ZANZIBAR, Jan. 3 -- WHEN President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressed Tanzanians on the final evening of 2025, the country was emerging from a year marked by both progress and strain. There had been economic recovery, but also drought, flooding and political tension.

For many families, the years end was less about celebration and more about quiet assessment, of what had been endured, and what might come next. It was in this context that Dr Samias message found its tone. Rather than dramatic promises or sweeping rhetoric, she spoke in the language of steadiness. Inflation, she noted, had been kept low. Economic growth had improved.

The national debt, often a distant concept for ordinary citizens, was described in practical terms: costly loans...