butchdot: Happy birthday, Julius Nyrere! (April 13, 1922)Leader of Tanganyika from 1960 to 1964
butchdot: Happy birthday, Julius Nyrere! (April 13, 1922)Leader of Tanganyika from 1960 to 1964, and of the united state of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985, Julius Nyrere was a celebrated anti-colonialist and pan-Aricanist thinker who developed the Afican socialist philosophy of Ujamaa, emphasizing collectivization, self-reliance, and internal development. Born to a chief of the Zanaki people, Nyrere developed his political and philosophical ideas during his education, coming to conclude that capitalism was an alien imposition to the African continent, and that Africans were culturally inclined towards socialism. He became active in the nationalist organization known as the Tanganyika African Association, which he would reform into the Tanganyika African National Union and later the Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Party of the Revolution. Inspired by Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi, Nyrere emphasized non-violent tactics in the struggle for independence. In 1960, Nyrere’s party won nearly every seat, and Tanganyika became independent the following year. Nyrere undertook many policies focused on applying the principals of Ujamaa, including investments in infrastructure and Africanizing the civil service. In 1964 Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania, with Nyrere remaining as the country’s leader. Nyrere supported anti-imperialist and pan-Africanist struggles across the continent, including the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa, and against white minority rule in Zimbabwe. He continued to support these causes after leading power, and by the time of his death in 1999 he was widely respected as an elder statesman in pan-African politics. “We, in Africa, have no more need of being ‘converted’ to socialism than we have of being ‘taught’ democracy. Both are rooted in our past – in the traditional society which produced us.” -- source link