Hotels that discriminate over race are a disgrace

Everyone who reads this column knows I have a love affair with Tanzania. It’s a political romance forged in the crucible of ideology. I couldn’t enjoy the blessings I have today were it not for the United Republic of Tanzania. In 1981, when the Kanu state forced me into exile in Tanzania, it was President Mwalimu Nyerere who accepted me — and other Kenyans — with open arms. Among them were MPs James Orengo and Chelagat Mutai. We were out and naked in the cold, and Mwalimu clothed and fed us, and put a roof over our heads. He angered Kenya, but his commitment to freedom — and revulsion of repression — were larger than the often silly and rote inanities of diplomacy.

I believe we were the first Kenyan refugees in Tanzania. Our presence there was no accident. Mwalimu sacrificed the lives and treasure of his republic in the cause of liberty and freedom. Tanzania — with Dar es Salaam as the epicenter — became the Black Mecca of freedom fighters. Every liberation group or individual with a legitimate grievance found refuge in Tanzania. Foremost among these were South African groups led by the ANC and the PAC, Namibia’s SWAPO, Mozambique’s FRELIMO, Angola’s MPLA and UNITA, and Zimbabwe’s ZANU and ZAPU. The PLO had an office there. It was home to exiled African-American civil rights activists. It didn’t matter whether you came from a colony, or a former colony. Tanzania welcomed you if you were legit. That’s why I am writing this column today. I need to call attention to an incident that can only sully the reputation of Tanzania as one of the most progressive countries in the world. Over the last two decades, Tanzania has grown tremendously. Private enterprise thrived than never before. But as President John Pombe Magufuli has publicly stated, the economy is under threat from cartels of corrupt and unethical civil servants in cahoots with the private sector. Enclaves of exclusion are developing, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. I saw this first hand last Sunday at the Sunrise Beach Resort in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam. We were subjected to treatment that was racist, discriminatory, and totally inexcusable.