Julius Kambarage Nyerere once said, ‘I’m a reluctant politician. All I ever wanted to be was a teacher.’ Yet, this is the man who led the Republic of Tanganyika, the mainland part of today’s Tanzania, to independence in 1962. He then founded the state of Tanzania in 1964 and became its first president. Nyerere did everything he could to help the young nation embark on its path to industrialization. He believed in the unity of peoples and fought against corruption. Thanks to him, Tanzania is the only country on the African continent united by a single language – Swahili. There, he is affectionately called ‘mwalimu,’ which means ‘teacher’.
What legacy has Julius Nyerere left behind? What laws govern life in Tanzania today, and what role does the country play in developing the entire African continent?
