Wakuu Gazeti la The New Yorker limeandika Hangaya alitoa offer ya kupeleka wanyama wa Tanzania huko Central Park, New York City,
kabla hata ya kuombwa
.
Soma Hapa Chini.
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MISSION: Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, the sixth President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and its first female head of state, desires a stroll through Central Park.
OBJECTIVE: To correct certain impressions advanced by Hassan’s predecessor, John Magufuli (nickname: the Bulldozer), who largely closed off Tanzania to the rest of the world and whose COVID strategy centered on three days of national prayer, after which he proclaimed, “The Corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God.” He died nine months later, seemingly thanks to COVID. (Official Tanzanian-government stance: heart problems.) Hassan, who was vaccinated publicly, is on a good-will tour of the United States, declaring Tanzania again open to visitors, investors, and science.
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STRATEGY: Meet at Ritz-Carlton. Hassan is incoming from Washington, D.C., where she attended a summit with Kamala Harris. In New York, she will appear at the première of “The Royal Tour,” a PBS program in which Hassan guides the host, Peter Greenberg, around her country for nine days—Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro. She hopes to attract American tourists. (Hassan, to Harris: “This is where the lovers and shakers of entertainment and leisure reside.” Harris, to Hassan: “Indeed.”)
Rendezvous at Ritz bar with Greenberg—short beard, jaunty smile—creator of “The Royal Tour,” in 2001. (“Back in the days when the Travel Channel actually did travel. Now they do ghosts.”) Previous tour guides: Netanyahu, King Abdullah II, Paul Kagame. “We turned down Putin,” Greenberg says. “I don’t want to see six-pack abs anymore.”
Smile at prodigious number of Tanzanian diplomats in the travelling party, who occupy three floors of the Ritz. (Greenberg: “Everybody wants to go shopping.”) Do not be alarmed when informed that the weather (chilly) and probability of establishing a security perimeter in the Park (null) have persuaded diplomats to reconsider stroll. Alternatives: A drive through the Park? Vehicles not permitted. A drive around the Park? Wait for motorcade, police escort, and brief halting of pedestrian traffic along Central Park South. Watch men with earpieces hold conversations until one approaches and says, “She’s ready.”
ACTION SUMMARY: Hassan exits elevator, trailing assistants, and wearing blazer and black-and-red hijab. Bearing: dignified, with deadpan joke delivery. Accept President’s offer of fist bump. Walk past armed officers to idling black S.U.V., surrounded by more men with earpieces. Hassan describes past trips to New York. She confirms intel, re: diplomatic visits and shopping. (She has frequented “H&M, Zara, Calvin Klein.”)
S.U.V. heads uptown. Hassan appreciates the varied vegetation and all the people.“We have very few parks for people to have fun,” she says. “Most of them are game reserves and land reserves.” Inform Hassan of New York’s own impressive wild game: the Harlem deer, the Central Park coyote. Hassan, amused, says, “I think we should give you some lions and rhinos and elephants.”
Hassan offers litany of her exploits as Greenberg’s Tanzania tour guide: Animal sightings—her favorite, a leopard; his, a warthog. (“I said, ‘You’re serious?’ They have ugly faces!”) Driving for the first time in twenty years—stick shift! “Ministers are not allowed to drive,” she says. A fishing excursion near Hassan’s home town, a village in Zanzibar called Kizimkazi; they caught wahoo. “A fish like this!” Hassan says, holding her arms out wide. (Greenberg, later, under light interrogation: “Do you want the real story? When you’re the President, things appear on your boat.”)
S.U.V. passes zoo. Presidential reaction: underwhelmed. The Serengeti is bigger. Hassan recounts gruelling filming schedule. “They didn’t treat me as a President,” she says. “I remember a point where I stood in the grasses, and I was fearful of the lions. And another time, with the Maasai, where I nearly fainted. It was dehydration.” She hopes it will pay off—she aims to increase tourism from a million and a half visitors a year to five million.
AFTER-ACTION REPORT: Despite mission creep, objective attained. Presidential Park assessment: “I’m impressed. The Park is big.” Première status: success. President bullish on next screening, in Los Angeles. “I’ll meet my fellow movie stars,” she says. “Peter, who have you invited?”
Greenberg: “I cannot reveal.”
Hassan, shrugging: “Maybe Will Smith.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan, the country’s first female leader, came to the States to drum up tourism, meeting with Kamala Harris, attending film premières, and offering up some rhinos for Central Park.
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