Julius Kambarage Nyerere

Julius Kambarage Nyerere , c.1922-99, African political leader, first president (1964-85) of Tanzania. Educated at Makerere College (Uganda) and the Univ. of Edinburgh, he taught in mission schools and founded (1954) the Tanganyika African National Union. Leader of the opposition (1954-60), he became chief minister after the 1960 elections. When Tanganyika attained independence (1961) he was prime minister and when it became a republic (1962), Nyerere was elected president. He brought Tanganyika and Zanzibar into a union as the republic of Tanzania (1964). Establishing a one-party state led by the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (CCM), Nyerere authored a policy of African socialism characterized by economic self-reliance, egalitarianism, and local rural development, but it was ultimately unsuccessful economically. He engineered the ouster of Idi Amin in Uganda in 1979. Nyerere retired from the presidency in 1985 but remained chairman of CCM until 1990.

Bibliography: See biography by G. Leibenow (1987).

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage (1922–99) Tanzanian statesman, President of Tanganyika (1962–64) and of Tanzania (1964–85). He was an active campaigner for the nationalist movement in the 1950s, forming the Tanganyika African National Union (1954). He served as Prime Minister of Tanganyika following its independence in 1961 and became President a year later. In 1964 he successfully negotiated a union with Zanzibar and remained President of the new state of Tanzania until his retirement.