Nyerere, Julius (1922–1999)

Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born in 1922 in Tanganyika. After being a teacher for a couple of years, Nyerere was granted a government scholarship to study history and political economy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland until 1952. On his return to Tanganyika, he dedicated himself to the liberation movement. Full independence came in December 1961, and Nyerere was elected president of Tanganyika in 1962. When the islands of Zanzibar were integrated into a Union government in 1964, he became the first president of the new United Republic of Tanzania. He stayed in power until 1985. He was 77 years old when he died of leukemia in London on October 14, 1999.

Nyerere was highly aware of the two-faceted nature of the media in a ...