Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Boutiama, April 13, 1922-London, October 14, 1999) was a Tanzanian professor and politician, founder and first president of the current United Republic of Tanzania since the October 29, 1964, when Tanganyika was unified with Zanzibar, until November 5, 1985. Previously, he had ruled the British colony of Tanganyika as Chief Minister from 1960 until its independence in 1961 as a Commonwealth Monarchy, and then as prime minister until the country became a presidential republic on June 9, 1962, after which he was elected president with more than 99% of the vote. He presided over Tanganyika until the formation of the modern Tanzanian state, of which he continued to be president. He was a founding member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), which served as Tanganyika's sole party from shortly after Nyerere assumed power until 1977, when he founded the Revolution Party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi), which he chaired until 1990. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, Nyerere promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa. He is revered in the Catholic Church, having been declared a Servant of God by Pope Benedict XVI. His feast day is celebrated every year on October 14.
Born in Butiama, part of the British colony of Tanganyika, Nyerere was the son of a Zanaki chief. After completing his education, he studied at Makerere College in Uganda and then at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In 1952 he returned to Tanganyika, married, and worked as a teacher. In 1954, he helped form TANU, through which he campaigned for Tanganyika independence from the British Empire. Influenced by India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Nyerere preached nonviolent protest to achieve this goal. Elected to the Legislative Council in the 1958-1959 elections, Nyerere led TANU to victory in the 1960 general election, becoming Prime Minister. Negotiations with the British authorities resulted in the independence of Tanganyika in 1961. In 1962, Tanganyika became a republic, and Nyerere was elected its first president. His administration pursued the decolonization and "Africanization" of the civil service while promoting unity among the country's indigenous Africans and Asian and European minorities. He encouraged the formation of a one-party state and unsuccessfully pursued the pan-Africanist formation of an East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya. A 1963 mutiny within the army was suppressed with British help.
Following the Zanzibar revolution of 1964, the island of Zanzibar was united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania. Nyerere placed increasing emphasis on national self-sufficiency and socialism. Although his vision of socialism differed from that promoted by Marxism, Tanzania developed close ties with Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China. In 1967, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, which outlined his vision for the Ujamaa. Banks and other large industries and companies were nationalized. Education and health expanded significantly. A renewed emphasis was placed on agricultural development through the formation of communal farms, although these reforms made food production more difficult and left Tanzania dependent on foreign food aid. Abroad, his government provided training and aid to anti-colonialist groups fighting white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa. Between 1978 and 1979, he led a successful war against Uganda, overthrowing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and strengthening Tanzanian regional leadership. In 1985, Nyerere retired and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who reversed many of Nyerere's policies. He remained president of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi until 1990, supporting a transition to a multi-party system, and later served as a mediator in attempts to end the civil war in Burundi.
Nyerere was a controversial figure. Throughout Africa he earned wide respect as an anti-colonialist and in power he was praised for ensuring that, unlike many of its neighbors, Tanzania remained stable and unified in the decades after independence. His construction of the one-party state (taking into account the socialist rise) and the use of detention without trial although without his personal supervision in most cases. it led to accusations of dictatorial governance, while economic mismanagement has also been blamed on him, for which he decided to resign. He holds deep respect within Tanzania, where he is often referred to by the honorific term Mwalimu (Swahili: 'Master') and is described as the "Father of the Nation".
Biography
Early years and education
Kambarage Nyerere was born on April 13, 1922 in the city of Boutiama, in Tanganyika, then part of the British Empire. He was one of the 26 children of Nyerere Burito (1860-1942), chief of the Zanaki. He started primary school in Musoma at the age of 12, and entered Tabora Grammar School in 1937. He would later describe Tabora School as "as close to Eton as it gets in Africa". In 1943 he was baptized as a Catholic, taking the name "Julius". He received a scholarship to go to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. There, Nyerere founded the Tanganyika Welfare Association, which eventually merged with the Tanganyika African Association, founded in 1929. Nyerere received his teaching diploma in 1947. He returned to Tanganyika and worked for three years at the Tanganyika High School. of Santa Maria in Tabora, until he obtained a scholarship from the British Government to attend the University of Edinburgh. He obtained a degree in economics and history in 1952. In Edinburgh he was introduced to the Fabian movement and began to develop his socialist vision which he would later apply in Tanzania.
Beginnings in his career
On his return to Tanganyika, Nyerere secured a position teaching history, English and Kiswahili at St. Francis College near Dar es Salaam. In 1953 he was elected president of the Tanganyika African Association (TAA), a civic organization led by public officials with which Nyerere had been involved when he was a student at Makerere University. In 1954 the TAA became the Tanganyika African National Union —TANU by its acronym—, whose main objective was to achieve the independence and sovereignty of Tanganyika. A campaign was organized to recruit new members, and within a year TANU was practically the leader of the political organization of the country.
Nyerere's activities attracted the attention of the authorities, and he was suddenly forced to choose between his work as an educator and his new activities in politics. He would later claim that he was a "professor by choice and politician by accident." Nyerere gave up teaching to devote himself solely to politics, and has since traveled across the country speaking to common people and tribal chiefs in order to convince them to join the organization and gain support for independence. He also later represented TANU at the United Nations Trusteeship Council in New York. His oratory skills helped him achieve the goal of making the country independent without the need for wars or bloodshed. The cooperation of then-Governor-General Richard Turnbull was also a factor in Tanganyika independence. In 1958, he was present in Accra (Ghana) at the Pan-African Conference of Peoples organized by President Kwame Nkrumah.
Creation of the Tanzanian nation
Nyerere entered the colonial legislative council after the first general elections between 1958 and 1959 and was elected head of government after new elections the following year. On December 9, 1961, Tanganyika gained its independence as a Commonwealth Dominion and Nyerere became its Prime Minister. On July 9, 1962, Tanganyika became a republic, and Nyerere took office as its first president with 99.2% of the vote. A month later, Nyerere declared that to promote the interests of national unity and economic development, TANU would now be the only legal party in the country, making Tanganyika a one-party state, although technically it had been since the proclamation of the Republic. To celebrate the first year of independence, Nyerere translated William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar into Swahili as a gift to the nation from him.
On January 12, 1964, the revolution of the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba occurred, which overthrew Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah and established a republican regime. Nyerere was a key figure in the union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika to form the present United Republic of Tanzania. Initially, John Okello, leader of that revolution, intended to unify Zanzibar with Kenya, so Nyerere, unnerved by a failed Tanganyim Army mutiny, ensured that Okello was not allowed to return to Zanzibar after a visit to the mainland.
Demands African unity: "Without unity, the peoples of Africa have no future, except as perpetual and weak victims of imperialism and exploitation." In this perspective, he is trying to convince the leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Zanzibar to join forces with Tanganyika to build a single federation. Observing the unrest in some newly independent countries, particularly the Congo, Nyerere began to reflect on the role of the army. The sometimes excessive influence of the young African armies in national politics and their inability to fight against the intrusions of the great powers led him to campaign for the construction of a common army for African countries.
Presidency
Economic policy
Finally, on October 29, 1964, the United Republic of Tanzania was created, with Nyerere as president. Once in power, Nyerere issued the "Arusha Declaration", which called for the application of an economic program influenced by African socialist ideas. He also established close ties with Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China, and introduced a collectivization policy into the country's agricultural system, known as Ujamaa, a Swahili word for brotherhood or family. By 1967, nationalizations transformed the Tanzanian government into the country's largest employer. The State expanded rapidly in practically all sectors. He was involved in everything from retail to export and import trade.
Collectivization accelerated in 1971. Because much of the population rejected it, Nyerere used police forces to forcibly transfer most of the population to collective farms. A substantial amount of the country's wealth—in the form of structures and spaces such as fields and fruit trees—was forcibly destroyed or abandoned. Most of the livestock was lost, stolen, or the animals became sick and died. In 1975, the government issued the "Ujamaa Program" to send the Sonjo people to northern Tanzania from compact sites with little water to more fertile places where they could work. New villages were built to make it easier to grow crops and raise livestock. Tea and clove production became key to the livelihood of Tanzanian farmers in the 1970s. Since 1974, the Ujamaa and Association for International Development (IDA) programs have worked together. IDA funded projects to educate farmers in tea cultivation. From having only three tons of tea produced in 1964, 2,100 tons were produced in 1975. Another example of Tanzania's largest crops is tobacco, the country becoming the third largest tobacco manufacturer in Africa in 1976.
Foreign Policy
Foreign policy during the Nyerere government emphasized non-alignment during the Cold War and under his leadership Tanzania enjoyed good relations with the PRC and the Soviet Union, as well as with the United States and the bloc countries Western, although Nyerere sided with China in the Sino-Soviet rivalry. He recognized the Republic of Biafra during its independence from Nigeria, with Tanzania being one of five countries to recognize the short-lived state, along with Gabon, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, and Zambia. This was the reason for criticism, since this could have caused problems in their relations with the aforementioned country. Biafra would become part of Nigeria again in 1970, after the Biafran War.
Nyerere, along with several other pan-Africanist leaders, founded the Organization for African Unity in 1963. Nyerere supported various military groups, including the African National Congress (ANC), and the South African Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), FRELIMO when it tried to overthrow Portuguese rule over Mozambique, the MPLA when it tried to overthrow Portuguese rule in Angola, and the ZANLA in its war against the government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia. From the mid-1970s on, along with President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Nyerere was one of the leaders of the Front Line, campaigning in support of majority black governments in southern Africa.
At the same time, relations with Western countries deteriorated; in 1965 Tanzania severed relations with the United Kingdom and expelled British troops from the country in response to London's support for a segregationist regime in Rhodesia, while West Germany severed its own relations with Tanzania after the opening of an East German embassy in the country. The economic aid granted by some western countries was cut off
Nyerere was also instrumental in the military coup in Seychelles in 1977 that overthrew the government of James Mancham and installed a socialist regime that would last until 1993, although the country would not democratize until 2004. Despite economic difficulties, the country is at peace and receives many refugees from neighboring countries at war or fleeing the Amin Dada regime in Uganda. Nyerere refuses that the administration's Africanization policy favors only Tanzanians and allows foreigners access to public jobs. Many also gain Tanzanian citizenship, including white refugees.
Social Influence
In the late 1960s, Nyerere penalized "decadent" forms of culture, including non-conformist music, unapproved movies and magazines, miniskirts, and tight pants. During an interview, Nyerere commented that homosexuality was " alien" to Africa and therefore homosexuals there could not protect themselves from discrimination. That part of the interview was later cut. However, although same-sex sexual acts were illegal, the persecution of homosexuals in Tanzania during Nyerere's rule occurred very rarely.
Uganda-Tanzania War
Relations between Tanzania and the Republic of Uganda (independent in 1962) had been tense since dictator Idi Amin came to power in 1971. Nyerere gave refuge to ousted Ugandan President Milton Obote, as well as several refugees from the opposition to Amin. A year later, a group of refugees tried to invade Uganda from Tanzania to overthrow Amin, without success. In early October 1978, dissident troops ambushed Amin at his presidential residence in Kampala, but he escaped with his family by helicopter, by which time Amin's entourage had dwindled dramatically.
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When General Mustafa Adrisi, Amin's vice president, was injured in a suspicious car accident, troops loyal to Adrisi—and other soldiers who were disgruntled for other reasons—mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, which included members of the elite Simba Battalion, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. The rebellion spread to Tanzania, where the exiles began fighting the forces. from Amin. In response, Amin declared a state of war on Tanzania, and sent troops to annex the Kagera region under the excuse that it was part of Uganda.
The Tanzania People's Defense Force (TPDF) was at the time a professional Army trained by British officers and with British and Red Army equipment, although it was smaller than the Ugandan. To compensate for this disadvantage, in the course of the first weeks, police officers, gendarmes, national guards, and volunteer militias were added as reserves. Additionally, they were joined by an alliance of exiled Ugandans in Tanzania, the Uganda National Liberation Front (Uganda National Liberation Front, UNLF) and its armed wing, the Uganda National Liberation Army (Uganda National Liberation Army, UNLA) commanded by Tito Okello, Yoweri Museveni and Obote. Amin's Army was weakened, not only by the Simba mutiny but also by the purges of competent officers of Acholí and Lango origin. His troops were poorly trained, equipped, clothed, and supplied. In many places the UPA troops preferred to dedicate themselves to looting towns than to fighting, and when their enemies arrived they preferred to flee. In this way the Ugandans fell back north towards Kampala quickly.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Amin's close ally, learned that the TPDF was advancing from the south towards Kampala and Entebbe, Uganda's largest cities, and sent a few thousand Libyan soldiers to help defend them. The front became bogged down in the Lukaya swamp, an area difficult to cross, on March 10, 1979 the TPDF 201st Brigade tried to cross it by a road that passed through the south-western area but the Libyans repelled it. But two days later the 201st and 208th Brigades launched a joint attack that forced the Libyans back. The worst thing was that the UPA troops began to retreat looting the areas, leaving the Libyans to contain the Tanzanian advance. After this battle the TPDF advanced almost unopposed and in early April took Entebbe, isolating Amin in the capital. On April 10 Kampala fell and the following day Amin managed to flee to his home province of West Nile (West Nile) supposedly to gather troops with which to resist, although in reality after arriving there he escaped to Libya and finally to Saudi Arabia, where he would settle until his death in 2003.
Post-presidential activity and last years
Nyerere announced that he would retire after the 1985 presidential election, leaving the country to enter an era of free markets (one of the International Monetary Fund's impositions of loans), under the leadership of Ali Hassan Mwinyi, his successor. Nyerere was instrumental in putting both Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa in power. He remained president of his party until 1990, being remembered as the father of the nation. There were no multi-party elections in Tanzania until 1995. Nyerere left Tanzania as one of the poorest, least developed and aid dependent countries in the world. However, the social development during Nyerere's rule was remarkable. Life expectancy rose from 43 years in 1960 to 52 in 1985, finally reaching 60 today. Infant mortality was reduced. There was 85% literacy and 3.7 million children enrolled in primary school.
During the country's second multi-party election in 1995 (the first being in 1964), Nyerere was influential enough to block Jakaya Kikwete's nomination, citing him as "too young" for the presidency of the country. He did not object when his party relinquished its monopoly on power in 1992. He also served as president of the International Commission for the Independent South (1987-1990). One of his last political activities was to be the main mediator of the Burundi conflict in 1996.
He died of leukemia on October 14, 1999 in London, at the age of 77.
Cause for beatification and canonization
In 2005, the Catholic Church began the procedures for his future beatification and canonization. Already on Nyerere's death, Cardinal Polycarp Pengo assured, in his homily at his solemn state funeral, that
“He was the son of the Church and will have his place in Paradise.”
His remains rest in the cemetery of his hometown, Boutiama, near Lake Victoria.
The beatification process began on January 21, the anniversary of the marriage between Julius and Maria Nyerere. The process of the Servant of God is under the direction of the Bishop of Musoma and the postulator of the cause is Father Wojciech Koscielniak.
Father John Civille, of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) and Father Laurenti Magesa are the two censoring theologians collaborating in the process.
Among Nyerere's memorable phrases, one of the most beautiful is:
“I wish to light a candle and put it on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to illuminate beyond our borders, giving hope to those who are desperate, putting love where there is hatred, and dignity where there was only humiliation before.”Julius Nyere
Posts
- Freedom and Unity (Uhuru na Umoja): A Selection from Writings " Speeches, 1952–1965 (Oxford University Press, 1967)
- Freedom and Socialism (Uhuru na Ujama): A Selection from Writings & Speeches, 1965-1967 (Oxford University Press, 1968)
- Freedom and Development (Uhuru Na Maendeleo): A Selection from the Writings & Speeches, 1968-73 (Oxford University Press, 1974)
- Ujamaa — Essays on Socialism (1977)
- Crusade for Liberation (1979)
- Julius Kaisari (Trad. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)
- Mabepari wa Venisi (Trad. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)
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