The present study is a political biography in the broad sense of Julius Karambage Nyerere. The main perspective has been his significance for nation-building in Tanzania. The dissertation is chronologically ordered after his life and restricted to the period 1922-1977. Five themes discussed in modern scholarship on nationalism and which are considered relevant to the study of African nationalism are treated: The origin and globalization of nationalism. From the perspective of the process of global nation-building, Nyerere's activities as nationalist leader in Tanzania are discussed, which contrary to his own wishes only embraced the former colonies Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Constructivism versus realism. Here it is shown that nationalism in Africa largely followed the colonial borders and were thus constructions without any connection to historically-relevant ethnic or cultural borders. The relationship between nationalism and modernity. The fundamental problematic in Nyerere's modernizing ambitions, i.e. to unite individual and collective interests in an harmonic interplay in the name of development, is treated. Strategies for nationalizing a populace. Here, the evolution of Nyerere's social vision - ujamaa or familyhood, is described. From the central idea of Tanzanian nationalism - development - the nationalists' construction of traditional African society would unite with modern society, in accordance with the basic ideas of African socialism. The significance of an elite for nation-building. In common with nationalism's development in Europe, African nationalism was led by elites. The transformation from "Black European" to "African Personality" went via education, primarily provided by Christian missionaries in Africa. Nyerere's education familiarized him with British colonialism, nationalism and cultural heritage as well as the British School of Social Anthropology, Catholic social teachings and communitarianism. The study shows that Nyerere's political thought was influenced by Fabian socialism, Catholic social teaching, communitarianism and political thinkers like Henry George, G.D.H. Cole, R.H. Tawney and Arthur W. Lewis. Nyerere realized his political ideas first as leader of the nationalist movement Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and after independence in 1961 as president up until 1985. He was called the "father of the nation" and ruled in his charismatic role as mwalimu, teacher. / digitalisering@umu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-62935 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Lönneborg, Olof |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Historiska studier, Umeå : Umeå universitet |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Idéhistoriska skrifter, 0282-7646 ; 30 |
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