Julius Kambarage Nyerere (13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.
Born in Tanganyika to Nyerere Burito (1860–1942), Chief of the Zanaki, Nyerere was known by the Swahili name Mwalimu or 'teacher', his profession prior to politics.He was also referred to as Baba wa Taifa (Father of the Nation). Nyerere received his higher education at Makerere University in Kampala and the University of Edinburgh. After he returned to Tanganyika, he worked as a teacher. In 1954, he helped form the Tanganyika African National Union.
In 1961, Nyerere was elected Tanganyika's first Prime Minister, and following independence, in 1962, the country's first President. In 1964, Tanganyika became politically united with Zanzibar and was renamed to Tanzania. In 1965, a one-party election returned Nyerere to power. Two years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which outlined his socialist vision of ujamaa that came to dominate his policies.
Nyerere retired in 1985, while remaining the 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.chairman of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi. He died of
leukemia in London in 1999. In 2009, Nyerere was named "World Hero of
Social Justice" by the president of the United Nations General Assembly.Kambarage Nyerere was born on 13 April 1922 in the town of Butiama in Tanganyika's Mara Region. He was one of 26 children of Nyerere Burito (1860–1942), Chief of the Zanaki. He began attending Government Primary School in Musoma at the age of 12 where he completed the four year programme in three years and went on to Tabora Government School in 1937. He later described Tabora School as being "as close to Eton as you can get in Africa." In 1943 he was baptised as a Catholic, taking the baptismal name of Julius. He received a scholarship to attend Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Here he founded the Tanganyika Welfare Association, which eventually merged with the Tanganyika African Association (TAA), which had been formed in 1929. Nyerere received his teaching Diploma in 1947. He returned to Tanganyika and worked for 3 years at St. Mary's Secondary School in Tabora, where he taught Biology and English. In 1949 he got a government scholarship to attend the University of Edinburgh and was the first Tanganyikan to study at a British university. He obtained an undergraduate Master of Arts degree in Economics and History in 1952. In Edinburgh he encountered Fabian thinking and began to develop his particular vision of connecting socialism with African communal living.
Post-presidential
activity
After the Presidency, Nyerere remained the Chairman of CCM until 1990
when Ali Hassan Mwinyi took over. Nyerere
remained vocal about the extent of corruption and corrupt officials
during the Mwinyi administration. He also blocked Jakaya Kikwete's nomination for the presidency, citing that
he was too young to run a country. Nyerere was instrumental in getting Benjamin Mkapa elected (Mkapa had been Minister of Foreign
Affairs for a time during Nyerere's administration). Kikwete later
became president in 2005.
Positions Held after Presidency: Chairman of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (1985–1990), Chairman of the independent International South Commission (1987–1990), and Chairman of the South Centre in the Geneva & Dar es Salaam Offices (1990–1999).
