Julius Nyerere, born on this day in 1922, was a socialist and anti-colonial Tanzanian politician who promoted a Pan-Africanist ideology known as Ujamaa, which means “extended family” or “brotherhood” in Swahili.

Julius 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.

In 1962, Nyerere was elected the first president of Tanganyika, a predecessor to modern Tanzania and a newly independent republic. His administration emphasized decolonizing society and the state, also unsuccessfully pursuing a Pan-Africanist East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya.

In 1967, Nyerere issued the “Arusha Declaration”, forbidding government leaders from owning shares or holding directorates in private companies, receiving more than one salary, or owning any houses that they rented to others. In compliance with this declaration, Nyerere sold his second home and his wife donated her poultry farm to a local co-operative.

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.

Nyerere’s government also aided in liberation struggles elsewhere in Africa, training and aiding anti-apartheid South African groups and helping to depose Ugandan ruler Idi Amin. In 1985, Nyerere stepped down as President and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi in a notably peaceful and stable transition of power.

“Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated.”

Julius Nyerere

  • Biography : Julius Kambarage Nyerere

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  • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Lurking over that thread made me mald so hard that I signed back in after more than 50 days here (don’t have a Reddit) so I can put this information out on the internet somewhere in case anyone searches it:

    There’s comments[1] [2] [3] in the thread more or less saying “the Holy Land is an important pilgrimage location and this is a Catholic travel agency; criticizing them for this is wrong for the same reason criticizing a Muslim for performing Hajj is wrong”

    A Catholic travel agency that books/plans trips to occupied territories in Palestine is absolutely doing a grave transgression that is not justified by the religious pilgrimage nature of the trip, nor is comparable to making the Hajj as a Muslim.

    For starters, Catholics have many dozens if not hundreds of locations we may choose to make a pilgrimage to, and most are not in occupied territories. You can go to any site of a Marian apparition, several shrines dedicated to saints, the Vatican, and many other places that have relics or other religious significance. And while it’s true that you receive indulgences for going on pilgrimage, there’s many other ways of gaining them, like praying during Divine Mercy Sunday and doing a whole variety of different little tasks (I couldn’t quickly find who has the authority to grant indulgences, but I have certainly heard of plenary indulgences being granted in my Parish for just going and participating in a certain event). This isn’t comparable at all to Muslims who perform Hajj because they have to do that. And if I had a Muslim friend who had already performed Hajj and they were telling me that they were considering going again just because they enjoyed it, I would absolutely try to nudge them to check out some other places, maybe historic mosques in Xinjiang instead. And even that’s still not a great comparison because the entire Muslim world has been under attack by the West for centuries so there’s few places you could get to relatively easily, meanwhile us Catholics are spoiled for choice.

    It’s also important to delineate between doing something in a commercial/industrial basis and doing it on a personal basis. It’s perfectly possible for a private individual to book a trip to Jerusalem or the West Bank and do their pilgrimage without involving a commercial travel agency entity (although I’d still contend that they should consider going on pilgrimage anywhere else). But for a sizeable corporation to package up a trip to occupied territory and then make profit from doing so they must promote it and create/support the creation of a whole infrastructure that facilitates religious tourism in occupied territory. I think it’s more than reasonable that, given the option, one would abstain from giving more money to such an institution that seeks to accumulate more capital by collaborating with the Zionist entity.

    1. https://old.reddit.com/r/northernlion/comments/1slxhdu/the_company_in_charge_of_the_nl_supercruise/ogacjwr/ ↩︎

    2. https://old.reddit.com/r/northernlion/comments/1slxhdu/the_company_in_charge_of_the_nl_supercruise/ogam9iu/ ↩︎

    3. https://old.reddit.com/r/northernlion/comments/1slxhdu/the_company_in_charge_of_the_nl_supercruise/ogbjlxq/ ↩︎