THE book“ Remembering Nyerere: History, Memory, Legacy”, is edited by the social and political anthropologist,Dr Marie-Aude Fouéré, who worked at the UNESCO office in Dar es Salaam for several years and has experience in the field of culture and development.
It was published by Mkuki Na Nyota in association with the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), at the end of last year. With its compilation of contributions from international and local scholars, it focuses on what locals are doing today when they remember and talk about the Father of the Nation, Julius K. Nyerere. Following are excerpts of answers the editor gave our staff writer, IMAN MANI, in reference to this publication.
QUESTION: There have been numerous books on African leaders and more specifically on Julius K. Nyerere, how is this book different from other books written on him?
ANSWER: This book is not about Julius Nyerere, but it is about what Julius Nyerere means and stands for in Tanzania today. It is not a biography that would give insight into who he was in his private life and as a public figure. It is not a history book about him and Ujamaa, nor a book aimed at evaluating the politics of his time – assessing,like in many other books, Ujamaa’s successes and shortcomings. Rather, this book tells about how he is remembered here, from all levels of society, in what ways, on which occasions, and for what purposes.
Q: This book refers to the idea that Nyerere is romanticized by a majority of people here today. Was this always the case? How did this vision of Nyerere come to be?
A: Nyerere had long been cast as the wise Mwalimu working to build an egalitarian society and united nation.After the retreat from socialism in the mid-1980s, there were years of Ujamaa-bashing that were prejudicial to his image. Pejorative nicknames started to be associated with Nyerere in popular discussions, and its regime was retrospectively criticized. It is only after he passed away in 1999 that Nyerere was appropriated again as a moral figure. This process, which I call the posthumous reinvention of Nyerere, corresponds to the times when liberalisation started to reveal its fault lines: growing economic differentiation, a fragile national cohesion, an increased competition for power and wealth, and an overall demoralization of the public space. If the figure of Nyerere is so pervasive in Tanzanian society, it is because people compare the past and their present.
Q: Is Nyerere’s image still being constructed today? If yes, why and by whom and through what means?
A: Everybody contributes to building Nyerere today – ordinary citizens when they talk about Nyerere in street-corner conversations, politicians who pledge to walk in Nyerere’s footsteps when they vie for power, the media when they publish articles on Nyerere Day or Union Day, students when they invoke the tutelary protection of Nyerere when protesting against cost-sharing of tuition fees, for instance.
It is part of a continuous process of debating politics and state-citizens relations, even though the state may try to control Nyerere’s image by disseminating only some positive aspects. What stands out clearly today is that Nyerere is being built as a political touchstone, i.e.as a gauge used to measure and debate the quality of today’s political leadershiphere.
Q: You highlight the positive image of Nyerere in the country, are there no detractors in local society, if so who are they and in which ways do they impact on public opinion?
A: We should never see things in a binary way: when people refer to Nyerere today, they can praise him for some aspects of his leadership and, at the same time, point to darker dimensions of the man and his regime. How Nyerere is remembered depends upon the situation in which he is remembered: if the name of Nyerere is mentioned during a discussion about today’s corruption among the elite, like the recent scandals of “ufisadi”, then people will tend to highlight Nyerere’s positive action against corruption, notably the former Leadership Code. But when the difficult relations between mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar are debated, or the position of the Muslims in Tanzanian society is discussed, some other sides of Nyerere’s politics can be castigated. The way a political figure who was central in a nation’s trajectory is remembered is always complex and multifaceted.
Q: Some of the contributions to this book focus on politicians and political parties’ appropriation of Nyerere, what is meant by it and how is it important in today’s Tanzania?
A: These contributions show how political parties and politicians try to convince the electorate of the legitimacy and efficacy of their own leadership through the symbolic manipulation of Nyerere’s name, memory, and legacy.
They compare themselves to Nyerere or promise to be and act like him. Creating, through words, such symbolic filial descent from Nyerere — both personal and party-based — becomes central to the construction of political legitimacy in Tanzania. This is the case of CCM, but also of opposition parties, like Chadema. Such a discourse asserts a false continuity between past and present governance.
Q: In conclusion, could you come back on why it is important to understand Nyerere’s place and image in today’s local society?
A: It is striking to see that Nyerere’s place and image reveal people’s expectations towards the local elite. Ordinary citizens want politicians and businessmen to stop eating the state budget and, rather, redistribute more, invest in public services like health, schools and built infrastructure. They have the same expectations of development and modernity that were the promises of independence, but were not achieved.
Fifty years after independence, people feel nothing has changed much, especially in the rural areas and the poor suburbs of the cities. Referring to Nyerere is a way of telling the elite: you promised a lot, but little was done. It is this moral contract at the basis of the post-independent Tanzanian nation which people shed light on when they remember Nyerere.
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