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Tanzanian Young Hip Hop Artiste Young Daresalama presents the official Music Video for his new single "Furaha". Shot on Location in Dar es Salaam, directed by Hanscana

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The Truth On Celebrating the 17th anniversary of Mwalimu Nyerere’s death

This is the third article in the series which we designed for the purpose of commemorating the life and works of Mwalimu Nyerere during this month of October, the month in which he died, exactly seventeen years ago.
In all these articles, I am continuing with my campaign that we should be celebrating Mwalimu Nyerere’s life and works, rather than his death. That is the reason why in these articles, I have attempted to revisit his leadership life and works.

As we are reminded every day by the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) in their ‘Wosia wa Baba’ programme: “Kama siyo juhudi zako Nyerere, na uhuru tungepata wapi ? . . . na amani tungepata wapi? . .”

In each of the previous articles, we discussed one particular aspect of Mwalimu Nyerere, starting with what we called ‘Mwalimu Nyerere the person’, in which we discussed his personal endowments.

This was intended to help those who had no chance of knowing Mwalimu Nyerere, at least to get a picture of what kind of a person he was. In the second article, we discussed another aspect of him and his works, which we called ‘Mwalimu Nyerere the philosopher’, in which we examined his philosophies, including a presentation of his famous Ujamaa philosophy. (Having first defined the word ‘philosophy’ as used in the context of Mwalimu Nyerere, to mean ‘his beliefs or attitude to life that guided his behaviour and actions’).

In the present article, we will discuss some of the other aspects of his endowments and philosophies, to which we have given the heading ‘Mwalimu Nyerere the teacher’. The origin of the name ‘Mwalimu Nyerere’.

It may be helpful to explain that it was President Nyerere himself who formally directed that he should be referred to simply as “Mwalimu Nyerere”. The reason for his doing so was no other than his great modesty and humility, the two aspects which were some of his outstanding endowments.

He did so because, at the very beginning of his Presidency, he quickly noticed that it was becoming common practice for people to refer to him by the grandiose titles of “His Excellency the President”, or in Kiswahili, “Mtukufu Rais”. Because of his endowment as a modest and humble person, he disliked being referred to by these grandiose titles, Hence his directive that he should normally be referred to simply as “Mwalimu Nyerere’.

Mwalimu Nyerere the teacher. There are two distinctly separate aspects of ‘Mwalimu Nyerere the teacher’. One is that he was indeed a trained, professional school teacher. But the other was his extraordinary powers of persuasion, which he often used to great advantage when carrying out his leadership and governance duties and functions, in enabling people to understand clearly his philosophies or ways of thinking, plus securing their total agreement to his proposals.

A brief resume of Mwalimu Nyerere the classroom teacher. Mwalimu Nyerere obtained his teaching skills through his studies which he undertook at Makerere College in Uganda, where he was awarded a teaching Diploma; after which, he was employed as a Secondary School teacher in Tabora.

He was subsequently awarded a scholarship to pursue further studies at Edinburgh University in Scotland, United Kingdom, where he obtained a Master’s Degree. After graduation at Edinburgh, he was appointed to teach at what was then known as St. Francis College Pugu, near Dar es Salaam.

This was a Secondary School managed and operated by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers. It was a High School, operating only the two final years of secondary education, known in those days as Standards XI and XII, at the end of which the successful students were awarded the University of Cambridge School leaving Certificate.

I was one of Mwalimu Nyerere’s students at Pugu, and that, actually, was the starting point of my subsequent close working relationship with Mwalimu Nyerere. It so happened because, in a classroom of only twenty- five students, (which was the case at St. Francis College Pugu in those days), it was easy for the teacher to get to know the ability of each of his students individually.

It appears that my above average performance in class, is what ‘caught his eye’ at that stage, and which, later on after my graduation, gave him the confidence to appoint me, as he did, to a variety of top positions in the country’s Public Service.

Mwalimu Nyerere the leadership teacher.

(a) His oratorical skills. In the execution of his leadership functions, Mwalimu Nyerere’s had the rather rare ability to explain complex matters in a way that made it very easy for his listeners to understand; and this was widely acknowledged by all those who knew him well.

In other words, he was an excellent teacher in that particular aspect. For example, one of his greatest governance efforts was the transformation of peoples’ lives in the rural areas, by requiring them to live together in properly organized village settlements. 

This was one of the tasks to which he attached great importance. His superior skills in elaborating this matter to his audiences is amply illustrated in his inaugural speech to Parliament on 10th December, 1962, following his election as President of Tanganyika the previous day.

In that speech, he explained, in very simple terms, what was his major ‘villagelization’ policy , in the following words: “The first and absolutely essential thing which we must do, is to enable our people in the rural areas to live together in properly organized village settlements. So if you ask me what the Government is planning to do in the next five years, my answer is simple.

For the next five years, the Government will be doing all it can to enable the peasants of Tanganyika to live together in village communities. And if you ask me why the Government wants them to live together in such village communities, my answer is equally simple.

Our people who are living in the rural areas are currently scattered over wide areas,, with each family household being located in the middle of his shamba which in most cases is a long distance away from all their neighbors.

Hence, unless we bring them closer together, we will not be able to provide all of them, at reasonable cost, with the things they need in order to raise their standard of living, such as schools for their children, hospitals, and clean drinking water; in the same way as we are endeavoring to do for the people who live in the urban areas”.

(b) His ‘leadership by example’ philosophy. “Kuongoza ni kuonesha njia” was one of the catch-phrases which Mwalimu Nyerere frequently used in explaining his actions or decisions. This phrase summarizes the teaching that a leader must lead by showing a good example himself.

That is to say, he must always ‘walk his talk’. Mwalimu Nyerere spent much of his governance time in preaching the virtues of living in the villages.

His ‘leadership by example’ style in that regard is illustrated by his own actions. For example, as we saw in the previous article, soon after becoming President of Tanganyika, he quickly built his own private family residence in Msasani village, on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, and moved away from the grandeur of State House in order to live in that village.

Similarly, when the decision was made in 1973, to shift the seat of Government from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, he chose to live in the village of Chamwino, and directed that his official residence be built there, which was, of course, done.

Furthermore, after his retirement from the Presidency in 1985, Mwalimu Nyerere immediately moved to the village where he was born, that is Butiama, on the outskirts of Lake Victoria, and continued to live there until his death, after which he was also buried there.

That, indeed, was a clear demonstration of his own implementation of his ‘leadership by example’ philosophy, that is to say, his personal beliefs and attitude to life which guided his actions. Mwalimu Nyerere the ‘ethics teacher’. It has been said that “Ethics is the Heart of leadership”.

The dictionary definition of the word ‘ethics’ is given as: “ a system of moral principles or rules of behavior; or moral principles that control or influence a person’s behavior. Those of us who had the good fortune of witnessing the leadership style of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, can readily testify that his strong stance on the concept and significance of leadership ethics was quite clear and unequivocal.

The following two examples may help to illustrate his strong stance on the question of ethics. (i) As early as 1959, Mwalimu Nyerere made a significant statement in the Tanganyika Legislative Council, of which he was a member and leader of the Tanganyika Elected Members Organization (TEMO), in which he said the following: “The only safeguard of a peoples’ rights, the peoples’ freedom, and all those other things which they value, is the ethic of the nation.

If the people of any given nation do not have that kind of ethic, it does not really matter what kind of Constitution they have, such people can still become victims of tyranny.

Therefore, what we must continue to do all the time, is to endeavor to build an ‘ethic of the nation’. Such ethic of the nation, possibly more than its Constitution, is what will make even the Head of State, whoever he may be, to always pause and caution himself before taking action, by saying: yes, under the Constitution, I have the power to do this, But I will not do it, for fear of breaching the national ethic”.

It is this quest for a ‘national ethic’ by Mwalimu Nyerere, which subsequently led him to design and construct the “Leadership Code of Ethics”, and made it part of the Arusha Declaration.

The leadership code of ethics was effectively implemented during the whole period of his stewardship of the country’s affairs as President of Tanzania. But, unfortunately thereafter, this code was effectively abandoned, following a decision which was made to that effect by a meeting of the CCM National Executive Committee at its Zanzibar meeting in February, 1991.

(ii) A cause for Mwalimu Nyerere’s utter disappointment with his fellow African Presidents. We have already seen that the word ‘ethics’, means “moral principles or rules of behavior”. 

Towards the end of 1965, there suddenly occurred one particular incident of great political significance. This was the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Southern Rhodesia (UDI),a country which was at that material time a British colony.

Following that incident, All the African Presidents, under the umbrella of the Organization of African Unity (AU), agreed to hold an extra-ordinary meeting in Addis Abbaba, the Organization’ Headquarters, to deliberate and agree on an appropriate action which should be taken collectively by all of them, which would compel Britain to take action to quickly reverse that illegal unilateral declaration of independence by its Southern Rhodesia colony.

The meeting was indeed held as planned, and that meeting unanimously agreed to give notice to Britain, that each member country of the OAU would break its diplomatic relations with Britain on 15th December of that year if, by that date, Britain had failed to reverse the said illegal UDI.

When the due date arrived, Britain had taken no action against its Southern Rhodesia colony. But, despite the agreement to take collective action by all African Heads of State, only two countries, namely Ghana and Tanzania, had actually taken the agreed action of breaking their diplomatic relations with Britain.

Mwalimu Nyerere did not hide his total disappointment at this blatant breach of principle by his fellow African Presidents. He actually went to the National Assembly (Bunge) to express his feelings in a bitter speech in which he said the following: “ How can Africa fail to implement its own resolution?

How can African Heads of State meet in solemn conclave, merely in order to make a noise? Did they really mean what they said? The purpose of that resolution was to tell Britain that Africa requires action to be taken against Smith.

If that action is not taken, do we just shrug our shoulders and do nothing about it? Can we, the Heads of African States, honourably do nothing to implement our own resolution?”.
Narrative on Mwalimu Nyerere to be continued next week.
Contact: e-mail = piomsekwa@ gmail.com Cell = 0754767576.

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