Mwalimu Julius

Back to: O level history east africa notes uganda syllabus

  • Mwalimu Julius. He was born in March 1922 at Butiama near the Eastern shores of Lake Victoria.
  • He was born to Burito Nyerere who was a Zenaki chief.
  • He went to Musoma for his primary and Tabora School for his secondary education.
  • In 1943, he joined Makerere University College Kampala for a diploma in education.
  • While at Makerere, he formed the Makerere Boys of Tanganyika, an association of all Tanzanians at Makerere.
  • In 1945, he returned to Tanganyika to start a teaching career at St. Mary’s Tabora- a Catholic mission school.
  • In 1949, he went for further studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and attained a Masters degree in history, economics and philosophy.
  • While in Britain, he met various Pan-Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta who encouraged him to liberate his people.
  • In 1952, he returned to Tanganyika and was elected Secretary of Tanganyika African Peoples’ Welfare Association.
  • He also became an active member of Tanganyika African Association (TAA).
  • In 1953, he was elected president of the Tanganyika African Association which he reorganized to form an effective organ in national politics.
  • On 7th July 1954, TANU was formed at Dar-es-salaam to replace TAA and Nyerere was elected president of the new party.
  • The party was broad in outlook and Nyerere made it clear that TANU was opposed to tribalism and aimed at uniting all Tanganyikans for independence.
  • Nyerere’s non –racial tendencies soon endeared him to the governor, Sir Richard Turnbull.
  • The two became good friends and always sat together to discuss government problems.
  • In 1954, he presented the African case for self rule to the United Nations visiting mission.
  • In 1955, he visited the UN trusteeship committee demanding independence for Tanganyika.
  • Still in 1955, he was elected to the Legco but resigned after two years accusing it of not having a serious programme as far as speeding up the independence of Tanganyika was concerned.
  • In 1956, he went back to the UN trusteeship committee demanding for African independence.
  • However, in 1957, his meetings became violent and were banned by the colonial government.
  • In December 1957, he was elected president of the Legco in order to diffuse the conflicts that had risen between the government and TANU.
  • In September 1958, he led TANU to sweeping victory in all the Legco elections defeating its major rival United Tanganyika Party (UTP).
  • In his rule, he encouraged unity, non-racial politics, spirit of freedom and hard work ‘’Uhuru na Kazi’’.
  • In the August 1960 elections, he steered TANU to another landslide victory and it won seventy of all seventy one seats reserved for Africans in the Legco.
  • On 1st May 1961, Tanganyika attained internal self rule and Dr. Julius Nyerere became the first prime minister.
  • On 9th December 1962, Tanganyika got total independence from the British which the Duke of Edinburgh handed to Nyerere at Dar-es-salaam stadium.
  • Nyerere became the first president of Tanzania.
  • He retired from government service in 1985 and he died of Leukemia on 14th October 1999 at St. Thomas hospital in London.        

Why did Tanganyika attain independence earlier than Uganda and Kenya?

  • Tanganyika was gifted with able leadership of Julius Nyerere who acted as a unifying factor.
  • Nyerere’s friendly relations with the governor Sir Richard Turnbull with whom they always discussed Tanganyika’s problems.
  • The presence of Kiswahili as a unifying language also speeded up independence because it fostered unity.
  • Tanganyika was a mandated territory of the UN and was being looked after by the British yet UN was against colonialism.
  • Tanganyika lacked tribal and regional parties like it was the case in Uganda and Kenya which also promoted unity.
  • There were no settler demands in Tanganyika like it was in Kenya where the white settlers wanted a say in government affairs.
  • The close links that existed between UN and TANU also speeded up her independence campaigns.
  • Nyerere was never imprisoned or his party banned like Kenyatta and UNC were banned from politics at one time.
  • TANU lacked a strong rival and therefore it had a strong following from all the people of Tanganyika.
  • Nyerere came from the Zenaki tribe which was one of the smallest tribes in Tanganyika which never caused tribal conflicts and feuds.

Trade unions in Tanganyika were very active and strong compared to those in Uganda and Kenya which speeded up their demands for independence.