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 possibilityJulius 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
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