Julius Nyerere
Julius Nyerere led Tanzania to independence, attempted African socialism, and gave up power voluntarily. Born in 1922 in Butiama, the son of a Zanaki chief with twenty-two children, he did not begin school until twelve, took a degree at Makerere in Uganda and then at Edinburgh — the first Tanganyikan to study at a British university. He taught at a Catholic school, which is where the title Mwalimu, teacher, comes from, and translated Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice into Swahili. He founded TANU in 1954 and won independence in 1961 without violence. His central problem was that Tanganyika was among the poorest countries in the world, with 120 ethnic groups and almost no educated administrators. He made Swahili the national language, which succeeded completely: Tanzania has had no ethnic conflict of the kind that afflicted its neighbours, and that is generally credited to him. The Arusha Declaration of 1967 set out ujamaa, African socialism based on villages, and nationalised banks and industry. Some five to ten million people were moved into collective villages, latterly by force, and agricultural output fell. Adult literacy nonetheless rose from about a tenth to over three quarters, and primary enrolment became near-universal. He supported liberation movements across southern Africa at real cost, and in 1978-79 sent the army into Uganda and removed Idi Amin. He acknowledged publicly that the economic policy had failed, and stood down in 1985 — one of the first African leaders to leave office by choice. He died in 1999. He is the subject of an open cause for canonisation in the Catholic Church.
- Lived: 1922 CE – 1999 CE
- Nationality: Tanzanian
- Roles: head_of_state, statesman, revolutionary
