William J. Malecela
R I P
- Apr 27, 2006
- 26,584
- 10,466
Eeh bwana bongo kwenye vibanda vya soda hapa mjini wanauza sana hizo tepu za hotuba za Mwalimu, mkuu wewe ni kuingia tu mtaani utazikuta za kumwaga hasa pale nyuma ya Wizara ya Ujenzi!
Nyerere: The Man, The Myth and the Legend
Nyerere: The Man, The Myth and the Legend
- Thread starter Game Theory
- Start date
William J. Malecela
R I P
- Apr 27, 2006
- 26,584
- 10,466
Eeh bwana bongo kwenye vibanda vya soda hapa mjini wanauza sana hizo tepu za hotuba za Mwalimu, mkuu wewe ni kuingia tu mtaani utazikuta za kumwaga hasa pale nyuma ya Wizara ya Ujenzi!
sasa ss tusio bongo hakuna njia mbadala ? jee hamna website ilionazo ?
mimi ninazo kadhaa lakini ziko katika VHS na cassette za kawaida. Itanichukua muda kidogo kuziweka digital. Unless kuna mtu ameshafanya hilo. Hata hivyo ili kumwelewa Mwalimu tafuta vitabu vyake vya "Man and Development" na "Freedom and Development". Kwa kuanzia itakupa msingi mzuri wa kuelewa kwanini leo watawala wetu hawafakii hata chembe kidogo ya kujenga hoja kama mwalimu.
Tunaposema kuwa mwalimu bado yuko relevant tuna maana ya kuwa siyo kila alichokisema kilikuwa relevant and na kisichopitwa na muda. Tunachosema ni kuwa ili kuweza kujielewa sisi kama Taifa ni lazima turudi kule tulikotoka na kuelewa muasisi wa TAifa letu (na waasisi wengine) waliongozwa na kanuni gani. Matokeo ya kura za maoni ya shirikisho nina uhakika yangemliza Mwalimu. Hivi inawezekana vipi watu ambao walikuwa tayari kutoa maisha yao kulinda hadhi, uhuru, na utu wa mwafrika na waliokuwa kinara wa "muungano wa Afrika", (Soma hotuba ya Mwalimu kuhusu "United States of Africa") waweze kugeuka na kuona wazo la umoja huo kuwa baya kiasi hicho.
Viongozi wetu wa leo hawana fikara zinazowaongoza isipikuwa mkumbo tu.
ninayo audio labda nikutumie katika email au niangalie kama kuna uwezekano wa kukupa link ili uende, lakini ni fupi kama sekunde 20 !
Mwanakijiji....nitakucheki kwenye PM basi
IKAWEBA BUNTING, PhDLoyola Marymount University - Bunting lived in eastern and southern Africa for almost three decades before returning to the US in 2002. Bunting, who earned his PhD from the University of Whales U.K., lived and worked in humanitarian assistance sectors for the Danish Association for International Cooperation, the British NGO, Oxfam, The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the Tanzania Film Co. During the Genocide in Rwanda as the Region Policy and Communications coordinator for Oxfam (UK) he was instrumental in efforts to mobilize the international community and the United Nations to recognize that what was happening was in fact a systematically planned genocide. Bunting as a member of the Burundi Peace Negotiation Facilitation Team was an advisor on Civil Society in the Great Lakes region and Rapporteur General for the Facilitation under former Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Currently, he is a visiting professor of African American StudiesAreas of Expertise: Africa, Africa and genocide, African government .This Interview was done late December, 1998 and was published under the title The Heart of Africa. Interview with Julius Nyerere on Anti-Colonialism in the New Internationalist Magazine, issue 309, January-February 1999. Any emphasis in Mwalimus words are mine Mwalimu Nyerere died that year on October 14, 1999. Presented by. KLH News International.
Ikaweba Bunting (IB): What was the anti-colonial movement's greatest contribution to humanity?
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (MJN): There are two fundamental things that the anti-colonial liberation movement contributed to humanity. The first is simply that the suffering of a whole chunk of human beings through the actions of others was halted. The arrogance of one group of people in lording it over the human race and exploiting the poorer peoples was challenged and discredited - and that was a positive contribution made by the liberation struggle to all humanity.
Second, the liberation movement was very moral. It was not simply liberation in a vacuum. Gandhi argued a moral case and so did I. Liberation freed white people also. Take South Africa: there, the anti-apartheid victory freed whites as well as black people.
IB: When did you first encounter the idea of liberation from colonialism?
MJN: I cannot say I encountered the idea of liberation in a totality like a flash of light. I did not have an experience like Paul on the road to Damascus. For me it was a process - something that grew inside of me. Our elders fought and were defeated by the Germans and the British. We were born under colonialism. Some of us never questioned it. Those who got educated began to think about it. What many of us went through was simply a desire to be accepted by the white man. At first this is what it was - a kind of inert dissatisfaction that we were not accepted as equals.
World War Two and what it was fought for - democracy and freedom - started the process for many people, especially those who were in the Army. For me the transformation came later. At Makerere in 1943 I started something called the Tanganyika African Welfare Association. Its main purpose was not political or anti-colonial. We wanted to improve the lives of Africans. But inside us something was happening.
I wrote an essay in 1944 called The Freedom of Women. I must be honest and say I was influenced by John Stuart Mill, who had written about the subjugation of women. My father had 22 wives and I knew how hard they had to work and what they went through as women. Here in this essay I was moving towards the idea of freedom theoretically. But I was still in the mindset of improving the lives and welfare of Africans: I went to Tabora to start teaching.
Then came Indian independence. The significance of India's independence movement was that it shook the British Empire. When Gandhi succeeded I think it made the British lose the will to cling to empire. But it was events in Ghana in 1949 that fundamentally changed my attitude. When Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison this produced a transformation. I was in Britain and oh you could see it in the Ghanaians! They became different human beings, different from all the rest of us! This thing of freedom began growing inside all of us. First India in 1947, then Ghana in 1949. Ghana became independent six years later. Under the influence of these events, while at university in Britain, I made up my mind to be a full- time political activist when I went back home. I intended to work for three years and then launch into politics. But it happened sooner than I planned.
[Note: Independence came in 1961, and Nyerere became President. Six years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which nailed Tanzania's colours firmly to the mast of socialism and self-reliance. The great Caribbean historian CLR James once called the Arusha Declaration `the highest stage of resistance ever reached by revolting Blacks'.]
IB: Does the Arusha Declaration still stand up today?
MJN: I still travel around with it. I read it over and over to see what I would change. Maybe I would improve on the Kiswahili that was used but the Declaration is still valid: I would not change a thing. Tanzania had been independent for a short time before we began to see a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country. A privileged group was emerging from the political leaders and bureaucrats who had been poor under colonial rule but were now beginning to use their positions in the Party and the Government to enrich themselves. This kind of development would alienate the leadership from the people. So we articulated a new national objective: we stressed that development is about all our people and not just a small and privileged minority.
The Arusha Declaration was what made Tanzania distinctly Tanzania. We stated what we stood for, we laid down a code of conduct for our leaders and we made an effort to achieve our goals. This was obvious to all, even if we made mistakes - and when one tries anything new and uncharted there are bound to be mistakes.
The Arusha Declaration and our democratic single-party system, together with our national language, Kiswahili, and a highly politicized and disciplined national army, transformed more than 126 different tribes into a cohesive and stable nation.
However, despite this achievement, they say we failed in Tanzania, that we floundered. But did we? We must say no. We can't deny everything we accomplished. There are some of my friends who we did not allow to get rich; now they are getting rich and they say `See, we are getting rich now, so you were wrong'. But what kind of answer is that?
The floundering of socialism has been global. This is what needs an explanation, not just the Tanzanian part of it. George Bernard Shaw, who was an atheist, said, `You cannot say Christianity has failed because it has never been tried.' It is the same with socialism: you cannot say it has failed because it has never been tried.
IB: After independence you pursued an African socialism while in Kenya Jomo Kenyatta embraced a more conservative nationalism. The two of you came to symbolize opposing visions of development. Were you conscious at the time of the need to chart a different course that might inspire other new African nations?
MJN: Anti-colonialism was a nationalist movement. For me liberation and unity were the most important things. I have always said that I was African first and socialist second. I would rather see a free and united Africa before a fragmented socialist Africa. I did not preach socialism. I made this distinction deliberately so as not to divide the country. The majority in the anti-colonial struggle were nationalist. There was a minority who argued that class was the central issue, that white workers were as exploited as black workers by capitalism. They wanted to approach liberation in purely Marxist terms. However, in South Africa white workers oppressed black workers. It was more than class and I saw that.
Jomo Kenyatta was clearly capitalist and we were trying a different course. But I must confess I did not see myself as charting out something for the rest of Africa. One picks one's way. I never saw the contradictions that would prevent Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania from working together. I was naÂve, I guess. Even now for me freedom and unity are paramount.
I respected Jomo (Kenyatta) immensely. It has probably never happened before in history. Two heads of state, Milton Obote [Uganda's leader] and I, went to Jomo and said to him: `let's unite our countries and you be our head of state'. He said no. I think he said no because it would have put him out of his element as a Kikuyu Elder.
IB: In 1990 you were quoted as saying that you thought the absence of an opposition party had contributed to the Tanzanian ruling party's abandonment of its commitments. Do you think it was a mistake for so many new African nations to opt for a one-party state?
MJN: I never advocated this for everyone. But I did for Tanzania because of our circumstances then. In 1990 the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) abandoned the one-party state for a multi-party system. But we do not have an opposition. The point I was making when I made the statement was that any party that stays in power too long becomes corrupt. The Communist Party in the Soviet Union, the CCM of Tanzania and the Conservative Party of Britain all stayed in power too long and became corrupt. This is especially so if the opposition is too weak or non-existent.
IB: What were your main mistakes as Tanzanian leader? What should you have done differently?
MJN: There are things that I would have done more firmly or not at all. For example, I would not nationalize the sisal plantations. This was a mistake. I did not realize how difficult it would be for the state to manage agriculture. Agriculture is difficult to socialize. I tried to tell my government that what was traditionally the family's in the village social organization should be left with the family, while what was new could be communalized at the village level. The land issue and family holdings were very sensitive. I saw this intellectually but it was hard to translate it into policy implementation. But I still think that in the end Tanzania will return to the values and basic principles of the Arusha Declaration. (a prophetic utterance of sort? M. M.)
IB: Why did your attempt to find a new way founder on the rocks?
MJN: I was in Washington last year. At the World Bank the first question they asked me was `how did you fail?' I responded that we took over a country with 85 per cent of its adult population illiterate. The British ruled us for 43 years. When they left, there were 2 trained engineers and 12 doctors. This is the country we inherited.
When I stepped down there was 91-per-cent literacy and nearly every child was in school. We trained thousands of engineers and doctors and teachers.
In 1988 Tanzania's per-capita income was $280. Now, in 1998, it is $140. So I asked the World Bank people what went wrong. Because for the last ten years Tanzania has been signing on the dotted line and doing everything the IMF and the World Bank wanted. Enrolment in school has plummeted to 63 per cent and conditions in health and other social services have deteriorated. I asked them again: `what went wrong?' These people just sat there looking at me. Then they asked what could they do? I told them have some humility. Humility - they are so arrogant!
IB: Do you think Third World independence actually suited the industrialized world, leaving it with the economic power but without the political responsibility?
MJN: It seems that independence of the former colonies has suited the interests of the industrial world for bigger profits at less cost. Independence made it cheaper for them to exploit us. We became neo-colonies. Some African leaders did not realize it. In fact many argued against Kwame (Nkrumah)'s idea of neo-colonialism.
The majority of countries in Africa and the rest of the South are hamstrung by debt, by the IMF. We have too much debt now. It is a heavy burden, a trap. It is debilitating. We must have a new chance. If we doubled our production and debt-servicing capabilities we would still have no money for anything extra like education or development. It is immoral. It is an affront. The conditions and policies of the World Bank and the IMF are to enable countries to pay debt not to develop. That is all! Let us argue the moral case. Let us create a new liberation movement to free us from immoral debt and neo-colonialism. This is one way forward. The other way is through Pan-African unity.
IB: Should African resistance movements have embraced Pan-Africanism more readily? Do you think we should be working now towards a federal United States of Africa?
MJN: Kwame Nkrumah and I were committed to the idea of unity. African leaders and heads of state did not take Kwame seriously. However, I did. I did not believe in these small little nations. Still today I do not believe in them. I tell our people to look at the European Union, at these people who ruled us who are now uniting.
Kwame and I met in 1963 and discussed African Unity. We differed on how to achieve a United States of Africa. But we both agreed on a United States of Africa as necessary. Kwame went to Lincoln University, a black college in the US. He perceived things from the perspective of US history, where the 13 colonies that revolted against the British formed a union. That is what he thought the OAU should do.
I tried to get East Africa to unite before independence. When we failed in this I was wary about Kwame's continental approach. We corresponded profusely on this. Kwame said my idea of `regionalization' was only balkanization on a larger scale. Later African historians will have to study our correspondence on this issue of uniting Africa. (are they? M.M.)
Africans who studied in the US like Nkrumah and [Nigerian independence leader] Azikiwe were more aware of the Diaspora and the global African community than those of us who studied in Britain. They were therefore aware of a wider Pan-Africanism. Theirs was the aggressive Pan-Africanism of WEB Dubois and Marcus Garvey. The colonialists were against this and frightened of it.
After independence the wider African community became clear to me. I was concerned about education; the work of Booker T Washington resonated with me. There were skills we needed and black people outside Africa had them. I gave our US Ambassador the specific job of recruiting skilled Africans from the US Diaspora. A few came, like you. Some stayed; others left.
We should try to revive it. We should look to our brothers and sisters in the West. We should build the broader Pan-Africanism. There is still the room - and the need
This man had Brains....
Jamani, hata kama ni misifa kwa ajili ya ulaji. Ni kufuru kumlinganisha Nyerere na Kikwete. Nadhani hata Mugongo Mugongo analijua na kulikubali hili...
Asante.. sana... natumaini watu watasoma hotuba hizi na labda watatambua kuwa kuna mambo aliyosema mwalimu which are as relevant today as they were when he spoke them.
nenda hapa kuna audio za nyerere kibao : http://www.nyererefoundation.or.tz/mediaclips/clips.htm
sasa ss tusio bongo hakuna njia mbadala ? jee hamna website ilionazo ?
mimi ninazo kadhaa lakini ziko katika VHS na cassette za kawaida. Itanichukua muda kidogo kuziweka digital. Unless kuna mtu ameshafanya hilo. Hata hivyo ili kumwelewa Mwalimu tafuta vitabu vyake vya "Man and Development" na "Freedom and Development". Kwa kuanzia itakupa msingi mzuri wa kuelewa kwanini leo watawala wetu hawafakii hata chembe kidogo ya kujenga hoja kama mwalimu.
Tunaposema kuwa mwalimu bado yuko relevant tuna maana ya kuwa siyo kila alichokisema kilikuwa relevant and na kisichopitwa na muda. Tunachosema ni kuwa ili kuweza kujielewa sisi kama Taifa ni lazima turudi kule tulikotoka na kuelewa muasisi wa TAifa letu (na waasisi wengine) waliongozwa na kanuni gani. Matokeo ya kura za maoni ya shirikisho nina uhakika yangemliza Mwalimu. Hivi inawezekana vipi watu ambao walikuwa tayari kutoa maisha yao kulinda hadhi, uhuru, na utu wa mwafrika na waliokuwa kinara wa "muungano wa Afrika", (Soma hotuba ya Mwalimu kuhusu "United States of Africa") waweze kugeuka na kuona wazo la umoja huo kuwa baya kiasi hicho.
Viongozi wetu wa leo hawana fikara zinazowaongoza isipikuwa mkumbo tu.
ninayo audio labda nikutumie katika email au niangalie kama kuna uwezekano wa kukupa link ili uende, lakini ni fupi kama sekunde 20 !
Mwanakijiji....nitakucheki kwenye PM basi
IKAWEBA BUNTING, PhDLoyola Marymount University - Bunting lived in eastern and southern Africa for almost three decades before returning to the US in 2002. Bunting, who earned his PhD from the University of Whales U.K., lived and worked in humanitarian assistance sectors for the Danish Association for International Cooperation, the British NGO, Oxfam, The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the Tanzania Film Co. During the Genocide in Rwanda as the Region Policy and Communications coordinator for Oxfam (UK) he was instrumental in efforts to mobilize the international community and the United Nations to recognize that what was happening was in fact a systematically planned genocide. Bunting as a member of the Burundi Peace Negotiation Facilitation Team was an advisor on Civil Society in the Great Lakes region and Rapporteur General for the Facilitation under former Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Currently, he is a visiting professor of African American StudiesAreas of Expertise: Africa, Africa and genocide, African government .This Interview was done late December, 1998 and was published under the title The Heart of Africa. Interview with Julius Nyerere on Anti-Colonialism in the New Internationalist Magazine, issue 309, January-February 1999. Any emphasis in Mwalimus words are mine Mwalimu Nyerere died that year on October 14, 1999. Presented by. KLH News International.
Ikaweba Bunting (IB): What was the anti-colonial movement's greatest contribution to humanity?
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (MJN): There are two fundamental things that the anti-colonial liberation movement contributed to humanity. The first is simply that the suffering of a whole chunk of human beings through the actions of others was halted. The arrogance of one group of people in lording it over the human race and exploiting the poorer peoples was challenged and discredited - and that was a positive contribution made by the liberation struggle to all humanity.
Second, the liberation movement was very moral. It was not simply liberation in a vacuum. Gandhi argued a moral case and so did I. Liberation freed white people also. Take South Africa: there, the anti-apartheid victory freed whites as well as black people.
IB: When did you first encounter the idea of liberation from colonialism?
MJN: I cannot say I encountered the idea of liberation in a totality like a flash of light. I did not have an experience like Paul on the road to Damascus. For me it was a process - something that grew inside of me. Our elders fought and were defeated by the Germans and the British. We were born under colonialism. Some of us never questioned it. Those who got educated began to think about it. What many of us went through was simply a desire to be accepted by the white man. At first this is what it was - a kind of inert dissatisfaction that we were not accepted as equals.
World War Two and what it was fought for - democracy and freedom - started the process for many people, especially those who were in the Army. For me the transformation came later. At Makerere in 1943 I started something called the Tanganyika African Welfare Association. Its main purpose was not political or anti-colonial. We wanted to improve the lives of Africans. But inside us something was happening.
I wrote an essay in 1944 called The Freedom of Women. I must be honest and say I was influenced by John Stuart Mill, who had written about the subjugation of women. My father had 22 wives and I knew how hard they had to work and what they went through as women. Here in this essay I was moving towards the idea of freedom theoretically. But I was still in the mindset of improving the lives and welfare of Africans: I went to Tabora to start teaching.
Then came Indian independence. The significance of India's independence movement was that it shook the British Empire. When Gandhi succeeded I think it made the British lose the will to cling to empire. But it was events in Ghana in 1949 that fundamentally changed my attitude. When Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison this produced a transformation. I was in Britain and oh you could see it in the Ghanaians! They became different human beings, different from all the rest of us! This thing of freedom began growing inside all of us. First India in 1947, then Ghana in 1949. Ghana became independent six years later. Under the influence of these events, while at university in Britain, I made up my mind to be a full- time political activist when I went back home. I intended to work for three years and then launch into politics. But it happened sooner than I planned.
[Note: Independence came in 1961, and Nyerere became President. Six years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which nailed Tanzania's colours firmly to the mast of socialism and self-reliance. The great Caribbean historian CLR James once called the Arusha Declaration `the highest stage of resistance ever reached by revolting Blacks'.]
IB: Does the Arusha Declaration still stand up today?
MJN: I still travel around with it. I read it over and over to see what I would change. Maybe I would improve on the Kiswahili that was used but the Declaration is still valid: I would not change a thing. Tanzania had been independent for a short time before we began to see a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country. A privileged group was emerging from the political leaders and bureaucrats who had been poor under colonial rule but were now beginning to use their positions in the Party and the Government to enrich themselves. This kind of development would alienate the leadership from the people. So we articulated a new national objective: we stressed that development is about all our people and not just a small and privileged minority.
The Arusha Declaration was what made Tanzania distinctly Tanzania. We stated what we stood for, we laid down a code of conduct for our leaders and we made an effort to achieve our goals. This was obvious to all, even if we made mistakes - and when one tries anything new and uncharted there are bound to be mistakes.
The Arusha Declaration and our democratic single-party system, together with our national language, Kiswahili, and a highly politicized and disciplined national army, transformed more than 126 different tribes into a cohesive and stable nation.
However, despite this achievement, they say we failed in Tanzania, that we floundered. But did we? We must say no. We can't deny everything we accomplished. There are some of my friends who we did not allow to get rich; now they are getting rich and they say `See, we are getting rich now, so you were wrong'. But what kind of answer is that?
The floundering of socialism has been global. This is what needs an explanation, not just the Tanzanian part of it. George Bernard Shaw, who was an atheist, said, `You cannot say Christianity has failed because it has never been tried.' It is the same with socialism: you cannot say it has failed because it has never been tried.
IB: After independence you pursued an African socialism while in Kenya Jomo Kenyatta embraced a more conservative nationalism. The two of you came to symbolize opposing visions of development. Were you conscious at the time of the need to chart a different course that might inspire other new African nations?
MJN: Anti-colonialism was a nationalist movement. For me liberation and unity were the most important things. I have always said that I was African first and socialist second. I would rather see a free and united Africa before a fragmented socialist Africa. I did not preach socialism. I made this distinction deliberately so as not to divide the country. The majority in the anti-colonial struggle were nationalist. There was a minority who argued that class was the central issue, that white workers were as exploited as black workers by capitalism. They wanted to approach liberation in purely Marxist terms. However, in South Africa white workers oppressed black workers. It was more than class and I saw that.
Jomo Kenyatta was clearly capitalist and we were trying a different course. But I must confess I did not see myself as charting out something for the rest of Africa. One picks one's way. I never saw the contradictions that would prevent Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania from working together. I was naÂve, I guess. Even now for me freedom and unity are paramount.
I respected Jomo (Kenyatta) immensely. It has probably never happened before in history. Two heads of state, Milton Obote [Uganda's leader] and I, went to Jomo and said to him: `let's unite our countries and you be our head of state'. He said no. I think he said no because it would have put him out of his element as a Kikuyu Elder.
IB: In 1990 you were quoted as saying that you thought the absence of an opposition party had contributed to the Tanzanian ruling party's abandonment of its commitments. Do you think it was a mistake for so many new African nations to opt for a one-party state?
MJN: I never advocated this for everyone. But I did for Tanzania because of our circumstances then. In 1990 the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) abandoned the one-party state for a multi-party system. But we do not have an opposition. The point I was making when I made the statement was that any party that stays in power too long becomes corrupt. The Communist Party in the Soviet Union, the CCM of Tanzania and the Conservative Party of Britain all stayed in power too long and became corrupt. This is especially so if the opposition is too weak or non-existent.
IB: What were your main mistakes as Tanzanian leader? What should you have done differently?
MJN: There are things that I would have done more firmly or not at all. For example, I would not nationalize the sisal plantations. This was a mistake. I did not realize how difficult it would be for the state to manage agriculture. Agriculture is difficult to socialize. I tried to tell my government that what was traditionally the family's in the village social organization should be left with the family, while what was new could be communalized at the village level. The land issue and family holdings were very sensitive. I saw this intellectually but it was hard to translate it into policy implementation. But I still think that in the end Tanzania will return to the values and basic principles of the Arusha Declaration. (a prophetic utterance of sort? M. M.)
IB: Why did your attempt to find a new way founder on the rocks?
MJN: I was in Washington last year. At the World Bank the first question they asked me was `how did you fail?' I responded that we took over a country with 85 per cent of its adult population illiterate. The British ruled us for 43 years. When they left, there were 2 trained engineers and 12 doctors. This is the country we inherited.
When I stepped down there was 91-per-cent literacy and nearly every child was in school. We trained thousands of engineers and doctors and teachers.
In 1988 Tanzania's per-capita income was $280. Now, in 1998, it is $140. So I asked the World Bank people what went wrong. Because for the last ten years Tanzania has been signing on the dotted line and doing everything the IMF and the World Bank wanted. Enrolment in school has plummeted to 63 per cent and conditions in health and other social services have deteriorated. I asked them again: `what went wrong?' These people just sat there looking at me. Then they asked what could they do? I told them have some humility. Humility - they are so arrogant!
IB: Do you think Third World independence actually suited the industrialized world, leaving it with the economic power but without the political responsibility?
MJN: It seems that independence of the former colonies has suited the interests of the industrial world for bigger profits at less cost. Independence made it cheaper for them to exploit us. We became neo-colonies. Some African leaders did not realize it. In fact many argued against Kwame (Nkrumah)'s idea of neo-colonialism.
The majority of countries in Africa and the rest of the South are hamstrung by debt, by the IMF. We have too much debt now. It is a heavy burden, a trap. It is debilitating. We must have a new chance. If we doubled our production and debt-servicing capabilities we would still have no money for anything extra like education or development. It is immoral. It is an affront. The conditions and policies of the World Bank and the IMF are to enable countries to pay debt not to develop. That is all! Let us argue the moral case. Let us create a new liberation movement to free us from immoral debt and neo-colonialism. This is one way forward. The other way is through Pan-African unity.
IB: Should African resistance movements have embraced Pan-Africanism more readily? Do you think we should be working now towards a federal United States of Africa?
MJN: Kwame Nkrumah and I were committed to the idea of unity. African leaders and heads of state did not take Kwame seriously. However, I did. I did not believe in these small little nations. Still today I do not believe in them. I tell our people to look at the European Union, at these people who ruled us who are now uniting.
Kwame and I met in 1963 and discussed African Unity. We differed on how to achieve a United States of Africa. But we both agreed on a United States of Africa as necessary. Kwame went to Lincoln University, a black college in the US. He perceived things from the perspective of US history, where the 13 colonies that revolted against the British formed a union. That is what he thought the OAU should do.
I tried to get East Africa to unite before independence. When we failed in this I was wary about Kwame's continental approach. We corresponded profusely on this. Kwame said my idea of `regionalization' was only balkanization on a larger scale. Later African historians will have to study our correspondence on this issue of uniting Africa. (are they? M.M.)
Africans who studied in the US like Nkrumah and [Nigerian independence leader] Azikiwe were more aware of the Diaspora and the global African community than those of us who studied in Britain. They were therefore aware of a wider Pan-Africanism. Theirs was the aggressive Pan-Africanism of WEB Dubois and Marcus Garvey. The colonialists were against this and frightened of it.
After independence the wider African community became clear to me. I was concerned about education; the work of Booker T Washington resonated with me. There were skills we needed and black people outside Africa had them. I gave our US Ambassador the specific job of recruiting skilled Africans from the US Diaspora. A few came, like you. Some stayed; others left.
We should try to revive it. We should look to our brothers and sisters in the West. We should build the broader Pan-Africanism. There is still the room - and the need
This man had Brains....
Jamani, hata kama ni misifa kwa ajili ya ulaji. Ni kufuru kumlinganisha Nyerere na Kikwete. Nadhani hata Mugongo Mugongo analijua na kulikubali hili...
Asante.. sana... natumaini watu watasoma hotuba hizi na labda watatambua kuwa kuna mambo aliyosema mwalimu which are as relevant today as they were when he spoke them.
nenda hapa kuna audio za nyerere kibao : http://www.nyererefoundation.or.tz/mediaclips/clips.htm
Mtu wa Pwani
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 26, 2006
- 4,192
- 680
sasa ss tusio bongo hakuna njia mbadala ? jee hamna website ilionazo ?
Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,237
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mimi ninazo kadhaa lakini ziko katika VHS na cassette za kawaida. Itanichukua muda kidogo kuziweka digital. Unless kuna mtu ameshafanya hilo. Hata hivyo ili kumwelewa Mwalimu tafuta vitabu vyake vya "Man and Development" na "Freedom and Development". Kwa kuanzia itakupa msingi mzuri wa kuelewa kwanini leo watawala wetu hawafakii hata chembe kidogo ya kujenga hoja kama mwalimu.
Tunaposema kuwa mwalimu bado yuko relevant tuna maana ya kuwa siyo kila alichokisema kilikuwa relevant and na kisichopitwa na muda. Tunachosema ni kuwa ili kuweza kujielewa sisi kama Taifa ni lazima turudi kule tulikotoka na kuelewa muasisi wa TAifa letu (na waasisi wengine) waliongozwa na kanuni gani. Matokeo ya kura za maoni ya shirikisho nina uhakika yangemliza Mwalimu. Hivi inawezekana vipi watu ambao walikuwa tayari kutoa maisha yao kulinda hadhi, uhuru, na utu wa mwafrika na waliokuwa kinara wa "muungano wa Afrika", (Soma hotuba ya Mwalimu kuhusu "United States of Africa") waweze kugeuka na kuona wazo la umoja huo kuwa baya kiasi hicho.
Viongozi wetu wa leo hawana fikara zinazowaongoza isipikuwa mkumbo tu.
Tunaposema kuwa mwalimu bado yuko relevant tuna maana ya kuwa siyo kila alichokisema kilikuwa relevant and na kisichopitwa na muda. Tunachosema ni kuwa ili kuweza kujielewa sisi kama Taifa ni lazima turudi kule tulikotoka na kuelewa muasisi wa TAifa letu (na waasisi wengine) waliongozwa na kanuni gani. Matokeo ya kura za maoni ya shirikisho nina uhakika yangemliza Mwalimu. Hivi inawezekana vipi watu ambao walikuwa tayari kutoa maisha yao kulinda hadhi, uhuru, na utu wa mwafrika na waliokuwa kinara wa "muungano wa Afrika", (Soma hotuba ya Mwalimu kuhusu "United States of Africa") waweze kugeuka na kuona wazo la umoja huo kuwa baya kiasi hicho.
Viongozi wetu wa leo hawana fikara zinazowaongoza isipikuwa mkumbo tu.
KadaMpinzani
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 31, 2007
- 3,715
- 94
ninayo audio labda nikutumie katika email au niangalie kama kuna uwezekano wa kukupa link ili uende, lakini ni fupi kama sekunde 20 !
Nyani Ngabu
Platinum Member
- May 15, 2006
- 98,011
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Mwanakijiji....nitakucheki kwenye PM basi
Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,237
- 44,470
IKAWEBA BUNTING, PhDLoyola Marymount University - Bunting lived in eastern and southern Africa for almost three decades before returning to the US in 2002. Bunting, who earned his PhD from the University of Whales U.K., lived and worked in humanitarian assistance sectors for the Danish Association for International Cooperation, the British NGO, Oxfam, The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the Tanzania Film Co. During the Genocide in Rwanda as the Region Policy and Communications coordinator for Oxfam (UK) he was instrumental in efforts to mobilize the international community and the United Nations to recognize that what was happening was in fact a systematically planned genocide. Bunting as a member of the Burundi Peace Negotiation Facilitation Team was an advisor on Civil Society in the Great Lakes region and Rapporteur General for the Facilitation under former Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Currently, he is a visiting professor of African American StudiesAreas of Expertise: Africa, Africa and genocide, African government .This Interview was done late December, 1998 and was published under the title The Heart of Africa. Interview with Julius Nyerere on Anti-Colonialism in the New Internationalist Magazine, issue 309, January-February 1999. Any emphasis in Mwalimus words are mine Mwalimu Nyerere died that year on October 14, 1999. Presented by. KLH News International.
Ikaweba Bunting (IB): What was the anti-colonial movement's greatest contribution to humanity?
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (MJN): There are two fundamental things that the anti-colonial liberation movement contributed to humanity. The first is simply that the suffering of a whole chunk of human beings through the actions of others was halted. The arrogance of one group of people in lording it over the human race and exploiting the poorer peoples was challenged and discredited - and that was a positive contribution made by the liberation struggle to all humanity.
Second, the liberation movement was very moral. It was not simply liberation in a vacuum. Gandhi argued a moral case and so did I. Liberation freed white people also. Take South Africa: there, the anti-apartheid victory freed whites as well as black people.
IB: When did you first encounter the idea of liberation from colonialism?
MJN: I cannot say I encountered the idea of liberation in a totality like a flash of light. I did not have an experience like Paul on the road to Damascus. For me it was a process - something that grew inside of me. Our elders fought and were defeated by the Germans and the British. We were born under colonialism. Some of us never questioned it. Those who got educated began to think about it. What many of us went through was simply a desire to be accepted by the white man. At first this is what it was - a kind of inert dissatisfaction that we were not accepted as equals.
World War Two and what it was fought for - democracy and freedom - started the process for many people, especially those who were in the Army. For me the transformation came later. At Makerere in 1943 I started something called the Tanganyika African Welfare Association. Its main purpose was not political or anti-colonial. We wanted to improve the lives of Africans. But inside us something was happening.
I wrote an essay in 1944 called The Freedom of Women. I must be honest and say I was influenced by John Stuart Mill, who had written about the subjugation of women. My father had 22 wives and I knew how hard they had to work and what they went through as women. Here in this essay I was moving towards the idea of freedom theoretically. But I was still in the mindset of improving the lives and welfare of Africans: I went to Tabora to start teaching.
Then came Indian independence. The significance of India's independence movement was that it shook the British Empire. When Gandhi succeeded I think it made the British lose the will to cling to empire. But it was events in Ghana in 1949 that fundamentally changed my attitude. When Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison this produced a transformation. I was in Britain and oh you could see it in the Ghanaians! They became different human beings, different from all the rest of us! This thing of freedom began growing inside all of us. First India in 1947, then Ghana in 1949. Ghana became independent six years later. Under the influence of these events, while at university in Britain, I made up my mind to be a full- time political activist when I went back home. I intended to work for three years and then launch into politics. But it happened sooner than I planned.
[Note: Independence came in 1961, and Nyerere became President. Six years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which nailed Tanzania's colours firmly to the mast of socialism and self-reliance. The great Caribbean historian CLR James once called the Arusha Declaration `the highest stage of resistance ever reached by revolting Blacks'.]
IB: Does the Arusha Declaration still stand up today?
MJN: I still travel around with it. I read it over and over to see what I would change. Maybe I would improve on the Kiswahili that was used but the Declaration is still valid: I would not change a thing. Tanzania had been independent for a short time before we began to see a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country. A privileged group was emerging from the political leaders and bureaucrats who had been poor under colonial rule but were now beginning to use their positions in the Party and the Government to enrich themselves. This kind of development would alienate the leadership from the people. So we articulated a new national objective: we stressed that development is about all our people and not just a small and privileged minority.
The Arusha Declaration was what made Tanzania distinctly Tanzania. We stated what we stood for, we laid down a code of conduct for our leaders and we made an effort to achieve our goals. This was obvious to all, even if we made mistakes - and when one tries anything new and uncharted there are bound to be mistakes.
The Arusha Declaration and our democratic single-party system, together with our national language, Kiswahili, and a highly politicized and disciplined national army, transformed more than 126 different tribes into a cohesive and stable nation.
However, despite this achievement, they say we failed in Tanzania, that we floundered. But did we? We must say no. We can't deny everything we accomplished. There are some of my friends who we did not allow to get rich; now they are getting rich and they say `See, we are getting rich now, so you were wrong'. But what kind of answer is that?
The floundering of socialism has been global. This is what needs an explanation, not just the Tanzanian part of it. George Bernard Shaw, who was an atheist, said, `You cannot say Christianity has failed because it has never been tried.' It is the same with socialism: you cannot say it has failed because it has never been tried.
IB: After independence you pursued an African socialism while in Kenya Jomo Kenyatta embraced a more conservative nationalism. The two of you came to symbolize opposing visions of development. Were you conscious at the time of the need to chart a different course that might inspire other new African nations?
MJN: Anti-colonialism was a nationalist movement. For me liberation and unity were the most important things. I have always said that I was African first and socialist second. I would rather see a free and united Africa before a fragmented socialist Africa. I did not preach socialism. I made this distinction deliberately so as not to divide the country. The majority in the anti-colonial struggle were nationalist. There was a minority who argued that class was the central issue, that white workers were as exploited as black workers by capitalism. They wanted to approach liberation in purely Marxist terms. However, in South Africa white workers oppressed black workers. It was more than class and I saw that.
Jomo Kenyatta was clearly capitalist and we were trying a different course. But I must confess I did not see myself as charting out something for the rest of Africa. One picks one's way. I never saw the contradictions that would prevent Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania from working together. I was naÂve, I guess. Even now for me freedom and unity are paramount.
I respected Jomo (Kenyatta) immensely. It has probably never happened before in history. Two heads of state, Milton Obote [Uganda's leader] and I, went to Jomo and said to him: `let's unite our countries and you be our head of state'. He said no. I think he said no because it would have put him out of his element as a Kikuyu Elder.
IB: In 1990 you were quoted as saying that you thought the absence of an opposition party had contributed to the Tanzanian ruling party's abandonment of its commitments. Do you think it was a mistake for so many new African nations to opt for a one-party state?
MJN: I never advocated this for everyone. But I did for Tanzania because of our circumstances then. In 1990 the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) abandoned the one-party state for a multi-party system. But we do not have an opposition. The point I was making when I made the statement was that any party that stays in power too long becomes corrupt. The Communist Party in the Soviet Union, the CCM of Tanzania and the Conservative Party of Britain all stayed in power too long and became corrupt. This is especially so if the opposition is too weak or non-existent.
IB: What were your main mistakes as Tanzanian leader? What should you have done differently?
MJN: There are things that I would have done more firmly or not at all. For example, I would not nationalize the sisal plantations. This was a mistake. I did not realize how difficult it would be for the state to manage agriculture. Agriculture is difficult to socialize. I tried to tell my government that what was traditionally the family's in the village social organization should be left with the family, while what was new could be communalized at the village level. The land issue and family holdings were very sensitive. I saw this intellectually but it was hard to translate it into policy implementation. But I still think that in the end Tanzania will return to the values and basic principles of the Arusha Declaration. (a prophetic utterance of sort? M. M.)
IB: Why did your attempt to find a new way founder on the rocks?
MJN: I was in Washington last year. At the World Bank the first question they asked me was `how did you fail?' I responded that we took over a country with 85 per cent of its adult population illiterate. The British ruled us for 43 years. When they left, there were 2 trained engineers and 12 doctors. This is the country we inherited.
When I stepped down there was 91-per-cent literacy and nearly every child was in school. We trained thousands of engineers and doctors and teachers.
In 1988 Tanzania's per-capita income was $280. Now, in 1998, it is $140. So I asked the World Bank people what went wrong. Because for the last ten years Tanzania has been signing on the dotted line and doing everything the IMF and the World Bank wanted. Enrolment in school has plummeted to 63 per cent and conditions in health and other social services have deteriorated. I asked them again: `what went wrong?' These people just sat there looking at me. Then they asked what could they do? I told them have some humility. Humility - they are so arrogant!
IB: Do you think Third World independence actually suited the industrialized world, leaving it with the economic power but without the political responsibility?
MJN: It seems that independence of the former colonies has suited the interests of the industrial world for bigger profits at less cost. Independence made it cheaper for them to exploit us. We became neo-colonies. Some African leaders did not realize it. In fact many argued against Kwame (Nkrumah)'s idea of neo-colonialism.
The majority of countries in Africa and the rest of the South are hamstrung by debt, by the IMF. We have too much debt now. It is a heavy burden, a trap. It is debilitating. We must have a new chance. If we doubled our production and debt-servicing capabilities we would still have no money for anything extra like education or development. It is immoral. It is an affront. The conditions and policies of the World Bank and the IMF are to enable countries to pay debt not to develop. That is all! Let us argue the moral case. Let us create a new liberation movement to free us from immoral debt and neo-colonialism. This is one way forward. The other way is through Pan-African unity.
IB: Should African resistance movements have embraced Pan-Africanism more readily? Do you think we should be working now towards a federal United States of Africa?
MJN: Kwame Nkrumah and I were committed to the idea of unity. African leaders and heads of state did not take Kwame seriously. However, I did. I did not believe in these small little nations. Still today I do not believe in them. I tell our people to look at the European Union, at these people who ruled us who are now uniting.
Kwame and I met in 1963 and discussed African Unity. We differed on how to achieve a United States of Africa. But we both agreed on a United States of Africa as necessary. Kwame went to Lincoln University, a black college in the US. He perceived things from the perspective of US history, where the 13 colonies that revolted against the British formed a union. That is what he thought the OAU should do.
I tried to get East Africa to unite before independence. When we failed in this I was wary about Kwame's continental approach. We corresponded profusely on this. Kwame said my idea of `regionalization' was only balkanization on a larger scale. Later African historians will have to study our correspondence on this issue of uniting Africa. (are they? M.M.)
Africans who studied in the US like Nkrumah and [Nigerian independence leader] Azikiwe were more aware of the Diaspora and the global African community than those of us who studied in Britain. They were therefore aware of a wider Pan-Africanism. Theirs was the aggressive Pan-Africanism of WEB Dubois and Marcus Garvey. The colonialists were against this and frightened of it.
After independence the wider African community became clear to me. I was concerned about education; the work of Booker T Washington resonated with me. There were skills we needed and black people outside Africa had them. I gave our US Ambassador the specific job of recruiting skilled Africans from the US Diaspora. A few came, like you. Some stayed; others left.
We should try to revive it. We should look to our brothers and sisters in the West. We should build the broader Pan-Africanism. There is still the room - and the need
Ikaweba Bunting (IB): What was the anti-colonial movement's greatest contribution to humanity?
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (MJN): There are two fundamental things that the anti-colonial liberation movement contributed to humanity. The first is simply that the suffering of a whole chunk of human beings through the actions of others was halted. The arrogance of one group of people in lording it over the human race and exploiting the poorer peoples was challenged and discredited - and that was a positive contribution made by the liberation struggle to all humanity.
Second, the liberation movement was very moral. It was not simply liberation in a vacuum. Gandhi argued a moral case and so did I. Liberation freed white people also. Take South Africa: there, the anti-apartheid victory freed whites as well as black people.
IB: When did you first encounter the idea of liberation from colonialism?
MJN: I cannot say I encountered the idea of liberation in a totality like a flash of light. I did not have an experience like Paul on the road to Damascus. For me it was a process - something that grew inside of me. Our elders fought and were defeated by the Germans and the British. We were born under colonialism. Some of us never questioned it. Those who got educated began to think about it. What many of us went through was simply a desire to be accepted by the white man. At first this is what it was - a kind of inert dissatisfaction that we were not accepted as equals.
World War Two and what it was fought for - democracy and freedom - started the process for many people, especially those who were in the Army. For me the transformation came later. At Makerere in 1943 I started something called the Tanganyika African Welfare Association. Its main purpose was not political or anti-colonial. We wanted to improve the lives of Africans. But inside us something was happening.
I wrote an essay in 1944 called The Freedom of Women. I must be honest and say I was influenced by John Stuart Mill, who had written about the subjugation of women. My father had 22 wives and I knew how hard they had to work and what they went through as women. Here in this essay I was moving towards the idea of freedom theoretically. But I was still in the mindset of improving the lives and welfare of Africans: I went to Tabora to start teaching.
Then came Indian independence. The significance of India's independence movement was that it shook the British Empire. When Gandhi succeeded I think it made the British lose the will to cling to empire. But it was events in Ghana in 1949 that fundamentally changed my attitude. When Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison this produced a transformation. I was in Britain and oh you could see it in the Ghanaians! They became different human beings, different from all the rest of us! This thing of freedom began growing inside all of us. First India in 1947, then Ghana in 1949. Ghana became independent six years later. Under the influence of these events, while at university in Britain, I made up my mind to be a full- time political activist when I went back home. I intended to work for three years and then launch into politics. But it happened sooner than I planned.
[Note: Independence came in 1961, and Nyerere became President. Six years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which nailed Tanzania's colours firmly to the mast of socialism and self-reliance. The great Caribbean historian CLR James once called the Arusha Declaration `the highest stage of resistance ever reached by revolting Blacks'.]
IB: Does the Arusha Declaration still stand up today?
MJN: I still travel around with it. I read it over and over to see what I would change. Maybe I would improve on the Kiswahili that was used but the Declaration is still valid: I would not change a thing. Tanzania had been independent for a short time before we began to see a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country. A privileged group was emerging from the political leaders and bureaucrats who had been poor under colonial rule but were now beginning to use their positions in the Party and the Government to enrich themselves. This kind of development would alienate the leadership from the people. So we articulated a new national objective: we stressed that development is about all our people and not just a small and privileged minority.
The Arusha Declaration was what made Tanzania distinctly Tanzania. We stated what we stood for, we laid down a code of conduct for our leaders and we made an effort to achieve our goals. This was obvious to all, even if we made mistakes - and when one tries anything new and uncharted there are bound to be mistakes.
The Arusha Declaration and our democratic single-party system, together with our national language, Kiswahili, and a highly politicized and disciplined national army, transformed more than 126 different tribes into a cohesive and stable nation.
However, despite this achievement, they say we failed in Tanzania, that we floundered. But did we? We must say no. We can't deny everything we accomplished. There are some of my friends who we did not allow to get rich; now they are getting rich and they say `See, we are getting rich now, so you were wrong'. But what kind of answer is that?
The floundering of socialism has been global. This is what needs an explanation, not just the Tanzanian part of it. George Bernard Shaw, who was an atheist, said, `You cannot say Christianity has failed because it has never been tried.' It is the same with socialism: you cannot say it has failed because it has never been tried.
IB: After independence you pursued an African socialism while in Kenya Jomo Kenyatta embraced a more conservative nationalism. The two of you came to symbolize opposing visions of development. Were you conscious at the time of the need to chart a different course that might inspire other new African nations?
MJN: Anti-colonialism was a nationalist movement. For me liberation and unity were the most important things. I have always said that I was African first and socialist second. I would rather see a free and united Africa before a fragmented socialist Africa. I did not preach socialism. I made this distinction deliberately so as not to divide the country. The majority in the anti-colonial struggle were nationalist. There was a minority who argued that class was the central issue, that white workers were as exploited as black workers by capitalism. They wanted to approach liberation in purely Marxist terms. However, in South Africa white workers oppressed black workers. It was more than class and I saw that.
Jomo Kenyatta was clearly capitalist and we were trying a different course. But I must confess I did not see myself as charting out something for the rest of Africa. One picks one's way. I never saw the contradictions that would prevent Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania from working together. I was naÂve, I guess. Even now for me freedom and unity are paramount.
I respected Jomo (Kenyatta) immensely. It has probably never happened before in history. Two heads of state, Milton Obote [Uganda's leader] and I, went to Jomo and said to him: `let's unite our countries and you be our head of state'. He said no. I think he said no because it would have put him out of his element as a Kikuyu Elder.
IB: In 1990 you were quoted as saying that you thought the absence of an opposition party had contributed to the Tanzanian ruling party's abandonment of its commitments. Do you think it was a mistake for so many new African nations to opt for a one-party state?
MJN: I never advocated this for everyone. But I did for Tanzania because of our circumstances then. In 1990 the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) abandoned the one-party state for a multi-party system. But we do not have an opposition. The point I was making when I made the statement was that any party that stays in power too long becomes corrupt. The Communist Party in the Soviet Union, the CCM of Tanzania and the Conservative Party of Britain all stayed in power too long and became corrupt. This is especially so if the opposition is too weak or non-existent.
IB: What were your main mistakes as Tanzanian leader? What should you have done differently?
MJN: There are things that I would have done more firmly or not at all. For example, I would not nationalize the sisal plantations. This was a mistake. I did not realize how difficult it would be for the state to manage agriculture. Agriculture is difficult to socialize. I tried to tell my government that what was traditionally the family's in the village social organization should be left with the family, while what was new could be communalized at the village level. The land issue and family holdings were very sensitive. I saw this intellectually but it was hard to translate it into policy implementation. But I still think that in the end Tanzania will return to the values and basic principles of the Arusha Declaration. (a prophetic utterance of sort? M. M.)
IB: Why did your attempt to find a new way founder on the rocks?
MJN: I was in Washington last year. At the World Bank the first question they asked me was `how did you fail?' I responded that we took over a country with 85 per cent of its adult population illiterate. The British ruled us for 43 years. When they left, there were 2 trained engineers and 12 doctors. This is the country we inherited.
When I stepped down there was 91-per-cent literacy and nearly every child was in school. We trained thousands of engineers and doctors and teachers.
In 1988 Tanzania's per-capita income was $280. Now, in 1998, it is $140. So I asked the World Bank people what went wrong. Because for the last ten years Tanzania has been signing on the dotted line and doing everything the IMF and the World Bank wanted. Enrolment in school has plummeted to 63 per cent and conditions in health and other social services have deteriorated. I asked them again: `what went wrong?' These people just sat there looking at me. Then they asked what could they do? I told them have some humility. Humility - they are so arrogant!
IB: Do you think Third World independence actually suited the industrialized world, leaving it with the economic power but without the political responsibility?
MJN: It seems that independence of the former colonies has suited the interests of the industrial world for bigger profits at less cost. Independence made it cheaper for them to exploit us. We became neo-colonies. Some African leaders did not realize it. In fact many argued against Kwame (Nkrumah)'s idea of neo-colonialism.
The majority of countries in Africa and the rest of the South are hamstrung by debt, by the IMF. We have too much debt now. It is a heavy burden, a trap. It is debilitating. We must have a new chance. If we doubled our production and debt-servicing capabilities we would still have no money for anything extra like education or development. It is immoral. It is an affront. The conditions and policies of the World Bank and the IMF are to enable countries to pay debt not to develop. That is all! Let us argue the moral case. Let us create a new liberation movement to free us from immoral debt and neo-colonialism. This is one way forward. The other way is through Pan-African unity.
IB: Should African resistance movements have embraced Pan-Africanism more readily? Do you think we should be working now towards a federal United States of Africa?
MJN: Kwame Nkrumah and I were committed to the idea of unity. African leaders and heads of state did not take Kwame seriously. However, I did. I did not believe in these small little nations. Still today I do not believe in them. I tell our people to look at the European Union, at these people who ruled us who are now uniting.
Kwame and I met in 1963 and discussed African Unity. We differed on how to achieve a United States of Africa. But we both agreed on a United States of Africa as necessary. Kwame went to Lincoln University, a black college in the US. He perceived things from the perspective of US history, where the 13 colonies that revolted against the British formed a union. That is what he thought the OAU should do.
I tried to get East Africa to unite before independence. When we failed in this I was wary about Kwame's continental approach. We corresponded profusely on this. Kwame said my idea of `regionalization' was only balkanization on a larger scale. Later African historians will have to study our correspondence on this issue of uniting Africa. (are they? M.M.)
Africans who studied in the US like Nkrumah and [Nigerian independence leader] Azikiwe were more aware of the Diaspora and the global African community than those of us who studied in Britain. They were therefore aware of a wider Pan-Africanism. Theirs was the aggressive Pan-Africanism of WEB Dubois and Marcus Garvey. The colonialists were against this and frightened of it.
After independence the wider African community became clear to me. I was concerned about education; the work of Booker T Washington resonated with me. There were skills we needed and black people outside Africa had them. I gave our US Ambassador the specific job of recruiting skilled Africans from the US Diaspora. A few came, like you. Some stayed; others left.
We should try to revive it. We should look to our brothers and sisters in the West. We should build the broader Pan-Africanism. There is still the room - and the need
S. S. Phares
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 27, 2006
- 2,138
- 88
This man had Brains....
kichwamaji
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 1, 2006
- 232
- 13
Jamani, hata kama ni misifa kwa ajili ya ulaji. Ni kufuru kumlinganisha Nyerere na Kikwete. Nadhani hata Mugongo Mugongo analijua na kulikubali hili...
Kyoma
Senior Member
- Jun 2, 2006
- 101
- 89
Mzee MwanaKijiji, Heshima yako mkuu!
Kura za maoni ya wananchi zinazopatikana kwa njia ya tume zinatia shaka. Binafsi napendelea mfumo wa kura ya moja kwa moja kupitia kwa wananchi badala ya kuunda tume. Mfano, tunaweza kusema kuwa suala la muundo wa muungano wa Tanzania na Zanzibar na lile la Shirikisho la Afrika ya Mashariki yapitishwe kwa wananchi katika uchaguzi mkuu ujao wa 2010. Hii ina maana kwamba, kipindi chote kuanzia sasa hivi mpaka 2010 Serikali inatoa mazingira ya kuruhusu kuwepo kwa mijadala ya wazi yenye lengo la kutoa elimu kwa umma kuhusu masuala haya mawili.
Wananchi wengi hujitokeza wakati wa kampeni za uchaguzi, hivyo ni nafasi nzuri ya kushirikisha jamii nzima katika maamuzi ya msingi ya nchi yetu. Kipindi cha kampeni za uchaguzi za 2010 tunaweza kuweka kanuni ya kulazimisha mijadala ya viti moto baina ya wananchi na wale wote wanaogombea nafasi za uongozi. Hii itakuwa fursa nzuri ya majadiliano yenye lengo la kutambua kwa uwazi misimamo na mawazo ya viongozi na yale ya wananchi na wanaotaka kuwaongoza.
Mijadala na elimu kwa umma kabla na wakati wa kampeni vitatoa mwanga kwa wananchi kuhusu aina za muungano (mfano, Shirikisho la Serikali tatu, Muungano wa Serikali moja-"kipenzi changu", Serikali za majombo, n.k). Wakati wa kupiga kura, sambamba na uchaguzi wa Rais pamoja na wabunge, tunaweka kanuni fulani au tunatunga maswali ambapo mpiga kura anaweza kuulizwa achague aina ya muungano anayoitaka au hataki muungano na Shirikisho la aina yoyote.
Tutakuwa tumeua ndege wawili kwa wakati mmoja. Kwanza tumeokoa fedha za kuunda tume butu, kwani mawazo ya wananchi yanajulikana siku ya uchaguzi ambao ni lazima ufanyike. Pili, matokeo yatakayopatikana kwa mtindo wa huu wa kura ya moja kwa moja, yatawashirikisha wananchi wengi zaidi na yatawakilisha mawazo halisi ya wengi yaliyopatikana kwa mijadala na angalau elimu tosha kwa wananchi.
Kwa mtindo huu tutajua kwa uhakika mawazo ya Wapemba wenye maduka pale Dar na ambao wamezaa mpaka vitukuu ambavyo havijawahi kufika Pemba. Je watapiga kura ya kutaka muungano ufe, Serikali moja, mbili, au tatu? Tutajua mawazo ya Wamasai ambao mtu na kaka yake walitengwa na mistari iliyochorwa na mkoloni tena kwa mtutu wa bunduki. Sasa hivi mtoto wa kimasai wa Tanzania anatakiwa awe na kibali "pasipoti" ili aweze kumtembelea mtoto wa kimasai wa Kenya ambaye ni mtoto wa kaka yake babu yake ambao walitengwa na wakoloni.
Lakini Mmasai huyo huyo hahitaji kibali kumtembelea Mgogo pale Dodoma ambao hawana mahusiano yoyote ya kiukoo. Kisa? eti Mgogo na Mmasai wanatoka nchi moja inayoitwa Tanzania. Kura za maoni zenye lengo la kuwaunganisha Wamasai, Wajaluo, Wahaya, Wapare, Wanyankole, na makabila mengine mengi ya Tanzania, Uganda, na Kenya haziwezi kufanywa kwa njia za ujanja ujanja.
Hizi tume zinazoundwa haziendeshwi kisayansi, hivyo ni makosa kukubali mawazo ya kura ya maoni kana kwamba ni mawazo ya wananchi wote. In Math tuna kitu kinaitwa "statistical inference" by which we reach a conclusion about a population on the basis of the information contained in a sample drawn from that population. Hii mantiki bears a same semblance na ile wanayotumia kupata kura za maoni ambazo ni very scientific. The whatness of this mantiki ni kuwa na population ambayo unataka mawazo yake, alafu unachukuwa mawazo ya only a fraction of that population (sample), and then una-draw a conclusion based on the whole of that sample.
Tume hizi zinachokifanya ni kutafuta a part of a population katika kitongoji kimoja cha nchi, let's say Temeke. Kumbuka hiyo portion ya population pale Temeke is already a sample, alafu wanakaa ndani ya ukumbi, at random, wana pick a fraction ya wale waliomo ndani ya ukumbi ambayo ni sample nyingine ndani ya sample. Wanazunguka nchi nzima kwa mtindo huo bila kujali kama huelewa wa watu katika population yao uko normally distrubuted au hapana. Kura zinazopatikana hazitokani na maoni ndani ya sample iliyotolewa katika population bali zinatokana na maoni ndani ya sample iliyotolewa ndani ya sample nyingine.
Utaratibu huu unaweza kutoa maoni ambayo yanafanana na maoni ya wananchi wengi au wakati mwingine yakawa kinyume na ya wengi. Haya ni mambo ya kihuni na ya kubahatisha na matokeo yake hayapashwi kuitwa au kuchukuwa nafasi ya maoni halisi ya wananchi. Binafsi naona huu ni mwendelezo wa hila na ghiriba za viongozi wanaotanguliza maslahi binafsi kwa kujificha nyuma ya pazia la tume za mizengwe. Kibaya zaidi wanapenyeza ushawishi wao kichinichini kupitia kwenye vyombo vya habari vyenye utapiamaadili. Tume wanazounda zikitoa mawazo wanayoyataka wanasema ni ya wananchi. Zikitoa mawazo yasiyoendana na baadae zao wanayakataa.
Anyway, nimeambatanisha hotuba ya Nyerere kwa Bunge la Afrika Kusini alipokuwa amealikwa na Mzee Madiba (Nyerere in South Africa -pdf format)
Kyoma
Senior Member
- Jun 2, 2006
- 101
- 89
Wadau, heshima yenu!
Kwa wale ambao wangependa kujikumbushia, kuna mdau mmoja alinipeperushia hotuba ya Nyerere kwa Masista wa kikatoliki wa Maryknoll huko New York 1970. Nadhani imenyofolewa kutoka katika kitabu chake cha "Man and Development". Nimeiambatanisha
(Nyerere in New York - pdf format)
Kwa wale ambao wangependa kujikumbushia, kuna mdau mmoja alinipeperushia hotuba ya Nyerere kwa Masista wa kikatoliki wa Maryknoll huko New York 1970. Nadhani imenyofolewa kutoka katika kitabu chake cha "Man and Development". Nimeiambatanisha
(Nyerere in New York - pdf format)
Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,237
- 44,470
Asante.. sana... natumaini watu watasoma hotuba hizi na labda watatambua kuwa kuna mambo aliyosema mwalimu which are as relevant today as they were when he spoke them.
KadaMpinzani
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 31, 2007
- 3,715
- 94
nenda hapa kuna audio za nyerere kibao : http://www.nyererefoundation.or.tz/mediaclips/clips.htm
Julius Nyerere, lifelong learning and informal education.
One of Africa's most respected figures, Julius Nyerere (1922-- 1999) was a politician of principle and intelligence. Known as Mwalimu or teacher he had a vision of education that was rich with possibility.
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 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 and he was elected President in 1962.
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.
Ujamaa, socialism and self reliance
As President, Nyerere had to steer a difficult course. By the late 1960s Tanzania was one of the world's poorest countries. Like many others it was suffering from a severe foreign debt burden, a decrease in foreign aid, and a fall in the price of commodities. His solution, the collectivization of agriculture, villigization (see Ujamma below) and large-scale nationalization was a unique blend of socialism and communal life. The vision was set out in the Arusha Declaration of 1967 (reprinted in Nyerere 1968):
Within the Declaration there was a commitment to raising basic living standards (and an opposition to conspicuous consumption and large private wealth). The socialism he believed in was "people-centred". Humanness in its fullest sense rather than wealth creation must come first. Societies become better places through the development of people rather than the gearing up of production. This was a matter that Nyerere took to be important both in political and private terms. Unlike many other politicians, he did not amass a large fortune through exploiting his position.
The policy met with significant political resistance (especially when people were forced into rural communes) and little economic success. Nearly 10 million peasants were moved and many were effectively forced to give up their land. The idea of collective farming was less than attractive to many peasants. A large number found themselves worse off. Productivity went down. However, the focus on human development and self-reliance did bring some success in other areas notably in health, education and in political identity.
Education for self-reliance
As Yusuf Kassam (1995: 250) has noted, Nyerere's educational philosophy can be approached under two main headings: education for self-reliance; and adult education, lifelong learning and education for liberation. His interest in self-reliance shares a great deal with Gandhi's approach. There was a strong concern to counteract the colonialist assumptions and practices of the dominant, formal means of education. He saw it as enslaving and oriented to "western" interests and norms. Kassim (1995: 251) sums up his critique of the Tanzanian (and other former colonies) education system as follows:
Adult education, lifelong learning and learning for liberation
In the _Declaration of Dar es Salaam_ Julius Nyerere made a ringing call for adult education to be directed at helping people to help themselves and for it to approached as part of life: "integrated with life and inseparable from it". For him adult education had two functions. To:
In terms of method, two aspects stand out:
The teacher of adults is, for Nyerere, a leader, "a guide along a path which all will travel together" (ibid.: 34).
In practical terms this approach proved successful. Mass literacy campaigns were initiated and carried through (for example, between 1975 and 1977 illiteracy fell from 39 to 27 per cent--by 1986 it was at 9.6 per cent); and various health and agricultural programmes were mounted e.g the "Man is Health" campaign in 1973, and "Food is Life" (1975) (Mushi and Bwatwa 1998). Adult education initiatives have made a significant contribution to mobilising people for development (Kassam 1979).
Liberation struggles
A committed pan-Africanist, Nyerere provided a home for a number of African liberation movements including the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC) of South Africa, Frelimo when seeking to overthrow Portuguese rule in Mozambique, Zanla (and Robert Mugabe) in their struggle to unseat the white regime in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He also opposed the brutal regime of Idi Amin in Uganda. Following a border invasion by Amin in 1978, a 20,000-strong Tanzanian army along with rebel groups, invaded Uganda. It took the capital, Kampala, in 1979, restoring Uganda's first President, Milton Obote, to power. The battle against Amin was expensive and placed a strain on government finances. There was considerable criticism within Tanzania that he had both overlooked domestic issues and had not paid proper attention to internal human rights abuses. Tanzania was a one party state--and while there was a strong democratic element in organization and a concern for consensus, this did not stop Nyerere using the Preventive Detention Act to imprison opponents. In part this may have been justified by the need to contain divisiveness, but there does appear to have been a disjuncture between his commitment to human rights on the world stage, and his actions at home.
Retirement
In 1985 Nyerere gave up the Presidency but remained as chair of the Party--Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). He gradually withdrew from active politics, retiring to his farm in Butiama. In 1990 he relinquished his chairmanship of CCM but remained active on the world stage as Chair of the Intergovernmental South Centre. One of his last high profile actions was as the chief mediator in the Burundi conflict (in 1996). 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:
Julius Nyerere on the Arusha Declaration
It is particularly important that we should now understand the connection between freedom, development, and discipline, because our national policy of creating socialist villages throughout the rural areas depends upon it. For we have known for a very long time that development had to go on in the rural areas, and that this required co-operative activities by the people...
When we tried to promote rural development in the past, we sometimes spent huge sums of money on establishing a Settlement, and supplying it with modern equipment, and social services, as well as often providing it with a management hierarchy...All too often, we persuaded people to go into new settlements by promising them that they could quickly grow rich there, or that Government would give them services and equipment which they could not hope to receive either in the towns or in their traditional farming places. In very few cases was any ideology involved; we thought and talked in terms of greatly increased output, and of things being provided for the settlers.
What we were doing, in fact, was thinking of development in terms of things, and not of people... As a result, there have been very many cases where heavy capital investment has resulted in no increase in output where the investment has been wasted. And in most of the officially sponsored or supported schemes, the majority of people who went to settle lost their enthusiasm, and either left the scheme altogether, or failed to carry out the orders of the outsiders who were put in charge--and who were not themselves involved in the success or failure of the project.
It is important, therefore, to realize that the policy of ujamaa Vijijini is not intended to be merely a revival of the old settlement schemes under another name. The Ujamaa village is a new conception, based on the post Arusha Declaration understanding that what we need to develop is people, not things, and that people can only develop themselves...
Ujamaa villages are intended to be socialist organizations created by the people, and governed by those who live and work in them. They cannot be created from outside, nor governed from outside. No one can be forced into an Ujamaa village, and no official--at any level--can go and tell the members of an Ujamaa village what they should do together, and what they should continue to do as individual farmers...
It is important that these things should be thoroughly understood. It is also important that the people should not be persuaded to start an Ujamaa village by promises of the things which will be given to them if they do so. A group of people must decide to start an Ujamaa village because they have understood that only through this method can they live and develop in dignity and freedom, receiving the full benefits of their co-operative endeavour...
Unless the purpose and socialist ideology of an Ujamaa village is understood by the members from the beginning--at least to some extent it will not survive the early difficulties. For no-one can guarantee that there will not be a crop failure in the first or second year--there might be a drought or floods. And the greater self-discipline which is necessary when working in a community will only be forthcoming if the people understand what they are doing and why...
Nyerere on The Arusha Declaration, excerpts from J.K. Nyerere, _Freedom and Development_ (Government Printer, Dar-es-Salaam, (no date). Reprinted in _Freedom and Development_ (Oxford University Press, 1973). Copyright retained by the President.
Books by Julius Nyerere
(1968) _Freedom and Socialism. A Selection from Writings & Speeches, 1965-1967_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press. This book includes The Arusha Declaration; Education for self-reliance; The varied paths to socialism; The purpose is man; and socialism and development.
(1974) _Freedom & Development, Uhuru Na Maendeleo_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press. Includes essays on adult education; freedom and development; relevance; and ten years after independence.
(1977) _Ujamaa-Essays on Socialism_, London: Oxford University Press.
(1979) _Crusade for Liberation_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press.
One of Africa's most respected figures, Julius Nyerere (1922-- 1999) was a politician of principle and intelligence. Known as Mwalimu or teacher he had a vision of education that was rich with possibility.
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 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 and he was elected President in 1962.
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.
Ujamaa, socialism and self reliance
As President, Nyerere had to steer a difficult course. By the late 1960s Tanzania was one of the world's poorest countries. Like many others it was suffering from a severe foreign debt burden, a decrease in foreign aid, and a fall in the price of commodities. His solution, the collectivization of agriculture, villigization (see Ujamma below) and large-scale nationalization was a unique blend of socialism and communal life. The vision was set out in the Arusha Declaration of 1967 (reprinted in Nyerere 1968):
The objective of socialism in the United Republic of Tanzania is to build a society in which all members have equal rights and equal opportunities; in which all can live in peace with their neighbours without suffering or imposing injustice, being exploited, or exploiting; and in which all have a gradually increasing basic level of material welfare before any individual lives in luxury. (Nyerere 1968: 340)
The focus, given the nature of Tanzanian society, was on rural development. People were encouraged (sometimes forced) to live and work on a co-operative basis in organized villages or ujamaa (meaning "familyhood" in Kishwahili). The idea was to extend traditional values and responsibilities around kinship to Tanzania as a whole. Within the Declaration there was a commitment to raising basic living standards (and an opposition to conspicuous consumption and large private wealth). The socialism he believed in was "people-centred". Humanness in its fullest sense rather than wealth creation must come first. Societies become better places through the development of people rather than the gearing up of production. This was a matter that Nyerere took to be important both in political and private terms. Unlike many other politicians, he did not amass a large fortune through exploiting his position.
The policy met with significant political resistance (especially when people were forced into rural communes) and little economic success. Nearly 10 million peasants were moved and many were effectively forced to give up their land. The idea of collective farming was less than attractive to many peasants. A large number found themselves worse off. Productivity went down. However, the focus on human development and self-reliance did bring some success in other areas notably in health, education and in political identity.
Education for self-reliance
As Yusuf Kassam (1995: 250) has noted, Nyerere's educational philosophy can be approached under two main headings: education for self-reliance; and adult education, lifelong learning and education for liberation. His interest in self-reliance shares a great deal with Gandhi's approach. There was a strong concern to counteract the colonialist assumptions and practices of the dominant, formal means of education. He saw it as enslaving and oriented to "western" interests and norms. Kassim (1995: 251) sums up his critique of the Tanzanian (and other former colonies) education system as follows:
- Formal education is basically elitist in nature, catering to the needs and interests of the very small proportion of those who manage to enter the hierarchical pyramid of formal schooling: "We have not until now questioned the basic system of education which we took over at the time of Independence. We have never done that because we have never thought about education except in terms of obtaining teachers, engineers, administrators, etc. Individually and collectively we have in practice thought of education as a training for the skills required to earn high salaries in the modern sector of our economy". (Nyerere, 1968: 267).
- The education system divorces its participants from the society for which they are supposed to be trained.
- The system breeds the notion that education is synonymous with formal schooling, and people are judged and employed on the basis of their ability to pass examinations and acquire paper qualifications.
- The system does not involve its students in productive work. Such a situation deprives society of their much-needed contribution to the increase in national economic output and also breeds among the students a contempt for manual work. (Kassam 1995: 251)
- It should be oriented to rural life. Teachers and students should engage together in productive activities and students should participate in the planning and decision-making process of organizing these activities. Productive work should become an integral part of the school curriculum and provide meaningful learning experience through the integration of theory and practice. The importance of examinations should be downgraded. Children should begin school at age 7 so that they would be old enough and sufficiently mature to engage in self-reliant and productive work when they leave school. Primary education should be complete in itself rather than merely serving as a means to higher education. Students should becomeself-confident and co-operative, and develop critical and inquiring minds. (summarized in Kassam 1995: 253
Adult education, lifelong learning and learning for liberation
In the _Declaration of Dar es Salaam_ Julius Nyerere made a ringing call for adult education to be directed at helping people to help themselves and for it to approached as part of life: "integrated with life and inseparable from it". For him adult education had two functions. To:
- Inspire both a desire for change, and an understanding that change is possible.
- Help people to make their own decisions, and to implement those decisions for themselves. (Nyerere 1978: 29, 30)
- generalists like community development workers, political activists and religious teachers. Such people are not politically neutral, they will affect how people look at the society in which they live, and how they seek to use it or change it. (ibid.: 31)
- specialists like those concerned with health, agriculture, child care, management and literacy.
In terms of method, two aspects stand out:
- Educators do not give to another something they possess. Rather, they help learners to develop their own potential and capacity.
- Those that educators work with have experience and knowledge about the subjects they are interested in-- although they may not realize it.
y drawing out the things the learner already knows, and showing their relevance to the new thing which has to be learnt, the teacher has done three things. He has built up the self-confidence of the man who wants to learn, by showing him that he is capable of contributing. He has demonstrated the relevance of experience and observation as a method of learning when combined with thought and analysis. And he ha shown what I might call the "mutuality" of learning--that is, that by sharing our knowledge we extend the totality of our understanding and our control over our lives. (1978: 33)
The teacher of adults is, for Nyerere, a leader, "a guide along a path which all will travel together" (ibid.: 34).
In practical terms this approach proved successful. Mass literacy campaigns were initiated and carried through (for example, between 1975 and 1977 illiteracy fell from 39 to 27 per cent--by 1986 it was at 9.6 per cent); and various health and agricultural programmes were mounted e.g the "Man is Health" campaign in 1973, and "Food is Life" (1975) (Mushi and Bwatwa 1998). Adult education initiatives have made a significant contribution to mobilising people for development (Kassam 1979).
Liberation struggles
A committed pan-Africanist, Nyerere provided a home for a number of African liberation movements including the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC) of South Africa, Frelimo when seeking to overthrow Portuguese rule in Mozambique, Zanla (and Robert Mugabe) in their struggle to unseat the white regime in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He also opposed the brutal regime of Idi Amin in Uganda. Following a border invasion by Amin in 1978, a 20,000-strong Tanzanian army along with rebel groups, invaded Uganda. It took the capital, Kampala, in 1979, restoring Uganda's first President, Milton Obote, to power. The battle against Amin was expensive and placed a strain on government finances. There was considerable criticism within Tanzania that he had both overlooked domestic issues and had not paid proper attention to internal human rights abuses. Tanzania was a one party state--and while there was a strong democratic element in organization and a concern for consensus, this did not stop Nyerere using the Preventive Detention Act to imprison opponents. In part this may have been justified by the need to contain divisiveness, but there does appear to have been a disjuncture between his commitment to human rights on the world stage, and his actions at home.
Retirement
In 1985 Nyerere gave up the Presidency but remained as chair of the Party--Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). He gradually withdrew from active politics, retiring to his farm in Butiama. In 1990 he relinquished his chairmanship of CCM but remained active on the world stage as Chair of the Intergovernmental South Centre. One of his last high profile actions was as the chief mediator in the Burundi conflict (in 1996). 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:
Slight in build, somewhat austere in manner, Nyerere was neither vain nor arrogant. He set great store by honesty and sincerity. A family man devoted to his wife and children, he was extremely loyal to his friends--sometimes to a fault. He 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.
Julius Nyerere on the Arusha Declaration
It is particularly important that we should now understand the connection between freedom, development, and discipline, because our national policy of creating socialist villages throughout the rural areas depends upon it. For we have known for a very long time that development had to go on in the rural areas, and that this required co-operative activities by the people...
When we tried to promote rural development in the past, we sometimes spent huge sums of money on establishing a Settlement, and supplying it with modern equipment, and social services, as well as often providing it with a management hierarchy...All too often, we persuaded people to go into new settlements by promising them that they could quickly grow rich there, or that Government would give them services and equipment which they could not hope to receive either in the towns or in their traditional farming places. In very few cases was any ideology involved; we thought and talked in terms of greatly increased output, and of things being provided for the settlers.
What we were doing, in fact, was thinking of development in terms of things, and not of people... As a result, there have been very many cases where heavy capital investment has resulted in no increase in output where the investment has been wasted. And in most of the officially sponsored or supported schemes, the majority of people who went to settle lost their enthusiasm, and either left the scheme altogether, or failed to carry out the orders of the outsiders who were put in charge--and who were not themselves involved in the success or failure of the project.
It is important, therefore, to realize that the policy of ujamaa Vijijini is not intended to be merely a revival of the old settlement schemes under another name. The Ujamaa village is a new conception, based on the post Arusha Declaration understanding that what we need to develop is people, not things, and that people can only develop themselves...
Ujamaa villages are intended to be socialist organizations created by the people, and governed by those who live and work in them. They cannot be created from outside, nor governed from outside. No one can be forced into an Ujamaa village, and no official--at any level--can go and tell the members of an Ujamaa village what they should do together, and what they should continue to do as individual farmers...
It is important that these things should be thoroughly understood. It is also important that the people should not be persuaded to start an Ujamaa village by promises of the things which will be given to them if they do so. A group of people must decide to start an Ujamaa village because they have understood that only through this method can they live and develop in dignity and freedom, receiving the full benefits of their co-operative endeavour...
Unless the purpose and socialist ideology of an Ujamaa village is understood by the members from the beginning--at least to some extent it will not survive the early difficulties. For no-one can guarantee that there will not be a crop failure in the first or second year--there might be a drought or floods. And the greater self-discipline which is necessary when working in a community will only be forthcoming if the people understand what they are doing and why...
Nyerere on The Arusha Declaration, excerpts from J.K. Nyerere, _Freedom and Development_ (Government Printer, Dar-es-Salaam, (no date). Reprinted in _Freedom and Development_ (Oxford University Press, 1973). Copyright retained by the President.
Julius Nyerere - The Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam
[page 27] Man can only liberate himself or develop himself. He cannot be liberated or developed by another. For Man makes himself. It is his ability to act deliberately, for a self-determined purpose, which distinguishes him from the other animals. The expansion of his own consciousness, and therefore of his power over himself, his environment, and his society, must therefore ultimately be what we mean by development.
So development is for Man, by Man, and of Man. The same is true of education. Its purpose is the liberation of Man from the restraints and limitations of ignorance and dependency. Education has to increase menÂ's physical and mental freedom to increase their control over themselves, their own lives, [page 28] the environment in which they live. The ideas imparted by education, or released in the mind through education, should therefore be liberating ideas; the skills acquired by education should be liberating skills. Nothing else can properly be called education. Teaching which induces a slave mentality or a sense of impotence is not education at all--it is attack on the minds of men.
This means that adult education has to be directed at helping men to develop themselves. It has to contribute to an enlargement of Man's ability in every way. In particular it has to help men to decide for themselves--in co-operation--what development is. It must help men to think clearly; it must enable them to examine the possible alternative courses of action; to make a choice between those alternatives in keeping with their own purposes; and it must equip them with the ability to translate their decisions into reality.
The personal and physical aspects of development cannot be separated. It is in the process of deciding for himself what is development, and deciding in what direction it should take his society, and in implementing those decisions, that Man develops himself. For man does not develop himself in a vacuum, in isolation from his society and his environment; and he certainly cannot be developed by others. Man's consciousness is developed in the process of thinking, and deciding and of acting. His capacity is developed in the process of doing things.
But doing things means co-operating with others, for in isolation Man is virtually helpless physically, and stultified mentally. Education for liberation is therefore also education for co-operation among men, because it is in co-operation with others that Man liberates himself from the constraints of nature, and also those imposed upon him by his fellow-men. Education is thus intensely personal. In the sense that it has to be a personal experience--no one cam have his consciousness developed by proxy. But it is also am activity of great social significance, because the man whom education liberates is a man in society, and his society will be affected by the change which education creates in him.
There is another aspect to this. A Man learns because he wants to do something. And once he has started along this road of developing his capacity he also learns because he wants to be; to be a more conscious and understanding person. Learning has not liberated a man if all he learns to want is a certificate [page 29] on his wall, and the reputation of being a "learned person"--a possessor of knowledge. For such a desire is merely another aspect of the disease of the acquisitive society--the accumulation of goods for the sake of accumulating then. The accumulation of knowledge or, worse still, the accumulation of pieces of paper which represent a kind of legal tender for such knowledge, has nothing to do with development.
So if adult education is to contribute to development, it must be a part of life--integrated with life and inseparable from it. It is not something which can be put into a box and taken out for certain periods of the day or weekÂ-or certain periods of a life. And it cannot be imposed: every learner is ultimately a volunteer, because, however much teaching he is given, only he can learn.
Further, adult education is not something which can deal with just "agriculture", or "health", or "literacy", or "mechanical skill", etc. All these separate branches of education are related to the total life a man is living, and to the man he is and will become. Learning how best to grow soy-beans is of little use to a man if it is not combined with learning about nutrition and/or the existence of a market for the beans. This means that adult education will promote changes in men, and in society. And it means that adult education should promote change, at the same time as it assists men to control both the change which they induce, and that which is forced upon them by the decisions of other men or the cataclysms of nature. Further, it means that adult education encompasses the whole of life, and must build upon what already exists.
Extract from Julius K. Nyerere "'Development is for Man, by Man, and of Man': The Declaration of Dar es Salaam" in Budd L. Hall and J. Roby Kidd (eds.) (1978) _Adult Education: A Design for Action_, Oxford: Pergamon. [page 27] Man can only liberate himself or develop himself. He cannot be liberated or developed by another. For Man makes himself. It is his ability to act deliberately, for a self-determined purpose, which distinguishes him from the other animals. The expansion of his own consciousness, and therefore of his power over himself, his environment, and his society, must therefore ultimately be what we mean by development.
So development is for Man, by Man, and of Man. The same is true of education. Its purpose is the liberation of Man from the restraints and limitations of ignorance and dependency. Education has to increase menÂ's physical and mental freedom to increase their control over themselves, their own lives, [page 28] the environment in which they live. The ideas imparted by education, or released in the mind through education, should therefore be liberating ideas; the skills acquired by education should be liberating skills. Nothing else can properly be called education. Teaching which induces a slave mentality or a sense of impotence is not education at all--it is attack on the minds of men.
This means that adult education has to be directed at helping men to develop themselves. It has to contribute to an enlargement of Man's ability in every way. In particular it has to help men to decide for themselves--in co-operation--what development is. It must help men to think clearly; it must enable them to examine the possible alternative courses of action; to make a choice between those alternatives in keeping with their own purposes; and it must equip them with the ability to translate their decisions into reality.
The personal and physical aspects of development cannot be separated. It is in the process of deciding for himself what is development, and deciding in what direction it should take his society, and in implementing those decisions, that Man develops himself. For man does not develop himself in a vacuum, in isolation from his society and his environment; and he certainly cannot be developed by others. Man's consciousness is developed in the process of thinking, and deciding and of acting. His capacity is developed in the process of doing things.
But doing things means co-operating with others, for in isolation Man is virtually helpless physically, and stultified mentally. Education for liberation is therefore also education for co-operation among men, because it is in co-operation with others that Man liberates himself from the constraints of nature, and also those imposed upon him by his fellow-men. Education is thus intensely personal. In the sense that it has to be a personal experience--no one cam have his consciousness developed by proxy. But it is also am activity of great social significance, because the man whom education liberates is a man in society, and his society will be affected by the change which education creates in him.
There is another aspect to this. A Man learns because he wants to do something. And once he has started along this road of developing his capacity he also learns because he wants to be; to be a more conscious and understanding person. Learning has not liberated a man if all he learns to want is a certificate [page 29] on his wall, and the reputation of being a "learned person"--a possessor of knowledge. For such a desire is merely another aspect of the disease of the acquisitive society--the accumulation of goods for the sake of accumulating then. The accumulation of knowledge or, worse still, the accumulation of pieces of paper which represent a kind of legal tender for such knowledge, has nothing to do with development.
So if adult education is to contribute to development, it must be a part of life--integrated with life and inseparable from it. It is not something which can be put into a box and taken out for certain periods of the day or weekÂ-or certain periods of a life. And it cannot be imposed: every learner is ultimately a volunteer, because, however much teaching he is given, only he can learn.
Further, adult education is not something which can deal with just "agriculture", or "health", or "literacy", or "mechanical skill", etc. All these separate branches of education are related to the total life a man is living, and to the man he is and will become. Learning how best to grow soy-beans is of little use to a man if it is not combined with learning about nutrition and/or the existence of a market for the beans. This means that adult education will promote changes in men, and in society. And it means that adult education should promote change, at the same time as it assists men to control both the change which they induce, and that which is forced upon them by the decisions of other men or the cataclysms of nature. Further, it means that adult education encompasses the whole of life, and must build upon what already exists.
Books by Julius Nyerere
(1968) _Freedom and Socialism. A Selection from Writings & Speeches, 1965-1967_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press. This book includes The Arusha Declaration; Education for self-reliance; The varied paths to socialism; The purpose is man; and socialism and development.
(1974) _Freedom & Development, Uhuru Na Maendeleo_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press. Includes essays on adult education; freedom and development; relevance; and ten years after independence.
(1977) _Ujamaa-Essays on Socialism_, London: Oxford University Press.
(1979) _Crusade for Liberation_, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press.
Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,237
- 44,470
Mkandara.. hayo maneno ya mwalimu kuhusu elimu ni kama nuru kwenye giza! Leo yanafundishwa sehemu nyingi duniani kwa watu wanaotaka kusoma Falsafa ya Elimu. Mwalimu kama mwanafalsafa alichangia kwa kiwango kikubwa kuelewa the nature of education and the role that education plays in development. Kama tungerudi na kujifunza how deep those thoughts are... elimu yetu ingebadilika sana kutoka "yenye lengo la kuhitimu" na kuwa "yenye lengo la kumkomboa mtu".
Ngurumo
Member
- May 26, 2007
- 37
- 86
Ndiyo maana baadhi yetu tunaamini kwamba CCM hii iliyopo si ile ya Nyerere. Ya Nyerere ilikufa zamani. Hawa wamebaki na jina. Dira, visheni na mwelekeo wa kitaifa kama alivyoaasisi Nyerere havipo tena. Lakini wanamtumia kudanganyia wananachi mbumbumbu wanaomheshimu Nyerere, na wanaodhani kwamba CCM na Nyerere havitenganishwi.
Bahati mbaya hata baadhi ya wasomi wamo katika giza hili. Na baadhi yao ndio hao viongozi wetu wa sasa. Ole wetu tusipoamka na kuijenga upya Tanzania. Kama alivyosema mwenyewe katika kitabu chake cka mwisho, Uongozi wetu na Hatima ya Tanzania, hawa jamaa "wameiivunda." Tunabaki kujiuliza, kama CCM ya Nyerere ilikufa sasa tufanyeje?
S. S. Phares
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 27, 2006
- 2,138
- 88
Mimi nimejaribu kumfahamu na bado naendelea kumfahamu JKN leo hii. My take mpaka sasa ni kuwa huyu Mheshimiwa alikuwa anapata shida sana kutawala Watanganyika..upeo wake ulikuwa na level ya juu sana kwa Taifa alilokuwa analiongoza; wale wachache waliokuwa wanamuelewa walipingana naye kwa sababu mbali*2...nadhani ndio maana katika mambo mengi akawa anatumia nguvu zaidi.
The problem as said above is that most of them are in audio or VHS. Those who have will be doing JKN a good deed if they could digitise and post them on the web. I will try to digitise mine which is a "talk" with Tanzanian living in Germany conducted in Berlin. He gave his views on multparty Tanzania and his disappointment that those in CCM who were silently grumbling over its policy were not courageous enough to go out of the party and form a credibal opposition. To him opposition born out of technocrats can not penetrate to the masses because of the lack of their political experience in mass mobilisation.
Let us make an effort to archieve and publish his thoughts, I think we need them now more than ever before.Mr Cleans being noa dubbed Mr Dirty can open us to know where we went or are going wrong politically and economically.
Let us make an effort to archieve and publish his thoughts, I think we need them now more than ever before.Mr Cleans being noa dubbed Mr Dirty can open us to know where we went or are going wrong politically and economically.
Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,237
- 44,470
Msavila... hapa mmenipa mawazo.. we need to restore Mwalimu. CCM wamemuacha isipokuwa kuendelea kuimba wimbo wa "Baba wa Taifa". Wameacha fikra zake, wamesahau kabisa kanuni zake. Plato katika "Republic" alikuwa anajenga nadharia moja kubwa kwamba mataifa yangeongozwa na "wafalme-wanafalsafa". Ni nchi chache ambazo zimepata bahati hiyo, Tanzania ni mojawapo, Marekani,na Senegal na nyingine zisizojaa kwenye kijanja.
Tulichoshindwa kumuelewa Mwalimu kama ilivyosemwa hapo juu ni kuwa mawazo yake yalikuwa way ahead of his time! Wenzetu wa Marekani, pamoja na maendeleo yao yote, wanapojaribu kuitafuta ile roho au nafsi ya Taifa lao wanarudi nyuma na kuangalia Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights na Katiba yao. Na wanapoendelea kubishana basi wanaenda kuangalia Federalist Papers ambayo ni maandishi ya waasisi wa Taifa hilo. Wanayo hazina ya ujuzi wa roho ya Taifa leo.
Watanzania wengi wa leo wanamsahau, kumkejeli na wengine kumpuumzia Mwalimu kwa vile "alikataza anasa" wakati sasa hivi anasa ni bwelele. Wengi wanasema alikataza TV wakati yeye mwenyewe anayo, wanasema alikataza magari ya kifahari n.k Lakini hakuna anayerudi nyuma na kuuliza ni kweli? ni kitu gani kilichomfanya Mwalimu asiendekeze ufahari na Anasa kama walivyokuwa kina Mobutu?
Tulichoshindwa kumuelewa Mwalimu kama ilivyosemwa hapo juu ni kuwa mawazo yake yalikuwa way ahead of his time! Wenzetu wa Marekani, pamoja na maendeleo yao yote, wanapojaribu kuitafuta ile roho au nafsi ya Taifa lao wanarudi nyuma na kuangalia Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights na Katiba yao. Na wanapoendelea kubishana basi wanaenda kuangalia Federalist Papers ambayo ni maandishi ya waasisi wa Taifa hilo. Wanayo hazina ya ujuzi wa roho ya Taifa leo.
Watanzania wengi wa leo wanamsahau, kumkejeli na wengine kumpuumzia Mwalimu kwa vile "alikataza anasa" wakati sasa hivi anasa ni bwelele. Wengi wanasema alikataza TV wakati yeye mwenyewe anayo, wanasema alikataza magari ya kifahari n.k Lakini hakuna anayerudi nyuma na kuuliza ni kweli? ni kitu gani kilichomfanya Mwalimu asiendekeze ufahari na Anasa kama walivyokuwa kina Mobutu?
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