Freedom and Socialism / Uhuru Na Ujamaa: A Selection from Writings and Speeches, 1965-67

by Julius Nyerere

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Genres: Africa, Nonfiction

440 pages, Textbook Binding

Published May 1, 1969

About the author

Born in Tanganyika to Nyerere Burito (1860–1942), Chief of the Zanaki,[1] Nyerere was known by the Swahili name Mwalimu or 'teacher', his profession prior to politics.[2] He was also referred to as Baba wa Taifa (Father of the Nation).[3] Nyerere received his higher education at Makerere University in Kampala and the University of Edinburgh. On returning to Tanganyika he worked as a teacher. In 1954 he helped form the Tanganyika African National Union.

In 1961 Nyerere became the first Prime Minister of Tanganyika and following independence in 1962, the country's first President. In 1964, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar and was then renamed as Tanzania. In 1965, a one-party election returned Nyerere to power and two years later he issued the Arusha Declaration, outlining his socialist concept of Ujamaa, which came to dominate his policies.

Nyerere retired in 1985 and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi but remained the chairman of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi. He died of leukaemia in London in 1999. In October 2009, Nyerere was named "World Hero of Social Justice" by the United Nations General Assembly.[4]

Reviews

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julius Nyerere's speeches from 1952 through January of 1973 were collected in three books. This one is the middle book, covering only the years from June 1965 to December 1967. Julius Nyerere was Tanzania's first president when it became independent in late 1961. I grew up in Tanzania, arriving there in 1959 and was there until I graduated from high school in 1976. These three books overlap these years well. Like my mother, who only knew Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a child, I only knew Julius Nyerere, while I was in Tanzania. His influence remains strong to this day in Tanzania. I consider him and Paul Wellstone from Minnesota as my political mentors, both men who wanted to use politics for good. The years covered in this book were only 2 1/2 years but they were pivotal for Tanzania as Nyerere pushed the country to embrace the socialist concept of Ujamaa in the Arusha Declaration which he gave in the beginning of 1967. The Declaration is included in the book, along with two other documents that were very important in Tanzania's development: Education for Self-Reliance and Socialism and Self-Reliance. I read all three of these books at the same time and felt that I was given a good political education on what was happening in Tanzania at the time. Most people in Tanzania refer to Nyerere as "Mwalimu" (teacher) and in all these speeches and writings you can see his skills as a teacher as he explains what Tanzania is going through or what it should do in clear discussions with simple examples. I enjoyed reading these books and feeling that I was back in the land of my childhood when I was stuck in my home in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

[Gordon Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book to read for those wanting to understand tanzania's attempt at "african socialism"