We often hear about how one of the main problems in Africa is bad leadership. However, apropos the location of our gathering, I’d like to talk about one of the continent’s remarkable leaders, Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first President.  Upon assuming office, Nyerere set about resolving one of the bad legacies of colonial rule – the way in which ethnic communities were organized within the colonial structure to reduce the people’s ability to work together.

Nyerere The key to unlocking the mystery of how, during colonial rule, a handful of non-African colonial administrators were able to hold onto vast territories of African peoples, is the age-old strategy of ‘divide and rule.’ In Africa, it involved the labelling of different cultural groups and invention of ‘customs,’ such as rights to land, that ensured the division of peoples who could then be pitted against each other. The logic went that if the Africans were too busy fighting each other, they would be too busy to unite to challenge colonialism. So, communities that originally had a fluid sense of identity, where rights were often accorded based on usufruct, became fortresses, ready to war against each other.

Ideally, following independence, Africa’s leaders ought to have altered this structure. After all, building strong, stable countries was difficult if the constituting groups were not inclined to work together. Unfortunately, for several reasons, most leaders did not change it. Subsequent decades show the result: the civil war in Nigeria in the 60s, genocide in Rwanda in the 90s, and the continuing violence that dogs many countries to this today, have their roots in this purposively designed fault line.

Nyerere is unique among his peers in that he sought to dismantle the colonial administrative structure. He changed the system by which ethnic identity conferred exclusive rights within specified zones in favour of one where rights are conferred on all citizens, irrespective of their ethnic identity. The new system he established is more conducive to the development of a modern country. 

Africa’s communities are a source of strength for its peoples, but how these communities are organized and what this means for their relationship with each other and with their state makes all the difference between peace and violence and development and poverty. The ethnic conflicts that often dominate news about Africa since Independence derive from the way in which the administrative system deepens the differences between groups instead of creating common interests. Tanzania’s achievement of relative peace and stability as well as the strong sense of nation-hood is testament to Nyerere’s wise leadership.

 

Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, China-Africa Bridge, People's Republic of China (YGL 2006)