Development as Rebellion (HB Box Set)
ISBN 9789987084111
Pages 1208
Dimensions 229 x 152mm
Published 2020
Publisher Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Tanzania
Format Hardback

Development as Rebellion (HB Box Set)

A Biography of Julius Nyerere

by Issa G. Shivji, Saida Yahya-Othman, Ng’wanza Kamata

Book One: The Making of a Philosopher Ruler

Book Two: Becoming Nationalist

Book Three: Rebellion Without Rebels

This is the first comprehensive biography of Julius Nyerere, a national liberation leader, the first president of Tanzania and an outstanding statesman of Africa and the global south. Written by three prominent Tanzanians, the work spans over 1200 pages in three volumes. It delves into Nyerere's early days among his chiefly family, and the traditions, friends and education that moulded his philosophy and political thought. All these provide the backdrop for his entrance into nationalist politics, the founding of the independence movement and his original experiment with socialism.

The work took six years to research and write, involving extensive and wide-ranging interviews with persons from all walks of life in Tanzania and abroad. Among these were several leaders in East and Southern Africa who were based in Dar es salaam during their liberation struggles. The authors also visited several British universities and archives with material related to Nyerere and Tanzania, thus enriching the work with primary sources that not available in Tanzania.
 
The book does not shy away from a critical assessment of Nyerere’s life and times. It reveals the philosopher ruler’s dilemmas and tensions between freedom and necessity, determinism and voluntarism and, above all, between territorial nationalism and continental Pan-Africanism.

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Reviews

"This book represents a monumental achievement Over two decades after his passing in 1999, the figure of Julius Nyerere continues to dominate the political landscape of Tanzania…  We are certainly not short of accounts of his life, which range from the sketches of foreign sympathizers during the heyday of ujamaa  to the histories which are routinely told and retold in the contemporary Tanzanian press. However, there has hitherto been no full biography… At times it reads less as a biography of Nyerere than as a history of decolonization and its aftermath in Tanzania."

George Roberts, University of Cambridge, African Studies Review Volume 64, Number 1
The most comprehensive and in-depth look at every aspect of the life of the man who became one of the greatest leaders and philosophers of the African Liberation, universally acclaimed as the Mwalimu of Africa.
 
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
More than just a biography, this work promises to give the reader a multifaceted introduction to the history of the country and the region, the dynamics and challenges of the anti-colonial struggle, as well as a nuanced understanding of the theory of human and social emancipation in an important part of the post-colonial world.
 
Mahmood Mamdani
This book merits praise and wide readership. It is no doubt a significant intellectual contribution to the African library on nation-building and progressive thought in post-colonial Africa.
 
Thandika Mkandawire

We must thank the authors of this biography because by telling the story of Mwalimu they help to give a concrete account of that common thread in his thinking which informed his actions as a liberation fighter, a statesperson and a pan-Africanist. Thus will we have what will serve as an invaluable manual for the activists for the renaissance of Africa.

Thabo Mbeki

A fascinating read, the biography provides a complex analysis of Mwalimu Nyerere: the philosopher, statesman, politician, writer, teacher, husband and father. The work explores the controversies surrounding Mwalimu’s public and personal life in a critical and sensitive way, drawing on a wealth of information from a variety of sources, including interviews, public archives and personal documents to provide gems, rare insights on contentious moments and events.

Marjorie Mbilinyi

About the Authors

Issa G. Shivji

Issa G. Shivji is one of Africa's leading experts on law and development issues. Shivji has served as advocate of the high court and the Court of Appeal of Tanzania since 1977 and advocate of the high court in Zanzibar since 1989. He has taught and worked in universities all over the world, including the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Warwick, the University of Hong Kong and El Colegio De Mexico. He is a retired Professor of Public Law and first holder of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam. He has published over a dozen books, including “Class Struggles in Tanzania” (1976), “The Concept of Human Rights in Africa” (1989) and “Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism: Lessons of Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union” (2008).

Saida Yahya-Othman

Saida Yahya-Othman is a retired Associate Professor of the University of Dar es Salaam, where she worked for over 40 years. She trained at the Universities of Dar es Salaam, York and Edinburgh, in English linguistics, and has taught and published largely in that area, particularly discourse analysis and pragmatics. In 1972 she married Haroub Othman, who died in 2009. She lives in Dar es Salaam, where she does pre-publication work.

Ng’wanza Kamata

Ng’wanza Kamata was born in 1962 in Bariadi, Tanzania. He is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Dar es Salaam. He is a graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam and obtained his Ph.D in Political Science in 2005.

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