The Genius with Julius Nyerere
Julius Nyerere, the former President of Tanzania and architect of Tanzania's Independence movement, is one of the few African leaders that will receive a favorable mention in history. From 1962 when he became president until his retirement in 1985--the first African leader to do so voluntarily--Nyerere worked to free the continent of Africa from white minority rule, and for closer ties between African states. He instilled a sense of limitless possibility among Tanzanians and Africans in general, and took wise steps to diminish the impact of ethnic identification in Tanzanian society. Nyerere's advocacy of self-reliance introduced a new paradigm for development in Africa
Author: Muna Kangsen
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on April 13, 1922 in Butiama, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in northwest Tanganyika. He was the son of a minor chief of the Uzanaki, a small ethnic group in Tanzania. Nyerere excelled in primary school and was permitted to study at Tanganyika's only secondary school at Tabora, a place he subsequently described as being "as close to Eaton as you can get in Africa". Nyerere received a scholarship to study at Makerere College in Uganda in the early in 1940's. He graduated in 1945 with a teaching degree and taught for several years in Makerere, where he helped found the Tanganyika African Association, a civic organization that assumed a greater political role as Tanganyika moved closer to its independence…