A native of Zanzibar, Suluhu served as a minister in the semi-autonomous region from 2000 to 2010. She then served as the Member of Parliament for the Makunduchi constituency from 2010 to 2015 and was the Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office for Union Affairs from 2010 to 2015. In 2014, she was elected as the vice-chairperson of the Constituent Assembly tasked with the drafting of the country's new constitution. Suluhu became Tanzania's first female vice-president following the 2015 general election, after being elected on the Chama Cha Mapinduzi ticket with Magufuli. Suluhu and Magufuli were re-elected to a second term in 2020.
As president, Suluhu has implemented democratic reforms, reversing the policies of her predecessor that were implemented to repress political opposition. She also implemented policies to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania, which Magufuli had denied was a serious issue. Other focuses of her presidency have included the expansion of infrastructure and the globalisation of the Tanzanian economy through investors and tourism.
Early life and education
Suluhu was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar on 27 January 1960 to a teacher and his wife. Four years later, Zanzibar unified with Tanganyika to form the nation of Tanzania.[1] She completed her secondary education in 1977,[2] and she began working as an office clerk.[1] She married agriculturalist Hafidh Ameir the following year. Together they had three sons and one daughter.[3] Their daughter Wanu Hafidh Ameir (born 1982), the couple's second child, went on to become a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.[4]
Suluhu became a development officer with the regional Zanzibar government in 1988. She became a project manager at the World Food Programme. In the 1990s, she was put in charge of a body that regulates non-governmental organisations in Zanzibar.[1]
Political career
In 2000, Suluhu became a special seat member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives with the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, where she was appointed Zanzibar's Minister for Youth Employment, Women and Children.[1][6] While in this position, she ended the prohibition on new mothers returning to school.[7] She was the only high-ranking woman minister in the cabinet and was treated less seriously by her male colleagues because she was a woman.[5] She was re-elected in 2005 and was appointed as Minister for Tourism and Trade Investment.[1][5]
In 2010, Suluhu sought election to the National Assembly, standing in the parliamentary constituency of Makunduchi and winning by more than 80%.[5] President Jakaya Kikwete appointed her as the Minister of State for Union Affairs.[8] In 2014, she was elected as the Vice-Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the country's new constitution.[9]
Suluhu was the vice-presidential candidate for the CCM in the 2015 general election, along with presidential candidate John Magufuli. She was an unexpected choice, as several more prominent and influential politicians were passed on for the role.[7][10] She was the first female running mate in the party's history.[11] They won the election, and they were sworn in on 5 November 2015.[12] Suluhu became the first female Vice-President of Tanzania. A dispute emerged between Magufuli and Suluhu in 2016 in which questions of her loyalty were raised, but Suluhu then made public statements in support of Magufuli.[1] Magufuli and Suluhu were re-elected in the 2020 general election, though the victory was called into question after allegations of electoral fraud by independent observers.[1][13]
On 17 March 2021, Suluhu announced that Magufuli had died after a long illness; Magufuli had not been seen in public since late February. She was sworn in on 19 March 2021 to serve the remainder of his second term.[14] Opposition leaders had expressed concern about a possible vacuum when 18 March passed without Suluhu being sworn in.[15] Out of public view, there was an effort by factions of the party to prevent her from becoming president, and she was the last of the senior government officials to be briefed on Magufuli's death.[16] Immediately after being sworn in, Suluhu inspected troops at a military parade in her honour.[13] In her first statement as president, she declared three weeks of mourning for Magufuli's death.[10]
Suluhu chose Minister of Finance Philip Mpango as her vice-president.[17] To strengthen her position in the government, she dismissed Magufuli's closest allies, including Bashiru Ally and Palamagamba Kabudi. She also restored the positions of people who had been removed by Magufuli, such as January Makamba, Nape Nnauye, and Abdulrahman Kinana. Suluhu expanded her influence over the party by aligning with former president Jakaya Kikwete.[16]
Upon her swearing-in, Suluhu became Tanzania's first female president[6] and the second Zanzibari to hold the post,[18] after Ali Hassan Mwinyi. She became one of only two serving female heads of state in Africa at the time she was sworn in, alongside Ethiopia's Sahle-Work Zewde, who held only a ceremonial role.[13] She was the only female head of government in Africa after she was sworn in.[19]
Presidential administration
Map highlighting countries Suluhu visited while president
The COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing when Suluhu became president. She reversed the denialist position on the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania held by Magufuli, and she entered Tanzania into the COVAX program to begin distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in July 2021.[20] Mandatory 14-day quarantines for travellers entering Tanzania from countries with cases of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 were imposed.[21] Suluhu permitted embassies and other international organisations to import vaccines into the country to vaccinate foreign nationals for their Tanzanian day-to-day work, aided by the Ministry of Health.[22]
Since becoming president, Suluhu has pledged to see that the flagship development projects that were initiated by Magufuli are completed on time.[23] She has also approved new development projects.[24] Projects that she prioritised include establishing a railway line, building a hydropower plant, and making electricity and clean water available in rural Tanzania.[19]
Suluhu filmed a movie, The Royal Tour, with journalist and filmmaker Peter Greenberg in early 2021 with the intention of promoting tourism and getting investors interested in Tanzania.[25] Suluhu became the fifth African woman to address the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021.[26] She reorganised her presidential cabinet in January 2022 to ensure that it was populated by loyalists,[20] while she gradually removed those who had served under Magufuli.[27]
Suluhu adopted a more internationalist approach rather than the isolationism of her predecessor, and she has sought to entice both investors and tourists.[19] In 2022, she attended the Expo 2020 to promote Tanzanian products and opportunities which led her to sign a business partnership deal with Dubai.[28][29] Suluhu took a neutral stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that they should negotiate peace and that "we don't know why they are fighting".[19]
In 2022, Suluhu was named among the top 100 most influential people in the world by American magazine Time.[30] By 2024, she began appealing to the supporters of her predecessor by appointing Magufuli loyalists like Doto Biteko and Paul Makonda to government positions.[16] She is expected to run for re-election in the 2025 general election.[19]
Style of governance
Writers for France 24, The New York Times, and New Internationalist have all described Suluhu as "soft-spoken".[13][19][31] Suluhu herself has referenced her quiet demeanour.[1]Al-Jazeera correspondent Catherine Wambua-Soi described a collaborative nature in Suluhu's approach to government, saying that she consults her advisors instead of making unilateral decisions.[1]BBC News cited a comparison to Magufili's predecessor, Jakaya Kikwete, who similarly engaged in diplomacy with the opposition instead of repression.[32] Suluhu is sometimes known as Mama Samia, a name meant to indicate reverence.[7] Suluhu has emphasised her femininity as part of her presidency, describing it as a factor in her attempts to create a culture of political unity.[33]
When she became president, Suluhu was seen by the public and outside observers as a more democratically-inclined alternative to Magufuli, who had developed a reputation as an authoritarian.[13][31][32] After taking office, Suluhu took measures to increase freedom of speech and freedom of the press to reverse Magufuli's policies and to improve Tanzania's global image. These included releasing political prisoners, meeting with opposition leaders, and reopening newspapers that were shut down for criticising the government.[20] She also lifted a ban on political rallies in 2023, which her predecessor had implemented to stifle the opposition.[34] Still, her tenure has been increasingly undemocratic: oppositions leaders and activists have been arrested under her tenure and at least one has been found dead; protest have erupted against the alleged disappearing and killings of government critics by the security forces, leading to more arrests.[35]
Though she has initiated several democratic reforms, there is no agreement as to how much can be attributed to her policies, and she has faced criticism for not challenging many authoritarian laws and practices.[19][32] Suluhu chose not to seek widely demanded amendments to the constitution when she took office, citing the poor state of the economy.[19] Following the release of Freeman Mbowe and his immediate conversation with Suluhu, his first appearance days later was at the International Women's Day event in Iringa in 2022. This caused critics to accuse Suluhu of releasing Mbowe on condition of support for Western feminist policies.[20][36] Suluhu's meetings and reconciliation with opposition leaders have conversely received criticism within her own party.[20]
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