His is still the most popular name in Tanzania today. He nowadays arouses citizenry sentiments on any contemporary issue. A humble man, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere would shy away from such glory.

It was just the other day that I was on my way from Dar es Salaam to Arusha when I overheard an interesting conversation. In the bus the driver was discussing current issues of national concern with some passengers.

The name ‘Nyerere’ came up over and over again. This Mwalimu, one passenger quipped, is responsible for what is happening now in our society. There followed a deafening silence.

Well I thought, here again goes a popular Nyerere-bashing with no defence whatsoever as the passenger went on and on, attempting to show how a man who died 10 years ago set into motion what is happening today. Just as I was thinking that the battle for a balanced view on Nyerere had been lost, another passenger chipped in. What he said affirmed what I think is the main legacy of the Mwalimu in Nyerere: the ability to generate public debate on issues of importance to society.

So suddenly the discussion shifted to the other side of the story, as this other passenger started to narrate another conventional history of how Nyerere fostered unity and tranquillity. Other passengers also supported his narrative by noting how Mwalimu had promoted Kiswahili to that end. Surprisingly, the earlier critic seemed to switch camps as he exclaimed and nodded in agreement, Africa ’s Liberation especially after the driver cited Nyerere’s call to let Tanzania’s minerals remain in the ground until we had educated our engineers to be able to mine them for our own benefit as a nation.

To those of us who are interested in local popular knowledge, it was such an intellectually stimulating and socially activating moment to hear the driver link what Nyerere had said with the ongoing plunder of our natural resources by multinationals such as Barrick Gold and AngloGold Ashanti.[1] This shows the extent to which our popular imagination is becoming highly conscious of the pitfalls of the neoliberal reform strategy of making us LIMP, that is, liberalised, marketised and privatised. Those words recited by the driver, by the way, have many popular versions such as:

‘Nyerere once said, “We will leave our mineral wealth in the ground until we manage to develop our own geologists and mining engineers.”‘[2]

‘They have the law behind them – but should a stone that is found in Tanzania only be monopolised by a foreign company? President Nyerere said that this is the property of our children!’[3]

Ironically, this popular quote is invoked by politicians who in one way or another have been behind the LIMP-ing of the mining sector. In parliamentary sessions variations on this phrase have been quoted more than once. Interestingly, even the immediate former prime minister once paraphrased it when he was addressing mining investors.

You can indeed pick virtually any topical issue – from agriculture to Zimbabwe – and Nyerere the teacher will have something to do with it. Yes, there are tumultuous historical moments of our times, such as the post-9/11 ‘War on terror’, that he did not live to see and comment on. Yet in a prophetic way he addressed matters which related – and indeed which led – to these moments way back in 1976 in ‘The world: message to America from Tanzania’s President Julius K. Nyerere’, as published by Time:

'We watch with respect, sympathy and anxiety – and sometimes almost with despair – as Americans endeavour to cope with the political and moral results of their own wealth-creating economic system, and to give international meaning to the principles laid down by the founding fathers of their nation… Americans have created a power which is frequently abused internally and externally. But Americans continue to struggle against these abuses and for the survival of the universal principles enunciated in 1776. There is therefore still hope that America’s great power will be used for human beings everywhere, rather than simply for the preservation and creation of American national wealth.'[4]

What about the ongoing economic crunch one may ask – did he also foresee that? We may have not understood his ‘stiff-necked’ attitude in the wake of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), especially when he said ‘No to IMF meddling’ in 1980. Wasn’t he far ahead of his time – way beyond the era of the crestfallen neoliberal project – when he said the following stinging words while addressing diplomats during the 1980 Arusha conference on ‘Restructuring the international monetary system’:[5]

'When did the IMF become an International Ministry of Finance? When did nations agree to surrender to it their power of decision making?

'Your Excellencies: It is this growing power of the IMF and the irresponsible and arrogant way in which it is being wielded against the Poor that has forced me to use my opportunity to make these unusual remarks in a New Year Speech to you. The problem of my country and other Third World countries are grave enough without the political interference of IMF officials. If they cannot help at the very least they should stop meddling.'[6]

That was Nyerere at his best, the Mwalimu we are commemorating today as we reflect on the popular themes that preoccupied his lifelong learning. This is how Seithy Chachage captured our pan-African imagination when we mourned his physical departure over 10 years ago:

'On 14th October 1999 Mwalimu passed away after battling against chronic leukeamia – the disease which killed Frantz Fanon in 1961. The millions of the oppressed people of Africa and the world mourned his loss with profound sadness and a sense of loss, because he is among those people who in words and deeds worked for the empowerment of the powerless. It is for this reason that his influence has never been comforting for those who would like to see people revolt against the noble human ideals he extolled. SAFM (the [South African] radio station for the well informed!) announced his death first on 28th September and 11th October 1999. In both occasions, it apologised for the wrong information. Tim Modise of the same radio station in his ‘famous’ show on 18th October 1999 quipped cryptically: "People will ask why should somebody who died in another country concern us so much? Why not go on with our own business?"'

South Africans were indeed concerned because of the role Nyerere played in the fight against apartheid, among other social vices. SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) even showed his funeral live. Such is how one of the finest sons of Africa permeated that country’s imagination.

In sum, the durability of Nyerere’s legacy in generating passionate public debate aimed at bringing positive social and economic change is what ‘Mwalimu in our popular imagination’ is all about. I think it is thus fitting to close this reflection on him with one of his mottoes appropriated across the socialist–capitalist ideological divide: ‘It can be done, play your part’!

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Edited by Chambi Chachage and Annar Cassam, [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

1. K. Sharife (2009) ‘Tanzania’s pot of gold: not much revenue at the end of the rainbow’, Pambazuka News, issue 450, http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/59142, accessed 8 December 2009.
2. Comment left on ‘Nyerere and IMF: will our leaders deliver in the summit?’, (2009) Politics, Society & Things, http://taifaletu.blogspot.com/2009/03/nyerere-and-imf-will-our-leaders.html, accessed 8 December 2009.
3. Mererani citizen at a community meeting, quoted in CMI report (2006) ‘Benefit streams from mining in Tanzania: case studies from Geita and Mererani’, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), http://www.cmi.no/publications/publication/?2398=benefit-streams-from-mining-in-tanzania, accessed
8 December 2009.
4. J.K. Nyerere (1976) ‘The world: message to America from Tanzania’s President Julius K. Nyerere’, Time, 26 July http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914388-1,00.html, accessed 8 December 2009.
5. J.K. Nyerere (1980) ‘No to IMF meddling’, Another Development: Approaches and Strategies, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden, vol. 2, pp.7–9
6. J.K. Nyerere (1980).