DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 23 -- IT is easy to accuse a nation of drifting. “Sleepwalking into irrelevance” is a phrase that begs for attention, daring readers to nod along as if decline were a simple equation.

Charles Makakalas piece does exactly that, marshalling statistics and rankings to argue that Tanzania has been outpaced by Kenya, Rwanda, Vietnam and others.

It looks convincing on the surface, but only if one treats numbers as gospel and ignores the deeper story.

Numbers, after all, dont always lie, but they rarely tell the whole truth. They can be plucked out of context, framed selectively, and serve as evidence of failure.

But Tanzania, when examined through the lenses of history, diplomacy and lived experience, presen...