In Tanzania, the economy is not a separate thing from politics. There is a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. This is primarily a crisis of political legitimacy and lack of generational representation. The ruling party has amassed a lot of wealth and young people don’t feel it represents them, which is why part of the anger was expressed in the destruction of politicians’ property.

But underneath, the biggest issue was the young generation’s right to determine its own fate. Seventy to 75 per cent of Tanzanians are 35 and under, and there is a huge gap between them and their leaders. People don’t trust institutions, because they are all co-opted by the ruling party. The government had cracked down on civil society organisations, the media and opposition parties. The two main opposition candidates had been barred from running. One faced treason charges and the other’s party was disqualified entirely. This left President Hassan effectively unopposed.

It was highly spontaneous. The mobilisation was decentralised, organic and digitally coordinated. People just came out in reaction to the repression. They chanted: ‘Do not fear, you are fighting for your life’. When the protests broke out, I was in a small village, and more than a thousand people came out. This was quite shocking, because you would expect it in a city like Dar es Salaam, but not in a small village. It was clear people felt they needed to reclaim their freedom.

Before the election, social media had been a major organising space. Young people would voice their opinions on Instagram Live and TikTok. The government knew it and shut down the internet during the protests, so there was no communication whatsoever. But after the shutdown was lifted, the truth came from participants in the protests, who had used their phones to document what happened. That directly challenged the national propaganda machine that tried to control the narrative. Social media remained a powerful tool for expression, with people exercising their rights there instead of in the public square, where they might get shot.

People got shot just for speaking up. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, at least 10 people were killed across three cities, although diplomats and opposition sources put the total number killed across three days of protests in the hundreds. This is something people still carry: if I speak, I might die. If I go outside, I might die.

Getting arrested was another risk. A lot of young people I know were arrested just for being outside. Some were just voters caught up in the situation. Some were given clemency afterwards. People were also kidnapped, and this included journalists and a former ambassador. The message was that nobody is safe, and you are right to be afraid.

This resulted in self-censorship. People are now afraid to express their opinions. If you do not have true freedom of speech, you do not have true freedom of thought. And free expression is very difficult to restore.

The protests got the government’s ear. After the inauguration, the first thing created was a reconciliation process between the people and the government. A commission has been established to investigate what happened, so people who were shot and hurt may now have a chance to be heard. Historically, however, commissions have come and gone without consequence, so we are watching attentively. The government has also created some economic incentives for young people, such as cheaper loans and access to government positions. But it is still too soon to tell whether anything will change.

There is also the possibility of a new constitution. In her inaugural speech, President Hassan said she would pursue a new constitution in the next five years. There has been a draft constitution in progress since 2015, so if the government stands by its word, it could be significant.

Our biggest challenge is lack of structure. Those who fought for independence had learned from liberation leader Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa philosophy, W.E.B. Du Bois, the intellectual tradition of liberation. In contrast, most young people today do not have deep political knowledge or philosophical grounding to push for rights, hence the randomness of the movement. There is no leadership to fight for access to institutions. We are still largely resorting to social media.