Today all across the country (Tanzania) we celebrate
Nyerere Day, marking the day of Julius Nyerere's death in 1999. We celebrate his life in remembrance of the great things he had done to this nation and Africa as a whole.
One of Africa’s most respected figures, Julius
Nyerere (1922 — 1999) was a politician of principle and intelligence.
Known as Mwalimu or teacher he had a vision of education that was rich
with possibility
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on April 13, 1922 in Butiama, on
the eastern shore of lake Victoria in north west Tanganyika. His father
was the chief of the small Zanaki tribe. He was 12 before he started
school (he had to walk 26 miles to Musoma to do so). Later, he
transferred for his secondary education to the Tabora Government
Secondary School. His intelligence was quickly recognized by the Roman
Catholic fathers who taught him. He went on, with their help, to train
as a teacher at Makerere University in Kampala (Uganda). On gaining his
Certificate, he taught for three years and then went on a government
scholarship to study history and political economy for his Master of
Arts at the University of Edinburgh (he was the first Tanzanian to study
at a British university and only the second to gain a university degree
outside Africa. In Edinburgh, partly through his encounter with Fabian
thinking, Nyerere began to develop his particular vision of connecting
socialism with African communal living.
On his return to Tanganyika, Nyerere was forced by the colonial
authorities to make a choice between his political activities and his
teaching. He was reported as saying that he was a schoolmaster by choice
and a politician by accident. Working to bring a number of different
nationalist factions into one grouping he achieved this in 1954 with the
formation of TANU (the Tanganyika African National Union). He became
President of the Union (a post he held until 1977), entered the
Legislative Council in 1958 and became chief minister in 1960. A year
later Tanganyika was granted internal self-government and Nyerere became
premier. Full independence came in December 1961 and he was elected
President in 1962.
Nyerere’s integrity, ability as a political orator and organizer, and
readiness to work with different groupings was a significant factor in
independence being achieved without bloodshed. In this he was helped by
the co-operative attitude of the last British governor — Sir Richard
Turnbull. In 1964, following a coup in Zanzibar (and an attempted coup
in Tanganyika itself) Nyerere negotiated with the new leaders in
Zanzibar and agreed to absorb them into the union government. The result
was the creation of the Republic of Tanzania.
Ujamma, socialism and self reliance
As President, Nyerere had to steer a difficult course. By the late
1960s Tanzania was one of the world’s poorest countries. Like many
others it was suffering from a severe foreign debt burden, a decrease in
foreign aid, and a fall in the price of commodities. His solution, the
collectivization of agriculture, villigization (see Ujamma below) and
large-scale nationalization was a unique blend of socialism and communal
life. The vision was set out in the Arusha Declaration of 1967
(reprinted in Nyerere 1968):
"The objective of socialism in the United Republic of Tanzania is to
build a society in which all members have equal rights and equal
opportunities; in which all can live in peace with their neighbours
without suffering or imposing injustice, being exploited, or exploiting;
and in which all have a gradually increasing basic level of material
welfare before any individual lives in luxury." (Nyerere 1968: 340)
The focus, given the nature of Tanzanian society, was on rural
development. People were encouraged (sometimes forced) to live and work
on a co-operative basis in organized villages or ujamaa (meaning
‘familyhood’ in Kishwahili). The idea was to extend traditional values
and responsibilities around kinship to Tanzania as a whole.
Within the Declaration there was a commitment to raising basic living
standards (and an opposition to conspicuous consumption and large
private wealth). The socialism he believed in was ‘people-centred’.
Humanness in its fullest sense rather than wealth creation must come
first. Societies become better places through the development of people
rather than the gearing up of production. This was a matter that Nyerere
took to be important both in political and private terms. Unlike many
other politicians, he did not amass a large fortune through exploiting
his position.
The policy met with significant political resistance (especially when
people were forced into rural communes) and little economic success.
Nearly 10 million peasants were moved and many were effectively forced
to give up their land. The idea of collective farming was less than
attractive to many peasants. A large number found themselves worse off.
Productivity went down. However, the focus on human development and
self-reliance did bring some success in other areas notably in health,
education and in political identity.
Liberation struggles
A committed pan-Africanist, Nyerere provided a home for a number of
African liberation movements including the African National Congress
(ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC) of South Africa, Frelimo when
seeking to overthrow Portuguese rule in Mozambique, Zanla (and Robert
Mugabe) in their struggle to unseat the white regime in Southern
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He also opposed the brutal regime of Idi Amin
in Uganda. Following a border invasion by Amin in 1978, a 20,000-strong
Tanzanian army along with rebel groups, invaded Uganda. It took the
capital, Kampala, in 1979, restoring Uganda’s first President, Milton
Obote, to power. The battle against Amin was expensive and placed a
strain on government finances. There was considerable criticism within
Tanzania that he had both overlooked domestic issues and had not paid
proper attention to internal human rights abuses. Tanzania was a one
party state and while there was a strong democratic element in
organization and a concern for consensus, this did not stop Nyerere
using the Preventive Detention Act to imprison opponents. In part this
may have been justified by the need to contain divisiveness, but there
does appear to have been a disjuncture between his commitment to human
rights on the world stage, and his actions at home.
Retirement
In 1985 Nyerere gave up the Presidency but remained as chair of the
Party - Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). He gradually withdrew from active
politics, retiring to his farm in Butiama. In 1990 he relinquished his
chairmanship of CCM but remained active on the world stage as Chair of
the Intergovernmental South Centre. One of his last high profile actions
was as the chief mediator in the Burundi conflict (in 1996). He died in
a London hospital of leukaemia on October 14, 1999.
"We will always remember you" : Msongo
