Celestine Christopher Liundi is an alumnus of the University of Dar es Salaam of the graduating class of 1977. He was born on January 12 July 1940 in Lukuledi,Masasi district. He went to school at Lukuledi Primary School, Namupa Middle School in Lindi and Ndanda Abbey Secondary School in Masasi, Mtwara. Liundi joined the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974 under the University’s ‘mature-age entry scheme’ and took a BA (Education) study programme which he completed with honours in 1977.
Celestine Christopher Liundi is an alumnus of the University of Dar es Salaam of the graduating class of 1977. He was born on January 12 July 1940 in Lukuledi, Masasi district. He went to school at Lukuledi Primary School, Namupa Middle School in Lindi and Ndanda Abbey Secondary School in Masasi, Mtwara. On completion of secondary Standard X in 1957, he entered the world of work first with the East African Common Services [precursor of the East African Community] as a postal officer from 1958 to 1961. Four years later, he left for a teacher-training course at the Morogoro Teacher Training College on completion of which he qualified as a teacher and taught at Kigurunyembe Demonstration School (attached to the TTC) for two years, 1961-1965. In 1965, he was appointed Youth Education Officer with the Prime Minister’s Office, an active and self-dedicating role he played for three years until 1968. Particularly important at this stage in career development was the fact that, in hindsight, this position played a litmus test for him in qualifying as an educator to take a youth leadership course at the Kivukoni Ideological College of the country’s ruling party TANU. He served there for two years (1969-1970), which qualified him to a higher political-administrative appointment of General Secretary of TANU Youth League for Lindi region from 1974 to 1977.
Liundi joined the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974 under the University’s ‘mature-age entry scheme’ and took a BA (Education) study programme which
he completed with honours in 1977. Not only did he benefit from the intellectual exposure to theory-based debates on societal systems, but also he was able to assess and evaluate the linkage between the various theories and the world of realities and practice outside academia. This helped him a great deal, saving him from some of the student campus upheavals and ruptures ignited either by student demands on government as sponsor or else by university management interventions in events of recalcitrant student boycotts.
Thus, hardened by the influence and mentorship of his kind of public-political career, Celestine Liundi has held several positions public and political trust. These include that of District Commissioner for Kinondoni district (1977-1980), Regional Commissioner and Party Secretary for Dodoma, Kigoma and Arusha regions respectively (1981-1986), and Regional Commissioner for Dar es Salaam (1987- 1990). In between appointments, he had an opportunity for a study scholarship in ‘political economy’ in East Germany (1986/87). Among several key appointments, Mr. Liundi has had is that of Tanzania’s Ambassador Plenipotentiary to France, with accreditation to Spain, Portugal and Algeria (1990-98), variously as ambassador, permanent delegate or permanent representative to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Eritrea (1993-1996), to UNESCO in Paris, to the OAU in Addis Ababa and to UNESCO office in Rwanda (1998-2003). In the 2000s, he served as UNESCO’s consultant at the cluster regional office in Dar es Salaam (2004-2005 and later as Celestine Christopher LIUNDI political adviser in the Inter-Sudanese (Darfur) Peace Negotiations (2006-2008), in a team led by Dr Salim Ahmed Salim. As a trusted Party and Government official, Mr. Liundi has previously also been a pillar in the strengthening of Party-affiliated organisations such as the Tanzania Parents Organisation (Jumuia ya Wazazi Tanzania), especially in connection with its investment plans in public education enterprises. Also, for five years from 2010 to 2015, after his return from foreign service, Ambassador Liundi was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arusha International Convention Centre (AICC).
Ambassador Liundi is now formally retired but, believing that “he is retired but not completely tired”, he has seized exploitable opportunities such as that of teaching journalism and media courses at the Open University of Tanzania and elsewhere on a part-time basis. Demonstrating this his belief, he has dedicated himself to research-writing on a number of themes in education, language and linguistics including Quotable Quotes of Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, published by Mkuki na Nyota, 2012), Nukuu za Kiswahili za Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere (Mkuki na Nyota, 2013) and Kamusi ya Vifupisho (Mkuki na Nyota, 2019). He is producing these works under a preferred nom de plume (pen-name) Christopher C. Liundi. He is himself a fluent speaker not only of English but also of French, in addition to the Tanzanian lingua franca Kiswahili and four ethnic languages of southern Tanzania: the Yao, the Makua, the Mwera and the Makonde.
Three civic areas of Ambassador Liundi’s passion in retirement include the Association of the Retired Tanzania Ambassadors (ARTA), to which he is currently
the Chairperson; the Aquaculture Association of Tanzania, to which he is a founder member and patron; and the Tanzania Land and Housing Tribunal in Kinondoni district, to which he is an appointed assessor since 2019.