News

By UDSM Staff Writer,

A section of the University of Dar es Salaam community and authors of the biography of the first President of Tanzania and the first Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, titled ‘Development as Rebellion: Julius Nyerere, a Biography,’ held a debate about the book at the Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere on campus, on 26th May, 2022.

This occasion, full of intellectual atmosphere and blissful expressions, which was organised by the College of Social Science (CoSS), brought together all the three authors, the University of Dar es Salaam dons, namely Prof. Saida Yahya-Othman, Prof. Issa Shivji, and Dr. Ng’wanza Kamata; and other significant discussants and attentive audience from both inside and outside UDSM.

The Principal of the College of Social Science, Prof. Christine Noe said that it was a great honour to host the seminar because it offered an opportunity to discuss and debate the work which ‘the three respected academics from the University of Dar es Salaam,’ had produced. “This is in line with our efforts to revive academic engagements through seminars and workshops, a tradition, which distinguished the UDSM in the past but has been fading away”, said Prof. Noe.

She insisted that there was much more in the book, hence the debate, which was chaired by a renowned UDSM historian Prof. Frederick Kaijage, would help introduce the book to those who are not aware of its existence; encourage many to read the book and engage with it; and encourage others to advance knowledge.

The three authors offered their accounts, experiences and moving narratives on how they spent several years researching in Tanzania and overseas, while meeting with and listening to different prominent and non-prominent individuals who lived and worked with Mwalimu, dubbed the ‘Father of the Nation’.

One of the discussants at this debate, Prof. Bernadeta Killian, who is also the UDSM Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research, commended the comprehensive work done by the authors on researching extensively and persistently the life and works of Mwalimu Nyerere; and that “the book has indeed demonstrated the simplicity and humanity of Mwalimu, apart from his great leadership that we all knew about already”.

Another discussant, Dr. Salvatory Nyanto, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of History, pointed out that this biography of Mwalimu Nyerere was elegantly written, well-argued, and thought-provoking; and that the authors deserved an accolade for a timely publication on Mwalimu Nyerere and Tanzania’s postcolonial experience.

Dr. Nyanto further added that, “unfortunately, notwithstanding the wide range of works on Mwalimu, there remains no readily accessible and concise history that would be analogous to this work. This work has, therefore, attempted to fill that void”.

In addition, Dr. Chambi Chachage, an Assistant Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada explained how instrumental Mwalimu Nyerere’s book was, especially for History scholarship and other related disciplines, and it was a key reader for understanding various dimensions of socio-economic and political post-colonial Tanzania