President Samia Suluhu Hassan became Tanzania’s first female president when she replaced John Pombe Magufuli, who died in March.
She’s also Africa’s only woman leader, apart from Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde, whose position is mainly ceremonial.
And despite President Magufuli’s popular legacy, she doesn’t seem afraid to take the country in a new direction.
He was one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, but she’s set up a group of experts to tackle the pandemic.
He shut down media outlets that criticised his government, but she’s allowed some of them to re-open.
He cut off contact with other countries, but she’s been busy meeting her neighbours – and signing deals with them.
In her first state visit to Uganda, she launched a billion-dollar project with President Museveni, setting up the longest electrically heated pipeline in the world.
“That’s a big step,” said the BBC’s Tanzania correspondent Aboubakar Famau. “Especially considering that during President Magufuli’s time, some countries, it was believed, had a strained relationship with Tanzania.”
Her appointment as president has been positive for other female politicians, even those from the opposition, such as Upendo Furaha Peneza.
“If she does her job well… this will help to actually change part of the patriarchy mindset within the public,” she said.
Source: BBC
