Following upon
the hugely positive
impact which was instantly
created as a
result of the
publication of former
President Benjamin Mkapa’s
autobiography, on 12th November,
2019, titled “My
Life, My Purpose :
A Retired President
Remembers” ; I
quickly decided to
devote a series
of articles in
this column, with
the intention of
drawing public attention
to the vastly
rich biography of
President Julius Nyerere,
the founder-President of our
beloved
country; in the
forlorn hope that
those who are
in a position
to do so, will
be persuaded to write
his biography.
This will
be the fourth
in this
series , and will,
for the time
being, be the last instalment;
which will be in
the area of
Foreign Affairs, and
will focus mainly
on Mwalimu Nyerere’s
angry reactions to certain specified actions
that were wantonly
taken by some
of his peers,
the Presidents of
Africa; which
he considered to be seriously
wanting in ethics.
In other words,
we will be
discussing his ‘low
moments’, wherein he
found himself forced
into utter frustration
and anger, which
he openly expressed in his responses
to the relevant
events.
I
should perhaps also
add, that the
unethical actions by
his African peers
greatly angered President
Nyerere, primarily because for
him, the question
of leadership ethics was a basic
rule of personal
leadership behaviour, or principle, that
must never be
compromised. For he sincerely believed,
that “ethics is the
heart of leadership”. Thus, on
the domestic front,
that is what actually
explains why he
took the earliest
opportunity during his
tenure as President
of the United Republic
of Tanzania, to
introduce that ethics rule
in the form
of a “leadership
code of ethics”,
when he drafted
the Arusha Declaration
of February, 1967;
which would bind
all the ruling party
leaders, as well
as the Government
leaders, of this
country. And on
the Foreign Affairs
front, that
is what explains
why, as soon
as he became
Head of the Government
of Tanganyika way
back in September
1960; he quickly
imposed a ban
on the importation
of goods from South
Africa, in order
to demonstrate his
strong disgust at
the (then) South
African Government’s obnoxiously
unethical apartheid policy. Similarly, that
is precisely what
explains his subsequent
strong negative reactions
to some of
his African peers
unethical actions, that
are described in
this article.
Mwalimu
Nyerere’s angry
reactions.
It
should be noted,
however, that these
were not merely
isolated angry reactions
to the relevant
events. They were,
in fact,
part of Mwalimu
Nyerere’s general struggle
against any injustices. There
are two specific
indents that quickly
come to my
mind, in respect of
President Nyerere’s angry
reactions to his
African peers, for
their unexpected, unworthy,
behavior. One,
which occurred in
December 1965, was
the unexpected failure
to implement the
resolution adopted by
Organization of African
Unity (OAU) on
breaking diplomatic relations
with Britain.
The
other was the
1978 pressure put
on President Nyerere,
not to allow
the Tanzanian Armed
Forces to cross
the border into
Uganda during the
Iddi Amin war.
But before
we start discussing
these issues, and particularly, in
order to show
that such reactions
were part of
Mwalimu Nyerere’s general
struggle against injustices,
we will first cite
one
example, that of his
resignation from the
colonial Legislative Council
way back in 1957. This
was in protest
against what, in
his considered opinion,
was an
injustice committed by
the colonial Government.
Mwalimu Nyerere
had been nominated
by the Governor
of Tanganyika in
July 1957, to
be a member
of the colonial
Legislative Council (LEGCO);
but he found
it necessary to resign therefrom,
a mere six months
later. He
subsequently explained the
reasons for his
resignation, in an
article published in “Sauti
ya TANU” No.
18, on 16h December,
1957, that he
had accepted nomination in
the belief that
the Government would
respond positively to his views
regarding the pace
of progress to
independence, but he
soon realized that this was actually not
the case; so
he decided to
quit. “ I had
no alternative but
to tender my
resignation” he said.
We will now proceed to
the two particular
events which we referred to earlier
above.
The failure
to implement the
OAU resolution.
On
11th June, 1965;
Mr. Ian Smith,
the Prime Minister
of what was
then Southern Rhodesia,
now Zimbabwe; made
a sudden unilateral
declaration of independence (UDI) for
that central African
country. At that
time, Southern Rhodesia
was a self-governing colony
of Great Britain, whose
Government was entirely
in the hands
of the minority
white Rhodesian settlers,
who thus wanted
to protect their
vested interests, by
unilaterally severing their
colonial relationship with
Britain. This was,
quite obviously, an
act of open
rebellion, which President
Nyerere, and many
of his African
peers, believed would
be quickly quashed by
Britain, the legitimate
ruling power. But months
went by, and
no such action
was taken by
the British Government.
Thus, in
December, the Organization
of African Unity
(OAU) called an
emergency meeting of
Foreign Ministers in
Addis Ababa, which
would decide on
what action should
be taken, to
force the British
Government to exercise
its due responsibility over
Southern Rhodesia, regarding
that unprecedented rebellion.
The meeting
unanimously decided that,
all the Independent
African countries (that
had established diplomatic
relations with Britain),
should break such
relations on 15th December ,
1965; if by
that date, Britain
had not yet
taken the necessary
action to reverse the
Southern Rhodesia rebellion.
But
alas, come the
agreed date, 15th December,
1965, only Ghana
and Tanzania did
actually implement that
resolution. The extent
of President Nyerere’s
utter disappointment, dismay
and anger at
this turn of
events, is clearly
displayed in his
“Honour of Africa”
speech, which he
delivered in the
Tanzania Parliament shortly
thereafter. President Nyerere’s
speeches in Parliament
have always been
delivered in Kiswahili,
the national language.
But on that
particular occasion, he
chose to address
the House not
in Kiswahili, but
in English, which
was a clear
indication that he
was actually addressing
an external audience,
so that they
could get the
piercing message directly.
This is what
he said in the
form of unanswered
questions:- “How can
Africa really fail
to implement its
own resolution? Can
African States meet
in solemn conclave,
merely in order
to make noise? “
He went on
thus: “The purpose
of that resolution
was to show
Britain, that Africa
requires concrete action
to be taken against
Smith (the rebel
Prime Minister of
Southern Rhodesia). That
action has not
been taken, do
we just shrug
our shoulders and
do nothing about
it? Can we , the
African States, unashamedly do
nothing to implement
our own resolution?”.
There is a
lot more in
that speech, but we
will stop there.
The African
peers pressure in the
war against Iddi
Amin.
Towards
the end of
the year 1977, President Iddi
Amin Dada of
Uganda, committed the international crime of
sending his army
to invade, and
temporarily annex, a
large chunk of Tanzanian
territory, in the
then West Lake
Region (now Kagera
Region). On hearing
the bad news,
President Nyerere’s immediate,
angry response was: “TUTAMPIGA”.
The English
equivalent of the
Kiswahili word “tutampiga”,
is “we shall take
revenge on him” ;
but it does
not disclose what
the extent of
that revenge would
be. Hence,
many ordinary minds,
including those of
President Nyerere’s African
peers, thought, and
believed, that his revenge
would be limited
to chasing Iddi
Amin’s Forces out
of Tanzanian territory.
But, apparently, Mwalimu
Nyerere had a
more severe punishment
in his ingenious
mind.
He
had initially attempted
to persuade his
fellow African peers
to publicly condemn
and rebuke President
Iddi Amin for
the international crime
he had committed,
of invading and
annexing part of
Tanzanian territory; but
no such condemnation
had been made.
This lack of
even moral support
from his peers,
was already a
major disappointment for
Mwalimu Nyerere. But
that was not the
end of his
frustrations. His second
disappointment came soon
after Iddi Amin’s
invading Forces had
been chased out
of Tanzanian territory.
What actually
happened.
It
took the Tanzanian
armed Forces a
relatively short period
of time to
chase Iddi Amin’s
invading Forces out
of Tanzanian territory.
What followed
thereafter, was an
indeterminable period for
the Tanzanian army to permanently
camp at the
Mutukula border
with Uganda, for
fear that the
Ugandan Army might be
tempted to make
yet another invasion,
which they would
fear to do, in the
presence of the Tanzanian
Army at
the border. But
this,
clearly, was a very
undesirable situation. And and
that is when
the Army commanders
requested that they
be allowed to cross
into Uganda to
“finish off Iddi
Amin, and ensure
permanent peace thereafter.
And that, ”is
probably when President
Nyerere activated his
secrete plan of
chasing Iddi Amin
himself out of
Uganda as well !
However, this
was partly delayed
by President Nyerere’s
genuine desire,
not to create
the negative impression
that he was
stubbornly ignoring, or
going against, wise
advise from his
African peers. He
therefore continued to
listen to them,
until he half-heartedly reached
the point of surrendering to
their pressure. But
then, God’s guidance
intervened, to save
the situation in
his favour.
The probability
of a sleepless
night.
It
was one Saturday afternoon,
when President Nyerere
invited two of his closest
political assistants , namely,
Vice President
Aboud Jumbe, and
myself, then Executive
Secretary-General of the
ruling party Chama
cha Mapinduzi, to his
residence at
Msasani, Dar es
Salam. On arrival
there, he told
us how he
had been tormented, for
some time, by two
conflicting pressures. On
the one hand,
was the pressure from
his Army Chief, asking
to be allowed
to cross the border
into Uganda, in
order to go
to Kampala to
“finish off’ dictator
Iddi Amin. But and
the other hand
was the pressure
from his African
peers, urging him
not to cross
the border, as by doing
so, he would
be committing the
same international crime
of invading another
country. He further
told us how
he had, very unwillingly,
succumbed to the
wishes of his
African peers. Whereupon, he instructed
the Vice-President to travel
to Bukoba the
next day, and
onwards to Mutukula,
to inform the
army about his
decision not to
allow them to
cross into Uganda. But in giving
this instruction, the President
was vividly disturbed.
That Saturday night
must probably have been
a sleepless one
for him.
He went
to church the following
day, as was
his usual practice;
but in this
case, he
apparently prayed specifically
for God’s guidance;
for he later
confirmed that during
his deep meditation
and prayer, he
got an inspiration, to
the effect that
his decision of
the previous day
was NOT the
right decision, and
that he should
have listened to
his army commanders.
Thereafter, armed
with that inspiration,
he confidently reversed
the earlier decision,
and decided to
travel to Bukoba
and Mutukula himself,
to deliver the
good news to the
Army Commanders, who
had been anxiously
waiting for his
reply to their
request to be
allowed to go
to Kampala, and
deal appropriately with
Iddi Amin. The rest
is now history,
which would be
succinctly told in Mwalimu
Nyerere’s biography
when,
hopefully, it is
eventually written. Will someone
please take up
this challenge?
Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa Himself.
