Tanzania's Ruling Party Seeks to Rid Itself of the 'Troublesome' Tundu Lissu

By Philip van Niekerk

Tanzanian authorities have put opposition leader Tundu Lissu on trial for treason, a charge that carries the death penalty -- but it is not the first time that the country's apparatus of repression has tried to kill him.

During a visit to a Tanzanian game park last year, an official pointed out an unruly lion to President Samia Suluhu Hassan. "Does this troublesome animal have a name?" she asked. "If not, we should call him Tundu Lissu."

It is doubtful that Samia had in mind the phrase uttered by the English King Henry II in 1170 - "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" - which led a group of knights to storm Canterbury Cathedral and murder Archbishop Thomas Beckett during evening vespers.

After all, that was one of history's most infamous incitements to political assassination, the plot of TS Eliot's celebrated drama, Murder in the Cathedral.

Lissu is the leader of Tanzania's main opposition party, Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema).

Samia was also probably unaware that Lissu's family, pastoralists from the Singida region of north-central Tanzania, have a long history of keeping lions away from their cattle. Lissu's great-grandfather, Mughwai Murro Munyangu, even killed a lion with...

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