“Mwenyezi mungu nisaidie,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan in May 2021 when she took the oath of office as Tanzania’s first female president. She was clutching the Qur’an.
The way SSH dresses says a lot about how deeply religious she is. And being deeply religious means that you generally treat/should treat other people the way you want to be treated. If you are a politician, like SSH, you treat fellow politicians with dignity. You respect their rights—and you hold elections that are generally free and fair.
But people who do not know that this is easier said than done do not live on this planet with open eyes and ears.
For centuries, politicians have hidden behind religion to do evil things. In public, they attend events where they display (or pretend to display) their religiosity and create this strong impression that they are incapable of doing evil—that they are people of practically unquestionable integrity.
But their true colours come into public view when it comes to matters where they have a vested interest—like elections.
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SSH organised a presidential election where she was, to all intents and purposes, the sole candidate competing with herself. She made it impossible for presidential candidates she knows could pose a serious challenge to contest. They were effectively locked out.
One of those candidates, Tundu Lissu, the leader of the main opposition party, Chadema, is in prison. And hundreds have been killed after the government cracked down on Tanzanians protesting the conduct of the vote.
SSH is embarking on her second term, but she is now a disgraced politician. The proportion of the vote she won—97%—is impressive on paper, but it is what you would expect in many countries across Africa that are dictatorships but are pretending to be democracies. Those who follow elections in Africa will think of countries such as Gabon and Rwanda.
As Sunday Thought has often argued, religion cannot and does not make people moral. Even in everyday life, religion is often invoked to excuse moral shortcuts— such as when someone justifies dating a married man as ‘God’s plan’.
Single women dating married men do not say: “I am a religious woman—I can’t have a romantic relationship with a married man. God/Allah/Jesus will not be pleased about it.” Instead, they conveniently argue that it is God who has decided to give them a married man.
Do not be surprised to hear SSH saying one of these days that God okayed her victory.
🔴 Sunday Thought cuts through the noise of prayer, piety and superstition to ask the questions most people avoid. It discusses God, faith and religion—not to preach, but to probe, challenge and sometimes unsettle. Whether you believe, doubt or have stopped looking altogether, Sunday Thought will make you think, question and maybe even rethink everything you thought you knew about the divine—and about life itself.