ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT LEARNS WITH DEEP SADNESS OF PASSING OF JULIUS K. NYERERE, FIRST PRESIDENT OF UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

Press Release
GA/SM/108
AFR/183

ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT LEARNS WITH DEEP SADNESS OF PASSING OF JULIUS K. NYERERE, FIRST PRESIDENT OF UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

The following message was issued today by Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), President of the General Assembly:

It is with deep personal sadness that I learned of the passing of Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, first President of the United Republic of Tanzania, venerable world leader and one of Africa’s most charismatic and respected elder statesmen. He died overnight in London at the age of 77, after suffering from leukemia.

President Nyerere’s life was legendary. Born in 1922 in a village near Lake Victoria, he entered politics in 1954, founding the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in the campaign for independence from colonial rule. He became Chief Minister of British-ruled Tanganyika in 1960. He then led his country to independence in 1961, serving first as Prime Minister and, from 1962, as President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Mwalimu was the pillar of his nation’s politics, a mediator whose wise counsel other world leaders sought after. He stepped down, voluntarily, in 1985, one of a very few of African leaders of his generation to do so.

I, too, was a beneficiary of Mwalimu’s political tutelage and of Tanzania’s generosity; they provided me a free haven when I fled my own country Namibia, in 1962, to escape South Africa’s brutal colonialism in Namibia.

The Tanzanian people have lost the father of the nation, the courageous leader of their independence struggle, and the architect of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The African people, as a whole, have lost an ardent pan-Africanist, a man of high principles, a man of self-abnegation, and the champion of Africa’s self- determination, liberation and independence.

Without Dr. Nyerere’s firm guidance and steadfast support, the struggle for liberation, particularly in southern Africa, would have been even more difficult and divisive within the ranks of the Organization of African Unity, the Non- Aligned Movement and other freedom-loving forces in the world.

Mwalimu was the founder of the Southern African Front-line States and its foremost strategist and intellectual mentor.

- 2 - Press Release GA/SM/108 AFR/183 14 October 1999

Mwalimu’s contributions to public life did not end with his retirement from office. He served as Chairman of the South Commission from 1987-1990 and was later named honorary Chairman of the Intergovernmental South Centre, which promotes South-South cooperation and solidarity.

At the time of his death, President Nyerere was serving as chief mediator in the negotiations to end the civil war in Burundi. He devoted much of his time seeking African solutions to African problems, working diligently to promote African unity.

On behalf of the United Nations General Assembly, and in my own personal capacity, I extend heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family and to the courageous people of Tanzania at the passing of their founding father and extraordinary leader.

May Mwalimu’s soul rest in eternal peace.

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