Julius
Kambarage Nyerere Quotes
A Selection of Quotes by Julius
Kambarage Nyerere
"In Tanganyika we believe that only
evil, Godless men would make the color of a man's skin the criteria for
granting him civil rights."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere addressing British Governor-General Richard Gordon
Turnbull, at a meeting of the Legco, prior to taking up the premiership in
1960.
"The African is not 'Communistic' in his
thinking; he is -- if I may coin an expression -- 'communitary'."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere as quoted in the New York Times Magazine on 27
March 1960.
"Having come into contact with a
civilization which has over-emphasized the freedom of the individual, we are in
fact faced with one of the big problems of Africa in the modern world. Our
problem is just this: how to get the benefits of European society -- benefits
that have been brought about by an organization based upon the individual --
and yet retain African's own structure of society in which the individual is a
member of a kind of fellowship."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere as quoted in the New York Times Magazine on 27
March 1960.
"We, in Africa, have no more need of
being 'converted' to socialism than we have of being 'taught' democracy. Both
are rooted in our past -- in the traditional society which produced us."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Umoja (Freedom and Unity):
Essays on Socialism, 1967.
"We, in Africa, have no more need of
being 'converted' to socialism than we have of being 'taught' democracy. Both
are rooted in our past -- in the traditional society which produced us."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Umoja (Freedom and Unity):
Essays on Socialism, 1967.
"No
nation has the right to make decisions for another nation; no people for
another people."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his A Peaceful New Year speech given in
Tanzania on 1 January 1968.
"In
Tanzania, it was more than one hundred tribal units which lost their freedom;
it was one nation that regained it."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his Stability and Change in Africa speech
given to the University of Toronto, Canada, 2 October 1969.
"If
a door is shut, attempts should be made to open it; if it is ajar, it should be
pushed until it is wide open. In neither case should the door be blown up at
the expense of those inside."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his Stability and Change in Africa speech
given to the University of Toronto, Canada, 2 October 1969.
"You
don't have to be a Communist to see that China has a lot to teach us in
development. The fact that they have a different political system than ours has
nothing to do with it." Julius Kambarage Nyerere, as quoted in
Donald Robinson's The 100Most Important People in the World Today, New
York 1970.
"[A]
man is developing himself when he grows, or earns, enough to provide decent
conditions for himself and his family; he is not being developed if someone
gives him these things."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and
Development), 1973.
"...intellectuals
have a special contribution to make to the development of our nation, and to
Africa. And I am asking that their knowledge, and the greater understanding
that they should possess, should be used for the benefit of the society of
which we are all members."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and
Development), 1973.
"If
real development is to take place, the people have to be involved."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and
Development), 1973.
"We
can try to cut ourselves from our fellows on the basis of the education we have
had; we can try to carve our for ourselves an unfair share of the wealth of the
society. But the cost to us, as well as to our fellow citizens, will be very
high. It will be high not only in terms of satisfactions forgone, but also in
terms of our own security and well-being."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and
Development), 1973.
"To
measure a country's wealth by its gross national product is to measure things,
not satisfactions."
From a speech written by Julius Kambarage Nyerere, The Rational Choice
given on 2 January 1973 in Khartoum.
"Capitalism
is very dynamic. It is a fighting system. Each capitalist enterprise survives
by successfully fighting other capitalist enterprises."
From a speech written by Julius Kambarage Nyerere, The Rational Choice
given on 2 January 1973 in Khartoum.
"Capitalism
means that the masses will work, and a few people -- who may not labor at all
-- will benefit from that work. The few will sit down to a banquet, and the
masses will eat whatever is left over."
From a speech written by Julius Kambarage Nyerere, The Rational Choice
given on 2 January 1973 in Khartoum.
"We
spoke and acted as if, given the opportunity for self-government, we would
quickly create utopias. Instead injustice, even tyranny, is rampant."
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, as quoted in David Lamb's The Africans, New
York 1985.
‘I’m a good Mzanaki, but I won’t
advocate a Kizanaki-based political party. ... So I’m a Tanzanian, and of
course I am Mzanaki; politically I’m a Tanzanian, culturally I’m Mzanaki.’
The
Arusha Declaration of 1967 tried to establish a more egalitarian society,
placed emphasis on self-reliance, and avoided dependence upon foreign loans.
The strategy entailed that the state owns the means of production and important
services. Consequently, commercial banks, mills, and leading import and export
houses were nationalised. Nyerere argued:
"We in Tanzania should move from being a
nation of individual peasant producers who are gradually adopting the
incentives and the ethics of the capitalist system. Instead we should gradually
become a nation of Ujamaa villages where the people cooperate directly in small
groups and where these small groups cooperate together for joint enterprises”.
Speech by the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere to
parliament members of the South Africa).
J.K.Nyerere, Cape Town 16th
October 1997 - Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere:-
Now, as for sharing my thoughts with you: my thoughts, unfortunately, don't
change, so a lot of what I am going to say some of you will have heard before,
but some of you have not. I am going to say two things about Africa. One, that
Africa south of the Sahara is an isolated region of the world. That's the first
thing I want to say. The second thing I want to say is that Africa south of the
Sahara is not what it is believed to be because Africa is now changing. So let
me see if I can share those thoughts with you in a very short period.
Africa south of the Sahara is an isolated region of the world. During the last
ten years, since my retirement as head of state of my country, I was asked, and
I agreed, to establish something called the South Commission. That has meant a
lot of travelling. I have been many times to Latin America, many times to Asia,
many times to many parts of Africa before coming here, and many times to a
large number of countries in Europe.
Farewell
Speech by the President, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere Nov. 1985
Farewell Speech by the President, Mwalimu Julius K.
Nyerere, at the Diamond Jubilee Hill Par es Salaam: 4th November 1985
During the long period during
which I have had the good fortune to lead our country, I have made very many
speeches to Tanzanians. Today, in my last speech as President of the United Republic,
I have only one extra thing to say.
To every one of you individually, to all people organised together in villages,
in cooperatives, in professions, in voluntary organisations contributing to our
development, to all honest workers in Government and Parastatals - to everybody
- I say thank you very much.
Since we began to govern ourselves I have been the leader, first of Tanganyika,
and then of the United Republic of Tanzania. Time and again you have re-elected
me and thus expressed your continued confidence in my ability to do the job you
needed done. And in the last few weeks you have paid many tributes to my work
as President of our country. You have forgiven, even if perhaps you have not
forgotten, my many mistakes of commission and commission.
Speeches
of J.K. Nyerere in the UK, 1985
My Lord Mayor, Your
Excellencies, My Lords, Aldermen, Sheriffs, Ladies and Gentlemen.
First of all, I want to congratulate you on your Swahili performance. And
secondly I want to thank you for your warm welcome and the nice things you have
said about myself and my country in your own speech.
At the conclusion of my speech in the Guildhall in 1975, I said that Tanzania
was too poor not to pay its debts. In the face of my country's large overdue
external payments a considerable proportion of which are due to the United
Kingdom I repeat: that statement. But the experience of trying to do business
with a chaotic world during the past ten years means that I can no longer stop
there.
Tanzania is an underdeveloped country in a poor and underdeveloped continent.
During the 1960s most cf Africa's newly independent countries including
Tanzania made a promising start in economic progress. In the 1970s, and
especially the last half of the decade, we ran into difficulty; the 1980s have
so far been a period of economic disaster. Almost every African country is in
trouble regardless of its political or economic ideology.
Speech
to the Parliament by Mwalimu Nyerere 1985
Mr. Speaker; Honourable Members
of Parliament.
Today, as it is the last time I shall be addressing this House, I propose to
look at some of the things which we have done since I was first entrusted with
the task of leading our independent country. 1 want to look at these in the
context of the objectives we set ourselves in 1961, 1962, and 1964. I wish,
through you, to offer an account to the people who have so consistently
re-elected me to lead this country. And I wish to indicate my own provisional
assessment of those national achievements and problems which I shall be passing
to my successor to deal with in cooperation with the next Parliament.
The single most important task - both for myself and for the people of this
country - which I set out in my Inaugural Address in December 1962 was that of
buiIding a united nation on the basis of human equality and dignity. When I
addressed the United Nations a year before, 1 also promised that the basis of
our nation's actions would be an honest attempt to honour the dignity and
equality of man - nationally and internationally. And the theme of unity was my
central point when I again addressed Parliament on 25th April 1964, asking for
the ratification of the Agreement to unite the two independent countries of
Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
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