Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The African Union (AU) has honored Tanzania’s founding president Julius Nyerere with a new statue outside its headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The tribute comes over 50 years after Nyerere led his country to independence and embarked on efforts to unite Africa.
The statue was unveiled at a ceremony on Tuesday attended by several African presidents and dignitaries. AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat praised Nyerere’s lasting legacy as a pan-Africanist leader and his role in establishing the Organization of African Unity, the AU’s predecessor.
“The legacy of this remarkable leader encapsulates the essence of Pan Africanism, profound wisdom, and service to Africa,” Mahamat stated at the ceremony.
Mwalimu played a key pioneering role in the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, a milestone event in our pursuit of African unity. The journey continues.
The tribute makes Nyerere only the third former African leader to be memorialized with a statue at the continental body’s hub after Ghana’s founding father and pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah, and Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Selassie, who became a symbol of African nationalism for resisting Italy’s attempts to colonise the country in the 1930s, and later agreed to host the OAU.
And Faki Mahamat recalled Nyerere’s own comments at the inaugural OAU summit in 1963. “Our continent is one, and we are all Africans. This organization symbolizes our determination to move forward together.”
Nyerere, often referred to as Mwalimu or “teacher” in Swahili, led Tanganyika to independence from Britain in 1961. He served as the country’s prime minister and then president until retiring in 1985.
Under his leadership, Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar in 1964 to form the united republic of Tanzania. Nyerere promoted Swahili as a national language and enacted African socialism policies aimed at uniting Tanzania’s 120 ethnic groups.
Though Tanzania became a one-party state, Nyerere maintained the system provided greater stability and freedom than colonial rule. He also provided support for anti-apartheid movements in southern African countries.
The new statue serves as a testament to Nyerere’s lasting impact on Tanzania’s nation-building and his pan-Africanist ideals. During his speech, Mahamat reflected on Nyerere’s call for African unity at the founding OAU summit in 1963 – “Our continent is one, and we are all Africans.”
