Tanzania Struggle for Independence
Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar) was originally colonized by Great Britain. Tanzania gained its independence in 1961 and was the product of the merger between Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The unification of these countries occurred in 1964. Tanzania’s struggle for independence was a hard fought fight.
Julius Nyerere was the first prime minister of newly independent Tanganyika. After the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964 Nyerere was elected as the first president of, the newly formed, Tanzania. In 1963 Nyerere used his influence to organize the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and throughout the 1960s and 1970s he was a prominent leader on many pan-African issues. His plan was to change Tanzanian society with his own brand of indigenous socialism, this socialism stressed self reliance, cooperative agriculture, and an end to racial and tribal strife and prejudice. Nyerere’s government was not holding up very well economically and radicals such as Sheikh Suleiman Takadir and Zuberi Mtemvu were set to stage a coup against Nyerere and take over the party (The East African). Their plan would have worked if Nyerere hadn’t handpicked people to confront the onslaught. At the end of Nyerere’s presidency Tanzania was one of Africa’s poorest countries. Nyerere refused to alter his socialist economic policies and pointed out Tanzania’s high literacy rate and political stability as proof of his successes. Julius Nyerere was a humongous influence on Tanzania’s independence and political stability. He resigned in 1985.
Tanzania was colonized by Britain. In 1961 Tanganyika got its independence and in 1963 Zanzibar did the same. These two, now independent, countries merged in 1964 to create Tanzania. Julius Nyerere had been elected president and had set up an indigenous socialist government. The president of Zanzibar was Sheik Abed Karume and after the merger between the two countries he became one of two vice presidents. Zanzibar retained a considerable amount of self government and would later become a source of tension in Tanzania. Arab people were surprisingly a minority in Zanzibar. This is surprising because the British treated Zanzibar as an Arab state before independence. There was a revolution in 1964 leading to African rule, this led to Sheikh Abed Karume becoming the president of Zanzibar.
