Editor: Chambi Chachage, Annar Cassam
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 13 978-1-906387-71-6
ISBN: 13 978-1-906387-72-3
Publication Date: May 2010
Audience: Activists, campaigners, NGO-workers, academics, journalists, commentators
Contributions from: Emeka Anyaoku, Ana Camacho, Horace Campbell, Seithy Chachage, Nawal El Saadawi, Ng'wanza Kamata, Faustin Kamuzora, Helen Kijo-Bisimba, Chris Maina Peter, Salma Maoulidi, Marjorie Mbilinyi, Neema Ndunguru, Haroub Othman, Mohamed Sahnoun, Issa G. Shivji, Vicensia Shule
Summary Description:
The death in 1999 of Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, left a cavern in the consciousness and conscience of the people of Tanzania and Africa. Nyerere was not simply a player on the national terrain. He was a Pan-Africanist and an internationalist – in thoughts, writings and, crucially, in his practice. A giant of the liberation movement, Nyerere spoke out loud against injustices across the world. A decade later, his words, actions, achievements and shortcomings have acquired a sharper focus and relevance to our world.
This book includes contributions from leading commentators, those who worked and fought imperialism alongside Nyerere, members of a younger generation – and Nyerere in his own words. Their writings reflect on Nyerere and liberation, the Commonwealth, leadership, economic development, land, human rights and education. Above all, they are a testament to the growing recognition of the need to rekindle the fires of African socialism to which Nyerere was deeply committed.
In this book you will engage with the multidimensional thought and practice of Mwalimu. You will get a glimpse of his attempts to finely balance the protection of human rights and the dispensation of justice which do not necessarily go together. Our leading human rights theorists and activists, Helen Kijo-Bisimba and Chris Maina Peter, have taken up that challenge of presenting this controversial subject in a balanced way. Their chapter helps us to understand how and why Mwalimu did “whatever†he “did that could be interpreted as violating human rights.â€