Africa trip
Steinmeier travels to Tanzania and Zambia
Before departure from Germany to Tanzania: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is traveling to Africa. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Accompanied by a business delegation, the Federal President is traveling to two African countries. Steinmeier’s list of topics for the trip is long.
At the Tanzanian government headquarters in Dar es Salaam, the Federal President will meet with President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has been in office for around two and a half years. He wants to encourage her to continue on the path of democratic reform that she took in the previously autocratically ruled country. In Berlin, for example, reference is made to the improved handling of the opposition and the commitment to the rule of law and human rights.
Steinmeier will also be confronted with a dark chapter of German history in the East African country when he speaks to descendants of victims of the Maji Maji War. With up to 300,000 deaths, this was one of the bloodiest colonial wars ever. In the war fought from 1905 to 1907, the population rebelled against the oppression of German colonial rule.
Today’s Tanzania belonged to the colony of German East Africa, which existed from 1885 to 1918. It also included the modern states of Burundi, Rwanda and a small part of Mozambique.
Premiere in Zambia
The second stop on the trip, Zambia, is new territory for a federal president. No German head of state has ever visited the landlocked country that borders Tanzania in the southwest. After discussions with President Hakainde Hichilema, Steinmeier wants to find out about nature and species protection on the Zambezi River as well as the consequences of climate change that can also be felt here.
Tanzania is about two and a half times larger than Germany. According to the World Bank, it has around 65 million inhabitants, significantly fewer than Germany. The country is considered politically stable and has one of the strongest economies in the sub-Saharan region. In contrast, Zambia had to declare its insolvency in 2020. It has around 20 million inhabitants, which corresponds to a quarter of the people in Germany. In terms of area, Zambia is twice as large as Germany.
There are also raw materials of interest to Germany in both countries – gold, graphite and nickel in Tanzania, especially copper in Zambia.