Nairobi, Jan. 28 -- How does one dance with a giraffe? A gorgeous creature, herbivorous and calm, perhaps ungainly as it runs or tries to drink water, but otherwise graceful. Peaceful. With a kick that can dispatch a full-grown lion in one strong action. How, indeed, does one dance with such a creature? You get where I am going with this, I hope.

Collective action against the state is our post-colonial legacy. Our forebearers didn't just step back and let Europeans take their land. There was a patchwork of responses ranging from collaboration and partnership to wars of resistance. We lost.

Now, we are Tanzanians. Along the way, we were collectivised and shaped into citizens in a modern nation-state. And so our relationship to the state ...