Keypoints:
- Samia Suluhu Hassan runs as first female contender
- Asha-Rose Migiro named CCM Secretary General
- Symbolism meets substance in Tanzania’s 2025 race
WHEN Tanzania’s election campaigns begin today, August 28, history will unfold in real time. For the first time, the country’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, will enter the race as a contestant in her own right, no longer the constitutional successor to her late predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli, who died in 2021.
In another first, Asha-Rose Migiro, a seasoned diplomat and policy heavyweight, has been appointed Secretary General of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which, with its predecessor the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), has ruled Tanzania uninterrupted since independence.
Taken together, these two developments mark a profound turning point. Tanzanian women have long held ministerial portfolios and served in parliament, but party structures — the engine rooms of political power — remained male-dominated. Now, with Hassan at the apex of state and Migiro in the party’s nerve centre, Tanzania projects an image of women not just participating in politics but shaping its direction.
A new chapter
Tanzanian women are not strangers to political mobilisation. Before independence, Bibi Titi Mohamed was a towering figure who organised women into the nationalist struggle. Later, figures like Sophia Kawawa steered CCM’s women’s wing, nurturing a new generation of leaders. Yet, the upper tiers of party decision-making — where strategies are crafted and candidacies decided — remained closed.
In government, women have been more visible. Anne Makinda became Tanzania’s first female Speaker of parliament, and Tulia Ackson currently holds the same role. Yet the symbolism of a woman commanding the CCM Secretariat carries a different weight. This is not representation at the margins, but a woman embedded in the party’s core machine.
Migiro’s credentials reinforce the significance. She has served as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Foreign Minister, Minister of Constitutional Affairs, High Commissioner to the UK, and advisor on Tanzania’s Vision 2050 plan. She also cultivated deep grassroots familiarity while working alongside former CCM Secretary General Abdirahman Kinana. Far from symbolic, Migiro is a political actor with technocratic gravitas.
Meanwhile, President Hassan has reshaped her image from ‘accidental president’ to leader in her own right. Initially underestimated, she has introduced a more consultative, pragmatic, and outward-facing style. Her ‘4Rs’ philosophy — Reconciliation, Resilience, Reforms, and Rebuilding — has defined her tenure. From reopening political space and guiding the economy post-pandemic, to gradual governance reforms and calls for unity, Hassan has broadened Tanzania’s political landscape.
Her candidacy this year is about more than personal ambition. It tests whether Tanzania — and Africa more broadly — is ready for women to secure presidential legitimacy through direct electoral victory, not constitutional succession.
Lessons from the region
The significance of Migiro’s elevation lies in the role of political parties. In Tanzania’s dominant-party system, they are the gatekeepers of power, deciding candidacies, allocating resources, and shaping policy. While women have historically been visible in CCM’s Women’s Wing and in cabinet, rarely were they at the decision-making core. With Migiro at the helm, CCM symbolically acknowledges that gender parity must extend beyond tokenism into the calculus of power.
Across the region, progress has been uneven. Namibia has pioneered cabinet and parliamentary parity through its ‘zebra’ system alternating leadership between men and women. Rwanda boasts the world’s highest proportion of women in parliament, though critics say it has not always meant independent power outside the ruling party. Ethiopia briefly embraced parity in 2018–2019 with a gender-balanced cabinet and President Sahle-Work Zewde.
These examples illustrate both possibilities and limits. Symbolic appointments inspire, but without broadening access for younger and grassroots women leaders, progress risks stalling.
Symbolism vs substance
There is no denying the symbolism. For schoolgirls in Dodoma and Dar es Salaam, seeing both the president and CCM’s chief executive as women sends a powerful message: women can wield power, not just support it.
But symbolism must translate into substance. True gender equality requires structural reforms, transparent nomination processes, gender-sensitive laws, protections for women activists and journalists, and budgets that prioritise education, health, and safety nets.
It also requires resilience. Backlash against women in politics is inevitable and remains widespread across Africa. Hassan and Migiro’s prominence may inspire millions, but it also risks provoking entrenched patriarchies.
Nonetheless, women constitute more than half of Tanzania’s electorate. Their leadership could energise female voters and younger Tanzanians who see equality as central to the nation’s future. Yet come October 28–29, 2025, bread-and-butter issues like jobs, prices, and access to healthcare may weigh more heavily on voter decisions than symbolism.
Critics note that simply appointing women does not guarantee rapid reform. Structural barriers often dilute influence. But history shows that when women leaders are given both power and resources, they expand agendas, champion social justice, and drive transformation.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf steered Liberia through post-war recovery. Hassan has expanded civic space, re-engaged the global community, and stabilised growth. Representation, when matched with authority, can indeed deliver reform.
A moment worth marking
Having both the president and party secretary general as women strengthens CCM’s image as modernising and adaptable. It may also grant the ruling party an electoral edge, provided it convincingly addresses economic realities.
As Tanzania enters the campaign season, the simultaneous rise of Hassan and Migiro forces a rethinking of political possibilities. For the first time, government and ruling party are steered by women at the highest levels.
This is both recognition of women’s historic contributions — stretching back to Bibi Titi Mohamed — and a glimpse of Africa’s possible political future. If victorious, Tanzania could emerge as a continental leader in gender parity, much like Namibia. If it falters, it risks reinforcing cynicism that appointments are merely symbolic.
For now, though, it is a milestone moment in Tanzania women political leadership. A political space long dominated by patriarchs is being reshaped by women not on the margins, but at the commanding heights of power.
