Nyaronyo Mwita Kicheere
17 June 2005
opinion
Nairobi — Conflicts in the East African region have wrought untold suffering to children. These conflicts usually are essentially a political problem. Mwananchi writer NYARONYO MWITA KICHEERE explains why Tanzania remains a solid rock in a sea of troubled waters, and lessons from the teachings of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere
A dispute over poll results in the October 2000 elections was the first glimpse of turmoil in Tanzania's post-colonial history, as the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) supporters engaged with the opposition Civic United Front (CUF).
The aftermath was the flight of refugees to Shimoni, in Mombasa, where 2,000 CUF members and supporters were holed up for few months, before being persuaded to return home.
Bar that Pemba episode, Tanzania has enjoyed relative stability in its 44-year history, thanks to the legacy of the founding President Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
Nonetheless, Tanzania has been an explosive crucible where coups have been fomented (as happened in Uganda in 1979), not to mention armed struggle against apartheid regimes in South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique.
Tanzania has also hosted people displaced from neighbouring countries, including Rwanda, Burundi and Congo among others.
The man credited with Tanzania's stability and the political direction is Nyerere.
His efforts in nurturing a culture of tolerance and co-existence is evident in every sphere of life in Tanzania.
He started by reducing the immense powers vested in colonial chiefs, who had been instrumental in the execution of indirect rule introduced by the colonial British governor, Sir Donald Cameron, in 1923.
Indirect rule was a convenient, cheap and expedient system of ruling "the natives" through local chiefs, leaving the colonial government to concentrate on external issues.
The chiefs were replaced by Ward Secretaries (Makatibu Kata) who were picked from different parts of Tanzania, and were all answerable to national leaders.
Deprived of their power, chiefs became ineffectual, and Nyerere defused tensions between communities, having removed figure heads of tribal hegemony.
Free universal education was then introduced, all the way to university, where the tenets of patriotism through education and integration was emphasised, especially by way of schools hosting students from far-flung regions. This way, the seeds of unity found fertile ground among the youth.
For instance, notable schools in the Southern Mtwara, which borders Mozambique, were encouraged to host students from Northern Kagera and Kilimanjaro regions which border Uganda and Kenya.
Mwalimu Nyerere's impoverished government incurred huge travel bills as students criss-crossed the land, but also reinforced the notion that Tanzania belonged to all.
Then in 1964 Mwalimu introduced the National Service Act in which youths were conscripted into the national youth service, popularly known as Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT).
There were five training camps in Kigoma, Iringa Coast, Dodoma and Arusha regions.
In these camps, young people were drilled for six months to acquire skills that would help build the future Tanzania, and indoctrinated to embrace all communities as their own.
Through the 1970s to the 1990s, Tanzanians who went through the training have fond memories.
Ever heard of people suffering from photosynthesis or osmosis? It was the lexicon used to convey ignorance, for this was the forum where those who had excelled in school encountered barely literate citizens.
Unforgettable moment those!
The close encounters at JKT between people of different walks of life, say, most specialised physicians and the most illiterate volunteers from the villages, laid the base for firm adult relationships.
One would never be a stranger in public offices, as some familiar face was likely to be spotted wherever one went.
Then on December 9, 1961, Nyerere declared Kiswahili a national language and discouraged the use of local languages in public meetings and offices.
Apart from ensuring that Tanzania's culture would be embodied in a language all could understand, thereby erasing ethnic antagonism, the language issue also scored a point against imperialism.
To date, Tanzania remains a model for those who propagate African languages to reflect African nationalism.
Kiswahili also played a pivotal role in the fight for independence for it was easier for people from different regions of Tanzania to speak in voice one and demand their freedom from the British colonial rulers.
But it was Nyerere's radical policy on land ownership that secured Tanzania's future, as most conflicts on the continent are underpinned by struggles for a portion of land.
"When I use my energy and talent to clear a piece of ground for my use it is clear that I am trying to transform this basic gift from God so that it can satisfy a human need," Nyerere wrote in Freedom and Unity.
"It is true, however, that this land is not mine, but the efforts made by me in clearing that land enable me to lay claim of ownership over the cleared piece of ground.
"But it is not really the land itself that belongs to me but only the cleared ground, which will remain mine as long as I continue to work on it. By clearing that ground I have actually added to its value and have enabled it to be used to satisfy a human need. Whoever then takes this piece of ground must pay me for adding value to it through clearing it by my own labour."
This principle would find expression in Ujamaa, a fusion of socialist ideologies and egalitarian African values that defined Nyerere's economic vision.
By vesting land in communal hands, it was not easy to trade in this resource of common heritage.
Nyerere's stand, backed by the law governing land matters, enabled Tanzanians to settle anywhere in the country irrespective of one's tribe through the legal provisions enshrined in Customary or Deemed Rights of Occupancy and Granted Rights of Occupancy.
Under these legal instruments, one could hold land on short term (33 years), medium term (66) years and long term (99 years).
Ujamaa's agrarian economy has since proved unfeasible, and the current President Benjamin Mpaka has undertaken rapid reforms to open up the market, and Tanzania is on the road to economic recovery.
But the solid foundation that Nyerere laid in establishing true nationalism in Tanzania remains a shiny beacon worth emulating, especially in this region where ethnic animosities and avarice by the political class have resulted in so much suffering.
On that score, Nyerere's simplicity and honesty, shines a torch of hope that East Africa, after all, need look no further to understand what selfless commitment to one's people entail.
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