The Tanganyika African National Union was formed with Julius Nyerere as president. Nyerere, a secondary schoolteacher and one of Tanganyika’s few foreign-university-trained leaders, began a long and storied political career. The umbrella political party pushed for independence from Britain, as Nyerere formulated a moderate socialist philosophy.
Tanzanians still celebrate Saba Saba Day, the seventh day of the seventh month, when in 1954 the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was formed. TANU was the political movement that would lead to independence and unite people of 126 diverse tribal groups to form one of the most stable governments in Africa.
Historically, Tanganyika was populated by Bantu-speaking peoples and later Arab and Indian traders, joined in the fifteenth century by Portuguese and then, in the 1880’s, Germans. Colonial rule lasted about three-quarters of a century following the 1884 Berlin Conference,
Independence was not the idea of the Europeans. Rather, it was an indigenous African movement, and the mantle of leadership fell on the shoulders of Julius Nyerere, a humble peasant from the northern regions along the southeastern shores of Lake Victoria. His father, Nyerere Burito, was chief of the Zanaki tribe, whose people were subsistence farmers. Julius was born on April 13, 1922, in the village of Butiama near the town of Musoma.
The Maryknoll Catholic fathers, who were active in this area, recognized the natural intelligence of Julius and invited him to begin school at age twelve. After only two years, he moved on to St. Mary’s, a secondary school at Tabora, and then Makerere College.
Nyerere was always known affectionately by the title Mwalimu, Kiswahili for “teacher.” He began his career teaching at his high school in Tabora for four years. Then, after three years (1949-1952) at Edinburgh University in Scotland, he became the first Tanganyikan to earn a master’s degree, in history and economics. He returned to teaching, this time at Pugu St. Francis Secondary School near Dar es Salaam.
As a high school teacher, Nyerere joined with Oscar Kambona to form TANU. Nyerere was president and Kambona was organizing secretary. Earlier, at Makerere in 1943, Nyerere had helped establish the Tanganyikan African Welfare Association. He emphasized that the former organization had not been political or even anticolonial but instead concerned with basic issues of justice and equality. Nyerere’s concern with social justice is further demonstrated by his university research on the role of women in Africa.
As a student at Edinburgh, Nyerere began to think politically. In 1949, only months before his arrival in Scotland, Kwame Nkrumah had returned to the Gold Coast of Africa and announced the formation of the Convention People’s Party,
Nyerere was not alone. The mood in Africa was for liberation. The United Nations called 1960 the “Year of Africa,”
Nyerere saw that education was key, yet he was cautious not to let money rule. When Kambona announced the availability of scholarships to Eastern European countries, Nyerere worked to find comparable scholarships in the West. With the rise of the Cold War, Nyerere was concerned not to trade independence from one colonial power for dependence on another. He began speaking of “Africa first,” which led some to distrust him.
One of those who preferred to antagonize him was Sir Edward Twining, the British governor of Tanganyika from 1949 to 1958. Already, during the years prior to the establishment of TANU, Nyerere was forced to accept a lower pay scale as a teacher than expatriates with master’s degrees. After 1954, Twining forced Nyerere to choose between his teaching position and his voluntary role as party president. Nyerere sacrificed financial security for the sake of the independence struggle.
When not engaged in political speeches around the country, Nyerere returned to Musoma to work with Maryknoll priest Arthur Wille. Nyerere taught the Kizanaki language to expatriate priests, helping them to see the value of learning from Africans. He also undertook the first translation of the Bible into Kiswahili,
During this time, Nyerere made two trips to New York to meet with the United Nations Trusteeship Council, first in March, 1955, and then in December, 1956. There he established his international reputation, stating that it was simply wrong that Africans preferred the continuation of British rule. The Maryknoll priests who helped pay for his trip organized a speaking tour, including a lecture, “Africa’s Place in the World,” presented at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Upon his return to Africa, Nyerere was persuaded by Kambona to leave his village and settle in Dar es Salaam as a base for his campaign for independence. His task as spokesman for TANU was to move the country beyond tribalism and racism and to impress upon all the necessity of achieving independence through nonviolent means.
TANU faced opposition on two fronts. The United Tanganyika Party,
The task for Nyerere was not only to oppose the views of the ANC but also to persuade TANU that racial equality must be part of its platform. When TANU had been organized in 1954, only black Africans were permitted as members. Within two years, TANU began to allow people of mixed African ancestry, but still not Asians or Europeans. Eventually, by October, 1960, one Asian and one European became members of TANU’s executive committee. All the while, many Asians actively participated along with TANU in the independence struggle.
During the governorship of Sir Richard Turnbull, Britain agreed to a gradual transition to independence. Elections to a Legislative Council in September, 1958, resulted in an overwhelming victory by TANU. These elections were followed in August, 1960, by general elections, in which Nyerere was elected as the prime minister of the new government. Tanganyika achieved independence on December 9, 1961.
Because of the leadership of Julius Nyerere and TANU, Tanganyika became a model for a peaceful transition from colonialism to nationhood and for peaceful stability throughout the rest of the twentieth century, with a focus on pan-Africanism and a socialist economic system known as ujamaa.
While Westerners preferred a multiparty system for Africa, Nyerere demonstrated that a strong, open, single party was best for his nation and its situation. This approach enabled Nyerere to deal with the revolution in neighboring Zanzibar in 1964, which resulted in the two countries’ unification as Tanzania. The inclusive character of TANU was able to incorporate Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi Party
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Legum, Colin, and Geoffrey Mmari, eds. Mwalimu: The Influence of Nyerere. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1995. International and Tanzanian scholars evaluate the contributions of Nyerere. -
Mwakikagile, Godfrey. Nyerere and Africa: An End of an Era. Atlanta: Protea, 2005. A fellow Tanzanian examines major achievements of Nyerere in order to show that “he was one of us.” -
Nyerere, Julius. Freedom and Unity: A Selection from Writings and Speeches, 1952-1965. London: Oxford University Press, 1966. Includes Nyerere’s speeches at critical points in the development of TANU. -
Pratt, Cranford. Critical Phase in Tanzania, 1945-1968. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976. A scholarly study of Tanganyikan/Tanzanian independence. -
Sadler, Randal. Tanzania: Journey to Republic. London: Radcliffe Press, 1999. Tanzania’s story from the perspective of a British diplomat.
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