A determined leftist politician and advocate of an
African road to socialism, Julius Nyerere became a candidate for the
sainthood back in 2006 when his cause for beatification was opened. Silvia Cinzia Turrin’s essay “Nyerere, il maestro. Vita e utopie di un padre dell’Africa, cristiano e socialista”(“Nyerere, the teacher. Life and utopias o fan African priest, a Christian and a socialist” – Italian Missionary publishing house EMI, pp. 138, 11 Euro) who brings this African Catholic political figure back into the foreground at a time marked by anti-politics.
Nyerere became a Christian at the age of 21, has translated Shakespeare into Swahili and was President of Tanzania from 1962 to 1985.
Julius Nyerere, who was undeniably one of Africa’s key twentieth century figures, became independent Tanganica’s first president on 9 December 1962 and later became Tanzania’s leader thanks to its unification with Zanzibar.
As part of his political agenda, which was defined by a form of “African-Christian socialism”, he tried to blend socialist principles with those of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine.
The concept of “ujamaa” (family communitarianism) was central to Nyerere’s project. He translated this into “extended family”, a sort of village comprising between fifty and five hundred inhabitants.
Nyerere’s aim was to get the best out of Africa’s social fabric, whilst at the same time rejecting the idea that an African country should depend in some way on another western state now that the colonial era had passed.
The “ujamaa” ideal placed emphasis on “the fraternal spirit that is typical of African societies.”
Nyerere’s Tanzania supported the single party principle but unlike any other African state before it, the country was able to lean on rural agriculture to decolonise itself and gain independence peacefully, in contrast to many other states on the Continent.
Although critical of that Church which is “still governed by leaders who come from the capitalist states of the developed West,” condemned governments which made atheism official, persecuted people of all faiths and made religious teaching impossible,” Turrin writes referring to Nyerere’s biography. “I have never considered Soviets as real socialists – he stated. In Tanzania we have made it very clear that there no socialism without freedom.”
Turrin recalled that Nyerere’s socialist experience can be summarised in a few simple figures which he himself quoted: “We have inherited a country in which 85% of the adult population is illiterate. The English governed us for 43 years. When they left, we were left with 2 engineers and 12 doctors. When I resigned (in 1985, Ed.), 91% of the population was literate and practically all children attended school. We trained thousands of engineers, doctors and teachers. In 1988, Tanzania’s per capita income was 280 dollars. In 1998 this figure dropped to 140 dollars. I asked the World Bank why they failed. For the last 10 years (1988-1998) Tanzania has signed every single document the MIF and the World Bank asked it to sign…”