Tanzania, Feb. 28 -- When former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa died recently, there was possibly no official worry as to where he should get buried. Why, that was to be in his home village, Ngarash, in Moduli District, Arusha Region. Before the funeral arrangements, Ngarash was hardly known to the Tanzanian public, but there it was. All the government machinery descended on this, otherwise unknown village, for the state funeral of a departed national figure.

This has been the case with nearly all former leaders. Mwalimu Nyerere was buried in his home village of Mwitongo, Butiama; President Benjamin Mkapa was buried in Lupaso, Masasi; President John Magufuli was buried in the hitherto unknown Chato, his home town/village; former Prime Min...