Samia Suluhu Hassan

Samia Suluhu Hassan (born January 27, 1960, Zanzibar [now in the United Republic of Tanzania]) Tanzanian politician who has served as president of Tanzania since 2021. She is the first woman to serve as president of the country and is also the first president of Tanzania to have been born in Zanzibar.

Early life, education, career, and family

Hassan was born in Zanzibar in 1960, four years before Zanzibar and other islands joined with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania. After completing her secondary schooling in 1977, she spent the next three decades working in various positions, including posts with the World Food Programme and the Zanzibar government, while furthering her education. Hassan earned several certificates or diplomas, including a postgraduate diploma in economics (1994) from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and a master’s degree in community economic development (2005) via a joint program between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the United States. She married Hafidh Ameir in 1978; they have four children.

Political ascent

Hassan, long a member of Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), made her political debut when she was elected as a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives and was appointed a minister; she was reelected in 2005 and received another ministerial portfolio. In 2010 she was elected to Tanzania’s National Assembly, representing the Makunduchi constituency. While serving in the National Assembly, Hassan was appointed minister of state for union affairs by then Pres. Jakaya Kikwete and in 2014 was named vice chair of the Constitutional Assembly, the group charged with writing the country’s new constitution.

Vice president

Hassan’s political profile rose when she was selected as running mate of CCM presidential candidate John Magufuli in the October 2015 election. They were victorious, and Hassan was inaugurated as vice president on November 5. She was the first woman to hold that post.

She and Magufuli stood in the October 2020 election and won another term. Among the topics dominating the run-up to the election as well as the start of Magufuli’s second term were his increasingly autocratic tendencies as well as his response to the COVID-19 pandemic; with regards to the latter, he had been criticized for ignoring many of the recommended safety precautions and for declaring Tanzania free of the virus while it was spreading unchecked within the country. On March 17, 2021—after weeks of rumours that Magufuli himself had contracted COVID—Hassan announced that he had died from heart-related complications. She was sworn in as president on March 19 to complete the remainder of his term.

Presidency

As president, Hassan quickly moved to counter Magufuli’s COVID missteps and address the pandemic, with her government taking such actions as recommending that people employ social distancing measures and wear masks in public. She also urged Tanzanians to get vaccinated against the virus, even receiving a shot in public to help boost confidence in the vaccine. Hassan reversed some of Magufuli’s more repressive policies, such as by lifting bans on print and broadcast media as well as by rescinding a policy that had barred pregnant girls from attending school. Regionally, she made efforts to improve relations with other East African countries.

Another area of focus for Hassan was improving the political climate in the country. She formed a task force on political reform and democracy that compiled comments and suggestions from members of civil society, the media, and other leaders; the task force then presented recommendations to her. Hassan’s task force and some of her other actions exemplified her focus on what she called the “4Rs”—reconciliation, resilience, reforms, and rebuilding. In line with that strategy, in early 2023 she loosened the restrictions on opposition parties by lifting a ban on political rallies that her predecessor had enacted six years prior.