Julius Rex: Nyerere through the eyes of his critics, 1953–2013

James R. Brennan

Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2014, vol. 8, issue 3, 459-477

Abstract: This article examines political critics of Tanzania's first president, Julius K. Nyerere. While his detractors varied greatly in both ideological and sociological terms, the three major groups studied here shared a sharp intellectual frustration with Nyerere's effective utilization of humility as a political weapon to control debate, court international support, and silence opposition. Foreign critics, primarily European writers, were divided principally by their social proximity to Nyerere – older white “decolonizers” lamented their friend's embrace of authoritarian tactics to achieve utopian ends, while younger writers instead saw a distant and unworldly figure best understood in abstract philosophical terms. The most vocal Tanzanian critics, by contrast, were united by the heavy-handed actions they and their families had endured at the hands of the Tanzanian state, which in turn produced sharply personalized criticisms.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2014.916557

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