Julius Nyerere, born on this day in 1922, was a socialist and anti-colonial Tanzanian politician who promoted a Pan-Africanist ideology known as Ujamaa, which means “extended family” or “brotherhood” in Swahili.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on April 13, 1922 in Butiama, on the eastern shore of lake Victoria in north west Tanganyika. His father was the chief of the small Zanaki tribe. He was 12 before he started school (he had to walk 26 miles to Musoma to do so). Later, he transferred for his secondary education to the Tabora Government Secondary School. His intelligence was quickly recognized by the Roman Catholic fathers who taught him. He went on, with their help, to train as a teacher at Makerere University in Kampala (Uganda). On gaining his Certificate, he taught for three years and then went on a government scholarship to study history and political economy for his Master of Arts at the University of Edinburgh (he was the first Tanzanian to study at a British university and only the second to gain a university degree outside Africa. In Edinburgh, partly through his encounter with Fabian thinking, Nyerere began to develop his particular vision of connecting socialism with African communal living.
On his return to Tanganyika, Nyerere was forced by the colonial authorities to make a choice between his political activities and his teaching. He was reported as saying that he was a schoolmaster by choice and a politician by accident. Working to bring a number of different nationalist factions into one grouping he achieved this in 1954 with the formation of TANU (the Tanganyika African National Union). He became President of the Union (a post he held until 1977), entered the Legislative Council in 1958 and became chief minister in 1960. A year later Tanganyika was granted internal self-government and Nyerere became premier. Full independence came in December 1961.
In 1962, Nyerere was elected the first president of Tanganyika, a predecessor to modern Tanzania and a newly independent republic. His administration emphasized decolonizing society and the state, also unsuccessfully pursuing a Pan-Africanist East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya.
In 1967, Nyerere issued the “Arusha Declaration”, forbidding government leaders from owning shares or holding directorates in private companies, receiving more than one salary, or owning any houses that they rented to others. In compliance with this declaration, Nyerere sold his second home and his wife donated her poultry farm to a local co-operative.
Nyerere’s integrity, ability as a political orator and organizer, and readiness to work with different groupings was a significant factor in independence being achieved without bloodshed. In this he was helped by the co-operative attitude of the last British governor — Sir Richard Turnbull. In 1964, following a coup in Zanzibar (and an attempted coup in Tanganyika itself) Nyerere negotiated with the new leaders in Zanzibar and agreed to absorb them into the union government. The result was the creation of the Republic of Tanzania.
Nyerere’s government also aided in liberation struggles elsewhere in Africa, training and aiding anti-apartheid South African groups and helping to depose Ugandan ruler Idi Amin. In 1985, Nyerere stepped down as President and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi in a notably peaceful and stable transition of power.
“Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated.”
Julius Nyerere
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Something so offputting when people treat hobbies as things they put on their good-and-complete-person CV rather than stuff they’re interested in or passionate about. Like people (at least on social media) will often in the abstract say they have lots of hobbies and it’s just bizarre in a weird way. Why does the quantity matter? It feels like people have started increasingly treating their entire lives like a college admission application. We’re all too busy trying to optimize every aspect of our personal life to enjoy even a moment of it.
It’s a bourgeoisie value system. Nothing can be for its own sake or pleasure, but has to be put towards striving to scramble up the class system.
real protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism hours, who up
I was at a friend’s house for some function once when I was anywhere between 14 and 20 and had a super serious business dad take me aside and tell me that some hobby I was pursuing at the time was worthy of being put on a resume. He explained to me why and I tried to explain back to him what I heard and he told me I wasn’t getting it. It had something to do with demonstrating valuable skills. I have to imagine it’s like that joke about being a suitor where if you’re caught up on One Piece then you’re good with commitment. I never did get what he meant. But it was weird because I associated him with the most stringent investy/value/manager attributes and I associated hobbies in resumes with being silly and unfocused.
Hobbies and interests section always seemed odd to me. But hobbies making it on job applications makes sense, but like you need to be careful with how. If there’s an interesting project, putting it in a projects section makes sense. If you’re a dungeon master or you lead 25-man raids in wow, totally valid way to show your organization and leadership skills, but it belongs on a cover letter because “I play WoW/DnD” in hobbies isn’t a huge selling point lol.
I would trust a raid leader in WoW to organize literally any corporate function, so I totally see that. If you explained to me the lengths you went through to be a good DM you could probably do any marketing, data organization, etc. better than if you just had relevant skills.
I see what you’re getting at.
Wait people say this as a joke?
a friend gave me shit recently for (in her eyes) complaining about having too many hobbies, I guess because she implicitly agrees with what you’re describing here.
the thing is I was saying don’t have enough time to meaningfully engage with the multiple things I could have as hobbies. right now I try to be gage with all of them but the result is shallow/mediocre progress on all of them. I gotta reduce to fewer things so that I can actually excel at some of them.
no more video games sadly.
I think having or exploring a lot of interests is good. Though yeah it sucks how limited our time is. I didn’t mean to say having many interests is bad, I think thinking of the quantity as an inherent good is what’s bad if that makes sense.
i understood, and it does make sense, I agree with you!