Alumni of the Month

Liberata Mulamula, née Rutageruka, was a student at the University of Dar es Salaam between 1977 and 1980. She was one of the most illustrious female students at the University and, as came to be, one of the exemplary women graduates and public and civil servants of the years that have stretched from the 1980s to the present time. She was born on 10 April 1956 in Muleba, Bukoba, into a family headed by a dedicated professional teacher and educational administrator, Mwalimu Novatus Rutageruka, who sent his daughter?along with her twin-sister Iluminata?to primary school as soon as they nocked six years. Thereafter, she proceeded to secondary education for ‘Ordinary-level’ examinations at Shabaan Robert, Zanaki and Tabora Girls schools (1970-1973) and for ‘Advanced-level’ at Mzizima Secondary School (1974-1975). With strong principal passes, she entered the University of Dar es Salaam in 1977 for a three-year undergraduate programme, obtaining a BA honours degree in Political Science and International Relations in 1980. On graduation, she was posted for work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the aegis of which she further undertook professional training in diplomacy in 1982 at the MozambiqueTanzania Centre for Foreign Relations in Kurasini, Dar es Salaam. Evidently, Liberata has had a successful career as a government executive officer and diplomat. She has had a wide-ranging experience in both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy of over 30 years, with more than 20 years at senior management level. She has served in various capacities both at home in Tanzania and abroad at diplomatic missions in Canada, at the Permanent Mission of the UN in New York and Washington DC, and in all these with a high level of integrity, competence and outstanding performance as her government’s representative. She was the first female appointed Permanent Secretary of the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in 2015 with extensive and overarching administrative and financial responsibilities in managing the ministerial staff and overseeing the work of Tanzania embassies abroad. As well, and until her retirement from government service in April 2016, she acted as liaison for all diplomatic and foreign-engagement matters of foreign-based diplomatic missions in Tanzania in the execution of their accreditation duties. One of the very intricate spots and challenges that came Ambassador Mulamula’s way was the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for peace, stability and development. This is an intergovernmental organisation of African countries in the African Great Lakes region with headquarters in Bujumbura to which she served as the pioneering (first) Executive Secretary from 2006 to 2011. Upon formal retirement,

Liberata Mulamula, née Rutageruka, was a student at the University of Dar es Salaam between 1977 and 1980. She was one of the most illustrious female students at the University and, as came to be, one of the exemplary women graduates and public and civil servants of the years that have stretched from the 1980s to the present time. She was born on 10 April 1956 in Muleba, Bukoba, into a family headed by a dedicated professional teacher and educational administrator, Mwalimu Novatus Rutageruka, who sent his daughter?along with her twin-sister Iluminata?to primary school as soon as they nocked six years. Thereafter, she proceeded to secondary education for ‘Ordinary-level’ examinations at Shabaan Robert, Zanaki and Tabora Girls schools (1970-1973) and for ‘Advanced-level’ at Mzizima Secondary School (1974-1975). With strong principal passes, she entered the University of Dar es Salaam in 1977 for a three-year undergraduate programme, obtaining a BA honours degree in Political Science and International Relations in 1980. On graduation, she was posted for work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the aegis of which she further undertook professional training in diplomacy in 1982 at the MozambiqueTanzania Centre for Foreign Relations in Kurasini, Dar es Salaam. Evidently, Liberata has had a successful career as a government executive officer and diplomat. She has had a wide-ranging experience in both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy of over 30 years, with more than 20 years at senior management level. She has served in various capacities both at home in Tanzania and abroad at diplomatic missions in Canada, at the Permanent Mission of the UN in New York and Washington DC, and in all these with a high level of integrity, competence and outstanding performance as her government’s representative. She was the first female appointed Permanent Secretary of the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in 2015 with extensive and overarching administrative and financial responsibilities in managing the ministerial staff and overseeing the work of Tanzania embassies abroad. As well, and until her retirement from government service in April 2016, she acted as liaison for all diplomatic and foreign-engagement matters of foreign-based diplomatic missions in Tanzania in the execution of their accreditation duties. One of the very intricate spots and challenges that came Ambassador Mulamula’s way was the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for peace, stability and development. This is an intergovernmental organisation of African countries in the African Great Lakes region with headquarters in Bujumbura to which she served as the pioneering (first) Executive Secretary from 2006 to 2011. Upon formal retirement, Ambassador Mulamula was invited as Visiting Scholar and Associate Director in the Institute for African Studies at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, DC. As an instructor, she is involved in professional training of graduate students on multilateral and conference diplomacy, on good governance, on democracy as well as on the role of international civil servants and international law. Among her research and discussion interests are ‘Women, peace and security’, ‘Women and leadership in Africa’, and ‘The impact of American foreign policy on conflict management in the Great Lakes Region of Africa’. She has produced a number of works in her field of specialisation. They include:

• Mulamula (2008). “The Great Lakes Pact and the Rights of Displaced People: A Guide for Civil Society.” IDMC [International Displacement Monitoring Centre], Geneva, Switzerland (2008);

• “DRC and Its Neighbours: Policy Options for the Great Lakes Region and the International Community”. In Mwesigwa Baregu (ed.) 2011. Understanding Obstacles to Peace: Actors, Interests, and Strategies in Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Fountain Publishers, (IDRC), Kampala, Uganda;

• Mulamula (2011). “Towards Eradicating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Great Lakes Region.” ICGLR [Interntional Conference of the Great Lakes Region] Magazine, December 2011;

• “Genocide Prevention: Experience of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)”. A paper presented at the Regional Forum on Genocide Prevention, Bern, Switzerland, 2011;

• Mulamula (2019). “Preventing Mass Atrocities: Mobilizing Regional Responses, Experiences from the Great Lakes Region of Africa”. In Harff, Barbara and Gurr, Ted Robert (Eds.), Preventing Mass Atrocities: Policies and Practices. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group