Convert Mwalimu Nyerere resource centre to other use
Operating under the directorship of the seasoned Law Professor Issa Shivji
What had become popular among followers of the iconic Tanzanian leader, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere – the Nyerere Resource Centre (NRC) – closes on December 31 this year. The Centre (also known as Kavazi la Mwalimu in Swahili), was launched in March 2015 by the President of the third-phase government (1995-2005) of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa.
Operating under the directorship of the seasoned Law Professor Issa Shivji, NRC was formed with the goodwill and resources of the Commission for Science and Technology (CosTech) with the overriding objective of conducting research in a project of writing “a comprehensive and authoritative biography” of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (1922-99) by former and current academics of Dar es Salaam University.
In the course of the NRC research under and within CosTech spanning over four years, the researchers “collected enormous archival and secondary material, and conducted over 100 interviews” which exist in both audio and transcript forms.
The general idea is/was for the research material collected to “be archived and made available to future generations of researchers.” Also, “the Archives become a focal point around which discussions and debates can be developed on Mwalimu’s ideas – thus “giving them life, and countering the tendency to ‘museumise’ the man and ‘fossilise’ his ideas...”
Then somewhat abruptly, CosTech disbands the Centre for having become “irrelevant” to CosTechs activities, Prof Shivji said in an exclusive interview published in The Citizen yesterday. This is understandable – if only because the Centre has completed the assignment that was contracted with, and funded by, CosTech, and the proposed Nyerere biography draft is already with a publisher. We nonetheless heartily agree with the highly-acclaimed legal and development scholar Shivji on his averment that institutions-building and nurturing is pivotal to nation-building. “People die; but institutions live on,” the professor pontificated – solemnly adding that closure of one space would hopefully open another more creative space.
