Nyerere: 'Self-Rule not a Favour'

Today marks the 25th death anniversary of Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania's first president, who died of leukaemia and a stroke at age 77 on 14 October 1999 in a London hospital.

Nyerere was born in 1922 in a small village in Butiama, in Tanganyika, then administered by the British under a League of Nations mandate before becoming part of a larger country in 1964, known today as the United Republic of Tanzania.

Nyerere, affectionately known by the honorific title, 'Mwalimu' (Swahili for teacher), was an anti-colonialist, political theorist and president of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985.

But the struggle wasn't easy. Nyerere, a beacon of resilience, stood against the West, which argued Africa wasn't ready to govern itself. No better example exists than this classic 1960 interview of a young Nyerere answering emphatically against colonialist lies. He asserted that Europeans granting us independence was merely returning a stolen right, as it were. Therefore, the question of whether Africans were ready for self-rule was meaningless. We Africans had managed our affairs well before colonisers arrived.

What are your thoughts on Nyerere's legacy and how his ideas and actions continue to influence African politics and history?

Video credit: National Educational Television, Boston, USA