Tanzania History: FOUNDING PRESIDENT JULIUS NYERERE: “AFRICANS UNITE – WITHOUT UNITY, THERE IS NO FUTURE FOR AFRICA!”

For centuries, we had been oppressed and humiliated as Africans. We were hunted and enslaved as Africans, and we were colonised as Africans. The humiliation of Africans became the glorification of others. So we felt our Africanness. We knew that we were one people, and that we had one destiny regardless of the artificial boundaries which colonialists had invented.
Since we were humiliated as Africans, we had to be liberated as Africans. So 40 years ago, we recognised [Ghana’s] independence as the first triumph in Africa’s struggle for freedom and dignity. It was the first success of our demand to be accorded the international respect which is accorded free peoples. Thirty-seven years later – in 1994 – we celebrated our final triumph when apartheid was crushed and Nelson Mandela was installed as the president of South Africa. Africa’s long struggle for freedom was over.
I was a student at Edinburgh University when Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison to be the Leader of Government Business in his first elected government [in 1951]. The deportment of the Gold Coast students changed. The way they carried themselves, the way they talked to us and others, the way they looked at the world at large, changed overnight. They even looked different. They were not arrogant, they were not overbearing, they were not aloof, but they were proud, already they felt and they exuded that quiet pride of self-confidence of freedom without which humanity is incomplete.
And so six years later, when the Gold Coast became independent, Kwame Nkrumah invited us – the leaders of the various liberation movements in Africa – to come and celebrate with Ghana. I was among the many invitees. Then Nkrumah made the famous declaration that Ghana’s independence was meaningless unless the whole of Africa was liberated from colonial rule.
Kwame Nkrumah went into action almost immediately. In the following year, he called the liberation movements to Ghana to discuss the common strategy for the liberation of the continent from colonialism. In preparation for the African People’s Conference, those of us in East and Central Africa met in Mwanza in Tanganyika to discuss our possible contribution to the forthcoming conference. That conference lit the liberation torch throughout colonial Africa.
Attempts at unity
Another five years later, in May 1963, 32 independent African states met in Addis Ababa, founded the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and established the Liberation Committee of the new organisation, charging it with the duty of coordinating the liberation struggle in those parts of Africa still under colonial rule. The following year, 1964, the OAU met in Cairo [Egypt]. The Cairo Summit is remembered mainly for the declaration of the heads of state of independent Africa to respect the borders inherited from colonialism. The principle of non-interference in internal affairs of member states of the OAU had been enshrined in the Charter itself. Respect for the borders inherited from colonialism comes from the Cairo Declaration of 1964.
In 1965, the OAU met in Accra [Ghana]. That summit is not well remembered as the founding summit in 1963 or the Cairo Summit of 1964. The fact that Nkrumah did not last long as head of state of Ghana after that summit may have contributed to the comparative obscurity of that important summit. But I want to suggest that the reason why we do not talk much about [the 1965] summit is probably psychological: it was a failure. That failure still haunts us today. The founding fathers of the OAU had set themselves two major objectives: the total liberation of our continent from colonialism and settler minorities, and the unity of Africa. The first objective was expressed through immediate establishment of the Liberation Committee by the founding summit [of 1963]. The second objective was expressed in the name of the organisation – the Organisation of African Unity.
Critics could say that the [OAU] Charter itself, with its great emphasis on the sovereign independence of each member state, combined with the Cairo Declaration on the sanctity of the inherited borders, make it look like the “Organisation of African Disunity”. But that would be carrying criticism too far and ignoring the objective reasons which led to the principles of non-interference in the Cairo Declaration.
What the founding fathers – certainly a hardcore of them – had in mind was a genuine desire to move Africa towards greater unity. We loathed balkanisation of the continent into small unviable states, most of which had borders which did not make ethnic or geographical sense.
The Cairo Declaration was promoted by a profound realisation of the absurdity of those borders. It was quite clear that some adventurers would try to change those borders by force of arms. Indeed, it was already happening. Ethiopia and Somalia were at war over inherited borders.
Nkrumah was opposed to balkanisation as much as he was opposed to colonialism in Africa. To him and to a number of us, the two – balkanisation and colonialism – were twins. Genuine liberation of Africa had to attack both twins. A struggle against colonialism must go hand in hand with a struggle against the balkanisation of Africa.
Kwame Nkrumah was the great crusader of African unity. He wanted the Accra Summit of 1965 to establish a union government for the whole of independent Africa. But we failed. The one minor reason is that Kwame, like all great believers, underestimated the degree of suspicion and animosity which his crusading passion had created among a substantial number of his fellow heads of state. The major reason was linked to the first: already too many of us had a vested interest in keeping Africa divided.
Prior to the independence of Tanganyika, I had been advocating that East African countries should federate and then achieve independence as a single political unit. I had said publicly that I was willing to delay Tanganyika’s independence in order to enable all the three mainland countries to achieve their independence together as a single federated state. I made the suggestion because of my fear – proved correct by later events – that it would be very difficult to unite our countries if we let them achieve independence separately.
Once you multiply national anthems, national flags and national passports, seats of the United Nations, and individuals entitled to a 21-gun salute, not to speak of a host of ministers, prime ministers and envoys, you would have a whole army of powerful people with vested interests in keeping Africa balkanised. That was what Nkrumah encountered in 1965.
After the failure to establish the union government at the Accra Summit, I heard one head of state express with relief that he was happy to be returning home to his country still head of state. To this day, I cannot tell whether he was serious or joking. But he may well have been serious, because Kwame Nkrumah was very serious and the fear of a number of us to lose our precious status was quite palpable. But I never believed that the 1965 Accra Summit would have established a union government for Africa. When I say that we failed, that is not what I mean; for that clearly was an unrealistic objective for a single summit.
What I mean is that we did not even discuss a mechanism for pursuing the objective of a politically united Africa. We had a Liberation Committee already. We should have at least had a Unity Committee or undertaken to establish one. We did not. And after Kwame Nkrumah was removed from the African scene, nobody took up the challenge again.
Confession and plea
So my remaining remarks have a confession and a plea. The confession is that we of the first generation leaders of independent Africa have not pursued the objective of African unity with the vigour, commitment and sincerity that it deserved. Yet that does not mean that unity is now irrelevant. Does the experience of the last three or four decades of Africa’s independence dispel the need for African unity?
With our success in the liberation struggle, Africa today has 53 independent states, 21 more than those which met in Addis Ababa in May 1963. [Editor: With South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Africa now has 54 independent states]. If numbers were horses, Africa today would be riding high! Africa would be the strongest continent in the world, for it occupies more seats in the UN General Assembly than any other continent. Yet the reality is that ours is the poorest and weakest continent in the world. And our weakness is pathetic. Unity will not end our weakness, but until we unite, we cannot even begin to end that weakness. So this is my plea to the new generation of African leaders and African peoples: work for unity with the firm conviction that without unity, there is no future for Africa. That is, of course, assuming that we still want to have a place under the sun.
I reject the glorification of the nation-state [that] we inherited from colonialism, and the artificial nations we are trying to forge from that inheritance. We are all Africans trying very hard to be Ghanaians or Tanzanians. Fortunately for Africa, we have not been completely successful. The outside world hardly recognises our Ghanaian-ness or Tanzanian-ness. What the outside world recognises about us is our African-ness.
Hitler was a German, Mussolini was an Italian, Franco was a Spaniard, Salazar was Portuguese, Stalin was a Russian or a Georgian. Nobody expected Churchill to be ashamed of Hitler. He was probably ashamed of Chamberlain. Nobody expected Charles de Gaulle to be ashamed of Hitler, he was probably ashamed of the complicity of Vichy. It is the Germans and Italians and Spaniards and Portuguese who feel uneasy about those dictators in their respective countries.
Not so in Africa. Idi Amin was in Uganda but of Africa. Jean Bokassa was in Central Africa but of Africa. Some of the dictators are still alive in their respective countries, but they are all of Africa. They are all Africans, and all perceived by the outside world as Africans. When I travel outside Africa, the description of me as a former president of Tanzania is a fleeting affair. It does not stick. Apart from the ignorant who sometimes asked me whether Tanzania was in Johannesburg, even to those who knew better, what stuck in the minds of my hosts was the fact of my African-ness.
So I had to answer questions about the atrocities of the Amins and Bokassas of Africa. Mrs [Indira] Ghandi [the former Indian prime minister] did not have to answer questions about the atrocities of the Marcosses of Asia. Nor does Fidel Castro have to answer questions about the atrocities of the Somozas of Latin America. But when I travel or meet foreigners, I have to answer questions about Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, as in the past I used to answer questions about Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia or South Africa.
And the way I was perceived is the way most of my fellow heads of state were perceived. And that is the way you [the people of Africa] are all being perceived. So accepting the fact that we are Africans, gives you a much more worthwhile challenge than the current desperate attempts to fossilise Africa into the wounds inflicted upon it by the vultures of imperialism. Do not be proud of your shame. Reject the return to the tribe, there is richness of culture out there which we must do everything we can to preserve and share.
But it is utter madness to think that if these artificial, unviable states which we are trying to create are broken up into tribal components and we turn those into nation-states, we might save ourselves. That kind of political and social atavism spells catastrophe for Africa. It would be the end of any kind of genuine development for Africa. It would fossilise Africa into a worse state than the one in which we are.
The future of Africa, the modernisation of Africa that has a place in the 21st century is linked with its decolonisation and detribalisation. Tribal atavism would be giving up any hope for Africa. And of all the sins that Africa can commit, the sin of despair would be the most unforgivable. Reject the nonsense of dividing the African peoples into Anglophones, Francophones, and Lusophones. This attempt to divide our peoples according to the language of their former colonial masters must be rejected with the firmness and utter contempt that it richly deserves.
The natural owners of those wonderful languages are busy building a united Europe. But Europe is strong even without unity. Europe has less need of unity and the strength that comes from unity in Africa. A new generation of self-respecting Africans should spit in the face of anybody who suggests that our continent should remain divided and fossilised in the shame of colonialism, in order to satisfy the national pride of our former colonial masters.
Africa must unite! That was the title of one of Kwame Nkrumah’s books. That call is more urgent today than ever before. Together, we, the peoples of Africa will be incomparably stronger internationally than we are now with our multiplicity of unviable states. The needs of our separate countries can be, and are being, ignored by the rich and powerful. The result is that Africa is marginalised when international decisions affecting our vital interests are made.
Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated. And it will, therefore, increase the effectiveness of the decisions we make and try to implement for our development. My generation led Africa to political freedom. The current generation of leaders and peoples of Africa must pick up the flickering torch of African freedom, refuel it with their enthusiasm and determination, and carry it forward.

Source: www.africaresource.com

Karudi Baba Mmoja, Toka Safari ya Mbali

1. Karudi baba mmoja,
toka safari ya mbali,
Kavimba yote mapaja,
na kutetemeka mwili,
Watoto wake wakaja,
ili kumtaka hali,
Wakataka na kauli,
iwafae maishani.

2. Akatamka mgonjwa,
ninaumwa kwelikweli,
Hata kama nikichanjwa,
haitoki homa kali,
Roho naona yachinjwa,
kifo kimenikabili,
Semeni niseme nini,
kiwafae maishani.

3. Yakawatoka kinywani,
maneno yenye akili,
Baba yetu wa thamani,
sisi tunataka mali,
Urithi tunatamani,
mali yetu ya halali,
Sema iko wapi mali,
itufae maishani

4. Baba aliye kufani,
akajibu lile swali,
Ninakufa maskini,
baba yenu sina hali,
Neno moja lishikeni,
kama mnataka mali,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

5. Wakazidi kumchimba,
baba mwenye homa kali,
Baba yetu watufumba,
hatujui fumbo hili,
akili zetu nyembamba,
hazijajua methali,
Kama tunataka mali,
tutapataje shambani?

6. Kwanza shirikianeni,
nawapa hiyo kauli,
Fanyeni kazi shambani,
mwisho mtapata mali,
haya sasa buriani,
kifo kimeniwasili,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

7. Alipokwisha kutaja,
fumbo hili la akili,
Mauti nayo yakaja,
roho ikaacha mwili,
Na watoto kwa umoja,
wakakumbuka kauli,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

8. Fumbo wakatafakari,
watoto wale wawili,
wakakata na shauri,
baada ya siku mbili,
wote wakawa tayari,
pori nene kukabili,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

9. Wakazipanda shambani,
mbegu nyingi mbalimbali,
tangu zile za mibuni,
hadi zitupazo wali,
na mvua ikaja chini,
wakaona na dalili,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

10. Shamba wakapalilia,
bila kupata ajali,
Mavuno yakawajia,
wakafaidi ugali,
Wote wakashangilia,
wakakumbuka kauli,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

11. Wakanunua na ng'ombe,
majike kwa mafahali,
wakapata na vikombe,
mashine na baiskeli,
Hawakuitaka pombe,
sababu pombe si mali,
Kama mnataka mali,
mtayapata shambani.

12. Wakaongeza mazao,
na nyumba za matofali,
Pale penye shamba lao,
wakaihubiri mali,
Wakakiweka kibao,
wakaandika kauli...

KAMA MNATAKA MALI
MTAIPATA SHAMBANI."

Uhuru wa Namibia Wanikumbusha Ujinga Wangu Zamani

Hivi karibuni nilisoma (mtandaoni) gazeti moja la tarehe 21 Machi 1990 likiwa na kichwa cha habari kinachosema:

"Namibia yapata Uhuru Baada ya Utawala wa Miaka 75 Kutoka Pretoria."

Habari hii ilinikumbusha ujinga wangu zamani. Zamani nilishangaa sana kwanini nchi ya Afrika Kusini inaitawala Namibia ambayo nayo ni nchi ya Afrika. Nilishangaa sana ni kwanini Waafrika wanawaonea kiasi kile Waafrika wenzao.

Baadaye nilikuja kujua kuwa Afrika Kusini ya kipindi kile ilikuwa chini ya utawala wa Makaburu. Makaburu waliitawala Namibia kwa miaka 75 hadi Namibia ilipojinyakulia uhuru wake tarehe 21 Machi 1990.

Hakika bila kufahamu historia, baadhi ya kumbukumbu za kihistoria zitabaki kutushangaza kila siku.

The Decision For the University of Dar es Salaam Made

25 March 1970 - The decision was taken by the East African Authority to split the then University of East Africa into three independent universities for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The University of Dar es Salaam was established in Tanzania. It admits students mostly from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, as well as students from other countries the world over.

Facts About Walter Rodney and Life in Tanzania

Facts about Walter Rodney

1. Walter Rodney was born in Georgetown, Guyana on March 23, 1942.

2. Walter Rodney came from a working class family. His father Edward was a tailor and his mother Pauline was a seamstress.

3. Walter Rodney was married to Dr Patricia Rodney and had three children Shaka, Kanini and Asha.

4. Walter Rodney attended Queen's College, the top male high school in Guyana, and in 1960 graduated first in his class, winning an open scholarship to the University of the West Indies (UWI). He pursued his undergraduate studies at UWI Mona Campus in Jamaica, where he graduated with 1st class honors in History in 1963. Rodney then attended the School of Oriental and African Studies in London where, at the age of 24, he received his PhD with honors in African History. Rodney's thesis, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, was published by Oxford University Press in 1970.

5. As a student in Jamaica and England, Walter Rodney was active in student politics and participated in discussion circles, spoke at the famous Hyde Park and, participated in a symposium on Guyana in 1965. It was during this period that Walter came into contact with the legendary CLR James and was one of his most devoted students.

6. Walter Rodney was multi-lingual. He learnt Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swahili which was necessary to facilitate his research.

7. Walter Rodney's first teaching appointment was in Tanzania before returning to the University of the West Indies, in 1968.

8. Rodney combined his scholarship with activism and became a voice for the under-represented and disenfranchised - this distinguished him from his academic colleagues. He took his message of Black Power, Black Liberation and African consciousness to the masses in Jamaica. In particular he shared his knowledge of African history with one of the most rejected section of the Jamaican society- the Rastafarians. His speeches and lectures to these groups were published as Grounding with My Brothers, and became central to the Caribbean Black Power Movement.

9. Rodney's activities attracted the Jamaican government's attention and after attending the 1968 Black Writers' Conference in Montreal, Canada he was banned from re-entering the country. This decision was to have profound repercussions, sparking widespread riots and revolts in Kingston on 6 October 1968, known as 'the Rodney Riots.'

10. Having been expelled from Jamaica, Walter returned to Tanzania after a short stay in Cuba. There he lectured from 1968 to 1974 and continued his groundings in Tanzania and other parts of Africa. Walter Rodney became deeply involved in the African Liberation Struggles at that time.

11. Walter Rodney's participation in African Liberation Struggles influenced his second major work, and his best known --How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It was published by Jessica and Eric Huntley of Bogle-L'Ouverture in London, in conjunction with Tanzanian Publishing House in 1972.

12. Walter Rodney established an intellectual tradition which still today makes Dar es Salaam one of the centers of discussion of African politics and history. Walter wrote the critical articles on Tanzanian Ujamaa, imperialism, on underdevelopment, and the problems of state and class formation in Africa. Many of his articles which were written in Tanzania appeared in Maji Maji, the discussion journal of the TANU Youth League at the University.

13. Walter Rodney was a Pan-Africanist. He developed close political relationships with those who were struggling to change the external control of Africa and was very close to some of the leaders of liberation movements in Africa. Together with other Pan-Africanists, he participated in discussions leading up to the Sixth Pan-African Congress, held in Tanzania, 1974. Before the Congress he wrote a piece: "Towards the Sixth Pan-African Congress: Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America."

14. In 1974, Walter Rodney returned to Guyana to take up an appointment as Professor of History at the University of Guyana, but the government rescinded the appointment.

15. Walter Rodney joined the newly formed political group, the Working People's Alliance, emerging as the leading figure in the resistance movement against the PNC government. During this period he developed his ideas on the self emancipation of the working people, People's Power, and multiracial democracy.

16. On July 11, 1979, Walter, together with seven others, was arrested following the burning down of two government offices. He, along with Drs Rupert Roopnarine and Omawale, was later charged with arson.

17. From that period up to the time of his murder, Rodney lived with constant police harassment and frequent threats against his life he nonetheless managed to complete four books in the last year of his life: An academic work: A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905; A political call to action; People's Power, No Dictator, and two children's books: Kofi Baadu Out of Africa and Lakshmi Out of India.

18. On Friday 13 June 1980, a remote control bomb, disguised in a walkie-talkie, handed to Walter Rodney by a senior military officer, Gregory Smith, was the weapon used to assassinate him. The bomb exploded in Walter Rodney's lap while he sat in a car with his brother in Georgetown, ending his life. He was 38 years old.

The Day Mwalimu Nyerere Refused to Meet US Boxer Muhammad Ali

21 March 1980 – US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Boxer Muhammad Ali was dispatched by the US administration to Tanzania, Nigeria, and Senegal to convince their leaders to join the boycott.

Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, insulted that Carter had sent a mere athlete to discuss the boycott, refused to meet with the special envoy. Ali was hustled into a press conference that quickly became combative. The boxer was stunned when asked if he was a puppet of the White House. He said: "Nobody made me come here and I’m nobody’s Uncle Tom."

Tanzania competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. The nation won its first ever Olympic medals at these Games.

Medalists were Suleiman Nyambui — Athletics, Men's 5,000 metres and Filbert Bayi — Athletics, Men's 3,000 metres Steeplechase. Both won silver medals.

A Life of Critical Engagement: An Interview with Issa Shivji

A Life of Critical Engagement: An Interview with Issa Shivji
Issa Shivji is one of the great public intellectuals of postcolonial Africa. He was a law student (1967-1970) at the University of Dar es Salaam, growing up amidst distinguished leftist scholars such as sociologists Giovanni Arrighi, Immanuel Wallerstein and John Saul. These scholars came from all over the world, attracted to the formative intellectual ferment at the university. Even as a precocious student, Shivji began to challenge the socialist policies of the Ujamaa regime of Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania. During this early period he wrote such celebrated and widely-debated works as The Silent Class Struggle that drew attention to the social forces that were politically (un)represented in the new postcolonies of Africa. After receiving degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Dar es Salaam, he took up a post in the Faculty of Law which he never left until retiring in 2006. During that time he became a public figure devoted to land reform and constitutional law. He survived political turbulence despite his outspoken commentaries on the turn to neoliberalism in the 1980s as well as the corporatization of the university. In 2008 he was awarded the Julius Nyerere Chair in Pan-African Studies with the express purpose of restoring the university as a center of public debate. Professor Shivji has inspired many younger academics, such as the political science lecturer, Sabatho Nyamsenda, who conducted this interview. He was also an active participant in the ISA’s World Congress in Durban, South Africa (2006).
SN: Your association with the University of Dar es Salaam (also known as Mlimani, or the Hill) started in 1967 as a law student, and after graduating you joined the law faculty at the same university – a position that you held for 36 years. Why did you decide to remain at the University while most of your progressive colleagues joined other institutions?
IS: True, many of my comrades joined other institutions including the National Service Office, the Party and even the army. In hindsight, it may sound a bit naïve, but the truth is that it was a collective decision of comrades as to who would be most effective where. Comrades thought, and I agreed, that I should remain at the University to do progressive intellectual and ideological work.
The University did provide relative space for progressive ideas to flourish, a terrain where progressive intellectual camaraderie could be created and sustained. At the time, the overall nationalist commitment combined with the deeper intellectual understanding of the imperialist system helped to cultivate radical young scholars, many of whom ended up as teachers in secondary schools thus further fertilizing progressive thought and practice.
I have never regretted spending the whole of my working life at the Hill.
SN: In your Accumulation in an African Periphery you divide the post-colonial experience of African countries, and Tanzania in particular, into three phases: the nationalist phase (1960s and 1970s), the critical phase (1980s) and the neoliberal phase (1990s to the present). How did these changes affect Mlimani?
IS: Universities exist in a social environment and they are obviously affected by changes in that environment. The decade of the eighties was an extremely critical period for our country as, indeed, it was for the rest of Africa. Universities were starved of resources while at the same time being exposed to an incessant ideological and intellectual onslaught of neo-liberal prescriptions. Many of our colleagues left for universities in Southern Africa – Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and later South Africa and Namibia.
But some stuck it out, including many young radical scholars who had imbibed progressive ideas during the first two decades of revolutionary nationalist fervor. They continued to do some very good work. For example, they led the intellectual side of the “great” constitutional debate in 1983-4 articulating anti-authoritarian and anti-statist positions. Of course, there were different tendencies, those seeing liberal democracy, human rights, multi-party as the ultimate goal and therefore demanding essentially reformist reforms. Then a minority tendency saw the struggle for democracy as a school for independent class actions; they called for revolutionary reforms. To give one example: The reformists would demand immediate institution of the multi-party system while revolutionaries would demand, first, a separation of the party and the state, and second, a protracted national debate taking stock of the post-independence period and chart out and build a new national consensus.
In the transition from the nationalist to the neo-liberal period, the Hill was still a hotbed of debates and ideological struggles. These fizzled out during the third phase government as neo-liberalism consolidated itself in the country and vocationalization and corporatization of the University gained momentum.
SN: In 2008, you were appointed the first incumbent of the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies, known as Kigoda in Kiswahili. Soon after you were installed, you were quoted saying it was “an honor” for you “to keep Nyerere’s legacy alive.” Which legacy were you referring to, given the fact that the Nyerere you describe in your writings is vehemently opposed to Marxism and struggles from below?
IS: Nyerere was a radical nationalist. He was a progressive Pan-Africanist and broadly anti-imperialist. To be sure, his anti-imperialism was not grounded in radical political economy, as was Nkrumah’s. Yet, his pro-people stance was consistent; his anti-imperialist position supportable and his nationalism progressive.
In comparison to the neo-liberal political class that succeeded him, and mindful of the havoc that this class has created in our society, woe unto any progressive, even a Marxist, who wouldn’t want to recall Nyerere’s legacy and deploy it as an ideological resource in the struggle against the current rapacious phase of capitalism.
Nyerere was not a Marxist and he didn’t disguise himself as one. Marx himself when confronted with vulgar Marxism exclaimed: “I am not a Marxist!”
As a head of state, it is true he came out against struggles from below. But does that mean that a progressive person should not celebrate Nyerere’s progressive legacy and draw lessons from its contradictory character? My friend, a Marxist is not a purist; s/he is political!
SN: What do you mean by the “contradictory character” of Nyerere’s legacy?
IS: I can do no better than give an anecdote about Mwalimu himself. A few months after he had thrown out students from the Hill for demonstrating against the state in 1978, he visited the campus. One student was courageous enough to ask him something to the effect: “Mwalimu, you talk about democracy but when we demonstrated in the interest of democracy you sent the FFU [Field Force Unit] to beat us up!”
Mwalimu stared at him, and then replied: “What did you expect? I am head of state; I preside over the institution which wields the monopoly of violence. If you cause chaos in the streets, of course I’d send in the FFU. But does that mean you shouldn’t fight for democracy? Democracy is never given on a silver platter!” [not his exact words]
And we all clapped. Mwalimu could have his cake and eat it!
SN: The Iranian revolutionary intellectual Ali Shariati once dubbed universities “invincible fortified fortresses,” whose main task is to produce intellectual slaves for the corporate world. Did the Kigoda, the Pan-African Studies Program, manage to open the gates of the Mlimani “fortress,” and link its intellectuals with the masses? If yes, how?
IS: It would be foolish for me to claim that Kigoda managed to open the gates of the university “fortress.” In Althusserian terms, universities are part of the ideological state apparatus. The dominant intellectuals there are undoubtedly producers and conveyors of dominant knowledge, which forms the basis of dominant ideologies.
But by the very nature of the process of production of knowledge, there is bound to be a clash of ideas. This allows some space for outlooks other than dominant ones. Nonetheless, such spaces should not be taken for granted. They have their limits and, in critical times, even those spaces are suppressed. It is a struggle to claim and reclaim on a continuous basis those progressive spaces. And like all struggles, these intellectual struggles also require imagination as to their forms and methods.
This is all that Kigoda attempted to do; nothing more. Perhaps it managed to cause some intellectual fervor; perhaps it managed to gain some credibility with young intellectuals and the people; perhaps it managed to excavate progressive archives of the Hill. Even that had limits, and those limits began to show towards the end of my term.
One can only do so much within the given circumstances. I think it was E.H. Carr, following Plekhanov and before him Marx, who said that while individuals make history, they do not choose the circumstances in which they do so.
SN: Nyerere once warned the oppressed against using money as their weapon. Yet, funding seems to have become central to intellectual projects nowadays. No work is done without money. Even the most progressive organizations have found it inevitable to kneel before the capitalist agencies in search of money. How did Kigoda run its activities?
IS: Yes, money, and donor money at that, has become the motor driving intellectual projects. Kigoda undoubtedly faced the problem of funding, but it established certain principles right at the outset. First, all administrative expenses, including the salaries of the Chair and his assistant, would come from the regular University budget. Second, Kigoda would avoid taking money from foreign donors. Third, whatever funding is given by domestic public institutions or friendly African intellectual organizations should be without strings attached. And, finally, the agenda and the activities of Kigoda would be set strictly by the Kigoda collective.
It was not easy but by keeping our budget modest, relying heavily on voluntary work and spending with a lot of prudence, we managed.
SN: Now that you have retired from the university, what are the projects you are planning to undertake?
IS: While still at the University, with two colleagues, Professor Saida Yahya-Othman and Dr. Ng’wanza Kamata, I embarked on the project to write a definitive biography of Mwalimu Nyerere supported by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology. We have now more or less completed our research – if you can ever complete a research of this kind – and have now started the process of writing.
One of the important outcomes of that project is the establishment of the Nyerere Resource Centre (NRC). The Centre will have a documentation room where all the material we collected will be stored and made available to researchers. Around the Centre we will organize activities with a view to providing a platform for strategic thinking, debates and discussions. We hope to begin activities this year. It is my hope that NRC will become a hub for reflecting on many burning issues facing the country and the continent.
I feel that the neo-liberal, NGOism and consultancy culture with their emphasis on policy – more “action,” little thought – and prescriptive prognosis has taken a toll on our intellectual thinking, the result of which is that we have abdicated analyzing and understanding the world. We cannot fight for a better world without understanding the world better. For that, we need to take a longer view of history. Hopefully, the Centre will contribute towards reviving the culture of holistic, long-term thinking.

MIAKA 100 TANGU 'OTA BENGA' AFARIKI UGHAIBUNI

Ota Benga ni binadamu aliyenunuliwa kama mtumwa kutoka Kongo na kuchukuliwa na Wazungu kwenda nchini Marekani katika hifadhi ya wanyama kwa ajili ya maonesho. Mwaka 1904 alishiriki katika 'Maonesho ya Louisiana' ikiwa ni maadhimisho ya miaka 100 tangu Marekani iliponunua eneo la Louisiana kutoka kwa Ufaransa. Alikuwa akioneshwa katika maonesho mbalimbali kuelezea hatua za mabadiliko ya binadamu (evolution).

Katika karne ya 20 ilikuwa ni jambo la kawaida binadamu hasa kutoka nchi za Afrika kutumika katika maonesho mbalimbali kuonesha 'hatua za awali' za mabadiliko ya binadamu (early stages of human evolution).

Ota Benga alizaliwa katika Kongo ya Wabelgiji (Belgian Congo) katika jamii ya watu wa Mbuti karibu na Mto Kasai. Aliishi Marekani hadi alipofariki kwa kujiua mwenyewe kutokana na msongo wa mawazo.

Leo tarehe 20 Machi, 1916 imetimia miaka 100 tangu alipofariki.

Nyerere's ultimatum on South Africa's apartheid

Tanzania is among the countries that highly criticised South Africa's apartheid policies. In August 1960 Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said: "To vote South Africa in, is to vote us out." Finally on 15 March 1961 South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations.

13 Machi 2016 - Rais Magufuli atangaza Wakuu wa Mikoa wapya.

TAARIFA KWA VYOMBO VYA HABARI

Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania Dkt. John Pombe Magufuli amefanya uteuzi wa wakuu wa Mikoa 26 ya Tanzania Bara, ambapo kati yao 13 ni wapya, 7 wamebakizwa katika vituo vyao vya kazi, 5 wamehamishwa vituo vya kazi na 1 amepangiwa Mkoa Mpya wa Songwe.

Uteuzi huo umetangazwa na Kaimu Katibu Mkuu Kiongozi, Mhandisi Mussa Ibrahim Iyombe leo tarehe 13 Machi, 2016 Ikulu Jijini Dar es salaam.
Wakuu wa Mikoa walioteuliwa ni kama ifuatavyo;

1. Mh. Paul Makonda - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Dar es salaam.

2. Meja Jenerali Mstaafu Ezekiel Elias Kyunga - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Geita.

3. Meja Jenerali Mstaafu Salum Mustafa Kijuu - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Kagera.

4. Meja Jenerali Mstaafu Raphael Muhuga - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Katavi.

5. Brigedia Jeneral Mstaafu Emmanuel Maganga - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Kigoma.

6. Mh. Godfrey Zambi - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Lindi.

7. Dkt. Steven Kebwe - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Morogoro.

8. Kamishna Mstaafu wa Polisi Zerote Steven - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Rukwa.

9. Mh. Anna Malecela Kilango - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Shinyanga.

10. Mhandisi Methew Mtigumwe - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Singida.

11. Mh. Antony Mataka - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Simiyu.

12. Mh. Aggrey Mwanri - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Tabora.

13. Mh. Martine Shigela - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Tanga.

14. Mh. Jordan Mungire Rugimbana - Mkuu wa Mkoa Dodoma.

15. Mh. Said Meck Sadick - Mkuu wa Mkoa Kilimanjaro.

16. Mh. Magesa Mulongo - Mkuu wa Mkoa Mara.

17. Mh. Amos Gabriel Makalla - Mkuu wa Mkoa Mbeya.

18. Mh. John Vianey Mongella - Mkuu wa Mkoa Mwanza.

19. Mh. Daudi Felix Ntibenda - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Arusha.

20. Mh. Amina Juma Masenza - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Iringa.

21. Mh. Joel Nkaya Bendera - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Manyara.

22. Mh. Halima Omary Dendegu - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Mtwara.

23. Dkt. Rehema Nchimbi - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Njombe.

24. Mhandisi Evarist Ndikilo - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Pwani.

25. Mh. Said Thabit Mwambungu - Mkuu wa Mkoa Ruvuma.

26. Luteni Mstaafu Chiku Galawa - Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Songwe (Mkoa mpya).


Wakuu wote wa Mikoa walioteuliwa, wataapishwa Jumanne tarehe 15 Machi, 2016 saa 3:30 Asubuhi Ikulu, Jijini Dar es salaam.

Gerson Msigwa
Kaimu Mkurugenzi wa Mawasiliano, IKULU
Dar es salaam
13 Machi, 2016

Death threats, opposition leader flees country

13 March 1983: Nkomo flees Zimbabwe 'death threats'
The Zimbabwe opposition leader flies into London as his country appears to be on the brink of civil war.

Diamond Plutnumz amwaga chozi, ni baada ya vipimo vya DNA kuhusu Tifah Dangote

Msanii wa Tanzania Naseeb Abdul maarufu kama Diamond Platnumz na familia yake wamefanya vipimo vya DNA nchini Afrika Kusini na imebainika kuwa Tifah Dangote ni mtoto wao wa kinasaba. Tangu Diamond na Zari Hassan wampate mtoto huyo, kumekuwa na mijadala mingi kwenye vyombo mbalimbali vya habari ikiwemo mitandao ya kijamii kuwa Tifah si mtoto wa Diamond bali mtoto wa Ivan Ssemwanga ambaye ni mume wa zamani wa Zari Hassan. Habari kutoka kwa mtu wa karibu sana na Diamond zinasema nyota huyo wa wimbo 'Utanipenda' inaotamba kwa sasa, alibubujikwa na machozi ya furaha baada ya vipimo kuonesha Tifah ni mtoto wake halali.

11 March 1966 - Benjamin Mwangata was born.

11 March 1966 - Benjamin Mwangata, a retired male boxer from Tanzania who represented his native East African country as a flyweight in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988 (Seoul) was born. He also competed at two Commonwealth Games: 1990 and 1998.

Mahatma Gandhi arrested, imprisoned!

10 March 1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.

US buys piece of land from France

10 March 1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase occurred during the term of the third President of the United States,
Thomas Jefferson. Before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party opposition; they argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory. Jefferson agreed that the U.S. Constitution did not contain explicit provisions for acquiring territory, but he did have full treaty power and that was enough.

Mjerumani aliyetawala Tanganyika afariki

9 Machi 1964 - Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck anafariki. Huyu alikuwa Jenerali wa Jeshi la Ujerumani na kamanda wa vikosi Afrika Mashariki. Mnamo tarehe 13 Aprili 1914 aliteuliwa kuongoza vikosi vya Ujerumani katika himaya ya Tanganyika.

Jina "America" limetokana huyu mtu

9 Machi 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci,mpelelezi na baharia wa Italia anazaliwa.Aligundua sehemu ambayo alita 'New World'lakini baadaye ilipewa jina la 'America'kwa kuchukua neno la kilatini 'Americus'lenye maana sawa na jina lake 'Amerigo.'Huyu ndiye aliyegundua kuwa Brazil na West Indes siyo sehemu ya Asia kama mtangulizi wake Christopher Columbus, baharia na mpelelezi wa Ureno alivyodai hapo awali. Jina la kila nchi duniani lina asili yake. Jina 'Tanzania' limetokana na kuchukua baadhi ya herufi katika jina 'Tanganyika' na 'Zanzibar.'

#History Waziri Mkuu wa Italia ajiuzulu

9 Machi 1896 – Waziri Mkuu wa Italia Francesco Crispi ajiuzulu baada ya Italia kushindwa vibaya katika "Mapigano ya Adwa" nchini Ethiopia.

Slavery in the United States

#History 9 March 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the
United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

#History 8 Machi 1930 - Bishop John Gerald #NEVILLE became the Apostolic Administrator of #Zanzibar (#Tanzania).

#History 8 Machi 1930 - Bishop John Gerald #NEVILLE became the Apostolic Administrator of #Zanzibar (#Tanzania).

#History 8 Machi 1913 - Siku ya Wanawake Duniani Yaanzishwa

Siku ya Wanawake Duniani imekuwa ikiadhimishwa kila mwaka tangu ilipoanza kwa mara ya kwanza mwaka 1913. Siku hii huadhimishwa katika nchi nyingi duniani kuakisi maendeleo ya wanawake katika historia.