Any look at Julius Nyerere is not complete unless it highlights the reason why Tanzania still so highly respects its beloved leader: his character. Nyerere was a humble man. It is said that in the midst of traveling from region to region, delivering public speeches as president, that he would lay aside his speech schedule every so often to help a local farmer plant or harvest his crops. Unless one knew what he looked like, Nyerere could have been easily overlooked as any one of the other farmers in the field. He was very approachable, and this has set a precedent for proceeding presidents who will often have common peasants who demand a personal audience with the president. Nyerere was self-effacing and not afraid to admit his mistakes and recognize his failures. In a rather forthright way, he recognized the economic outcome of his social experiment in his farewell speech in 1985: "I failed. Let's admit it." Yet, it was that speech in 1985 that made him the first African head-of-state to voluntarily step down from office, again showing the humility of the man. And to say that he was a failure would be to ignore the huge strides he had made in education and medical, to say nothing of the all-too-rare commodity of political peace that was achieved under his nearly 25 years of leadership. The role that he played in politics, even after resigning from the presidency is illustrated in his influence on the one-party political system. Nyerere began to speak out about the corruption that had taken hold of Tanzania's one political party, and he began to advocate for multiple parties to provide an alternative to the stagnant CCM (Tanzania's ruling party). It was through Nyerere's influence that Tanzania peacefully transitioned to a multi-party democracy.
Julius Nyerere, left an indelible mark on Tanzania, one that will not soon be forgotten.




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