History repeats itself. The political and economic events that have been happening in Tanzania from 1960 until 2026 are eerily similar to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, an allegory and a satirical tale on the 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Soviet Union under the Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin.
From 1960 under the leadership of the first president of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the people of the United Republic of Tanzania were hopeful and idealistic towards their future as they lived under the ideals of socialism and self-reliance that “All Tanzanians are equal”. Now, fast forward to 2025 Tanzania: One small group of political elites has entrenched and put themselves in power by any means for 66 years since independence, meanwhile the original political and economic ideals of the people continued to deteriorate over the years. These few political elites in power from one party have hijacked and gripped political power with iron fist while mismanaging the economy, as people remain disgruntled with them. They are drunk in power, their actions say that they believe that, “All Tanzanians are equal but some are more equal than others”. In October 2025, some people reached a boiling point, they boiled and rebelled.
On 17 August 1945, George Orwell published “Animal Farm”, a satirical allegorical dystopian novella, in the form of a beast fable to criticize events and ideology leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin. The tale portrays the mistreated anthropomorphic farm animals of Manor Farm as they rebel against their human master, and are hoping to create a society where all animals can be equal, free, and happy away from human vices and interventions. However, the rebellion is hijacked and betrayed, and under the dictatorship of the pigs, the farm ends up in a dystopian state nearly identical to what it was before. The final betrayal by the pig leaders against the rest of the animals comes when the pigs alter the original Animal Farm guiding moral that ‘All animals are equal’ to read, “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others”.
Tanzania, an East African country formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar, was under the British colonial rule and Arab colonial rule respectively. The people of Tanzania were mistreated under the colonial rule. They eventually rebelled against their colonial masters to gain their independence in 1961, and hoped to create a society where all Tanzanians can be equal, free, and happy away from colonial vices and interventions. However, their rebellion and independence from colonial masters is finally hijacked and betrayed, and under the dictatorship of the few political elites, the country ends up in a dystoptian state nearly identical to what it was before independence. In Tanzania, the few political elites under the same political party since 1961 independence, as portrayed by pigs in The Animal Farm, now play the role similar to the role that colonial masters played.
The Animal Farm allegory is a depiction and a reflection of historical events that have been happening in Tanzania from 1960, starting with pre-independent Tanganyika and Zanzibar, followed by the 1961 independence of Tanganyika, 1964 Zanzibar revolution, the 1964 union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form Tanzania, followed by ideals of socialism up until 1991, then by economic liberalism and the multi-party political system from 1991, and then followed by a gradual deterioration and erosion of political and economic ideals by the few political elites against the majority well into the 2020’s, capped by the deadly demonstrations and unrest by the masses in the disputed October 2025 presidential election.
From 1991, the people of Tanzania wanted change, change in governance, political party systems, economic systems and leadership. With the fall of USSR, Tanzania as a nation morphed from a single party political system to a “multi-party” political system to mirror the global geopolitical wave of changes sweeping nations as they mutated from Socialism and Communism economic systems to Capitalism. However, from 1991 to 2025, the political and economic ideals of equality, self-reliance and prosperity for all as expected and hope for by the people of Tanzania has gradually deteriorated as the few political elites in power, and under their dictatorship, hijacked and betrayed the nation as the nation gradually moves towards a dystopian state nearly identical to what it was before independence.
In January 2026, the Tanzanian government announced that they are selling part of their gold reserves to raise funds to finance domestic infrastructure projects. In Animal Farm, Napoleon The Pig Leader sells a pile of timber to Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield Farm, and maneuvers to sell the wood to Frederick, only for Frederick to pay with forged banknotes. These transactions mirror the government of Tanzania selling off the nation’s natural resources to imperialists where the few political elites in power are the main benefactors of these contracts and transactions.
History repeats itself. Events and patterns of the past are repeating. Events and time never lie. Political and economic events that happened in Tanzania from 1960 to 2025 are eerily similar to the ones that happened in the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Marxist Stalinism as portrayed by the 1945 George Orwell’s satirical allegory, “The Animal Farm”. Interesting times these are. Time will tell what will eventually unfold thereafter.
Author: Dr. Allan Anthony Rwabutaza.
Original Article Publication Date: 7:15 pm ET, Sunday, February 15, 2026.