Probing the past to better understand the present and prepare for an uncertain future. I think it’s fair to say that no field of history has grown more swiftly in quantity or sophistication in the 21st century than environmental history. The reason is, I suspect, self-evident: it’s in part a scholarly response to global warming, biodiversity loss, volatile and extreme weather events, and climate change–related diseases.
In 2015 John Pombe Magufuli became Tanzania’s accidental President. Colourful and charismatic, Magufuli charmed the masses during his five years in office. He demanded results and pulled off successes that were elevated to the status of minor miracles. He channeled his inner Julius Nyerere to revive Tanzania’s distinctive internal self-reliance-based identity.
The state was back, and the state was Magufuli. He used his campaign against the
mabepari class to grandstand on a regular basis, and the coronavirus pandemic provided the former chemist with an opportunity to elevate his anti-imperialist credentials. His controversial stance won him approval across the region: several of my colleagues remarked that “Magufuli is the only African President to speak truth to the pandemic”.