Mwalimu, 10 years after: Part III

mwalimu with (from left) Kenneth Kaunda, Jomo Kenyatta and Milton Obote

Recollections on President Julius Kambarage Nyerere by Father Arthur H. Wille, M.M.

In 1949 Julius went to Scotland to begin his studies in history and economics in Edinburgh University. He lived with a Scottish family who were miners. He told me that he was very much impressed how hard the men worked in the mines. It was a different experience from the Europeans whom he had seen living in Tanganyika. He lived very simply. His greatest interest was in philosophy. He read a great deal.

He said that it was during this period in Edinburgh that he gave up the politics of complaint and came to tackle the problem of colonialism. It didn’t come suddenly but evolved over a period of time. Walsh his mentor told me that while Julius was in Edinburgh he wrote to him to tell him that he was thinking about becoming a priest. Walsh wrote back to him and asked him to give the reasons why he wanted to become a priest. His reasons were simple.

He felt in the priesthood he could do a lot of good for people. Walsh who knew that he was also very much interested in politics and the independence of his country wrote back to tell Julius he did not have a vocation. Julius followed Father Walsh’s advice.

Julius flew back to Tanganyika in 1952. At the Dar es Salaam airport Archbishop Edgar Maranta and Maria Waningo Gabriel, his fiancée met him. He had been engaged to Maria Waningo before he went to Edinburgh University. Because there were no Catholic women among his Zanaki people he chose to marry outside of his ethnic group in order to marry a Catholic. It was and is still to a great extent the custom to marry among one’s own ethnic group. He had paid, as is customary, a cow dowry to the family of his future bride, Maria Waningo. His long time friend Oswald Magomba Marwa helped him to make arrangements for his marriage and to deliver these cows.

Mwalimu shares a light with VIPs moments upon his arrival in Nairobi, Kenya

His father Burito Nyerere was very foresighted in insuring that Julius would have a cow dowry when it came time for him to get married. One day when Julius and I were traveling in my pickup in Butiama, he suddenly yelled at a woman calling her name "Boke Boke." He then asked me to stop. He got out and started to talk for some time with this woman. When he returned he explained to me that this woman had been his wife.

The Zanaki have the custom of child marriage. When a family is having financial difficulties, they will agree that a daughter who is still a child can be married to a man. The child, when she is old enough six or seven years old, will then come to the home of her future husband. She will not have sexual relations with her husband until she becomes old enough. At this point she returns first to her own family. If she decides that she doesn’t want to be married to the husband who paid cows for her, she has the right to refuse. However, her father then has to return the cows to this man.

Julius’ father paid these cows for this girl who in fact was older than Julius. He did it to make sure that Julius would have a cow dowry when it came time for him to get married. The Zanaki are a semi-matriarchal society. According to their customs, the sons of the father do not inherit from their father.

It is the sons of the father’s sisters that inherit when the father dies. Burito Nyerere understood this. This is why he paid a cow dowry for this woman who was to be married to his son Julius. He also knew that this woman would not want to wait for Julius to be mature enough to marry her. She would look for another man.

This other man then would need to return the cow dowry to Julius so that he could marry this woman. Divorce is done by the return of the cow dowry to the person who gave it. These cows would then belong to Julius and not be in the inheritance that his sisters’ sons would inherit. Julius told me that his father did this because he loved him very much.

Julius was anxious to marry Maria when he returned. Maria told him that she was willing to marry him before he left to go to Edinburgh University. Now she wanted to know if in the three years living abroad he had changed. She was a wise and strong woman, a very devout Catholic. She had been firmly grounded in her faith by her father and mother.

Her father Gabriel Magige was still a pillar of the church when we founded Komuge Mission in 1952. He was highly revered by Christians and non-Christians alike.

When I would approach some non-Christians about studying to be baptized, some of them would say, "When Gabriel Magige rises from the grave, then I will become a Catholic." There are a number of stories told among the Simbiti people that attest to his great faith and life as a Christian.

In preparation for his marriage Julius and his friend Oswald Magomba Marwa built an adobe house with three rooms for Maria as a wedding present in his village of Butiama. They put on a thatched roof.

Julius Kambarage Nyerere married Maria Waningo Gabrieli in the outstation church of Nyegina Mission near Musoma town on January 21, 1953. Father William Collins, a Maryknoll Missioner and pastor of Nyegina Mission, witnessed their marriage. His old friend Oswald Magomba Marwa was his best man. Oswald’s wife Bona was the bridesmaid. She had been a friend of Maria from the time they were in primary school in Ukererwe Island. Then Julius and Maria went to live in Butiama village.

Shortly afterwards Julius and Maria returned to live in Dar es Salaam. He began to teach at St. Francis College at Pugu. St. Francis was under the Irish Spiritan Fathers who were noted for their high quality education in Ireland. The bishops of Tanzania had chosen St. Francis College at Pugu as the elite secondary school for the Catholics.

The Protestants had St. Andrews and the government had Tabora Boys Secondary School as their elite schools. These three elite secondary schools got the right to choose the best students from all the middle schools in the country. Julius’ salary at the beginning was 6,300 shillings (equals $900) a year. After Walsh’s intercession it was raised to 9,450 shillings (equals $1,350) a year.

This was only 3/5 of the salary that expatriate teachers with Master’s Degrees were receiving. The government had sought to have Julius teach in one of the government schools. He was the first Tanganyikan with a Master’s Degree in Education. When he decided to teach in a church school, they refused to give him a salary comparable to his level of education.

Mwalimu fields questions to Freddy Macha, a prominent journalist, during his visit to london

They told him that "no precedent had been set. If he would join the government service, then he would set the precedent and could receive a salary comparable to his Master’s Degree." Because of his dedication to the Catholic Church, he was willing to take a cut in salary for the promotion of education in the church.

Within three months of returning to Dar es Salaam Julius joined the Tanganyikan African Association. He had been a member of this organization when he was at Makerere. A much respected British Governor, Sir Donald Cameron, had established the Tanganyikan African Association as a social club for civil servants.

At Makerere Julius had organized the TAA to deal with grievances connected with government service. It continued to be involved in this way, but never with the purpose of seeking independence. As Julius got to know TAA better, he found that it was merely a social club interested mainly in giving tea parties for expatriates who were going on leave.

As a newcomer to Dar es Salaam Julius was seen as one with the people. He was in contrast to Chief David Makwaia, who was the favorite politician of the then Governor Edward Twining. Chief David Makwaia was a university graduate. Like many Africans with university education at this time, they became sophisticated. Chief Makwaia preferred to be with the Europeans. He was elected to the Legislative Council of the governor.

Mwalimu and Mama Maria visit Julius' mother in Butiama

Julius quickly gained leadership and was elected president of TAA. He began by educating his followers to think about independence. Chief Patrick Kunambi who knew him well said that his leadership was not based on what Julius promised “because Julius practically never promised anything.”

Another associate of his, Abdul Sykes, once said, “Nyerere made us start to think: all we wanted was independence.” Because of this goal of independence Nyerere and his colleagues reorganized TAA as a political party, the Tanganyika African National Union, on July 7, 1954. It became better known as TANU and the date of it founding, the seventh day of the seventh month became Saba Saba (in Swahili “seven-seven”).

His colleagues unanimously elected Julius as president of TANU. He was 32 years old at the time. One of the founding members of TANU, Abbas Sykes said, “He came at the right time. Usually if a man went away to university when he came back he would not be one with us; he would be very sophisticated. But here was a man who had the same kind of education -- higher in fact, because he had an M.A. instead of a B.A. -- who was willing to be with his people.

This humility--- ‘I’m willing to serve you’--- made everyone forget that he was from up-country and that he wasn’t a Muslim.” There are as many Christians as Muslims in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) as a whole, but the coastal region is heavily Muslim.

One of the great challenges that Julius foresaw and spoke to me about when he was teaching me was a conflict between religions, especially between Christians and Muslims. It is ironic that the law that Governor Edward Twining passed which forbad anyone who was receiving a government salary from joining TANU could have increased this danger.

The Christians at this time were predominantly the educated people who held government jobs. They were also teachers in church schools. The government paid the salaries of all the teachers in the country even though the schools were built and administered by various Christian churches.

It was because of this law that Julius had to resign from teaching at St. Francis College in Pugu. It was a difficult decision for him. He loved teaching. He once told me that if he had confidence in any one of his party members who would not cause bloodshed and bring Tanganyika to independence he would gladly return to his books. He was a scholar at heart.

In August, 1954 a U.N. mission visited Tanganyika and gave a report that recommended the territory be given a timetable for independence within 20 or 25 years. The local government authorities were infuriated by this report. They were especially upset by the pro-African view of the American delegate of the Trusteeship, Mason Sears, on the subject of independence.

At the end of February, 1955 Julius Nyerere went to New York to present to the Trusteeship Council meeting on the third U.N. Visiting Mission’s Report on Tanganyika. On March 7 Julius Nyerere came as a petitioner before the meeting. His youthful appearance surprised many. He was self-possessed, completely at ease and modest.

He explained that the aim of TANU was to prepare the people for self-government and independence. It wanted the elective principle to be established and the Africans to secure a majority in all representative bodies.
Governor Twining sent a three-man delegation to support the government’s position.

He also tried to persuade Father Walsh to prevent Julius from leaving his teaching at Pugu saying that Nyerere’s political activities bordered on sedition. Walsh refused. “If it is sedition, why isn’t he in jail,” replied Fr. Walsh.
When Julius Nyerere was forced to leave teaching by this regulation of the governor, he returned to his village of Butiama with his wife Marie and his son Andrew and his daughter Anna.

This was a fortunate break for me because at this very time he agreed to teach me his Zanaki Language. He moved into Musoma with his family to live with his good friend Oswald Magomba Marwa and his family. Each day he walked from Mwisenge to the rectory in Musoma town to teach me. I paid him 700 shillings (equals $100) a month.

To be Continued Tomorrow....