U.S. MISSION TANZANIA RE-BRANDS CJTF-HOA

UNCLAS DAR ES SALAAM 000236 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E JLIDDLE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MMAR PGOV TZ SUBJECT: U.S. MISSION TANZANIA RE-BRANDS CJTF-HOA CIVIL & HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS PROJECTS AS "AFRICOM" ¶1. U.S. Mission Tanzania is re-branding all Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) projects as "AFRICOM." The Mission has worked diligently over the past three years to brand all USG assistance in Tanzania as "from the American people." We also denote the particular agency or implementing partner as appropriate, without over-complicating our signage. The decision to replace "CJTF-HOA" with "AFRICOM" in our messaging aims to improve AFRICOM's image in Tanzania by associating that name with all the contributions made here by DoD's highly effective civil & humanitarian teams. ¶2. In March 30-April 1, 2009 discussions, the top leadership and communication staff at CJTF-HOA's Camp Lemonier headquarters approved our proposed shift in messaging. Since CJTF-HOA falls under the leadership of AFRICOM, this change is more accurate. "Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa" is a confusing and somewhat menacing name for Tanzanians ("Horn of Africa? So what are you doing here? We are nowhere near the Horn of Africa." - "Combined Joint Task Force? To do what to whom?"). "AFRICOM" is a simpler and more straight forward label for DoD's good works in Tanzania. This messaging change assists us in establishing positive connotations for AFRICOM in the minds of Tanzania's civilian and military leadership, the media and the Tanzanian public. ¶3. We have repeatedly pushed back on the negative views (or paranoid fantasies) concerning AFRICOM proffered by certain opinion leaders who ardently oppose the USG in general and the U.S. military in particular. These old-school (but still influential) opinion leaders (chiefly older academics, political dinosaurs and aging journalists all stuck in 1970's style third world radicalism) have seen their influence decline as a rising generation, led by President Kikwete, forges close cooperation with the USG and the U.S. military. This branding change supports the rising generation of pro-U.S. leadership by associating all the highly popular work of DoD's civil & humanitarian affairs teams with the name "AFRICOM," thereby undermining the sinister connotations that the anti-U.S. crowd asserts. By stressing the positive contributions that AFRICOM is making through CJTF-HOA's humanitarian and military engagement (septel),Tanzanians will see that the goal of AFRICOM is to help Tanzanians develop prosperous, just and secure communities, not to militarize USG policy in Africa, as the AFRICOM detractors maintain. We believe that this change makes sense for Tanzania. We believe it is worthy of consideration by other U.S. Missions in CJTF-HOA's area of operations. ANDRE