UK researcher traces Nyerere`s early years

nngu007 · 2011-06-28T15:26:28+00:00

By In2EastAfrica - Tue Jun 28, 2:55 pm Father of the Nation Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere With the 50th anniversary of the independence of the then Tanganyika (now Mainland Tanzania) being marked on December 9 this year, a researcher from a university in the UK is embarking on a journey to trace the very early years of Father of the Nation Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere. Dr Thomas Molony, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh is looking for those who knew Mwalimu Nyerere in the first 30 years of his life, a significant period with enormous implications for post-independence Tanzania. The researcher said in a recent interview at the Dar es Salaam offices of The Guardian that his interest in Nyerere's life is for the period from 1922-1952, adding: "Those were his formative years, when he's beginning to get a world view." "This history is important because it's obviously the foundations for the nation of Tanzania. It's a part of Tanzania's history which hasn't been much explored," he said. He explained that a lot is known about Mwalimu Nyerere's time with TANU (Tanganyika African national Union), his subsequent tenure as the first Prime Minister and later as the first President of an independent Tanganyika as the country was then known and his legendary oratory skills. "He was a phenomenal debater but there is very little biographical data from the early period (which is) very important to where this peaceful nation is now," notes Molony. He wants to hear from those that knew Nyerere as a child and a young boy at his native Butiama village in Mara Region, as a student at Tabora Boys and later at Uganda's Makerere University and much later at Edinburgh University. "It's a real insight to hear from people who actually knew him at a time when evidence suggests he was getting political," he said, referring to Nyerere's time from 1949 to 1952 as a history and economics student at the University of Edinburgh, when he had entertained thoughts of joining the Holy Orders before being nudged towards Fabian thinking and socialism. Molony is working to turn Nyerere's formative years into a book "for the people of Tanzania", whose release he hopes will coincide with Tanganyika's Independence Day celebrations in December. He is asking that Tanzanians that knew Nyerere personally during this period to contact him at thomasmolony@gmail.com (and cc tics82@yahoo.com), or to call +255(0)767 501602 or +255(0)717 068515. "I'd like to get all sorts of perspectives from all sorts of people" he said in the exclusive interview. Source The Guardian

Thread starter nngu007
Start date Jun 28, 2011

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UK researcher traces Nyerere`s early years

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