Tanzania’s new president surely can’t be worse than the old one

TANZANIA’S NEWCCM president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, vows to continue where her predecessor left off. Pity the country if she keeps her promise. John Magufuli, whose death was announced on March 17th, was a covid-denying populist who ran a ruthless authoritarian regime. Many believe that the virus killed him.For the moment liberal Tanzanians are surprisingly upbeat, in part because they do not take Ms Samia, the country’s first female leader, at her word. She is a product of the ruling party, known by its initials , which has held power in different guises since independence from Britain in 1961. But she is no insider. She comes from the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, not the Tanganyika mainland, which is the hub of power.