Today is our day. For millions of Tanzanians today is the celebration of the Independence Day. We are joining our hearts regardless age, gender, color, origin and tribe to mark the day we were freed from direct colonialism. But I do not believe if we should celebrate! Some will gather at the National Stadium to witness the mighty of our armed forces that ironically did not play any part in our struggle for independence. Objectively, it was a day that we should have displayed or at least replayed to the new generation the true ‘militants’ behind our struggle for independence. The likes of Bibi Titi Mohammed! 9th December, 1961 it was the birth of independent Tanzania. But is it really the birthday of Tanzania as purported by some people while the historical facts are telling us it is Tanganyika?. Perhaps if we argue that Tanzania is the maiden name we acquire when we our mother Tanganyika was married to Zanzibar in the union of 26th April 1964.

I do not have the culture of celebrating birthdays unless if there is a strong reason to celebrate. This year I turned 26 silently as usual, only thanking almighty and putting some marks in my diary of past assessment and plans for the future. I only remembered to have celebrate one birthday-that was last year, my 25th birthday. I had reasons to celebrate owing to the achievements I had in that year, and lucky my birth date coincided with the launching of the elections campaign. So on 21st August I chose to celebrate with the orphans at one of the centers in Ubungo constituency. I had all the reasons to celebrate. Otherwise, when I have no reasons to celebrate I just mark the day. I just remember the anniversary. And I know a couple of people and institutions who have such habit. In similar context, do we have the reasons to celebrate our independence this year? Perhaps you will have the answer by the end of this article.

So with my age, I was neither there before independence nor immediately after, I am the son of independent Tanzania-in fact of the heydays of Mwalimu Nyerere. Therefore my reflections with Mwalimu Nyerere on our 45th Anniversary stem from oral tradition and literature. But I will of course give you my greetings as well. 45 years is a long time!. With customs of early marriage and early pregnancy the child of a parent of 45 ought to have a child or even children. Tanzania has a lot of children. I am told that at independence the country had about 9 million people, now the toll is above 35 million. So living aside immigration over 20 millions Tanzanians are the after-independence-generation majority of them being the young people.

While reflecting our anniversary, I overhead the vibes of the song Salam Zangu kwako (literally meaning my greetings to you) by a renowned local artist called Mrisho Mpoto. “..Pepo hazina sifa ila pawepo na jehanamu. Uzuri ni kipimo cha ubaya……..Majanga yanapozidi nyoyo za wanadamu huota kutu..( literally meaning….Heaven has no value without hell….Good is a measure of bad……When tragedy exceeds the hearts of humans rust).

The song made me reflect even more. Then I chose to write these greetings to you and particularly to young people. This year anniversary has coincided with a couple of events and processes. But of more significance, it has come close to one year anniversary since swearing in of the fourth phase government. On the other hand it has come at a time when I have just finished visiting countries that are landmarks either during Tanganyika colonialism or in the post independence Tanzania namely Germany, United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA). Unfortunately I have not visited the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) which has disintegrated into a balkanized Russia. But visiting the eastern part of Germany, the former Germany Democratic Republic (GDR) gave me a glimpse of reminisces of USSR legacy. It has come at the time when Germany, the country that is remembered for its scheming colonial economy is remembering the Maji Maji Centenary (with a section of activists calling for compensation to Tanzania). It has come when UK another country that colonized Tanganyika is preparing to mark the abolition of slave trade. Despite the fact that UK is a leading provider of developing assistance to Tanzania its government has been criticized for supporting the decision of Tanzania government to purchase expensive radar (recently there has been allegations grand corruption that was involved in the tender). It has come at the time when after the end of cold war USA is extending its interest in Tanzania, some say for resources sake while some pundits maintains that its an extension of its war against terrorism. These will be some food for though during our reflections.

Anyway, let us go back to the basics. 45th Anniversary of independence! Being a Kiswahili native I tend to think in my original language. The word that clicks in my head is ‘Uhuru’. To me independence does not seem to carry the complete meaning of ‘Uhuru’ perhaps the word ‘Freedom’. So I will use the word ‘Freedom’ henceforth. This was and continues to be our dream. There are two words that every Tanzanians should cherish- “FREEDOM” and “UNITY”. Regardless our difference of values and opinions, these are our meeting points. We may differ in the means but we want to attain same ends- “FREEDOM and UNITY”. These are the only two words in our national emblem.

When addressing the United Nations in 1958, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere argued that when we demand our freedom from the British, we do so because Britain has failed to alleviate poverty, to provide adequate health facilities and quality education for all our people. We want to take over management of our country so that we can fight against our three great enemies of ignorance, poverty and rampant diseases.

I agree with Mwalimu’s arguments because real freedom is the freedom that improves peoples’ lives. Despite Mwalimu’s words, Tanzanians have not enjoyed fruits of their freedom because illiteracy still exists; curable diseases are claiming peoples’ lives everyday and our poverty is alarming! No wonder one political party, CHADEMA was rally behind the banner “Real Change, Real Freedom” during the last years general elections. It is 45 years now since we got our Independence but Tanzanians are living in poverty.

Mwalimu Nyerere further maintained “in order to develop, we need four basic things. These are: People; Land; clean politics (read good policies); and good leadership”. Fortunately enough, people are there and their number is increasing constantly, the land area is enough but it lacks proper and profitable utilization. What we are missing are clean politics (read good policies) and good leadership.

Our country is highly blessed and favored by the Almighty God. First, Tanzanians are kind people, a unique pride in this world today. Secondly, Tanzania is rich in natural resources such as land, lakes, rivers, animals, mountains, forests and minerals of different types. Some of these natural resources are not found elsewhere in the world and some are classified wonders of the world. Among these rarities are the Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Spice Islands of Zanzibar to mention but a few. Despite all these resources, our country is still in the list of ten poorest countries. Literally we have everything except development that is ought to be spearheaded by good leadership.

For the better reflection with Nyerere its better that I quote part of his speech that he made after relinquishing presidency as translated by Professor Issa Shivji:

“It is not that peace has come by itself. The source of peace in Tanzania is not that the Arusha Declaration has done away with poverty even a little bit. Isn’t there this poverty we are living with? This poverty is right here with us. Is it not the economy we are grabbling with? The fact is not that the Arusha Declaration has banished poverty even by an iota-nor did it promise to do so. The Arusha Declaration offered hope. A promise of justice, hope to the many, indeed the majority of Tanzanians continues to live this hope. So long as there is this hope, you will continue to have peace. Here in Tanzania we have poverty but no ‘social cancer’. It is possible it has just begun. But otherwise we don’t have social cancer. There isn’t volcano in the making such that if you pressed your ear to the ground you’d hear the volcano in making, that one day it is bound to erupt. We have not yet reached that stage because people still have hopes based on stand taken by Arusha Declaration. It did not do away with poverty but it has given you all in this hall, capitalists and socialists alike, an opportunity to build a country which holds out a future of hopes to the many………..

To be sure you few Waswahili(this is a colloquial term is this case meaning ‘people’ do you really expect to rule Tanzanians through coercion, when there is no hope, and then expect that they will sit quiet in peace? Peace is born of hope, when hope is gone there will be social upheavals, I’d be surprised if these Tanzanians refuse to rebel, why?

When the majorities don’t have any hope you are building a volcano. It is bound to erupt one day. Unless these people are fools. Many in these countries are fools, to accept being ruled just like that. To be oppressed just like that when they have the force of numbers, they are fools. So Tanzanians would be fools, idiots, if they continue to accept to be oppressed by minority in their own country. Why?.....

Therefore we cannot say that we have reached a stage when we can forget the Arusha Declaration. Don’t fool yourselves. This would be like that fool who uses a ladder to climb and when he is up there kicks it away. Alright you’re up there, you’ve kicked away the ladder, right so stay there because we’ll cut the branch. You’re up there, we’re down here and you’ve kicked away the ladder. This branch is high up, we’ll cut it. You fall will be no ordinary fall either…”

This speech is not repeated, published or discussed since. But today I have chosen to use it as the basis for reflections with Mwalimu Nyerere and my greetings to you. As I mentioned, perhaps at the end you will have an answer whether or not we should celebrate!

Nyerere is my third role model after my Mother and Jesus. But in this extemporaneous speech he appears to be contradicting himself. His arguments seem to water down ‘poverty’ as a triviality. The core issue to him is ‘hope’ and that is what maintains ‘peace’. But hope for what? Simple! For “FREEDOM”, free from hunger, poverty, diseases and all forms of injustices. So addressing poverty is a major issue. And this is also the spirit of his blue print Arusha Declaration that among other things was hoping to address poverty and inequality in the nation. Apart from this minor contradiction, this should be the speech of the day!

Now, let us reflect it. Literally, Nyerere is saying without Arusha Declaration there is no hope and without hope there is no peace. 45th anniversary, do we still have the Arusha Declaration?. Yes, but perhaps in the archives. In “Our leadership and the fate of the nation”, which is among his final books before his death the Father of the Nation who was the leading and some saying the sole architect of Arusha Declaration, Nyerere has said categorically that CCM top leaders have abandoned the Arusha Declaration. Alternatively they came up with the Zanzibar Declaration. But what worried him the most was not the change of name, but rather the practice of neglecting the core values such as citizenry engagement, zero tolerance on corruption and misuse of public office, self reliance and the social responsibility of both the haves and the haves not.

So if Arusha Declaration is not there then slowly the hope is also going. Some pundits hinted that hope was rekindled last year when Jakaya Kikwete was nominated as presidential aspirant for ruling party CCM. However, with few days close to one year of his term in office, critics are indicating that it is ‘more of the same thing’. So there is a recall for real change that will bring real freedom. Some groups have caught up this momentum for instance CHADEMA has launched the “New Hope” program.

In his speech Nyerere admits that there is poverty. This has not changed 45 years after independence. And in most of the cases where it has changed it has changed to worse. The economic growth is recording slow growth and inflation is increasing. The pattern of economy is the same as the colonial economy, ‘we produce what we don’t consume and consume what we don’t produce’. The balance of payment is not to our favour. Prices of essential items such as food, electricity and fuel have increased despite the promise by the current government that they were to decrease. Provision of social services has declined partly due to implementation of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP) but grossly due to poverty among the people and corruption on the other hand. Illiteracy is increasing as indicated by a notable number of voters not knowing how to read and write in the last year’s election while by 1985 we had already recorded 95 percent of adult literacy.

Nyerere maintains that because of hope there was no ‘social cancer’ at his time but further indicated that it was starting by then. This ‘social cancer’ has matured after the 45 years of independence. Corruption is rampant; to be more specific grand corruption particularly in major contracts both in central and local governance. The gap between the haves and the haves not is increasing. This ‘social cancer’ was frequently referred by my friend the late Professor Chachage as “ An era marked by ‘supermarket ideology’ which goes as far as redefining ‘love’ in terms of relationship between a person and his/her car, ‘revolution’ as a new brand of soap, a microwave or washing machine, ‘freedom/uhuru’ as a possession of a cellular phone, ‘democracy’ as acceptance and tolerance of real differences by agreeing to disagree, ‘partnership’ as exploitative relationship between a man and a women, the poor and the rich, oppressor and oppressed, boss and worker etc, ‘participation’ as acceptance of decisions from the powers that be under duress, ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’ as power to cheat and deceive. Vices have been turned to virtues and the wicked and villains have become heroes while the Masalakulangwa(a hero in sukuma literature) and Robin Hoods(a legendry who used help the poor and the oppressed) of the world have become objects of ridicule and cynicism”. Ironically, it is Mwalimu himself who started saying this in his book “our leadership and the fate of nation” and he kept repeating this message in a couple of speeches that the country has ‘leadership cancer’. The worst form of ‘social cancer’ in my opinion.

So 45 years after independence when I place my ear at the ground I hear volcano boiling. An indication of volcano is when there signs of hopelessness. A volcano with diverse of mixtures- increasing unemployment particularly among the youth, the struggle for resources between the so called investors particularly in mining and wide life areas and the so called ‘investors without capital’-the indigenous , land conflicts especial between the pastoralists and agriculturalists, unfulfilled promises in various sectors and cadres, ‘The Zanzibar question’, emerging religious sentiments, resurgence of classes, low pay especially among public servants, more rural-urban migration resulting a ‘culture of petty trading’, misuse of tax payers money mainly due to corruption etc.

So these are my greetings to you in this 45th anniversary. Let us go back to the basics to cherish our peace before it falls into pieces. These insights may seem inciting. They are not! If we see clouds we know rain is going to come, equally when we see these we have to know that we need to restore the hope and ensure opportunity to all. The only difference between us and those who see cloud is that they can not stop the rain. They may choose to run, they may choose to hide. But they can not stop the rain. But we can! We can maintain the peace through hope. A hope that is based in actions that speaks louder than words which is to promote ‘FREEDOM and UNITY’ by, for and of all countrymen and women.

I do not suggest that we should revert wholesomely to the Arusha Declaration, but we co-opt and cherish some of its core values that have been abandoned. I dislike total socialism which is illusive and utopia. I believe full control of the state and in fact the state being a daily operator of industries and services is equally myopic. It gives birth to a big animal called the government that fails to walk everywhere and can not do everything. There should be a mixture. And this is the essence of the ‘center ideology’. But apart from this limitation the core values of Arusha Declaration are still worthwhile. Most of them are summarized in the TANU creed that individuals have the right to dignity; that all citizens are integral part of the country and have the right to take part in governance; every citizen have the right to freedom; every individual has a right of protection of his/her life and property; that every individual has the right to receive the right pay for his/her labour, that all citizens possess the natural resources of the country on behalf of descendants etc. The philosophy of “people’s power’ by CHADEMA is considered to imbed these tenets.

But all these are meaningless if we should not change a ‘culture of lazier faire’ and restore a ‘culture of responsibility’. So my key message to you- let us be responsible. Let us not ask what Tanzania has done for us in the 45th years, let us ask ourselves what we have done to the country in the years we have lived. As Mahatma Gandhi advised, ‘be the agent of the change we wish to see’. Let us be responsible with vision of the country, a true vision that is based on belief, determination, shared values and above all that is known unlike the Vision 2025. Let us be responsible with discipline in areas such as the use of time and offices including the public offices, respect of good law, in spending well both private and public funds, the use of natural resources; this purports restoration of national ethics. Let us be responsible with confidence in ourselves and our country men and women. Let us be responsible with handwork and thus regard every duty be it private or public as something we hold dear and work for hardly. Let us be responsible with unity which is our strength. Africa is isolated, so cooperation such as the East African Community (EAC) is important. But of more significance is maintenance of national unity as a building block to other unities. Above all let us be responsible with self reliance because at the end of the day this is the essence of independence. Nyerere said this better when presenting his ‘Reflections on Leadership in Africa: Forty years after independence’ during his 75th birthday, “Throw away all our ideas about socialism. Throw them away, give them to Americans, give them to Japanese, give them……, so they can, don’t know, they can do what ever they like with them. Embrace capitalism, fine! But you have to be self reliant…”.

And these are my greetings to young people. History tells that all over the world freedom was fought for and preserved by youth. Tanzania’s struggle was led by young people the likes of Nyerere who became the national chairman of TANU at the age of 32. Together we are not playing our part well. In 1996 Nyerere gave a speech to Tanzanian youth in Mwanza, I usual regard this speech has ‘his last will to young people’. Like Frantz Fanon he urged that every generation has its mission- their mission was to fight colonialism and build a socialist society. The mission of the new generation is to be able to compete above the forces of globalization and deliver development to the people. And he kept insisted that young people should “think” and “unite”. This is the spirit also of the discourse that he gave in 1963 to the World Assembly of Youth Conference, I quote, “One of the basic purposes of independence struggle is to get the right to think for ourselves and apply the results of our thinking. We do not carry on what is in many cases a long and bitter fight for freedom in order that we may become jumping jackasses, which wait to see what the western or an eastern power will say about an idea before automatically doing likewise or taking the opposite line. We must treat ourselves with respect that we demand from others. This means that we must answer an argument with reason, settle differences by discussion…”. As Bob Marley would sing, “emancipate your selves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds, have no fear for the atomic energy because non of them can stop up the time…”. These are my greetings to you and reflections with Mwalimu Nyerere, we are neither too late nor soon. Time to take action is now otherwise his words will haunt us every year we say we are celebrating our independence.

The author of this article is a young politician and civil society activist that can be reached through mnyika@yahoo.com and 0754 694 553. He is the Director of Youth for CHADEMA