Julius nyerere wife

President of Tanzania from to

"Nyerere" redirects here. For other uses, see Nyerere (disambiguation).

Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Swahili pronunciation:[ˈdʒuliuskɑᵐbɑˈɾɑɠɛɲɛˈɾɛɾɛ]; 13 April – 14 October ) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician and political theorist.

He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from to and then as president from to , after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from to He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party, and of its successor, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, from to Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa.

Born in Butiama, Mara, then in the British colony of Tanganyika, Nyerere was the son of a Zanaki chief. After completing his schooling, he studied at Makerere College in Uganda and then Edinburgh University in Scotland. In he returned to Tanganyika, married, and worked as a school teacher. In , he helped form TANU, through which he campaigned for Tanganyikan independence from the British Empire.

Influenced by the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Nyerere preached non-violent protest to achieve this aim. Elected to the Legislative Council in the – elections, Nyerere then led TANU to victory at the general election, becoming prime minister. Negotiations with the British authorities resulted in Tanganyikan independence in In , Tanganyika became a republic, with Nyerere elected as its first president.

His administration pursued decolonisation and the "Africanisation" of the civil service while promoting unity between indigenous Africans and the country's Asian and European minorities. He encouraged the formation of a one-party state and unsuccessfully pursued the Pan-Africanist formation of an East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya.

A mutiny within the army was suppressed with British assistance.

Following the Zanzibar Revolution of , the island of Zanzibar was unified with Tanganyika to form Tanzania. After this, Nyerere placed a growing emphasis on national self-reliance and socialism. Although his socialism differed from that promoted by Marxism–Leninism, Tanzania developed close links with Mao Zedong's China.

Julius Nyerere

Biography, Philosophy, & Achievements ...

In , Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration which outlined his vision of ujamaa. Banks and other major industries and companies were nationalized; education and healthcare were significantly expanded. Renewed emphasis was placed on agricultural development through the formation of communal farms, although these reforms hampered food production and left areas dependent on food aid.

His government provided training and aid to anti-colonialist groups fighting white-minority rule throughout southern Africa and oversaw Tanzania's – war with Uganda which resulted in the overthrow of Ugandan President Idi Amin. In , Nyerere stood down and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who reversed many of Nyerere's policies.

He remained chair of Chama Cha Mapinduzi until , supporting a transition to a multi-party system, and later served as mediator in attempts to end the Burundian Civil War.

Nyerere was a controversial figure. Across Africa he gained widespread respect as an anti-colonialist and in power received praise for ensuring that, unlike many of its neighbours, Tanzania remained stable and unified in the decades following independence.

His construction of the one-party state and use of detention without trial led to accusations of dictatorial governance, while he has also been blamed for economic mismanagement. He is held in deep respect within Tanzania, where he is often referred to by the SwahilihonorificMwalimu ("teacher") and described as the "Father of the Nation".

Early life

Childhood: –

Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on 13 April in Mwitongo, an area of the village of Butiama in Tanganyika's Mara Region.^[a] He was one of 25 surviving children of Nyerere Burito, the chief of the Zanaki people. Burito had been born in and given the name "Nyerere" ("caterpillar" in Zanaki) after a plague of worm caterpillars infested the local area at the time of his birth.

Burito had been appointed chief in , installed in that position by the German imperial administrators of what was then German East Africa; his position was also endorsed by the incoming British imperial administration. Burito had 22 wives, of whom Julius' mother, Mugaya Nyang'ombe, was the fifth. She had been born in and had married the chief in , when she was fifteen.

Mugaya bore Burito four sons and four daughters, of which Nyerere was the second child; two of his siblings died in infancy.

These wives lived in various huts around Burito's cattle corral, in the centre of which was his roundhouse. The Zanaki were one of the smallest of the tribes in the British colony and were then sub-divided among eight chiefdoms; they would only be united under the kingship of Chief Wanzagi Nyerere, Burito's half-brother, in the s.

Nyerere's clan were the Abhakibhweege. At birth, Nyerere was given the personal name "Mugendi" ("Walker" in Zanaki) but this was soon changed to "Kambarage", the name of a female rain spirit, at the advice of a omugabhudiviner. Nyerere was raised into the polytheistic belief system of the Zanaki, and lived at his mother's house, assisting in the farming of the millet, maize and cassava.

With other local boys he also took part in the herding of goats and cattle. At some point he underwent the Zanaki's traditional circumcision ritual at Gabizuryo. As the son of a chief he was exposed to African-administered power and authority, and living in the compound gave him an appreciation for communal living that would influence his later political ideas.

Schooling: –

The British colonial administration encouraged the education of chiefs' sons, believing that this would help to perpetuate the chieftain system and prevent the development of a separate educated indigenous elite who might challenge colonial governance.

At his father's prompting, Nyerere began his education at the Native Administration School in Mwisenge, Musoma in February , about 35&#;km from his home. This placed him in a privileged position; most of his contemporaries at Butiama could not afford a primary education. His education was in Swahili, a language he had to learn while there. Nyerere excelled at the school, and after six months his exam results were such that he was allowed to skip a grade.

He avoided sporting activities and preferred to read in his dormitory during free time.

While at the school he also underwent the Zanaki tooth filing ritual to have his upper-front teeth sharpened into triangular points. It may have been at this point that he took up smoking, a habit he retained for several decades. He also began to take an interest in Roman Catholicism, although was initially concerned about abandoning the veneration of his people's traditional gods.

With school friend Mang'ombe Marwa, Nyerere trekked 14 miles to the Nyegina Mission Centre, run by the White Fathers, to learn more about the Christian religion; although Marwa eventually stopped, Nyerere continued. His elementary schooling ended in ; his final exam results were the highest of any pupil in the Lake Province and Western Province region.

His academic excellence allowed him to gain a government scholarship to attend the elite Tabora Government School, a secondary school in Tabora.

There, he again avoided sporting activities but helped to set up a Boy Scout's brigade after reading Scouting for Boys. Fellow pupils later remembered him as being ambitious and competitive, eager to come top of the class in examinations. He used books in the school library to advance his knowledge of the English language to a high standard.

He was heavily involved in the school's debating society, and teachers recommended him as head prefect, but this was vetoed by the headmaster, who described Nyerere as being "too kind" for the position. In keeping with Zanaki custom, Nyerere entered into an arranged marriage with a girl named Magori Watiha, who was then only three or four years old but had been selected for him by his father.

At the time they continued to live apart. In March , during Nyerere's final year at Tabora, his father died; the school refused his request to return home for the funeral. Nyerere's brother, Edward Wanzagi Nyerere, was appointed as their father's successor. Nyerere then decided to be baptised as a Roman Catholic; at his baptism, he took on the name "Julius", although later stated that it was "silly" that Catholics should "take a name other than a tribal name" on baptism.

Makerere College, Uganda: –

In October , Nyerere completed his secondary education and decided to study at Makerere College in the Ugandan city of Kampala.

He secured a bursary to fund a teacher training course there, arriving in Uganda in January At Makerere, he studied alongside many of East Africa's most talented students, although spent little time socialising with others, instead focusing on his reading. He took courses in chemistry, biology, Latin, and Greek. Deepening his Catholicism, he studied the Papal Encyclicals and read the work of Catholic philosophers like Jacques Maritain; most influential however were the writings of the liberal British philosopher John Stuart Mill.

He won a literary competition with an essay on the subjugation of women, for which he had applied Mill's ideas to Zanaki society. Nyerere was also an active member of the Makere Debating Society, and established a branch of Catholic Action at the university.

In July , he wrote a letter to the Tanganyika Standard in which he discussed the ongoing Second World War and argued that capitalism was alien to Africa and that the continent should turn to "African socialism".

His letter went on to state that "the educated African should take the lead" in moving the population towards a more explicitly socialist model. Molony thought that the letter "serves to mark the beginnings of Nyerere's political maturation, chiefly in absorbing and developing the views of leading black thinkers of the time." In , Nyerere, Andrew Tibandebage, and Hamza Kibwana Bakari Mwapachu founded the Tanganyika African Welfare Association (TAWA) to assist the small number of Tanganyikan students at Makerere.

TAWA was allowed to die off, and in its place Nyerere revived the largely moribund Makerere chapter of the Tanganyika African Association (TAA), although this too had ceased functioning by Although aware of racial prejudice from the white colonial minority, he insisted on treating people as individuals, recognising that many white individuals were not bigoted towards indigenous Africans.

After three years, Nyerere graduated from Makerere with a diploma in education.

Early teaching: –

On leaving Makerere, Nyerere returned home to Zanaki territory to build a house for his widowed mother, before spending his time reading and farming in Butiama. He was offered teaching positions at both the state-run Tabora Boys' School and the mission-run St Mary's, but chose the latter despite it offering a lower wage.

He took part in a public debate with two teachers from the Tabora Boys' School, in which he argued against the statement that "The African has benefitted more than the European since the partition of Africa"; after winning the debate, he was subsequently banned from returning to the school. Outside school hours, he gave free lessons in English to older locals, and also gave talks on political issues.

He also worked briefly as a price inspector for the government, going into stores to check what they were charging, although quit the position after the authorities ignored his reports about false pricing. While in Tabora, the woman whom Nyerere was arranged to marry, Magori Watiha, was sent to live with him to pursue her primary education there, although he forwarded her to live with his mother.

Instead, he began courting Maria Gabriel, a teacher at Nyegina Primary School in Musoma; although from the Simbiti tribe, she shared with Nyerere a devout Catholicism. He proposed marriage to her and they became informally engaged at Christmas

In Tabora, he intensified his political activities, joining the local branch of the TAA and becoming its treasurer.

The branch opened a co-operative shop selling basic goods like sugar, flour, and soap. In April he attended the organisation's conference in Dar es Salaam, where the TAA officially declared itself committed to supporting independence for Tanganyika. With Tibandebage he worked on rewriting the TAA's constitution and used the group to mobilise opposition to Colonial Paper in the district, believing that the electoral reform was designed to further privilege the white minority.

At St Mary's, Father Richard Walsh—an Irish priest who was director of the school—encouraged Nyerere to consider additional education in the United Kingdom. Walsh convinced Nyerere to take the University of London's matriculation examination, which he passed with second division in January He applied for funding from the Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme and was initially unsuccessful, although succeeded on his second attempt, in He agreed to study abroad, although expressed some reluctance because it meant that he would no longer be able to provide for his mother and siblings.

Edinburgh University: –

In April , Nyerere flew from Dar es Salaam to Southampton, England.

Freedom and unity julius nyerere biography He ruled Tanganyika as Prime Minister between and and then as President between and Review of African Political Economy. His reflection on happenings in other socialist countries shaped his faith in reforms: the Eastern Bloc had fallen apart, Deng Xiaoping had presided over economic reforms in China, and Mikhail Gorbachev had engaged in glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union. The government also dissolved and appropriated the assets of the white-dominated Dar es Salaam Club after it refused to admit 69 members of TANU.

He then travelled, by train, from London to Edinburgh. In the city, Nyerere took lodgings in a building for "colonial persons" in The Grange suburb. Starting his studies at the University of Edinburgh, he began with a short course in chemistry and physics and also passed Higher English in the Scottish Universities Preliminary Examination.

In October he was accepted for entry to study for a Master of Arts degree at the University of Edinburgh's Faculty of Arts; his was an Ordinary Degree of Master of Arts, which was considered an undergraduate degree, the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts in most English universities.

In , Nyerere was one of only two black students from the British East African territories studying in Scotland.

In the first year of his MA studies, he took courses in English literature, political economy, and social anthropology; in the latter, he was tutored by Ralph Piddington. In the second, he selected courses in economic history and British history, the latter taught by Richard Pares, whom Nyerere later described as "a wise man who taught me very much about what makes these British tick".

In the third year, he took the constitutional law course run by Lawrence Saunders and moral philosophy. Although his grades were not outstanding, they enabled him to pass all of his courses. His tutor in moral philosophy described him as "a bright and lively member of the class and of the parties".

Nyerere gained many friends in Edinburgh, and socialised with Nigerians and West Indians living in the city.

There are no reports of Nyerere experiencing racial prejudice while in Scotland; although it is possible he did encounter it, many black students in Britain at the time reported that white British students were generally less prejudiced than other sectors of the population. In classes, he was generally treated as the equal of his white fellows, which gave him additional confidence, and may have help mould his belief in multi-racialism.

During his time in Edinburgh, he may have engaged in part-time work to support himself and family in Tanganyika; he and other students went on a working holiday to a Welsh farm where they engaged in potato picking.

Julius nyerere In , The IMF reached an agreement that Tanzania would be relieved of its debt in exchange for a programme of austerity measures. Sources [ edit ]. In his view, a "socialist attitude of mind" was already present in traditional African society. He believed that freedom of speech could be guaranteed in a single-party state.

In , he travelled down to London to meet with other Tanganyikan students and attend the Festival of Britain. That same year, he co-wrote an article for The Student magazine in which he criticised plans to incorporate Tanganyika into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which he and co-author John Keto noted was designed to further white minority control in the region.

In February , he attended a meeting on the issue of the Federation that was organised by the World Church Group; among those speaking at the meeting was the medical student—and future Malawian leader—Hastings Banda. In July , Nyerere graduated from the university with an Ordinary Degree of Master of Arts. Leaving Edinburgh that week, he was granted a short British Council Visitorship to study educational institutions in England, basing himself in London.

Political activism

Founding the Tanganyika African National Union: –

Having sailed aboard the SS Kenya Castle, Nyerere arrived back in Dar es Salaam in October He took the train to Mwanza and then a lake steamer to Musoma before reaching Zanaki lands.

There, he built a mud-brick house for himself and his fiancé, Maria; they were married at Musoma mission on 24 January They soon moved to Pugu, closer to Dar es Salaam, when Nyerere was hired to teach history at St Francis' College, one of the leading schools for indigenous Africans in Tanganyika. In the couple had their first child, Andrew.

Nyerere became increasingly involved in politics; in April , he was elected president of the Tanganyika African Association (TAA). His ability to take on the position was influenced by his good oratorical skills and by the fact that he was Zanaki; had he been from one of the larger ethnic groups he may have faced greater opposition from members of rival tribes.

Under Nyerere, the TAA gained an increasingly political dimension, devoted to the pursuit of Tanganyikan independence from the British Empire. Nyerere himself was, according to Bjerk, "catapulted to prominence" as "a standard-bearer of the burgeoning independence movement".

On 7 July Nyerere, assisted by Oscar Kambona, transformed the TAA into a new political party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).

Among the early TANU members were the three sons of Kleist Sykes, Dossa Aziz, and John Rupia, the latter an entrepreneur who had established himself as one of the wealthiest indigenous Africans in the country. Rupia served as the group's first treasurer and largely funded the organisation in its early years. The colony's governor appointed Nyerere to fill a temporary vacancy on its legislative council generated after David Makwaia was sent to London to serve on the Royal Commission for Land and Population Problems.

His first speech at the legislative council dealt with the need for more schools in the country. When he said that he would oppose proposed government regulations to raise salaries for civil servants, the government recalled Makwaia from London to ensure Nyerere's removal.

At TANU meetings, Nyerere insisted on the need for Tanganyikan independence, but maintained that the country's European and Asian minorities would not be ejected by an African-led independent government.

He greatly admired the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi and endorsed Gandhi's approach to attaining independence through non-violent protest. The colonial government closely monitored his activities; they had concerns that Nyerere would instigate a violent anti-colonial rebellion akin to the Mau Mau Uprising in neighbouring Kenya.

In August , the United Nations had sent a mission to Tanganyika which subsequently published a report recommending a twenty to twenty-five year timetable for the colony's independence.

The UN was set to discuss the issue further at a trusteeship council in New York City, with TANU sending Nyerere to be its representative there. At the British government's request, the United States agreed to prevent Nyerere staying for more than 24 hours before the meeting or moving outside an eight-block radius of the UN headquarters.

Nyerere arrived in the city in March , as part of a trip funded largely by Rupia. To the trusteeship council he said that: "with your help and with the help of the [British] Administering Authority we would be governing ourselves long before twenty to twenty-five years." This seemed highly ambitious to everyone at the time.

The government pressured Nyerere's employer to sack him because of his pro-independence activities.

On his return from New York, Nyerere resigned from the school, in part because he did not wish his ongoing employment to cause trouble for the missionaries. In April he and his wife returned to his Zanaki homestead. He turned down offers of employment from a newspaper and an oil company, instead accepting a job as a translator and tutor for the Maryknoll Fathers, who were preparing a mission amongst the Zanaki.

Freedom and unity julius nyerere biography pdf Tumbo founded the People's Democratic Party, while Zuberi Mtemvu formed the African National Congress, which wanted a more racialist anti-colonial stance. However, he kept the information from the public. The government also sought to Africanise the civil service. Within Tanzania, Nyerere has been termed the "Father of the Nation", [ ] and was also known as Mwalimu teacher.

By the late s, TANU had extended its influence throughout the country and gained considerable support. TANU had , members in , which had grown to , by

Touring Tanganyika: –

Nyerere returned to Dar es Salaam in October From then until Tanzania secured independence, he toured the country almost continuously, often in TANU's Land Rover.

The British colonial Governor of Tanganyika, Edward Twining, disliked Nyerere, regarding him as a racialist who wanted to impose indigenous domination over the European and South Asian minorities. In December , Twining established the "multi-racial" United Tanganyika Party (UTP) to combat TANU's African nationalist message. Nyerere nevertheless stipulated that "we are fighting against colonialism, not against the whites".

He befriended members of the white minority, such as Lady Marion Chesham, a U.S.-born widow of a British farmer, who served as a liaison between TANU and Twining's government. A editorial in the TANU newsletter Sauti ya Tanu (Voice of TANU) that had been written by Nyerere called on the party's members to avoid participating in violence.

It also criticised two of the country's district commissioners, accusing one of trying to undermine TANU and another of putting a chief on trial for "cooked-up reasons". In response, the government filed three counts of criminal libel. The trial took almost three months. Nyerere was found guilty, with the judge stipulating that he could either pay a £ fine or go to prison for six months; he chose the former.

Twining announced that elections for a new legislative council would take place in early These would be organised around ten constituencies, each electing three members of the council: one indigenous African, one European, and one South Asian.

This would end the concentration of political representation entirely with the European minority, but still meant that the three ethnic blocs would receive equal representation despite the fact that indigenous Africans made up over 98% of the country's population. For this reason, most of TANU's leadership believed that it should boycott the election.

Nyerere disagreed. In his view, TANU should participate and seek to secure the majority of the indigenous African representatives to advance their political leverage. If they abstained, he argued, the UTP would win the elections, TANU would be forced to operate entirely outside of government, and it would delay the process of attaining independence.

At a January conference in Tabora, Nyerere convinced TANU to take part. In these elections, which took place over the course of and , TANU won every seat it contested. Nyerere stood as TANU's candidate in the Eastern Province seat against an independent candidate, Patrick Kunambi, securing votes to Kunambi's Some of the European and Asian candidates elected were TANU sympathisers, ensuring that the council was dominated by the party.

TANU in government: –

In March , the new British Governor of Tanganyika, Richard Turnbull, gave TANU five of the twelve ministerial posts available in the colony's government.

Turnbull was prepared to work for a peaceful transition to independence. In , Nyerere visited Edinburgh. In , he attended a conference of independent African states in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at which he presented a paper calling for the formation of an East African Federation. He suggested that Tanganyika could delay its attainment of independence from the British Empire until neighbouring Kenya and Uganda were able to do the same.

Julius Nyerere: Although Western powers urged Nyerere not to accept support from China, then governed by Mao Zedong , in August Nyerere allowed seven Chinese instructors and four interpreters to work with his army for six months. On December 9, , Tanganyika became independent. Julius Nyerere visited Karume in April. However, an assortment of parties is no guarantee for democracy.

In his view, it would be much easier for the three countries to unite at the same point as independence than after it, for beyond that point their respective governments might feel that they were losing sovereignty through unification. Many senior TANU members opposed the idea of delaying Tanganyikan independence; the party had been growing, and as of had over a million members.

In the August general election, TANU won 70 of the 71 available seats.

As TANU's leader, Nyerere was called to form a new government; he became its chief minister. That year, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave his "Wind of Change" speech, indicating British willingness to dismantle the empire in Africa. In March , a constitutional conference was held in Dar es Salaam to determine the nature of an independent constitution; both anti-colonial campaigners and British officials attended.

As a concession to the UK's colonial secretary Iain Macleod, Nyerere agreed that after independence, Tanganyika would retain the British Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state for a year before becoming a republic. In May, Tanganyika achieved self-governance. One of Nyerere's first acts as prime minister was to stop the supply of Tanganyikan labourers to South African gold mines.

Although this resulted in a loss of around £, a year for Tanganyika, Nyerere regarded it as a necessary act in expressing opposition to the apartheid system of white-minority rule and racial segregation implemented in South Africa.

Premiership and Presidency of Tanganyika

Premiership of Tanganyika: –

On 9 December , Tanganyika gained independence, an event marked by a ceremony at National Stadium.

A law was soon presented to the Assembly that would restrict citizenship to indigenous Africans; Nyerere spoke out against the bill, comparing its racialism to the ideas of Adolf Hitler and Hendrik Verwoerd, and threatened to resign if it passed. Six weeks after independence, in January Nyerere resigned as prime minister, intent on focusing on restructuring TANU and trying to "work out our own pattern of democracy".

Retreating to become a parliamentary back bencher, he appointed close political ally Rashidi Kawawa as the new prime minister. He toured the country, giving speeches in towns and villages in which he emphasised the need for self-reliance and hard work. In , his alma mater at Edinburgh awarded Nyerere with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws.

During Tanganyika's first year of independence, its government focused largely on domestic problems.

Under a government self-help programme, villagers were encouraged to devote a day's work a week to a community project, such as constructing roads, wells, schools, and clinics. A national youth service called Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT – "army to build the country") was created to encourage young people to engage in public works and paramilitary training.

In February , the government announced its desire to convert the pervasive system of freehold land ownership into a leasehold system, the latter of which was deemed to be a better reflection of traditional indigenous ideas about communal land ownership. Nyerere wrote an article, "Ujamaa" ("Familyhood") in which he explained and praised this policy; in this article he expressed many of his ideas about African socialism.

For Nyerere, ujamaa could provide a "national ethic" that was distinct from the colonial era and would help to cement Tanganyika's independent course amid the Cold War.

Six months after independence, the government abolished the jobs and salaries of hereditary chiefs, whose positions conflicted with government officials and who were often regarded as too close to the colonial authorities.

The government also pursued the "Africanization" of the civil service, giving severance pay to several hundred white British civil servants and appointing indigenous Africans in their place, many of whom were insufficiently trained. Nyerere acknowledged that such affirmative action was discriminatory towards white and Asian citizens, but argued that it was temporarily necessary to redress the imbalance caused by colonialism.

By the end of , about half of senior and middle-grade posts in the civil service were held by indigenous Africans.

Over the following year, several Britons accused of racism were deported; concerns were raised about the lack of due process. Nyerere defended the deportations, stating: "for many years we Africans have suffered humiliations in our own country.

We are not going to suffer them now." After the Safari Hotel in Arusha was accused of insulting Guinean President Ahmed Sékou Touré on the latter's June state visit, the government closed it. When the white-dominated Dar es Salaam Club refused admission to 69 TANU members, the government dissolved the club and appropriated its assets.

Nyerere avoided becoming personally embroiled in these controversies, which brought accusations of government hypersensitivity from some foreign media.

Opposition to TANU's rule formalised into two small political parties: the senior trade unionist Christopher S. K. Tumbo founded the People's Democratic Party, while Zuberi Mtemvu formed the African National Congress, which wanted a more racialist anti-colonial stance.

The government thought itself vulnerable and in introduced a law banning workers' strikes and the Preventative Detention Law, through which it could detain without trial individuals deemed a threat to national security. Nyerere defended this measure, pointing to similar laws in the United Kingdom and India, and stating that the government needed it as a safeguard given the weak state of both the police and army.

He expressed the hope that the government would never have to use it, and noted that they were aware how it "could be a convenient tool in the hands of an unscrupulous government".

The government drew up plans to create a new constitution which would convert Tanganyika from a monarchy with the Queen of Tanganyika as its head of state into a republic with an elected president as head of state.

This president would be elected by the population, and they would then appoint a vice president, who would preside over the National Assembly, Tanganyika's parliament. Biographer William Edgett Smith later noted that it was "a foregone conclusion" that Nyerere would be selected as TANU's candidate for president. In the November presidential election, he secured % of the vote, defeating Mtemvu.

After the election, Nyerere announced that TANU's National Executive Committee had voted to ask the party's national conference to widen membership to all Tanganyikans. During the anti-colonial struggle, only indigenous Africans had been permitted to join, but Nyerere now stated that it should welcome white and Asian members.

He also stipulated that "complete political amnesty" should be granted to anyone expelled from the party since , allowing them to rejoin. In early , Amir Jamal, an Asian Tanganyikan, became the party's first non-indigenous member; the white Derek Bryceson became its second. Nyerere welcomed Asians and Europeans into the cabinet to counter potential racial resentment from these minorities.

Nyerere saw it as importance to build a "national consciousness" that transcended ethnic and religious lines.

On 9 December , a year after independence, Tanganyika became a republic. Nyerere moved into the State House in Dar es Salaam, the former official residence of British governors.

Nyerere disliked life in the building, but remained there until Nyerere appointed Kawawa his vice president. In , he put his name forward to be Rector of Edinburgh University, vowing to travel to Scotland whenever needed; the position instead went to the actor James Robertson Justice. He made official visits to West Germany, the United States, Canada, Algeria, Scandinavia, Guinea, and Nigeria.

In the U.S. he met President John F. Kennedy and although they personally liked each other, he failed to convince Kennedy to toughen his stance on apartheid South Africa.

The early years of Nyerere's presidency were preoccupied largely by African affairs. In February , he attended the Afro-Asian Solidarity conference in Moshi, where he cited the recent Congolese situation as an example of the neo-colonialism, describing it as part of a "second" Scramble for Africa.

In May, he attended the founding session of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, there echoing his previous message, stating that "the real humiliating truth is that Africa is not free; and therefore it is Africa which should take the necessary collective measures to free Africa." He hosted the OAU's Liberation Committee in Dar es Salaam and provided weapons and support to anti-colonial movements active in southern Africa.

Nyerere endorsed the Pan-Africanist idea of unifying Africa as a single state, although he disagreed with the Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah's view that this could be achieved quickly.

Instead, Nyerere stressed the idea of forming regional confederations as short-term steps towards the eventual unification of the continent. Pursuing these ideals, in June Nyerere met with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta and Ugandan President Milton Obote in Nairobi, where they agreed to unite their respective countries into a single East African Federation by the end of the year.

This, however, never materialised. In December , Nyerere lamented that this failure was the major disappointment of the year. Instead, the East African Community was launched in , to facilitate some cooperation between the three countries. Later, Nyerere saw his inability to establish an East African Federation as the biggest failure of his career.

Nyerere was concerned by developments in Zanzibar, a pair of islands off of Tanganyika's coast.

He noted that it was "very vulnerable to outside influences", which could in turn impact Tanganyika.

Kwame nkrumah biography Makamba Migiro Lubinga. He criticized the masterminds of the mutiny for attempting to intimidate the country at gunpoint, and 14 of them were handed sentences of between five and 15 years in prison. According to Bjerk, Julius Nyerere became prominent as a symbol of the flourishing movement for independence. Julius Nyerere emphasised the necessity of hard work.

Nyerere was keen to keep Cold War conflicts between the U.S. and Soviet Union out of eastern Africa. Zanzibar secured independence from the British Empire in , and in January the Zanzibar Revolution took place, in which the Arab Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah was overthrown and replaced by a government consisting largely of indigenous Africans.

Nyerere was taken by surprise by the revolution. Like Kenya and Uganda, he quickly recognised the new government, although allowed the deposed Sultan to land in Tanganyika and from there fly to London. At the request of the new Zanzibar government, he sent policemen to the island to help restore order.

Facing mutiny

In January , Nyerere ended affirmative action hiring for the civil service.

Believing the colonial imbalance to have been redressed, he stated: "it would be wrong for us to continue to distinguish between Tanganyikan citizens on any grounds other than those of character and ability to do specific tasks". Many trade unionists denounced the discontinuation of the policy and it proved the catalyst for an army mutiny.

On 20 January, a small group of soldiers in the First Battalion calling themselves the Army Night Freedom Fighters launched an uprising, demanding the dismissal of their white officers and a pay rise. The mutineers left the Colito Barracks and entered Dar es Salaam, where they seized the State House. Nyerere narrowly escaped, hiding in a Roman Catholic mission for two days.

The mutineers captured senior government figure Oscar Kambona, forcing him to dismiss all white officers and appoint the indigenous Elisha Kavana as head of the Tanganyika Rifles. The Second Battalion, based in Tabora, also mutineed, with Kambona acceding to their demands to appoint the indigenous Mrisho Sarakikya as their battalion leader.

Having agreed to many of their demands, Kambona convinced the First Battalion mutineers to return to their barracks. Similar yet smaller mutinies broke out in Kenya and Uganda, with the governments of both calling for British military assistance in suppressing the uprisings.

On 22 January, Nyerere came out of hiding; the next day he gave a press conference stating that Tanganyika's reputation had been damaged by the mutiny and that he would not call for military assistance from the UK.

Two days later, he requested British military assistance, which was granted. On 25 January, 60 British Royal Marines were helicoptered into the city, where they landed next to the Colito Barracks; the mutineers soon surrendered. In the wake of the mutiny, Nyerere disbanded the First Battalion and dismissed hundreds of soldiers from the Second Battalion.

Concerned about dissent more broadly, he discharged about ten percent of the strong police force, and oversaw the arrest of around people under the Preventative Detention Act, although most were swiftly released. He denounced the ringleaders of the mutiny for trying to "intimidate our nation at the point of a gun", and fourteen of them were given sentences of between five and fifteen years imprisonment.

As the British marines left, he brought in the Nigerian Army's Third Battalion to keep order.

Nyerere attributed the mutiny to the fact that his government had failed to do enough to change the army since colonial times: "We changed the uniforms a bit, we commissioned a few Africans, but at the top they were still solidly British You could never consider it an army of the people." Acknowledging some of the mutineers' demands, he appointed Sarakikya as the new commander of the army and raised troop wages.

After the mutiny, Nyerere's government became increasingly focused on security, placing TANU personnel into the army as well as state-owned industry to entrench party control throughout the country.

Unification with Zanzibar:

Following the Zanzibari Revolution, Abeid Karume declared himself president of a one-party state and began redistributing Arab-owned land among black African peasants.

Hundreds of Arabs and Indians left, as did most of the island's British community. Western powers were reluctant to recognise Karume's government, whereas the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc, and People's Republic of China quickly did so and offered the country aid. Nyerere was angry at this Western response as well as the wider Western failure to appreciate why black Zanzibaris had revolted in the first place.

In April he visited Karume; the following day they announced the political unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Nyerere dismissed suggestions that this had anything to do with Cold War power struggles, presenting it as a response to Pan-Africanist ideology: "Unity in our continent does not have to come via Moscow or Washington."