Julius Nyerere was born to Chief Burito Nyerere of the Zanaki (a small ethnic group in northern Tanganyika) and his fifth (out of 22) wife Mgaya Wanyang’ombe. He was a teacher, a leader, and a visionary who shaped Tanzania and Africa’s destiny.
He was a leading force behind the modern Pan-African movement, a leading figure in African politics in the 1970s, and was one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity, OAU, (now the African Union).
Nyerere was educated at Tabora Secondary School and Makerere College in Kampala, Uganda. A convert to Roman Catholicism, he taught in several Roman Catholic schools before going to Edinburgh University. He was the first Tanganyikan to study at a British university. He graduated with an M.A. in history and economics in 1952 and returned to Tanganyika to teach.
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He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from 1964 to 1985. He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union party, and of its successor Chama Cha Mapinduzi, from 1954 to 1990. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa.
Even though Nyerere was an authoritarian ruler, his voluntary retirement from political office and his support for the 1992 reintroduction of multi-party politics are indications that personal and institutional power had not become an end unto itself for him and that he was willing to relinquish both when holding on to them no longer seemed imperative or, indeed, effective in securing the larger political purposes he pursued.
He is also remembered for his ability to unify Tanzanians from all social and cultural backgrounds and making Swahili the country’s official language. Nyerere died on October 14, 1999, in London, England.
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