Hekima Review No. 22 (Dec 1999)

Suffer me yet just one more liberty at the close of this millennium, for moments of pain are packed with poetry. While mourning the death of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, is not the parallel of Moses both spontaneous and poignant? Like Moses, Mwalimu had a vision arising from, yet more durable than, the suffering around him. Like Moses, he dared to begin to effect it. Indeed many countries in the sub-region of East, Central, and Southern Africa owe their liberation from the yoke of colonialism, racism, and dictatorship to the vision of Mwalimu Nyerere. Where his material resources could not be reached, Mwalimu Nyerere lent a voice: he articulated the concerns of voiceless peoples and nations against domineering powers of subjugation and marginalization. And that little voice from that discreet figure was hard to ignore