Fellow Afrikans, The posting on Nyerere from New Afrika magazine written by Alan Rake is quite interesting. I read the article from the magazine itself, and after reading it I wondered what Alan Rake wanted to say. Apart from his sarcastic and demeaning introduction in trying to describe Nyerere's humble beginnings as a leader, Alan Rake contradicted himself over and over all thru'out the article. If you had folowed his argument you will be left with no choice but to conclude that Nyerere was a dictator or an oppressor of his people. Let us go thru his arguments, "but for his liberal education and friendly diplomatic character, it also led him to impose an intolerant one party-state." In another area Alan writes, "...but in fact it was he who was imposing his will on the party and the country." Again he writes, "Nyerere found that he could not persuade the people into communal production so in desperation he turned to force." Now folks, can you say this of a person then conclude, "Nor did he pursue power for its own sake." And as if that is not akward enough, you go to the ludicrous height of concluding that "He will be remembered as an Afrikan hero and as the beloved father of his nation." This clearly shows that Alan thinks Afrikans are deaf and dumb to consider a terror a hero and a dictator as a father who deserved to be loved. His article is a clearly White attitude and mentality which always seeks to destroy other non-White people. They always take this type of subtle hypocritical maneuvres, which unfortunately most of us fail to read between the lines and critically analyse the theories. He described Nyerere as an idealist for simply trying to delay Tanganyikan independence while others caught up. What is idealistic about this? It is because Alan sees Tanganyikans as a different people from the Ugandans and the Kenyans, but to Nyerere and us i.e. Pan-Afrikans, there is no difference. We are all the same people and our independence is stronger if we combine it and come together. We are Afrikans who have been restricted in demarcated areas called countries. And how can he say that is idealism? And someone must tell Alan that "liberal education" and "friendly diplomatic character" and whatever they mean are not a prerequisite for any type of governance system or running of a state. Everyone has some kind of education, and that basically does not determine the type of governance one would pursue. If it is "liberal education" that he thinks should have made Nyerere "democratic" or whatever, then since he got that "liberal education" from England and for that matter Europe then we would expect to see true democracy and good governence in England and Europe. But when Nyerere was fighting for democracy in Afrika, the British with their "liberal education" were denying others democracy! And talking about one party state as evil is to miss the objective of an instrument. One party state, multiparty state, monarchy, etc etc are all systems of governance, which are a means to an end. They are not an end in themselves. Today because some countries tried one party state and they failed is not the same as one party state is bad. And if England practices multi-partyism and it seems to succeed does not mean their system is better. We have to investigate the nature of these systems and see why one has failed and not the other. If not then we are either trying to judge the system by the actions of those who claim to be adherents of that system, or that we will conclude that some people are better than others, because we do have some Afrikan countries who have a multi-party system, but they are not better off than the one party states. Alan also tried to discredit Nyerere in the Zanzibar conflict. I remember when John Major just occupied 10 Downing Street, there was an IRA attack on the residence when a cabinet meeting was going on. ON television we saw some ministers weeping, and we are told by the press that the prime minister and his cabinet members were flying all over the place, under the chairs and tables and on top of each other. Now is it fair for someone to then conclude that John Major was a coward? I brought this up, because I do not understand why Alan thinks it is indecision or an act of hiding when Nyerere took the measures he took during and following the Zanzibar mutiny? In another part of the article Nyerere writes ..."afrikan socialism..." I do not know what he means by this term, but I guess he is not saying that there exists brands of socialism which could be called Chinese socialism, Soviet socialism, Cuban socialism, Libyan socialism, Swedish socialism etc etc. If there is no such brands then why should there be "Afrikan socialism." I can go on analysing this article on and on exposing the flaws in it, but I think you might have seen the crux of the matter. The article is a clear European viewpoint which always tries to demean Afrikan individuals and efforts. While he judges Nyerere and their efforts, he would have help himself greatly if he had tried to fathom from where we started, abd especially to find out what is it that we are fighting against, i.e. what has the colonialists implanted in Afrikan that we are trying to uproot. If he understands that fully well then he would not have seen our efforts like a child's play. Anyway if his article is a true account of the rule of Nyerere then we also need to ask how come after all that terror and force, the ordinary people of Tanzania weep and moan for their oppressor? Are they stupid or drunk? Why didn't the people of Nigeria weep for Abacha, and why didn't the people of Congo weep for Mobutu? Are they more intelligent or aware than the Tanzanians? Why didn't Obasanjo and Kabila declare 30 days of mourning for Abach and Mobutu? Are they ungrateful or too busy? Is Benjamin Mkappa stupid or sycophant or sincere in declaring 30 days mourning for Nyerere? Alan Rake, please respond to these questions? Madi ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------