosity drives the country to revolution. Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria's first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of Achebe’s body of work.

In 2017, late Tanzanian president John Magufuli publicly declared a war on drug users in Tanzania, an unprecedented change in policy in a country leading harm-reduction initiatives in East Africa. In the fall of 2018, Dane Degenstein traveled to Dar es Salaam to learn about these policy changes from those directly impacted. The War on Drugs in Tanzania: Prohibition and Punishment examines the impact of crackdowns on people who use drugs and the impact of policy changes that curtail progressive and humane approaches to improving services for drug users. Degenstein explores how the Tanzanian government sidelined donors and NGOs, undertook a project that directly impinged on human rights, and produced narratives contributing to a global war on drugs. Using the case study of Tanzania, Degenstein draws out larger lessons on the continued international commitment to the war on drugs, how old ideologies that see drug users as criminals and failures continue to be produced, and how the war on drugs erases the perspectives of drug users themselves. Focusing on the experiences of drug activists themselves, the author argues for a radical rethinking of global drug policy.