Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 34,095
- 43,307
In some of my writings I have alluded to one of the most fiery, provocative and incredibly poignant speech by Nyerere to the Tanzanian educated youth. It is one of the few speeches that remains forgotten. As the nation wrestles with the question of public spending, entitlements of the educated ruling class (part of which is corrupt) and the burden this government has put on the poor peasants (as Nyerere would call them) I have found an urge to share this speech with you just to make us think where we are coming from and why we are here. A bunch of those students who marched to the State House have found their thrones at the helm of power in the past 10 to 15 years. They have never changed.
In the first part, a group of university students (almost 400 of them) from DUC (before it became UDSM) marched to the Statehouse protesting the National Service arrangement which they considered to be exploitative in nature. Without fear or excuses Nyerere and his Cabinet were prepared to meet them. Force was not used to stop them.
The incident is recorded in We Must Run, While They Walk, pp 26-32- a book by William Edgett Smith Digital transcription is mine; all italics and brackets original. I will have a Pdf file with the complete text next time.
THE SECOND PART
My salary! Do you know what my salary is? Five Thousand damned shillings a month! Five thousand damned shillings in a poor country! The poor man who gets two hundred shillings a month - do you know how long its going to take him to earn my damned salary? Twenty-five years! Its going to take the poor man in this country, who earns two hundred shillings a month, twenty-five years to earn what I earn in a year.
The damned salaries! These are salaries which build this kind of attitude in the educated people, all of them! All of them! Me and you! We belong to a class of exploiters! I belong to your class! Where I think three hundred and eight pounds a yeas is a prison camp! Is forced labor! We belong to this damned exploiting class on top. Is this the country we fought for? Is this what we worked for? In order to maintain a class of exploiters on top?
I agree with you! We are paying too much! Everybody in this damned country is paid too much- except the poor peasant. Ill slash the salaries! I agree with you! Im glad youre so concerned about this country! Forced labor? Where do we get this language? The day I can give every worker of Tanzania three hundred and eighty pounds, we will have worked a revolution that has not been worked anywhere in Africa. The day that I succeed in giving everybody in this damned country three hundred pounds, we shall have worked a terrific revolution; we could stand all of us on top of Kilimanjaro and proclaim the Tanzanian revolution!
Forced labor! Go, go in the classroom, go and dont teach. This we shall county as National Service for three hundred and eighty pounds a year. You are right salaries are too high. Everybody in this country is demanding a pound of flesh. Everybody except the poor peasant. How can he demand it? He doesnt know the language. Even in his own language he cant speak of forced labor. What kind of country are we building? He fairly screeched the words.
I have accepted what you said. And I am going to revise salaries permanently. And as for you, I am asking you to go home. Im asking all of you to go home. Rashid! You are responsible to see that they go home.
There was mild applause, presumably from those students who didnt realize what had happened. He expelled them, three hundred and ninety three in all and sent them home.
***
In the first part, a group of university students (almost 400 of them) from DUC (before it became UDSM) marched to the Statehouse protesting the National Service arrangement which they considered to be exploitative in nature. Without fear or excuses Nyerere and his Cabinet were prepared to meet them. Force was not used to stop them.
The incident is recorded in We Must Run, While They Walk, pp 26-32- a book by William Edgett Smith Digital transcription is mine; all italics and brackets original. I will have a Pdf file with the complete text next time.
THE SECOND PART
My salary! Do you know what my salary is? Five Thousand damned shillings a month! Five thousand damned shillings in a poor country! The poor man who gets two hundred shillings a month - do you know how long its going to take him to earn my damned salary? Twenty-five years! Its going to take the poor man in this country, who earns two hundred shillings a month, twenty-five years to earn what I earn in a year.
The damned salaries! These are salaries which build this kind of attitude in the educated people, all of them! All of them! Me and you! We belong to a class of exploiters! I belong to your class! Where I think three hundred and eight pounds a yeas is a prison camp! Is forced labor! We belong to this damned exploiting class on top. Is this the country we fought for? Is this what we worked for? In order to maintain a class of exploiters on top?
I agree with you! We are paying too much! Everybody in this damned country is paid too much- except the poor peasant. Ill slash the salaries! I agree with you! Im glad youre so concerned about this country! Forced labor? Where do we get this language? The day I can give every worker of Tanzania three hundred and eighty pounds, we will have worked a revolution that has not been worked anywhere in Africa. The day that I succeed in giving everybody in this damned country three hundred pounds, we shall have worked a terrific revolution; we could stand all of us on top of Kilimanjaro and proclaim the Tanzanian revolution!
Forced labor! Go, go in the classroom, go and dont teach. This we shall county as National Service for three hundred and eighty pounds a year. You are right salaries are too high. Everybody in this country is demanding a pound of flesh. Everybody except the poor peasant. How can he demand it? He doesnt know the language. Even in his own language he cant speak of forced labor. What kind of country are we building? He fairly screeched the words.
I have accepted what you said. And I am going to revise salaries permanently. And as for you, I am asking you to go home. Im asking all of you to go home. Rashid! You are responsible to see that they go home.
There was mild applause, presumably from those students who didnt realize what had happened. He expelled them, three hundred and ninety three in all and sent them home.
***
