NYERERE EXTRAODINARY MAN WITH EXTRAODINARY DEMOCRACY

Judith Mhina - Maelezo.

The highest democracy in the world was made and lived by the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, immediately after launching the policy of socialism and self-reliance on 5^th February 1967 in Arusha region. 

This statement was made by the first organizing secretary of the campaign against racial discrimination and a founding member of the black regional action movement and general editor of Crossroad books, during presenting her paper to a World congress of Activist, Sexiest and Racism 2014 in London, Mrs Salem James.

Mrs Salem James said, Nyerere, on his book of Arusha Declaration he foresee what we need to develop is people, not the things, and that people can only develop themselves. The question to ask where they are? At the village, villagers as a starting point of development let have Ujamaa village in order to empower the people, Nyerere he said,

Quote

Ujamaa village are intended to be socialist organizations created by the people, and governed by those who live and work in them. They cannot be created from outside, or governed by outside .No one can be forced into an Ujamaa village, and no official at any level –can go and tell the members of Ujamaa village what they should do together and what they should continue to do as individual farmers.  

Mrs. James said this is a very big surprise to me, we never heard such kind of democracy in our government even and nobody wants to accept the reality. This is self government of the people and it is pure democracy which never happens elsewhere in our government or in our society but Nyerere does.

Most of people in Tanganyika were Illiterate when Nyerere comes to power, therefore Dr Nyerere emphasis on how to establish Ujamaa village by saying,

‘To make ujamaa villages to be established and to make them to succeed we need education and leadership’s are required. TANU has to provide, it is our jobs to must explain what ujamaa village is and keep explaining until people understand. But decision to start must made by individual themselves and decide to be part of Ujamaa village must be made by each individual.”

 

This is entirely different concept the world we know that from Dr. Nyerere. It is so desperate; it needed this document of that idea of what we should be demanding and how we should be relating to the authority.

Mrs James continues to explain that, my task especially on Nyerere ideology was very difficult, because there is so much to say and be documented I feel so in emptied in a sense there so much to say and I know little about Africa, Tanzania and Dr Nyerere.

Since we went, we knew in 1995 we already published a book call Strangers and Sister Women Race Migration. We didn’t know that Dr. Nyerere has said a lot about women, until when I came across this document of Arusha Declaration knowing an extraordinary man Dr. Nyerere, has said a lot about women and gender.

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