`Mwalimu with a whole country as a class

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere has been characterised in many ways. A BBC TV programme once called him 'An Idealist in Power'; Professor Ali Mazrui had a book on him titled 'The Titan of Tanzania'; U.N. Secretary ...

[Patricia Gallogly]

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century. His greatness however stemmed from the integrity of the person he was. He lived by the principles he professed.

[Patricia Gallogly]

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century. His greatness, however, stemmed from the integrity of the person he was. He lived by the principles he professed.

[aniceth kyaruzi]

It is not easy to forget what Mwalimu did to our mother land.He was more just a leader but a savior.Just like what Christ is to the world.Believe or not it will take another century for this country(Tanzania and all countries in the world)to have such type of a state man.Be a president or prime minister or whatever is.
Mwalimu is mwalimu.He stand on his own feet.THANKS.

[Brian Jones]

Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere was indeed a giant among giants. He was a statesman and a great world leader whose honesty and humility was unmatched. He was also an intellectual giant.
Many people have written about him. A number of scholars from East Africa have even written books about him: Ali Mazrui, Godfrey Mwakikagile, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and others. And they have paid tribute to him in a way that does not tarnish their reputation as intellectuals themselves. They have told the truth.
But while we remember Nyerere and pay tribute to him, we should bear in mind that the best way to honor him is to emulate him: try to live the way he lived as a man of principle. It will be hard to find another leader of his stature anywhere in the world.

[Masunga Bangili]

I think Mwalimu Nyerere had good ideas. But the way he want to execute them leave a lot to be desired.He could ask for loan and buy tractors instead of using hoe.

He also suppress imagination by not opening a lot higher education institution.

Basically he had good roadmap. But he didn't have the means to reach the intended destination and was not flexible enough to learn from other economy. He should have put more emphasis on technology.

Having said that he was genuine honest and person of intregrity. I suspect if he had study economics the result economic situation of Tanzania would have been amazing.

I would appreciate any different point of view.

[Lauwo]

I think if Nyerere had permitted a multi party democracy there would have been healthy open debate that would have avoided many of the problems that resulted from TANU/CCM authoritarianism. For example the Ujamaa experiment failed because the peasantry were not given the power of executive decision making and therefore had no faith in the directives issued from Dar es Salaam.

Several of Nyerere's foreign policy decisions were also extremely questionable such as backing Obote in Uganda for a second presidential term when it was clear most Ugandans loathed him; and accapting American pressure to destroy the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa)when it refused to accept his view that South Africa was too strong to resist militarily.

Lastly Nyerere's ideology led him into confrontational measures against agricultural societies that had established well run progressive cooperatives. Party hacks equated successful small farmers as "kulaks" and peripheralised areas such as Kilimanjaro, Uhaya, and Unyakusa. In national exams Chagga, Haya and Nyakusa students suffered discrimination, for example Kilimanjaro region stduents had to get 40% in national exams to pass while Songea students onlt needed a mere 26%. Many children changed their names and attended primary schools outside the discriminated regions to get a better chance of entering state secondary schools.

[Lauwo]

The intelligence services and army were also drawn heavily from Nyerere's home area. He was always portrayed as coming from a small insignificant tribe the Zanaki, but this was in reality associated with the Kuria. The Tanzanian military was nicknamed Jeshi la Wakuria (army of the Kuria).

Life in the latter part of Nyerere's rule was extremely unpleasant. Policies were adopted without thinking about consequences such as the fiasco of closing village shops, abolishing inetrnationally recognized eductaional qualifications, and introducing horrendous bureaucratic structures that opened the way for official corruption, mismanagement, and financial stagnation. Some measures were just plain laughable such as directives of how people should dress.

Nyerere was not a great man. Anyone who cannot tolerate open debate does not deserve such a title. Tanzanian society is now a multi-pary liberal mercantile capitalist state. Had Nyerere not introduced a totalitarian society perhaps socialist principles in Tanzania could have established deeper more lasting roots.

[Lauwo]

Masunga Bangili wrote:

He also suppress imagination by not opening a lot higher education institution.

That is also true. In Kilimanjaro Region, which was unfortunatately discriminated against under Nyerere, there were several well knwon institutions that should have developed early into colleges of a university: Mweka Wild Life College, Marangu Teachers College, Moshi Commercial College, and perhaps Kibosho Seminary and Lyamungu Coffee Research station. Arusha also should have had a university. Dar es Salaam's climate is unpleasant and not conducive to studying. Morogoro is remote and miserable. These days Tanzania and Kenya are full of mickey mouse missionary universities funded by simple minded wealthy Americans. Books (especially in Tanzania) are very scarce, the idealism of the original Zanzibar TV station has been replaced by South African consumer garbage and mindnumbing satellite TV. Forget about radio....It's just three cord Arab-lite or Congo cortortionist shout-dancing.

In earlier years East Africa had a great education system but the emphasis on Swahili, ill-will towards certain regions, and loony political education severely damaged home-grown intellectual development and made Tanzania prone to educational imperialism because people now feel (because of Nyerere's mismanagement) the future is English and mercantile Christian capitalism.