JULIUS KAMBARAGE NYERERE IS THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF A FREE TANZANIA. Yu. N. Vinokurov, Moscow: Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2010, 94 p. (in Russian)

Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) is one of the few African heads of State to whom monuments are erected ten years after his death, poems and scientific works are dedicated, international conferences are held in his honor, and his written heritage continues to be studied. In terms of the scale of his personality, he can be compared with such outstanding African leaders as Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral, Nelson Mandela, and in terms of the amount of work he has done for Africa and Africans, he may not be the same.

J. Nyerere died in October 1999, and in January 2000 a conference dedicated to him was held at the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which resulted in the publication of the collection "Julius Nyerere-humanist, philosopher, thinker "(in 2003 and 2005 it was published in Dar es Salaam in English)..

A new collection dedicated to the memory of J. R. R. Tolkien. Nyerere, contains the texts of reports and speeches at the scientific conference (October 28, 2009) in connection with the 10th anniversary of Nyerere's death. Like the first one, this conference was organized by the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Embassy of the United Republic of Tanzania in Russia. Along with Russian Africanists, it was attended by the ORT Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation, as well as Tanzanian scientists who came to Moscow from Dar es Salaam specifically for this purpose.

The authors of the collection consider various aspects of J. R. R. Tolkien's work. Nyerere, noting the extraordinary personality of the first President of Tanzania and his unique leadership qualities. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Republic of Tanzania to the Russian Federation Jaka Mgwabi Mwambi rightly noted Nyerera's charisma, oratorical and organizational abilities. One of Nyerere's main achievements, according to the diplomat, is that during 23 years of government, he managed to maintain peace, stability and national unity in the country. In 1964, he led the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar into one sovereign State - the United Republic of Tanzania.

From the very beginning of his work as head of State, Nyerere defended the idea of pan-Africanism. He was the first political leader to fight for his country's independence, while calling for the creation of an East African federation that would include Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar. Believing that the creation of a federation would be more difficult after each of these countries declared national independence, he was prepared to postpone the recognition of Tanganyika's independence for the sake of regional unity. This idea never materialized.

African leaders did not agree on the ideas of pan-Africanism. Thus, Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, strongly called for the creation of a single state on the African continent and saw regionalization as the Balkanization of the continent. Nyerere also advocated the formation of regional blocs. Both approaches were repeatedly discussed at African summits, and Nkrumah and Nyerere were among the main architects of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

Nyerere actively participated in the affairs of the entire continent. Devoted to the ideas of national independence, he granted asylum to representatives of the African liberation movements - ANC and PAK (South Africa), FRELIMO (Mozambique), MPLA (Angola), SWAPO

(Namibia), ZANLA (Zimbabwe). Three years before his death, as an official international mediator, Nyerere took part in resolving the political conflict in Burundi and successfully initiated peace talks in the Great Lakes region. Tanzania provided effective assistance to refugees from neighboring countries.

His authoritative voice was also listened to on other continents. He actively participated in the Non-Aligned Movement, made a significant contribution to the struggle for international peace and security, and was one of the six heads of State who signed the 1980 appeal to the nuclear Powers to stop testing nuclear weapons. Nyerere's vast political experience and high international prestige proved to be in demand even after his voluntary resignation from the highest state posts. In 1988-1990. He chaired the Commission for South-South Cooperation, headquartered in Geneva, and was Chairman of the South Centre, headquartered in Dar es Salaam, from 1990 to 1999.

The recognition of Nyerere's great achievements in the international arena is evidenced by his lifetime and posthumous awards from various countries and influential public organizations: the Nehru Prize for International Cooperation (1976), the Nansen Medal for Outstanding Services to Refugees (1983), the International Lenin Peace Prize (1987), the Simon Bolivar International Prize (1992),the International Peace Prize (1992), the The Gandhi Peace Prize (1995), Uganda's highest military medal for great contribution to the struggle for the liberation of Africa (2007, posthumously), and two Rwandan medals: one for contribution to the liberation of Rwanda, the other for services to the struggle against genocide (both in 2009, posthumously).

But the most honorable, the main award, as S. M. Shlenskaya notes, for him was that for his fellow citizens he became a Mwalimu-teacher. At first, this was the name given to him by students of the schools where he taught in the 1940s and 1950s, and by his comrades in the struggle, and then by the whole country. This tradition continued even after he left the highest state and political posts, and it is still alive today.

Among the most important policy decisions made by Nyerere was the introduction of adult education programs and universal primary education. It is worth recalling that during the 75 years of German and British colonial rule, more than 85% of the adult population of the country was illiterate, after the departure of the colonialists, only two certified engineers and 12 doctors remained. When Nyerere voluntarily stepped down as head of State in 1985, the country's literacy rate was 91% and almost every child was in school.

The authors of the collection note the diversity of interests of the Tanzanian leader, who has written more than ten books and many poems on ideological, political and spiritual topics. He brilliantly translated Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice into Swahili and presented in verse form the contents of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He was the first rector of the University of East Africa, which united Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Mwalimu was an ardent conservationist who did a lot for this cause. This is not surprising: national parks and game reserves make up almost 25% of the territory of Tanzania, which can also be proud of the Serengeti Plateau and Ngorongoro Crater, which are among the wonders of the world.

Nyerere was an avid athlete. From a young age, he was fond of playing bao (a Swahili game somewhat similar to chess). And during the visits of statesmen to Tanzania, he offered to play it as a holiday to his colleagues, the heads of state - Nkrumah, Kaunda and Samora Machel.

He was a deeply religious man, attending daily church services both in Tanzania and when traveling abroad, and constantly rereading the Bible. Being a devout Catholic, Mwalimu nevertheless allocated 400 thousand dollars. for the construction of a beautiful mosque in the city of Butiam for a group of Muslims living there, numbering only 200 people. It is not surprising that the process of canonization of Mwalimu is underway. In 2005, the Holy Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican awarded Nyerera the title "Servant of God", thereby initiating his beatification. This process is not yet complete, but the case of the canonization of a politician and statesman is unprecedented for the Roman Catholic Church and once again demonstrates the scale of the personality of the former Tanzanian president.

The good relations between our countries, which were established just on the second day after the declaration of Tanganyika's political independence, have also been inherited from Nierre.

S. M. Shlenskaya in her article "Julius Nyerere and his legacy" examines in detail the evolution of Mwalimu's ideological and political views. Nyerere was one of the first Africans to complete higher education outside of Africa. Already during his years at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1952, he studied political economy, law and philosophy with particular interest. During this period, the struggle against colonialism to improve the situation of Africans became his fully realized goal. At the end of the 1940s, Nyerere joined the group created in the 1920s. The Association of Africans of Tanganyika, on the basis of which the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party was formed in 1954, which played an important role in the struggle for independence, and actively participated in political activities. At the same time, as S. M. Shlenskaya notes, Nyerere's "corporate" style was formed-a politician who consistently advocated nonviolent methods of achieving political goals. Together with other representatives of the African intelligentsia, tribal nobility and minor officials, he put forward demands for the abolition of corporal punishment, ensuring the representation of Africans in government bodies, increasing wages for African employees, ending the practice of seizing agricultural land from Africans, and eliminating the system of racial discrimination.

However, by the end of the 1940s, Nyerere realized the limitations of such a political platform and made a number of important conclusions for himself. First, it is basically impossible to improve the situation of Africans and provide them with a decent life by obtaining partial concessions from the colonialists. Secondly, Tanganyika could have gained its independence in the conditions prevailing in those years by peaceful, non-violent means and political methods. And finally, third, it is possible to achieve this goal only with the help of a strong political party, which would become a reliable tool for uniting all the anti-colonial forces of the country and coordinating their actions.

According to Shlenskaya, the main brainchild of Nyerere should be considered a fundamentally new strategy of socio - economic development and its ideological basis-the theory of ujamaa. This program was developed by him in the second half of the 1960s, after initial attempts to solve problems in one fell swoop - by creating compact settlements in rural areas and providing their inhabitants with agricultural machinery and modern social infrastructure-ended in failure. The original and deeply thought-out concept of the development of a particular country in specific conditions contained in it, as the author notes, was perceived from the very beginning and continues to be perceived by opponents and apologists "formalistically, too literally, undialectically, and therefore its true meaning remains not fully understood and adequately evaluated" (p.16).

One cannot but agree with Shlenskaya that it would be useful to consider Nyerere's concepts not from the point of view of the presence or absence of ready-made answers to the questions that have arisen today, but in order to identify promising areas of scientific research.

Ujamaa concepts and villagization programs are discussed in articles by Tanzanian scientists, teachers of the University of Dar es Salaam Issa Shivji ("The Village in the theory and political practice of Mwalimu") and Adolf Mkenda ("Some reflections on the economic legacy of Mwalimu by J. R. R. Tolkien"). Nyerere"), as well as N. D. Kosukhin ("J. Nyerere-strokes to the portrait"). The authors note that "the village was dear to the heart" of the Tanzanian president, but not in the romantic sense in which his Western admirers tried to present it. The program for the development of rural areas, communities, and farms (villagization) assumed accelerated development of social infrastructure in the province (education, health, and water supply), as well as the introduction of modern agricultural technologies. However, as I. Shivdzhi rightly points out, the implementation of agricultural projects actually led to increased exploitation of peasants and forced withdrawal of "surplus" products from them.

Shivji identifies several stages in the evolution of Nyerere's attitude to rural issues and the implementation of agricultural reforms. At the first stage, on the recommendation of the World Bank, a kind of experiment was conducted to create "model farms" in rural areas by providing them with modern equipment and managerial personnel. The essence of the villagization program was the theory of modernization, widely spread at the time, in which the traditional peasantry was to be integrated into the system of international trade and economic relations. This model, created during the period of independent development of the country, according to the Tanzanian scientist, was nevertheless fully consistent with the principles of coloni-

the core of which was the supply of raw materials to the metropolis in exchange for the import of industrial goods.

The World Bank's rural Tanzania program has failed miserably. First of all, because the relationship between farmers and outsider managers was characterized from the very beginning by misunderstanding, distrust and hostility. In addition, equipment purchased with scarce currency was used inefficiently, often failed and was not repaired due to the lack of spare parts and qualified mechanics. As a result, the model settlement system had to be abandoned.

The next stage of villagization began with the adoption of the Arusha Declaration in 1967 , an important political statement by Nyerere and a program document of the TANU party, which stated that it intended to build a socialist society by socializing the basic means of production and transferring them to workers and peasants. According to the Ujamaa concept, the land and minerals were supposed to belong to the village communities that lived on this land, on the basis of which it was supposed to create collective farms. However, as Shivji notes, Mwalimu viewed socialism more as a faith, an ideal, than as a political program. His model of rural development assumed the unification of small peasant allotments for joint processing and sharing of products in equal shares. It is these associations that received the name of the villages of Ujamaa.

Soon, however, it was discovered that the peasants were not interested in social production. Then the government introduced the so-called village development policy, which became known as "Operation Vijiji" - the forced relocation of 9 million people to villages within 4-5 years. During the" operation", troops were used.

The Arusha Declaration contains expressions such as "local democratic governance" in relation to the Tanzanian village, but there is no indication that Nyerere was in favour of actually involving villagers in responsible decision-making. He sincerely believed that the state could take care of all aspects of peasant life.

Shivji notes the significant shortcomings of Nyerere's "village theory", which not only saw Tanzania as a" country of village communities", but also sought to unify them. Mwalimu considered the middle peasantry to be the most useful element, but he showed obvious hostility to the rich rural producers, calling them "feudal lords" (kabaila). Often, well-to-do peasants were driven out of their villages, and ujamaa settlements were created in place of their farms. In some areas, the peasants even resisted the government's policies. For example, in the village of Iringa, the regional commissioner responsible for implementing agricultural reform here was killed. In Basota, where the wealthy peasantry were driven from the land on which they had successfully grown wheat and which was transferred to the State-owned National Agricultural and Food Corporation, the resistance took the form of legal proceedings that have not been completed to this day.

"The experience of agricultural development in Tanzania has demonstrated the complexity and ambiguity of the issue of using traditional norms inherent in community structures," N. D. Kosukhin points out (p. 76). Most of the Ujamaa villagers, having no incentive to expand production, continued to lead a traditional way of life and farm mostly their individual allotments. Many refused to work in the collective field, left the villages and completely broke with rural labor. However, according to the Russian scientist, the failure to cooperate is not evidence that the village development program is not viable, it just turned out to be premature.

N. V. Gromov in the article "The contribution of J. R. R. Tolkien to the development of the Nyerere's contribution to Shaping the Language Policy of Tanzania notes that thanks to Mwalim, Swahili, which is spoken by more than 100 million people in Africa, has become associated for Tanzanians with their native national culture, independence and national identity. In the post-colonial period, Nyerera launched an adult literacy campaign in Swahili throughout the country; universal primary education was introduced, newspapers were published in Swahili, and radio broadcasts were broadcast.

Currently, Swahili in Tanzania is the language of the lower and higher authorities, the presidential administration, and the country's parliament, i.e. its scope is practically unlimited. It is a dynamically developing language that has the necessary terminology for its use in the higher education system. There is already a Windows computer program and a version of the Facebook network in Swahili, and the first computer games have appeared.

D. M. Bondarenko's article "Education and tolerance in Tanzania" (based on the materials of the Russian Anthropological Expedition of 2003 and 2005) discusses the problems of forming the national identity of Tanzanians. The author notes, in particular, that even during the years of Nyerera's rule, the field of education was in the center of the government's attention, and this tradition, perhaps with less success, but it still persists. At the same time, the problem of raising the educational level of the population in recent years has clearly acquired political significance in Tanzania, as it is directly related to the formation of inter-confessional, inter-ethnic and race relations. According to D. M. Bondarenko, "the struggle for raising the level of education may well turn out to be a latent form of struggle for power, which in this case, of course, will involve the masses of ordinary Tanzanians" (p.57). In the sphere of religious relations, he notes, the prerequisites for this are rooted in the very history of education in the country, since even Nyerere's reforms could not change the fact that the educational level of Christians in Tanzania generally exceeds that of their Muslim compatriots.

Dmitry Bondarenko raises the question of the correlation between the level of education of Tanzanians and the degree of religious and ethno-racial tolerance. The results of the materials collected during the expedition - about 2000 questionnaires and almost 150 interviews-showed that improving the level of education in general contributes to strengthening tolerant attitudes towards interreligious, interethnic and interracial communication in the minds of citizens of the country.

Making a fair conclusion that the growth of national consciousness in Tanzania, where an ethno-cultural community of most autochthonous peoples has long been formed on the basis of the Swahili language and culture, can be manifested mainly not at the narrow ethnic level, but at the ethno-racial level, the author points out that the country is experiencing almost unique processes for the formation of a nation as a community of people"committed to common core values, formed on the basis of common cultural myths and stereotypes and perceived as characteristically Tanzanian" (p.60).

About his meetings with J. R. R. Tolkien. O. I. Teterin, who worked in the 1960s as a translator from the Swahili language in Zanzibar, and later as the head of the APN Bureau in Dar es Salaam, told Nyerere in the essay "Shikamoo, Mzee!". He first met Nyerere in 1966 while accompanying a delegation of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR as an interpreter. He was in the village of Makunduchi in the south of the island of Zanzibar on the day Nyerere visited him. After addressing the assembled locals, the President also paid attention to foreign guests. Teterin describes it this way: "As he approached us, I managed to exchange a couple of phrases with Nyerere, of which I still remember to this day: "Shikamoo, mzee!" Slightly surprised, he said, " Marahaba." In general, this is a traditional Tanzanian respectful greeting or address to an older person (I was 23 years old, I was old enough to be Nyerera's son) and a response to it. In the literal translation - "I fall at your feet, dear one!" - " Okay (or good)", after which you can start a conversation " (pp. 65-66).

It is a comprehensive study of various aspects of the activities of the first President of independent Tanzania, J. R. R. Tolkien. Nyerere, the collection has certainly become a contribution to Russian African studies.

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