Resources Books, Articles, Speeches

The President, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere's Address to the National Assembly Tuesday, 14th December, 1965

Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, Ladies and Gentlemen.

My purpose today is to explain the policies and attitudes of the Tanzanian Government one month after the illegal Declaration of Independence by the racist minority government in Southern Rhodesia.

The policies of Tanzania, and of Africa, in relation to Southern Rhodesia, have always had one object, and one object only. That was, and is, to secure a rapid transition to independence on the basis of majority rule. On this subject every action we have taken, every speech we have made, has been intended to further (hat purpose.  We have no other.

The declared policy of the British Government- successive British Governments - in relation to all her colonies has been the same. Our past disagreements with Britain have been on the basis of her performance in particular places at particular times-not really on the basis of ideas.

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Hotuba ya Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano via Tanzania Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere kwenye Mkutano wa Kwanza wa NUTA, Dar es Salaam, Julai 34, 1965.

Ndugu Mwenyekiti, Ndugu Wajumbe, na Waheshimiwa wageni wetu,

Leo ni aiku kubwa sana, na mkutano huu una kazi kubwa ya kufanya, Mkutano huu lazima ufikirie jinsi gani chama hiki cha NUTA kilivyochukua madaraka yake mapya kwa watenda kazi wa nchi hii, na jinsi gani watenda kazi nao, kwa kutumia NUTA, ivalivyotimiza wajibu wao kwa taifa letu.

Mkutano huu lazima ufikirie vile vile kazi za baadaye, na kuwafafanulia viongozi wa NUTA, wa TANU na wa Serikali mambo yaliyo muhimu kwa wana-chama wa NUTA. Na jambo lililo muhimu zaidi kwa mkutano huu ni mambo gani wanaehama wenyewe wa NUTA wako tayari kuya-timiza, kwa ajili ya kuendeleza uchumi na hali ya Tanzania kwa sababu ya wajibu huo mkubwa, ni haki kwamba mkutano huu umepata heshima ya kuhudhuriwa na wageni kutoka nchi nyingi.

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Rhodesia The Case for Action, Organisation of African Unity  - October, 1965

In October, 1965, at the time of the O.A.U. Meeting at Accra, there was a clear basic opposition between the Southern Rhodesian authorities on the one hand, and free Africa on the other, with the United Kingdom's position being ambiguous.

Africa objected to the continuation of the white minority rule in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, and demanded independence on the basis of majority rule. In other words, Africa wanted two things:
firstly, some form of democratically elected government responsible to the majority of the people, and secondly, independence. We recognized that independence without majority rule was useless, and would represent a worsening of the situation.

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Uhuru na Maendeleo ni vitu vinavyohusiana sana; uhusiano wao ni sawa na uhusiano baina ya kuku na yai! Bila ya kuku hupati mayai; na bila mayai kuku watakwisha. Vile vile, bila ya uhuru hupati maendeleo, na bila ya maendeleo ni dhahiri kwamba uhuru wako utapotea.

Uhuru unategemea maendeleo. Tunapozungumza habari za uhuru maana yetu nini hasa, Kwanza, kuna uhuru wa nchi; yaani uwezo wa wananchi wa Tanzania kujipangia maisha yao, wakijitawala wenyewe bila ya kuingiliwa kati na mtu ye yote asiyekuwa Mtanzania.

Pili, kuna uhuru wa kutosumbuliwa na njaa, maradhi, na umasikini. Na tatu, kuna uhuru wa mtu binafsi; yaani haki yake ya kuishi, akiheshimika sawa na wengine wote, uhuru wake wa kusema na uhuru wake wa kushiriki katika uamuzi wa mambo yote yanayogusa maisha yake, na uhuru wa kutokamatwa ovyo na kutiwa ndani kwa kuwa tu kamuudhi mkubwa, japo kama haku-vunja sheria yo yote. Yote hayo ni mambo yanayohusu uhuru, na hatuwezi kusema kuwa Wananchi wa Tanzania ni huru, mpaka tuwe tuna hakika kwamba wanao uhuru wa mambo yote hayo.

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Speech to the TANU Bi-Annual National Conference on Tanzania Foreign Policy, Julius K. Nyerere

My first task today is a pleasant one to welcome you all to Mwanza, and to the National Conference of TANU. I wish to give a special welcome to all those Delegates who are here as a result of their compliance with the leadership qualifications of the Arusha Declaration, and a friendly warning to others that the "year of grace" is running out! But in addition I would like to express my own pleasure, and that of us all, in the presence of our guests from other African countries.

President Obote; you are very welcome to this TANU Conference. You are no stranger to Tanzania, or to Mwanza either, you come here as an old and valued friend. Your presence on this occasion is a special pleasure to us, both because of our old association, and also because of the difficulties which Uganda, under your leadership, has so recently overcome.

The President of Zambia, our good friend President Kaunda, is probably used to being mentioned last in international gatherings because of the habit of mentioning countries in alphabetical order. But I know that he does not misinterpret this. The friendship between Tanzania and Zambia under the able leadership of Kenneth Kaunda has never faltered; and it will not falter. We know the pressures he and his country work under.

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Education for Self Reliance, Julius K. Nyerere, 1967

Since long before Independence the people of this country, under the leadership of TANU, have been demanding more education for their children. But we have never really stopped to consider why we want education what its purpose is. Therefore, although over time there have been various criticisms about the details of curricula provided in schools, we have not until now questioned the basic system of education which we took over at the time of independence.

We have never done that because we have never thought about education except in terms of obtaining teachers, engineers, administrators, etc. Individually and collectively we have in practice thought of education as a training for the skills required to earn high salaries in the modern sector of our economy.

It is now time that we looked again at the justification for a poor society like ours spending almost 20 per cent of its Government revenues on providing education for its children and young people, and began to consider what that education should be doing. For in our circumstances it is impossible to devote Shs. 147,330,000 every year on education for some of our children (while others go without) unless its result has a proportionate relevance to the society we are trying to create.

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First, let welcome all our guests to Tanzania. We are very happy to have you with us for this important Preparatory1 Meeting of the Non-Aligned Conference, and I speak on behalf of everyone in Tanzania when I express our good wishes for the success of your work.

You have a great deal to do. Obviously, the first responsibility of the Preparatory Conference is to fix the place and date of the Summit Conference, and to make other procedural arrangements for such a meeting. Yet 1 do not believe that any Government would have sent such high-powered delegations to this gathering if that was all it had to do. Indeed, a meeting would not have been necessary just to fix a date and place; these things could have been arranged through diplomatic channels with a considerable saving of time and expense!

For the fact is that the Summit Conference will be the more successful the greater the amount of ground which has been cleared beforehand. If this Preparatory Conference can spell out areas of unanimous agreement, the later meeting will not have to spend time on them.

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