While East Africans and Africans are still shocked with the way the current president of Tanzania who recently attained office is heavily doing work in Tanzania, UK magazine “TIME” has named the most powerful woman of the year in the world.
The German chancellor has been awarded honor for leading Europe through debt crisis and standing firm in support of aid to refugees. She becomes the first woman to bag the honorary award since 1986.
According to the time magazine, Europe’s most powerful leader is a refugee from a time and place where her power would have been unimaginable. The German Democratic Republic, where Angela Merkel grew up, was neither democratic nor a republic; it was an Orwellian horror show, where the Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall. 
A shortlist of candidates chosen by TIME magazine’s editors for the 2015 Person of the Year included the eight contenders, in alphabetical order include:
- Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,who as leader of ISIS has inspired followers to both fight in his self-declared caliphate of Iraq and Syria, and also stage attacks in countries like Tunisia and France.
- Black Lives Matter activists,who have protested inequality towards African Americans, especially in their treatment by law enforcement.
- Caitlyn Jenner,whose coming out as a transgender woman prompted widespread conversations about gender identity and issues of equality for the LGBT community.
- Travis Kalanick,who as CEO of Uber drove his car-hailing company to an early $70 billion valuation, but also drew criticism about the downside of the sharing economy.
- Angela Merkel,who as German chancellor has been at the center of major news events this year, from economic strife in the Eurozone to Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis.
- Vladimir Putin,who as president of Russia has defied Western sanctions over his country’s military activity in Ukraine to play a critical but precarious role in the war on ISIS.
- Hassan Rouhani,who as president of Iran is seeking to bring his country out of pariah status and repair its sanctions-crippled economy by pursuing a nuclear deal with the West.
- Donald Trump,whose populist rhetoric has made him frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential candidacy and stirred debate about the party’s future.
Every year since 1927, TIME has chosen a Person of the Year that influenced the world, for better or worse. From Charles Lindbergh to the Ebola Fighters, see past Persons of the Year.
In 1936, Time magazine opened up this contest to women. She is the first to be awarded the title since 1986.
Thoughts from Katanga 