The Father of Tanzania turns 100: Nyerere’s Faith and Politics
Julius Nyerere (1922-99), the Tanzanian leader whose cause for beatification was approved in 2005.
April 13 marks the centenary of the birth of one of Africa’s most remarkable leaders whose policies drew from his Catholic faith. Ross Ahlfeld looks at the influence and legacy of Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere.
The Catholic Church’s relationship with socialism is complicated. Long before the emergence of ideas such as liberation theology within the Catholic Church, papal encyclicals consistently and explicitly condemned the apparent godless materialism of socialism. Yet, how do we define socialism in the 21st century? What does this word even mean? Do we think of the worst excesses of atheistic, totalitarian communism or do we mean the welfare state, such as the “New Jerusalem” built up by the UK’s post-World War II Labour government of Clement Attlee?
Indeed, none of these Labour policies — universal healthcare, unemployment protection, nationalisation — contradicted anything contained in Catholic Social Teaching. Even Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “In many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.”
Which all brings me to Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the Tanzanian post-colonial leader who was born 100 years ago, on April 13, 1922.
Nyerere was a devout Catholic and deeply religious politician who served as the first leader of liberated Tanzania after independence, from 1960 until 1985. He died on October 14, 1999.
Nyerere, who converted from the Zanaki traditional religion to Catholicism at the age of 20, liked to attend daily Mass. He was a daily communicant and remained so for the rest of his life. He was also known for his active prayer life and frequent fasting. It is believed that Nyerere considered becoming a Catholic priest when he was studying in Edinburgh in the early 1950s. He enjoyed spending time sitting quietly in the city’s St Mary’s church.
In 2005 the cause for his beatification was opened with Vatican approval, and on May 13 that year, Pope Benedict XVI named Nyerere a “Servant of God”. I think this may be why I admire this political layperson so much: my late grandfather became a daily communicant after he retired, as is my father today, and if God spares me, so too will I be one day.
An African socialism
I first learned about Nyerere’s political philosophy from a book given to me by a fellow community worker friend who had studied Nyerere’s policy of Ujamaa at university. Ujamaa was Nyerere’s own blend of African Catholic socialism, which emphasised family, community, fraternity, self-reliance, and local production.
Nyerere, who in his speeches often quoted from Scripture, opposed Marxism’s “scientific socialism” and the notion of classs struggle, and drew little inspiration from European social democracy. He believed that a “socialist attitude of mind” was already present in traditional African society.
In 1970 Nyerere urged that the Catholic Church should participate in “the rebellion against those social structures and economic organisations which condemn men to poverty, humiliation and degradation”.
The hope was that Tanzania could apply Ujamaa to its rural agriculture to “decolonise” itself, and in doing so win independence peacefully, in contrast with the violent transitions taking place in other new African states. Most historians and Tanzanians agree that the collective farming plan of Ujamaa was an economic disaster which resulted in further hardship; the country remained extremely poor, hugely in debt and massively reliant on foreign aid to prevent famine.
However, there were also major improvements in healthcare and education, literacy rates and access to clean water. It should be noted too that the difficulties faced by Tanzania must be seen in the context of the crippling disadvantages faced by African nations freeing themselves from centuries of colonialism.
While in the late 19th and early 20th century “sacramental socialists” struggled with how Catholics might better relate to the emergence of socialism, Nyerere held these two tensions together by attempting to combine Catholic Social Teaching with socialist economic theory within a traditional African society.
Africa’s vibrant Church
During the pontificate of Pope Francis, Catholic socialists are once again looking to the vibrant Church in Africa. Similarly, we are now seeing an increase in radical 20th century lay people like Nyerere being considered for canonisation, Dorothy Day and Bl Franz Jägerstatter being two others.
However, before Catholics can fully embrace and promote the cause for Nyerere’s canonisation, we should first listen to Catholics and non-Catholics in Tanzania to fully understand his complex reputation as the Father of the Nation, alongside the legacy of his one-party state and unsuccessful socialist reforms. Although admired for his idealism and personal integrity, Nyerere left a mixed political legacy, and his cause for sainthood has been initiated not for his political legacy but because of the way he conducted his public life as a politician, thinker and writer.
Therefore, to simply appropriate Nyerere for our own political ends within the context of the Western Church’s ongoing “Cons vs Libs” culture war, without being guided by and informed by the people of Africa, would be to simply indulge in another act of neo-colonialism rather than an act of solidarity.
What we can perhaps agree on is that all our well-intentioned political activism must always have its roots in a meaningful prayer life. Our desire for justice and peace flows from our sacramental life. As St John Henry Newman said: “He has not created me for naught, I shall do good, I shall do his work.”
Ross Ahlfeld is a Catholic writer based in Glasgow, Scotland.
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