How to Fight for Democracy in the Shadow of Autocracy | Fatma Karume | TED

28,432 views ・ 2024-05-22

TED


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The two most commonly used words to describe Tanzania until 2016
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were "peaceful" and "poor."
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From 1992,
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when Tanzania transformed from a single-party autocracy
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to a multi-party democracy,
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we became known as a "transitioning democracy
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with a lot of potential."
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That is a polite euphemism for an authoritarian state
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that does not commit atrocities against its people
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and allows a modicum of controlled opposition.
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I was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania,
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and in the late 1990s I became a corporate litigator.
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By 2007,
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I was successful and had reported cases under my belt.
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I knew that a transitioning democracy
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is nothing more than camouflage.
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So along with my practice,
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I had a weekly unpaid column in a daily English paper
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in which I espoused the importance of democracy,
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rule of law, human rights and freedoms.
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I was chugging along nicely, raising a family,
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working hard and contributing to public awareness.
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Until late 2015,
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when a man named John Pombe Magufuli,
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also known as "the bulldozer,"
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became president.
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Under him, Tanzania reverted to full-blown autocracy.
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My anxiety spiked knowing that my life,
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and that of many others in Tanzania,
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was about to be turned upside-down.
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My peaceful daily life quickly turned into horror.
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Every day for four years, from 2017 to 2021,
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I lived a personal nightmare
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which was played out on the public arena.
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My office was bombed,
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a client and friend was shot 16 times,
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friends and colleagues were arrested and imprisoned without due process,
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others disappeared, some were maimed.
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And I became the target
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of a state-sponsored, press smear campaign.
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And the state eventually unlawfully disbarred me
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from practicing my profession.
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My self-image had become so enmeshed with my profession
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that I didn't recognize myself anymore.
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I had to rediscover who I was.
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But what kept me going through those four years
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was one, knowing that my belief in agency and free will
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for the people of Tanzania was echoed by millions of others.
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So I found a way to keep speaking out even after being censored.
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Secondly, I found community
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in the alliances I made with people who had also found their voices
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and were willing to fight for democracy,
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a community that became my safe space.
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And lastly,
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autocracies fail.
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It is what history has taught us.
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I reminded myself every day
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that I was on the right side of history,
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and the autocracy in Tanzania would fail and democracy would prevail.
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So here's how it all started in 2015.
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President Magufuli promised Tanzanians wealth
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and the end to corruption in exchange for democracy.
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He claimed it was too messy.
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Too many voices to contend with,
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and this would lead to too many compromises,
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and wealth in the form of development would suffer.
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As for corruption,
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"the bulldozer" told us that rule of law was too slow.
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Corruption could only be dealt with by a messianic character like himself,
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who could mete out justice quickly and effectively.
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The association Transparency International rates the police and the judiciary
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amongst the two most corrupt institutions in Tanzania.
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So in a country where the GDP per capita
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is less than 800 American dollars per annum
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and corruption is a daily experience for the average person,
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giving up an abstract concept like democracy
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for the promise of wealth
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and a corruption-free society
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is a very attractive proposition.
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Very few realize that this abstract concept
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holds within it our agency,
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our free will, the very essence of our humanity.
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In early 2016,
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my weekly column on the importance of democracy was canceled.
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That was extremely frustrating,
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and I let my editor know how much in no uncertain terms.
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After a heated debate,
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the editor admitted that the survival of the paper
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depended on him making some concessions,
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including cutting my views out of the publication.
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I felt like I had been robbed of my agency.
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My editor also asked me to self-censor and warned me that if I did not,
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the state would retaliate by creating fear,
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alienating me from family and friends
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and destabilizing me financially.
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By late 2016, the public campaign of fear had begun.
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Bodies wrapped in gunny sacks would wash up on our pristine beaches.
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Journalists and businessmen would disappear without a trace.
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Police would snatch and grab journalists, human rights activists, lawyers,
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opposition politicians and keep them incommunicado.
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The country was consumed by fear.
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In June 2017,
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I dared to lift my head above the parapet,
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and I represented Tundu Lissu,
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an opposition politician and also the president
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of the Bar Association of Tanganyika Law Society,
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who had been arrested and held incommunicado
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for more than one week.
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What was his crime?
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He called Magufuli a “petty dictator.”
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He was finally released on bail in July.
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It was then, about a month later,
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at 2am on August 26,
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that my office building was bombed.
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The campaign of fear had become personal.
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And no one has ever been charged for that offense.
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I recall the fear in my colleague's eyes
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as they asked me to self-censor.
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Association with me had become dangerous, and I started to lose friends.
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It was very lonely.
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Then on September 7, 2017,
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Tundu Lissu was shot 16 times with a submachine gun
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in broad daylight outside his home.
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He survived this murderous attempt, and no one has been charged.
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Like the rest of the country,
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on the afternoon of the shooting, I was in disbelief.
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And fear gripped me.
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You know, fear can either cripple you into inaction or spur you to fight.
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I consider myself lucky.
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Fear spurs me to fight.
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So I began to fight back.
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I looked for a way to continue to advocate for democracy,
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rule of law and human rights
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on a platform outside the reach of the state:
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Twitter.
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In January 2018,
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I joined Twitter where I started publishing my thoughts on democracy,
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rule of law and human rights in Kiswahili.
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In very little time, I had a million followers
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and was known as Shangazi wa Taifa,
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which in Swahili means the aunt of the nation.
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I had regained my voice on my terms.
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No one could censor me, so I believed.
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But then, the state machinery used trolls to insult my family and me
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and threaten my life.
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It was frightening because I couldn't tell
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when the internet violence would spill into the real world.
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But I kept going.
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I made connections with other Tanzanian Twitter influencers
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who were fighting for democracy.
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We were a small group, but we bonded on and offline,
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and there was power in our conviction and in our message.
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We created an online democratic space which we called Twitter Republic.
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To shut us down, the state spent millions of dollars --
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and this is a poor country --
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to block access to Twitter.
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We installed free VPNs,
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encouraged others to do the same,
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and continued tweeting relentlessly.
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In March 2018, I decided to run for the presidency
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of the Tanganyika Law Society
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to keep fighting for rule of law and democracy.
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I was elected as the second female president of the society
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and used my position to advocate for democracy, rule of law.
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The question most people ask is: Were you not scared?
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I was petrified,
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and when I was driving,
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I used my rear-view mirror and my side-view mirror
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a lot more than necessary to see who might be following me.
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But my belief in agency and free will
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outweighed my fear of the autocratic government.
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The Tanzanian judiciary has a tradition
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of inviting the president of the Law Society
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to speak at Law Day.
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In February 2019, during Law Day,
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the judiciary informed me that there was no time for my speech.
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After they had scrutinized it.
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Again, someone, somewhere was attempting to censor me.
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The entire Governing Council of the bar boycotted Law Day 2019.
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I made a recording of my speech in Kiswahili and posted it online.
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It was about the judicial's role and failure to promote rule of law.
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It went viral.
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I had once again regained my autonomy
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and my ability to share the truth.
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Not sufficiently satisfied with my presence on Twitter,
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I, along with a group of concerned citizens,
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decided to bring our activism to court.
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In 2018,
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we commenced a slew of cases against the president and his government
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for breaching our constitution.
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We also made sure that the cases were fought out
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in the court of public opinion,
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if only to educate.
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In early 2019,
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the judge presiding over one of these cases
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suspended me from practicing indefinitely,
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without giving me a right to be heard.
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By September 2020,
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as I mentioned, I was permanently disbarred.
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The reasons don't matter.
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Suffice it to say that in Tanzania,
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the bar is not independent,
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and we're disciplined by a judge sitting in a panel
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with the director of public prosecution,
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and both of them are presidential appointees.
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I lost my right to earn a living.
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My partners and people I had considered friends
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promptly fired me from a law firm I had helped build.
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The government had achieved its goal.
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I was friendless and finance-less.
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This fight wasn't without tremendous personal cost,
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but I still had my children, my parents and my siblings,
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and I made new friends.
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But they were all at risk, and I worried about them every day.
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I couldn't stop though,
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I realized that so long as I was living in an autocracy,
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I didn't have a career anyway.
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There is no rule of law in an autocracy,
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and lawyers are only relevant
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where there is respect for the rule of law.
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Worse still, I would lose my agency and free will.
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And I confidently said to myself,
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in any event,
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I'm on the right side of history.
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It wasn't long before I did find out how right I was.
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In March 2021, Magufuli was pronounced dead.
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He was a COVID denier,
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and the state denies he died from COVID.
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(Laughter)
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But, you know, public consensus disagrees with the state.
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His death marked the end of a terrifying era
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of hatred and darkness under a fearful autocracy.
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I don't want you to believe that there is a fairytale ending
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and that everything is good in Tanzania.
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What I can tell you is that we have reverted
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to a "transitioning democracy with a lot of potential."
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(Laughter)
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Presidential commissions now invite me
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to give my opinions on establishment,
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on rule of law and the need for constitutional reform.
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Tanzania is presently at a crossroad.
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We can either remain a transitioning democracy,
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proceed to become a working democracy
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or revert to a murderous autocracy.
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This depends entirely on whether enough people can stand up for democracy.
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So if there's one thing you can take home from this, it's this.
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If you live in a full-fledged democracy,
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please don't sit back.
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We need you to keep your country democratic.
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If, like me, you're living in a "transitioning democracy,"
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it's a good and safe place to fight for democracy,
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because transitioning democracies can easily revert into full-fledged autocracy,
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where fighting for democracy becomes a lot riskier.
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And if you're living in an autocracy, you can still fight.
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But it's better if you aren't fighting alone.
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Find your people so you can look out for each other and stay safe.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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