Mugabe launches Nyerere book
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has launched a book to honour founding Tanzanian President Julius Mwalimu Nyerere.
The book, titled Julius Nyerere, Asante Sana, was produced by the Harare-based Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, House of Books, African Publishing Group in Zimbabwe and Mkuki na Nyota of Tanzania.
At the launch on Wednesday, President Mugabe heaped praises on Mr Nyerere, who he said had not been honoured enough for his role in liberating a number of African countries, including Zimbabwe.
The soon to be 92-year-old Zimbabwean leader said he was overjoyed that the African Union’s Peace and Security Council building under construction in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia would be named after Mr Nyerere.
Asian countries
President Mugabe said Zimbabwe’s foreign policy, which favoured relations with Asian countries such as China compared to ties with the West, was influenced by the Tanzanian independence leader.
“The West will pretend, demand and punish but when you Look East, you have a friend who will always feel like, a friend prepared to share your struggle with you,” he told a function at State House in Harare.
“We followed Mwalimu’s tracks to the East. Today our relations with China are solid. The book is a befitting tribute to a great statesman, liberator and pan-African par excellence.”
President Mugabe said Mr Nyerere unified African liberation movements and gave them direction.
The founder
He said he was the founder of the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, a precursor to the Organisation of African Unity and later the African Union.
“Mwalimu’s belief was that freedom and independence would only be achieved if people worked together,” President Mugabe said.
“We decided that there is no need to disappoint those who assist us. He also united his own people of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.”
Some senior leaders in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF were once exiled in Tanzania, which also provided bases for the party’s military wing during Zimbabwe’s 1970s war of independence.
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