Biography of Julius Nyerere - Essay Example

JULIUS NYERERE INTRODUCTION One of Africa’s most respected figures, Julius Nyerere (1922 – 1999) was a politician of principle and intelligence. Popularly known as “Mwalimu’ or teacher, he was a man who had one of the supreme vision of education and social action that was rich with possibility. For a person hailing from what is referred to as the ‘Dark Continent’ it is indeed remarkable that this man was able to earn the trust and respect of people across the globe; irrespective of their country, continent or political ideologies. He truly showed the signs of a great leader. 2. EARLY LIFE Nyerere, whose full name was Julius Kambarage Nyerere, was born on April 13, 1922 in Butiama, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in North West Tanzania, to Burito Nyerere, the chief of “Zanaki” tribe and Mgaya Wanyangombe. “Kambarage” the name he was given at birth, means "the spirit which gives rain" in Zanaki because the day he was born a very heavy rain fell.  Nyerere’s boyhood was peaceful enough, spent on cattle herding and other rural pursuits, until the death of his father. His father died while he was still young and his mother had to take up his upbringing singlehandedly. From a very tender age itself Julius had a great interest towards education. He had to walk several miles to attend his primary schooling and completed his secondary education from the Tabora Government Secondary School. Later with the aid of his teachers from secondary school, he joined the “Makerere University” in Kampala in Uganda for teachers training programme. 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 where he was the first Tanzanian to study at a British university and only the second to gain a university degree outside Africa. In Edinburgh, he became involved with ‘Fabian” thinking that marked his development of the vision of connecting socialism with African communal living. 3. JOURNEY BEGANS…. When he came home to Tanganyika to teach, he found his people making restless efforts in order to achieve independence, but without a leader to spearhead their demands, kindled in him a kind of absurd courage. In around 1954 he started getting involved in politics and joined the political party called Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). Nyerere was elected the first president of TANU. However he was forced by the Roman Catholic leadership in charge of St. Francis School at Pugu to make a choice between his political activities and teaching. Consequently he decided to resign his teaching position and pursue politics.  4. FORAY INTO POLITICS In a country in which colonial rule had concentrated all political and military power, all access to education, and most of the wealth, hampered communication and mobility, humbled people into docile collusion, the classic conditions for a successful revolution were almost wholly absent and the prospects of independence were not only unrealistic but also horrendous. But Nyerere did not let these things put him off rather he journeyed throughout the nation campaigning for independence. In 1958 he went in front of the United Nations Organization and pleaded for the independence of Tanzania. Nyerere’s integrity, ability and readiness to work with different groups were a significant factor in the achievement of independence. In 1964, Nyerere negotiated with the new leaders in Zanzibar and agreed to absorb them into the union government and thus the Republic of Tanzania was created. His political graph showed a steep rise as he entered the Legislative Council in 1958 and became chief minister in 1960. A year later Tanganyika was granted internal self-government with Nyerere becoming it’s the first prime minister and finally he was elected President in 1962. 5. UJAMMA, SOCIALISM AND SELF RELIANCE As a President, Nyerere had a difficult task of leading the nation through the crisis of poverty, illiteracy and extreme backwardness. Tanzania was one of the world’s poorest countries suffering from a severe foreign debt. Neyere thought of a wonderful solution to curb this problem. He designed a scheme popularly known as “Ujamma” meaning ‘family hood’ and it comprised of villigization and collectivization of agricultural produce. It was a unique blend of socialism and communal life inspired from Marxian model. This revelation was set out in the Arusha Declaration of 1967. The objective of this declaration was to build a society in which all members have equal rights and opportunities, all can live in peace with their neighbours without suffering or injustice or being exploited, and in which all have would have a the right to the basic amenities of life before any individual luxury. It was very similar to Marx’s community system where means of production were owned by the state and its motto being “each one according to ability and each one according to need”. Nyerere focused given on the rural development. He encouraged People to live and work on a co-operative basis in organized villages or Ujamaa. This idea of his to extend traditional values and responsibilities around kinship to Tanzania as a whole might have been inspired from his childhood days, where he saw his tribe to be a unit of kinship and a family as a whole. However this policy was not of much success as people were forced into rural communes with little economic success. The idea of collective farming was less than attractive to many peasants. Productivity went down. However some light of hope was seen in areas of health and education. 6. EDUCATION FOR SELF-RELIANCE Nyerere’s educational philosophy was a twofold approach; education for self-reliance and adult education. His self-reliance educational policy is much similar to Gandhian nature. He found the formal western kind of education that was being imparted under the colonial rule improper for the people of Tanzania and their rural life. Nyerere’s vision of ‘Education for Self Reliance contended that Education had to work for the common good, foster co-operation, promote equality and most importantly had to address the realities of life in Tanzania. He was the one to recognise that Tanzania is yet not developed to have that kind of education required for earning high salaries in the modern sector. He wanted an education system in which the Teachers and students should engage together in productive activities and students should participate in the planning and decision-making process of organizing these activities. On the other hand Julius Nyerere directed the adult education system to help people make their own decisions, and to implement those decisions for themselves. He discussed this aspect in the Declaration of Dar es Salaam. 7. LIBERATION STRUGGLES Nyerere was a very committed pan-Africanist and endowed a number of African liberation movements like African National Congress, Pan African Congress etc, with abode. He put up a vehement opposition against Idi Amin in Uganda. He used the Preventive Detention Act to imprison his opponents and made many eyebrows to be raised as to his commitment towards human rights on the world stage with respect to his domestic actions. 8. RETIREMENT In 1985 Nyerere gave up the Presidency and gradually started withdrawing from politics. He died in a London hospital of leukaemia on October 14, 1999. [Tom Porteous, writing in The Independent (October 15, 1999) summed him up as follows: Nyerere inspired among his people both devotion and respect and returned the compliment by complete dedication to his work on their behalf as head of state. He was ready to admit his mistakes, and to show flexibility and pragmatism, but never if this meant compromising his cherished Catholic, humanist and socialist ideals. Nyerere’s life and career are an inspiration to the many Africans who dismiss the notion current in elite African circles today that justice, dignity and freedom should be subordinated to the single-minded pursuit of prosperity through economic liberalisation and structural adjustment. Africa needs more leaders of Nyerere’s quality, integrity and wisdom]1. 9. CONCLUSION Nyerere is one of the few statesmen to have achieved a great deal of respect around the world and across the political spectrum. He fought for his country’s independence and came to symbolise the struggle of oppressed people around the world. He steered Tanzania through the crisis like a breath of fresh air. He earned himself the international reputation of being a benevolent negotiator and quintessential peacemaker. He championed reconciliation and espoused the principles of nation-building and co-operative governance. He had authored a number of books of significance importance which taught the world the basic meaning od education, development, socialism and freedom. This once again reminds us how suitably he was called as a “teacher”. He was one of the few leaders capable of inspiring confidence both inside and outside the country. He had a near-omnipotent power at the negotiating table, carrying with him an indubitable moral authority and gentle but firm sense of fairness. Despite the massive feats that he has achieved deep down he remains the humble man and perhaps this is what explains as to what makes him so popular on the world stage. 10. SOURCES 1. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-nye.htm, visited on 16th April, at 9.30 pm 2. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/30/index-fd.html, visited on 17th April, at 6.00 pm 3. http://www.dacb.org/stories/tanzania/nyerere.html, visited on 19th April, at 2.00 pm 4. http://www.oau-creation.com/PAGE%205.htm, visited on 20th April, at 8.00 pm 5. http://www.answers.com/topic/julius-nyerere, visited on 20th April, at 11.00 pm Read More