[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 147 (Tuesday, October 26, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H10857-H10859]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO THE LATE HONORABLE JULIUS NYERERE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a sad night tonight, because we 
will be talking about the loss of a great leader from the country of 
Tanzania, the former President, Julius Nyerere, who passed away last 
week in London at the age of 77 years of age.
  One of the reasons that we mourn this loss and that we rise today to 
pay tribute to this great man, a great statesman, a great man of 
compassion, a great educator, a person with tremendous vision, is 
because he was a person who believed strongly in Africa's ability to 
forge a prosperous future through unity and peace.
  At the time that Julius Nyerere moved towards his tenure as 
president, he was a person who had a tremendous belief in education. He 
was known affectionately throughout Africa as Mwalimu, which means 
``teacher'' in Swahili.
  My first trip to Tanzania was back in 1973 when I had the opportunity 
to travel to that country with a YMCA statesmanship group that was a 
program run by the International Division of the YMCA, at that time Mr. 
Frank Keeny and persons like Dr. Nicholas Ganteroff and many of the 
leaders, the late Bob Harlan, who was the CEO of the YMCAs of the USA, 
a great man of vision. We had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania, 
and at that time President Nyerere was the leader of that country.
  The thing that struck me was that they had what they called education 
for self-reliance. Education for self-reliance was an educational 
system that brought the youngsters in about 8 in the morning, and then 
at noon they broke for 2 hours of work in the fields and they were 
learning how to be farmers, how to be self-reliant. Following that they 
would have a late lunch and then go back to class until close to 6 
o'clock.
  I had the opportunity to visit some of the classrooms, dirt floors, 
thatched roofs, walls made out of mud, and youngsters in the third and 
fourth grade were studying algebra, looking at basic trigonometry, 
speaking at least three to four languages, always Swahili. Everyone 
spoke English. They learned their local dialect. And I was very, very 
impressed and started to just study this whole education for self-
reliance.
  We had the opportunity to visit even in the more rural areas, and 
President Nyerere insisted that everyone must participate. He believed 
in the ``Ujama'' concept. That is the concept of collectivism, that 
everyone had to produce, everyone had to be a part of the growth and 
the development of their country.
  Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The beautiful 
mountain Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. But the educational system was 
almost second-to-none in that region of the world. He was a person that 
brought Tanzania out of the shadows of colonial rule and into 
independence.

                              {time}  2045

  Many of the leaders in Africa used to visit and stay in Tanzania in 
Dar es Salaam where they used to talk about the Pan-Africanism and the 
question of independence in their countries, the leaders from Namibia 
to SWAPO organization, the ANC, the South African organization led by 
Mr. Nelson Mandela, of course, in prison at that time with Mr. Mbeki 
and other leaders that we grew to know, Mr. Sisulu. These were ANC 
leaders who were also in prison, but their colleagues found themselves 
in Dar es Salaam.
  We had leaders from Zambia, at that time Rhodesia. It was northern 
Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. But people like 
Mr. Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, these great leaders used to migrate down to 
Dar es Salaam and talk about revolution, talk about independence, talk 
about freedom, talk about self-reliance.
  So we saw the whole area of independence led by our fallen leader 
who, at the age of 77, died after losing a 2-year battle with leukemia. 
He was a person who was the first leader to voluntarily step down. 
Elected in 1962, he decided that he would step down after serving 23 
years as president. His people wanted him to continue on. But he said, 
no, he would not continue on as president, and he stepped down. 
Elections were held. President Benjamin Mkapa was the one who then 
became head of Tanzania recently.
  It was interesting that, in his drive for independence, the East 
African countries were under the British rule. They had Uganda, Kenya, 
and Tanzania. An organization called the East African Federation was 
created by the British. They integrated the air links, the rail links, 
the road links.
  The break-up of the East African Confederation happened when the 
countries became independent. It was Jomo Kenyatta who led the Maumaus 
who really started the whole move to independence, and Kenya was in the 
lead, although they were not the first. Gada received their 
independence in 1958, Kenya not until the early 1960s, although Sudan 
received their independence in 1957, 1956. So we saw, though, President 
Nyerere taking this country forward.
  There was a mean brutal dictator from the bordering country of 
Uganda. During my travels in Uganda in 1973 and 1974, I was in the 
presence of the then dictator Idi Amin. Idi Amin was a person who 
turned on his people.
  Idi Amin came to power by defeating President Milton Obote who served 
as the first president of Uganda but was not serving the people well. 
Idi Amin, at that time a popular figure with the people of Abu Gandon, 
took over, by military coups, and ousted Milton Obote. But then Idi 
Amin tended to turn on his people. Actually, then, with the incident in 
Entebbe where Israel came in to take out its citizens, that is when Idi 
Amin totally turned very barbaric on his people, murdering them and 
killing them and maiming them.
  The Organization of African Unity at that time had a protocol that 
one nation did not interfere with another nation's problems, that 
although they despise Idi Amin, they said that they would not become 
involved in another country's problem. That was one of their founding 
protocols.
  But this was wrong, said President Nyerere. In 1979, in defiance to 
the Organization of African Unity, President Nyerere sent troops to 
Uganda in response to this intense suffering of Ugandan people under 
the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin.
  That operation, one of the first humanitarian missions of its kind in 
Africa, would help set up a legal precedent for peacekeeping missions 
all over the world as we see today as a common thing, as we see in East 
Timor, as we see being created for Kosovo, as we hear about 
the discussion in Sierra Leone, as we have seen in Cambodia in the 
past.

[[Page H10858]]

  So it was President Nyerere who said that the suffering has gone on 
too long, that the people have taken enough, that we must intervene, 
and, as I indicated, in defiance to the Organization of African Unity, 
send his troops in and ousted Idi Amin. This was a new wave, a new 
move, a new era for people of Africa.
  Dr. Nyerere I know became concerned about the educational system in 
Tanzania. I had the opportunity just 2 years ago to visit him at his 
home outside of Dar es Salaam. He talked about the fact that the 
educational system was not as good as it was before. He was very, very 
disturbed about that. He felt that the only way out for developing 
countries was to have a strong educational system, the type of a system 
that he produced when he was in charge, even though, as I have 
indicated, it was a very, very poor country. They put an emphasis on 
education. He was dismayed about the fact that the country was not 
progressing as much as he felt it should.
  But it was so, so peaceful to sit on his front porch of his home, 
very modest home, sitting on some chairs on the front porch and talking 
to this giant of a person. I feel so privileged to have the opportunity 
to know him and to have been in his company to discuss the problems of 
Africa to talk about the future of the continent.
  As I indicated, it was in 1985 when President Nyerere stepped down 
and he simply devoted his time to forming and also becoming involved in 
diplomatic solutions in countries. He worked tirelessly to negotiate an 
end to violence that plagued central and southern Africa during the 
past decade.
  Most recently, President Nyerere's efforts were directed towards 
mediating an end to the bloody civil war in a neighboring country of 
Burundi, where more than 200,000 people, mostly citizens, had been 
killed since 1993.
  As my colleagues know, in Central Africa, the Great Lake Region, we 
have two countries that have been very troubled, the country of 
Burundi, as I indicated that President Nyerere decided to have economic 
boycotts so that military government would see that they had to have 
democracy, that they had to let all people free and to be treated 
equally.
  Of course the other very troubled country was a country of Rwanda 
where, as we know, several years ago, we saw genocide when moderate 
Hutus and Tutsi ethnic people were killed. Numbers estimating between 
500,000 and 1 million people were killed during the genocide. Once 
again, a country that has seen trouble and problems through the years.
  Of course, the genocide in Rwanda occurred when the world sat by and 
said that we would not intervene, we will not send in peace keepers, we 
will not use Chapter 7 of the United Nations.
  It was really one of the most shameful periods in the recent history 
of the world because the West and everyone around the world sat idly by 
as people were massacred by the tens of thousands.
  The UN that had a small contingent there, rather than ask for 
reinforcements, decided to leave. As a matter of fact, they left some 
of their employees who were of Rwandan birth there, many of them whom, 
of course, were massacred along with the other people who were left in 
that country. So it was President Nyerere, once again, who said that 
this sort of thing must end.
  Of course we saw Mr. Kagami come out of Uganda with the Rwanda 
patriotic front that routed the Hutu militia and drove them out of the 
country into the bordering then Zaire, which of course Zaire was a 
country that had been led for 30 years by the dictator of that country 
who robbed and raped the country of all of its resources.
  We saw the fact that Mr. Mobutu, the self-declared president, stole 
the diamonds and the riches and allowed his people to suffer. The Hutu 
X-FAR and the Interahamwe, the Interahamwe were the people who planned 
the genocide, decided that they would go into Zaire, now the Congo, the 
Democrat Republic of Congo.
  It was not until the Organization of African Unity and others said 
that enough is enough. The fact that the forces of Laurent Kabila that 
led a revolution to oppose President Mobutu then opened up the refugee 
camps to allow the people to return back from Goma, the then Zaire, 
back to Rwanda.
  So we have seen the fact that President Nyerere has had a very, very 
important role in the development, because, even during that time, he 
counseled leaders and he convened meetings to see if there could be 
some negotiated settlement.
  He also was a person who liked to read. What he did was to take eight 
books, books that should, he felt, be translated. He personally 
translated William Shakespeare's plays of Julias Caesar and the 
Merchant of Venice into Swahili. He would like to teach this.
  He was a Roman Catholic. Mr. Nyerere had eight children, was married. 
He just did so much to make that nation, although one of the poorest in 
the world, a very proud country, a very popular place to visit. It is a 
wonderful place. The beaches down in Dar es Salaam are among the most 
beautiful in the world.
  The United Republic of Tanzania, though, under his leadership and his 
consultation, amended its constitution in 1992 to become a multiparty 
State. In 1995, the nation conducted its first multiparty elections. At 
that time, it was just one political party when Mr. Nyerere was there. 
It was the Tanu party. In Kenya, there was only one party, the Kanu 
party. So we saw that Mr. Nyerere, as he left office, encouraged the 
country to go to multiparty elections and to become a multiparty State.
  Many people wonder why many of the African countries were only one 
party, but those who were involved in revolution, the freedom fighters, 
they were the leaders who said we will fight against the colonial 
powers, and they did, and others who accepted the colonial powers.

                              {time}  2100

  So there was just one political party. There was just one group of 
people who fought to relieve the countries of the colonial powers, and 
that is why they justified a one-party system.
  In 1992, they had these multiparty elections, and at that time we saw 
the President, the election of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, who won a four-way 
race with 61 percent of the vote. The island of Zanzibar and Tanzania 
are related and together they are the United Republic of Tanzania, 
although the government in Zanzibar has its own parliament, it has its 
own president or prime minister.
  And, actually, in Zanzibar, there has been questions about the 
elections. I visited Zanzibar several years ago and met with the prime 
minister there who indicated that the country is equally divided 
between Indian and African descent. It is about 50-50. And their 
dilemma is attempting to try to come up with a solution so that both 
parties, both groups of people, can feel that they are being 
represented in the government; that there needs to be a sharing of the 
responsibility of governing the country. We worked on some ideas about 
how that could happen. They need to have everyone feeling that they are 
included and are a part of the government.
  But as Tanzania now moves with the multiparty, we had the opportunity 
to have Mr. Mkapa here just several months ago where he addressed the 
Members of Congress in the Congressional Black Caucus's legislative 
conference. And there was a lot of pressure for Mr. Mkapa to become 
involved in the conflict in the Congo. As my colleagues may or may not 
be aware, there was a recent conflict where seven countries became 
participants in sort of a mini world war in Africa. Lawrence Kabila's 
government was under attack from Uganda and Rwanda because the leaders 
of Uganda and Rwanda felt that the leaders of the genocide, the X-FAR 
and the Interahamwe were still in Zaire, still in the Congo, and that 
Mr. Kabila was not doing enough to get them disarmed and returned back 
to face trials in Rwanda. And so there was a conflict with Uganda and 
Rwanda on one side, Namibia and Zimbabwe and Angola and Sudan on the 
other side.
  Just recently, we have seen the fact that finally there has been a 
negotiated settlement, a plan of the Lusaka Accords that have been led 
by President Chiluba of Zambia, where they have signed the accord. And 
we hope now that the Congo will end this fighting for good so that the 
people who have been under the brutal dictatorship of Mr. Mobutu for 30 
years can finally start to have self-determination,

[[Page H10859]]

start to have educational programs, start to be relieved of the 
dictators and the repressive government that they have had to endure 
for so long. So there is hope.
  We are looking towards the leaders in central Africa to come up with 
solutions. We can look to a place, a country like Mozambique, also one 
of the poorest countries in the world, where we have seen a growth in 
the GDP in Mozambique of about 8 or 10 percent annually. We have seen 
the fact that the people there are working together. The former Renamo 
forces now have become a political party with the MPLA and they are 
working together in unity to make conditions better for the people of 
that country. We have seen Namibia go through some problems as well as 
problems up close to Angola, but we now are seeing President Josh Nkomo 
moving to new elections so that the people once again will be able to 
move forward and progress as we move towards the new millennium.
  We look at Nigeria with its new president, President Obasanjo, who I 
will have the pleasure to meet with tomorrow, that has ended the 
military rule of its 38 years since independence, 28 years of military 
rule. And we now see President Obasanjo retiring the military. As my 
colleagues know, the brutal dictator Abacho had imprisoned President 
Obasanjo and imprisoned Chief MKO Abiola, who won the June 12 elections 
but was imprisoned because he said he was president and they said the 
elections were annulled.
  So now, the new Nigeria, with its elected parliament, with its new 
leaders, with its tremendous resources of oil and diamonds and timber 
and agricultural promise, we believe will once again move towards a 
direction of increase in its GDP and once again provide the outstanding 
education that it did for its people at its independence. Nigeria, with 
South Africa, with its new leader Thabo Mbeki can really be the engines 
of South Africa. A healthy South Africa and a strong Nigeria can pull 
the rest of the countries in Africa along into progress.
  So we are encouraged by the fact that these two giants have had 
positive elections, have had a transition, have had a turnover from 
military rule. As we saw in the apartheid South Africa to a new 
multiracial Democratic society, we are seeing the same situation 
happening in Nigeria. So there is a tremendous amount of hope and there 
is a tremendous amount of opportunity.
  We also would like to see increased trade and development between the 
United States and Africa. We have the technical resources to be able to 
assist them in this growth and development. They have the natural 
resources. Together we can harness tremendous energy so that both the 
Africans and Nigerians, South Africa, and Namibia, and all of the 
countries, the 50 sub-Saharan countries, 700 million people, will be 
able to start to benefit and enjoy the fruits of a true democracy and 
education and health care. The fact that everyone will be judged by 
their worth is something that these countries look forward to.
  So as I conclude, I once again would like to say that the world is 
better off because of Dr. Julius Nyerere; that many of us have looked 
to him as a leader, a person of inspiration, a person who during my 
young years I looked to him as someone that I would like to emulate. 
And so it is with a great deal of sorrow that we have seen this fallen 
leader come to the end of his great career, but all of us in the world 
are better off for what he has done.

                          ____________________