Julius Nyerere

“Nyerere did a lot of backroom lobbying in CCM to eliminate various aspirants for the presidential nomination, and Benjamin Mkapa’s eventual selection was widely viewed as Nyerere’s doing. The colorless Mkapa was seen as “Mr. Clean” and had long been a loyal foot soldier for CCM in a variety of offices. Nyerere was on hand to launch Mkapa’s candidacy and made periodic appearances his behalf.”

“Nyerere was more restrained in his criticism of the indigenous dictators and military governments that sprouted across the continent during this period. Although he bitterly denounced the separatist leader of the Congolese state of Katanga, Moise Tshombe, who hired mercenaries from South Africa and elsewhere...”

“Nyerere wore his emotions on his sleeve. His joy, anger, and sadness often poured out into public view. After seeing off Governor Turnbull at the airport in December, Nyerere gathered with friends and family at his home. The American ambassador William Leonhart stopped by to deliver a message of congratulations from the American president.”

“Nyerere pursued ambitious and not always successful policies aimed at building a peaceful and prosperous nation out of an ethnically diverse colonial territory populated mostly by illiterate peasant farmers. His Arusha Declaration in 1967 envisioned a clean government dedicated to economic growth on the basis of his theory of African socialism, or Ujamaa. Although his government gave military support to movements fighting white minority governments, only the war with Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1978 mobilized the Tanzanian army and population at large.”

“Small nations are like indecently dressed women. They tempt the evil-minded.”

“Education is not a way to escape poverty, it is a way of fighting it.”

“Yes, we have one party here. But so does America. Except, with typical extravagance, they have two of them!”

“I have read and re-read the Arusha Declaration and found nothing wrong with it except perhaps replacing a few commas here and there... it was clear for some of us that it would only be a mad man who would stand up and defend the Arusha Declaration.”

“Those who receive this privilege therefore, have a duty to repay the sacrifice which others have made. They are like the man who has been given all the food available in a starving village in order that he might have strength to bring supplies back from a distant place. If he takes this food and does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor. Similarly, if any of the young men and women who are given an education by the people of this republic adopt attitudes of superiority, or fail to use their knowledge to help the development of this country, then they are betraying our union.”

“Freedom to many means immediate betterment, as if by magic … Unless I can meet at least some of these aspirations, my support will wane and my head will roll just as surely as the tickbird follows the rhino.”

“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.”