RIP Ali Hassan Mwinyi

Former President of Tanzania, Ali Hassan Mwinyi has died, the current head of state announced, on 29th Thursday. Mwinyi’s death was announced to the nation, on twitter (X), by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, expressing her condolences to Mwinyi’s family, and to all Tanzanians. The former President died in hospital, where he was reportedly being treated for lung cancer. Mwinyi became head of state in 1985, replacing founding President, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who had elected to step down, after leading the nation since its independence, in 1961. After winning independence, Nyerere became the President of Tanganyika, until 1964, when he led the unification of the island of Zanzibar, with the newly independent state, to form what is now the republic of Tanzania. Like his more illustrious predecessor, who to this day, is still known not only in Tanzania, but Africa wide, as ‘Mwalimu’ (teacher) Julius Nyerere, Mwinyi had also been a school teacher, before entering politics. Although he could never have earned the reverence reserved for Nyerere, Mwinyi was nevertheless credited with turning Tanzania, into a market economy. History will however, judge whether that was an achievement.