A response to concerns about Nyerere article

I read with astonishment the article by one Atilio Tagalile; titled ‘What Went wrong in passing of the Tong from Mwalimu’, published in The Citizen of June 27, 2018 in the ‘Political Platform’ on page 13. At first glance, seeing the title, I thought it was a chronicle of the original and honest leadership of Mwalimu Nyerere to Tanzania. I expected to read about Mwalimu’s great strides to emancipate Tanzania from colonialism and propel it into political and economic independence and prosperity.

Reading the lines further, I realised that it was, instead, a rebuttal to the article ‘Nyerere and the vision of a United Africa - Part 4’ that formed a six-part series on the pan-African activities of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

If Atilio had read the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd parts of this series, he would have understood that the fulcrum of the narrative was not on Nyerere’s achievements in local politics, but on his noble works on pan-Africanism.

First, Atilio accused Dr Kafumu of looking at Mwalimu as an individual and not as an institution. Indeed, the aim of the series of Dr Kafumu’s articles was to look at Mwalimu Nyerere, Father of the Nation, as a pan-African individual who had to lose so much in his internal politics to spread his pan-African dream of a united Africa.

Although he struggled locally to bring economic development to his people, through the 1967 Arusha Declaration and education for self-reliance that called for the implementation of an economic socialist programme, Mwalimu Nyerere also spent enormous time, energy and the country’s resources to try and secure the freedom and unity of the African continent, at the expense of the economic development of his own country. He believed that: “……Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated...”

It is true indeed that Nyerere, overwhelmed by the global wind of socio-economic and political change, after 24 years of hard work in 1985, surrendered to the capitalists by stepping aside to allow the imposing of new economic order to engulf Tanzania and indeed Africa. The reference to the 1984 was an error in Dr Kafumu’s narrative on pan-Africanism.

However, the series of articles on pan-Africanism are only intended to look at the lives and struggles of some of the founding fathers and forefathers of African nations, who wanted a free and one United Africa. These leaders were the first generation of leaders who were ordained to fight colonialism and imperialism head-on, and thereafter, sought to unite the continent.

For the sake of Atilio and the like, it is, therefore, fitting to recap here that in Part One of the series of articles on pan-Africanism the columnist wrote the following: “…The genesis and metamorphosis of the stories of these great leaders began 60 decades ago in the late 1940s when African countries began the long road to freedom by waging liberation struggles from colonial rule and the dream to have one united Africa. It was the dawn of a new era; the beginning of self-rule for these countries… In this eon, the continent conceived and begat these first generation of leaders who all had a common vision of pan-Africanism. They all wanted a completely free and one Africa; a United States of Africa. These leaders were the firebrand of Africa’s liberation struggles...”

Therefore, the columnist, in a series of articles on ‘Pan-Africanism and a United Africa’ narrates the stories and anecdotes of the following dozen of pan-Africanist great leaders: 1. Kwame Kofi Nkrumah of Ghana 2. Patrice Émery Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo 3. Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea 4. Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria 5. Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein of Egypt and 6. Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal.

Other Leaders are: 7. Jomo Kamau Kenyatta of Kenya 8. Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia 9. Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania 10. Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi of Libya 11. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela of South Africa 12. Samora Moisés Machel of Mozambique 13. Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara of Burkina Faso 14. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and 15. Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe. These were Great Pan-Africanists to be cherished.

Again, journalist Atilio accused Dr Kafumu of not telling of the endeavours of Mwalimu Nyerere to protect the mineral resources endowment and wealth of Tanzania. In response, I would repeat the earlier response that the alignment and emphasis of Dr Kafumu’s narrative on Mwalimu Julius Nyerere is on pan-Africanism and not on Nyerere’s triumphs and disappointments in local politics as Atilio tends to suggest.

At this juncture, I would advise Atilio to refrain from blaming the columnist, but rather for public knowledge, write on the rise and fall of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere; detailing his original philosophies and ideologies to lead Tanzania out neo-colonialism and disentangle the country from economic bondage as this would indeed be an interesting piece of reading.

In conclusion, I would say: Atilio sir, on one hand you write on the internal leadership of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, please, but on the other hand let me also chronicle the patriarchs of pan-Africanism to remind the current African leaders to take the flaming torch of African unity to completion as was envisioned by the forefathers of pan-Africanism.

The giants of pan-Africanism envisioned as was featured by Bob Marley the pan-African singer that - Africans must move out of Babylon (neo-colonialism), and go to their Father’s land (the United States of Africa) and yes, it would be good and pleasant before God and man to see the unification of all Africans.