We try to be topical here at najonajo and with the US elections just finished (a gazillion billion dollars dished out to maintain the political status quo equivalent of a handbag fight on the dance floor) we thought it would be instructive to take a comparative look at the two political systems of the US and Tanzania. Part 1 in a broad encompassing series of 1 is below:

The US House of Representatives.

Constructed in the 19^th century and consists of six principal Congressional office buildings, three Library of Congress buildings and a museum of American art and history. To quote: “A fine example of 19th-century neoclassical architecture, it combines function with aesthetics. Its design, derived from ancient Greece and Rome, evokes the ideals that guided the nation’s founders as they framed their new republic”.

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The Zanzibar House of Representatives.

Fair enough. Perhaps you could quibble over the architectural proportions. You could even question the wisdom of locating  the local football pitch to its left and the road side bicycle repair shop to the right in attempting to evoke the aesthetic grandeur of Greece and Rome. The grazing cows in the car park don’t help much either. However, you cannot deny the intent. Zanzibar might be a small “country” but it has the ambition of a behemoth. It’s also spitting distance from our house and I am on friendly terms with the cleaner so I’m hoping to get my first hand glimpse of Zanzibar politics in action quite soon. I am very excited.

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. . . I did indeed manage to get in and sneak a peek at one of the chamber debates. Didn’t understand a single word which is pretty much the same reaction that politics in the UK gets from me. More interesting was the interior design and idiosyncracies of debate chamber politics. Whereas the UK Parliament goes in for oppressive mahogany and fetish leather as an interior motif and a lot of horse naying as a means of communicating approval and disapproval, Zanzibar is very much your wedding salon white with gold trimmings and a lot of banging and thumping on tables to communicate their pleasure or otherwise.  Quite rhythmic actually. For the first 15 minutes I thought the noise was the handyman doing repair work in the toilets. They also have a very nifty House Speaker who is much grander than the one we have. He is a splendidly large individual that sits on a splendidly large chair, behind a very impressive large desk on an equally impressive large podium. He sits at his desk and, well, sits mostly. He pressed a few buttons and lights flashed every now and then. I couldn’t figure out what he was up to. Pacman? Anyway, I got bored after 20 minutes and left. In hindsight you could probably swap both Parliaments around and neither country would notice the bloody difference.