NYERERE: ‘SELF-RULE IS NOT A FAVOUR’

Today marks the 102nd birthday of Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president.

Nyerere was born in 1922 in a small village in Butiama, in Tanganyika, then administered by the British under a League of Nations mandate before becoming part of a larger country in 1964 that is known today as the United Republic of Tanzania.

Nyerere, affectionately known by the honorific title, ‘Mwalimu’ (Swahili for teacher), was an anti-colonialist, political theorist and president of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985.

But the struggle wasn’t easy. Nyerere, a beacon of resilience, stood against the West, which argued Africa wasn’t ready to govern itself. No better example exists than this classic 1960 interview of a young Nyerere answering emphatically and pushing back against colonialist lies. He asserted that Europeans granting us independence was merely returning a stolen right, as it were. Therefore, the question of whether Africans were ready for self-rule was meaningless. We Africans had managed our affairs well before colonisers arrived.

After a battle with leukaemia, Nyerere became an ancestor on 14 October 1999 in London.

Let us know what you think of Nyerere’s remarks.