Mwalimu, 10 years after: Part II

mwalimu with mama maria nyerere

Recollections on President

Julius Kambarage Nyerere

By Father Arthur H. Wille, M.M. 　

Julius loved to tell me about his life as a child. He was born in March, 1922 in Butiama Village near the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in northwestern Tanzania. Since the rains were very heavy on the day of his birth he was called Kambarage, the name of an ancestral spirit who lives in the rain.

His father, Burito Nyerere, was one of the eight chiefs of the Zanaki, a small ethnic group of less than 50,000 people. At the time of his childhood his father was polygamous. Julius’ mother Mugaya was the chief's fifth wife. According to Zanaki custom, the husband builds each wife a house.

They usually were mud and wattle building with grass roofs. Julius lived with his mother in his father Burito Nyerere’s village Kambarage grew up in a simple grass hut going barefoot and eating only one meal a day. It was the custom that each wife would be given fields to raise food to support herself and feed her children.

Since land was tribally owned, there was no difficulty for the husband to give fields to his wives. Julius helped his mother with work in the fields and gardens. At the age of eight he began tending his mother's goats and spent the whole day in the fields.

official portrait of mwalimu and mama maria nyerere

When the British took over German East Africa after World War I and named the country Tanganyika, they built a boarding primary school at a place called Mwisenge in Musoma town to educate the sons of the chiefs.

However, Julius’ father was not eager to send his sons to this school. Julius’ older brother Wanzagi who should have been the first to go to this school was not sent. It is interesting in how Julius came to be sent.

The chief of the neighboring Ikizu Ethnic Group was Mohammed Makongoro. He was a friend of Julius’ father Burito Nyerere and visited him frequently. On some occasions when Makongoro came to visit Burito, his father was busy with his responsibilities as a chief.

Julius would then engage Makongoro in an African game called soro in the Zanaki language. It is called bao in Swahili. This is a difficult game to play well. One needs to plan many moves ahead and remember them in order to win. Julius would beat Makongoro at soro or bao.

One day after being defeated by Julius at soro, Chief Makongoro told his father that he should send his son Julius Kambarage to the school for the sons of the chiefs in Musoma. Because of the urging of Makongoro, his father sent him to this primary school. When he went to Mwisenge Primary School, he met another Zanaki boy. He was Magomba Marwa. He would later be baptized Oswald. He became Julius’s closest friend.

When little Julius went to elementary school in Mwisenge -- grades one to four -- he was taught by Mwalimu Daniel Chagu who later in life became the head teacher in Kishapu, a village in Ndoleleji Parish in Shinyanga Diocese where Maryknoll priests served for many years.

Daniel was a wonderful man who certainly had a great influence on his famous student. He beamed with pride when he spoke of his student Julius. Wherever Mzee Chagu went, he carried an ebony cane with an ivory handle that was engraved, "Dr. J. K. Nyerere" -- a prized gift originally to the president and later given to the teacher's teacher. They kept in touch through all the years.

In his elderly years Chagu would wait along the road near his house (built for him in gratitude by President Nyerere) to get a lift from the priest to take him to mass at Mhunze Center.

mwalimu with john samwel malecela

One day I asked Julius how it was that he became a Catholic. He laughed and replied, "By accident." He then went on to explain that when the bell rang for the religion class, his friend Oswald Magomba grabbed his hand and said, "Come we go to study with the padres.

" Under the British there was a period of religion in all the syllabuses for primary school, middle school, and secondary school. The parents and the children could choose whatever religion they wanted to study or no religion at all. The various religious leaders were responsible for supplying the teachers for these periods of religious education. Government teachers also could teach these classes if they wished.

mwaliu and mama maria with their sons and daughters

With other students he organized in Makerere University the Tanganyika African Association. When he graduated from Makerere with his bachelor’s degree he returned to Tanganyika. He received two teaching offers, one from the government Tabora Boys Secondary School and one from the new Catholic St. Mary’s Secondary School in Tabora.

The headmaster of the government Tabora Boys Secondary School made a bet with Father Richard Walsh, the headmaster of St. Mary’s Secondary School that Julius would choose the government school. He was wrong.

When Julius chose St. Mary’s, the government then advised him by letter that at a mission school he would not get the same salary. Also if later he transferred to a government school, he would not be able to count the years spent teaching in a mission schools towards his pension. Julius was furious at this and replied in a letter, “If I ever hesitated, your letter has settled the matter. The mission teachers are doing as much as the government teachers are.” The British government at this time was paying the salaries of all the teachers, both government and mission.

Father Walsh soon discovered that Julius Nyerere was someone special. He wrote to friends in England to raise money for a scholarship to get higher education. When he succeeded in getting this money, he offered the scholarship to Julius. Twice he turned it down.

It is difficult to understand why a man in his position would turn down the opportunity to go abroad and get more education. Julius turned it down because he was afraid that spending a few years abroad in Europe, he would return less an African.

He loved his culture. He loved his roots. He loved who he was. Walsh continued to urge him to go abroad. On the third offer, he accepted the money for the scholarship. However, he gave some of it to his mother. His father had died in 1942. He gave some to his older brother Wanzagi and some to his fiancée, Maria Waningo, the daughter of Gabriel Magige.

To be continued tomorrow.......